Whew, I'm back.  L o n g  weekend.

I must tell you Michael Schenker [Friday night] was great, and furthermore the band which opened, Surfing with an Alien, was even greater; they were a Joe Satriani tribute band, and it was exactly like having Joe Satriani opening for Michael Schenker.  I slithered my way up to the stage like a splinter through the packed floor, and ended up ten feet away from the show, loving every minute.  I cannot tell you why I like rock guitar so much, but I do :) 

So I've had my Palm Pre for nearly a week, and while I love everything about it I am concluding that either I have a defective unit, or the battery life is insufficient to support actual use.  I am literally carrying around my laptop as an external battery, because I'm getting about an hour of standby.  I know no device could have been designed with such a crappy battery life, so I'm holding out hope that it is a defective unit, but of course they're sold out and nobody has a replacement.  Sigh.  I like the WebOs and the keyboard and the applications and everything, but this is a show-stopper in the "so how did you like the show, Mrs. Lincoln" category.  Stay tuned for more... 

Today Apple announced a new iPhone 3GS.  Looks really nice, an incremental improvement on an already great platform, but of course no keyboard.  Popular Science wonders if the Pre is better than the new iPhone, it is a nice analysis but the bottom line for me is that the Pre has a keyboard and the iPhone doesn't, end of story. 

If you're interested in upgrading from an older iPhone to the new one, here's news you can use: how to make a profit upgrading to the iPhone 3GS.

Wired notes: Palm Pre scores a modest hit, despite problems.  Seems like the sales are limited by the inventory at this point, but in terms of problems and the launch itself, I'd agree.  The battery life seems to be the Achilles heel.

A key innovation: the dual showerhead.  Perhaps this is old hat to all of you, but it was brand new to me; the hotel I stayed at in Chicago featured them, and I loved it.  When it comes to showers more is more; and the more water the better.  I have to get one of those... 

Lakers Win!  Okay, we all knew they were going to win, but they did...  yay.  Congratulations to Phil Jackson who has now won 10 NBA titles, passing Red Auerbach, and to Kobe Bryant who has now won his fourth, and first "without Shaq", and who now belongs in the conversation with Michael Jordan and precious few others as one of the best players of all time.  And having said that, I must also say that these Lakers are a great team, without Fisher and Gasol and the rest Kobe sits next to LeBron, watching someone else in the finals :) 

Interesting and unexpected: the Dow is back in the black for the year.  Bet you could win a few bar bets on that one.  So much for the federal stimulus money; it hasn't even made it out yet, let alone into the hands of consumers and businesses.  Anyway it is great that the stock market seems to have found a bottom. 

Biden says: everyone guessed wrong.  Who you calling "everyone" there, Joe?  The weird thing is that he was making the point that the economy was worse than anyone thought, but meanwhile it seems to be recovering faster.  Clearly he is clueless, but then we already knew that. 

So, should we be worrying about inflation?  YES. 

Scoble: the day Twitter kicked CNN's behind.  So be it.  I got my Iran news from Scoble's blog :) 

These are totally awesome: Escher lizard paving stones.  I don't have a place to put them in my house, but it is a solution looking for a problem, and I'm going to keep looking! 

Tillerman ponders the next Laser killer.  There are a lot of great little boats being built but let's face it, at this point Lasers totally have a network effect.  Hundreds of thousands of them have been built and they can be found all over the world.  The quality of competition in the Laser class is second to none.  All of this has nothing to do with the qualities of the boat, just the qualities of the class.  I think the Laser is un-killable... 

Wow, hard to believe: PETA pushes to halt Seattle fish-mongers from tossing fish.  "They argue that tourists would not be nearly so eager to snap photos if dead kittens or gutted lambs were sailing over their heads."  Huh?  I mean that's true, but what does that have to do with tossing fish? 

I just got back from Chicago, where June has been the coldest on record.  Global Cooling! 

Today's ZooBorn: a little Panther cub!