A few better images of what are probably Anna’s Hummingbirds at the feeder. For those of you who have not seen these birds in person, keep in mind that from tail to bill they are just 4 inches (10 cm) in length. Their feathers tend toward iridescence, and the dark feathers on their chins appears iridescent red at the right angle.

By the way, I just arrived home for the holidays, in the southern peninsular area of the San Francisco Bay Area.

I didn’t even really try to go birdwatching, but this neighborhood is so filled with birds that you can catch sight of a dozen species without even trying. I missed some small species flitting around in trees and couldn’t identify, as well as a few mid-sized ones, but just by pointing the camera easily in a few directions I got these birds:

First, what is probably an Anna’s Hummingbird, but hard to tell because it stayed up in a tree and there was too much contrast to get many details. I asked my dad to put up a hummingbird feeder, and this one actually staked the feeder as his/her own, chasing off other hummers that tried to feed there–but he himself/she herself fed only infrequently.

Also on a wire nearby was a Mourning Dove, a bird I recall well from childhood. They often make a “mournful” hoo-hooting call when they take off in flight. I guess that they are kind of the equivalent of a Eurasian Turtledove in Japan, except this dove is more common to find.

From a treetop fairly far away I saw a bird take off and snapped this quick long-shot; it’s probably a red-tailed hawk, though it might be a bit small for that–but definitely a bird of prey of some sort.

And finally, a bird I don’t recall seeing before, a Black Phoebe, maybe not all that common in suburban neighborhoods like this one.

My dad tells me that Cedar Waxwings are around recently, feeding on pomegranate fruit. I’d sure love to get a few pictures of that bird–I’ve never seen it before.

I am currently looking at getting a new camcorder, but was discouraged in Japan as the cheapest acceptable model cost 50,000 yen (about $430). That made a $200~$250 repair of my old camera look like a possible alternative. But then I looked at prices in the U.S.; I had forgotten the usual divide in prices, and sure enough, acceptable camcorders start at around $220.

So, what the heck is with the price differential? Look at this camera: the JVC GR-D350, on sale at Amazon.com for $250, but the exact same model is sold at Yodobashi.com for ¥49,800 ($425), fully 70% more expensive than the same model on sale in America.

I noticed this effect long ago. On my first trip to Japan, I wanted to buy a Nikon SLR camera. Fortunately, I had priced them in San Jose before I went, and so realized that they were a lot cheaper in the U.S. My Canon S1-IS was priced at $320 in the U.S., and $510 in Japan (60% more expensive). Prices for Apple goods in Japan seem to be more moderately jacked up, only about 5~10% higher than U.S. prices. But most consumer electronics have this massive difference in cost between Japan and the U.S.

Anyone know why?

Well, this is embarrassing:

The founding pastor of a second Colorado church has resigned over gay sex allegations, just weeks after the evangelical community was shaken by the scandal surrounding megachurch leader Ted Haggard.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if virtually all of the anti-gay Christian community leadership turned out to be self-hating gays who nonetheless act out on their desires?

The way things are set up, however, almost begs for this to happen. This particular culture’s mores say that homosexuality is a sin, and castigates those who “choose” it. But since homosexuality is not a choice but a biological reality, some within the religious community will be gay. Unable to exist as they are and unwilling to leave the community, they seek out a place that they believe will save them: the priesthood. Guilt and shame may motivate them to work harder and appear more pious than most, thus propelling them to positions of leadership. But they often discover that entering the priesthood does not allow oneself to simply turn off one’s sexuality as they thought it might.

I’m no expert. Maybe this analysis is wrong. But it would explain a lot. And it should be a signal to the religious community to deal with certain realities rather than trying to cram what their god created into a dark, hidden corner which, all too often, gets light shone on it at the most darned times.

When Steve Jobs unveiled Leopard a few months back, he said that he was leaving some stuff out, some “Top Secret” information kept that way so that Microsoft wouldn’t have the chance to copy it so soon. Most people doubted that this was the real reason; even if Microsoft will copy the hidden features (which they probably will, eventually), it would have been far too late for them to have incorporated the changes into Vista, and there will be way more than enough time after Leopard’s final release for them to still copy the features in the next version of Windows a few years down the road.

So why was some stuff top secret? Probably most of it has to do with upcoming product releases that Apple wants to keep secret for the time being, including the iPhone and some aspects of iTV, and perhaps even the rumored fullscreen iPod. Releasing some OS details may have given away too much about these items.

Other reasons could include Jobs keeping some juicy stuff saved for the January MacWorld Expo, a new strategy for keeping people interested in a product by stringing out descriptions over time (like with the iTV), or even because the features are unfinished and might not look good enough to release yet.

That last reason may be the one behind keeping the new OS’ interface changes secret. One of the rumored changes in Leopard is the Finder; many have hoped that Apple would “FtFF” (“Fix the Fracking Finder,” so to speak), and perhaps overhaul the overall appearance of the OS. There have been subtle hints about this–new styles applied to iTunes, and small imperfections of the GUI in developer releases of Leopard.

But today there is a rumor that reveals a little bit more: that the UI will have an all new name, to replace the “Aqua” moniker given it from the start. The new name is supposedly “Illuminous.” No details on the new look except for a report that the latest build of the OS incorporates more “black gloss” than might be expected. Though how black gloss might go along with the idea of illumination is anyone’s guess, and suggests that these rumors are either partially or fully untrue or that we’re really missing the big picture here.

Whatever the case, it is probably true that Apple has two lines of OS releases: one that is going out to developers, and one that is kept in-house, which has the “secret” features. The developers’ version is likely to have a certain amount of placeholder stuff (explaining some of the graphic rough edges), with only the parts of the secret stuff which are absolutely necessary to build into the OS being incorporated until Jobs is ready to spill some more beans.

In case nobody noticed, the month of December 2006 in Iraq–which appeared to start out safely and well for our troops–has instead turned out to be the most violent for U.S. troops in two years, with 42 fatalities in the first ten days of the month.

Remind me again, how many dead or maimed young soldiers will be enough to protect George W. Bush’s false legacy and allow him to blame someone else for losing the war?

When you run a blog, you tend to get a steady stream of visitors. Some are regulars, and some come from the search engines. Every once in a while, the numbers surge, usually because a strong site somewhere linked to yours.

I used to get the occasional uptick in visitors from links on MacSurfer, a Mac news source; once as many as 10,000 people came in from that page, so many that I had to temporarily remove some graphics or else exceed my bandwidth limits. I haven’t had a bump so large since then, and haven’t been linked to by a rich source like that for some time.

However, twice in the past few weeks I have a new referrer, a site called “Stumble Upon.” At first I thought it might be another spammer, but it showed up in Google Analytics (spammers usually don’t), and a quick look at the site showed that it was some sort of web-linking/searching community site, probably like Digg. The first spate of links added up to just over a hundred, but today almost 2000 came through the site, going to my recent post on free Mac software.

Have you ever signed up for a service and then completely forgotten you did? That’s what happened to me here. After finding the link surge, I tried to find out more about the site, but had trouble signing up–it told me that my usual sign-in name, “BlogD,” had been taken. At first, I was a bit put-off that someone had taken my moniker–until I realized that the “other” person had my location. Apparently, for some reason, I had created an account with them more than two years ago and had never come back. Says something for the persistence of accounts with them…

Nevertheless, the site does not seem to be very easy to understand, or at least they do not make themselves self-explanatory. Maybe if I read some FAQ somewhere or dug around for instructions, I might be able to figure it out, but without that, the site doesn’t feel very intuitive. And since I don’t have time right now, it’ll have to remain a mystery. But pretty soon, I’m gonna have to look into this whole Digg/Del.icio.us kind of connectivity fad; so far, when I’ve encountered it, I haven’t really understood it (am I an old fogey already? I don’t even have a MySpace site). Probably I could build readership on the site with it, but it’ll take a bit of sitting down and figuring out.

For now, it looks like StumbleUpon may be sending some business my way, though that is based upon just a few spikes of referrals. (Is someone out there plugging my site into it? If so, thanks!) But it is also of note that I found out about it more than two years ago but only now is anything much coming from there.

Sometime early next year, Apple will start selling a new item, aside from (possibly) the iPhone or touchscreen video iPod. Oddly, this was announced a few months ago–something that is almost never done by Apple, previewing an upcoming product. But as with Leopard, not everything was revealed about the product. Here’s what we’ve been told:

The set-top box will sell for about $300. It will have ports in the back for component (RCA) video and audio, USB2, Ethernet, and optical audio. It will come equipped with WiFi. It will be able to automatically locate any computer in your house on the network (wireless or Ethernet), and stream photos, audio, and video between the computer(s) and the set-top box. There is a control interface similar to Front Row. “iTV” is not its real name, just a placeholder.

The idea as stated so far is that the unit will be like a media center and allow you to control all the media on your Mac (or, presumably, any other iTunes-connected computer) and see it or hear it on your TV and stereo system.

Now, just that alone doesn’t really sound too spectacular; the same could be accomplished by using Front Row and hooking up your Mac to your TV/stereo with cables. Even if your Mac is too far from your TV to do that, would you still want to pay 300 bucks just to stream like that?

But there is more. For example, the WiFi is not specifically identified, but all new Macs for several months now have come equipped with a new WiFi protocol called IEEE 802.11n; existing protocols can send data at a max of 54 Mbps (6.75 MB/sec), while 802.11n can send at between 2 and 5 times faster than that (potentially as much as 10 times faster, eventually). But the WiFi-n is not activated–it was kind of slipped in there quietly by Apple, and will likely be turned on at some near-future date. It is a no-brainer that this is being done, at least in part, to prep for the iTV.

But the big speculation is over what Apple isn’t telling us. Obviously they’re leaving something out. The iTV as described is very unimpressive, and it would be hard to believe that Apple could sell too many.

However, two missing details could give a hint as to what Apple might be planning. First is the question of a hard drive, which would allow the box to do more than just streaming. And the other would be how strong the DRM is on the box, making it a possible home for more than just ordinary video. These are big items if you want to see the unit as something worth all the secrecy and development.

In discussions with my family, one possibility came out as a good possibility: a new rental video system. The old Blockbuster-style brick-and-mortar system is beginning to die. Some people would rather pay a bit more at Wal-Mart and own the movie. Others use the alternative Netflix. But both rental paradigms have drawbacks. Brick-and-mortar rental shops often have OK availability, but you have to travel back and forth to the shop, and everyone hates the time restrictions and late fees. Netflix does away with both of those problems, but availability can be a huge problem with them, and turnaround time using the postal service can take days.

Imagine Apple coming up with a third option: order a movie over the iTunes Store. It then streams to your iTV, where it sits within the nicely DRM-protected hard drive. You may then play it on your TV as much as you want for the next 3 days, after which time it disappears. Availability could be 100%–a movie would never be out of stock, as they would be digital–and delivery would be nearly instantaneous. Even better, if Apple could swing a deal with the movie studios like Microsoft did with the music labels, a monthly subscription fee could substitute for the per-title system; this would be essentially the same service as Netflix, but without any of the disadvantages–save for the initial expenditure for the set-top box.

Standing in the way of this might be the greed of the movie studios: with DVD sales driving profits for them more than even box office sales, they might not want to risk cutting into that market for a much lower-priced alternative. Also, there would be other disadvantages: the quality of the video would likely be the same as the current iTunes Store videos (barely NTSC, not HDTV for certain), and special features on DVDs would not be available. Also, movie studios would likely be hesitant to join, meaning a small library to start out with (like Apple’s current buy-to-own movie download service, which currently features only several dozen Disney titles).

However, if this is what Apple is planning, and it they can make it work, it could be to movies what the iPod is to music–which I would imagine is what Apple probably set out to do with the set-top box in the first place.

I went to see Casino Royale today, and like many others, I was impressed. To me, that’s what a Bond film should be more like. Sure, the gadgets, bad puns, cartoon villains, and contrived elaborate death traps can be fun, but hardcore Bond can be so much better. One of the most impressive Bond scenes in the past, for me at least, was the fight between Connery’s Bond and Robert Shaw’s Donovan Grant in the train compartment in From Russia with Love. The fight came across as very realistic, unlike so many of the cartoonish Bond fights since. And I’m sorry to fans who like Roger Moore, but to me the man was a dreadful Bond, and most of the films with him were little more than bad jokes. Connery was the best, though I think Craig will give him a run for him money; I liked Brosnan best after that, then Timothy Dalton. I don’t think there was quite enough of Lazenby to form too much of an opinion, but he scores higher than Moore, of course.

The new Casino Royale is a return to a more serious Bond. Brosnan was pretty good and did come closer with his last Bond movie, but it just wasn’t quite good enough, and was still too gimmicky. The unconventional choice of Daniel Craig as 007 and the harsh, hardcore treatment in Royale made the movie less a whiz-bang comic-relief funfest and much more of a realistic, hard-hitting action spy thriller. I hope they keep up with the new/old style; I’d much rather have this than the nonstop one-liners and the wristwatches that can kill a man seven different ways (Now, do pay attention, Bond!).

Past Bonds came across as cool; Craig comes across as cold. Something he even carries somewhat convincingly into the romantic scenes of the film. He is brutal, relentless, and in any other Bond film would have made a more convincing villain than other actors who have taken on such roles. And yet they were able to maintain this cold, hard killer’s image without making him unlikable or an asshole; he comes across as safe to anyone not in his way, but you know that he could be ruthlessly brutal to the bad guys. This allows for the character to be much more likeable even as he is made out to be something of an anti-hero. In short, both Daniel Craig and the new way Bond has been written are a success.

The romance is also very well written; this is far more than a woman unconvincingly swooning over Bond simply because he walked in front of her. Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd is one of the best Bond women, along with (and in many ways better than) Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies. Hopefully this is not a fluke and the Bond producers have caught on to the idea that strong, serious, intelligent women make Bond films much more enjoyable. Even the disposable bimbo in Royale had more substance than most other Bond girls.

A few small notes: I liked the details that were incorporated into the film. The fractals that were incorporated into the opening sequence were a nice touch, as was the fact that the sequence did not involve the once-normal collage of flying naked women. Virgin Airlines must have had some tie-in (there were, in fact, several incidents of product placement), but I enjoyed catching Sir Richard Branson with his arms out, being searched at at an airport security checkpoint. And I think that it was a good idea to change Baccarat to Poker, despite all the cinema cliches involved. Baccarat has always been a bit too unfamiliar for me to get into it.

My only big complaint for the film, however, is the way you are kept in the dark about so much; you see stuff happening and only find out what it was all about ten or twenty minutes later, by way of someone explaining what happened to someone else–and even then, some things still don’t get explained, or at least there are so many small details that I missed a few along the way. You had to go too long without understanding what the hell was going on some times, and then had to work too hard to remember all the events and what significance the explanations have to the story.

Still, it was a great film, and the “Parkour”-style chase sequence at the beginning is one of the better action sequences for a Bond film that I can remember.

The RIAA and the music labels have gained a reputation for playing hardball in their war against piracy and illegal song downloads. Among the most famous examples are how they sued a 71-year-old grandfather who rarely used his computer, and a 12-year-old girl who was an honor student and sincerely believed that she had paid for the music. The RIAA did not care who was actually responsible for the downloads, and even sometimes not bothering to verify whether downloads had occurred at all. They wanted to scare people by playing hardball, and the message was crystal clear: no one is exempt. You download our music, we sue you.

Well, there are exceptions, apparently. Specifically, if you’re rich and your daddy runs one of the record labels. Edgar Bronfman, head of the Warner Music Group, said that “I’m fairly certain that [my children] have [illegally downloaded music], and I’m fairly certain that they’ve suffered the consequences.”

“Fairly certain”? Clearly, the guy doesn’t want to fess up with any certainty in public, but it’s clear his kids did pirate music. As for the consequences? Were they sued for up to $150,000 for each song they downloaded? Well, no suit has been filed in court against them, so the “consequences” they “suffered” apparently did not involve what the rest of us seem to be liable to suffer should we break the same rules. Apparently it involved Bronfman explaining what he feels is “right and wrong” to his kids. “I explained to them what I believe is right, that the principle is that stealing music is stealing music.” Did he explain that stealing is a crime, and that his kids should cough up huge wads of cash or maybe go to jail? It is a serious crime, you know. But I guess Bronfman never got to that part. It was enough to explain to them that they were embarrassing daddy, so stop it or else he’ll be real disappointed in them.

Tell that to 12-year-old Brianna LaHara (now 15), one of the first to be sued by the RIAA and the labels; her mother paid $29.99 a month to KaZaA and misguidedly believed that because they were paying for the service, that they were not stealing. They didn’t even keep the music on their computers–they listened to it and then threw it out. But they were sued, and eventually settled for $2000. Most of the people sued are given this “offer,” which demands payment of thousands of dollars, knowing that the people will cough up the cash even if they are innocent, as lawyer’s fees alone will cost them more than that. (In some circles, that’s called “extortion.”)

The Bronfman children should have known better than any other kids in the world that downloading from P2P sites is illegal. And yet all they got was a talking-to.

Poverty is not an excuse here. College students who could not afford to pay the extortion settlement fees were told by the RIAA to drop out of college or instead go to a cheap community college so they could afford to pay the mega-billion dollar record labels a few thousand bucks.

OK, so you would not expect the head of a music label to sue his own family or relegate them to cut-rate go-nowhere schools–but it smacks of a cop letting his own kids of the hook when he catches them driving drunk or stealing something. A double standard. If anything, it plays up the fact that the RIAA’s campaign is not one of justice, but one of terror. Naturally, they are not going to sue each and every one of the millions who have downloaded from filesharing services. They just want to scare people into believing that it can happen, and that it might happen to them. And the RIAA has the clout to ram this kind of thing through–although satellite TV businesses who tried the same technique–mass-litigate suspected pirates of content then try to get them to cough up settlements–was ruled against, the technique found to be illicit.

Which lessens the hypocrisy not one iota.

Remember how the RIAA and the music labels are always whining about how the artists are the ones you’re hurting when you steal music? Despite, of course, the fact that the labels gouge the artists by forcing them to sign horribly unbalanced, labyrinthine, long-term contracts (how does 25 years strike you?) when the artists are starting out, and most artists have to earn their money through concerts because the labels rob them of nearly all the income from recordings.

Well, apparently the RIAA and the labels really do believe that their mammoth share for simply marketing what others create is not enough: now they are petitioning the courts to give them an even bigger share of the profits:

“Mechanical royalties currently are out of whack with historical and international rates,” RIAA executive VP and General Counsel Steven Marks said. “We hope the judges will restore the proper balance by reducing the rate and moving to a more flexible percentage rate structure so that record companies can continue to create the sound recordings that drive revenues for music publishers.”

In other words, they want to stop pirates from stealing from the musicians, so they can steal from the musicians instead. As if they’re not doing it enough already.

As I am away from home for more than a day, I am using an Internet cafe to make this post. I was hoping for a cafe that would allow me to use my own computer (with my blogging software and browser bookmarks), but this place, at least, does not allow for that. No WiFi, and the Ethernet cable for the computer is too short and cannot reach my laptop.

This cafe also has a fair amount of privacy; all the computer areas are walled off, and though the doors do not completely block the doorways, you could easily imagine salarymen coming in at any time of day or night and doing… er, questionable things. You can ever rent a “pair seat” with a nice, cushy couch where two people could, er, well, you know.

But for those not lecherously-minded, there comes with the 400-yen-per-hour usage charge free drinks and bite-sized candies, not to mention free usage of manga comics, PS2 video games, or movies on DVD. Or, if you’re willing to pay, meals (including beef bowls, pasta, curry and so forth). Printing will also cost extra, 20 yen for a B&W printout, 50 yen for color.

Not all cafes have such private booths; it ranges from open counters with rows of computers to a variety of openness in booths. Most train stations (hubs of commerce in Japanese communities) have Internet cafes, which offer a variety of services and styles to attract customers. Want to sit in a massage chair while you surf? This random choice of cafes might give you an idea of a small neighborhood cafe. Some cafes will go so far as to offer almost spa-like treatment, with relaxation booths for ladies that include skin treatments and manual massages. In other words, more than just your basic computer-on-a-counter.

Kos has mentioned in the past that in 2008, the Democrats will only increase their majority in the Senate, because few or none of the Senate seats coming up for renewal in ’08 are weak Dem seats–instead, there are several Republican seats that will be vulnerable. One way Democratic candidates could win a few of those seats is by using the same tactic Republicans used to win the California governorship: name recognition.

One of those seats is in Minnesota, the seat that opened up when Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash. Republicans won the seat with Norm Coleman when they opportunistically trashed Democrats for bringing politics into Wellstone’s memorial. Coleman won the race mostly because of that opportunism, and because his opponent died in the middle of the race; his hold on the seat is soft, and celebrity Democrat Al Franken is poised to take over when he most likely will run in ’08. Those who have not listened to Franken directly might buy into the inevitable Republican hype about his rabid ultra-liberalism, but if you have listened to him, you’ll know he’s a very reasonable, knowledgeable, sympathetic guy. Maybe not the funniest comedian in the world, but he’s smart. OK, there was the time he used his wrestling skills to tackle that guy, but in the same situation, I think anyone would have. Despite his nebbish appearance, he has a killer instinct. Franken will announce his intentions in January.

But much more interesting is the less likely possibility of the Democratic Party stealing the Senate seat in Kentucky away from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell–with superstar candidate George Clooney. Aside from all the “sexiest man alive” nonsense, this is a very smart, soft-spoken guy who is razor-sharp on politics and could easily bring massive numbers of voters to the polls in his native southern state. And, as Kos pointed out, it would be sweet retribution for the Republicans having taken out Ton Daschle in 2004. Read the story on Clooney. He may not run, but it would be very, very cool to see this guy in the Senate two years from now.

Not to mention talent. Via Cosmic Buddha, here’s a YouTube posting of a video made by two guys who went crazy with stop-motion animation of themselves. Some of the stuff in this video is pretty mind-blowing, making you wonder how the hell they achieved all of that.

My guess: they used a standard video camera, and simply pulled individual frames out of the sequence, and made a “stop-motion” animation from those selected frames.

The park was a little uneven today. In a few places, birds were all over the place, practically flying right into view. Everywhere else, only crows and bulbuls, and a dearth of bird life. But I’ll take what I can get. And there were a few nice birds today.

Of the birds I did see, I saw a lot. Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers (Kogera • コゲラ) were visible in many areas.

I also spotted two Daurian Redstarts (Joubitaki • ジョウビタキ), or the same one in two different areas. This one is a female (I have yet to spot a gaudy male), but has stronger colors than the two I have spotted in the past. I saw the first bird in a gravestone plot as I rode by, and though it flew off, it paused on a few sticks so that I could get some nice shots. The bottom shot I got later on another street, and could have gotten some great shots as well, except for a common event at Tama Reien–some car or pedestrian with a dog would come by and make noise or movement, as they tend to do just as you’ve spotted a good bird.

In-between birds, I spotted a small cat colony–six cats (only three of which are shown below), resting lazily on a corner. You usually spot cats in birding areas. A few of them were a bit skittish, but one was of the variety that demands you pet it and give it a good, long scratching around the neck and ears. So was the one in the third picture below. As I squatted down to give the kitties a quick pet, this one jumped up on my knee and presented his neck for a good going-over. By holding the camera out at arm’s length, I got a great shot with the little guy’s tongue hanging out–in extreme pleasure, I presume. Kind of looks a little like Bill the Cat, though, doesn’t he?

Ack!

At the end of my stay at the park, just as I was getting ready to pack it in, I happened upon some nice, autumn-colored trees that were just bursting with birds–a few woodpeckers, a ton of tits, and some Japanese White-eyes (Mejiro • メジロ). I started getting some shots while balancing my bike between my legs, and then noticed that the flock actually started migrating to trees just a short distance away from me! Very rare for birds to get closer like that. And so I got some very, very nice shots.

Click on some for a larger view:

That’s all for today. But I hope that in the next two to three months, I’ll have some more nice pictures. December through February is supposed to be one of the best times for birding here, and last year, a broken foot kept me indoors. The year before, I had only started birding in mid-February. So we’ll see about this year.

Partly from a desire for more exercise combined with a need for a good mode of transportation for local birdwatching, I bought a new bike a few days ago, and took it out for the first big spin today. I went birdwatching in Tama Reien (for those who haven’t read this blog and/or don’t know, Tama Reien is a huge cemetery smack in the middle of Tokyo Prefecture, a large, quiet area with lots of small streets and lanes and foliage, great for birdwatching). On the map, Tama Reien looked almost too far for biking, but apparently Tokyo is smaller than it looks like on maps; it took only about 30-40 minutes and was a nice little trip.

I started looking for a bike a week or two ago, and started at the little shop within the large supermarket/home center just down the block from my place (and practically the only real store for a mile in any direction). They had a few bikes that were close to what I wanted. Most of the bikes were too simple–cheap little 1- or 3-speed bikes, not great for this very hilly area–or were too much–expensive 16-speed bikes with narrow seats. A few were mid-priced 6-speed bikes, and one looked especially good: for about $140 it included a kind of lamp that didn’t drag on your front wheel (I hate those things). Instead the engine for the lamp is made of magnets within the front wheel axle, a “no touch” light. Cool.

The problem was, the bike’s frame was low, made that way for people who are short even by Japanese standards. I could fit on it, but only with the seat and handlebar extended fully. But by “trying it on” in the narrow store area for bikes, I found that if I were on the bike and made a turn while my leg in the direction of the turn was at its highest point, the handlebar would collide with my knee and the turn would be limited. So I went to a few other bike shops within biking distance–only to find that no one had anything close to what I wanted, or at nearly the price my local shop had. So on Saturday evening, I went in to reserve it–and it was gone. A new one would take 2 weeks to order, and I wanted to get this out of the way.

After much gnashing of teeth and consideration, I decided to buy the $120 version of the bike with the drag-lamp I really don’t like–and only then noticed that they had put a few bikes out in the aisle that I hadn’t seen before. Usually $190, they were on sale for that day only for $150, and had the features I wanted–6 speeds, the no-touch lamp–and these were regular frames, not to mention they simply looked more well-built (and it had a extra device to lock the front wheel in place). There were three, and a man and his two kids were all over them, with the attitude of “we’re buying these!” Hoping against hope, I asked their intentions, and they said they only wanted two of the three–and the one left over was the one I had been eyeing. So without any further delay, I put the money down and bought the thing.

After midnight, I’ll blog on the birdwatching I got done with the bike today.

Despite the Zune’s slow takeoff, the media hailed it as getting off to a flying start when the player was given the No. 2 slot among MP3 players, coming in second to Apple’s iPod. Of course, you had to read down a bit to see that the Zune took 9% while Apple held the No. 1 spot at 63%. Still, it looked impressive to say it was “No. 2” (no pun intended), and less impressive to say that it was not even in the top 50 or so on Amazon.com’s consumer electronics top seller list.

The thing is, that was in the first week of sales, with all the huge buzz and hype, when it was bound to sell more than a usual amount. Predictably, the Zune’s sales dropped in it’s second week–quite a large amount. It fell from a 9% market share to a 2.1% share, and fell from second to fifth among digital media players.

Currently, on Amazon.com’s consumer electronics best-seller list, the Zune occupies the #73 spot, just beating out a universal remote control by Logitech. Among other items selling better than the Zune: an iPod travel charger (#58), four digital picture frames (#56, 32, 29, & 28), a 5-pack spindle of CD-Rs (#50), an iPod power adapter (#49), two digital turntables (#44 & 36)–and twelve iPods (7 of which are in the top 15).

Oh, it’s only the black Zune which is #73. No other Zune colors made the top 100.

Among MP3 players alone, the Zune came in at #21, with iPods occupying 12 of the top 15. Week #3 should be a blast. It’s only uphill from there…

Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye. –Luke 6:42

You’d think that in Kenya, a country now world-famous as being the cradle of mankind due to the fossils found by Dr. Richard Leakey there, would be proud of that distinction and would overcome quite some obstacles to claim international pride in the fact. Apparently, however, a bunch of fundamentalists have cowed the nation’s museums enough to seriously consider hiding the fossils so as not to upset the people who believe that the Earth is 6000 years old and that evolution is “just one theory.”

Leaders of Kenya’s 6-million-strong Pentecostal church want the fossils “de-emphasized”:

“The Christian community here is very uncomfortable that Leakey and his group want their theories presented as fact,” said Bishop Bonifes Adoyo, head of the largest Pentecostal church in Kenya, the Christ is the Answer Ministries.

“Our doctrine is not that we evolved from apes, and we have grave concerns that the museum wants to enhance the prominence of something presented as fact which is just one theory,” the bishop said.

The criticism that it is a “theory,” of course, is a common creationist fallacy; Evolution is a “theory” just like gravity is a “theory.” The theory is not about whether it exists, the theory is about how it works. Evolution clearly exists, and in that respect, it is not “just one theory,” it is fact. The only thing that can overcome that is a faith in a belief that says you should ignore facts before your eyes in favor of the unsupported belief–which is exactly what these people are asking be done.

Now, even if one is to bend way over backwards and allow them their “theory” argument, consider what they have said: Evolution is “just one theory.” Well, another “theory” is creationism. And that “theory” has vastly less evidence to back it up than Evolution has. So it should be “de-emphasized” more, yes? Even they themselves admit that Evolution goes against their doctrine–not their research, not their evidence, not their proofs, but their doctrines, which are lesser than research, evidence, or proof (unless you have the all-important fact-defying faith).

But then consider the irony: the fossils they are seeking to suppress are evidence to back up Evolution (hence their eagerness to suppress them). First, they dismiss Evolution is “theory,” and say that because of this, evidence to back up that theory should be “de-emphasized.” Imagine you come up to someone in the early morning and say, “Look, the ground as far as we can see is wet, therefore it must have rained last night.” To which the other person says, “That’s just a theory, so we should ignore your evidence for it and only look up at the sky. See, it is clear and sunny now, therefore there was no rain last night. Ha, what a jolly fool you are!”

If the religious folks were to have their own “theories” held up to the same rigorous tests that they castigate science for not passing (even when it does), their “doctrines” would shatter into tiny little pieces. Ergo, my quote about the mote and the beam from Luke. That’s one thing religion is sometimes good for: maxims about principles and common sense. So why is it that the most holier-than-thou bible-thumpers violate these principles more than anyone else?

Thank goodness that the people running the museums have good sense and–

“We have a responsibility to present all our artifacts in the best way that we can so that everyone who sees them can gain a full understanding of their significance,” said Ali Chege, public relations manager for the National Museums of Kenya. “But things can get tricky when you have religious beliefs on one side, and intellectuals, scientists, or researchers on the other, saying the opposite.”

[sound of me smacking my palm against my forehead]

Yes, it is tricky when one side wants to present evidence and the other side wants to suppress it. Whatever are we to do? After all, we are just simple museum folk.

[smack!]

MacRumors is reporting that a usually reliable source says the iPhone will be released in January. As previously reported, it will be “unlocked,” meaning that it is not married to a specific service provider–you can use it with any service you like. Also as reported, the iPhone would double as a portable music device, roughly equivalent to an iPod Nano.

The source, Kevin Rose, did come out with new info, aside from the January release date: the form factor is extremely small, the device will have two batteries (one for the phone, one for the music player), it will be priced at $250 for the 4GB version and $450 for the 8GB version, there will be a slide-out keyboard (not number pad?–it might be a full alphanumeric, but that’s unclear), and it will do some “unique things.” If you listen to the podcast (they start talking about it at 38:30), either Rose is BS’ing all of us and putting on a big act, or he has seen the phone in an inactive state, and has heard quite a bit about it–but is very reluctant to say much for fear of burning his source. He did not mention anything about a built-in camera or possible wireless (Bluetooth again assumed) syncing abilities, though one would assume both are in the phone.

Rose did mention that it might have touch-screen “on the outside,” which sounds like the touch-activated technology reported a short time ago.

I’d almost say that it would be a possibility that the touch-screen video iPod and the iPhone are going to be one and the same, but 4GB doesn’t seem like enough for holding any amount of video–unless the big price break for the 8GB model is because that is the video iPod combo.., but that’s still a bit impractical. A pity, as I want both devices. More likely they are indeed separate, but perhaps they are timed so closely because Apple needed to get the touch-screen technology to work just right…

I would normally rule this as an outlier rumor (coming out with a major gift item right after Christmas?), but MacRumors–a pretty good site for this kind of intel–gives some credence to this guy, who reportedly predicted the iPod Nano initial release perfectly, when no one else was. That’s no guarantee about this guy, but certainly gives one reason to pay attention. Also, Apple did release some pretty big items last January, the Intel iMac and the Macbook Pro–not exactly gift items, but still pretty big stuff nonetheless.

The report also seems a bit more authentic due to the strangeness within: two batteries? And why the huge difference in the price break? One would assume that the higher-end model delivers more than just double the flash memory, that it has most of the “unique things” relative to the cheaper model. Frankly, I don’t know about paying $450 for a cell phone; it’d have to be pretty goddamned spectacular. Will Apple really sell 12-20 million units next year at those prices?

For running Windows on a Mac, Parallels has been a great app, already surpassing Virtual PC beyond the obvious speed capabilities inherent in running Windows on an Intel machine. But now Parallels has gone and outdone itself, having released a new free upgrade, the Beta Build 3036.

The upgrade is chock full of new features, and though there are only a few that are cool to me, they’re big ones. The first is drag-and-drop copying. I never got the hang of the shared folder in that I kept forgetting where it was on my Mac, and had trouble making it the same between different versions of Windows in Parallels (okay, I didn’t try very hard). But I never liked the whole shared-folder idea anyway, whether it was in Parallels or between different users on a Mac. So now that Parallels allows you to simply drag and drop files between the OS’s, I’m a happy camper.

The other improvement I like is the window resizing. One thing Virtual PC always sucked at was getting the size of the window right, especially since I used it on a Mac that connected to a TV; whenever I changed resolutions to match the TV, the Virtual PC window got screwed up. Similarly, with Parallels, to change the actual resolution of the Windows screen, you’d have to effect the change within the Display Properties dialog box, and resizing the window containing the virtual OS would result in a mismatch. But not any more. With Build 3036, you can resize your Windows window to any size you want, and the OS will automatically resize the virtual resolution along with it. Very nifty.

There is one other big change, though not a big one for me: the ability to work with Boot Camp. A bit late for me, as I never installed Boot Camp, so now it would require a complete wipe of my hard drive and reinstalling everything. But if you haven’t done either yet, or better are just about to buy a new Mac, you can now install WIndows in Boot Camp and use Parallels, without worrying about having to install Windows twice. As I said, I won’t use it (yet), but it’s a good option to have.

Among the other changes: redesigned windows/controls, one-click startup via an OS alias (you no longer have to open the interface window and then start Windows), and enhanced networking, graphics and lots of other little stuff. The details are laid out here. There’s also a new feature called “Coherency,” which is supposed to “show Windows applications as if they were Mac ones,” but all I get when I try it is the Windows area going full-screen except for the Mac menu bar, with bad pixelation of the Windows graphics.

Still, for a free upgrade, this version has some big new features.

Update: OK, I see now. What “Coherency” does it to take away the Windows background except for the active app windows and the Task Bar, making the Mac environment appear behind it. If you have the resolution in Parallels set to maximum, then there is no pixelation. Instead, the Task Bar appears at the bottom of the screen, and all active Windows programs appear to be windows open within the Mac OS. However, you cannot hide them with Command-H like other Mac apps; if you do a “hide,” then they all disappear, along with the Task bar. Instead, you would have to minimize them. I guess that though it’s not quite as good as making Windows apps act like Mac apps, it’s probably the next best thing.