Category: Uncategorized

I’ve got an essay on The Farm about this little machine:

…which includes a link to this beautiful infographic about the Mac Sweet Spot created by Paul “Nixlog” Nixon:

Good insightful stuff, just the sort of thing you’ve come to expect from me, Tucows and The Farm. Read it!

On the file-sharing-and-posting site whose first rule is that you don’t

talk about it, I found this a little war of Mac opinion, waged in the

form of graphics.

Here’s the first salvo:

After which a Mac fan returned fire:

Which led the PC guy to return fire:

Now that’s not necessariliy true, especially for the really intense 3-D

shooters. There’s no way the cheapo graphics cards on the $499 Dell

will play them; they’re built with the intent of becoming TPS

Report-writing machines. Someone responded that if you really wanted

great games at a low price point, you’d be better served with a

PlayStation 2 or XBox.

The final shot, with this apples-and-oranges logic in mind:

With the rise of cheap videocasettes and VCRs in the 1980s came the rise of the training and educational videos. I remember that the one for Kelly (the temp agency) was mildly if unintentionally amusing and the “How to play synths” one by the keyboard player for the Dungeons-and-Dragions-rock band Dio was downright hilarious. However, since I’m riffing on a hamburger theme, allow me to present this Wendy’s training video, in which you, the neophyte burger-slinger get mad burger science dropped on you — 1985 rap style!

Update – June 12, 2006: I once included the video with this entry, but I’ve recently received a “cease and desist” letter from Wendy’s You’ll just have to imagine what it’s like now.

If you’re hoping to see Dave Thomas do a walk-on cameo and breakdance, you will be disappointed. I believe this was before the era when he started appearing on the commercials. One would at least think that the “Where’s the Beef?” lady would do a quick rap Wedding Singer-style, but alas, it was not to be.

Still, it’s an entertaining video, and if it helps you make better hamburgers on your own grill, so much the better.

Check out this funny McDonald’s ad from Israel for the McShawarma

[3.0 MB MPEG Video; enclosure]. The guy playing Travolta is quite good,

and the little elbow-jab at Israeli etiquette is priceless.

If any of you speak Hebrew, could you please tell me what the guy in the trunk at the end of the ad is saying?

On IndieGameDev (one of the blogs I’m paid to write): An in-depth article on Interactive Fiction

(a.k.a. “IF” or “text adventure games”), the Inform Programming

language, a lot of links to resources and a look at what advantages and

opportunities IF offers the indie game developer.

Even if you don’t care about programming games, there are links to fun IF games to try!

Hey, programmer-types! There’s lots of good stuff on The Farm

(Tucows’ programming-in-general blog) and IndieGameDev (Tucows’ blog

for indie game developers). They’re written by Yours Truly with the

same gusto and verve, but considerably less swearing.

(Actually, even on this blog, I try and save the swears for when they’re les mots justes.)

Once you’re done reading those, you can reward yourself with this TV ad for Dodge trucks that they decided not to air [1.3 MB WMV file included as an enclosure; Three’s Company-esque double-entendres].

A pity, because I think this ad fesses up — although in a roundabout

way — as to why men who don’t really need trucks buy them.

The investment service FindProfit.com announced its “Top Five Internet

Stock Picks for 2005”, which were featured in Sunday’s edition of the

New York Post. Among the five was Tucows:

And

with that news, Tucows’ stock price jumped up over 30 cents yesterday,

putting us at $1.17 per share at yesterday’s market close. As I write

this, we’re at $1.19, which is the highest it’s been since I joined the

company:

This doesn’t mean I’m buying drinks for everyone; it just means that I

have a little more money…”on paper”. However, all other things being

equal, it’s better to work for a company with a “buy this stock”

recommendation and a rising stock price than one without these goodies.

Perhaps a little bling bling dance is in order…

Judging from the last entry in the Toronto-focused blog Better Living Centre, my blogging co-conspirator (conspiracy coming soon) Marc Weisblott and I part company when it comes to the subject of Maclom “The Tipping Point” Gladwell.

The best part about Marc’s polemic is the comment by Liam Scott, which

reads “Maybe your analysis will prompt him to write about tall-poppy

syndrome next.”

In the words of Grand Theft Auto: Busted!