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Found this on Google news today. As with many great news articles, the actual details of the story aren't particularly interesting or amusing, but the headline cracked me up.

Microsoft's Zune music player has been on the market for a week or so. When it first showed up on Amazon, it had been somewhere in the Top 10 list of hot items selling in electronics. For a product that's supposed to be serious competition for the iPod, that was good news for Microsoft.

But where is the Zune now?

It wasn't until the 3rd page that I found the Zune... in 84th spot.
The Zune is one spot behind a $95 portable DVD player.

Other trivia...
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bestsellers are iPods.
No fewer than 12 different iPod models are ranked higher than the Zune.
5 of the top 10 products are iPods

Top 100 Bestsellers at Amazon.com right now, stripped out to show only iPods and the Zune:

1. Apple 2 GB iPod Nano Silver (2nd Generation)
2. Apple 30 GB iPod video Black (5.5 Generation)
3. Apple 1 GB Shuffle Metal (2nd Generation)
5. Apple 80 GB iPod video Black (5.5 Generation)
6. Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Pink (2nd Generation)
12. Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Black
17. Apple 8 GB iPod Nano Black (2nd Generation)
18. Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Blue (2nd Generation)
23. Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Silver (2nd Generation)
29. Apple 4 GB iPod Nano Green (2nd Generation)
64. Apple 80 GB iPod video White (5.5 Generation)
84. Zune 30 GB Digital Media Player (Black)
97. Apple 4 GB iPod Nano White

I know there's a program out there that's supposed to take care of this, but I used it once and it screwed my computer up. I don't know what it actually did under the covers, but I knew what I wanted to do (remove language packs!). Here's what I came up with using Terminal.

Applications, utilities, etc., have multiple-language support built in, often for dozens of languages. OS X itself has a ton of these language files, too. The ones I want to keep are for English language only, and I'd like to nuke everything else.

Here's how to do it for your Applications folder only:

1. Take note of your current available disk space ("Get Info" on your hard drive icon, for example)
2. Open a Terminal window and paste the following: cd /Applications; find . -name "*.lproj" ! -name "English.lproj" ! -name "en*.lproj" -exec rm -rf {} \;
3. Take a look at your available disk space again, you should see a substantial space savings.

Translation of Step #2: from your Applications folder, find all things that end in ".lproj" (those are the language translation folders), but exclude "English.lproj" and anything starting with "en" (this catches "en_US.lproj", etc.). For everything that makes it past that filter, delete them immediately ("rm -rf").

I ran this on two Macs at home and freed up 1.1gb on one, and 1.5gb on the other. Don't forget to check your free disk space before you run it so you'll get the satisfaction of seeing how much space is available when it finishes.

Screenshot taken from www.zune.net
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This is too funny... Microsoft's new "iPod killer" - the Zune - is currently not compatible with Microsoft's very own operating system, Windows Vista. It is true that Vista is not yet for sale in stores, but it will be soon. How soon? Well, after 5+ years of development, they're currently working toward an early December 2006 releaes date. So that's a matter of weeks.

It is laughable that the Zune does not support Vista. If Apple had ever claimed anything as ridiculous about the iPod and OS X, they would have been mocked and ridiculed incessantly. And why not? Two products made by the same company should be expected to work together. And so it should be with the Zune and Vista.

But it isn't.

I took a screenshot just in case they change their website.

The Apple's Pro Care website says lots of exciting, enticing things about Pro Care, trying to convince you to sign up. I'm going to try to convince you not to sign up, and keep that $100 in your wallet.

1. Personal Training
They will arrange one-on-one training with you for the Apple application of your choice (Garage Band, etc.), although when you try to sign up you'll see warnings that not all retail locations offer the same training. You might want training for a certain app that your local store doesn't offer. Oh well. Also, you might be interested to know that most Apple retail stores offer regular training sessions all the time. For example, anyone can walk into the Barton Creek store and attend any of the free training classes. No Pro Care required. See the full list here.

2. Yearly Tune-up
They will run "system diagnositics", "update your Apple software", and "clean your keyboard". Um, software update is built into OS X and it's free. Keyboard cleaning? How much is that worth to you? Surely a lot less than $100. That leaves "system diagnostics", and I have no idea what this means. My wife and I have owned several Macs over the past 4 years, and I have never needed any "system diagnositics", nor have I heard of any problems that required "system diagnositics". Honestly, this sounds like like a small can of snake oil.

3. Fast Track
Oh, don't even get me started on this one... Their website says, "ProCare is your ticket to priority repairs and available same-day service at the Genius Bar. Members get ¿Next in line, first on the bench¿ service on all in-store repairs." They don't mention the various conditions to which that applies, or explain the very likely reality that you will show up with your Pro Care membership and stand there for an hour or two with everyone else (of course, the non-Pro Care people will be there for 3 or 4 hours, so I guess you win, don't you!). Here's my rant about "Fast Track".

4. Complete Setup
This one is just plain silly. If you own a Mac and want to transfer your files to a new Mac, there is a built-in migration process that is so simple it'll blow your mind. I've used it several times, and it's amazing. It requires 1 old Mac, 1 new Mac, 1 FireWire cable, and something else for you to do while everything copies to your new computer. And I mean everything - files, folders, applications, settings... everything. So what is "complete setup"? I guess it means you can lug both of your computers into the store, and the guy in the Apple Store will plug in the FireWire cable for you, and click a few buttons. Later, you can lug both of your computers home again. Seriously, this process is so simple, I would be completely comfortable with an 8-year-old doing it (and no, I would not pay the 8-year-old $100).

5. Advance Reservations
This may be the only item that actually has value, but I'm hesitant to say it's worth $100. Did you know that there are authorized Apple repair centers all over the place? And you can trust them, because they're authorized by Apple. So you walk into any authorized repair center and you'll quite likely get immediate attention from someone (remember, you're not standing in line at the Apple Store with people who can't figure out their iPod), hand them your computer, explain what's up, and they'll probably offer some suggestions on the spot, or send it off for repair (to the same place that the Apple Store would send it). As long as your computer is under warranty, it won't cost you a penny.

To find an authorized repair center, go to Apple's service finder page and enter your zip code. For example, there are six authorized repair centers in my zip code (one of those is the Apple Store). And I can pretty much guarantee that you'll get quicker service. It certainly can't be slower than an Apple Store.

6. Works Worldwide
I guess this is appealing because you can enjoy the benefits of the previous five features from anywhere in the world? Oh boy.

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Well, I'm done ranting. And you might still think Pro Care is a good deal, or a useful purchase. And if you do, I am totally fine with it. But I think people should be properly informed about what they're spending their money on, not just buying the marketing hype. Apple is generally pretty good about matching their marketing with reality - I've owned many Apple products over the years, and speak from experience. But this Pro Care thing is a joke, and I feel obligated to say something about it.

I signed up for Pro Care 4 months ago, and feel pretty strongly that it was a waste of money. If there were any way in hell that I could get a refund, I would do it. Here's why.

By the way, if you're wondering why I wrote this post, it's because I feel that Apple deliberately mislead me and sold me a product (Pro Care) that isn't very helpful. I wish someone would have warned me beforehand.

If you have a computer problem that needs to be shipped out, Apple customer support will tell you that you have two options: 1) they can overnight a shipping box to your home, and you can send your computer out the next day (free of charge), or 2) you can walk right into any Apple Store and they'll take care of shipping your computer off. It is under this exact scenario that I initially signed up for Pro Care.

I had a problem with my PowerBook that required a new motherboard. Still under warranty and all that, so it wouldn't cost me anything, but I still had to send it out. Apple Support told me over the phone that I could simply go into the Apple Store and they would take care of it. So I did that at 2pm on a Saturday. When I arrived at the Apple Store, I was told to wait 3-5 hours before I could talk to someone. I explained that I had already diagnosed everything myself, been on the phone multiple times with Apple Support, and was told to drop my computer off for shipment. I didn't want to talk to anyone, I wanted to hand it someone to put in a box and ship off for repair. The guys in the retail store said it didn't work like that, I had to stand in line with everyone else, behind people who couldn't get their iPods to work with their piece of junk Windows PC, or couldn't figure out how to do something really obvious on their Mac. I had to sit there and wait.

Or I could buy this magical thing called Pro Care for $100. I was told that anytime I came into an Apple Store, I would jump right to the front of the line. Instant service. I could buy my way to VIP treatment, and it would last for one full year. Apple's own website says it pretty clearly: "members get next in line, first on the bench service" (this isn't true, by the way)

I really didn't want to spend $100 on that, but we were hours away from departing for a week-long trip, and I needed my computer sent off immediately. I was kinda screwed, and ended up paying the $100. It ended up taking about an hour before I was out of there. In the end, the repair guy agreed that there was a serious hardware problem, and sent my computer off for repair.

Fast forward to earlier today, four months later. I went in with another basic repair requirement for the same PowerBook. This time, I needed them to fix the keyboard backlight and sleep light that stopped working with my last repair job. Another easy one, guys - take the computer, put it in a box, send it to the repair center, call me when it comes back. Well I went into the store and they said I couldn't talk to anyone today, I would need to schedule an appointment for tomorrow. But why? I bought this fancy Pro Care for $100 so I could cut in line, right in front of everyone else, just like it was explained to me at the time of purchase. But no sir, it doesn't work like that, you can only get immediate service a few specific circumstances.

My understanding is that if they already have service scheduled for that day, say 4 hours of work scheduled, and you show up 4 hours before closing time, you will be turned away because they cannot service you and everyone else by closing time. If you show up 4 hours before closing, but there is only 3 hours of work scheduled, you can cut in front with Pro Care and force those other poor bastards to wait even longer to get serviced.

So I now have an appointment scheduled next week where I'm expecting to show up, explain to the "genius" that they need to send my computer off for repair, sit there while he spends 10 to 20 minutes verifying what I just told him, then watch him ship it off for repair.

HBO produced a video called "Hacking Democracy" where they show how easy it to cheat an election using electronic voting machines from Diebold (the company who builds the electronic voting machines). This movie is so powerful that Diebold demanded HBO not air it at all, or at least include a disclaimer that the movie is factually incorrect. HBO said no, went ahead and aired it on tv, and took the extra step of releasing the entire movie online, for free, so that everyone can watch it.

Whoever you are, regardless of your political affiliation, you should watch Hacking Democracy.

Watch "Hacking Democracy" right now (runtime 1 hour 22 minutes)

Some folks out there have given Apple a hard time for selling music on the iTunes Store that plays only in iPods, and some blame Apple for not embracing an open music standard (of which there is none that the record labels all approve of, there are only other versions of digital lock-in). Anyway, I really like Microsoft's approach to this dilemma.

With the new Zune music player due in stores this month, Microsoft has announced that online music purchased through MSN - Microsoft's very own music store - will not play on the Microsoft music player.

So here are two choices:

1. buy a provably awesome player (iPod) and music online (from iTunes Store), and everything will work beautifully together, or
   
2. buy a brand new music player with no user base, no add-ons, and zero reputation (Zune), and also pay for a 2nd copy of the songs you've already purchased online through MSN Music since your old ones won't work on your Zune.

Vendor lock-in may annoy some people, but hell, the least Microsoft could do was get it right. You're not supposed to lock yourself out, too!

BBC article: Zune problems for MSN customers

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Someone just sent me a link to a video on Microsoft's new video sharing service, they call it Soapbox. How hard can it be to share a video?

1. give me the url
2. click url
3. watch video
4. close window

The first two steps worked fine, although those don't have much to do with Microsoft doing anything correctly. But the last two were lame. The video started playing before it had fully downloaded, and also before enough of the clip was buffered. The result was choppy, shitty video. I clicked "pause" about 9 times before it finally paused the video, and then I let it sit there a bit for the whole video to load before un-pausing.

Eventually, I watched the video.

Then I tried to close the window, and it popped up a warning dialog! "Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?" What? You can't be serious! Another fine example of "bad interface", courtesy of Microsoft.

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Will there ever be a day when government agencies move beyond producing horrible things like this "map"? It's from http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/court/loc_no.htm, which I'm only looking at because the 6-page speeding ticket I recently acquired is a stunning pile of bloated crap. Why is this so complicated? You get a ticket, go here to pay it. Want to do defensive driving? Go here instead. What in the hell do I want with 6 pages of junk? I've read it all, and it doesn't answer my questions. Ugh. Well at least they gave me a map! So what if they put North going off to the left for no good reason. The rest of the planet designates North as "up", but not the police department. It's almost like they're... French.

Borat is playing at the Lake Creek Drafthouse this weekend! See update below

Tomorrow (Friday November 3) is the opening day for Borat, a day I've awaited with much anticipation. But I just heard from the Alamo Drafthouse (by email newsletter) that they're postponing their opening! This looks like it affects the Drafthouse screens only, not all theaters. But I talked to somebody at Alamo by phone earlier today, and he said Fox was scaling back national distribution from 2,700 screens nationwide to just 700. So sucky.

Here is the full text of their email, sent early this afternoon:

Date: Thursday November 2, 2006 12:52:34 PM CST
Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control
BORAT'S ALAMO SHOWS POSTPONED
WITH ANY LUCK AT ALL, BORAT WILL STILL OPEN AT THE ALAMO SOUTH LAMAR ON FRI, NOV 10

It's a sad day at Austin Alamo HQ as we were informed today by Fox that we would not be receiving a print of BORAT this weekend. You can read more about FOX's rollback here. It's particularly disappointing to us because we've seen BORAT and it is awesome. We hope to show BORAT starting Friday November 10 at our Lamar theater, and we will know for sure on Monday, November 6, by 6pm. Check our website then for the latest news and showtimes.

Nobody is more excited about BORAT than we are and we hate to have to wait. When we do open the film we will have a stellar preshow of rare and imported Borat clips before the show and we may even dress up in green slingshot thongs (those of us who aren't handling food, that is). We hope those of you who are loyal to the Alamo will wait it out and see BORAT with us. Those of you who have bought tickets already can have your money refunded by forwarding your email confirmation to manager.lamar@originalalamo.com or manager.village@originalalamo.com depending on which theater you bought tickets for.

Thanks for your support and loyalty and please accept our apologies for the delay.

UPDATE: at 9:20 am on Friday November 3, John from Alamo Drafthouse sent me this update:

Kaan – Borat opens today at the Alamo Lake Creek in Austin. It’s the only drafthouse-cinema getting it on opening weekend in the U.S.!
http://www.drafthouse.com/lakecreek/frames.asp
- John

Still bummer news that they can't open the film in all Alamo theaters (and the other ~2,000 theaters nationwide that won't get it this weekend either). But hey, at least one Drafthouse has it. It's kind of funny, this whole situation of scaling back the opening weekend is probably going to create a stampede mentality to see the film, which can't be what production company intended to happen...

The "Austin International" has been announced for June 17, 2007. This will be the biggest cycling event that Austin has ever seen, as well as the first international sporting event ever held in Austin.

The UCI (International Cycling Union, www.uci.ch) has given it a 1.1 rating. That's pretty high and translates into "this race matters" to the pro riders, which should result in lots of professional riders (both women and men) coming to Austin from all over the world. Honestly, I hope this makes Austin seem like an even cooler city than it already is, because that might increase my property value a little more.

More info at cyclingnews