TV Addicts takes the service out of “customer service”

From: DVD Customer Service
Date: September 27, 2010 1:06:56 PM EDT
To: Paul Schreiber Subject: Re: Jack & Bobby

Dear User,

We would like to inform you that the availability of a particular set
can only be checked on our website while placing the order.

Customer Support Team

On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 6:01 AM, Paul Schreiber wrote:
Is this item in stock?
http://www.tvaddicts.tv/movie/drama/Jack_And_Bobby.html

Paul

Apple’s new PR boilerplate signals change in direction

I just noticed this today, but it happened a couple of months ago.

There’s no more “Apple ignited the personal computer revolution,” which had been there since at least 1998.

Here’s the new boilerplate, which first appeared on June 28, 2010 in iPhone 4 Sales Top 1.7 Million:

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And the old text, from June 22, 2010: Apple Sells Three Million iPads in 80 Days:

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

And back on March 5 — pre-iPad — it looked like this:

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

This probably says more about Apple than most people are willing to give it credit for.

Only in San Francisco

From Matier & Ross:

Police ended up releasing all three suspects with misdemeanor citations for offenses ranging from fare evasion to assault and resisting arrest.

On the way out, grandma ripped a wanted poster off the wall. No, she wasn’t angry.

“Hey, I know where this guy lives,” she told the cops, politely providing them with an address.

The man, who was wanted on outstanding warrants for parole violations, was promptly arrested.

HOWTO install the rjb gem on Ubuntu and Mac OS X

Here’s how to install the Ruby Java Bridge (rjb) gem on Ubuntu Linux and Mac OS X:

Ubuntu Linux (10.10)

# aptitude install openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jdk
# JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk gem install rjb

Mac OS X 10.6.4

# JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home gem install rjb

Note: rjb 1.3.2 requires the Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3 Developer Package. If you don’t want to download it, you can use 1.3.1:

JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home gem install rjb -v=1.3.1