This parody video pokes fun at Microsoft Paint, the aging art software included with Windows. YouTube commenters already point out that Vista Paint, the latest version, isn't much of an improvement. But that's not what makes it so funny to me.
The real humor in the clip is its reminder that no one gets this excited about desktop software anymore. Take Apple's announcement earlier this week of iLife '08: The only real selling point of Apple's newest iLife software, used to manage photo collections, edit movies, and so forth, is that it's integrated with Apple's .Mac Web service. Yes, Microsoft Paint seems hilariously out of date. But to today's Web generation, it's not Paint that's outdated — it's the entire field of programs written to run on a PC instead of on a website. If you're in your 30s, this video will make you laugh out loud. If you're in your early 20s, I'm betting it will just bore you.
Steve Jobs is a famed perfectionist. The way word leaked out he wouldn't keynote at Macworld was anything but controlled, raising concerns that his health had taken an unexpected turn.
As with Sarah Palin's baby rumors, the scurrilous media forced Jobs's hand.
Remember how Oprah once threatened to ruin the life of novelist Jonathan Franzen by selecting his book for her club and thereby making him lots and lots of money?