I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about 10.3 \Panther\. 10.2 \Jaguar\ only came out 14 months ago, and I was worried that Apple was goint to start “nickel-and-diming” Mac users, over-hyping unnecessary software updates. Anyway, I gave in to the hype, and pre-ordered Panther (with my student discount)…

Let me just say that Panther is quite cool.

No earth-shattering, major light-speed jumps from 10.2, but Panther offers a bunch of minor tweaks that add up to an upgrade worth getting.

Panther highlights include:

• Exposé - An awesome way to manipulate open windows
• Font Book - Not quite ATM, but a nice, simple way to manage fonts.
• Safari 1.1 - Woohoo! I can drag and drop links between tabs like in Camino! Yes!

All this, and all of my programs work perfectly. No new conflicts or unneccessary upgrades… Great job, Apple!

Whew.

The Chargers finally win a game this year, defeating the Browns 26-20. Now if the offense can be consistent (ahem, David Boston…) and the defense stops making stupid mistakes, maybe the Chargers can be one of those “spoiler” teams that playoff teams hate playing near the end of the season. :)

Next week: Junior Seau returns to San Diego on Monday Night. Mark my words, the San Diego fans will give him the warmest welcome that \any\ visting player has ever gotten in the history of the NFL. Seau \was\ Mr. Charger for 12 years in San Diego, and Charger fans miss him.

Today I had the pleasure of going to the Apple iTunes press event. (Thanks, Kent!) I’m happy to report that iTunes 4.1 for Macintosh and Windows is quite awesome!

The Apple Music Store / iTunes 4.1 improvements are exactly what digital music lovers are looking for:

• Gift Certificates (woohoo!)
• Allowances (for families with kids who want to download music legally)
• No Membership Dues (per song fees rock…)
• Excellent Interface (Although it is freaky seeing aqua on Windows…)

Go check out iTunes 4.1. You’ll be glad you did. :)

Alan pointed out to me last week that the Join Arnold campaign sign looks an awful lot like the name of my good buddy John W. Arnold.

While I’m thinking about it, be sure to check out VoteArianna.com and watch the silly Flash movies. My favorite is the Hybrid vs. Hummer race.

There are two kinds of people in this world, those that categorize people, and those that don’t.

— John McCoy, Philosophy Instructor, DVC

Well its time to vote for a California governor - again…

You know, I’m getting really sick of people saying: “A vote for \insert third-party candidate here\ is a vote for Arnold. You are just \throwing away your vote!” Um, excuse me, but the last time I checked, when you vote for a candidate, you are telling the world that the particular person you chose is whom you would like fill that postion. I don’t believe in “strategic voting” or voting against candidates. Using this sort of thought process for voting goes against what the democratic process is all about.

I hope Californians vote by issues using critical thinking skills instead of voting on pragmatism.