Fun from Harper's Weekly Update:

[Barack] Obama and Mike Huckabee were the surprise winners of the Iowa caucuses. "None of this worries me," said Rudy Giuliani, who came in sixth place in the Republican caucus. "September 11, there were times I was worried." John McCain and a tearful Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primaries. "You look at me, September 11," said Giuliani when asked if he would ever cry in public, "there were times in which it was impossible not to feel the emotion."

You tell 'em, Rudy.

The price of the toys goes up.

One of the big selling points of the iPhone for me (in hindsight) is that between software development and web applications it becomes a better device on a periodic basis. Not that it wasn't a nice piece of equipment the day I bought it, but between instant Facebook, Google Reader, Seeqpod, and assorted other sundries its value has steadily improved. Today, with the firmware update, it improved its worth even more. Of course, it had to wait until I got home this evening...

Four hours of downloading later, and the iPhone has the newest shiniest firmware, and naturally I've tested out a feature or two:

• The pseudo-GPS feature on Google Maps centered within three miles of my house when using cell-tower triangulation. When I turned on the wifi, it nailed it within twenty-five yards. It's a little fucking scary to think that an IP address could get someone so close to your present location.
• Made direct icons for Facebook, Google Calendar, and Google Reader for the front page. Dragged the (useless unless you have a Mac) iPhone calendar, stocks, photo viewer, and iTunes to page 2, even though I had room on page 1 for them. I'm a rebel like that.
• Sent the first-ever mass text message, now that the iPhone allows for them. As a reminder, if you want random crap to periodically arrive on your cell phones, drop a note in the (screened) comments. Incidentally, the second time you respond to a beautiful haiku about lawn care or traffic accidents with "who is this?" gets you off the text-message list.

UPDATE: The cell-tower vs. wifi triangulation thing works at work, too. Just in case anyone is thinking of sending death threats via hotspot.




Mrs. Cwabs is shaking the rafters with her snoring