I want to believe... or how I hope Lucas will redeem this story

I am Neema Aghamohammadi and I'm a recovering Star Wars addict.

I was a true believer. My childhood memories are filled with Star Wars memorabilia. I eagerly awaited the rerelease of the original trilogy in '97 and could barely wait for Episode I. I saw it the first day... and came away disappointed. Yet, I still believed... and even saw Episode II on opening day. It wasn't such a bad movie but it wasn't what I had imagined. Having read the books from the original trilogy, there were many tantalizing hints.

What drew me (and likely many others) to Star Wars and the mythology of the movie was not the lightsaber duels or the battles. It wasn't the corny lines or the bad acting, either. Unfortunately, what drew me in was the story of how an entire civilization be co-opted and destroyed. How could evil triumph over good? How did the Emperor corrupt Anakin's soul?

Unfortunately, the lure of money and greed corrupted George Lucas. He created a universe and a myth far larger than anything he could imagine in his own mind. Rather than bring in others to help him with the creation of this universe, he relied on technology and CGI to do the real work. Episodes I & II lack the beauty of the original trilogy.

I can only hope that somewhere, deep inside Lucas beats the heart of the original trilogy. I don't want to be disappointed. I have look forward to this story for far too long.

I want to believe.

Diet Coke versus Diet Coke with Splenda versus Diet Pesis versus Pepsi One

Sepi & I took the taste test today and apparently, I'm a brand name whore. Blinded, I like them in this order:

Pepsi One
Diet Pepsi
Diet Coke with Splenda
Diet Coke

In a shocking turn of events, when I could see what I was drinking, I liked them in this order:

Pepsi One
Diet Coke
Diet Coke with Splenda
Diet Pepsi

In the blind test, I actually spit out the Diet Coke! It was repulsive and I couldn't bear the taste in my mouth. But out of the bottle, I preferred it to everything except Pepsi One.

Unfortunately for both companies, we're trying to wean ourselves off of junk soda completely. We prefer the refreshing taste of water... water is the least likely to lead to health problems.

More Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt from Bill Gates

So, what do you do when your competitor beat you to market and has established a daunting dominance in the field you covet? Well, after you try to compete with your previous model (generic computers and Windows to rule them), you start spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about your competitor.

Gates is right. Apple shouldn't get comfortable in this position. But, do you want to know how Apple can kill MS in the MP3 player market? Just keep doing what they are doing... make Microsoft increasingly irrelevant.

Yes, when it comes to the music market, Microsoft is irrelevant and a niche player.

The Difference Between Apple & Microsoft - The Blog Effect

Blogs can be interesting and fun. As I learned, they are also very distracting and I think that one big difference between MS and Apple these days is the approach to blogging. There simply aren't many blogs coming out of Apple. In fact, I don't know of any other than that by Dave Hyatt (of Mozilla and Safari fame).

Blogging is so popular at Microsoft that they have essentially resurrected the role played by Guy Kawasaki in the person of Robert Scoble. His blog is very interesting because it offers an "unsanitized" look inside a big corporation. I don't think Scoble is evil (far from it, most likely) but I can't help but feel that MS will start approaching blogs like another arm of their PR campaign. They know people are doing research online so having MS employees saying good things about MS products in their blogs increases the likelihood that someone will stumble across a positive page...

In 1999 I read some in depth article of how Longhorn will radically change the landscape of computing. At the time, Apple was still trying to pull OS X together. The two companies were at parity (in my opinion) between Windows 98 and Mac OS 9. Fast forward six years and OS X is at it's 5th major release and we're still waiting for Longhorn.

I think that's the big difference in 2005. Apple used to talk about how great their vision of the future was but produced nothing compelling for most of the '90s. Now we find Microsoft talking about how great technology will be with Longhorn, etc. Instead of producing, they're talking. Instead of shipping, they spew forth with blogs.

Can Someone at Apple Stop Messing the GUI?

It is a shame that Apple now views each release of OSX as an experiment in GUI design. Whereas Aqua does need refinement and it would be foolish to insist that it cannot get better, Apple shouldn't change the GUI for the worse. The changes made to Mail are an abomination!