Chris Ullrich @ micro dot blog

Recently, I went to a party that was a showcase for emerging commercial directors. Mostly, I went to support my friend Anthony who is an emerging commercial director. What does it mean to be an emerging commercial director you may ask? It means that you have the mad skills but nobody has discovered that yet. At least nobody who will pay you to direct commercials.

So what do emerging commercial directors do to become fully emerged commercial directors? They make spec spots. And lots of them. If you don’t know, a spec spot is a commercial that you, the emerging commercial director, pay for yourself. Using Anthony as an example, he has made several spec spots (with the producing help of your humble writer) and they are proudly displayed at his website, which is here.

Go take a look. They look and sound like real commercials that you can see on your TV every day (unless you are like me and have Tivo and fast-forward through them). The point is that some Ad agency flack might see one of these spec spots and decide that you might have the chops to make real commercials. It’s basically a really expensive job interview that you pay for yourself. That’s why I love showbiz.

On another note, almost done with all the work at Heal the Bay. I think it went pretty well and everyone seems to be happy with the new stuff. So, kudos to me and my guys for making it work. And a special thanks to Peter T. for being a great guy to work with. If he wasn’t so cool, the job would have been much harder.

Oh, I forgot to mention the group that sponsored the emerging commercial director’s coming out party. It a group of people called Group 101 Films that spun off a group called Group 101 Spots (see, it all comes back to spots).

Anyway, you’ll understand better if you just go to the websites. Other than that, gotta go. Mexican food time.

Later.

Just wanted to point this out for all of my male readers. From the latest issue of Maxim. Take a look.

Ok, we now return you to your Saturday. Have fun with the wife and kids.

Later.

Just to tone it down a little from all the political stuff of late let’s talk about my weekend for a minute. I had a tough weekend with some work stuff but finally was able to get it back on track. Thank you Aaron in Florida for all the good advice. It worked.

One thing to keep in mind as you go about your life: try to avoid using Windows products as much as possible unless you are prepared to deal with the very real possibility of gigantic failure. When it works it works fine. Much like Mac OSX or Linux or whatever. But when it decides to take a dump, it really takes a dump.

Anyone who has ever worked with Windows NT and Exchange 5.5 I’m sure can sympathize. It was a major pain in the ass to get things back on track over the weekend. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday working on it. The funny thing is I know how to do it and have done it before on several occasions. This time, for some reason known only to the computer gods, it just would not work as advertised.

That is one of the things that is most fun about working with computers and tech in general. The chaos factor. Sometimes things just don’t want to work no matter what you try. It’s like they have a mind of their own and that mind is dead set against you. It’s weird and their isn’t much logic to it at all. Even though their should be given that you are dealing with a machine. It’s just ones and zeroes at the core after all.

I used to think it was just a mystery. Some random element perhaps. Now I actually think it serves a purpose. It keeps techs and consultants (like me) in business. It’s like cars. Even the best made cars and the most expensive cars need to be fixed and need new parts. The car companies make more money from parts and service than they make from selling cars. So, what’s their motivation to make better cars? None at all.

Not really a mystery at all it turns out. Just business.

Later.

CNN.com has this little gem. I know this is long kids but it makes for some interesting reading:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In a highly critical report issued Friday, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee found that the CIA’s prewar estimates of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were overstated and unsupported by intelligence.

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, told reporters that intelligence used to support the invasion of Iraq was based on assessments that were “unreasonable and largely unsupported by the available intelligence.” The committee’s conclusions are contained in a 511-page report released Friday.

“Before the war, the U.S. intelligence community told the president as well as the Congress and the public that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and if left unchecked would probably have a nuclear weapon during this decade,” Roberts said. “Today we know these assessments were wrong."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the leading Democrat on the 18-member panel, said that “bad information” was used to bolster the case for war. “We in Congress would not have authorized that war with 75 votes if we knew what we know now,” the West Virginia Democrat said.

“Leading up to September 11, our government didn’t connect the dots. In Iraq, we are even more culpable because the dots themselves never existed.” Roberts listed several points emphasized in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that were “overstated or “not supported by the raw intelligence reporting."

Among these were that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, had chemical and biological weapons, and was developing an unmanned aerial vehicle, probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents. He also said the intelligence community failed to “accurately or adequately explain the uncertainties behind the judgments in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate to policymakers."

Rockefeller said that the “intelligence failures” will haunt America’s national security “for generations to come.” “Our credibility is diminished. Our standing in the world has never been lower,” he said. “We have fostered a deep hatred of Americans in the Muslim world, and that will grow. As a direct consequence, our nation is more vulnerable today than ever before."

The top-ranking members of the Senate committee offered different interpretations on political pressures on the intelligence community. “The committee found no evidence that the intelligence community’s mischaracterization or exaggeration of intelligence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities was the result of politics or pressure,” Roberts said.

But although he approved the report, Rockefeller said it fails to explain fully the pressures on the intelligence community “when the most senior officials in the Bush administration had already forcefully and repeatedly stated their conclusions publicly."

“It was clear to all of us in this room who were watching that – and to many others – that they had made up their mind that they were going to go to war,” he said. Critics of the war had expressed concerned about visits to the CIA by Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials, but the report said it found no evidence that policymakers asked inappropriate questions of analysts or tried to pressure them into changing their views.

Some GOP lawmakers on the panel successfully blocked Democratic efforts to finish the second part of the report – how the Bush administration used the information from the intelligence community – until after the November elections. Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, said she hoped a similar investigation from the House of Representatives would address some of those issues, adding she was frustrated in her attempts to get the investigation off the ground. “There has not been the cooperation that there apparently has been on the Senate side,” said Harman, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

She said she had written to committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Florida, four times. “And just today we were able to sit down together,” Harman said. Goss, a former CIA agent, has been mentioned as a possible replacement for outgoing CIA Director George Tenet, who was blasted in the Senate report. Tenet has resigned and leaves office Sunday. “I would hope we could address [the issues] factually and on a bipartisan basis, but at the moment I don’t have a lot of confidence in it,” Harman said. Rockefeller said the administration’s position was that Iraq stockpiled weapons and actively pursued a nuclear weapons program and that it “might use its alliances with terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda, to use these weapons to strike at the United States.” Rockefeller said that “no evidence existed of Iraq’s complicity or assistance in al Qaeda’s terrorist attacks, including 9/11."

The report said that intelligence analysts were “accurate and not affected by a lack of relevant source or operational detail” in making a connection between Iraq and terrorism – although it did say that contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in the 1990s “did not add up to an established formal relationship."

Roberts said President Bush and Congress sent the country to war based on “flawed” information provided by the intelligence community. He said the panel concluded that the intelligence community suffered “from what we call a collective group think, which led analysts and collectors and managers to presume that Iraq had active and growing WMD programs."

Roberts said this “group think caused the community to interpret ambiguous evidence, such as the procurement of dual-use technology, as conclusive evidence of the existence of WMD programs.” The report criticized the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency’s Defense Human Intelligence Service for their handling of an informer code-named “Curveball,” noting that the latter “demonstrated serious lapses in handling such an important source."

Over and over, the report noted, analysts had exaggerated what they knew and left out, glossed over or simply dismissed dissenting views. The report said that the intelligence community eliminated caveats about assessments when it compiled a document hurriedly released to the public in October 2002, thus misrepresenting “their judgments to the public which did not have access to the classified National Intelligence Estimate containing the more carefully worded assessments."

The National Intelligence Estimate was used to persuade Congress to authorize war, but administration officials for weeks already had been putting out the kind of information found in it. Regarding Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations – in which he presented the U.S. case for war – the report said that much of the information from the CIA “was overstated, misleading or incorrect."

Roberts said the most troubling finding was the lack of human intelligence in Iraq. “Most alarmingly, after 1998 and the exit of the U.N. inspectors, the CIA had no human intelligence sources inside Iraq who were collecting against the WMD target,” Roberts said.

Intelligence. I love that word. If only our current leaders had any. One more reason to go the other way. I realize that there are a lot of Democrats that worked on this report and its an election year but we never found any WMD’s in Iraq and this goes a long way to explain why we didn’t. Because they were not there.

That “whoosh” sound you hear President Bush is your career going down the toilet. Enjoy your last few months as President while they last.

Later.

CNN.com has this little gem. I know this is long kids but it makes for some interesting reading:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – In a highly critical report issued Friday, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee found that the CIA’s prewar estimates of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were overstated and unsupported by intelligence.

Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, told reporters that intelligence used to support the invasion of Iraq was based on assessments that were “unreasonable and largely unsupported by the available intelligence.” The committee’s conclusions are contained in a 511-page report released Friday.

“Before the war, the U.S. intelligence community told the president as well as the Congress and the public that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and if left unchecked would probably have a nuclear weapon during this decade,” Roberts said. “Today we know these assessments were wrong."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the leading Democrat on the 18-member panel, said that “bad information” was used to bolster the case for war. “We in Congress would not have authorized that war with 75 votes if we knew what we know now,” the West Virginia Democrat said.

“Leading up to September 11, our government didn’t connect the dots. In Iraq, we are even more culpable because the dots themselves never existed.” Roberts listed several points emphasized in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that were “overstated or “not supported by the raw intelligence reporting."

Among these were that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, had chemical and biological weapons, and was developing an unmanned aerial vehicle, probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents. He also said the intelligence community failed to “accurately or adequately explain the uncertainties behind the judgments in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate to policymakers."

Rockefeller said that the “intelligence failures” will haunt America’s national security “for generations to come.” “Our credibility is diminished. Our standing in the world has never been lower,” he said. “We have fostered a deep hatred of Americans in the Muslim world, and that will grow. As a direct consequence, our nation is more vulnerable today than ever before."

The top-ranking members of the Senate committee offered different interpretations on political pressures on the intelligence community. “The committee found no evidence that the intelligence community’s mischaracterization or exaggeration of intelligence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities was the result of politics or pressure,” Roberts said.

But although he approved the report, Rockefeller said it fails to explain fully the pressures on the intelligence community “when the most senior officials in the Bush administration had already forcefully and repeatedly stated their conclusions publicly."

“It was clear to all of us in this room who were watching that – and to many others – that they had made up their mind that they were going to go to war,” he said. Critics of the war had expressed concerned about visits to the CIA by Vice President Dick Cheney and other officials, but the report said it found no evidence that policymakers asked inappropriate questions of analysts or tried to pressure them into changing their views.

Some GOP lawmakers on the panel successfully blocked Democratic efforts to finish the second part of the report – how the Bush administration used the information from the intelligence community – until after the November elections. Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, said she hoped a similar investigation from the House of Representatives would address some of those issues, adding she was frustrated in her attempts to get the investigation off the ground. “There has not been the cooperation that there apparently has been on the Senate side,” said Harman, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

She said she had written to committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Florida, four times. “And just today we were able to sit down together,” Harman said. Goss, a former CIA agent, has been mentioned as a possible replacement for outgoing CIA Director George Tenet, who was blasted in the Senate report. Tenet has resigned and leaves office Sunday. “I would hope we could address [the issues] factually and on a bipartisan basis, but at the moment I don’t have a lot of confidence in it,” Harman said. Rockefeller said the administration’s position was that Iraq stockpiled weapons and actively pursued a nuclear weapons program and that it “might use its alliances with terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda, to use these weapons to strike at the United States.” Rockefeller said that “no evidence existed of Iraq’s complicity or assistance in al Qaeda’s terrorist attacks, including 9/11."

The report said that intelligence analysts were “accurate and not affected by a lack of relevant source or operational detail” in making a connection between Iraq and terrorism – although it did say that contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in the 1990s “did not add up to an established formal relationship."

Roberts said President Bush and Congress sent the country to war based on “flawed” information provided by the intelligence community. He said the panel concluded that the intelligence community suffered “from what we call a collective group think, which led analysts and collectors and managers to presume that Iraq had active and growing WMD programs."

Roberts said this “group think caused the community to interpret ambiguous evidence, such as the procurement of dual-use technology, as conclusive evidence of the existence of WMD programs.” The report criticized the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency’s Defense Human Intelligence Service for their handling of an informer code-named “Curveball,” noting that the latter “demonstrated serious lapses in handling such an important source."

Over and over, the report noted, analysts had exaggerated what they knew and left out, glossed over or simply dismissed dissenting views. The report said that the intelligence community eliminated caveats about assessments when it compiled a document hurriedly released to the public in October 2002, thus misrepresenting “their judgments to the public which did not have access to the classified National Intelligence Estimate containing the more carefully worded assessments."

The National Intelligence Estimate was used to persuade Congress to authorize war, but administration officials for weeks already had been putting out the kind of information found in it. Regarding Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 2003 speech to the United Nations – in which he presented the U.S. case for war – the report said that much of the information from the CIA “was overstated, misleading or incorrect."

Roberts said the most troubling finding was the lack of human intelligence in Iraq. “Most alarmingly, after 1998 and the exit of the U.N. inspectors, the CIA had no human intelligence sources inside Iraq who were collecting against the WMD target,” Roberts said.

Intelligence. I love that word. If only our current leaders had any. One more reason to go the other way. I realize that there are a lot of Democrats that worked on this report and its an election year but we never found any WMD’s in Iraq and this goes a long way to explain why we didn’t. Because they were not there.

That “whoosh” sound you hear President Bush is your career going down the toilet. Enjoy your last few months as President while they last.

Later.

I always forget something. Getting old is great. What’s next, diapers? Anyway, I just wanted to comment on more of the Bush campaign’s great strategery. John Stewart also did some funny bits on this during the recent “Daily Show”. Not watching “The Daily Show”? You should be, its funny.

Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge announced that Al Queda is planning a major terrorist attack to disrupt the coming elections. This announcement actually included no real information as to the type of attack or the timing of an atttack. Actually, Mr. Ridge basically had no information whatsoever but did say that they were working very hard, gathering intelligence to stop the coming threat. All under the guidance of President Bush. Now i feel much safer.

Call me jaded or paranoid but I can’t help feeling that this announcement had pretty coincidental timing given that on the same day John Kerry and John Edwards made their first public appearance together as running mates. All that the Homeland security announcement was meant to do was to divert our attention from Kerry and focus it on our eminent death. Way to go Tom Ridge.

Are people actually going to fall for this kind of stuff? I hope not. Fear is one of the ways people in charge stay in charge. If you are afraid and thinking about your own safety, you are less likely to think about the crappy job they are doing and the fact that you are only afraid now because the people in charge didn’t do their job in the first place.

Let’s go into this thing with our eyes open at least, shall we? As I am so jaded I will say that I don’t expect the Democratic side to be free of mud-slinging and negativity. It’s just the nature of the system. I do hope they do it with a tad more finesse though. . . Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

Later.

According to an IDC survey, 36% of all software installed worldwide last year was pirated. The number is only 27% in the US. The biggest offender: Eastern Europe. That doesn’t seem right about the U.S. as at least 50% of the people I know pirate software. My sample isn’t very scientific though.

The Los Angeles city council is cracking down on Internet cafés in the wake of several shootings in the San Fernando Valley. The new regulations require cafes with at least five computers to eliminate closed booths, install security cameras and bar minors during school hours to prevent truancy. This actually took place in Northridge. Rival gangs got into it over a spirited game of “Counterstrike”.

I don’t know about you but when some 12 year-old kicks my ass during an online game of “Pandora Tomorrow” or “Medal of Honor' I get pretty angry too. Although, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t go so far as to actually kill someone. At least I would like to think so.

Google is cracking down on Gmail profiteers. The license agreement was modified last week saying users cannot “sell, trade, resell, or otherwise exploit for any unauthorized commercial purpose or transfer any Gmail account.” That’s too bad because I was going to make a few bucks selling all the extra GMail invites I’ve gotten. Oh well, I can still work on my cure for Cancer.

Lastly, Yahoo announced its fifth straight wildly profitable quarter yesterday, but the stock went down because the company didn’t exceed analysts expectations. The Internet company showed a profit of $112.5 million on $832.3 million in revenue, twice the profits from this time last year. Now if they would only give out 1GB of free mail space with their mail accounts. Then, they would really be cool.

Later.

Small entry today. Just enough to get your attention and give you some clue where my political thoughts lean these days. Hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

Later.

Everyone, listen up and repeat after me “John Kerry and John Edwards, John Kerry and John Edwards, John Kerry and John Edwards, John Kerry and John Edwards . . .” Am I getting through to you?

Ok, now go out and tell everyone you know to get off their asses come this November and vote for . . .wait for it . . . you guessed it: John Kerry and John Edwards. You may have heard that John Kerry picked a running mate. Yes, its John Edwards. Yes, I’m happy about it. And yes, for the first time in several years I feel optimistic about this country’s future.

For more info on John Kerry or John Edwards, click away. You may even want to give them a buck or two. They probably don’t need it as they are both very wealthy with the largest amount of campaign funds in many years. But hey, its the thought that counts.

That’s pretty much all I have to say at this moment except that it didn’t surprise me in the least (or anyone else I suspect) that the Bush campaign instantly attacked John Edwards. I love the fact that they go instantly to the negative. They must have had adds ready for each potential Kerry pick. I bet they thought they were being cleaver or practicing good campaign strategery (as Mr. Bush is fond of saying).

To me, they just look desperate. Desperate and lashing out. I hope that people see through their bullshit and send them packing. Like I said, today I feel optimistic. I feel like things are going to get better. I expect to feel this way for at least a day or maybe two. Then, things will most likely go back in the crapper.

It will be fun while it lasts.

Later.

So, I’m using the new version of OSX, code named “Tiger”. Now, as I am an Apple developer and card-carrying member of the Apple Consultants Network (we don’t really have cards it just sounds cool) I will not be able to say much about it as I am probably not supposed to. Actually, i think I signed an NDA somewhere along the line but I can’t recall when.

Anyway, I will say that there are some very interesting features which were discussed at the latest developer event that now that I have a chance to use them, have proved interesting but not, sorry to say, overwhelming.

Maybe in future revisions there will be more in the way of the proverbial “bells and whistles”. Right now, there are a few and a few more with potential. So, will “Tiger” live up to the hype and more importantly, be worth another $129.00 to upgrade? Good question. I don’t have a firm answer on that one yet.

If I had to answer right now, gun to my head, I would say probably not, for the “average user”. As Panther has developed and been updated it has proven to be very good and stable to work with. It also has many more features than the “average user” will probably need. Right now, I don’t know that “Tiger” will provide anything more substantial to warrant the upgrade. Unless you have a G5 or are planning on getting one by the time “Tiger” is shipped.

If you are, the speed increase from a more finely-tuned OS optimized for the G5 will be something that many people want. For me, I will get the software from Apple and so will be upgrading. However, I won’t have to fork over the dough for it so it is easier for me to want to upgrade. Time will tell for the rest of Apple’s user base.

Anyway, just wanted to say that I was having fun trying out “Tiger”. More on this new breed of cat as I am able. Until then.

Later.

Ok, I know I said this before but I have been thinking about it a lot this 4th of July weekend. If you care about this country at all, you should take your friends and family to see “Spider Man 2”. . . . Ok, no, not really. It is a cool Summer movie but what I really want you to see is the big controversial film known as “Fahrenheit 9/11”.

I know I said it before but as the days have worn on I realized that this film is very important to see regardless of your politics. Even if you don’t agree with the views expressed or dislike Michael Moore or his tactics (and many people do) it is still a very interesting and compelling film that points out many facts that I don’t think people are aware of.

It also makes President Bush kind of look like an ass but I suppose that was inevitable given Michael Moore’s dislike for him. Is the movie perfect? No. Is it heavy-handed and overly emotional in many cases? You bet. Is it a balanced look at President Bush and his activities? Nope.

Does any of that really matter? No, not really. All in all it still manages to be interesting, preachy, emotional and entertaining all at the same time. Sure, there were a few things I didn’t like about it or that I would have done differently if I were the filmmaker. That happens to me all the time.

However, it is still provoking discussion and debate among everyone I know who has seen it even after several days or longer in some cases. To me, that’s a good thing. Can you say that about “Spider Man 2”? Probably not.

So, to recap, go see the movie. As I said, you might not agree with it or you might not even like it at all. Either way, whatever your reaction, it will make you think. And we could all use a little more thinking now and then, especially in an election year. You can check out more on Michael Moore here.

Oh, and John Kerry is supposed to announce a running mate tomorrow. Any bets on who it will be? Edwards, Gephardt, Steve Jobs? Maybe Al Gore or Bill Clinton? I don’t know but I kinda hope it turns out to be John Edwards. He seems like the right man for the job and for him, its a good move toward being President himself some day.

Keep on thinking and questioning. Don’t take things at face value. There are people out in the world who do not have your best interests at heart. Some of them are running this country. So, don’t be afraid to ask “why?”

It’s one of the main things the people who fought and died to form this country thought was important. I wonder what they would say if they were alive today? What George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin would think. Now that would make for an interesting episode of Larry King Live.

One last thing. I really love my new desk chair. If you have the means, I definitely suggest getting an Aeron chair by Herman Miller. I know, it sounds extravagant but it has definitely improved my back in just a few days. So to me, that’s worth it.

Besides, it has a 12 year warranty so I won’t have to get another desk chair for 12 years. That seems like a pretty good deal to me. And it looks cool too and comes in black. What more could A guy who spends a great deal of time in front of a computer at a desk want?

Later.

Ok, I know I said this before but I have been thinking about it a lot this 4th of July weekend. If you care about this country at all, you should take your friends and family to see “Spider Man 2”. . . . Ok, no, not really. It is a cool Summer movie but what I really want you to see is the big controversial film known as “Fahrenheit 9/11”.

I know I said it before but as the days have worn on I realized that this film is very important to see regardless of your politics. Even if you don’t agree with the views expressed or dislike Michael Moore or his tactics (and many people do) it is still a very interesting and compelling film that points out many facts that I don’t think people are aware of.

It also makes President Bush kind of look like an ass but I suppose that was inevitable given Michael Moore’s dislike for him. Is the movie perfect? No. Is it heavy-handed and overly emotional in many cases? You bet. Is it a balanced look at President Bush and his activities? Nope.

Does any of that really matter? No, not really. All in all it still manages to be interesting, preachy, emotional and entertaining all at the same time. Sure, there were a few things I didn’t like about it or that I would have done differently if I were the filmmaker. That happens to me all the time.

However, it is still provoking discussion and debate among everyone I know who has seen it even after several days or longer in some cases. To me, that’s a good thing. Can you say that about “Spider Man 2”? Probably not.

So, to recap, go see the movie. As I said, you might not agree with it or you might not even like it at all. Either way, whatever your reaction, it will make you think. And we could all use a little more thinking now and then, especially in an election year. You can check out more on Michael Moore here.

Oh, and John Kerry is supposed to announce a running mate tomorrow. Any bets on who it will be? Edwards, Gephardt, Steve Jobs? Maybe Al Gore or Bill Clinton? I don’t know but I kinda hope it turns out to be John Edwards. He seems like the right man for the job and for him, its a good move toward being President himself some day.

Keep on thinking and questioning. Don’t take things at face value. There are people out in the world who do not have your best interests at heart. Some of them are running this country. So, don’t be afraid to ask “why?”

It’s one of the main things the people who fought and died to form this country thought was important. I wonder what they would say if they were alive today? What George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin would think. Now that would make for an interesting episode of Larry King Live.

One last thing. I really love my new desk chair. If you have the means, I definitely suggest getting an Aeron chair by Herman Miller. I know, it sounds extravagant but it has definitely improved my back in just a few days. So to me, that’s worth it.

Besides, it has a 12 year warranty so I won’t have to get another desk chair for 12 years. That seems like a pretty good deal to me. And it looks cool too and comes in black. What more could A guy who spends a great deal of time in front of a computer at a desk want?

Later.

Hello all. Just wanted to say happy July. It’s almost the 4th of July and you know what that means? Beer and BBQ. Sounds like fun, right? Well, it will be.

Let’s try to put all of our problems and differences aside and try to remember that we still live in the best country in the world. It’s just a little messed up right now. Come November, I hope we will be back on track with a new leader and a new vision for the future.

Let’s hope so. Oh, you should all go see Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11. It doesn’t matter if you are a Bush supporter or not, its still a very interesting film and raises quite a few questions and sheds light on some interesting issues. So go see it first, then make up your mind. Let’s hear it for free speech, eh?

Ok, enough politics. Have some beer and a burger and relax this weekend. You’ve earned it. We can get back to dealing with all the bullshit next week. It will still be there, right where you left it. Believe me.

Later.

So, the good folks over at Apple Computer released some new stuff the other day. Not the gigantic announcements that some were hoping like 3Ghz G5 computers or anything like that. The new things that were announced are still darn cool but not so earth-shattering.

I’m sure that’s why they decided not to broadcast the Developer Keynote speech live this time. Not that I would watch a developer keynote speech live. What do you think I am, a geek? Ok, so maybe I watched one or two. So what?

Anyway, Steve Jobs announced the next version of Apple’s Mac OSX code name “Tiger”. It has many improvements and new features that seem pretty cool. Not the least of which is the new iChat or TChat as I call it. This app will allow three people to video conference at the same time and up to ten people audio chat at the same time. That’s cool. Go to the link above to check out the rest of the new features of Tiger.

Also announced were new displays in three sizes. 20", 23" and a massive 30". Shiny new displays made out of the same shiny aluminum as the G5 and the recent powerbooks. Better yet, they are bigger and badder than the previous versions. As a proud owner of the 20" Cinema display all I can say is they make great monitors and I can’t wait to be able to afford a 30" one. Very nice but again, not earth-shattering.

It makes me wonder if the days of the jaw-dropping innovation are gone. It seems like the great leaps forward are fewer and farther in between. Or, maybe Apple is working on something even bigger and is about to spring it on us. Really, they are just the guys (and girls) to do it.

I still have my fingers crossed for an Apple iPhone which combines a cell phone, pda and camera, syncs with my Mac perfectly and runs a scaled down version of OSX called OSX mobile or something. I also think it would be fantastic if Apple purchased TiVo and put their development might behind it to make something even more fantastic.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Tivo and have said that to anyone who will listen. I just think that a partnership between Apple and Tivo would yield an even more extraordinary device that this gadget-lover would snap up in an instant. I’m sure I would not be the only one.

Time will tell. If anyone from Apple is listening, get on it before Microsoft buys Tivo or something and turns it into another version of Replay TV or some other crap. You guys are smart and make great stuff, even if it sometimes frustrates me. It’s still the best computing platform out there. The future could be interesting. At least it probably won’t be boring.

Later.

Here’s some interesting bits appearing in a newspaper or website near you.

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to repeal a state law that requires animal shelters to hold stray dogs and cats for up to six days before killing them. Instead, there would be a three-day requirement for strays. Other animals, including birds, hamsters, potbellied pigs, rabbits, snakes and turtles, could be killed immediately.

Schwarzenegger has told the state Legislature that the changes could save local governments that operate shelters up to $14 million. An estimated 600,000 dogs and cats are put to death each year in California, including 34,000 in Los Angeles alone.

Later.

As I have been doing this particular blog for a few weeks now and did my old one for some time it has come to the point that I feel compelled to make an entry every day. I don’t know if this is interesting to anyone save my immediate family, who find me very interesting and insightful, of course. Or, is this interesting to others as well? I like to think so.

For better or worse I feel compelled to write something so here it is. I am happy to say that I am one of the proud owners of a much-coveted Gmail account. What is Gmail you ask? Why its the new e-mail service from the fine folks at Google that provides you with enough mail space so you never have to delete an e-mail again. Isn’t that cool.

I am one of the people that has been invited to test out the Gmail system and provide feedback. So, kudos to me for being so cool and cutting edge. If you want to send me an e-mail please feel free as I have plenty of space. The address is: cullrich@gmail.com

I would appreciate any comments about this blog or about life in general. Also, the more I use the Gmail service the more invites I will get to send to other people. So, let’s get busy and keep those messages coming in. Thanks.

My friend Tony presented clips from his movie tonight at the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro Users Group meeting. I know that’s a mouthful so just call it LAFCPUG, we do. The group was formed by people who use Apple’s Final Cut Pro for people who use Final Cut Pro to get together and talk about Final Cut Pro.

Four years ago the group started out with about 25 member (myself included). Now, it has over 3500 members and chapters all over the country. So, happy 4th anniversary LAFCPUG. If you are an editor using Final Cut Pro or are just interested in knowing more about it, check out the website for LAFCPUG. The group is good and you can learn something.

That’s it for now. I feel sleep coming on and I want to be sure and take advantage of it. Hope everyone has a nice week or whatever.

Later.