Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Usain Bolt – World’s Fastest Man

Published on Tuesday May 19, 2009 in Around the Web, Media, News, Pictures, Sports and Video. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Not two months ago, superstar sprinter Usain Bolt flipped his car into a ditch. The accident resulted in Bolt getting surgery on some wounds he obtained exiting the wrecked car. Despite this setback, Bolt came back this past week (to the dismay of his coach) in a publicity 150m race held on a specially constructed track in the streets of Manchester.

Bolt shattered the world best with a time of 14.35, but even more impressive was how fast he covered the last 100m. After the first 50m, Bolt ran the next 100m in 8.72. That’s unbelievably staggering especially considering the level of fitness Bolt’s in after missing some training. This 100m split is 0.97 seconds off Bolt’s 9.69 world record set at the Beijing Olympic Games. In my experience, a block start shouldn’t add a full second to a flying time, especially for a sprinter of Bolt’s caliber.

We have yet to see the best of Bolt. A rather conservative estimate on my part puts the WR at 9.4X, but only time will tell. I doubt that he’d go for this, but I would really like to see Bolt own records at every distance from 100-400m (he’s already halfway there). It’s a good time for Puma’s marketing department, that’s for sure.

Check out the race for yourself at Universal Sports

Old vs. New

Published on Friday May 15, 2009 in Hardware, Technology, Thoughts and Tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Owning two sexy Apple computers, it’s not always easy deciding which one I want to use as my primary machine. The contenders’ general specifications are as follows:

MacBook Pro (Mid 2008):

  • 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor/2GB DDR2 RAM at 667 MHz
  • 160 GB hard drive @ 7200 rpm
  • 256 MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT
  • 15.4″ matte LED-lit display
  • Illuminated Keyboard
  • 2 USB/1 Firewire 400/1 Firewire 800

Unibody MacBook:

  • 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor/2 GB DDR3 RAM @ 1066 MHz
  • 160GB hard drive @ 5400 rpm
  • nVidia GeForce 9400M chipset
  • 13.3 LED-lit glossy display
  • Glass multi-touch trackpad
  • 2 USB ports

Ultimately, the performance is nearly identical. In real-world usage, the MacBook boots faster than the MacBook Pro, but I attribute this to the fact that there is significantly less occupying its hard drive. It’s hard to give up the MBP. While the unibody construction is sleek and very durable, the sentiental connection I have with my MBP is hard to get over.

The old MBP does have a few extra perks as well such as an ExpressCard slot. For most average users, this is hardly a point of significance. I can’t remember the last time I used any card-slot peripherals.

For those of you with older MBP’s considering a new laptop, I generally agree with what’s been said at Wired, and here. The conclusion seems to be that if you actually use more advanced features (card slot, firewire, do heavy film editing), stick with the pro. Otherwise, the new Unibody MacBook has closed the gap between pro and consumer models in a good way; save yourself some dough and go for the regular MacBook.

Microsoft is at it again

Published on Tuesday May 12, 2009 in Around the Web, Hardware, Media, Technology and Video. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Following in the footsteps of their latest Laptop Hunter ads, Microsoft has created a new ad targeting the iPod. More specifically, the cost of filling an iPod with music. According to Microsoft, it’ll cost $30,000 to fill an iPod from using iTunes. Continue reading ‘Microsoft is at it again’

MacBook hinge

Published on Monday May 11, 2009 in Hardware and Technology. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

MacBook HingeI know this has been pretty well documented, but I never really paid much attention to this issue until now. The hinge on my unibody MacBook seems to be much looser than that on my previous generation MacBook Pro. In regular usage, it’s really not a big deal at all. I only notice occasionally when I set my laptop down; a slight (very slight) bump is all it takes to make the screen fall back a bit.

It’ll be interesting to see how this olds up a few months from now. I generally make it a point to take care of the hinge by not closing my laptop too abruptly. Anybody else experience any similar issues? What did you do about it?

CU at the Heps

Published on Monday May 11, 2009 in School and Sports. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Cornell Track and Field wins it’s 7th consecutive outdoor Ivy League championship:

http://hepstrack.com/2009/05/10/final-team-scores/

http://cornellbigred.com/news/2009/5/10/MTRACK_0510093357.aspx

After a really rough season, nothing like a win at Heps to get pumped up for next season. Also worth nothing, this win came after 2 DQ’s amongst of other shenanigans. Congrats boys.

Dirty Money

Published on Thursday May 7, 2009 in Around the Web, Media, Video and Webjunk. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

A raunchy raunchy ad for Bontrust (German currency trading firm).

If only American ads were so interesting.

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