Spectre’s Sayings

Apple promises goodness:

Third Party Applications on the iPhone
Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones.

Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.

Sounds like good news. Should have said that on the launch of the iPhone, instead of coming up with his web-app scheme.

Blogging has been light the past few days because I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather. I was downright sick on Saturday, and was achy and nauseated yesterday. Hope it’s gone now.

Wow.

Just… wow.

What a great concert! Great acoustic pieces, and hard rocking songs too. You can tell the guys are getting older, but I love geezer rock. They played a lot of their less well-known pieces, such “King Henry’s Madrigal” and “My God,” as well as a new song and also “The Water Carrier” from Ian Anderson’s solo album, “The Secret Language of Birds.” Ian produced a new arrangement of “Aqualung” which added much flute. While it was an interesting and good arrangement, I think the audience would have preferred to listen to them play the album version.

The concert was in two sets, separated by a 20-minute intermission. The first set was more acoustic, showing off “Velvet Green.” The second set was more classic rock. It ended with Crest of a Knave’s “Budapest,” which is a technically challenging, genre-spanning song that is simply great. The one-song encore consisted of “Locomotive Breath” - which my brother, who accompanied me to the concert, had been hoping to hear.

Ian introduced many of the songs with an often-humorous backstory and/or history lesson. One of my favorite parts of the evening was when the band (sans Ian) played a hard-rocking instrumental piece from one of Martin Barre’s solo albums.

There were some technical difficulties, which the band was able to cover over very successfully. On the other hand, the musicianship simply excelled. Martin’s guitar-playing was incredible, if under-utilized. The new keyboard/accordian/darbooka player, John O’Hara was a welcome addition to the band. Doane Perry, the token American, while mostly hidden behind the drum kit (except for when he played the bongos on “Fat Man” and “Water Carrier”), did some amazing work. The new bass player, David Goodier, can obviously play. He also chimed in on the glockenspiel and the darbooka. However, when it came time for the bass solo on “Bouree,” he …well, let’s just say I didn’t “get” what he was trying to do. Ian’s flute playing was excellent, as usual, but it appeared he was struggling with vocals.

All in all, it was one of the better concerts I’ve seen.

Update 11-16-07: Here’s another blogger’s review of the same concert.

Tomorrow is my birthday. If you feel the pressing need to give me a gift, might I suggest a gift card from a home improvement store? You see, in addition to being the anniversary of my birth, tomorrow is also the day the loan committee meets to determine whether or not they’ll loan me the money to build my house. And anything I can do to keep the final amount borrowed to a minimum would be very much appreciated.

Breckenridge Avalanche Amber Ale is a dark amber colored, light-bodied ale with a very subtle flavor and aroma. It’s quite unpretentious. Good, and enjoyable - but not spectacularly so.

My palate is hyper-sensitive to cinnamon. That being the case, when I took my first sip of this ale, I felt like I had been assaulted. However, as I sipped it, I got used to it, and the beer turned into a nice, smooth beverage. For a pumpkin ale, it was far superior to the Jaw-Jacker. I suspect this is due to the fact that there was no allspice.

Not too bad.

Bell’s Brewery no longer distributes to my home state. But it did in the past. Back then I picked up two varieties. I’ve already written about Bell’s Number Two Wheat Ale. Today, I had the Number Six Wheat Ale. Unlike any other wheat beer I’ve had, this beer had the distinct taste of roasted malt. It was cloudy, and it was much darker in color than any other wheat I’ve ever had. It was a heavy, ponderous beer suitable for sipping and tasting. I’d liken it to porters and stouts.

The pouring was an adventure, though. This beer had an absolutely amazing head. It took an extremely long time to pour it, and even with a tall wheat beer glass, I was unable to prevent the suds from erupting from the bottle neck like a volcano.

A pleasant aroma and taste. I enjoyed this beer.

Miller Chill is “Inspired by a Mexican Recipe with Lime and Salt.” Notice that it said “inspired,” not “from” or “based on.” Calling to mind the Lime, there is an aroma and flavor of citrus with its corresponding sourness on the tongue. However, I’m at a loss to tell you whether that is from flavors in the beer itself, or from the creation of carbonic acid due to the carbonation process.

Miller Chill is a “light” beer from an American mega-brewery. As such, I was expecting light-colored, bland-tasting, carbonated swill. Compared to other lowest-common-denominator beers, it’s surprisingly good. Compared to what I normally drink, though, I have a hard time even categorizing it as “Beer.” As I drank it, the thought that somebody had come along and carbonated some Welch’s White Grape Juice kept entering my mind. Perhaps we should call this fruity, fizzy drink a wine spritzer, or something.

On another site, I discovered that “By Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) standards, Miller Chill is classified as a ‘low-carbohydrate’ beer.”

It’s good for what it is, but I won’t be in any big hurry to acquire more.