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A lot of people I know use Macs. And a lot of people who don’t use Macs want to. The Apple ads are brilliant! No, I don’t think they’re entertaining or funny, but they are effective in converting PC users to Apple fanboys. Looking past the ads and into the hardware, we see a fairly standard machine. The software is what really sets Macs apart–OS X is pretty and easy to use. It is truly amazing that Macs can simultaneously support technogeeks (for example with a powerful command line) and the computer-illiterate. As they say about Macs, “they just work.” So well in fact that even musicians can use them

So why don’t I have a Mac? Because they’re extremely expensive. As I said, the hardware is nothing special, in fact, they now use standard Intel parts! That means the operating system adds an additional $1000 to the computer, and you can’t get the OS without buying a Mac. Until now!

As soons as Mac started using Intel hardware, people started hacking the hardware/software to allow generic machines to run OS X. These PCs-gone-Mac are cleverly titled Hackintosh. Hackintosh machines have come a long way! As more and more people try it out, the product will evolve and improve to where anyone can have their own Mac on the cheap.

I’m not sure what Apple’s strategy is, but I’d like to find out what the real back room talk is. It seems that selling the OS separately is worthwhile, especially when people are already distributing it.

What’s it worth to you? $800 for a hackintosh or $1400+ for a MacBook?

Because college football is big business, it is big news that UT Defensive Coordinator Will Muschamp is next in line for head coach at UT. This is good news because it shows that Texas football will promote high achieving individuals, and Muschamp is a talented spitfire.

I predict that Mack Brown and Colt McCoy will stick around until next year when UT wins the national championship and Colt wins Heisman. Mack will then step down and Muschamp will take over the championship team.

I was thrilled to see this simple but elegant indoor bike rack. It’s made from inexpensive parts but does not look cheap. As a person with less than enough room, an unobtrusive, cheap way to store my bikes is exciting. I am very impressed by the ingenuity. God bless Ikea hackers!

Earlier this year I talked about freeing the airwaves. On election day the FCC unanimously agreed to open the bits of the spectrum between broadcast TV channels to anyone. If you haven’t read about it, more information is available on the Google Blog here.

So why is this such a big deal? Take a look at the Electromagnetic Spectrum. (Aside: Human reality is everything we can touch, smell, taste, see and hear–a minuscule portion of the spectrum. We miss out on a lot of the world’s wonders.) Notice the massive amount of spectrum devoted to radio and TV.

Electromagnetic Spectrum from Wikipedia

Looking at this band in more detail we see a complicated mess.

US Spectrum Allocation (from www.nab.org)

Full version available here as a pdf.

Radio and TV used to be the only devices in this space, but the way we live our lives is changing and the spectrum allocations should too. The FCC has taken a step in the right direction, although I hope we continue to open the spectrum and allow innovation in the whitespaces to flourish.

I had a great weekend that was fun and productive (which is notable because it’s normally one or the other)! Today, I had a few things to post about, but I am absolutely blown away by this drumguitar:

I’m impressed with not only his skills, but the fact that he took time to learn a useless instrument. Hell, the fact that he would make that instrument impresses me that 1) he could make it 2) it would work and 3) that he would make a useless instrument.

Leave it to the Brits to publish facts about the US president-elect! While CNN and Fox were scare-mongering, the Telegraph was collecting these fifty fun facts. Enjoy:

• He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics

• He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball

• His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili

• His favourite meal is wife Michelle’s shrimp linguini

• He won a Grammy in 2006 for the audio version of his memoir, Dreams From My Father

• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed

• He has read every Harry Potter book

• He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad Ali

• He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can’t stand ice cream

• His favourite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars

• He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

• He can speak Spanish

• While on the campaign trail he refused to watch CNN and had sports channels on instead

• His favourite drink is black forest berry iced tea

• He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn’t

• He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia

• He can bench press an impressive 200lbs

• He was known as Barry until university when he asked to be addressed by his full name

• His favourite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

• He visited Wokingham, Berks, in 1996 for the stag party of his half-sister’s fiancé, but left when a stripper arrived

• His desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy

• He and Michelle made $4.2 million (£2.7 million) last year, with much coming from sales of his books

• His favourite films are Casablanca and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck

• He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee.

• His favourite music includes Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Bach and The Fugees

• He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date

• He enjoys playing Scrabble and poker

• He doesn’t drink coffee and rarely drinks alcohol

• He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician

• As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine

• His daughters’ ambitions are to go to Yale before becoming an actress (Malia, 10) and to sing and dance (Sasha, 7)

• He hates the youth trend for trousers which sag beneath the backside

• He repaid his student loan only four years ago after signing his book deal

• His house in Chicago has four fire places

• Daughter Malia’s godmother is Jesse Jackson’s daughter Santita

• He says his worst habit is constantly checking his BlackBerry

• He uses an Apple Mac laptop

• He drives a Ford Escape Hybrid, having ditched his gas-guzzling Chrysler 300

• He wears $1,500 (£952) Hart Schaffner Marx suits

• He owns four identical pairs of black size 11 shoes

• He has his hair cut once a week by his Chicago barber, Zariff, who charges $21 (£13)

• His favourite fictional television programmes are Mash and The Wire

• He was given the code name “Renegade” by his Secret Service handlers

• He was nicknamed “Bar” by his late grandmother

• He plans to install a basketball court in the White House grounds

• His favourite artist is Pablo Picasso

• His speciality as a cook is chilli

• He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were “street urchins”

• He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol of the fragility of life

• His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/article3401168.ece

I’ll admit, I don’t think I knew any of those things. I’m not sure any of them are relevant to anything, but they’re interesting bits of trivia. I like that he won a Grammy, did drugs, and wants to put a basketball court on the White House grounds.

I just have to share this video! It is decently funny, but has some striking features. You know that “America needs the money hole!”

In The Know: Should The Government Stop Dumping Money Into A Giant Hole?

Like I said, kinda funny. But do you recognize the bald white guy? That’s right! He’s from the Sonic commercials!

Real name: Brian Huskey. He was on the Upright Citizens Brigade, a hilarious hit-or-miss sketch comedy show from back in the day.

And while we’re on the subject of Upright Citizen’s Brigade, here’s a clip that I saw 10 years ago and still chuckle about (without Sonic-guy):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feZeOnEzs98

Now you know why I’m so confident!

So that’s the national money hole and all it leads to: National Money Hole -> Brian Huskey -> Pennies

I came across a website that tallies votes on technological ideas that the Obama CTO will hopefully take to heart. I like the voting scheme employed; you’re given 10 votes and you can give up to three votes per idea–kind of like the Condorcet voting method I learned about during this presidential election.

I agreed with the top three choices (net neutrality, repeal the patriot act, and repeal the DMCA), so these received one vote each. I also put one point into restoring DARPA because I’m a fan of futuristic research that may have no commercial impacts for years to come. I put three votes towards more research into energy and rethinking IP law because those are two of my biggest technological pet peeves.

The site has a lot of good ideas, although I would like to see more about security. All the money and technology in the world will be useless if we do not have control of our own machines. America has criminalized hacking rather than studying it; without knowledge of hacking, how can we stop it?

I would also like to see more push for improving technological infrastructure so that America can continue to compete in the future. We know the theory, but other nations are actually implementing these cool ideas.

In your opinion is the site missing any good ideas? Where did you put your 10 votes?

I’ve previously wondered if AIDS and Leukemia would cancel each other out. That may not make sense on the surface, but AIDS attacks C4 T cells, which are lymphocytes, and Leukemia is an unchecked proliferation of leukocytes (white blood cells) which includes lymphocytes. In my uneducated estimation, the excess of white blood cells produced by Leukemia could be enough to counteract the white blood cells killed by AIDS.

Apparently this does not work. An American living in Berlin had AIDS and Leukemia simultaneously. The patient is notable because he has been “cured” of AIDS after receiving a bone marrow transplant. The  article does not mention whether or not Leukemia is cured, but I assume it is. We definitely need to step up research on genes and stem cells!

As a Texan, I know football (American football, not soccer) is serious business. But whenever I say it, I am half joking. I grew up playing football; I went to a high school where athletics were a big deal; and now, my university makes a big deal about football. (UT does have a great football program, although I’d love to see research get some of those mega bucks–but that’s a different story entirely). I say, “I am half joking” because I know how serious football is, but I lament that shows (like Friday Night Lights) depict Texans as hat-wearing, beer-swilling cowboys who live for weekend football. We’re not all like that

And now that I’ve said my piece about football in Texas… here’s the story that inspired the post in the first place: A couple was killed over an argument over last week’s intense football game between LSU and Alabama. Alabama, one of the top teams in the nation, won in overtime. Some taunting between fans led to gunfire and two people dying. Sadly, college football is serious business.