> Hey everyone! > > We’re super excited to announce the new hotness that we’ve been cooking up for the past few months: Dropbox 1.0! In addition to hundreds (yep, hundreds) of bug fixes, vastly reduced resource usage (think of it as the Prius model of Dropbox), Dropbox 1.0 (“Rainbow Shell”) also offers support for extended attributes, selective sync, and a shiny new installation wizard. Those are just the CliffsNotes though — here’s the true story behind Dropbox 1.0: I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but Dropbox is one of those services that changed the entire way I work with a computer. It’s right up there with Instapaper on my list of things I must have to get work done.

Selective Sync is a huge new feature to which I’ve been looking forward. Can’t wait to try that out.

> After Research in Motion beat Wall Street expectations with its quarterly earnings Thursday, co-CEO Jim Balsillie asserted on the company’s earnings call that the upcoming PlayBook 7-inch tablet is way ahead of Apple’s iPad. Apple has sold roughly 8-10 million iPads so far. Probably a lot more now that we’re in the tail end of the Christmas season. RIM has sold how many Playbooks? Oh, that’s right, the playbook won’t be out until April of next year, after a new generation of iPad is already shipping.

And that’s how he defines “way ahead?” Is this guy on crack?

> Dame Helen Mirren has condemned film-makers for aiming movies at young men, saying Hollywood “continues to worship at the altar of the 18- to 25-year-old male and his penis”. It’s hard to argue with her point. Hollywood most certainly caters to adolescent males. I’d be even more specific: immature and uneducated 18- to 25-year-old males. Which suggests to me that there’s a huge opportunity here for a studio that wanted to cater to women and/or smarter, more educated adults in general. Those films get made, but they most often get relegated to the tiny two-screen houses in the snobby part of town. Give those films a real push in the media, get them on more screens, and I think you could really make some money.

Mirren also notes that the situation is certainly improving, though not quickly enough. I don’t think we’ll see a real change in this situation until we allow more female directors and more female writers opportunities to get into the business. Men are going to make movies about men, for the most part. They do what’s familiar to them. It’s not a vindictive thing; they’re just sticking to what they know.

Maybe eventually we’ll get some female studio executives and owners? That would certainly shake things up a bit.

Get that idea into a billionaire like Oprah’s head, and you’re on your way.

> At least 200 Wal-Mart stores will roll out security > announcements within 24 hours, Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman > said. By month’s end, 588 stores in 27 states will be participating > in the program. A short video featuring Napolitano will appear on > TV screens at select checkout lanes, asking Wal-Mart shoppers to > contact local law enforcement to report suspicious activity. > > “If you see something suspicious in the parking lot or in the > store, say something immediately,” Napolitano said in the video. > “Report suspicious activity to your local police or sheriff. If you > need help ask a Wal-Mart manager for assistance.” Glad I never set foot in Wal-Mart.

So I guess I wasn’t wrong to suggest that our government might just want to expand the TSA’s reach beyond the airport. Give it a few years, if nut jobs like Napolitano get their way. We’ll be getting x-rayed and backscattered at the drive-thru at In-N-Out Burger.

Are we supposed to be stupid enough to think this has anything to do with stopping terrorism? Terrorists at Wal-Mart?

This is about driving us to stupidity with fear, plain and simple. Keep us looking at each other, and we stop looking at what they’re doing to us.

If you think it’s okay for your government to turn its citizens against one another in order to justify draconian, fascist nonsense like this, I seriously feel sorry for you.

> I’m able to make a distinction between you and me without > feeling the least bit hypocritical. I don’t watch snuff films and > you make them. You weren’t killing that animal for food or shelter > or even fashion, you were killing it for fun. You enjoy killing > animals. I can make the distinction between the two of us but I’ve > tried and tried and for the life of me, I can’t make a distinction > between what you get paid to do and what Michael Vick went to > prison for doing. I’m able to make the distinction with no pangs of > hypocrisy even though I get happy every time one of you faux-macho > shitheads accidentally shoots another one of you in the face. > > So I don’t think I will save my condemnation, you phony pioneer > girl. (I’m in film and television, Cruella, and there was an insert > close-up of your manicure while you were roughing it in God’s > country. I know exactly how many feet off camera your hair and > make-up trailer was.) Couldn’t have written it better myself. Then again, I’m not a famous television and movie writer, so it only makes sense that I couldn’t have written it better myself.

Palin is not a candidate for President. She’s a media figure who gets paid to make everyone think she’s a presidential candidate. She’s the Paris Hilton of politics. Her goal is simple: continue to make millions of dollars fooling people into thinking she is of any significance to anyone. At this, I will admit, she is a master. At everything else, she’s a loser, plain and simple.