Cool things starting to happen at Flickr now that they have Yahoo! money to burn. They’ve doubled the free account upload amount and doubled the number of photos in the stream. Pro accounts got an extension on their payments (basically doubling their contract lives), and new Pro accounts get more uploads (2 gigs) at half the price.
Very cool. Now if they do video, we can stop hearing about Google Video.
Apparently they elected a Pope today. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, will lead about a billion Catholics… well, we don’t know where. Sounds like he won’t be around long, as he’s 78. The prophecy draws nearer! Many laugh at St. Malachy’s Prophecy (with good reason), but Ratzinger took the name Benedict, a nod to the prophecy. The 2nd to last Pope, according to St. Malachy, was going to be from the Benedictine order (which I can’t confirm of Ratzinger is or isn’t). In a Church where chance doesn’t exist, taking the name Benedict is a fairly significant symbol.
Should be some interesting news, kooky or otherwise, in the next few days.
I don’t know how I feel about this, but Adobe and Macromedia announced that Adobe was buying Macromedia for around 3.4 billion. My gut reaction is that this could be very bad for the design market as these two companies were basically direct competitors. I keep thinking how much I disliked Go Live versus Dreamweaver and shudder at the innovation that wouldn’t have happened in the market if these two companies were fighting for market share.
I hope the new company can maintain its focus on both sets of people that have traditionally been serviced by one or the other company: Adobe was squarely aimed at the design professional where Macromedia had web development in its pocket. There’s always crossover, but given the Photoshop/Fireworks or Go Live/Dreamweaver choice, you could usually predict where the decision would fall.
It will be interesting to see this pan out (if it does).
Ars Technica – Adobe gobbles up Macromedia in pure-stock buy out worth 3.4 Billion Dollars
A quick funny from the world of Fark. After linking to this page, this comment got thrown out.
Snarfangel [TotalFark]
If knowledge is power, I’d say this guy puts out 2-3 watts, max.
Brilliant.
Check out the rest of the thread as it descends into flamewar; it’s usually pretty entertaining to watch one on Fark.
I took the What Age Will You Die quiz after seeing it on J-Walk. The first time I did it, I got this result.
You Will Die at Age 67 |
|
And how you’ll die as well. |
I thought, how can I improve that a little? So I read over my answers and changed “Do you get at least a half hour of exercise, six days a week?” from No to Yes. Seems like a pretty standard, simple to implement lifestyle change; it should up that 67 to at least 70, right? Uhm….
You Will Die at Age 64 |
|
And how you’ll die as well. |
Not exactly. Luckily, if I start practicing yoga or meditating, it counteracts all that harmful exercise and gets me back to 67. Whew. I wonder how many people take this crap at face value? You know what, I don’t want to know the answer to that question.
David, your site doesn’t have a comments link (that I could find) so I’m posting it here. (Re: this post)
I actually agree with many of your points. (I’m not sure about your vested interest, so I’ll defer to Alex.) I think that religion in this country has become watered-down, over-marketed, soulless and boring. The music is the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been to about 3 services in the last 5 years and every time, the sermon given was so bland, uninspiring, and neutral–well, if I hadn’t left the church before, I would have then.
But, I have to pick a bone with your classification of the religious right as being inartisitc and unspiritual. Too many times in these debates, the “religious right” gets trotted out and poked at. Just like the left, though, the right has its shades. I think it’s unfair to lump everyone together and then call them inartisitc and unspiritual. It’s all in the nuance; we just don’t always appreciate the nuance if we don’t know what to look for.
I don’t know if the nutters on the right tipped the vote for Bush. I have a feeling that the nutters on the left tipped enough of the fence-sitters to spread the blame around. Calling undecided voters idiots and raving about the obviousness of voting Kerry probably didn’t sit well with many who wanted to vote against Bush, but not for a side that runs around insulting people as a recruitment technique.
My two cents.
We’re back and I’ve posted some photos of Grand Haven. We walked the pier on Saturday night. The weather was perfect, the people were out, the boats were out–it really make me homesick.
Anyway, photos this-a-way.
This is really all we need to know:
* Hardcover: 1440 pages
* Released: October 5, 2005
[Via Drawn!]
I swear I’ll stop talking politics (I’m not really good at it), but apparently I may be a South Park Conservative. The article’s a little light in the details, but the phrase seems right.
Ok, now I’m out of here… come to CH. Beer == Good.
After the rant yesterday it seems odd, but I’m heading to Grand Rapids for the weekend. I have no clue if the POS hotel that Priceline put us in has wireless (I have serious doubts), so posting might be non-existant.
But, if all goes well, we will get to have the most wonderful food to ever grace this planet, Fricano’s Pizza.
We’ll also be at Cambridge House tonight (after 5). Anyone lurking from GR, meet us there (Sandy will also be coming).