Fox Sports: Ex-NBA player rips Haiti, compares country to 'homeless men' [...] Shirley has been dropped as a freelance writer for ESPN for his comments on Haiti.

Really? What did he say that got him punted? Isn't it all about unicorns and rainbows when talking about Haiti these days?

Apple finally released their much awaited Windows 7 drivers today. They were due to ship by the end of 2009; when they slipped past that deadline, we were told "they will ship when they are done." While I know that when 99.44% of the industry says such things that they will be burned alive, Apple's community says "Aw, gee, thanks! When you tell us it's ready, we know it will Just Work." I know that. I don't have a big problem with that, however annoying it is, but my bigger problem is about "How long do I wait and what do I do in the meantime?"

On top of that, the Windows 7 64-bit installer simply doesn't work.

Jesus, does anyone know how much Apple paid for such product placement this season?

Any bets on what new hardware shows up after next week's announcements? *g*

Over the last year or so I've been watching both the Seattle and Washington government with a muted interest. OK, maybe it's less than muted given my blog posts, Facebook comments, and general flailing of arms when talking about this in person. But still: I've been watching WA law makers quietly work their way to a statewide income tax and they're actually quite close now. And it won't be like CT, where the sales tax dropped as the income tax was added - no, I expect WA wants to ask for money with two hands, rather than one. What's even more important is that they've got tree hugging citizens that are applauding them for it.

Sad, really.

There's been a bunch of press lately about the "discovered" GodMode that's in Windows 7. Basically, this is neither new or God-like. The GodMode name was used by the person that "reported this discovery" but the truth is that the "new feature zOMGBBQPEWPEWPEW!!1" was originally introduced in Windows 95.

Basically, you create a new folder in Windows Explorer, you name it SomeFunName.{ShellFolderGUID-from-Registry} and that new folder will be a "shortcut" to whatever namespace you gave it. In the case of naming a folder GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} you end up with a folder named GodMode that opens to "all tasks" as is defined by that GUID. On my PC, I named the folder All Tasks.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} which named my folder "All Tasks". Windows 95 used this same technology with fonts in the form of Fonts.{93412589-74D4-4E4E-AD0E-E0CB621440FD}

What is nice about the All Tasks folder for me is that I'm able to make shortcuts to any of the tasks there; I could put "Add or remove programs" on my desktop now... what it's is either an Easter Egg or a newly hidden feature in Windows 7.

Nice thing about this is that I wanted to post the GUID so I don't have to go dig it up for new machines!

As part of my vacation at the end of 2009, I decided to give a bunch of new hardware a try and see how things went... and then forgot to talk about it.

The collection of goodies included: an iPhone 3GS, a Nintendo DSi, Zune HD, and MacBook Air.

Ah, the start of a new year... time for a small recap.

Gizmodo: The Google Phone could be a ploy to upset the wireless industry, or it could be an expensive niche device. Either way, it'd be a bid to take Android back from the companies that seem hell-bent on destroying it. Android's most serious problem right now is fragmentation: with each new phone, it seems, comes a different version of the OS. In theory, these differences are superficial, and come down to handset manufacturers' and carriers' custom interfaces, which sit atop a mostly unchanged Android core. In practice, it's much worse.

Welcome to the troubling world of Windows Mobile.

That's the sound of a monkey sliding off your back. Or fingernails on a chalkboard followed by a face palm...

Say hello to the EU-required Web Browser "Choice Screen" of Windows.

Jolene and I popped over to our local Barnes and Noble to see a demo nook the other night...

Worth a long look, but I still didn't feel the urge to pull out a credit card.

Went to go see Sister's Christmas Catechism last night at the ACT Theater - funny freakin' play!

Highly recommended.

MSN: 'Family Ties' mom: 'I am a lesbian' Meredith Baxter says she has been dating women for the past seven years

I've got nothing against people coming out and in a public setting, but this was one of the top stories of the Today show today... which was basically: "an actress that played a mother on a sitcom that has been off the air for 20 years has been dating women for the last seven years." Which is newsworthy how?

Makes you wonder what the second story of the day was, doesn't it?

Engadget has a blurb about ChromeOS.

It's too soon to make any major comments about it, until more information comes down the pike, but one thing that I jumped right off the page was "connect to the web every day and make sure you have all the current updates." So, like, after years of hearing "Windows has too many updates!" when they only get propped once a week (or even once a month) Google is actually propping up daily updates as a feature? Wow... additionally, how comfortable are people with having an Open Source OS?

One thing that I'm really hoping changes is the screenshot of the UI: full window tabs for a UX? How OS/2 Warp can you get? Oh, wait, Warp supported multiple windows too... Honestly, I thought they had killed off MDI 15 years ago when true multitasking was possible.

Maybe the hotness is being saved for future reviews - if not, I'm pretty disappointed.

Finally got around to posting about a happy little number to the blog... basking simply takes some time.

Interesting hallway conversation happened today, with a Mariner's fan: "Do you really need 27 Championships? Jeez. Can't you spread the wealth around to the rest of the league?" I had only one answer to that:

'No.'

Here's to 162 and 0 in 2010.

I know a lot of people are a bit shocked that Disney is allowing a "dark" video game in the form of the coming Epic Mickey but after watching this clip from 1935 and remembering the she-villain of Sleeping Beauty, I think we've just forgotten of the depth that Disney can actually command... it's a good reminder.

Poor, poor Pluto...