For whatever reason, these past few days have seen more than their fair share of high profile deaths. The latest was a man named Billy Mays, a famous product pitchman who you’ve heard yelling at you on TV to buy OxiClean, Orange Glo, and dozens of other products. He is also someone I love to impersonate. And even though McMahan, Farrah and MJ had more fame and a larger impact on popular culture, it was Mays’ death that startled me the strongest.
I remember my dad saying that when I was growing up. Apparently famous people tend to die in groups of three. The most infamous example I can think of occurred on November 22, 1963, they day John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Both C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died that same day. (This actually became the premise for the novel Between Heaven and Hell.) There are plenty of other examples, I’m sure.
So, after being reminded of this “fact” by my friend, I was left somewhat assured. The loss of these three was still sad, but at least it was all over.
We all liked The Dark Knight. We all like clever YouTube videos. And, if we’re honest with ourselves, we all like to watch break dance battles. If you combined all these elements what you’d have is Bboy Joker, an interactive break dance competition in stop-motion pitting Batman against the Joker.
Interactive, you say? Yes! You, the viewer, aren’t just watching the action, you’re controlling it. You actually dance as either Batman or the Joker. I did mention this all done on YouTube, not some game site, right? The blog 10,000 Words explains: “The interactivity is created by overlaying annotations on top of the video. Annotations were previously used solely as captions or speech balloons leading viewers to another site for more information related to the video. Now they are transforming YouTube from a static video player to a tool for engaging the audience.”
Check it out and let me know what you think. Click here for some more interactive YouTube videos.
I’d like to highlight the points that stood out to me at today’s WWDC keynote. They’re listed roughly in the order they were presented. If you’d like to read the liveblog that I read to get all this juicy info, click over to Engadget’s liveblog coverage. Of course, go to the Apple website for the official news.
15″ MacBook Pro
Eventually I’ll need to buy a new battery for my MacBook Pro (when my current one stops holding a charge), and I’m glad to see that they’ve made a battery with even better battery life than my computer currently has.UPDATE: I don’t think I got this one right. Yes, the 15″ MacBook Pro has a better battery, (up from 5 hours to 7) but these new 15″ MBPs have a battery that cannot be swapped out by the user, only by Apple (one more reason I’m glad I got my computer when I did). So, it’s unclear to me whether the type of battery found in my computer received an update. I’m guessing it didn’t.
I’m really glad I got my 15″ MacBook Pro when I did. My computer has an ExpressCard slot; now they come with an SD card slot instead. The average user will like this move, but not the power user. I think it’s a very strange decision.
I’m glad to see the MacBook Pro received a price cut, even if it only affects the low-end model.
I really wish my MacBook Pro could handle 8GB of RAM. That is a HUGE update. The hard drive and processor updates are also nice.
Refreshed features and lower price is immediately available.
It’s been a while since I blogged about the trip I’m taking this summer to Germany. I wanted to let you know that I am nearly fully funded. As of now I have raised 92% of my goal, needing only $174 before I’m finished. Praise God! I tell people all the time that one of the ways I have known God best over the past few years is as a provider. (You can track my funding progress on my website, where I have a progress bar setup in the sidebar.)
