Finding Mu

Found a great Ludwig Von Mises quote from Wikipedia here.

The usual terminology of political language is stupid. What is 'left' and what is 'right'? Why should Hitler be 'right' and Stalin, his temporary friend, be 'left'? Who is 'reactionary' and who is 'progressive'? Reaction against an unwise policy is not to be condemned. And progress towards chaos is not to be commended. Nothing should find acceptance just because it is new, radical, and fashionable. 'Orthodoxy' is not an evil if the doctrine on which the 'orthodox' stand is sound. Who is anti-labor, those who want to lower labor to the Russian level, or those who want for labor the capitalistic standard of the United States? Who is 'nationalist,' those who want to bring their nation under the heel of the Nazis, or those who want to preserve its independence?

It's something I wish people would do more: please don't throw ideas into big huge buckets! People like to categorize things, to simplify the way they view the world. Left and Right are great directions to look if you're crossing a street, but don't make them the be-all end-all of where you or others stand in your beliefs.

Posted by at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm a happy long-time owner of a 2nd-gen 10 Gb iPod. Still works great to this day. I'm not in the market for a new music player (although the new iPod Nanos are very tempting), but I couldn't help but notice the release of Microsoft's new Zune. To be honest, I don't know all that much about the features, but what struck me was the design. I guess I have a good eye for these things.

Back when I bought my iPod, I bought a nice frost white iSkin cover to go with it, for protection. When I started seeing images come out for the new Zune, I was blown away. It's pretty obvious to me that Microsoft has straight-out copied iSkin's design for an iPod cover, right down to the material.

It's tough to see from this picture (easier to see on the iPod I have sitting right next to me now), but check it out. Here's the 2nd gen iPod with a white frost iSkin cover:

And here's a picture of the new Zune, in white:

Check out the uncanny similarities:

- Two concentric circles for control
- Rectangular "border" surrounds the screen
- "Upside-down Omega" pattern extending the rectangle, surrounding the circular controls (tough to see on the iSkin picture, but look closely)
- Four directional touch buttons

Yes, the Zune's screen is bigger and there is a button on each side of the control circle, and the border is black, whereas the iSkin's border is white.

Here's more pictures of the 2nd gen iSkin, from The iStore.

Whether or not the design was intentionally copied, it's a very nice design, and I love the look of the Zune. I just wonder whether the original designer(s) of the iSkin were credited... Hm.

Posted by at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

MS unveiled the Windows Vista retail boxes:

More pics here.

Have to say, these boxes look sweet! (And really, you'd hope you can design a nice box when you have 6 years (2001-2007) to do it!) Can't wait to see the massive marketing campaign a-la Windows XP that follows... With all that money, you can throw a pretty big concert.

Posted by at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)