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WePad

Apart from the chuckles (if not outright guffaws–puppy-training pad?) the name inspires, this looks like what the iPad ought to have been in order to appeal to anyone who wanted something other than a large format, less capable iPod Touch:

Yeh, my German’s way, way out of date, but I caught enough to spur my interest.

More…

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdz_TX2qDZQ&feature=player_embedded

OK, so all the loan phrases imparted a lot of info on top of what little German I caught, but it does look intriguing. Price point’s apparently a slight tad over the iPad, but it answers nearly all the objections I had to the iPad, so that’s a Very Good Thing. Can it gain traction in the US? Well, it’s not even for sale here, so there’s no way to tell yet. And, of course, there’s the Apple “mystique” that appeals to those with more taste for sizzle than for steak, and there are more lobotomized Americans that fit that characterization than I find comfortable to contemplate, so that’s another barrier. Still, I’d kind of like to get my hands on one…

And

The WePad is a Google Android tablet with 11.6 inch touch screen display, 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor, 16GB of flash storage, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1, and 1.3 megapixel camera starting at $611 and will have another model with a 3G-32GB version that will be available for $774 USD. The We-Pad launch date according to the company is August 2010.

Other notable features include memory card reader, two USB sockets, audio output, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, stereo speakers and Flash and Adobe AIR support. Additionally, the WePad will also come touting HDMI out as well as a Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator for 1080p video playback.

Add the fact that multitasking is a part of the mix, and that’s LOTS more usability than the iPad!

*heh* I’d probably use it as a entertainment room “surf tablet” and media controller, for the most part, or as a notebook replacement (which would call for an easily added–via USB–wireless keyboard and mouse), and most of the add-on mobile capabilities would be something I’d probably not need. But that’s just me. Yeh, a convertable multi-touch tablet/netbook would probably suit me better, anyway, but still… nice to know that–if these videos are any indication at all–somebody has built a more sensible and more capable iPad-like device at a competitive price point.

Oh, and back on the videos now, I liked the presenter’s shirt cuffs and the nice, cool 54 degrees Fahrenheit day in Hamburg. *heh*

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Mini-Reprieve From “The Day Eaten By Locusts”

Well, today looked as though it were scheduled to be devoured by locusts, but rain has washed out some auto mechanicking (more brake work: do NOT do while raining, even if using synthetic brake fluids–just don’t :-)) and yard work. Oh, the rain’s let up, now and bright skies have at least dried up the driveway, so some car work’s possible, but yard work? Not when the ground’s this wet. Sweet.

Now for a sharp left turn into wonderland. Have you tasted any of this ambrosial concoction?

Oh! Heavens that’s good! 100% fat by calorie count (and a teeny smidge is a few calories indeed), but so’re margarine and butter. This stuff is seriously good stuff! Bacon. In a creamy good spread. Oh. My. OK, maybe I’ll get some of this instead, but I’ll not do it twice if it’s not as good as the original:

A grateful tip o’ the tam to Son&Heir for introducing me to BACONNAISE!

Hmmm, I wonder how it’d be as a base for fried locust dip?

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Little Foxes

Song of Solomon 2:15

Yeh, my grape vines were under attack today, as it were. Foxes, locusts, whatever. Whole day eaten up with little tasks that expanded to more than fill the day.

Tomorrow? Looks like my “to do weather” is still snowed under.

Write your own post. 🙂

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What Do You Have Planned for Earth Day?

In honor of this enviro-weenie day I propose that folks who’ve not entirely submitted their minds to daily Progressive Lobotomies by the Mass MEdia Podpeople Hivemind

1. Turn AC on full blast
2. Pour 2-cycle oil in your 4-cycle mowers and spew smoke
3. Turn on ALL electronics
4. Turn on–and leave on–all the incandescent lights in your houses.
5. Moon at least one greenie.

OK, maybe not the last, but I want to.

I cannot express how disgusted I am with what has become of what was once conservation, and so I advocate that this day be given over to conspicuous over-consumption and ridicule of all that contemporary enviro-nazis stand for (yes, I use the word “nazi” to refer to them for very sound reasons. Examine the German Socialist Democrat Party and draw the parallels for yourself; you can do your own googling).

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Stopped Clocks, Blind Pigs and All That

Now, we can add radical leftists to the list of improbable stumblers-upon-truth:

The level of anger and fear is like nothing I can compare in my lifetime. Ridiculing the tea party shenanigans is a serious error. For over 30 years, real incomes have stagnated or declined…The bankers, who are primarily responsible for the crisis, are now reveling in record bonuses while official unemployment is around 10 percent and unemployment in the manufacturing sector is at Depression-era levels. The financial industry preferred Obama to McCain. They expected to be rewarded and they were. Then Obama began to criticize greedy bankers and proposed measures to regulate them. And the punishment for this was very swift: they were going to shift their money to the Republicans. So Obama said bankers are ‘fine guys’ and assured the business world: ‘I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.’ People see that and are not happy about it. People want some answers. They are hearing answers from only one place: Fox, talk radio, and Sarah Palin.

And what radical right-wing “tea bagger” terrorist said that? Noam Chomsky

I understand that Satan’s breaking out his long underwear.

While he was at it, Chomsky said a few other surprising–for a radical leftwing “intellectual” (yes, scare quotes around intellectual in reference to Chomsky’s retarded, reactionary excuses for advancing his socialist agenda. His legitimate contributions to linguistics are another very different story). Notably, taking note of all the swooning over The Ø!’s rhetoric,

“I’m just old enough to have heard a number of Hitler’s speeches on the radio, and I have a memory of the texture and the tone of the cheering mobs, and I have the dread sense of the dark clouds of fascism gathering…”

Yep, just another radical right-wing “tea bagger” racist spewing hate at a café au lait cyanide-laced Oreo in the White House. Noam Chomsky, of all people.

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Thursday Thought

“The principle is this: good government is rare. It is to be cherished. When grubbing for political power takes precedence over that principle–when lust for political power takes top priority–then it threatens good government.” –Dr J.E. Pournelle

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“There Will Always Be An Island Off the Coast of France”

It used to be that it was said, “There will always be an England,” but it ain’t necessarily so anymore.

Caravanner, 61, prosecuted for having Swiss Army knife in his glove box… to cut up fruit on picnics

A disabled caravanner who kept a penknife in his glove compartment to use on picnics has blasted the authorities after being dragged through court for possessing an offensive weapon.

Rodney Knowles, 61, walks with the aid of a stick and had used the Swiss Army knife to cut up fruit on picnics with his wife.

That’s right, folks” a 2.5-inch bladed Swiss Army Knife. Evidence of obvious intent to commit mayhem.

*sigh* And here in the USA, more of the same, as the TSA will confiscate any lil teen-eintsy bladed “weapon” from once-free citizens, when they’re not going full court press to fine and imprison folks for whatever strikes the Thousands Standing Around as an appropriate expression of their goonery.

This in a land where my grandfather and his brothers once took their Model 1895 Winchesters to school–talk about school safety! Imagine some idiot trying to hold up a school where the teacher and students were all armed to the teeth! Ah, but those were different times, you say. Yes, they were, more’s the pity.

As for that “island off the coast of France” thing, well, that may not even be “always” if the Calip-hate has its way… With a completely disarmed populace, how long until Londonistan is added as “the chief city of an island in the Calip-hate just off the coast of Francistan”?

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Department of Education

Jerry pournelle is always worth listening to, and never more so than when he speaks about public education, and especially about the effect of the “feddle gummint’s” Department of Education.

In 1983 the National Commission on Education, headed by Nobel Laureate Glenn T. Seaborg, wrote that “If a foreign nation had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.”

Go ahead and read the rest of his brief comments at the link.