Breastfeeding in Uniform

Apparently there is some sort of controversy surrounding these pictures. That is good, because I can therefor post them here under the fair dealing exception of the Canada's copyright Act.

First of all, Terran Echegoyen-McCabe, left, is absolutely stunning. Second of all, young women in uniform are hot (prison, nurse, army, doesn't matter). Third of all, breastfeeding is natural and should be encouraged. These are beautiful pictures. Women aren't just for sex. They also defend our country and feed our children.

What do you think? I don't really care what you think, but this whole "fair dealing" thing requires debate.

Blogger Dynamic View Template

Have you been blogging for a while (despite Twitter)? Do you hate iPad users? Have you gotten into the habit of inserting at least one picture or Youtube video into each post?

If you answered yes to all of the above, try Blogger's Dynamic View template. But first, save your current blog template!

There are some major issues:
-Incompatibility with older browsers and the iPad.
-Loading pages can take a while, and Adsense loads last!
-Most widgets/gadgets, including html coding, will no longer work.
-There is a gigantic title bar that I can't make smaller (there has to be a way, right?)

Dynamic View templates are over a year old, and believe it or not some issues have been fixed (originally, you couldn't insert Adsense at all!).

Despite the major drawbacks, it does look amazing!


To try it, in the Blogger settings you also need to put your feed to "full" not "short".

Some examples (other than this blog, assuming I haven't gone back to full iPad compatibility)
-http://teachwellnow.blogspot.ca//?view=mosaic
-http://lemuelong.blogspot.ca/?view=snapshot
-http://www.icaughtthevapors.com/
-http://theprawnsandwichbrigade.blogspot.com/
-http://kyension.blogspot.ca/2012/05/blog-redesigned-with-dynamic-view.html
-http://selftaughtatheist.blogspot.ca/2012/05/fyi-comments.html
-http://www.galaktor.net/2012/05/blog-gets-some-love.html

A nice post from last year about the new Dynamic template in Blogger.

Blogger uses it, so it can't be that bad (I guess Google employees don't use iPads).

Is there a way to only browse/search dynamic blogs? Scrolling is so 2010. :)

This person did it right: A partial implementation of the Dynamic View template. I think you have to clik "enable dynamic view" somewhere in the Blogger settings (and perhaps have a compatible template). That way she could keep her regular template and offer the dynamic option. An other example of partial implementation.

Watch Justin Bieber Get Punched in the Face

Justin Bieber gets punched in the face, over and over again. If you are a 12 year old girl, don't cry, his face survived.

Follow the Rules on Subway!

Do Not Lean on the Door!

Don't you hate it when people ignore the rules? "Don't lean on the door"! How hard is that to understand?

What is next, people eating on the DC subway?

Photo stolen from here. 

God is Not like the Wizard of Oz

Some people (just like Donald Trump, I don't give names), think God is like the Wizard of Oz. This is blatantly false.

Before I continue, please be advised I'm procrastinating on a boring task and this is my over-caffeinated way of pretending to be productive. Also, I've been reading Gawker and watching Colbert, champions of hipster humour. Also, "God", in the context of this blog post, is the one you don't believe in, from that other religion.

God is not like the Wizard of Oz because the Wizard of Oz (spoiler alert) was a real person (in the context of the story). God, in the holy book, is not a really a person, but more of an invisible man in the sky (not that there is anything wrong with that).

You can't equate a real person, with or without wizard powers, with an invisible man. Real people pay taxes. Does God pay taxes? Well maybe if he owns a shell corporation here on earth. But they aren't personal taxes. And he doesn't pay taxes on his home, wherever in the sky that might be. If he does come back to earth, he will have to pay sales tax (unless he returns to New Hampshire or only buys stuff from the Internet).

So the counter argument would be that God is like the wizard part of the wizard of Oz. Fake, all made up. A fraud. But God lives in the sky, and is invisible. You can't fake that. 

 

Truthiness: Obama is Kenyan and Gawker is Too Rich

I'd like to thank Gawker for providing this funny clip (somehow
viewable in Canada) of Colbert explaining the silly election season
and the appeals to the fringe vote.

Two questions:
-How does Gawker get permission to post this (if they do)?
-How do they make their money (I don't see any advertising)?

In Canada, you can watch the entire Colbert report on CTV, Comedy
Network and their respective web sites. In the USA on Comedy Central
channel and, I think, Hulu.

First Ever iPad Wristwatch

The Metawatch is now iPad (3) compatible thanks to Bluetooth 4. It will also work with the iPhone 4S. What other watch can do that? None. No, the soon to exist Pebble is not going to be iPad compatible (Although obviously that could change in the future as feature-creep sets in).

So do you want to fork over $200 for an iPhone/iPad compatible watch? Well, I did. Free shipping to Canada on the Texas Instruments estore ($20 on the Metawatch site). Hopefully, by the time I get it next week, there will be an iOS app in iTunes so I can actually use it without writing my own app.

I'll probably have to pay for the HST, but I'm curious about duty. Where is it made?

I'll write a review when I get it/figure out how to use it.

More pictures here (the Android compatible version has been out for a while).

Video of the previous Android-only version:

Best Article Ever

Call your stockbroker tomorrow and buy shares of the Daily Mail and General Trust. The masses have arrived on the Internet, and that company is taking full advantage.

The Daily Mail was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at the newly literate "lower-middle class market. (Wikipedia)

 Staying true to its origins, this article is pure gold. Note that I'm not normally drawn to the lifestyle section of newspapers, but the thumbnail for that article was hard to resist. Obviously, at some point people will get tired of articles about pretty women. Right? :)

Some newspapers are dying a slow death, others have adjusted to the new realities.

Annoying Myth: English is a Global Language

Some people who should know better, they tend to be British, think English is a global language. If global means on different continents, then yes. But Mandarin, German, Portuguese, French and Spanish are also widely spoken on different continents.

The fact is, the vast majority of the world's 7 billion people do not understand or speak English. They need subtitles to watch Terminator 3. Or, more likely, they are watching a dubbed version, with no exposure to English.

That's not to say English isn't popular. In Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, it is often the neutral go to language. There are so many national languages it that area (Norway has two) that picking a useful second language is difficult. Still, the vast majority of the people in that area are not fluent in English.

Whenever I blog about something apolitical, I get plenty of Google Translate hits. A reminder that even in its simple written form, some people prefer a machine translation.  Any Canadian who has been south for the Winter knows the advantages of understanding and speaking Spanish. You can get better prices, you can use public transportation and leave the resort/prison without escorts. And that's in the tourist areas. In-land, forgetabout it. No English, at all.

But English is the most popular second language, right? Well, if it is, it won't be much use in giant chunks of Africa (French). Spanish is the most popular second language in Spain and Latin America.

There would be huge advantages if there was a universal language. Be we are not there yet. I'm all for teaching people English. But trying to explain, sell, proselytize or entertain in English, to non-English speakers, is pure folly. Learn a second language. Hire people to translate your message. Better yet, create it locally and translate it back to English for quality control. 

My Blog Feed Was too Darn Big!

Wow, it never occurred to me that this applied to me:

Feedburner:

The trouble: Your Original Feed is too doggone big! FeedBurner does not process feeds that are larger than 512K. Remember, your feed is an update on your content — not an archive for it — and you should use your publishing tools' controls to make sure your feed doesn't grow like kudzu possessed.

Half a megabyte of text!  That is about 250 pages of text. This blog has existed since 2004, so I guess that makes sense. But I thought micro-blogging (Twitter) taught me to be concise...

For those of you that use Feedburner (of dubious use, I don't recommend it) and Blogger, here is the solution:

http://myblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=100

Replace "myblogname" with the name of your blog. 

So now, if you subscribe to my blog using your favourite blog reader (I use Google Reader), you can "only" read a summary of my last 100 posts. It is summary of each post because I don't want to give this stuff away. $350 in ad revenue, and counting. No bad for 8 years "work".

According to Feedburner, I have 41 subscribers, so I'm sticking with Feedburner and the feed address hasn't changed.

Hat tip to Scott Tribe for pointing out that title gems like Casseroles Not Just for Soup could lead to confusion without context. His tweet also removed any delusions I had about the content of this blog being too hot for Progressive Bloggers. :)

Update: Changed it to 10 from 100 (100 takes too long to load). Also, turned off the "Summary Burner" option in Feedburner so there is a bit more text in my feed.

Is Low Tuition the Progressive Way?

CEGEP

In Quebec, CEGEP technical schools, aka junior college, aka college, are free. Yup, free! You can get your diploma, for free. They are staying free. And with high youth unemployment, the opportunity cost of studying for 3 years (after graduating high-school in secondary 5, grade 11) is low. Getting a diploma can still be expensive, if, for example, you don't live near one, need a car to get to it or your local CEGEP doesn't offer the program of study you want. But all in all, they are pretty progressive. Its hard to believe Alberta would have a labour shortage if they had CEGEPs.

University

University is not free. Although the equivalent of the first year is (Quebec students going to university graduate highschool in grade 11, do 2 years of pre-university (at a CEGEP, for free) and then 3 or 4 years of university). Even better, many fields of study that require a masters degree or equivalent in Ontario (law, physiotherapy, social work), only require 3 years of post CEGEP university in Quebec, two years less study than in Ontario. 

Protests

So what are Quebec students complaining about? Well, lets face it, you give an inch, they take a mile. Also, tuition may seem insignificant to those students studying away from home, as food, lodging and transportation are so expensive. For urban Quebeckers, living at home and getting to university by bus/metro, it is the cost. And if you are studying geography, political science, women's studies, or, ironically, economics,  the financial return is far from guaranteed. Higher tuition changes the equation.

The Cost of Ignorance

As part of my job, I talk to stupid ignorant people all day. People who have poor reading skills. People who fail at simple problem solving and elementary physics. People who can't spell Canada or give me the name of their province. Time zones. The earth is round, the sun goes up in the east. How hard can that be? Someone in Toronto asked me if it was 2am or 2pm in Moncton. Education benefits society. There is a cost to society associated with poor education. Ask any restaurant owner in Alabama, forced to print menus with pictures. Full moon theories, satanic cults, diesel "fuel efficient" ash spewing cars for downtown parking enforcers (Ottawa and Moncton). Stupidity and ignorance have a significant impact on society. In that sense, education is good, very good.

Cuba

However, you can end up with too many doctors. Without the financial incentive, you wouldn't think so many Cubans would have become doctors. But they have. So much so that Cuba loans them to Venezuela and Spain, like Mexico loans Canadians their farm labour.

From Ocean to Ocean, Student Loans Suck

Canada only has 30 million people. The cost of migrating to where you skills are needed is quite real. Facebook isn't just popular in Canada because of online friends, it is popular because English speaking Canadians are trying to keep-up with friends and family that live, far, far away. Most Quebeckers don't have the rest of Canada as an option. Their English language skills are too poor. Chances of picking a field of study not in demand when graduating is quite real, at any level, high school, CEGEP or university. But if you are in debt, the initial repayment schedule can be prohibitive. Getting and keeping loans is subject to your parents ability to pay, as decided by the government, the ability to get to school by public transportation (regardless of time it takes), marriage, divorce, siblings dropping out, etc... After graduating university, studying for a certificate, I lost out on a bursary because I had temporarily moved in with my parents for a summer job. Dealing with the government student loan bureaucracy (public and private) is reason enough to be angry enough to throw rocks at the police. Access is a real issue.

Freedom

I'm am for free education. Including university. I have paid a very high price for choosing the wrong field of study. I've had to relocate many times to many different parts of Canada. I declared bankruptcy 10 years after graduating, allowing me to clear the remainder of my student loan. By the way, bankruptcy is just a step above suicide. Not fun. I don't recommend it. But it is obviously better than that other option. Today I earn a living in a job that I loathe, that has nothing to do with my education. In fact, some of my colleagues are high school drop outs. 

I Learned

I learned a lot at university. Both my parents have degrees. Not going to university never really crossed my mind. Had it been more expensive, I might have reconsidered studying in Montreal, staying home. I certainly would have hesitated doing that certificate after getting my BSc.

I Wish I Had

If I had a trade instead of a degree, I might be able to find lucrative work in Alberta or Labrador. How many people like me can Quebec, Ontario or New Brunswick, afford?

Opportunity Cost

And is university tuition the right place to spend public funds? Paying taxes is never fun. But I would submit that paying taxes when you hate your job is worse. Free education or lower my taxes? Hmm. Spend the money on healthcare, adult illiteracy, public transportation, welfare, childcare?

Political Options

Not an easy decision. The Party Québécois, the only real alternatives to the Quebec Liberals, is promising to keep tuition in line with inflation, but, is also going to form a committee to consider ways to finance universities...

Democracy V Anarchy

As a progressive, a social democrat, the public policy choice is not easy and is often tainted by personal experience and family socio-economic background. For communists and anarchists, it is much clearer.

Related post:
-I Do Not Support the Occupy Movement.
-Montreal Students Riot, Live Stream

Video of the undressed protest in Montreal (turn the sound down if at work)

Casseroles Not Just for Soup



From O Citizen

Casseroles is a great video. As you know, people banging on pot and pans creates an unbearable racket, so the music option was indeed the way to go. Regardless if you agree with the protesters (against a law giving police authority to relocate demonstrations, designed to stop the student university embargo) or not, you can admire the propaganda qualities. The filmmaker has a clear future in advertising.

You might need to hit pause a couple of times to allow buffering. I find that Vimeo tends to be quite choppy.

Hat tip to anti-Quebec communist blogger We Moved to Canada.


By the way, each additionnal protester banging on pots and pans only has a marginal effect on the actual volume. So if you have todlers, a pot and a pan, turn off the music for a less romantic version of the protest.

Note the $800 smarphones in the crowd. I guess if you are in a 3 year smarphone contract, a sudden raise in tuiton would be disturbing.

Accidents Happen: Where to improve safety

Drunk Driving Lindsay Lohan in jail

In your city, the intersection with the most accidents is probably,
per car, one of the safest. And that is a good thing, as it is
probably a useful intersection on the way to somewhere you want to be.
But if you are on city council and you are presented with engineering
recommendations to improve the intersection with the most accidents,
would you ignore the recommendations because, per car, the
intersection is already one of the safest?

Depending on the recommended work, it might be a cost effective way of
reducing the number of car accidents in your city. But is that fair?
Should some drivers encounter significantly less risk in order to
maximise the reduction of accidents? Or should the risk be spread out
as equally as possible, even if that way more cars are damaged and
more people injured.

You can apply this dilemma to food safety, healthcare, crime,
unemployment, economics, etc.

This keeps me up at night.

Update (2012-05-30): Here is an interesting bicycle accident report of 4 years of consolidated data. I say interesting because it is not. Accidents are remarkably spread out. They also go up in June. But if you read that data and conclude January is the safest month to drive your bike in Montreal, then you are a fool. 

Street View Tourist

-Sao Paulo.
The Toronto of Brazil, Sao Paulo is not on my bucket list. However, check out the interesting graffiti in this Sao Paulo neighborhood.

View Larger Map

-Palestine
I espicially like this graffiti, a sneeky way to get around the sign by-lay, I assume. Unzoom, then  walk north (turn right) about 400m for some serious jaywalking prevention measures.


View Larger Map

Montreal Students Riot, Live Stream

Watch Montreal students live as they protest in Montreal. Brough to you by CUTV

Watch live streaming video from cutvmontreal at livestream.com

Alice Eve in that Immigration Movie is not Pippa Black of Outsourced

How could I have admired/lusted after the blond Australians in the sitcom Outsourced and the immigration movie Crossing Over (now playing on Netflix Canada) and not noticed they are different people?

Alice Eve in Crossing Over.

Pippa Black of Outsourced

I'm not the only one who had them confused.

By the way, Crossing Over is a fascinating reminder of the consequences of immigration and limiting immigration. Outsourced (only one season), is a funny show about working in an other country (and in a call centre). Yes, I've worked in a foreign call centre. Culture shock, misunderstandings, rage. All true.

Ontario to Maritimes

What is the best route from Toronto to Moncton, PEI or Halifax?

Well, if you have a criminal record or 3 kids without passports, it is hard to argue in favour of the American route across Northern Maine. If you opt to stay in Canada, take the Renous Road across New Brunswick and save 60 km, plus whatever gas savings your car gives you by going 85km per hour instead of 120km per hour. Budget for moose, deer, bear and branch damage to your car.


View Larger Map

On all routes from Toronto or Kingston, you can now avoid Montreal by crossing at Victoriaville and picking up the four lanes of highway 30 off highway 132 at Chateauguay. Plus you get to drive through this.

View Larger Map

Most of the 40 kms from Victoriaville to Chatauguay are 70 to 90km/hr, same as the official speed limit on the Montreal highways. However, there are a few 50 km/hr sections and a few stop lights. The Metropolitain on the Island of Montreal was built as an urban by-pass (most of the city is further south) and is usually the fastest route, unless it isn't. Outside rush-hours, congestion usually only happens near the highway 15 exits. The highway 20 tunnel is usually pretty clear. Champlain bridge (highway 15), on the other hand, is very close to downtown, and often the access points are very congested.
From Ottawa, Montreal haters taking the Canadian route can by-pass the city by taking the north shore route (the almost completed 50 to Mirabel, then 15 to 640, then 40 to Quebec City). That will add 11km to your trip and you wont be able to go as fast (speed limits are more strictly enforced on highway 40 and much of highway 50 is only two lanes). But you avoid Montreal congestion.


View Larger Map

For shortcut freaks and American gas price lovers, Maine is the way to go. There are a couple of option (bring a map!), but you might as well take the shortest route. Although I warn you, the empty but longer I95 will be very tempting. Motels in northern Maine are also quite cheap, although not plentiful. Detour via Bangor if you need a city.

 If time is of the essence, take the highway route via Northern New Brunswick. The divided highway is also much safer. You can still hit a moose on a divided highway, but chances of avoiding it are better. 87 km of highway 185 between the Saint-Lawrence River and New Brunswick is still only 2 lanes, but there are many passing lane sections. On the 185, expect to go at about 100km/hr, but allow time for 90. It may be a divided highway if you are reading this in a couple of years.

Saving 113 km each way by going via Maine is nothing to sneeze at. But it is only 48 km less than the Canadian route with the Renous Road. But the Renous Road is a bit kamikaze (no cell phone coverage or even FM radio!), even when conditions are good (the moose enforce the speed limit).

Going to Newfoundland? Consider (but don't actually do it) going via Labrador. The Translabrador has been open over a year now. What are you waiting for?

Linguistic Segregation in the Moncton Area

Belfast and Chicago have nothing on the Moncton area. Last names can be misleading (Moncton's mayor, a Leblanc, only knows a few French words), but I think you can figure out the linguistic divisions of Moncton's two suburbs.

 

Fine the Metro Smoke Bombers

Don't send the Montreal smoke bombing students to jail, fine them! With their faces plastered all over the Internet, newspapers and TV, the Montreal 4 are clearly no longer a menus to society. Should they be punished? Yes, absolutely. And punished severely at that. And the best way to do that is with a substantial fine. A fine that that will take them years to pay off.

Which scenario do you prefer?

"So what did you do in jail for 5 years? Oh, I got my PHD in prison."

OR

"So what have you been doing the last 5 years? Flipped burgers and mopped floors. But I've payed off my fine now, I'm looking forwards to moving out of my parent's basement." 

Congress Monitoring Zosia Mamet

Congress is monitoring Zosia Mamet. First it was someone in the Senate, now it is someone in the House of Representatives (kind of cool that Sitemeter can tell the difference). Why should you care? Because Zosia Mamet is the daughter of the guy who wrote the film Wag the Dog, about Washington faking a war to avoid scandal. Are we really in Afghanistan?

Google Image Thinks Jews Are Cowboys

You wouldn't think a white guy in a cowboy hat is "visually similar" to a Hasidic Jew in full religious attire. But you would be wrong. Machines are always right.

Louis CK Spam

I don't remember signing-up for Louis CK friend-notes (aka opt-in spam), but I guess if you fork over $5 for a mediocre stand-up show that HBO wont touch (because it is pretty lousy), then you can't blame a guy for trying (to sell me an AUDIO version for $5!).

Louis sent me this email without Digital Rights Management (DRM). Haha, jokes on him, I'm posting it on my blog. You can google his site, or, better yet, click on one of the computer generated ads surrounding this post (I wan't my $5 back).

Louis CK is not the master of his domain

Hello there. I am Louis C.K. for now. You are a person who opted into my email list, when you bought my Live at the Beacon standup special. As I promised, I have left you alone for a long time. Well, those days are over. I am writing now to let you know that I am offering some more stuff on my site, which you are more than welcome to buy. What does "More than welcome" mean? Well, it means you can totally buy this stuff. Like, totally. 

Okay so there are two new products. They are both audio comedy specials. One is called...Louis CK: WORD - Live at Carnegie HallThis is about an hour long and it's a recording of a live standup show that I did at Carnegie Hall in November of 2010 as part of a national tour I was on entitled "WORD" I've had a lot of requests from people to release that show as a speical or as a CD. I hadn't done so because a lot of the material that I did on the WORD tour, was in the second season of my show "LOUIE" on FX. But I decided since it's never been released as an entire show, and some of the material was not on my show, I'm releasing this now. I'm giving you this long and boring explaination because, as most of you know, I release about an hour or more of new standup material every year and folks can count on seeing a new show every year. This is old material, so I don't want to be a dick and pretend it isn't. 

Anyway, Louis CK: WORD - Live at Carnegie hall is available for the same 5 dollars as everything will be on louisck.com. It is the same deal as before that you get 4 downloads and the file is drm free. YOu can burn it onto a CD, play it on your ipod, whatever you want. The special is broken up into separate tracks because I think that's more fun for a comedy album, but they are all just one thing you buy all at one time. 

The second new thing is even older, actually. It's an audio release of "Shameless", my very first hour long standup special that I did for HBO. It was never released as an audio CD, so I asked HBO to let me offer it on this site and they agreed. They also agreed to let me offer it, the same as the rest, DRM free, for 5 dollars. Obviously I'll be sharing the Shameless money with HBO but I think it's pretty cool that they're letting this be out there unprotected like this. Shameless is also 5 dollars, drm free, and you can download it a bunch of times for the price. 

Lastly, I'm offering Live at the Beacon Theater as an audio version, for those many of you who have asked for it. This is just exactly an audio version of the video special. Those of you who have already bought Live at the Beacon theater already own this. If you just return to the site louisck.com with your password, it is now live and available for you to download at no extra cost. Those of you who now buy LIve at the beacon theater for 5 dollars, will also have the audio version availbable to you. It's simply been added to the video downloads and streams you already were getting. 

Later, I am going to make a version of Live at the Beacon theater, that is a separate audio special, which will be much longer. That will cost money. Because I'm an asshole. But that's later. 

Also later, actually soon, I'll be putting my first feature film "Tomorrow Night' up for sale on the site. And also other things. Soon. For now. Please feel free to click on the button below, to purchase some of the new stuff, using Paypal or Amazon payments, we now accept both. Or go to louisck.com and peruse the new items. I think we have some samples there that you can check out. 

 
You may have noticed that Louis CK LIve at the beacon theater is airing on the FX network. FX agreed to air it 10 times over the next few months. The version on FX is only 42 minutes long and we had to take out the fucks. The reason I chose to air the special on FX is that FX is my people. They gave me my show LOUIE (season 3 premieres on June 28th at 10:30pm) and they have never aired a standup special. So I thought it would be cool to let them air it and bring more people to the site who want to get the complete unexpurgated version. Also FX doesn't make me cut things for content. Just the big words (fuck, etc). 

 
  Okay. that was exhausting. Sorry. I didn't even ask you how you are. How are you? Oh yea? Oh good. That's great. What? Oh man. That's tough. I'm sorry... Oh well that sounds like you handled it well, though. So. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know that's... yeah. Well... Just remember, time will go by and that'll just be on the list of shit that happened to you. You'll be okay. Yeah. Huh?... Oh. Really? HE DID? Oh my GOD! hahaha!! That's CRAZY! No. no. I won't tell him you told me. Of course not. Alright well... uhuh? Oh wow. yeah. Alright well.. I really gotta go. Thanks for listening. I'm glad you're basically okay. Stay in touch. 
   

your friend,
Louis C.K. 

Pebble, the first iPhone-worthy Smartwatch

I could be wrong, but I think Pebble is the first iPhone compatible smartwatch. I use the term "first" loosely, as it is not available yet. I want one. I wanted the inPulse when I first heard about it last year, and then I completely forgot about it. Even worse, I bought an other Pulse incompatible iPhone.

Do you need a smartwatch? Well, you didn't "need" your smartphone and you didn't "need" your smart tablet, and that didn't stop you. However, you needed a car and you didn't get the Smart Car. So there. But for $125, why not?

Disclaimer: when I was a kid I had a PacMan watch and was very popular on the playground for about a week (charging 10 cents per game), until other kids got Pacman watches. As far as I can tell, you can't play Pacman on the Pebble, yet. 

Breaking News Urgent Alert: iPad Only Newspaper The Daily is Dead at Age 1

Today, The Daily exclusive iPad newspaper, I call it the exclusinewsipadapp (but it hasn't caught on), was found dead. Cause of death unknown but self inflicted wounds aren't ruled out. There was plenty of blood and gore and even a NFL football reference.

The logic behind the birth of the iPad exclusive newspaper (exclusinewsipadapp) "The Daily", was this: Why publish your electronic newspaper on the Internet, accessible by hundreds of millions (are we at billions yet?) of computers and devices, when you can restrict your content to one product?

Well, just like every other news organisation, The Daily has now created an iPhone app. You could read regular online newspapers with iPhone/ipod touch, but it does require pinching. Too lazy to pinch? There is an app for that.

After the geewiz wears off on your iPad, the logic of an app version of the news stops making sense. Fine if you fly or subway alot and have the organizational skills to download new content before your trip, but if you have Internet access, why bother with old news? Webpages look great on an iPad (or any other tablet). And we aren't stupid, we know the content in The Daily can be found in the web versions of Newscorp papers.  

Obviously iPad owners on planes were too much of a niche for Fox's Newscorp (and advertisers) and the iPhone beckoned. The problem for The Daily is there are plenty of iPhone news apps out there (because they make sense, kind of).

I'd like to point out that this blog is 100% web and iOS (iPad and iPhone) compatible. It even works on Blackberry! If you are going to fly on one of those airlines without wifi, print the pages you are interested in. When you get back online, the ads will be different, but it is very important that you click on the ads, otherwise that would be stealing. And if you crossed state lines it is a federal offence. Bring extra copies for the passengers in first class (I need richer readers). Anybody with Parkinsons or twitchy fingers would be ideal. But make sure you scare them into reading the online version (because, once again, you are stealing and in direct and indirect violation of the digital millennial copyright act if you read a paper version of this blog and don't click on one of my ads. If none of the ads interest you, then download Mad Men from iTunes (or subscribe to AMC) and we'll call it even.