SwimFinsSF

Nother Cool App: Google Earth

Ok.. So I know for you windows folks I’m behind the time but Google just released a Macintosh version of Google Earth and its FRICKIN COOL… Its this really cool graphical google maps browser with all sorts of cool bells and whistles like overlaying all sorts of points of interest and other interesting information on the map, 3-D Building representations and the ability to change your point of view so you can see mountains and panoramas… SO DAMN COOL…

I know.. i’m behind the times.. but still cool so I had to share..

Gene Shalit steps up! :)

This was just released by GLAAD and i’m thrilled:

GLAAD ALERT UPDATE

January 10, 2006

GLAAD Applauds Shalit’s Response

Today show reviewer regrets Brokeback comment

On Jan. 5, Gene Shalit, in his review of “Brokeback Mountain” on NBC News’ Today show, referred to the character of Jack as a “sexual predator” who “tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts.” Based on an outpouring of passionate emails and phone calls by Today show viewers angered and hurt by Mr. Shalit’s assertion, GLAAD asked for an apology from NBC and Mr. Shalit for a comment that was certainly heard by many as defamatory.

On January 10, Mr. Shalit responded to GLAAD’s request for an apology with a statement saying, “In describing the behavior of ‘Jack’ I used words (‘sexual predator’) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. . . I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of ‘Brokeback Mountain.'”

GLAAD thanks and applauds Mr. Shalit for clarifying his comments and making clear in his statement that his words were not intended to be defamatory to the LGBT community.

To read Mr. Shalit’s statement in its entirety, go to glaad.org or click here:

http://www.glaad.org/action/alerts_detail.php?id=3849

The man has a lot of class for standing up and issuing a statement like this. He may not have liked the movie or Jack’s character and thats fine – its his job as a critic to make such calls. But his choice of words was poor and its really classy of him to say as much…

Woo hoo… Go Gene..

Apple’s Stock

Is outta control… It went up like 5 points during the MacWorld announcements. I’d say it was iWeb or the MacBook Pro or the new Intel iMac… But I’m guessing it was really the financials. 14 Million iPods and $5.7 Billion in sales is just NUTS… Crazy cool. Its all the buzz in the halls around here today. 🙂

Gene Shalit Followup

According to The Advocate Peter Shalit, Gene Shalit’s son, has come out in support of his father after GLAAD issued a ‘Call to Action‘ in response to his review of Brokeback Mountain. The article reprints a letter from Peter Shalit to GLAAD including the following statement:

I say this because it’s important background for understanding that my dad has always been completely loving and supportive of me, my life, my partners, and my choices. He wrote a piece about me in 1997 for The Advocate (currently posted on their home page)—and agreed to have his picture on the cover of the magazine—because what the piece says is true about how he feels and how he has always acted.

The article also makes reference to a previous article in the Advocate by Gene Shalit about his sone and their relationship.

So.. my response. First, I’m very glad to hear that he is a supportive and loving father and is supportive of the community at large and this makes me feel somewhat better that we don’t need to look at him as one of our many detractors. That said, I still believe the comments in his review were insensitive an reflect a discriminatory attitude that we have to endure on a regular basis. The real sign of his sensitivity would be for him to indicate that, while he stands by his review (if he didn’t like the movie he shouldn’t pretend like he did just to be PC), he also recognizes that his commentary was insensitive and inappropriate.

And, with that, I’ll let it lie and move on to the other inane drivel that I fill this silly blog with! 😉 :):)

Happy monday! 🙂

Cingular and Web Browsing on a RAZR V3

For a month or two now i’ve been having problems using my slick little black RAZR to browse web sites. I was able to click on the little ‘Web’ button on the phone and get to Cingular’s little home page with all of their stuff on it however any time I tried to ‘Go to URL’ from there I would get a ‘Page cannot be displayed’ error. This started happening a little while ago and happened and would happen for every web site I tried to go too off of Cingular’s site – everything from Google and Next bus to some.. er.. um.. others! ;)..

Finally this morning I decided to call Cingular and get them to fix it. After the requisite inane walk through of all the obvious stuff (which I did dutifully out of politeness even though I KNEW that wasn’t the problem) they proceeded to tell me me that it wasn’t their problem and that I should contact the sites I was having trouble with.. Thats where steam started coming out of my ears but I managed to keep my cool and pressed the issue. I somewhat calmly explained to them that, while I could belive that many sites might have problems on phones and the sites would have to change, I could not accept that EVERY site would have a problem and it would be my duty to contact each individually. I explained that I was paying for web service, not cingular ‘portal’ access, and that if she could point me to a single non-cingular site that would work I would go away quietly and leave her alone – however if she couldn’t then we would have a problem to deal with. I think thats the point that she realized that a) I knew what I was talking about, b) I wasn’t going to just go away without a fight, and c) that their service wasn’t functioning as advertised. She put me on hold

When she came back she directed me down a different obscure path to take the phone directly to a URL without going to cingular’s portal first. When I did this I was finally able to get to other sites. So, as it turns out, Cingular’s portal puts the phone in a state where it can’t escape to other sites. The only way to get to other sites is to enter the browser without going there… I mentioned that that might be a bug that they should fix, she didn’t even know what I was talking about. So, while I think they’ve got something that they need to fix (or they’ve got some fascist policy in place), I can now do what I need to do..

To her credit, she was very polite and did her best to help, she and her tech support folks seemed to be trying hard to make calls go away by convincing users their issues aren’t things for cingular to solve rather than sincerely trying to solve the problem.. This is pretty in line with the crappy customer support I’ve gotten from singular for years and it irritates the shit out of me. Guess its another own side of corporate consolidation – when you become a big guy you stop giving a fuck about how you treat your customer and it shows.. The little guys try harder and seem to sincerely care – the big guys don’t seem to give a fuck..

Anyway.. Just wanted to post this should someone else hit this problem – googling and finding descriptions like this has helped me twice in as many days.. 🙂

A birthday dinner

To wrap up the day Kevin and I went over to Patrick and Chuck’s for a birthday dinner for Brian. Aside from the usual suspects ( Patrick and Chuck, Kevin and I, Britton, Matt and Brian, and Nathan and Audrey), Kurt and his boyfriend were down from Seattle and joined us.. Evening was great.. Good dinner and some whacked games… Generally a good time… Pictures have been posted here