Joe Hewitt: Three20 project

via daringfireball.net...

Open Source classes for iPhone developers

http://joehewitt.com/post/the-three20-project/

BSG Is Over

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWIwNzkyMmZkZTc0Y2NiZDAyZDkyNDkzYWIyZTVhMjg=

In fact, going by the series finale, Ron Moore is the sci-fi equivalent of a creationist. God is in every gap. Every unexplained detail can be explained by the fact that God says so. In theology, there's an argument somewhere in there. But in screenwriting such deus ex machina punting is letting writer's block substitute as demiurge. 

Now let me be clear when I say that I actually like the idea of turning to religion and, for want of a better word, the supernatural. But it still needs to make sense. [...] Ron Moore [...] thinks letting actors explore their characters and work out morality tales [...] makes for more compelling television. I think that what made the first couple seasons so great is that he was able to contain or restrain this tendency within the larger storyline. Once that blew up, the show squandered its greatness.

I thought the first two seasons of BSG were great.  I didn't particularly like the third, but I figured the writers' strike had caused a lot of problems, and I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.  I watched this season without much enthusiasm.  The only thing that kept me going was that I wanted to see how they would wrap everything up.  Let's just say I was unsatisfied with the Starbuck explanation.  She should have been a replicant created by the last great computer left on the old Earth, who had to sacrifice his own power source to save Starbuck's soul with some sort of human cloning mechanism.  Work in some of that old-time prophesy to connect it back to the Colonial Gods.  The musical stuff was fine, but that could have been the computer's universal programming language.  Everybody together: "I'd like to teach the world to sing..."

It's totally crazy to think that you can get thousands of people to return to the stone age in search of a better way of life.  Maybe Ron Moore is channeling Al Gore and the Global Warming alarmists, but I'm not buying it.  Would it have been so difficult to let a few hippies follow Apollo in going native while the rest of them conquered some unpopulated continent?  Then maybe their ship could have accidently exploded leaving only a handful of Colonials to mix with the proto-humans.  Similar result, but with a slightly more tragic and understandable ending.

Oh yeah, the Chief should have been shot by a Cylon when he choked the other one during the resurrection technology seance.  It didn't make sense for him to survive and become the first King of Scotland or whatever.

‘Star Trek’ Fans Put Kirk’s Command Chair in Their Homes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/garden/19trek.html?_r=1

Serious Trekkies have long fashioned copies of their favorite costumes and props, and, back in the '70s and '80s, a few even put together homemade knockoffs of the captain's chair, using reference materials like the "Starfleet Technical Manual" and "U.S.S. Enterprise Bridge Blueprints."

But lately fans like Mr. Veazie have been building or buying more sophisticated versions of the command module from which James T. Kirk, played by William Shatner, ordered "Ahead, warp factor six." Moreover, they are making them the centerpiece of their homes, thus conquering what is for them a final frontier of domestic décor.

Not sure my wife would approve.  Maybe for my office?

Apple a Day: Prediction: Snow Leopard release date is June 8

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/appleaday/blog/2009/03/prediction_snow_leopard_releas.html

Prediction: Snow Leopard release date is June 8

The prediction is based on his research about when WWDC might be.  Maybe, but WWDC could be a setting for a beta rather than a final release.  I suspect that the ship date will depend more on Mac sales than anything else.  If Mac sales are down, they'll figure that everyone is waiting for Snow Leopard so they'll have to ship something.  If sales are OK, they'll hold off on shipping the OS until they need a revenue bump.

Personally, I want to buy a new iMac, but my practical wife is making me wait until Snow Leopard ships.  She simply doesn't understand the coolness of buying a new Mac on the day it's announced.  She also won't let me have an iPhone just because we can't get AT&T service where our new house will be.

Microsoft boss Bill Gates bans his children from using Apple products... but his wife admits she'd like an iPhone | Mail Online

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1158905/Microsoft-boss-Bill-Gates-bans-children-using-Apple-products--wife-admits-shed-like-iPhone.html

She told Vogue magazine that the couple's three children Jennifer, 13, Rory, 10 and Phoebe, seven, are not allowed Apple products.

'There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household,' she said.

'But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our kids.'

Like any forbidden fruit, however, Mrs Gates, 44, admitted that some Apple products do have the power to tempt her.

'Every now and then I look at my friends and say 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone,' she admitted.

If Guy Kawasaki still worked at Apple, he'd be dropping off a free iPhone for Mrs. Gates this morning, and free iPods for all the kids.