But I like my iPad more.

I finally got an iPad and I use it all. the. time. And I barely play games on it. Here's a business use-case for the little bugger:

1. The rig: iPad (16GB wifi refurb + original apple case - seriously, why not? + stylus)

2. The most used programs:

• PenUltimate for 'inking'. That's the name given to writing on the iPad. It is pretty good. $2.99 gets you the best program so far. Bamboo just released their program. It is a bit better, but it is basically in beta preview. Writing on the iPad isn't perfect, but it is pretty darn good and has completely replaced paper for my note-taking. I gave a briefing on the Hill yesterday and took nothing else. Worked like a dream.
• Email. 'nuf said.
• Dropbox and/or iBooks for viewing files.
• Feedler for RSS. This program provides me the RSS experience I want: Massive amounts of information in a clean, dense interface. I also have Pulse and Flipboard. Both are great, but both are meant to look pretty. Flipboard is great for, say, reading Longform.org. Pulse is great for the opposite - People and TMZ rss feeds. I spend a minority of my time on either.
• Good Reader - this is a program I don't yet have because I don't need it, but it permits one to 'ink' on PDFs and similar files, permitting you to hand edit/annotate a document. Everyone who uses the iPad like I do recommends it.

And, of course, I do have a little fun on the box.

• TED has an app.
• Snagfilms gives you access to great documentaries.
• And Worms 2. The ninja rope, etc. are impossible to learn in the touch interface, but moving and firing most any other weapon are easy as pie. "Ach! Ahm Ded!"

So I guess I have to admit it...I like Windows 7.

I recently got a new computer that was a sea change from my previous thinking. Three years ago, I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad T61. Great machine. I still have it.

It was a laptop with XP. I paid more to downgrade from Vista - that is still a good decision. I had a mobile machine with an older stable operating system. Quick processor, decent RAM, slower HDD.

This time I bought an off lease desktop. Yeah. A desktop. The processor is old - an Intel Core Duo. Not Core2 Duo. This is several generations back. Think i3/i5/i7 > Core2 Solo and Duo > Core Solo and Duo. This is just after the Centrino days. Thing is, with a 3MhZ frontside bus, this super high-end processor from a few years ago benchmarks nicely against newer processors.

But that's just keeping up with the jones's. This is a new machine and has to fly, and it does. How? SDD. I paid an extra $100 and upgraded the $350 machine with a 64GB SDD and it just zooms. Windows 7 startup - 20 seconds. Opening Office - instantaneous. Photoshop - 2 seconds. Seriously.

The old HDD is in an external enclosure and holds all my files. Performance hit = 0. The internal drive holds the OS and Program files. 64GB is plenty to hold all my programs, including graphic design and web development tools. 250GB is plenty to hold everything else and setting the download, documents, and dropbox directories for an external drive is a cinch.

Right, so I haven't even started into Windows 7. I was skeptical. This is, after all, a rethinking of Vista with even more bubble gum graphics and the same convoluted security and administration windows. All true. When I have needed to be the Admin user, I have hated Windows 7. But for the day to day stuff, there are some wonderful fixes:

• Start menu: No more huge start menus. Just type the program you are looking for and it pops up.
• Folder Search works. Remember XP Search? It's that thing you tried once and ditched because it sucked. It works and it is wonderful. I used to have to open Dropbox.com to search my dropbox and then find the file on my local machine using the path. No more.
• Multi-window: When you hover over an open program in the toolbar, it will dim all the other windows and show you the one you are pointing at. Can be nice if you have a lot of windows open. I sometimes do.

These might seem simple, but these are things that (a) didn't exist or work in XP and (b) never materialized in Vista, an OS so bad that - like I said before - people paid NOT to use.

6 Hour Power. That's right baby. 1 more hour.

http://www.6hrpower.com/

Look like any drink you've ever heard of?

Also - its got the worst. ad. ever. http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1138353315?bclid=1149097313&bctid=15154764001

Google, the startup. Seriously, homepage redesign and everything. #Google.

Google announced a few new products in the past few days:

Google+ is by far the most important of them, with the company taking on social networking and permitting users to create "Circles" of their friends with whom to share content. Unfortunately for me, I think this builds on Google 'Buzz', a service that pops up in my Gmail daily and gets ignored just about as often (unless you count the errant click below "Inbox").

Verdict: I will wait and see.

Google Swiffy Still in Labs, this product takes in SWF (Flash movies) and spits out HTML5. And not just animations, but also interactive features. That means developers can take legacy Flash, convert to HTML5 and make their content iOS (iPhone/iPad) friendly. And before we launch into histrionics about killing Adobe and sucking up to Apple-cum-world's-largest-consumer-electronics-company, Adobe is itself working on a product code-named Edge that looks and feels like Flash Studio, but outputs HTML5.

Verdict: Amazing. Also, the king is dead. Long live the king.

"Prohibeted Items" at Nationals Park. Yeah. How long do you think that's been misspelled?

http://mlb.mlb.com/was/ballpark/prohibited_items.jsp.

The URL is correct, but both the page title and the page heading are misspelled. Ugh.

Is the NFL Lockout really just about $80M as the new deal implies? #NFL #lockout

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6687485

So the sources say that the players and owners have agreed to a deal where the players get 48% of revenue. Sounds good, but compared to what?

There is $9B in the current pot. Previously, the owners got the first $1B, leaving $8B, and the players got 60% of that. For those keep score at home, the players have $4.8B.

Under the new deal, they would get 48% of $9B, or $4.32B, down $480 million. But the players say they never got more than 53% of revenues under the old model ((9-1) * .53) or $4.24B, so the new deal would constitute a gain of $80 million. To put that in perspective, Manning makes $23 million per year. $80 million just covers the salaries of the 4 highest paid players 2009-2010:

• Philip Rivers $25,556,630.00
• Jay Cutler $22,044,090.00
• Eli Manning $20,500,000.00
• Kurt Warner $19,004,680.00

Total: $87 million.

Carl Edwards would be leading both the Sprint and Nationwide Series right now. Right on. #NASCAR

Yeah. This might came as a surprise to some readers out there, but I follow NASCAR. I also follow cycling and some larger desert auto rally auto/motorcycle racing.

Carl Edwards has been my fan fave for a bit. He was a on a long dry spell last year. This year, he leads the main sersies - the Sprint cup. He can only earn points in that series, so the fact that he has won FOUR races and placed second in a few more Nationwide series races doesn't really count. Very impressive.

For the uninitiated - Sprint (sponsor name) is the main race series. There is generally a Sprint race Sunday. Nationwide (another sponsor) is one tier down. The car is similar, but not identical, and the race is run Saturday often at the same track.

There are GMT+14 time zones...not really possible.

The Line Islands are +14 GMT. That's over a half a day (You know, those things based on the earth's rotation period so that any point to should +/- 12 hours of any other spot on the planet). I mean, I could see if these islands were the last thing before open water for several hours, but it does not exist. There are Islands to the northeast of these that are -11 GMT. Crazy.

Check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_time_zones_of_the_world.png

I just discovered Tripod - Aussie comedy rockers. @3Pod rocks!

Seriously, I love jam bads and I love good comedy. This is both. First, the site: http://www.3pod.com.au/.

And you just need to watch the whole thing:

There's something about Christy. Does it make him unelectable? #2012election

There's something about Chris Christy that gives voters pause. His opponents have seized on it before, albeit implicitly.

Thing is, Christy is near the top of the aspirational party. Will those who want lower taxes and less government on the off chance they get rich enough to benefit from it vote for a man who looks like they do look rather than how they would like to look?

There's something about Christy. Does it make him unelectable? #2012election

There's something about Chris Christy that gives voters pause. His opponents have seized on it before, albeit implicitly.

Thing is, Christy is near the top of the aspirational party. Will those who want lower taxes and less government on the off chance they get rich enough to benefit from it vote for a man who looks like they do look rather than how they would like to look?

NYTimes Reports That Snowbird (Utah) is still open for skiing with a 15' base. c ya! #skiing

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/sports/skiing/whats-to-be-done-with-15-feet-of-snow-in-june-utah-knows.html

Yeah. Nuts. I don't even know where to start. Yeah, there might be a climate comment here, but this is weather, not climate.

Obama 2012 offers a "Made in the USA" mug for donations. Look, a sense of humor in a campaign! #Obama2012

https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/o2012-made-in-the-usa-mug?source=site_tout3

Just check that out. I think humor from the top is a class act. Enjoy.

Olafur Eliasson has another mindbending installation in the world.

Olafur Eliasson has been a favorite artist of mine ever since luvnmuzic and I stumbled on his work at the Tate during a post-college trip to London. He created a sunset so real to fill the great hall of the Tate that Londoners were laying on the concrete to bask in it during the London December. You couldn't help it. It just told your body that it was warm and waning.

He's at it again, this time with a rainbow walkway above a Danish museum. Don't judge it until you have walked through. These are experience pieces and I am sure this one is surreal. http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/14812/olafur-eliasson-your-rainbow-panorama-now-complete.html.