So as you may have heard, yesterday Apple unveiled their new iPod, the 'nano'. A third the size and weight of the Mini, with a color screen and all the features of the iPod Photo.

Rachel's miffed that they're still not offering the full-sized iPods in colors (and now not offering colored iPods at all, since the mini is now discontinued), but I have a new object of lust.

I've completely given up the pretense of trying to rationalize why I need this thing. I'll just face the music and admit I can't help but buy one before the end of the year. White or black?

One of the few functional differences between the iPod nano and the iPod photo is that the nano drops support for firewire, relying on USB for syncing on both Macs and PCs.

This would seem to mean that the nano can't be used as a bootable emergency drive as the mini or full-size iPod can. Not a huge thing, but something to consider if you were hoping for a sub-credit-card boot volume.

For brilliantly harvesting the frustrations of third-party OS X UI designers, distilling them and putting them inside a metaphor inside a metaphor, John Gruber (Daring Fireball) is my idol for the afternoon. Go read The iTunes 5 Announcement From the Perspective of an Anthropomorphized Brushed Metal User Interface Theme

Looks like I've got some updating to do.

Let me just take this moment to say that Roger Ebert is the best movie reviewer ever. Bar none. Polarization isn't usually the hallmark of a pragmatic journalist, but while it's not common for Ebert (the binary thumbs-up/thumbs-down rating system notwithstanding), Ebert can truly dish it out when circumstances demand it.

If you read just one movie review this summer, Roger Ebert's review of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo should be it.

The whole review is worth reading, but the gold is in the final paragraphs:

The movie created a spot of controversy last February. According to a story by Larry Carroll of MTV News, Rob Schneider took offense when Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times listed this year's Best Picture Nominees and wrote that they were "ignored, unloved and turned down flat by most of the same studios that ... bankroll hundreds of sequels, including a follow-up to 'Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,' a film that was sadly overlooked at Oscar time because apparently nobody had the foresight to invent a category for Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third-Rate Comic."

Schneider retaliated by attacking Goldstein in full-page ads in Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. In an open letter to Goldstein, Schneider wrote: "Well, Mr. Goldstein, I decided to do some research to find out what awards you have won. I went online and found that you have won nothing. Absolutely nothing. No journalistic awards of any kind ... Maybe you didn't win a Pulitzer Prize because they haven't invented a category for Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter Who's Never Been Acknowledged by His Peers."

Reading this, I was about to observe that Schneider can dish it out but he can't take it. Then I found he's not so good at dishing it out, either. I went online and found that Patrick Goldstein has won a National Headliner Award, a Los Angeles Press Club Award, a RockCritics.com award, and the Publicists' Guild award for lifetime achievement.

Schneider was nominated for a 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to Jar-Jar Binks.

But Schneider is correct, and Patrick Goldstein has not yet won a Pulitzer Prize. Therefore, Goldstein is not qualified to complain that Columbia financed "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" while passing on the opportunity to participate in "Million Dollar Baby," "Ray," "The Aviator," "Sideways" and "Finding Neverland." As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.

Nice.

I'd forgotten how cool contact lenses are over the past year since I ran out and went back to my glasses for everyday use.

Whee.

Also, it's amazing to me how well muscle-memory works. My hands still know exactly how to clean an insert contacts, even if I forget.

Something tells me that someone flipped a switch too soon, but I'm heartily amused by the MSN Beta home page.

It's really interesting seeing what things look like before the doors are opened. FPO ('for placement only') copy and art are a small fun way that designers and engineers can express themselves.

Last May, Rachel and I saw The Producers on Broadway. It turned out that she knew someone in the show and afterwards we got a chance to go backstage, walk on the stage, and even pull the curtain. For a few moments we could be goofy on a broadway stage because the place only has power when there are people to see it (like the tree in the forest). Working on big sites is like that. You're constructing something that will be seen by hundreds of millions, but for now it's your own private space.

So long as nobody accidentally leaves the curtain open in front of a full audience.

Heck, it could have been a lot worse. At least greasergrll has a cute kid.

Serenity Trailer #2

They cut it to tell a very different (and misleading) story. To Firefly fans it'll probably feel off-kilter, but to those new to the 'verse it'll probably be more easily digestable and appealing. All in all it's probably a good thing. Show the public what they think they want (basic supergirl shoot-em-up) and deliver something more complex when you've got 2 hours worth of their eyeballs.

I found it really interesting when my Bloglines spat up these two stories consecutively: Boingboing's $750K Intelligent Design Challenge and Scientists Creating Life from Scratch (/.)

I'm firmly in the evolutionary camp and find fault with a lot of the common ID arguments ('Creationism hasn't been proven so can't be true' etc.) but I nevertheless found the contrast funny.

Dealing with control issues today. I don't know if any of you have ever played hunker-hauser, but if you have then you can relate to the difficulty in situations where you have to rely on an opponent who only wants to make you fall.

Okay, that's actually not that apt. It's more about people having control over you who have no concern for your feelings or property. (No, this isn't work-related, and I'll give more detail next week after the situation is (hopefully) resolved).

Only hours after the signing of the federal transportation bill that happened to contain the last little authorization, the California DMV has posted the forms required for Prius, Insight, and Civic Hybrid owners to get HOV stickers that will let them travel in carpool lanes with a single occupant.

I'm not sure how fair this is, yet I'm still first in line. The irony is that a all-gas car stuck in slow traffic gets really bad mileage, while most hybrids do better at slow speeds than fast.