Andy Laub they call me "The Solution"

Lost Planet is out. Judging from the demo, it’s a pretty good game. I’d like to play it. But I can’t.

I’d also like to play Gears of War. Shouldn’t be a problem; I own the game. But I can’t.

I’m still playing Call of Duty 3, a game I bought in November and didn’t start playing a couple weeks ago. I’m probably halfway through it. I’d like to finish it so I can move on to other games. But I can’t.

Because I took the COD disc out and have been slacking around in Project Gotham Racing instead. Mmmm, cars. Nazis can wait.

Even worse, tonight I seriously considered popping in Saints Row. That would be a mistake. I really should finish – or at least play – these other games.

It’s a nice problem to have, I guess.

There is no time during the week that I’m more likely to be working on this site (from a coding standpoint) than Saturday morning; the earlier the better. I don’t know why that is, but it’s just proven itself yet again.

There was an issue with the archive page; turns out that the way I had written it told it to display monthly archives differently depending on whether a real post or a mini-post was last posted in that month. So I fixed it.

Not really an exciting story, I’m afraid, but still, the motivation just wasn’t there until I woke up at 7:30 this morning. If I were to venture a guess, I’d say that it’s probably because I know that if I start a project on Saturday morning, especially if it’s before everybody is awake or active, then I know I’ll be able to finish it.

Do you remember where you were on January 6, 2004? I do. I was tucked away in my office, trying to watch a streaming video of Steve Jobs’ MacWorld keynote. And trying not to die of boredom. You see, that keynote was the one that ushered in two things: the iPod mini, and 2-hour talks about iLife. So I learned how Garageband worked. And John Mayer played. And then they came out with a nice-looking iPod that was totally useless to me. That night, somewhat disappointed, I consoled myself by finally, finally ordering the 12″ Powerbook I had been waiting to buy, just in case something came at the keynote. It didn’t.

2005 was better. We got the iPod shuffle and the Mac mini (after the obligatory hour-long iApp speech). 2006 was even more interesting, marking Apple’s first entries into the Intel arena with the Macbook Pro and the iMac. And the hour-long iApp speech.

But this year. Wow. Again, I’m in the market for a new machine, but nothing happened. It started off great. A few minutes on sales figures (doing great!), 15 or 20 minutes on Apple TV (interesting name, but whatever. Did they really need to write “TV” on the unit?). 11:30 or so, iPhone. Awesome, getting out of the way for the good stuff. Not to say the iPhone is bad, since it’s exactly what I said it should be. 12:00 rolled around, I went to lunch. 12:45, I return from lunch, refresh the browser and they’re still talking about the damn phone. Wait, is this keynote 2 hours or 3 hours? It’s only two, and John Mayer – again – is there, playing the soundtrack to my disappointment.

No Leopard preview. No new Mac hardware. Not even a look at iLife 7 (if it even exists?). But they did drop “Computer” from their name, so uh, that’s comforting. Even better, the products they showed aren’t even available yet! Awesome! I feel bad for the people watching the keynote coverage, car keys in hand, ready for a run to the nearest Apple store. Sorry losers! You get nothing!

I perked up when I read later that Apple (finally) updated the Airport Extreme; maybe there’s more news in the pipeline? But unfortunately, even that is flawed with its obvious omission of Gigabit Ethernet, a standard that Apple itself has been touting for years.

So let’s see; two products that I have no use for (even so, the iPhone should be sold unlocked, not tied to Cingular) and one that is missing a key feature… yep, this was a bust.

…that Apple’s big announcement was a new product called “You”, a digital SLR camera. I was kind of surprised at this, for I don’t see much of a any need for Apple to start competing in the SLR market, and especially not with a product like this. Picture a normal DSLR, then slap a bunch of grey and purple plastic on it. Yes, purple. I don’t know how I knew this, but in the dream I rationalized it by stating that purple, of course, is Steve’s favorite color.

Here’s hoping that MWSF is better than that.

Mark your iCals, because next Tuesday at this time the internerd will be abuzz with all the new Apple hotness from the MacWorld keynote. Latest rumors are suggesting newly revamped and iSighted displays and octo-core Mac Pros. Additionally, more info is expected re: the iTV, OS 10.5 Leopard (secret features?) and the anticipated entry into the cellular phone market.

If the “iPhone” does come to fruition, I’m hoping it will be as a worthy entry into the smartphone market to compete with the likes of the BlackBerry, Samsung’s Blackjack, and the Motorola Q. This seems to be a much more logical point of entry, considering it could fill the void of both a mobile phone and the PDA that Newton fans have been clamoring for since the 90’s. Additionally, as good as the current smartphones are, there’s certainly room for improvement in both functionality and form, two areas in which Apple’s a force to be reckoned with.

I’m not sure what else to expect from this keynote. Maybe we’ll see some incremental updates for other machines (I’d have no problem with a speedbumped iMac), and maybe Apple’s got even more surprises. We’ll know in a week.