They give people on death row one last request, so I wonder why they don’t request to live.

Might just be me, but it seems like the smart way to go.

Apple had a press conferance this morning, introducing some new products. Being the Apple slut that I am, I was checking MacRumors.com’s live feed constantly, so that I wouldn’t have to wait to find out what new products I’ll be shelling out money for as soon as I have it.

MacCentral: Predictably, the new Mac minis also feature iLife 06, Apple’s recently refreshed suite of applications that includes iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, GarageBand and iWeb. Also standard is Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger,” a remote control, Front Row, AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth, four USB 2.0 interfaces, FireWire 400, GigaBit Ethernet, DVI video out, and Dolby Digital 5.1 and analog audio in and out.

The entry-level Mac mini system, available starting today, is a 1.5GHz Core Solo system with 667MHz bus, 512MB RAM, 60GB SATA hard drive and “Combo” DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive for $599 — $100 more than the previous base model.

The 1.67GHz Core Duo-based model features an 80GB SATA internal hard disk and 8x “SuperDrive” that can burn DVDs as well as CD-Rs, for $799.

Yeah, so, I want one. I will probably sell my current Mini (which, might I add, is a fantastic machine), mainly for the Media Center capabilites of this guy. It will also use Bonjour, Apple’s zero-configuration networking, to allow the Mini to get media files from any iTunes-using computer (Mac or PC) to play on your television without hassle.

Also announced about 60 seconds ago, the iPod Hi-Fi boombox from Apple.

iLounge: Pull black grille off of white box to reveal three speaker drivers. Integrated power supply - no brick.
Power it off of six D-size batteries if you want. “Several hours outside.” Two 80mm mid-range drivers in sealed acoustic suspension. In center is 130mm dual voice coil woofer, ported bass reflex design. Great bass, doesn’t distort when cranked up. Universal Dock connector and integrated handles.

This puppy goes for $349. An ugly puppy, but a puppy none the less. I don’t see the appeal of it, especially since lugging anything around with with six D-Batteries in it is a pain. And I dont see the whole “dock on the top” thing helping with the portability issue, either.

Also announced? $99 leather cases for your iPod. Whoop-de-friggen’-do. You have to take it out of the case to get to the controls, and you can’t see the screen, so what’s the point?

I tend to think that these are just stepping stones for Apple, leading to the bigger announcements sure to come on April 1st, the 30th anniversary of the company.
Both the Mini and Hi-Fi are on sale as of today at Apple’s Online Store. I’m sure the cases are, too, I just don’t care enough to check.

Apparently, Bill O’Reilly has started a petition on his website to have Phil Donahue put back on MSNBC to replace Keith Olbermann’s show, which constantly points out what sort of nonsense O’Reilly says.

You can check out the video of Olbermann’s response to that petition here.

One thing to be said of the New York Comic-Con (NYCC from here out)? It proved that there still is heavy interest in the medium. It is also a perfect illustration of how not to do a show.

I went with Tom and his girlfriend, Jess, to the show yesterday, and, from the start, you could tell it was going to be huge. The line to buy tickets at the door went around the Javit’s Center, eventually ending somewhere outside the building by 11:30; I had scored my ticket early (thanks to my friends buying an extra ticket and offering it to me), but Tom and Jess had to still buy their admission in.

The line moved fast enough, I suppose, given the volume of people who were waiting there. People tried to cut their way in line, but the friendly Con Staff did all they could to maintain order. Problem was, once you bought the ticket, the “friendly” Con Staff seemed to dissapear, and the “bastardly” Con Staff took their place, yelling at people and shuffling them around like cattle, treating people with a general lack of respect that you would never see at a Wizard Con. And, trust me, Wizard Cons can get kinda harsh.

After waiting an hour to get on the convention floor, we Two Nerds (And One Uninterested-Yet-Supportive Girlfriend) got into the cramped, crowded convention hall. Quickly finding a spot for Jess to sit (and guard Tom’s longbox of comics, since he woke up too late to go through his comics to find what he wanted to bring and leave the rest at home), Tom and I ran to the DC Comics: Crisis Couciling 52-Pickup panel. The panel itself was entertaining, and full of short, cryptic answers to what was to happen in the DC Universe over the coming year, which is what we all expected. After it was over, Tom and I ran back to the hall, and went to go switch spots with Jess, so that she could go to the bathroom.

Which, might I add, was the biggest mistake ever, and also quite revealing of the lack of planning that the organizers of the con seemed to have in regards to the event.

According to Newsarama.com, Reeds Exhibitions, the Morons Behind The Magic, expected to have 200,000 people show up over the weekend, a good crowd for a comic-con. Problem was, thanks to a lot of media coverage (by both industry magazines and outside sources), 200,000 people showed up for Saturday, with a convention hall that was only allowed to have an occupancy of 100,000 people.

Interestingly enough, this also happened at WonderCon in San Diego. However, they were monitoring the situation for only an hour, and had an effective plan to keep things moving within 15 minutes of the Fire Marshall notifying the event organizers of the situation. And I’m certain that the security at the WonderCon was far more helpful than the idiots at NYCC, since those doofuses not only refused to explain what the situation was surrounding why we were standing outside the convention floor for hours waiting to get in, but were being general jackasses about the whole thing, yelling and screaming like they were dealing with a bunch of drooling morons. I personally found the whole experience rather insulting, since I am not a drooling moron. I can be an oversalivating idiot, sure, but never a drooling moron.

Cutting this story far shorter than it was originally, Tom and I had discovered that Geoff Johns, one of the masterminds behind all the great stuff that DC is putting out now, who had been announced to be signing at 7:30, the reason we were so anxious to come, had disappeared. While Jess and I were on line, Geoff had been signing at the DC Booth, and quickly vanished after that.

We were angry. We were furious. We were ready to kick the next person we saw dressed as a Storm Trooper in the face. For six hours, we sat around, being screwed over left and right by the situations caused by the Darwin Award Candidates that created this fiasco, and we were ready to leave.

I, however, said to Tom that, since it was happening while we were ranting about the injustice of fate, and her cruel taunting, we should go to the Brad Meltzer spotlight and see if maybe, just maybe, he’d be willing to just sign a book before he went into his advanced-ticket-only signing.

We got there, and approached the author of “Green Arrow” and “Identity Crisis” (along with novels and other things that have nothing to do with spandex), asking… no, pleading… that he just give Tom a quick signature on his hardcover copy of “Identity Crisis.”

Which he gladly did, after making fun of Tom for calling him “Mr. Meltzer,” (”It’s Brad, dammit… stop making me feel old!”), and then Brad asked if we had anything else we had for him to sign. After telling him we did, but that we were unable to get tickets to his signing, he said to go get the stuff and come back, since he’d sit there until everything that people wanted signed was signed, ticket or no.

After spending a day at a convention where other artists we liked refused to sign books, instead sat there waiting for people to pay $75 for a drawing, where greed seemed to be the order of the day, a guy who could have just as easily told Tom and me to screw off damn near insisted that we come back to have him sign our stuff. He didn’t have to do it, but he did, because he understood what so many so-called “professionals” in this industry have forgotten: without fans coming every Wednesday to buy their stuff, they’d be without jobs. That some of us spend up to $150 a week paying for their books already, that we traveled from various locations to see them, and that, as cliched as it sounds, they owe us. Without us, they wouldn’t get the chance to write or draw the characters they grew up loving, and insisting that you won’t sign a few books because you make more money charging for pictures is an insult.

Tom and I went back to the room where Meltzer was signing (having to schmooze the guard at the door to get back in), and got our books signed. While waiting on line, a few of us started discussing the whole Geoff “Houdini” Johns situation, and Meltzer overheard it. He instructed us to go to the Spike TV/Comedy Central panel down the hall after we got our stuff signed, because Johns was there. And, through the magic that is Spike TV, he would be doing a signing, in a room to be announced during the panel.

Tom and I, after thanking Brad and getting our stuff signed, ran back to the convention hall, now much less crowded, and shot over to where we left Jess. Informing her that she would have to sit there for a few more minutes while we hoped for a miracle to happen, we ran back out of the room, dodging people, trying not to knock anyone over on our way to see the fellow called “The Nicest Man In Comics.”

And we got there, without casualty, catching the very end of the panel that Johns was at. He announced where he was signing, and we joined the line already forming outside the room. Of course, everyone’s favorite egomaniac, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, was still using the room that Johns was supposed to occupy, so we were delayed about 15 minutes before the signing actually started.

It is my opinion that, had McFarlane not taken the extra time that he did, Tom and I would have been out of the signing with plenty of time to get back to the convention hall, where Jess was sitting, waiting for us, before the damn thing closed. So, I blame the Toddster for any and all arguments that stemmed from how late we were at the convention on him.

All in all, the last two hours of the convention made the previous six crappy ones worthwhile, but, still, I’m not sure that I’ll be going back to this next year. Unless Brandon gets me a press pass, which would mean I get in free, which I’d totally be down for.

According to the Associated Press (and discovered by me through 7online.com), Donald Trump and Martha Stewart are apparently having a bit of a tiff over the fact that “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart” got canned after one season.

Trump called Stewart’s show crappy, and that her daytime TV show sucks like woah, while Martha responded with a “Shut yo mouth!” She also can’t believe that her “good friend Donald Trump” could say such mean things about her.

This looks like a job for Doctor Phil!

Peter David on a wiretap he’d like to see

Quality stuff.

OK, for starters, I have no proof that Steve Jobs crapped himself. But MacRumors.com is reporting on the whole trojan part of the headline. You can read the actual news there, while I continue to giggle about saying “craps” in the title.

Heh.

I was supposed to go away this weekend to go camping. Yes, I know, camping in the winter; I’m one crazy guy.

Problem is, yesterday, as I was walking down the stairs at school, I slipped on a puddle, which threw me off balance. To keep myself from falling down the stairs, which woulda sucked, I quickly planted my leg under me, except that my foot was twisted in some weird position, and i landed square on it. After a sick, gurgling “pop,” I grabbed my ankle and screamed.

A lot.

Looks like I either twisted or sprained my ankle, since walking on it hurts just slightly less than the heartbreak of psoriasis. So, it may turn out that I’m not going away… but that I can’t do much of anything else, either.

Gah.

Thriller is way too cool to even begin to describe.  I’ve listened to it 40 times today, and it gets better every time.

…the real version of Tainted Love is nothing like any cover I’ve heard of it.

Thought I’d share.