A Chip Off The Old Block

A Sign of Things to Come?

Anyone who truly knows me knows that I am a diehard Chicago Cubs fan. I am not one of these fly-by-night, jump-on-the-Cubs-bandwagon since they’re doing good this year. 

I was reading my RSS feeds earlier and came across Mark DeRosa’s latest blog entry. It’s an interview with Ryan Dempster that is an okay read until the last question which is an instant classic.

DEROSA: I’m going to set a scene for you: Kerry Wood on the mound, Game 7 of the World Series in Wrigley Field. Ground ball to second, DeRosa throws it to D-Lee, game over, Cubs are World Series champs. What happens?

DEMPSTER: Pandemonium. I’d say the top of the Budweiser building blows off. People storm the field. Huge chunks of ivy are ripped off the walls. Police cars are turned over on Addison, on Waveland, on Sheffield, and you can’t walk within a 45-block radius of Wrigley Field because people will be drinking there for seven to 10 days. What a great feeling.

What a great feeling that would be indeed. Is this year finally “next year”?

WordPress iPhone App

WordPress’s iPhone App is out! Downloading & installing now..

Multiple blog support..

Decent interface..

Nothing too intuitive about it to be honest, but it is GREAT for mobile blog writing but nothing more.

Features I’d like to see:

- Comment editing / approving
- Ability to see drafts on the server

Bug #1: using the iPhone bullet character causes the app to crash.

Cover Me

There’s just *something* I like about cover songs and artists paying tribute to another artists. Many times cover songs are inferior versions of the originals. But here is my list of cover songs that I feel are just as good if not better than the originals:

• Garth Brooks – Fishin’ In The Dark. Orignially recorded by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Garth’s version adds a level of enthusiasm not found on the original.
• Carrie Underwood – I’ll Stand By You. Originally recorded by The Pretenders. Carrie’s version adds emotion and a country twang to an already amazing song.
• Chris Cornell and David Cook – Bille Jean. Orginally recorded by Michael Jackson. Chris did an amazing arrangement and recording while David took Chris’s version and took it to the next level.
• Daughtry – Used To. Originally recorded by Zac Maloy. Daughtry’s version changes the original up a bit and adds a new bridge/version. I honestly cannot decide which I like better, so we’ll just call this one a tie.
• Green Day – I Fought The Law. Originally recorded by Sonny Curtis and The Crickets. Green Day’s version is simply amazing as is The Clash’s version of the song.
• Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Over The Rainbow. Originally recorded by Judy Garland. “Bruddah Iz” adds his signature Hawaiian twist to the song and does a remarkable job.
• Pearl Jam – Rockin’ In the Free World. Orignally recorded by Neil Young. Pearl Jam routinely covers this song in their live show; it can be found on many of their official bootlegs.
• Pat Green & Cory Morrow – Stuck In The Middle With You. Originally recorded by Stealers Wheel. Pat & Cory’s duet recording of this song adds a great country feel to the song.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Love Rollercoaster. Orginally recorded by The Ohio Players. RHCP’s version of the song is a thousand times better than the original.
• U2 – Instant Karma. Originally recorded by John Lennon. I’ll not say that U2′s version exceeds the original, but it’s definitely a great recording.
• David Cook – Eleanor Rigby. Originally recorded by The Beatles. David’s version (I’m not going to get into the whole Doxology stuff) is a great recording that takes the song to a new level.
• Disturbed – Land Of Confusion. Originally recorded by Genesis. Disturbed’s version transforms the song into a great rock tune.
• Boyz II Men – In The Still of The Night. Originally recorded by the Five Satins. Boyz II Men’s version is very smooth and adds a new dimension to the song due to their great harmony.
• Alanis Morissette – My Humps. Originally recorded by the Black Eyed Peas. I’m just throwing this in here because Alanis’ version is quite funny. Supposedly it was recorded as an April Fool’s Day joke in 2007. Video is available on YouTube.

iPhone OS 2.0 Evaluation

Now that the iPhone OS 2.0 is out, time for me to write my evaluation.

I’ve previously listed (here and here) my wishlists, and it looks like some of them have actually been resolved:

• BCC ability — fixed by Apple!
• Distribution List ability — still MIA.
• Mulit-client chat (YIM, AIM, Jabber) — still MIA as one client.
• Contacts having own home screen icon — fixed by Apple!
• SSH terminal with bookmark support — MIA and likely will remain that way.

Two out of five isn’t bad!

The AppStore is awesome though. Apple Remote is flawless, and the Facebook and MySpace applications work as expected. WeatherBug is a nice addition as well.

Of all the improvements Apple made, there are two that stick out (in addition to the above two already listed):

• Ability to delete/move multiple emails at a time
• Multiple calendar support

All in all, OS 2.0 is a great step forward. I can’t wait to see what 3.0 brings!