This is a great deal…big time.  You know Microsoft Office?  That $500 software suite that EVERYONE uses?  Well, it’s now available for only $60, from…guess who?  Microsoft!

And this isn’t the crippled student and teacher edition…it’s the ULTIMATE edition with all sorts of goodies like Publisher and Access and Groove.

The catch?  You need a .edu email address.  I got some kid at work who just graduated to get a copy for me, and it worked flawlessly.  I even was able to use my own credit card.

And the best part is that you don’t have to wait for a CD.  You just download the software (it’s 500MB, so it takes a while) and then you input your product key.  That’s it.

They say you may need to prove that you took at least 5 credits in the last semester…but that’s BS.  I have my software now.

Check it out.  Prices good till April 30.

Honestly, I like this idea.  You have a little video device, then put on these glasses…and boom, 60″ inch screen.  Imagine the usage scenarios, on the plane, at work, on the john…huge video screen anywhere.

The downside, you look like a tool…and people WILL, without a doubt make fun of you.  Like, really?  Video glasses?  Come’on dude…next you’ll be have your own horde on WoW.  I don’t even know what that means, actually.

Anyway, these things are usually like $500, which is a LOT considering how ridiculous they look.  But woot has them now for only $99…the only catch, they’re only compatible with 5th Generation iPods.

But I’d really like someone who’s tried these out to let me know how they are.  I’ve never seen anyone use them, and I want to know if the picture is really as cool as described.

Although they’re not making their original February target, Apple is holding an event to announce the iPhone SDK on March 6…not too bad of a delay at all.

Why is the SDK so important?  Well, right now the iPhone is a closed platform…meaning that unless you jailbreak your phone you can’t add on third party software.

Sure, you can navigate to some website that emulates a software application, but what fun is that?  You need an internet connection and the performance of the application relies heavily on your bandwidth…which, on EDGE is pretty piss poor.

The SDK should allow third party developers to create iPhone applications that you can actually install on your iPhone.  This will be awesome…because so far Apple’s apps suck.  Weather, Stocks, a basic Calendar…that’s about it.

Hopefully the SDK will pave the way for a bunch of new apps that will dramatically increase the capabilities of the iPhone.

An example?  Well, apps on Windows Mobile, Microsoft’s mobile OS enable you to watch TV on your device, for example.  There are also lots of games available, as well as vertical applications that are tailored for specific jobs.

Just take my word for it…as long as Apple gives developers decent access to the iPhone then this SDK will equal awesome apps in about a month after it’s release.

Can’t wait.

Much to the chagrin of mexicans everywhere, the Roomba robotic vacuum is not on sale for only $99 at Woot.com.  Both Keri and I have one of these guys and they’re really neat and you don’t have to worry about them stealing.

Sure, they don’t work as well as a human…but given how convenient they are, it’s difficult to complain.

The one on Woot is also a scheduler, meaning you can just set it to automatically clean your house.  Imagine that…you know you want one.

TJFKAK sent this article to me today.  Apparently, Hawaii Senator Dan Inouye has got into a bit of hot water after suggesting that Punahou is an elitist private school.

On one hand, the comment wasn’t that bad…I’d bet that most people in Hawaii would probably agree.  But on the other, it’s odd for Inoyue, one of the most spoiled old boy japs on the island, to take a shot at Punahou so publicly.

For his part, Obama responded by saying, “Shame on Danny for trying to pull that stunt…I went to Punahou on a scholarship. I was raised by a single mom and my grandmother.”

And it’s a pretty good point.  I mean, there is this misconception that Punahou kids are generally spoiled, but looking back there were hardly any kids in our class that were insanely rich and not to many others that flaunted any sort of wealth.  More than that, there were a lot of kids that came from pretty poor families, making the ’spoiled’ stereotype that much more frustrating.

The thing with Punahou is, sure, it costs a bunch.  But if your kids can get in, and it will help your chances at getting a great education, then why wouldn’t you send your kids there?  I think if anything Punahou kids have great parents that are willing to make huge sacrifices for their kids.  And if that is spoiled, then so be it.  From a parent’s perspective, it’s a way better investment then putting rims, a body kit, exhaust and a four foot high spoiler on an 86 civic.

The best part of this article, though, which appears to be written by a mainlander, is that it makes it seem like Inouye spent his life at McKinley, jealous of Punahou’s “lush campus.”  Like, each day he went to Punahou’s gate like Charlie at the chocolate factory, licking his lips.

I’d pay money to be in Inouye’s office this week as he makes call after call to his Punahou-grad constituents.

I loooooove computers.  Especially when you get a brand new one and it’s not all fucked up with tons of crap on the desktop and spyware and viruses and stuff.

So, go over to HP now and get yourself a new laptop…and save $400 by using coupon code NB0400.

Sure, you don’t need a laptop right now…so apply for HP financing as well…90 days without any payments.  It’s like you’re buying a computer for May.

I picked up a tx2000 tablet.  Pretty neat, huh?

Who knows how well this tablet stuff works, but my ex just got one and there is no way she’s gonna have a better computer than me.

So check out HP’s website…coupon expires on March 6.

From Gizmodo, boingboing.

It’s hard to eat in space.  I mean, you can’t have rice for example, because the individual grains would be floating all over the place.  Thus, astronauts so far have been stuck with freeze dried foods.

You know what I’m talking about.  Some shithead kid brought this stuff in for show and tell when you were 12.  Like, freeze-dried ice cream.  It tastes like shit, and guess what, you can buy it at longs.

But what happens when Koreans go into space?  That’s where science has to step up.  Like, Koreans love to have about 20 small little dishes with each meal?  At a Korean BBQ, this works fine…in space, eh, not so much.

So, that is why, after millions of dollars worth of research, the Koreans have invented…wait for it…freeze dried Kim Chi.  No, really.

Now Koreans can feel free to travel beyond the comfort of earth while ensuring that their favorite pickled cabbage treat is just an airtight plastic package away.

Apple was supposed to release an SDK for the iPhone in February…and it looks like it won’t happen.  Apple likes to release things on Tuesday, and I was expecting lots and lots…this being the last Tuesday of February.

But, no SDK.  All we got is iPhone 1.1.4 firmware that, by all accounts, does not so much.  Maybe patch a bug here and there…but at 160MB - eh, not looking forward to it.

So I watched the Oscars tonight.  The whole thing.  And even some of the pre-Oscar red carpet stuff.

And really, I don’t get it.  It’s kind of interesting to see who wins, but I would have much rather just checked online after the ceremony was over.

Why?

Because the show was like 95% uninteresting.  First of all you have all these awards that honestly, I don’t think anyone really cares about.  Costumes, effects, score, etc.  I mean, these are the awards that barely made the cut to be on the show.  And they shouldn’t have.

Face it, we don’t know these people…we don’t really know what they do, and we don’t really care if they did it super well or not…as long as it’s good enough.

Like costumes…as long as Johnny Depp looks like a pirate, then fine…good enough for me.  Eddie Murphy looks like a fat black guy…perfect.  But how can you compare the two?

And since we don’t even know the people that are nominated for these obscure awards, do we have to listen to who they want to thank?  That’s two degrees of boring, irrelevant crap.  And I hate it.

Why not just have all the major awards, and like, more detail about each movie or something.  Then at least you can learn about the movie instead of seeing a short 15 second clip.

And also, why don’t they show how the voting went.  Like, wouldn’t it be interesting to know that ‘Old Men’ barely edged out ‘Blood’?  And then you could also see what movies got beat hard.  Instead, you just look at a bunch of people for like five seconds of suspense.

Once the award is announced, they give people way too much time to say who they want to thank.  That is what blogs are for…not prime time national television.

Instead they should be asked questions that are submitted online.  Like, “do you think george clooney is a homo?” submitted by TJFKAK.  That way we could condense the whole red carpet and awards show into a more concise hour long show, instead of a tedious four hour long extravaganza.

I thought Jon Stewart was decent.  He had some pretty funny jokes in there…but they were all very safe and unremarkable.  But that’s how the Oscars always are.

All in all, big meh.  Through most of the show I was complaining to TJFKAK how shitty the award or speech was.  And at the end of the day, I don’t really care who won.  I don’t know these people and I don’t care if they get a statue or not.

HD video was supposed to be a big deal.  But really, I don’t know anyone with an HD-DVD player.  The only people I know with Blu Ray movies have a PS3, not a stand alone player.

I think it was pretty clear once the PS3 came out with Blu Ray that HD-DVD didn’t stand a chance.  I mean, you have all of these people that already have a Blu Ray player…with HD-DVD, even on the Xbox 360 you have to purchase a separate player…a huge pain in the ass, especially at the time when the format war wasn’t decided.

And although both Blu Ray and HD-DVD look really nice, they don’t look good enough to justify the purchase of a $300 player and new $25 movies.  I would say that 80% of high def movies out there don’t really make use of all that resolution…do you really need to see a comedy in HD?  And would you pay for it?

In any case, the final nail in the coffin came this week when Toshiba abandoned HD-DVD.  WalMart, NetFlix and Microsoft also jumped ship a few days later.

And now you can find HD-DVD players and discs at steep discounts.  Pretty worthless considering the lack of major studio support for the format.

The MacBook Air is a really thin notebook.  We get it.  But really, how revolutionary is its design?

According to the Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad - eh, not so much.

This group of engineers from Japanese PC manufacturers tore down the MacBook Air to analyze its design.  What they found was pretty interesting.  Although the exterior of the laptop looks slick, the interior of the laptop is surprisingly complex and costly.

And we’re not talking about expensive components here…we’re talking about wasteful design that means the notebook is unnecessarily complex and therefore more costly.

For example, the MacBook Air uses “several times more screws” than your typical notebook.  The keyboard alone used about 30 screws…that’s a lot of labor, even if the device was manufactured in china.

According to one engineer, “we can make the same computer at a lower cost.”

So what’s with this design?  Well, the Teardown Squad suspects that Apple designed the computer based on its external design, but didn’t design the inside very well.  Then, when the notebook was sent to chinese manufacturers, these companies just stuck with Apples design rather than trying to propose more structurally efficient designs.  After all, Apple does know everything, right?

Looking at the MacBook Air, I think it’s gonna be a big bust.  It lacks power, it lacks an optical drive, it lacks ports.  And yes, you can fit it inside a manila envelope…but most likely you don’t carry around your laptop in a manila envelope.  You probably have a big laptop bag with lots of other things, like papers, cigarettes, gum, chargers, etc.  Sure, a thin notebook is cool…but at the Air’s price point and with its performance and design sacrifices, money is spent better elsewhere.

In any case, check out the article here.  It’s worth a read.

So there was a big debate last night in Texas.  And one of the arguments that Hillary brought up was that Barack plagiarized other speeches during his campaign.

First of all, who cares?  Like, how is that an argument about policy or people or anything important?  It’s like Hillary is a high school debater that hasn’t grown up…just sticking with these asinine personal attacks.

Anyway, here’s a good clip from Youtube that shows Hillary herself plagiarizing some lines.  And for the record, I don’t care if Obama goes up there and says he has a dream…he says it well, he says it convincingly, he says it with conviction, and he says it without sounding like a desperate little cunt.

Does anyone else have this problem?  You plug in your iphone near your computer and then every speaker nearby starts buzzing.  I hate that.  Like, I’ve built this stupid aluminum contraption to stop that buzzing sound…and it barely works.

And the thing is, this buzz phenomenon is so new that there are not really very many speakers out there that are designed to stop this noise.  I mean, apparently it’s created by some sort of GSM interference, so you just gotta have shielded wires and stuff I guess.

Well, Altec Lansing has released the T612, the first iPhone dock out there that has speakers and is designed to eliminate that buzzing sound.  It looks alright…pretty typical design, sleek, and kind of ridiculously large.  But really, it’s worth if to get rid of that buzzing noise in my opinion.

$200…available soon.

I’ve been following the primary results pretty closely, and it seems like the wheels are really falling off for Hillary.  This speech in particular was absolutely horrible…from her chanting “we will win” by herself, to coughing in the mic, to making a weak attempt to match Obama’s fainting supporters with her own, very public fainting fan episode.  I mean, really, just absolutely pathetic.

I’m no political strategist…but here are some notes for Hillary.

-If you start a chant and no one else chants with you, then you look like an asshole.

-And once you realize that no one else is chanting with you, please stop shrieking.  You should like a 60 year old chain smoker trying to get their dog to ‘roll over.’

-The phrase “I’ve seen people that literally feel invisible in America” does not make sense.  Or at least, ‘literally’ in that sentence doesn’t have the impact that you think it does.

-Referring to someone that is risking their life to protect you as “Mr. Secret Service Man” sounds condescending and makes you look like a cocky, ungrateful cunt.

-If you really want to be like Obama, it would be more convincing to come out in black face than to point out that an audience member ‘got a little too hot on the rhetoric’ and therefore fainted after hearing your words.

-I mean really, is it me or was the whole give-water-to-person-in-the-crowd-that-needs-it bit a complete rip off of Obama’s speeches.  Like, we’re talking about theatrics here.  I mean, that is the most pathetic ploy I have ever seen.

-Please don’t cough into the mic.  Like, when you know you’re going to hack disgustingly…lower the mic.

-Presidents are elected, not hired.  Don’t ask people to ‘hire’ you for president.

-At least shell out for a 1-800 number.  I mean, really.  And when you read the numbers, you don’t have to rap them out convincingly with hand motions.  It’s just a phone number.

-John McCain is not the republic nominee yet.  And you just lost 9 states in a row.  Calling out McCain at this point is a bit premature, no?

-Could we put the CNN cameras in a location where people’s signs won’t block you entirely?  Please?  I like to see the actual hacking motion, along with the hacks themselves.