The iPod viewed the same as steroids for runners
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Not Cool, That's Weird..., contests, iPod
This may come as a shock to some of you, but I am not a competitive runner. I’m more of a rhythmic gymnast. So it was news to me to find that a Wisconsin marathon runner was disqualified for listening to her iPod while competing in the Lakefront Marathon last weekend. Apparently by turning on her iPod, 27 year-old Jennifer Goebel violated a USA Track and Field rule which bans electronic devices of any kind during races.
Above: A woman I THINK is Jennifer Goebel.
While listening to music can get you pumped up during exercise, I thought this was a little odd, as if you look at the over 400 photos from the race, you will notice that virtually everyone in the race has an iPod (or to be fair, possibly a Zune with iPod earbuds). But as it turns out, the “no iPod rule” was repealed in 2008, and the ban on iPods now applies only to really good runners who have a chance at actually winning prizes from racing. Jennifer was a little put off by the decision, but has agreed to pay back her $500 prize.
“If they’re going to disqualify me for having an iPod they should disqualify everyone who had one,” she said. “I wasn’t listening to it earlier in the race. I wasn’t going to put the music on unless I thought I needed it. If you’re bored, it pumps you up a little bit. Sometimes, on a long training run, I’ll bring it along for the last half hour. When I run marathons sometimes I carry it and never put it on. It’s just a little ridiculous. I went there to have a fun race with my friends.”
Well Jenifer, it doesn’t sound like this race is for people looking to have fun. In fact, Jennifer didn’t actually win the race. She was beaten by Cassie Peller, a 23-year-old student. However the racing Nazis officials disqualified her for taking steroids accepting a bottle of water from a friend outside of the designated watering stations, thus making Goebel the winner. So it looks like now the crown of winner and the cursed $500 check will be passed down to Corina Canitz, a 42-year-old mother of four who won the race the last 2 years running (pun intended). And if she tests positive for steroids, I can only assume I am next in line, although I pretty much always have my iPhone on me, so odds are I will have to pass the trophy on as well.
By the way, Miss Goebel has an open invite to appear as our Mac Chick of the Month.
[via JS Online]
Oh, that poor Acura!
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Humor, Microsoft Bashing, Not Cool
You know those annoying people who like to dress their little rat-like dogs in dorky sweaters and such, and you just know that the dog wishes to hell it was a real dog and could maul its owner to death? That’s sort of how I feel about this poor Acura who its owner has dressed as a clown.
Yes, this shot was sent in by Faithful Macenstein reader (and iPhone developer) Kevin who spotted the abused vehicle in Seattle, about 7 miles outside of Redmond. Unfortunately the only way the Acura can get that crap off would be to suffer both a front AND rear-end collision, and I’m not sure it has the guts to go through with it.
So if you live in the Seattle/Redmond area and see this poor creature wrapped around a telephone pole with a semi-truck up it’s arse, don’t feel bad. It is in a far better place.
[UPDATE:] Faithful Macenstein reader Charles writes:
“Lexus drivers are clearly more intelligent than Acura Drivers.”
Holy appendix, Batman!
Faithful Macenstein reader Batman writes:
“Hey! It is now June 18 and you still have stuff at the top of your site from the 14. WTF? Are you dead or what? Do something!!!!!”
Yes, as many of you who follow my Twitter feed know, I had to have my appendix taken out, so it was NOT, I repeat, NOT the 2 three scoop sundaes I got at Friendly’s that were ripping my stomach apart earlier this week, and no, I did not get a virus (we all know people who use Macs do not get viruses).
Looking back I realize that over the past 3 or 4 years or so I have posted something almost every day, which is really quite amazing, as well as quite sad. Anyway, I hope to be posting in a day or so, but it’s certainly nice to see that even a busy crimefighter such as the legendary Batman finds time to read Macenstein, although being a REAL man, (well, an imaginary REAL man…) I am sure he laughs at an appendix stopping anyone from doing their job.
I was wrong: It’s Apple screwing us, not AT&T
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Cynicism, Not Cool, Opinion, iPhone
[WARNING: This post contains references to me attempting to do math, so all figures are subject to scrutiny and your usual criticism of how wrong I have it.]
Well, a full day has passed since the WWDC, and I think now with a little bit of distance comes clarity. I was pretty angrily bashing AT&T for screwing us current iPhone 3G customers with their $200 “early upgrade tax”, for the iPhone 3Gs, and I have come to the decision that my anger was misplaced. The real bad guy in this debacle is Apple, not AT&T. Read more
FAIL: APPLE can’t get AT&T to turn on MMS, yet developers can
Faithful Macenstein reader Matthew writes:
Hey Doc, I was just checking out Apple’s page on iPhone OS 3.0 and it looks like even Apple web designers don’t have access to MMS features in the iPhone 3.0 betas. Here’s a snapshot of the MMS screen with the little red exclamation points next to the picture they tried to send along with the link.
those would show up every time I tried to send an MMS (AT&T hasn’t enabled it for beta testers), but since I convinced them to enable it for me for developing reasons I never get them anymore. They basically just show up when there’s an error when sending MMS (usually because it isn’t enabled). It’s pretty funny how they couldn’t get a screenshot where it worked.
Man.. so no one over at Apple has the clout to get them to activate MMS on one of their iPhones for a screen grab? I mean, they couldn’t even Photoshop those out for the screenshot? Or does even Apple have no idea how MMS will finally look when (IF) it ever works on AT&T?
God, I used to be able to defend (in my mind, at least) Apple’s choice of iPhone provider, but after today’s debacle where MMS and Tethering were announced for the rest of the world and eventually maybe kind sorta for the US, it is getting pretty damn hard to argue Apple has the consumer’s best interests in mind in sticking with AT&T.
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