Is lame-ass-sheep to strong a term?

Looking and listening to swoons of delight over Apple's soon to be, newest baby money spinner... the MacBook Air, with comments ranging from ..."how will the competition counter this," to "genius at work!"

Seems that way to much reporting's been done by people seemingly with heads in the air lauding anything coming out of the Cuperold stables; again, so it seems.

But perhaps there is an in joke doing the rounds, and the naming's been shortened to MacBook Air, from MacBook Airhead!

It is definitely one of the thinnest portables out there measuring a slim 19mm. But what about the other bits under that very sleek and lovely bonnet, compared to other computers out there, basic models?

Well let's take one of the most important, battery life (light usage): about 5 hours with the Air, but with the Sony VAIO G11 that clocks up 9 hours!

Illusionary broadband

Looking at an advert from Tiscali.co.uk and reading the blurb Superfast Broadband for £6.49 for the 1^st 3 months, then £12.99. I thought, oh could this be a wonderful new service, offering more than be.com? Perhaps creeping up from behind the field to snatch premier position, scattering the opposition to the winds in disarray; blowing them all away with a spectacular 70Mbs service? No! Tiscali's definition of Superfast broadband is, 'up to 8Mb*'!

For many years we have been promised faster broadband, which would do away with that nasty roof-top aerial or podgy uglier exterior satellite. Un-interruptible streaming films, rock-steady tv programmes, downloading everything at the click of button like water from an open sluice. And just as the promises have been so atmospherically high, so services have stratospherically failed to materialise, and the ISP's have been trying to weasel their wording into making below average service provision look fantastic. But, I suppose unlike snake-oil salesmen, they do actually supply something that works.

Now doing a search of the terms fast and superfast brings up some interesting definitions.

Fast

From answers.com - a site I'm enjoying using as it splurges a plethora of so much useful information down a page, practically complete, even with translations. Reasons for having more than ten tabs open within my browser are rapidly diminishing. So what does answers.com definition come up with.

1. Acting, moving, or capable of acting or moving quickly; swift.

From chambersharrap.co.uk

fast adj (faster, fastest) 1 moving, or able to move, quickly. 2 taking a relatively short time. 3 said of a clock, etc: showing a time in advance of the correct time... ... pull a fast one colloq. to cheat or deceive.

But I am coming around to the opinion that tiscali are using the ChambersHarrap colloquial definition, and trying to pull a fast one!

Super

From chambersharrap.co.uk

super- prefix, forming adjectives, nouns and verbs, denoting 1 great or extreme in size or degree • supermarket. 2 above, beyond or over • superscript • supernatural. 3 higher or more outstanding than usual • superhero. Compare hyper-.

So, with Super and Fast conjoined something spectacular should be on offer. But in the real life tiscali and for that matter any other ISP can get away with advertising Superfast broadband at only 8Mb*, showing both guard dogs (ASA and Ofcom) have teeth as sharp as rubber gloves, effectively blunted by the industry.

Now why did I start this... Ah yes! I don't for one moment expect to experience as the norm, speeds upwards of 100Mbps at any time in the next five to eight years. Maybe 30Mbps. But then the holographic advertising and moving displays will be another headache. And by then who will really care that the speed they're getting is less than a fiftieth the advertised offerings!

*Unless of course, in the small print, they've mentioned that speeds are 'as compared to a tele-typewriter'.

Love & Disaster: CES

I, like many other technologically minded souls, have been waiting with heightened baited pulse for the advent of this years CES show. Especially as the peddlers of Doom & Gloom Incorporated Limited, have been doing the rounds with regard to credit crunches, country collapses, and soon to be mega-disasters, coming along to add the final touches to finishing us off!

Putting all that to one side, it was good to see that companies are still out there doing their bit to give all of us, easier happier life's, whilst also parting us from our cash; but I might have mentioned that particular earlier.

So after the first day let's get down to it, and in no particular order...

Loves
On the software side it has to (especially when I get a faster computer with a graphics card that properly works - very disappointing ATI-AMD, very disappointing) be SpaceTime a wonderful free piece of software... actually much quicker if you pop to this site for a sublime description, but with 3D Vista Aero style flying things happily working, albeit slowly, on my ageing XP PC is straightforward, easy to use and definitely another line added to the do I really need to upgrade to Vista? list. Also, having a 22inch plus wide screen monitor would be of help.

Then on the hardware side, Panasonic's 150inch plasma tv, drool and I don't care who sees me... Might have to go down that ten bedroomed house with 30ft walls route after all. Sigh!

Hates (or if that is to harsh, dislikes)
Do I really need a bulky table costing over $5,000 so that I can zip and zoom into whilst dragging things around. Not at this time, and no it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it's from MSoft.