Flour Power

Thanks to @grealish.

The sixth, and final, season of ABC's Lost starts today, and I'm pretty excited about it. Both because I'm curious to see what the creators of the show have in store for this season and because I'm sick of new mysteries and questions being introduced and hardly any of them ever being answered. At least this time it has to come to an end. Somehow...

I don't know exactly when it started but at some point during the last 5 years the show has been running I kind of started hating it. Every single episode added new complexity to the already intricate plot. The amount of unanswered questions, of unsolved mysteries, of downright weird stuff is now so big that I'm sure it's impossible to sort it all out in just one season. The fact that they introduced time-travel in season 5 doesn't make it any easier.

On the other hand, I just love the weirdness and complexity of the whole thing. I love to read the theories of people (with way too much free time) about the events of the latest episode, theories sometimes derived from the analysis of screenshots from a bunch of different episodes. I enjoy wondering about what will happen next, and then be surprised with something completely unpredictable. I even like the fact that some of the things are not explained right away and remain a mystery episode after episode after episode...

Weird, uh?

This "love-hate relationship" lasted for more than 5 years. And it's finally coming to an end! I just hope I won't be too disappointed.

If you think you need a very quick summary of what happened in the last 5 seasons, check out this video (it doesn't even scratch the surface...):

And here's the trailer for the final season:

Ominous...

On the 27th of January the whole tech world had it's eyes on what Apple was about to release. It had been hyped ad nauseum, and everyone expected something as revolutionary as the iPhone. It would single-handedly kill the netbook and the Kindle (and other e-readers, for that matter), and be the next step in how we interact with computers.

As soon as Steve Jobs gave birth to the iPad, the Internet went crazy with all the reviews/opinions about this new device. Everyone was in awe because of its slickness and beautiful design. And the ease of use of the multitouch, and the lightness and thinness of it. It looked perfect.

While more details kept being revealed, the first doubts started to appear, and by the end of the keynote the fight started. On one side the die-hard fans of Apple defended it as something magical. On the other the Apple-haters that automatically discard every Apple product without even looking at it. And somewhere in between the ones that looked at it with a critical eye, trying to make sense of this new thing.

I've avoided commenting on it earlier because I wanted to know what I'm talking about before giving my opinion. Now that I've read way too many stuff about the iPad (the only thing missing is the experience of holding one), I'm ready to share my opinion about it.

And to put it short and simple: the iPad is a useless device. Allow me to elaborate:

It's not the best way to browse the web

One of the things I heard more than once during the iPad promotional video was "the iPad is the best web surfing experience". Well I'll have to disagree with that. It can be argued that it's the best way to browse the web in a mobile device, but then again, calling the iPad a mobile device is debatable (it's small, but not small enough for my pocket, unless I get the iPants...).

The big problem: no support for Flash! Which means that you won't be able to use that gorgeous screen on all those video sites on the web. Not to mention all the games and other apps.

While there are some arguments for Apple's choice to not enable it, how can a device be considered "the best way to browse the web" if one of the most ubiquitous web technologies is not present? Start getting used to the blue legos...

No multitasking or file management system

Because it uses some variant of the iPhone OS, there's no multitasking in the iPad. This means you can't listen to Spotify and browse the web at the same time. No working in Pages while making a VoIP call. And the list goes on...

And because of the closed nature of all things Apple, there's no simple way to transfer files to and from the iPad. Why is this relevant? Well, it means all the media files will have to be synced through iTunes, which always involves conversions to the mad Apple formats. There's no way to just drag and drop them over WiFi or using a USB Mass Storage Device.

Not to mention all the documents produced with iWork (which even deserved to be ported to the iPad). Where will those go? And while we're in this department, how can a device coined as a "great productivity tool" lack the support for non-Apple office software (Microsoft and Openoffice).

It's not the best way to watch movies

Again, the iPad video... (that thing is so over the top... it's ridiculous). Full HD is not supported, 720p will be the maximum. Also, the display is not widescreen. So any widescreen movie will be framed inside yet more black space (in addition to the bevel, which is not that small).

These are not huge problems, but the "best movie watching experience" should take care of them.

It's not as affordable as it might look

The base price for the iPad is $499 (and apparently will be €499 in Europe, because Apple fails to acknowledge that 1€ > $1). For that you'll get 16GB of storage and WiFi. Want 3G? Prepare to spend $130 more. Want more storage? That'll be $100 extra for the 32GB version, and another $100 for the 64GB. You might be able to use an external disk for storage (again, not sure about the syncing), but for that you need to buy some kind of adapter since the iPad doesn't have a USB port. Same for SD cards, so go on and buy the adapter to be able to transfer photos from your camera to the iPad.

How much does it cost now?

It's useless

One may think that the most obvious buyers are the Apple clients. But I think that even those won't find a use for it. They already have an iPhone and a MacBook. The iPad can't make calls or take pics like the iPhone. And it's also way bigger and not that portable. It can't be used for video conferencing like the MacBook, and the lack of multitasking make it useless for any kind of serious work.

It makes even less sense for the non-Apple crowd. With half the money you can buy a pretty decent netbook that will do everything the iPad does and more. It will be a bit heavier and it won't have touchscreen, but at least it will have more functionality than a digital coffee table book.

Stan Schroeder, of Mashable, makes a good point by asking when do you plan to use the iPad:

It’s going to be very hard to find enough time to use the iPad. When you’re at home or at work, you’re going to use your computer. When you’re on the go, you have your smartphone. If you’re on a train or a plane and need to do some work, you can use a laptop. When you’re doing something else, such as running, well, then your attention is focused on that. When, exactly, are you going to use the iPad?

Waiting for the next version

Now, with all that said I'm still waiting to see if this will end up becoming the next big thing. If I remember correctly, the iPod also faced some resistance when it was first announced, and even the first version of the iPhone was quite poor compared to the current one.

We might as well be looking at the New World of computing and not even know it. All the negative reactions to the iPad could be just "Future Shock". Only time will tell.

But as it is now, the iPad is virtually useless.

In the last few weeks the Internet has been flooded by hundreds of news articles and blog posts with rumours of the extremely over-hyped Apple Tablet. Well, it will all end in very soon, when the iPadSlateTablet^© is finally revealed by God Steve Jobs. In the meanwhile, check out the list of 20 things we already know about Apple's marvellous device (courtesy of The Doghouse Diaries):

It was the happiest day of my Facebook-life when the possibility to hide applications from the news stream was added.

Since then I've been able to get rid of all the crap app/quiz/game that kept showing up on the screen. And a lot of it was from a single game - FarmVille. If only I had been shown this video, I might have been convinced to play it...

And while you're at it, check out the parody commercial for MafiaWars. This one I do play, but only due to my OCD ("obsessive completion disorder"), because I'm sick of the damn thing. The enjoyment is as big as the video shows...

That's right! This little corner of the web is already one year old. And so I feel obliged to do some kind of summary.

It's was on the 17th of January 2009 that I inaugurated Flour Power. One year later and it's still here, after 239 posts with 292 comments. The site has seen a total of 83,512 unique visitors that produced 105,092 pageviews. Most of them got here from search engines (76.87%), of which Google was the biggest contributor. Geographically speaking, the 4 biggest sources of traffic were the USA, the UK, Canada and Ireland. But there was also 1 person from Rwanda that considered the blog interesting enough to spend more than 5 minutes here.

And what made all those people come here? The 10 most popular posts of 2009 (excluding the Facebook "incident", which alone caused about 50% of the total traffic) were:

1. Barney Stinson’s “Get Psyched” Mixes (3,969)
2. Katy Perry Totally Looks Like Zooey Deschanel (2,454)
3. Fixing Windows Live Messenger 8100030F Error (2,343)
4. Make Your Own Pop Art With Warholizer (1,851)
5. Ryanair Flight Attendant Edita Schindlerova is Pornstar Edita Bente (1,708)
6. Turn Your Picture Into a “Obama Hope Poster” (1,490)
7. Listen to Dave Matthews Band New Album For Free (1,475)
8. Google Chrome is The Safest Browser Around (1,302)
9. Test Your Movie Skills With Empire magazine’s The Cryptic Canvas – 50 Movies Hidden in a Painting (1,300)
10. The Cryptic Canvas Answers (1,011)

As far as content is concerned, Flour Power started off as a daily frequently updated diary of my "adventure" of leaving my home country for 6 months to live in Galway, Ireland. As those 6 monhts turned into a year (and now probably two), the frequency of said reports was reduced, and the type of posts changed with it. This is now a place where I post the most fun/interesting/useful stuff I find around the web, along with the occasional rant about whatever is bothering me at the moment. And that's how I plan to keep it going forward.

So if you enjoyed it so far, stick around for a while longer. I'll try not to disappoint

In case you forgot, The Smashing Pumpkins are releasing their new album for free. Teargarden By Kaleidyscope will have 44 songs, which will be freely available for download from their website. So far 2 songs have been released:

1. A Song For A Son
2. Widow Wake My Mind

I'll be updating this post when a new song comes out, so be sure to check back every once in a while.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this Playboy cover? If your answer was "There's a man in the cover instead of an almost naked woman!!", you're right...

No, it's not a joke. This was the cover for the December edition of Playboy Portugal... The man in the cover is Ricardo Araújo Pereira, a comedian that was considered the "Man of the Year" by Playboy for his influence in the Portuguese society.

Well, that's all very nice, and I respect the guy and all that. He's my favourite Portuguese comedian, and his TV show this year managed to mix politics and comedy in such a way that I believe a lot of people (myself included) got more interested and involved in Portuguese politics than ever before.

But having him as the first man ever to be featured, alone, in the cover of Playboy... is a bit too much.

And just a few hours after my rant about Christmas, I'm gonna do the unthinkable: I'll post a video of a Xmas song!

Now, there are a few good reasons for that:

1. This song is not too bad;
2. It's a cover by a very talented Portuguese singer/songwriter;
3. The video is cool.

Here it is, "Last Christmas", performed by David Fonseca:

I thought I could take it for a few more days, but no. I have to say it: I'm sick of Christmas!

There's only so much one can take, and the amount of Xmas-related stuff we get bombarded with every single year is just too much.

The constant talk about Christmas subjects is excruciating. Christmas presents, Christmas tree, Christmas decorations, Christmas presents, Christmas dinner, Christmas lunch, Christmas tea, Christmas breakfast, Christmas presents... Isn't it supposed to be a religious holiday? A celebration of the birth of this guy Jesus Christ that lived some 2000 years ago?

Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

Oh... I guess not... But at least it helps the economy...

And the songs! Oh, the songs! I believe there's no such thing as a good Christmas song. Some are more tolerable than others, but that's as good as they get. And here in Galway's pubs they think it's a good idea that the last 4 or 5 songs are Xmas songs... Argh!

Now, not everything is bad. Here's some of the things I actually enjoy about this season:

• I welcome the Christmas decorations at work. A Christmas tree here and there, socks hanging in every other cubicle, an inflatable reindeer (?!). They give a bit of "color" to the otherwise gray-ish cubicles;
• The lights on the streets look good, and sometimes quite impressive. Again, they're a welcome change to those streets that look the same every day;
• I love the fact that Christmas is an excuse to organise dinners and parties with every group of friends. It's a great opportunity to get back in touch with people you haven't seen in a while;
• One thing I would like to see becoming a tradition is girls dressing up in Xmas-themed clother. Nothing like a tiny green "Santa dress" with knee-high (also green) tights and high heels... Ho! Ho! Ho!

Rant over.