Sometimes I will do a Google on “Apple” and click on news…just to see, well, just to see what’s new.

I do believe in the adage “no news is good news”, so when there is no news and all we get is made up news, well it is kind of funny. You know, like those mags you see in the grocery line, kind of takes away from the boredom as the old lady in front of you argues with the clerk about the price of a can of beans.

When googling though, I am looking for real news, so  it is irritating. Like today, the BIG STORY is the rumor that the rumored iPod with a rumored camera may have a technical glitch! Wow!  I just did a Shift-Command-4 (on the mac) to snapshot the results of this historic hour:

Now yesterday, it was different “news”  about different speculations.  Yeah, news about speculations, which is not much different than news about rumors of rumors, but close.   The speculation is regurgitated, cyclic, but these days the blogosphere’s roller coaster had sped to warp speed.  I suspect they are getting paid for this.  But for crying out loud, Beatles and Tablet’s again?  That was the search result topper yesterday.  I didn’t snapshot it.  I think I will do that for now on (Shift-Command-4 is becoming second nature to me anyway).   But take my word for it yesterday, August 7, 2009, the top Apple news story on google was:

Apple telegraphs iPods; fans see Beatles, tablets via The Associated Press: Apple telegraphs iPods; fans see Beatles, tablets.

I actually read the story, then felt stupid.  Even I can get suckered into clicking on certain things.  I am a humongous Beatle fan, big time Tablet  guy for almost 20 years, Apple is my focus these days…I fell for it.  Its really a drag when you read so called “news” and there is nothing new, and it actually is irritating because there is a lot wrong and you almost want to waste your time in the comments section correcting the wrongness.  But I didn’t this time, I’d rather blog about it ;-)

So what was wrong with the article?   Well, on the Beatles, it was the same o same o rumor that the Beatle recordings will be sold on iTunes finally.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, but this time for sure!  Uh, but then the article says only if Paul and Ringo agree to it.  I swear my 8 year old neighbor’s kid could make up better stories than this (btw, Paul and Ringo are all for this, but they don’t have the final say on any of this, the record company does of course…now why does the Sex Pistol’s “EMI” come to mind?).

Anyway, you’ll notice that “Apple Tablet” thingy is still hot too (even along with this iPod glitch tragedy) .  Nothing new.

It’s ain’t going to be a tablet

Then again, Apple could release and market a “Tablet”…which would be a major mistake, and I could be one of those negative pundits.

Why an Apple “iPad” makes sense.

So, yesterday while falling for that I also notice one article on one subject.  Apple Insider published

Technical issues could delay iPod camera upgrade

and of course I fell for that too.  I mean it actually looked like news.  Errr…nope…just a bunch a speculation based on some “reliable source” that there is a camera glitch, bla bla bla.  Yeah, technical product, with technical glitch.  Uh uh.  Now of course, the implication is that this “glitch” is mega news!  The End Of The World news, at least for Apple.  It “could”, “might” RUIN Apple’s big event tomorrow.  It “could, might, maybe”, send Steve Jobs back to the hospital, oh the drama.

I blew it off yesterday, I mean it is silly, it doesn’t make sense.  Yeah, a glitch does, but the end-of-the-world implications is nutso.  Yet…next day, today, there are 218 articles that confirm (cough cough) this.  Regurgitated from the original Apple Insider post which simply used a “reliable source” that basically says not much.  Wow.   Its like astrologists, you know, they may get your horoscope wrong 300 hundreds days of the year, but you remember the few times they were sorta close.   If they are wrong, and you point it out, they will use the semantics of language (like Nostradamus followers) as a defense

…let’s follow this one, be back tomorrow.

My answer to Lauper’s “Girls Just wanna have fun” which I played over and over last year but couldn’t get into. Back then there was a sports bar called “Coaches” (still is), I have not been there for a long time since they went UFC, but that place is what I think of when I sing this song....but its actually inspired initially by a guy name Ted.

(i) Clayton Weimer 2009

Found myself a bar, bought myself a beer
Look around to and fro, looks like the coast is clear
Bought myself another, not I’m feeling fine
My team just scored up on the screen, that girl she’s looking fine
I’m a man on the run.
Broke myself some dollars, bought myself some songs
Don’t want to sound to petty but free fall’s where my heart belongs
Now I feel the rhythm, now I feel the flow
She comes up to me, now, where do I want to go.
I’m a man on the run.
Found myself a highway, still weigh a load,
lets see what down that next exit
at the end of the road.

All Conference Player Commits to Keelhaulers

Mon, Apr 27, 2009 – [Men's Basketball]

Cal Maritime head men’s basketball coach Bryan Rooney has announced the signing of Foothill College forward Michael Weimer.  Michael recently finished an outstanding career at Foothill where he played for head coach Shannon Rosenberg.

“We are thrilled that Michael will be joining our program.  He played in one of the top junior college programs in the state and has a proven track record of being a winner.  Very simply, he makes positive plays on the floor. Not only has he been a double digit scorer the past two years in junior college and a prolific scorer in high school but he has done so with efficiency.  More importantly, he is an excellent student committed to getting a great degree at our school,” commented Coach Rooney.

Weimer graduated from high school at Westmont High School, where he averaged 22 points and 8 rebounds his senior year under Coach Bill Gerth.  Also during his senior year, Michael set a career high with 52 points against Evergreen High School

At Foothill, Michael established himself as one of the Owls’ main offensive threats as he averaged 11.5 points per game for his career.  At 6′5″, he possesses the ability to score inside but by evidence of his 117 made three point shots, Weimer also is able to stretch the defense. For his play, Michael was a two-time All Conference selection in the always tough Coast Conference.  He will major in business at Cal Maritime.

“We are at an exciting time in our program coming off a solid year with 17 wins and looking to take the next step.  Michael will have the opportunity to be a significant contributor in helping us do so,” concluded Coach Rooney.

via California Pacific Conference.

A little history:
A Wander-Buch is a work record for a journeyman. A journeyman must first complete an apprenticeship as they went from Master to Master to learn their trade. It was a record the journeyman
could use along with letters of recommendation or accomplishment from those various masters to earn their own master in their trade.

The Wanderbuch is usually a work record for a journeyman craftsman, but in this case Johann Jacob seems to have used it mainly a personal diary.

http://csumc.wisc.edu/FLVA/let/Wanderbuch_1905/Wanderbuch_1905.html

Another use of the word Wanderbuch was used in the Catholic Kolping Society. It was mostly called a Gesellenwanderbuch but it also documented the travels of members of the workers society as they
travelled from place to place while staying at local Kolping houses in the various cities they traveled through. It served as an admission card from one place to the next.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnons_du_Tour_de_France

[Wandering Book] In conformity with the highest ordnance from the high royal administration nr. 21080 this wandering book, enclosing 48 pages, and its good being taken care of, its wandering owner hath to bethink, as well as of the following: the named person is to avoid meaningless, loitering perambulation, and especially begging. to direct his trips only towards places where patrons or masters from his craft or guild are to be found, in places where he will not find work, he won’t stop for more than 48 hours without the due authorities’ consent, and in each place where he meets patrons or masters from his craft or guild, even if he continues his trip without actually working, the guild chief or his assistant or, where there aren’t guilds, a patron or master is to make the following notes in this wandering book: whether he had, or not, the opportunity of finding work and whether, and on what reason, he refused the work offered. without superior permission, the wanderer isn’t entitled to leave the K & K territory, on the contrary, he is obliged to occupant his wandering time with useful work and to obtain from the master he worked for a certificate referring to the time he worked and his conduct, which is to be certified by local authorities, this will be used only by him in any situation. finally assuming a false name, using a wandering book other than his own or falsifying the book, erasing or deleting or any other falsification in the wandering book is considered, according to the ordnance of the High Royal administration nr. 2355 to be public fraud and to be punished accordingly by the law.

I always enjoy naysayers being wrong, the ones that is, that said it with such conviction.  The interesting thing about the latest bigtime  success story, the Apple iPhone, is that it was launched during a time where naysayers really had their say (blogs blogs and more blogs) and therefore they are well documented as what they are: ANALysts – with emphasis on the first 4 letters.  Here’s a  google search on the negbobs to enjoy…its funny, I notice pretty much all the reasons for predicted failure were likely the reasons for its success.  Of course, no one had a clue about the app store’s success or failure at the time.

“iphone will fail” – Google Search.

I especially enjoyed this querp:

The average person doesn’t even use the WAP browser on their phone, let alone any full blown OSX apps! What people want in a mobile phone is a phone; they don’t need all of these extras. Extra software just makes it more difficult to perform the main function of the phone: to make phone calls.

Yea, that’s brilliant, using WAP as a measuring stick (yeah the same WAP guys who said users are stupid…then again they went IPO with a symbol “PHCM”.  Ok, so they laughed to the bank I guess)

…anyway, this is akin to that guy 50 years or so ago saying there is a world market for about 7 computers or whatever, or that guy who said “No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer”.

To give these guys a break (not really),  all analysts that predict anything (fail or success) are probing in the area of the body part their name includes.

The ones that get things right once in awhile?  Same category as far as I can tell.  I suggest people read  The Drunkard’s Walk if you want to disagree with me.   It verifies everything we suspect,  broken clocks can be right twice a day, they just don’t get acclaimed to be brilliant fortune tellers.  Oh yes, it also makes the other point we saw in the wight rooms in high school:  “luck is opportunity meeting preparation”.

Highly suggested reading.  Here’s a overview of the book:

In this irreverent and illuminating book, acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, change, and probability reveal a tremendous amount about our daily lives, and how we misunderstand the significance of everything from a casual conversation to a major financial setback. As a result, successes and failures in life are often attributed to clear and obvious cases, when in actuality they are more profoundly influenced by chance.

The rise and fall of your favorite movie star of the most reviled CEO–in fact, of all our destinies–reflects as much as planning and innate abilities. Even the legendary Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record, was in all likelihood not great but just lucky. And it might be shocking to realize that you are twice as likely to be killed in a car accident on your way to buying a lottery ticket than you are to win the lottery.

How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars, the highest rating, in one journal and in another it was called the worst wine of the decade? Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how wine ratings, school grades, political polls, and many other things in daily life are less reliable than we believe. By showing us the true nature of change and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives fresh insight into what is really meaningful and how we can make decisions based on a deeper truth. From the classroom to the courtroom, from financial markets to supermarkets, from the doctor’s office to the Oval Office, Mlodinow’s insights will intrigue, awe, and inspire.

Who was that CEO he’s talking about?? oh yeah the guy who said:

“No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer.”

We are back from vacation from the San Diego beaches this weekend…right back into our routines.  Me, I like Open Mics (performing live music with other performers)…there is one at The Spot (former Kings Head) in downtown on Sunday evenings, others everywhere (join veryopenmic.com to see).  My sons (and me sometimes) love Open Gyms (for basketball of course) you can find them at the community center (on Mon and Wed afternoons), or at Saratoga High on Tuesdays and Thurdays (send me email I’ll get you on the mail list)…or of course pick up games are at Campbell Park all the time. And then for Kelly, of course, Open Houses.

Well, we all report that everything is sparse right now - must be the August midlums.  The entertainment biz is slow, people must still be at the beach…not many ballers right…and very few people are going to Open Houses.  Kelly reports her and her colleagues have had very few people looking around to buy.  My thoughts, fear, uncertainty and doubt must be playing a factor, I mean there is nothing but bad news in Real Estate these days.  But I am old enough to remember several times in life where I wish I bought on the low, when things were apprantly bad…and kicked myself years later for not doing it.  But that’s speculation…people buy homes to live in, as Kelly keeps telling me, and nothing should keep you from buying if you can afford it and its a place you want to live in for a long time.  Long term thinkers you can’t lose…sort term speculators?  Its a gamble…Long term speculators (like me) hmmmm….buy low - sell high, isn’t that what grandpa always said?  “How do you know its low ?” I asked Grandpa, and he said “When everyone agrees things are bad.”