If you take the 'explain purpose, list pros & cons, give final verdict' format of electronics reviews and apply it to naturally existing creations, you end up with this funny piece:
Trees Reviewed
Trees. It seems like you see them everywhere these days. But are trees viable in the long-term, or just another flash-in-the-pan fad for the under-30 crowd?
The Browser That Started it All Dies a Quiet Death
It birthed the web as we know it. But tomorrow, February 1, marks the demise of Netscape Navigator, the first commercial web browser.In my opinion, Netscape Navigator died when it became the bloated monstrosity known as Netscape Communicator and users actually tried to downgrade from version 4 back to 3. But that image above does make me shed a tear of nostalgia.
House Of Cards: The Mortgage Mess
In the last six months, Americans have seen their investments shrink, their property values plummet, and the country edge closer towards a recession. At the heart of the problem is something called the subprime mortgage crisis, which began last summer and continues to ricochet through the economy.It's always great to ask people 'Did you see my city on 60 Minutes last night?! They said we're ground zero for the current financial crisis and a microcosm of everything that went wrong!'
And as correspondent Steve Kroft reports, it started in places like Stockton, Calif.
Check out the trailer and movie stills for the upcoming motion picture Hellboy II: The Golden Army, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and starring Ron Perlman. The film is set for release on July 11, 2008. Although I'm unfamiliar with the story, it looks like the character of Johann Kraus (my favorite) will be in the movie.
Being involved in community theatre is generally a lot of work with little reward. But there are some perks. Juliet Heller, who performed a stellar Marian in The Music Man, invited her fellow castmates to see her in a preview performance of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Willows Theatre in Concord. And provided we brought a program from a show we performed in, we received free admission. That's a $27 savings, folks.
It was a great production and although I didn't know any of the other actors, I read in the program biographies that Pontius Pilate was played by Ryan Drummond, who has a lot of stage and screen credits, but is "most widely known as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Gaming Corp. from 1998-2004."
Predictions Wrong, Right, Left
Noah and Eddie see how successful and unsuccessful their Macworld Expo predictions turned out. And make their feelings known regarding the new products announced. Did one of them make the Lame List?Episode 25.m4a (55:45)
Picks of the Week include an avocado CD and a super DVD.
The burning questions are asked: Could a woman pick up a guy using a MacBook Air? Are optical discs really going away? When will we see wireless electricity? Whatever happened to flannel?
If you can successfully unscramble the words below, you'll win a prize:
tmshyueir - dsneoc aym
In February 2009, most TV stations will quit broadcasting analog TV signals over the air, and older sets will go blank. Remarkably, half of the country does not realize a changeover is coming.I also get the feeling that many people do not understand what's going to happen or why, in regards to over-the-air TV. If you're one of those people, read this article and feel informed. But come February 2009, don't say you weren't warned.
I've posted a summary of my Macworld 2008 trip at The Apple Blog. Hopefully it'll be the first of many more articles to come.
Reflections on another Tuesday at Macworld
This is the fifth year I’ve attended Macworld Expo on the day of the keynote, and it definitely wasn’t as exciting as 2007. But after last year’s introduction of the long-rumored iPhone, how could it be?
Of course, another big difference is that I didn’t get into the keynote this year. There’s always a disconnect between those who attend the keynote and those who don’t.
This episode is the longest the show's been in a while, but that's because it's chock full of stuff. Macworld Predictions & Mail
One of the most (seemingly) useless kitchen items ever is featured in the SkyMall Selection. Then a listener's submitted audio question about photo albums is discussed.Episode 24.m4a (1:17:50)
With Steve Jobs' Macworld Expo keynote just around the corner, Eddie and Noah round up the rumors to see which seem likely or impossible. Plus they make their own crazy predictions.
Another gadget web site and a wireless ISP are added to the Lame List. Picks of the Week include a Transformers album you probably don't know about and a DVD set you should get.
The word 'literally' is supposed to mean 'in a literal, not exaggerated sense,' but in recent years has been used for effect specifically in a non-literal context. For example: Instead of saying 'it was so hot outside you could fry an egg on the sidewalk,' someone will say 'it was so hot outside you could literally fry an egg on the sidewalk' to that someone I might say 'I am literally going to punch you in the face.' Guess which one of those two sentences used the word correctly?
Finally, someone is documenting all the improper uses of the word at Literally, A Web Log
Zoo Station (The Complete U2 Experience!) commemorated the 20th Anniversary of The Joshua Tree Saturday night by performing the entire album live (in order) Saturday night to a sell-out crowd at Slim's. It was actually more fun than I expected, and that was just the first half of their show. During the second half they ran through a set of hits including "Elevation," "Out of Control/Blitzkrieg Bop," "The Fly," "Pride," and "Bad."
The opening act was Culann's Hounds, which blend traditional Irish music with punk rock. They were much more fun than I imagined. Because I certainly never imagined "What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor" in the same set as "I Wanna Be Sedated." And never have I seen a button accordion rocked so hard. Or rocked at all.
But prior to Culann's Hounds performance was a set by The Dalton Brothers and I'm glad I didn't miss it. For a brief history: during the Joshua Tree Tour, U2 donned wigs and costumes and opened up some of their own shows as a country/western act called The Dalton Brothers, consisting of Luke, Duke, Betty and Alton Dalton (YouTube Video). 
So Zoo Station did the same, for apparently this one show, and it was way more entertaining than I figured a band pretending to be U2 pretending to be a country/western band could be (expectations exceeded on three levels). Not only did they perform some country/western tunes like "King of the Road" and "Lucille" they also performed some songs U2 wrote for legends Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash ("Mystery Girl" and "The Wanderer," respectively).
A long evening, but totally worth it.
City of debt shows US housing woe
The city of Stockton in California is at the centre of the mortgage crisis now sweeping America.The most illuminating article I've read about this crisis has been written by the BBC (that's why center is spelled centre).
Because, with house prices tumbling, more people in Stockton face the repossession of their homes than anywhere else in the US.
But Stockton is also a place where you can really get a feel for the staggering amounts of money banks loaned during the boom - with few or no questions asked.
Between them, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have made 13 of the 100 top-grossing movies of all time. Yet they struggled for more than a decade with the upcoming fourth installment of their billion-dollar Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Annie Leibovitz gets exclusive access to the set, while Lucas, Spielberg, and their star, Harrison Ford, tell Jim Windolf about the long standoff over the plot, why critics and fans will be upset, and how they’ve updated Indy.I had to skip a few paragraphs. Watch for the spoiler warnings.
This was recorded post-Christmas, pre-New Year's, but I wasn't able to edit it together until now. 
Christmas Cheers & Jeers
While Noah takes an episode off for Christmas/New Year's vacation, Ray from 2PStart.com steps in to help Eddie share some Holiday Cheers and Jeers.Episode 23.m4a (36:48)
But before they share their most and least favorite Christmas gifts, there is some news to discuss: the rumored arrival of movie rentals on the iTunes store; the closure of Wal-Mart's video download store; games on the iPod.
And don't forget the SkyMall Selection ... this one's got wheels.
Keys to the Kingdom