I am failing to understand the foofaraw over Apple’s announcement that it will use Intel chips soon enough. To me, the thing that matters about Macs is the way we interact with them, not so much the guts that make them run. I know the engineer types will disagree with me, and that’s fine. But it is the software and the interface that matter, not so much the hardware—for me anyway. So if it makes good business sense to use one chip instead of another, because it is cheaper or better made, so what?

It is not as if Apple is committing treason, by giving aid and comfort to the enemy. In business, you sometimes have to work with the enemy. Besides, I think Microsoft is the enemy, not Intel. But I’m probably oversimplifying. I do that.

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You can look for me on Jeopardy on July 20, 2005.

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Looks as if I planned my trip to Yankee Stadium just in time. They are building a new one just north of the existing one. The field dimensions will be the same, but some of the stadium dimensions will change. So if you want to see where Mays, DiMaggio, and Mantle played, and not just park on that spot, get over there. But there’s no big hurry—the new one will not be ready until 2009.

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I love the business concept of the iTunes Music Store. You can listen to enough of a song to decide if you want to buy it, and you can buy just one song. It’s as if we have returned to the 1950s again, with record stores that had samples. The only improvement I would suggest is a way for users to rate the products, but right now that might interfere with the clean presentation style of the store.

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If you are looking for a way to help someone, consider adopting a soldier. Plenty of folks serving in Iraq and Afghanistan could use magazines, paperbacks, music CDs, or DVDs. You can think of other items, but not everything will get the media postal rate, so plan carefully. You can start at Books for Soldiers to get some ideas, or just ask your friends to find somebody’s nephew who’s serving. A shipment once a month or so can let our soldiers know we support them, regardless of whether we support the war. If you send stuff other than media, put it in baggies. Stuff can open in transit, and coffee grounds everywhere are not fun.

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Summer movies are out, and it makes me hope that we will not someday only watch movies on laptops. Like I hope we will not someday only read newspapers online. There is something communal about a movie and something tactile about a newspaper that transcends the information we are receiving.

Disclaimer: I work for a daily newspaper, so it is in my interest for them to stay in business. But if someday there is a better model, I’ll bow to that.

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Speaking of online newspapers, I had a little thing published at mine recently. The piece is about helping hungry folks. I got some bad reaction from a group of folks who only read the headline, which I didn’t write, and the first four paragraphs. I think it is like watching the first five minutes of The Wizard of Oz and turning away because it is gray, depressing, and about farmers. But some folks felt qualified to comment on it anyway. I had a correspondence with the moderator/host of the forum where I found the comments, and she was very nice. I said I did not expect everyone to agree with my arguments, but that I wished they would at least read them before they dismissed them. But I do understand that lots of folks do not want to register with the newspaper site. In that same vein, I did not want to register with the forum site.

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That’s it. Onward.

Copyright © 2005 Ellyn Ritterskamp, eritterskamp@atpm.com.