Kim Jong-il no-show

Well, what do you know. The Dear Leader was a no-show during the 60 years of DPRK celebrations. Interesting.
(see also IHT)

According to the North Korean ambassador in Japan are the reports that Kim Jong-il is ill false. Okay, so he decided he just didn't feel like coming to the celebrations? Right, that makes sense.

Apple stuff

Well, rumors were right, iTunes 8 is (almost) available. With the smart filter tools called "Genius".
that means I can ditch The Filter finally. That one didn't work really well.


New Nano. Cool, accelerometer usage. Shake to shuffle/go to next song .. hangon, that's nothing new, Sony has done that before in one of their Walkman phones. Oh well. More storage (8 and 16 Gig) and available in lots of colors too.
Environmentally friendly, most components fully recyclable.. Nice.
New headset as well. No idea if that is included in the Nano package, but it sounds like a good one for the iPhone too. Features song control (play, pause, skip), a mic but also volume control.. which is lacking on the iPhone headset. At least *I* haven't found it :-) .. and some higher-end in-ear buds.. hmm.. not suitable for me, since I use my iPhone on my scooter, and I need to hear at least some surrounding noises :-)

EDIT: F*ck, the new earphone controles are NOT supported on any model except the new iPods. So I guess we're stuck without volume control..
earphones
New iPod Touch as well. Includes the receiver (and software) for Nike+, Genius playlists (duh) and has improved UI. Cool stuff. Finally it doesn't look like a crippled iPhone anymore (hmm, except for the now embedded speakers and volume buttons.. heh).

iPhone 2.1 firmware available Friday... Lots of bugs fixed, better reception, better battery life.. Let's see if it also solves my annoying GPS problem, otherwise I have to return the iPhone..

Big YAWN at the event though.

MTV VMA winners

(source: http://www.pajiba.com/mtv-vma-winners.htm 

Okaaaay:
Video of the year: Britney Spears, "Piece of Me."
Female video: Britney Spears, "Piece of Me."
Pop video: Britney Spears, "Piece of Me."

Still sounds as shitty as al her other songs. Oh, and she's fat too.

And she also opened the show:

Male video: Chris Brown, "With You."

Never heard of Chris Brown.. But alas, it's current R&B so by definition
it's shit.

Rock video: Linkin Park, "Shadow of the Day."

Hmm.. It's ok-ish I guess, although I've never been a fan of
over-produced bands like Linkin Park

Hip-hop video: Lil Wayne, "Lollipop."

Ah.. Another one of those Hip-Hop geeks trying to be cool. Yo momma
bitchin' bling bling pimp hoes.

Dancing in a video: The Pussycat Dolls, "When I Grow Up."

Well, they ARE hot girls with hot moves. But everything is around Nicole
Scherzinger. Who's ugly as hell in real life by the way. Makeup and
Photoshop can do wonders. Still, bootylicious video, but mute it, since
the music is annoying as hell.

New artist: Tokio Hotel

Hmm, what should I say about Tokio Hotel. My kids (one is 4, the other
is 6) are convinced Tokio Hotel members are girls. I guess TH are just
stuck in 80s fashion drama.. Will we hear from them in let's say 5 years
time? Nope, not a word. Oh, hangon.. Somehow they remind me of Milli
Vanilli... Fake.

Good thing that MTV and VMA are not about real good music but marketing pushed artists.. sigh

I really would like a Walkman..

Remember the Sony Walkman cassette players?

 
Yeah, those. Remember how cool and good they were? And then came the Discmans.. Which were crap. A very brief period of MiniDisc walkmans after that. And now we have mp3 players. Or should we just call them "iPods"? Since the majority of the players is an iPod anyway. Where has Sony gone? I mean, the Sony Walkman mp3 players are pretty cool looking. And I bet the sound quality is superb (possibly better than the iPod). Aha, but the only (official) way to put music on the Walkmans is using Sony's own software. Uh, hangon, Apple uses iTunes as well, which is the only official way to put music on an iPod. Ah, but Sony has left out Mac support. Their software only works on Windows.. But the majority of users still run Windows!? Yeah, but did you know you can only copy music to/from your Walkman if you're authorized by your local Connect Store? If you're not authorized, you can only use one computer-walkman combination. Hmm, sounds like that approach is crap. Not that iTunes is that much better, but at least I can use any iPod on any computer (including Macs!) and copy stuff over to it.
 
I guess the true Walkman times will never return.

Kim Jong-il supposedly collapsed

This is according to a South Korean official in Beijing. Source.  

Analysts wonder if the Dear Leader (66 years old) will be able to appear at his state's festivities (60 years of DPRK) today. Well, I'm afraid no-one will ever know, since it is a well-known fact that Kim Jong-il has been using look-a-likes on many occasions. Maybe the recordings can be analysed to check against a reference length and face structure. My bet: Kim Jong-il will show up, but it probably isn't the real one.

On a different note, the Guardian has a preview of an interview with James Dresnok, he's an ex-GI who defected to North Korea almost 50 years ago. (Source)

I'm sceptic on this quote:
"The Dear Leader takes care of me. Great man. Did you know hospitalisation is free in the DPRK?" Yes, hospitalisation is free in the DPRK, but that really is about it. It may be free, but if there's no decent equipment or medication it's not really of any use, right?

A good channel on youtube is: http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish - usually a bit more objective than the CNNs of this world. The above interview with Dresnok will also become available on this youtube channel.