Flour Power

I've been going on about this for some time, and finally here's a very organised way of showing the idea.

(via Ferreira's dump)

Yes! More Futurama episodes!

HitFix is claiming that Futurama will return to Comedy Central in June, with the first episode being aired on the 24th.

I say: "That's about time!". The show aired from 1999 to 2003 when it was cancelled. Despite a huge fan base and numerous petitions to bring it back, all we got was a few "extra-long episodes": Bender's Big Score, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game and Into the Wild Green Yonder. Then last year Comedy Central finally announced that the network had ordered 26 new episodes to premiere this year. A few months later, fan enthusiasm was temporarily tempered by reports that the vocal talent might be replaced for the run of new episodes, but eventually the full cast reached new agreements and Philip Fry, Bender, Leela and the rest of the Futurama gang will sound very much like we're used to them sounding.

(via HitFix)

Flight of the Conchords, the New Zealand folk comedy duo, will be coming to Europe for a 15-stop tour with dates in the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, and the UK. Jemaine and Bret will be joined by co-stars Kristen Schall (fan-turned-stalker Mel) and Arj Barker (shop owner Dave).

That's awesome news, right?

Well, kind of. Maybe it's good news for the lucky ones who got tickets, but us mere mortals won't make it.

Here's what happened. Tickets went on sale at 9:00 today. And by... I don't know... 9:00 they were sold out (at least the Dublin and London dates). I know that because I was at the the bloody ticketmaster page refreshing it over and over again, and still all the tickets were gone as soon as the "Find tickets" button showed up. How that happened I don't know, but it's very frustrating that I didn't even get a chance. Kudos for the Conchords for having such loyal fans (maybe the tickets were all bought in the Fan Club pre-sale).

As usual, some tickets are already showing up on eBay and other such sites. For 3 times their original price. I feel like shooting those people...

For reference (not that you'll be able to get tickets...) all of the Flight of the Conchords 2010 Tour Dates are:

3rd May- Amsterdam, NL at Melkweg Max
4th May- Amsterdam, NL at Melkweg Max
5th May- Dublin, Ireland at Olympia
6th May- Dublin, Ireland at Olympia
10th May- Birmingham, UK at NIA
11th May- Manchester, UK at Apollo
12th May- Manchester, UK at Apollo
14th May- Glasgow, UK at SECC
15th May- Glasgow, UK at SECC
16th May- London, UK at HMV Hammersmith Apollo
17th May- London, UK at HMV Hammersmith Apollo
20th May- Bergen, Norway at Grieghallen
22nd May- Oslo, Norway at Folkteatern
23rd May- Copenhagen, Denmark at Vega
24th May- Stockholm, Sweden at Cirkus

I think we're safe on the being born and dying parts (although our parents can still be held accountable for our birth...), but I guess we have to stop doing stuff, or Apple will make us pay licensing fees or something.

This is part of my most recent rant against the Cupertino company for the 20 iPhone patents Apple's suing HTC over.

The image above is part of the satellite imagery that Google recently released of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) - commonly known as The Boneyard. It's a collection of over 4,000 retired aircraft including nearly every plane the US armed forces have flown since World War II.

Get more info at BBC News, or just explore the whole thing in Google Maps.

(via Gizmodo)

It's now more than a month late, but I need to get this one out of the way: on the 15th of January, my Guinness counter hit number 500. It has come a long way since number one, when I first arrived to Ireland.

And since this was more than just another pint, I made sure I drank it in the same pub I had the first one in. And more: I was sitting at the same table. And this took place exactly (give or take a couple of hours) one year after Guinness Pint Number One. Historic, eh?!

"And now what?", you might ask. Well, now I stop counting. It was fun as a topic of conversation, but the fun was gone when people insisted on telling me how much money I had spent on Guinness.

Now that I'm done with the counting, I also got rid of the counter in the sidebar. I just felt the need to point this out, otherwise people might think I stopped drinking Guinness altogether, which is not the case at all. Rest assured, Guinness people, I'll keep sending money your way...

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.