These are all the same, right?
Author: scrooks
Happy For Mad
If this is true, I’m pretty thrilled: MAD for the iPad
That will mean I’ll be able to never find the time to read it on my iPad, instead of never finding the time to read the print copies I get in the mail.
It’s very MAD-like to release on April Fool’s Day. Or maybe it’s a great MAD joke.
For The More… Prolific? Tweeters
Toilet paper with your tweets on it. Not kidding.
The Other Comic-Con
The big momma is In San Diego and is called Comic-Con. Our local version is called Planet Comicon and pales in comparison. But it’s local and much cheaper to attend.
I have the pleasure of having built up an acquaintance with Don Rosa, a terrific author and artist of many Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories. If you’re an American you’re probably thinking, “So what?” but if you’re a European, your jaw probably dropped on the floor and you’re drooling with jealousy. Don is the equivalent of a rock star over there, where they read enough Disney comics to make them the best-selling comic books in the world. Wacky, eh? And I’m not kidding—when Don does signings over there, the line stretches huge distances. He gets recognized frequently in the street. Here in the U.S. his line is never more than 2 deep.
Before the con I emailed Don and asked if I could give him a hand, and it turned out that my son, Calvin, and I were able to help out more than any of us expected. The way things worked out, it became very handy for Don to have us pick him up at the airport the day before the convention and drive him down to the convention center to help him set up.
Don is a really nice, down to earth guy, and he really felt like he was putting us out and taking advantage of us. We certainly didn’t mind helping and thought it was a lot of fun. It turned out to be beneficial to all 3 of us in the end.
When we got to the convention center, it was Calvin’s job to cut tape so Don could set up his booth without messing with that detail. My job was to sit around and do nothing, but I think all three of us enjoyed being able to talk during the two-hour set up process.
There was a long way to go for everyone before the show opened. It was interesting to see the chaos and all the work needed to be done less than 24 hours before the con opened.
We finished helping and dropped Don off at his hotel.
The next day Calvin and I arrived at the convention center right around opening time and we discovered that Planet Comicon was a lot more popular than we expected this year. The parking lots were jammed. We had to park a good distance away. When we got to the front of the building we discovered an amazingly long line.
This looked like something we had seen at San Diego Comic-Con last year! Inside, the line was even nuttier.
So here’s where helping Don really paid off. When we arrived to set up the day before, the first thing Don did was obtain guest passes for us. With these passes around our neck we walked by everyone right into the exhibit hall. Thank you, Don!
The plan was that Calvin would sit with Don at his table to give him a hand. Don was insistent that he was self-sufficient and didn’t need help, but Calvin really felt like he could contribute something and wanted to do what he could. It turned out Don was right.
Calvin still had a good time, but we all agreed that after lunch there wasn’t much point to sitting back there anymore. Calvin joked that he helped the guy at the table next to Don more than Don, when he sat there as “guard” while the guy left for a bit. Wouldn’t want anyone to mess with that actual outfit Kate Beckinsale wore in Underworld.
After lunch Calvin and I strolled the aisles and fought the crowds and had a good time. We caught Don without any customers at one point (thankfully, a somewhat rare event) and I showed him comics and a few other things on my iPad. He jokingly asked where the camera was, not expecting that it actually had one. So I took a picture of him with the iPad.
After that Calvin and I said goodbye to Don and went home. We will be back tomorrow with my 5-year-old who is extremely excited to meet Don for the first time and get a sketch from him.
Funniest Android vs iPhone Story Yet
From RedLaser blog: Android users are more likely to scan soda and cigarettes than their iOS peers
Draw your own conclusions.
I wish I could remember what I scanned first. Probably a book.
In Other News, Swallowing An iPad Makes You Choke
Today’s stupid post comes from The Wall Street Journal in the article Video Speed Trap Lurks in New iPad by Anton Troianovski.
This article reveals how some users are using up the cellular data on their iPads faster than they expected. Guess it was a slow news day down at the ol’ Journal.
They start off with the best example, in terms of laugh-worthiness:
Two hours of college basketball—-which he viewed mounted to his car dashboard and live at tournament games-—had burned through his monthly wireless data allotment of two gigabytes.
This dude, who is so brilliant he watches basketball while driving, managed to use up his data by watching two hours of video. What more can you say? Clearly life sucks.
Mr. Troianovski searches for something, anything, to say on this topic, and comes up with this:
The iPad’s new high-resolution screen and fast connection are specifically designed to spur greater use of online video.
I’m not buying this. I think it the new iPad’s design was done so Apple could stay in the lead with its hardware. There are many uses for a high-resolution screen and fast connection. Admittedly, watching online video is one of them, but I hardly think it was the main goal.
The Wells Family was interviewed for the article, and they clearly didn’t put a lot of thought into their use of the cellular data network. First the son complains that the hours he spent watching YouTube at the coffee shop really burned through his data plan. No kidding? Huh. Then Dad has his own problems:
Mr. Wells’s father, Steve Wells, also hit his data limit on Saturday. While he was at the basketball game with his son, his wife was using his iPad as a video baby monitor for his granddaughter while she napped in another room. By the time the two were back from the game, the app had burned through his two gigabyte plan.
His wife, presumably in their home, used the iPad with a cell network to monitor a baby for a few hours? Where in the world did this reporter find these people? So, no wifi network in the house? No way to simply listen? Wouldn’t they have had the same problem in this case on a 3G cellular data network? I’m actually quite surprised that this paragraph didn’t end with, “and they found that the iPad’s battery was down to only 63%. It was astonishing how using the iPad would eat up the battery like that.”
At some point in this article it might have been a good idea to point out that none of these people ran into extra charges for going over their limit, the data stream just stopped. That’s a big difference from data plans on your phone. Also, there are bigger data plans available if these people want to continue such nonsense. Verizon offers a 10 GB plan. Plus, with any of these plans you can always simply pay again once your allotment is up. You know, in case you want to monitor the paint drying in the kitchen next. Your iPad does not have to be a disconnected slab of glass for the next 29 days because you went nuts streaming video. I suppose giving information like this would make it even more clear what a waste this article was, so it’s good that Mr. Troianovski left it out.
Dad concludes with this gem:
“All the advantages of the iPad device are completely neutralized by the two gigabyte data limit,” said Steve Wells, 56.
Yes, ALL the advantages. I’m returning my stupid useless iPad ASAP.