Apple announces it still makes Xserves
Filed under: Apple TV, Opinion, Updates, Useless Information, Xserve
Apple today announced that not only do they still make Xserves, but they actually updated them. According to Apple, the new Xseres “deliver up to twice the performance of the previous system,” and feature Intel’s new “Nehalem” Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture, giving the ew Xserves up to an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt over the previous model, which they were still apparently selling.
Above: Introducing the… all-new… Xserve? When on your big launch day you get squeezed out of even the little bottom pics by “American Idol on iTunes”, you know you are the red-headed step child of the product line.
I was pretty sure Apple had discontinued the Xserve around the time they discontinued the Apple TV, but a friend of mine says that Apple never actually discontinued the Apple TV, they just forgot to mention it for a couple years. Both models are expected to receive a future update sometime in late 2013.
Forget the WWDC! WE’RE broadcasting live from the TMBG!
Filed under: Humor, Slow News Day, Useless Information, WTF
Sure, pretty much ANY Mac site can give you live streams from the World Wide Developers Conference, but how many can give you live updates from… The They Might Be Giants Concert at the Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in beautiful Elmer NJ!?! That’s right, (barring any technical difficulties) we’ll be broadcasting live updates from the concert as it happens.
While we expect very few iPhone-related announcements, you never know. Apple is a very secretive company, and this music festival’s name “Appel” seems a bit too close to “Apple” to be simply a coincidence – especially so close to WWDC. So we figured we better check it out. Our guts tells us John and John may not announce the 3G iPhone, but there’s a good chance they will focus extensively on Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard”. Check back for updates.
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Broadcasting LIVE NOW!
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Show starting…
3:30 – Suzanne Vega performing
3:50 – She sounds great, too bad I only know one song …
4:40 – Wrapping up…
4:45 – Vega’s done
5:05 – TMBG Setting up
5:10 – “Natural One” by Folk Implosion playing. Awesome song.
5:16 – My god, that’s the fattest roadie I have ever seen!
5:37 – Show was supposed to start at 5:15. The kids are getting restless.
5:42 – Awwww yeah! Show’s starting! Crowd going nuts. ! Flans working the crowd.
5:43 – 1st song: Dr. Worm
5:47 – introducing band
5:48 – Alphabet of Nations
5:51 – Damn Good Times
5:55 – Birdhouse in Your Soul
(Wow, it’s easier than I thought to type on the iPhone with a 6 year old girl on shoulders… if only it weren’t 90 degrees and sunny.)
5:58 – Clap Your Hands
5:59 – Don’t Lets Start
6:03 – Older
6:05 – Cyclops Rock
6:10 – James K. Polk (Rocin’ version, I can’t beleive they’re doing this!)
6:15 – Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
6:20 – >>No mention of 3G iPhone yet…
6:22 – Drink!
6:26 – Fingertips! (Sweet! Never heard all these live!)
6:31 – Why Does The Sun Shine? (oohhh a little political Bush bashing thrown in)
6:35 – Particle Man
6:37 – Butterfly of Love (?)
6:40 – New York City
6:43 – Linnell just revealed the 3G specs and pricing, but swore the crowd to secrecy. Sorry.
6:45 – Show’s over
Where are they now? Bike messenger/screenwriter Brian Durkin
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, History, Useless Information
No, seriously, where is he? This isn’t one of those “We’ve tracked down Brian – let’s see what he’s up to” kind of articles. I’d like it to be, but I just can’t find any trace of him at all.
Above: “DUDE! You’re getting a Mac!”
Who is Brian Durkin, you ask? Well, way back in 1994, Apple ran a series of PowerBook ads featuring folks like Todd Rundgren, Art Monk, Tama Janowitz and Martina Navratilova, all showing how/what they used their PowerBooks for, often with humorous side notes thrown in. However, one of the ads strayed a bit from the celeb formula to include two average Joe’s – “Sales manager” Barry Ashley, and “Bike messenger/screenwriter” Brian Durkin.
I’m sure Ashley is a lovely fellow, but of the two, Durkin, with his Vanilla Ice good looks, hoop earing, skateboard (why not a bike?), and clownishly over-sized clothing (complete with giant novelty buttons) is clearly the more interesting of the two. Among the fascinating things we learn could be found on Brian’s PowerBook are “My résumé… A really bad poem I wrote… The number of Ray Bazire, who owes me money… The first four pages of my new screenplay… thoughts on self improvement… ” and “my attempt at a rap song“.
I would more or less kill to read ANY of those things.
A quick search of IMDB seems to imply Brian was a better bike messenger than screenwriter, as he does not seem to have written anything (yet) that has been published (3 other Brian Durkins show up (2 actors and an editor), but they do not appear to be him). In fact, Google-ing him seems to return zero results, something I thought was impossible these days. Same for Ray Bazire, who apparently owed Brian money.
Above: (click to embiggen) No offense to Barry Ashley, but Durkin’s clearly the man.
One other ad in the series featured “regular people” – writer Greg Ketchum and photographer Michael O’Brien, both of whom seem to exist, so I am reasonably sure Durkin is not a figment of an Apple ad exec’s overactive imagination. So I put it to you, faithful readers. Where in the world is Brian Durkin? There are so many questions that need answers. Like, “Hey Brian, what was up with that shirt?”, and “Oh my God, Brian, what the f$#% was up with that SHIRT!?!?“. So if you know where Brian is, please let us know. He is truly on of the more colorful pieces of Apple history – our “DELL Dude”, if you will – and his legacy deserves to be cherished.
[pics via aresluna]
Why you kids can’t use Wikipedia as your sole source for information in a research project
Filed under: Awesomeness, Humor, Not Mac - But Cool, Slow News Day, Useless Information
I came across this while reading up on Optimus Prime, something all of you should be doing. Not that this is at all Mac-related, I just thought this was funny.
…despite the slight degree of autonomy they possess, the Combat Deck and Roller would not be able to survive without him.Optimus Prime has played soccer for Portsmouth Football club for the past 3 seasons. He filmed Transformers on his summer break.
Additional powers included (somewhat inconsistently) in the animated series and comics are…
Well, that’s what you get for letting anyone edit the wiki. Everyone knows Optimus played for Southampton for the 2005-2007 seasons before being sidelined with a hamstring injury.
