I just received a Nintendo DS cartridge that contains the Opera browser. It also ships with a memory expansion pack, which plugs into the port in the bottom of the DS. Given the DS’s size, and the lack of a keyboard, how good of a browser can it be? In this installment, we’re going to look at the DS browser, along with some mobile websites of interest.
A rant about internet grammar…
Maybe it’s due to the shorter attention spans of today’s youngsters, or even the advent of instant messengers and texting via cell phones, but is anyone else beside me a bit dismayed by the decline in basic writing skills on the internet? I certainly am.
Halloween has passed…and I’m already sick of Xmas
Some of my close friends wonder why I’m such a Scrooge McDuck when it comes to the holidays. Can you imagine why? You walked into stores a few weeks ago, and the Xmas displays were already shoving aside the Halloween decor. You tune in the radio, and the stations are already playing holiday songs. And a few people are already claiming to get their shopping done before December hits. (And in this economy, one has to ask, “With what money?”) Putting aside the whole spiritual aspect of Xmas, it used to be a time to get together with friends and family. True, it has been commercialized for decades (after all, Linus even said it was run by a “big eastern syndicate”), but the whole aspect of “The Holidays” has become annoyingly and helplessly obnoxious in the past dozen or so years. Personally, I can’t wait for the holidays to pass. This whole orgy of commercialism, rammed down our throats for more than two months straight, all over one freakin’ day out of the year, just irks me no end. The only “true meaning of Xmas” in the 21st Century is to take us for everything we’ve got, whether the marketing is crammed down our throat, or we’re guilted into it. No thanks! Fast forward me to January 2008, and I’ll be happy.
Cranky Geeks
For nearly the past two decades, I’ve been an on-again, off-again reader of PC Magazine, having first picked up an issue at some point in the mid 80s to learn more about the computer I had purchased a year or two earlier. After a couple of issues, I was hooked, and was a subscriber for many, many years. I still visit their site regularly, and have seen various columnists and editors come and go. One notable (or one could say notorious) columnist is John C. Dvorak, who has had not one, but two columns in PC Magazine (his own opinion column, and “Inside Track”). I’ve always admired his style, even if I never agreed with him 100% of the time. He’s been on TV as well as radio, so he’s no stranger to the broadcast world either, and has written for countless other publications in addition to PC Magazine.
George Benson & Al Jarreau: Givin’ It Up
I was looking forward to listening to this pairing of two long-established jazz artists ever since I heard it announced many months ago. I’ve only just picked it up recently, and have given it a few spins. While one can’t fault the talents of George Benson and Al Jarreau separately, the spark just doesn’t happen on this album. The best song on this one is the remake of Benson’s “Breezin'”, with an added vocal part by Jarreau. The tables turn on the next track, a remake of Jarreau’s “Mornin'”, albeit in a bland instrumental version. The remainder of the album really doesn’t fare much better: it’s well-played, competent music in the airplay-ready $mooth Jazz mold, but hardly has anything to recommend it. A roster of guest artists attempt to help things along, but nothing ever really ignites. Even the presence of Sir Paul McCartney could have been a recipe for greatness, but he is lost amidst a trainwreck of wailing female vocals in “Bring It On Home To Me”. (Give me Sam Cooke’s version with Lou Rawls punctuating the vocal lines in the background.) A remake of “Summer Breeze” is the only other highlight, one of the few tracks I return to regularly beside “Breezin'”. I’d have to give this recording merely an average rating, 2-1/2 out of 5 stars as a missed opportunity.