I’m thinking of buying a Motorola L2 and a Canon SD600 … anyone have any better suggestions for a cell phone and a camera?  Buddy has the Sony 800i or 810i or something phone-that-does-everything and while it has ok res, the pictures need to be taken really close or they blur out pretty badly so it seems the camera ought be external.

Also why does Telus have to be better than everyone but not support GSM?  Maybe I should just keep my shite CDMA phone.

Kevin Smith slams critic Joe Siegel on his blog. Siegel apparently walked out of a screening of Clerks II and “bellowed to his fellow critics ‘Time to go!’ and ‘This is the first movie I’ve walked out of in 30 fucking years!’” Smith wasn’t angry that the critic didn’t like the movie, he was pissed because Siegel disrupted his movie. Kevin Smith is my new lord and master … lol.

So let’s fast forward a couple of days in the past to last Wednesday (about a week ago). Kevin Smith is on a radio show and is speaking with Siegel directly about his concerns … and … well … just watch it, it’s too funny. I just wish they had a camera on Siegel at the time. The full audio of the radio show is available here.

Oh, and check out the greatest trailer for Clerks II ever, using quotes from Kevin Smith’s rant against Siegel.

So awesome! The next gen Lucas Game will make being Sith/Fallen Force Users awesome!!

For those of you who aren’t subscribed to Baen’s Books news:

Baen Books Acting Publisher Toni Weisskopf has reached agreements for major new projects and series continuations with authors David Weber, John Ringo, Eric Flint, and Lois McMaster Bujold, four of Baen’s “brand name” authors and series anchors.

Included is a new Honor Harrington novel by David Weber, whose “Honorverse” books total nearly five million in print and regularly hit the New York Times best-seller list. John Ringo has agreed to write three more “Mike O’Neal” books in his extremely popular New York Times best-selling “Posleen War” series. In addition, alternate history master and New York Times best-seller Eric Flint has signed on for three solo novels in his groundbreaking and highly popular “1632”—another New York Times best-selling series created by Baen Books. Finally, five-time Hugo Award winner Lois McMaster Bujold will deliver a new “Miles Vorkosigan” novel in her mega-hit best-selling science fiction adventure series.

“These are Baen’s ‘tentpole’ writers,” says Weisskopf. “Baen is set to maintain its rock-solid position in the marketplace. Having all of these wonderful writers aboard with new agreements is intensely satisfying and very exciting.”

Founded by Jim Baen in 1983, and known for its story-oriented approach, Baen Books is a dominant presence in the military science fiction and adventure genres, with over fifty million copies in print and over 35 New York Times best-sellers.

I’ve never heard of Lois McMaster Bujold before, but her Miles Vorkosigan series has now intrigued me … Alas only The Mountains of Mourning (which would be like book 4 of ~17) is in the Baen Free Library, so I’ll probably have to find them in the physical library. Then acquire them if they are any good.

The current CANOE poll question is “What do you think of Israel’s response thus far to Hezbollah capturing their soldiers?”  At the moment, the results are tied, with 37% saying that Israel has gone overboard, and 37% saying that it’s appropriate.  Now, I’ll admit that I haven’t been following this situation too closely, but isn’t the situation basically that a group of people from within Lebanon crossed the border into Israel, and killed or captured a handful of Israeli soldiers.  Yes, that’s not an appropriate action.  Perhaps some retaliation is even called for.  But Israel’s counterstrike has already killed eight Canadian civilians in Lebanon (hint: that’s the same as the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the initial Hezbollah action that sparked this).  If there have already been that many deaths of just Canadian civilians, how many other innocent civilians has Israel killed in its “retaliation”?

Now, with that in mind… how exactly can 37% of CANOE readers honestly claim that they believe that Israel’s actions are “appropriate” (not to mention 22% who think that Israel hasn’t gone far enough!)?  What am I missing here?  I’m honestly asking that, because for that many people to feel that way, there must be something else that I’ve missed.

I do hearby retract my statement that the conservatives may be no worse than the liberals. I’d rather have a corrupt government over a stupid one any day. At least corruption is predictable. What is happening in the middle east is horrible. I agree that Israel has the right to defend itself, but this defence, in my opinion, does not include carpet bombing the whole of southern lebanon. This whole thing was sparked over the kidnapping of two Israeli Soldiers. The Israeli army was caught with their pants around their knees and they got fucked. That is truly unfortunate, but are two lives worth the destruction that is being wrought? It is reasonable to turn southern Lebanon into one massive crater? A lot of civilians are dead, including an entire Canadian family from Montreal. I hold both Israel and Hizbollah responsible for those deaths and every other civilian death in the region over the last week. Canada shouldn’t be declaring support for either butcher, but be working with others to end the violence, preferably diplomatically.

Harper is an idiot. His statement is the equivalent of political suicide. The NDP and the Liberals would love to pull down his government, and the reaction of Quebec to his comments are not going to help the conservative’s popularity there, and might be enough to convince the bloc that they could win back more seats in the next election. You have to steer the middle course as the leader of a minority government otherwise you will find yourself out the door. Harper should know that better than anyone.

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Senator Ted Stevens, representing Alaska, explained why he voted against the net neutrality bill in the United States, providing the deciding vote to ensure that it didn’t pass.  His explanation includes such gems as this:  “I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday.”  He goes on to demonstrate further his profound grasp of Internet technology (sorry, “the tubes”), as well as English grammar.  He does, at least, recognize that the Internet is “not a truck.”  Of course not.  Everybody knows that it’s “a series of tubes“!

It appears that our illustrious Prime Minister, Steven Harper, has found a simpler way to make sure that he lives up to his five promised priorities.  If they prove to be too difficult, just substitute a different set of five priorities!

If you have watched a new channel within the last five years, you know that they are designed for ADD Boy and his friends. Lots of scrolling text, moving picture graphics, etc. It is horridly distracting and really redundant since the scrolling is usually too jaring to be actually readable without motion sickness.

In any case, I’m not the only person with this opinion … In fact, I’d wage a guess that 1310 people on digg agree with me on this one. But the most powerful man in the universe, comedian Lewis Black, does too. He was on a live CNN interview and about four and half minutes in, he told the CNN crew to get rid of the shit at the bottom of the screen (the banner and the ticker) because it was blocking the screen and distracting … and they did (at least for the remainder of his interview).

All I have to say is the CNN feed suddenly looked cleaner and I was able to finally focus on the speakers. I’ve got so used to seeing that crud, I completely forgot that it didn’t have to be there. Lewis Black is my new … err, wait, do I wish to replace Cory Doctrow? Hmm … Lewis Black is my new lord and master. Is that suprising? My loyalty is fleeting and easily purchased. That plus Lewis Black just demonstrated his immense power and influence. How could I not wish to jump onto the coat tails of a man like that?

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It’s all shiny.   One of the funniest spoofs of a TV show I’ve ever seen.   This video is a humourous behind-the-scenes of a fictional show Mosquito, which should be vary familar to you all.   “Gorrammit, Cal, you know I hate turnips.”

In a related vein, there is a really cool site for those of you wishing to learn Chinese.   Linese has free videos, lessons, and teaching material in order to teach you chinese.   Very shiny.  If all the chinese you want to know is the phrases from Serenity, then this page might be besser for you.