Hello, my name is Mr. Malley

I never thought I’d be one to post a YouTube video of somebody’s cat, but I laughed way too hard to not share.

Source: Digg

In light of how infrequently I’ve been posting lately, I think it’s time I change the scope of this blog from “Education, Technology, and Occasional Nonsense,” to “Education, Technology, but Mostly Nonsense.” Considering the amount of garbage media I consume on a daily basis, I think I’d have much more to write about.

For example, I give you this gem of a game:

You have to Burn the Rope

Enjoy.

Hilarious.

Source: wikimedia via Digg

If you haven’t seen this yet, you should definitely check it out.

Here is a ridiculous advertisement ran by the McCain campaign stating that Obama would be a poor president because he’s too … popular(?):

Note that it lumps Obama into a category with Brittany Spears and Paris Hilton (as if to suggest that they are objectionable characters in some way). The strange thing is that Hilton’s parents are not only McCain supporters, but they’ve contributed money to his campaign!

Jon Stewart says this best on the Daily Show:

Now, it gets even better. Paris Hilton has responded to the McCain ad with one of her own:

Priceless.

This being an election year, I can’t help but share some political media:

Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor, Randy Pausch, died today of Pancreatic Cancer, which he has been fighting since August 2006. May he rest in peace.

Professor Pausch is most famous for his inspirational “Last Lecture” he gave at Cargegie Mellon in 2007. I highly recommend that you watch it.

For background information on this profoundly strong individual, you should read the Wall Street Journal article that brought his story to fame.

While the iPhone 3G offers some definite improvements over the previous version, the biggest upgrade (for me at least) was the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade. Specifically, I’m referring to the opening of the App Store - available through both the iPhone and in iTunes. My short and sweet assessment of the App Store is that it utilizes the iPhone as a software platform instead of just another phone, which is why I wanted one in the first place.

Here are my top 5 picks for iPhone apps (Note: links to apps open in iTunes):

5.    SportsTap: This app tracks scores and stats for all the professional (men’s) sports in real time. And, while I’m not a sports fanatic, by any means, it’s definitely nice having quick access to scores and rankings. The user interface is a bit clunky and could certainly make better use of the iPhone UI, but if it’s free it’s me, right.

4.    Texas Hold’Em: One thing that I’ve appreciated most about my iPhone over the past year is that I’ve never been stuck in a waiting room with nothing to do. This app provides good ole’ wholesome gambling when the going gets boring! And, while it does cost $9.99, it’s playability makes it well worth the money.

3.    Twitterific: Although I’m quite new to Twitter, this app has definitely helped me jump right in. In a nutshell, it lets you post and read “tweets” right from your iPhone. And, since I have committed myself to posting my tweets at the top of this blog, it will definitely get some use.

2.    NewNewsWire: I’ve been using NetNewsWire to handle my RSS subscriptions on my Mac for about a year now, so this free app definitely gets a lot of use on my phone. It works by downloading the freshest articles from any site that I’m currently following. The best part is that it keeps track of which articles I’ve read, regardless of whether I read them on my iMac, MacBook Pro, or iPhone. Priceless, really.

1.    Remote: This is, by far, a no contest winner for me. Remote lets you control iTunes and Apple TV through your iPhone. For a guy like me, this is a big deal. I have my home entertainment center connected to an Airport Express, which will stream music from my iMac to speakers throughout the whole house. With this app, I have access to my entire music collection, from any room in my house, on my phone. And, it’s free.

The jaw dropping moment for me was seeing it in action. So, I’ve made a little demonstration video showing Remote in action. (Be sure to watch the iTunes window in the background to get a feeling for this app’s responsiveness.)

YouTube apparently doesn’t yet let you embed high-quality versions of videos, so if the quality of the demo is too poor for your eyes, you can access the video directly using this link.