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If, for some unknown reason, you're still using M$Office, you need to stop right now. Because Open Office 3 (beta) is out! Though it's been available for Windows and Linux for awhile, OpenOffice 3 is first version for Mac that runs natively (not in Java like NeoOffice). As you'd expect, it opens and saves all office file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc) and it's FREE! Go get it...

“Ubuntu” is evidently the African term for "F*ck Microsoft," because the latest version of this open-source Linux Operating System does pretty much everything the average user could ever want as well as, if not better than, Windows. True, it's a little crude in areas where Mac-enthusiasts like myself might notice (type rastering, for example). But for Windows users, the experience would differ little in appearances, and differ greatly in non-suckiness. I recently burned the latest version of Ubuntu 8.04 onto a CD-R and booted my MacBook off the disc with stunning results. Not only was Ubuntu fast (running off a CD, no less), it was also really polished. With Firefox and a boatload of other free software pre-installed and ready to run, I could've done my day-to-day computer activities with no trouble at all. I could easily see changing over to Linux soon, were it not for the fact that Mac OSX is still my favorite OS for doing graphics. But if you're a typical PC user stuck with an Intel or AMD machine, you should SERIOUSLY try Ubuntu (it is free, after all), and at the very least create a dual-boot partition on your computer. You may soon find yourself never paying Micro$oft for software again.

It was bad enough that he supported Bush's black/white view of world politics. And that he supported George W. Bush's handling of Katrina.. And that, in hindsight, he finally admits that the Iraq War is a disaster.

A hush then fell over the multitudes. And the almighty Lord spake, saying: "An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator....these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone!"

There was much rejoicing.

It's seems like an eternity since the Jesus phone was released last January. Yet, finally, a full year later, I've got one.

And, in the words of the Almighty, "it is good."

Here's a nice compilation of wisdom and insight from people who, today, would almost certainly be either incredibly old, or more likely, emphatically dead.

Here are some excerpts:

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent. —Fredrick Nietzsche

No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. —Voltaire

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. —Voltaire

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. —Plato

Religion, to me, is a bureaucracy between man and God that I don’t need. —Bill Maher

Good stuff, that. (Who knew Nietzsche had a sense of humor?)

This recent holiday, I flashed back to a Christmas past. The year was 1999, or maybe 2002, whatever, I don't remember. And it's not important. What is important was how I felt that holiday when American Airlines flew my new wife and I home to New York to spend a few rare days with my family.

It was cold that year and the airline was bustling with travelers excited to see kith and kin. We arrived at JFK Airport looking for our quick puddle-jumper leg up to Rochester. Instead, we got a 7-hour drive inside a van with non-functioning heat. Did I mention it was 20-degrees out and it was a seven hour ride?

Microsoft's new Vista Operating System is #10 on the list of "top 10 terrible tech products" according to Cnet.com: