Okay, time for a filter pass...  I've been busy doing stuff, ya know?  First there was social stuff, and then riding (which took all of yesterday :) and today there was the all-important basketball watching (and the accompanying all-important basketball eating... one of the joys of losing 5lbs. in a single day's ride :).  Away we go...

Have you seen the new Microsoft ads, with "Lauren" who is looking for a new laptop?  I think they're really effective, possibly the best Microsoft ads I've seen.  (Admittedly recent competition was weak.)  The angle is price; she's looking for a laptop with a 17" screen for $1,000, and she goes into a Mac store and can't find one, and then goes to a PC store and has a big selection.  There's even a sweet dig "I guess I'm not cool enough for a Mac" which is perfect; nobody is as cool as someone who admits they aren't.  She ends up with an HP for $699.  Cult of Mac makes fun of it (and check out the commenters!), but make no mistake; this ad hits a nerve. 

On the other side of cool we have the new Coke Zero ads, which ask "are you as mad as a drink with real Coke taste and zero calories"?  Huh?  They have clearly been drinking too much of their own product.  Sorry but I can't bring myself to give them a link, nothing to see here, move along... 

And have you seen the Ozzie Osborne / World of Warcraft ad?  The prince of darkness rules all...  ALL ABOARD! 

TTAC's General Motors Death Watch gleefully covers Rick Wagoner's resignation.  This is symbology 101; the Obama administration [over]reacting to the uproar over the AIG bonuses.  The whole GM bailout is a mistake; they should have been allowed to go bankrupt, and their board should determine whether the management team is executing effectively.  The government has no business being in the car business.  I am really starting to hate dislike the Obama administration. 

Mark Steyn: "The Economist is the latest of the smart guys to notice that President Obama is proving strangely unlike the guy they told us he was back in late October."  Uh, yeah. 

Interesting: the Huffington Post is hiring investigative journalists.  "All of us increasingly have to look at different ways to save investigative journalism."  Pretty cool.  Of course we'll see about this: "We care about democracy, not Democrats", but they could hardly be more liberal than the MSM. 

Related: all the news that's fit to be birdcage liner.  Newspapers didn't become irrelevant because of the Internet, they became irrelevant when they stopped being news reporters and started trying to be news.

Wired thinks you are not worthy of this car.  I disagree.  I am so worthy.  The Vulca S... wow, is it beautiful.  And the interior looks fantastic. 

Who knew?  Turns out women like fast cars.  Actually, women like men who can afford expensive cars.  Not quite the same thing.  I would like to perform the experiment with a Vulca S :)

Another one bites the dust: Ann Althouse is tweeted out.  "I think I may have stopped tweeting. I'm a blogger not a tweeter."  Amen. 

The opposite of a tweeter is Bill Whittle; he and his Eject Eject Eject pieces have become my favorite long-format blogger now that Stephen Den Beste has retired.  And now he's at Pajama's Media... 

So, is 2009 the year print-on-demand goes mainstream?  I don't think so... this is a transitional technology, like arguing about whether Blu-ray or DVD-HD was going to win.  The Kindle and its brethern are the future of books, just as AppleTV and its kin are the future of movie distribution.  If we've learned anything we've learned that digital online trumps analog offline every time. 

This you must go and watch.  Go ahead...  Extreme sheep herding, with the baaa-studs.  Just when you thought you'd seen it all, more evidence, if any were needed, that "it all" is so much more than you thought...  [ via Gerard Vanderleun ] 

Wallace and Gromit are teaching science at the London Science museum.  Not quite worth a trip to England, but close; how cool is that? 

Tools you can use: Fiddler.  A great free tool which acts as an inline HTTP proxy and shows you all sorts of interesting stuff about your web traffic.  Perfect for debugging web applications.  You're welcome :) 

PS found out about it in MSDN magazine; this might be the first useful thing I’ve ever read there :)

Dude, where's my bike lane? - the Florida edition...  thanks Jim. 

Possibly the cutest picture of all time?  Click to verify; possibly :) 

For all of you who said you wanted more in my daily posts, thanks, and be careful what you wish for, you might get it...