Some may have noticed that both AOV Matt and AOV Steve have been recognized. Some of you might be thinking, “AOV Rob hasn’t been recognized yet, what’s up with that? He must not be a genius at all.”

Well. I can explain. The thing is, both geniuses were recognized when they were twentysomethings. So, the reason I am not recognized has nothing to do with my lack of blinding genius. But my lack of being able to legally consume alcohol in Texas (or possibly my spelling).

So, it is still my goal to achieve public genius recognition (not so much for myself, as I am self motivated, but so the world will be able to share in the knowledge of my existence).

Stay tuned.

I’m not being angsty, I just noticed I was the last unrecognized genius and felt like my fly was down and that I had to make a ‘fly is down’ joke.

Check out this visually interesting movie trailer for Waking Life (requires QuickTime – link via A.WholeLottaNothing.org).

When asked if he felt miffed about being left out of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the PC, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak replied that fundamentally, every PC today is a Macintosh. True enough.

When asked how he would improve the Mac today, he says he would:

…come up with a set of user interface guidelines that’s shorter than the book that Apple used to make […] and come up with a very strict set and go back and make every program that Apple is associated with everywhere possible consistent with those and to write higher level APIs that pretty much lead any application to that same type of consistency.

Listen to this great audio interview with Steve Wozniak (link via Slashdot. The interview is about an hour long and starts 55 minutes into the audio stream.

Woz strikes me as a simple, good person, who was bulldozed by fame, wealth, and success. But I’m sure its uneducated presumtions like this one that make life difficult for someone like Woz.

Good concept. Two ‘players’ send each a other PhotoShop file, each building on the last ‘serve’ and the winner is determined by viewer voting.

This weeks match, which was the best to date, was between Derek Powazek (of the {Fray}, author of Design for Community, etc.) and Heather Champ (of The Mirror Project, Jezebel, etc.) – the creators of two of the best and best looking blog sites around (Powazek.com, and Harrumph.com).

Cars are evil. However, I am and will probably continue to be unwilling to sacrifice the convenience of owning one. Now that I have out of the way, let’s talk about cars.

The form factor of the old Dodge Colt / Mitsubishi Expo 3-door (one sliding door) hatchback always made sense to me. According to some, they were not particularly reliable and parts were expensive and hard to find. It was a short (in length) and tall (in height) car. It was small on the outside and enormous inside. The driver and front passenger sit upright with a commanding view much like in a minivan. It may not have been a great car, but it was a great form factor.

Until recently, this form factor was only available in the 10-year old Dodge. It looks like some of the major auto companies are revisiting the form.

The following models are all new or about to be released (the Audi, which I have previously praised, is only available in Europe). Their various stylings are sure to appeal to some and offend others, but they are at least distinctive.

All feature four doors, a hatchback, loads of interior room, a relatively small exterior, versatile seating. They are all around 170″ long and between 57″ and 63″ tall (except for the Audi which is smaller). To put that in perspective, they are all small than a Neon. These (pictured below) are smart designs: Audi A2, Mazda Protegé5, Toyota Matrix, Chrysler PT Cruiser.

There are a many more cars of this form factor in the works for release in the next few years as well (see a few Chrysler concepts: Java, Pronto). Regardless, I still drive that big old sedan.

I caught him doing a little editorial talk the other day on his ‘big wham bam’. I enjoy hearing him speak because he is smarter than I am, and I feel like I’m learning.

It was about the WTC, and ‘evil’ and so on, it was a great piece. I couldn’t find the ‘evil’ editorial (ed-itorial, get it?) but a lot of them are all listed on his site. Good reads.

From Ed:

“On TV, these self-appointed members of the intelligentsia dress up their prejudice and bias as lofty, principled and evenhanded commentary. They’ll claim they’re just being objective. These critics may even seem well-intentioned… but, like a nice pair of legs, they eventually make an ass of themselves.”

I’ve commented before on the quality writing at indy tech news site, The Register but it’s worth revisiting. Compared to News.com/Zdnet.com, who seem to automatically parse corporate press releases into front-page news, the writers at The Register shine. There is a tone of smart sarcasm (not whiny sarcasm, ala slashdot forums) that actually lends credibility to their content.

For example, one of today’s impressive headlines is representative of the usual quality:

Scumbag virus writers try to whip up ‘Anthrax outbreak’ – Fail due to super-lame coding

I do have two grievances with The Register though. First, their hosting is poor – their site is often slow or inaccessible. Second, their front-page is poorly laid out and it is difficult to tell which stories are newer than others.