Thursday, January 31st, 2008

This may be a bit over the top, but I feel like tonight’s Democratic presidential debate will shape the fate of our nation. Now, hear me out …

Whoever does best in this debate will be the one who has the upper hand in the Super Tuesday states, and in turn will have a large number of delegates in their pocket. This will give the Clintons or Obama a leg up in the Edwards endorsement sweepstakes, and will also give them a bump in the superdelegeate race. Whoever runs away with those two things will most likely be the Democratic nominee this summer.

Barring some sort of epic collapse, the Democrats will get a crack at running the White House in the fall. I feel tonight’s head to head debate between the two strongest candidates for President is going to be one of those moments that we can look back on as the ‘turning point’ for whichever candidate wins.

With all that said, I feel that we’re missing out on a huge opportunity to do a lot of good and ‘turn the page’ if Obama doesn’t get the nod from the Democrats. Despite the fact that the Clintons will probably still be able to beat whatever the Republicans can muster in November, she is a status-quo candidate. So is McCain. More on that later.

If you get a chance tonight, watch the Democratic debate. It could very well be a historic moment.

Welcome! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Posted on January 31st, 2008 | No Comments »

Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

Of all of the announcements from yesterday’s Macworld keynote, the thing that left me feeling the most optimistic was the iPhone front. Of course, the Macbook Air looks like an incredible product and if I were the type of person who traveled a lot and needed a laptop for that, I would have already pre-ordered one. However, I’m not. My next wireless router will be a Time Capsule. And finally, the Apple TV update looks impressive. Short of a simple DVR function, it’s the perfect home entertainment center in my mind.

However, the fact that Apple released yet another impressive software update is what stuck out at me the most. iPhone owners were given updates to text messaging, Google Maps, icon management, and a host of other small improvements. All of this was given out for free. Not only that, we have the upcoming developer kit being released next month, which will give iPhone users a slew of new, useful software from 3rd party developers. All of this new combined means the future is bright for the iPhone, which has already sold 4 million units in 6 months - well on it’s way to 10 million by the end of 2008.

But here’s what stuck with me: Apple also released the programs missing on the iPod Touch (Mail, Stocks, Notes, Maps, and Weather) for a $20 fee. I’m sure fans weren’t too excited to hear about this charge, but think about what this really means in the long term. Apple has never been willing to offer software updates to their iPod lines when new functionality is added to another line. I feel this is a sign that we will be able to buy new functionality for our iPhones even when the ‘iPhone 2.0′ is released. I would be more than happy to pay $20 every year or so to keep the latest and greatest software on my iPhone without having to buy a new device (at least until my current one is dead).

It’s too early to tell exactly what the software update strategy is for the iPhone/iPod Touch, but I am optimistic that this means you won’t have to buy a new iPhone just to stay up to date on the software front. Isn’t that the way it should be?

Posted on January 16th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Monday, January 14th, 2008

I wanted to invite everyone to check out my new tumblelog at roundup.danielandrews.com or click the link in the footer of my page. I have no idea where that word came from, and personally I find it repulsive. However, the concept itself is really neat. Basically, a tumblelog is a collection of links and data from all of the things you ‘use’ on the web. For me, that’s things like the social bookmarking site del.icio.us, flickr, youtube, my blog, and twitter. A tumblelog aggregates all of this stuff and puts it into a single timeline. People can then simply check one site and see what you’re up to, versus subscribing to the 50 different sites that you use.

Anyway, check it out at http://roundup.danielandrews.com/.

Update 1/23:

I’m going to call it ‘the Roundup’, as I feel it basically will be a synopsis of links, photos, videos, quotes, and comments from my daily posting. It’s also a hat tip to Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish.

Posted on January 14th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Monday, January 14th, 2008

It’s been a while since I talked about tailgating - the season has come and gone again, and it feels like each game we slowly improved the setup. We’ve learned our lessons from last year (where we essentially showed up with a truck and cooked brats on a gas grill every game) and even from this year.

Game 1: Samford
We basically showed up, no parking plan, and a few coolers of delightful beverages and such. We sat out in the scorching heat, and at one point we were forced to sit under/in the middle of a low-lying tree. Highlights included Tech beating Samford by 850 points, the aforementioned tree-sitting fiasco, and Bonnie’s parents spying on us from across the stadium.

After this game, we quickly realized the errors of our ways. We had to improve on this amateur-like showing. What were we, Troy fans? Hell no. We had to act - and FAST.

Game 2: Boston College
After learning our lesson from the first week, we got our hands on a tent, a parking permit, and planned what we’d eat a bit better. The game’s outcome sucked, but I guess most of them did. Highlights for this game included … well, not much. GT looked awful, but we did get to try out the new setup, the new spot, Liz and Kevin came by, and that was nice.

Oh, and I saw many fans arrested at the game due to the rage directed at the poor officiating.

Game 3: Clemson
The Clemson game saw the emergence of Bison burgers, and Tech winning a game they had no business winning.

Game 4: Army
This was easily our greatest success of the year. Fresh off of an appearance at Neltoberfest 2, the Wooden Couch showed up and kept us extremely comfortable (and pretty damn stylish as well). On top of that, we got an appearance by Rick and Becky, as well as our inaugural breakfast cooking. I got a wicked sunburn at this game, but we had a good time with the couch, and a nice setup overlooking the parking lot.

Game 5: VT
Tech lost, we ate pizza out of the back of a truck, and sat in loads of traffic. Thursday night games are a waste.

Game 6: North Carolina
We got to meet some Nelson-relatives who DID NOT …. I repeat, DID NOT …. throw their garbage away when they left. Very unprofessional. Oh, tech won another game.

Game 7: UGA
Lots of folks, lots of good food, and screwing with people playing football in the field were the highlights of another beat down by UGA. At this point, we really had the tailgating thing down. Even though Tech lost, it was fun talking shit to UGA folks a bit and spending literally 12 hours at the stadium.

I’m quite confident in our abilities to tailgate with the best of them now. I think my official goal should now be to recruit more season ticket holders to accompany us next year. Tech is truly awful, but we still have a blast at the games.

Posted on January 14th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

And away we go. Great to see Barack Obama get the win tonight in Iowa and here’s hoping he can keep the momentum through the remaining primaries. What an important and historic win for Obama, and the beginning of something special in our country politically. With a two to one advantage for the Democrats … with this type of energy in a swing state … this could be huge.

Edit: Obama’s speech Thursday night:

Posted on January 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »