For the last decade I had done most my computing on a PowerBook G4. How is this possible? I really have no idea. But surely it has a lot to do with me being so damned dogged. Since this was the first computer I ever purchased, I assume I was determined to run it into the ground like a first car or girlfriend. 'I don't need your pointless updates or hyped gadgetry,' went my thinking. 'This hunk of metal will do just fine.' And it did. It ran an entire ten years without any significant issues aside, of course, from slowing down relative to the rest of the world.

Around year six or so is when the embarrassment subsided and I started bragging about 'The Little Engine That Could'. I carried it with me around the globe, working with it in planes, cafes and hostels. (I even met a few die-hard PowerBooker's along the way.) The G4 did me well. During its last years, when it could barely handle a handful of webpages at a time--lest the infamous rainbow ball started a spinnin'--it taught me a great deal of patience. (No, this isn't a fable.) When everyone else was going coo-coo for youtube, I was forced to static websites, or, more often than not, reading an actual book.

Now that I've finally let her go--she actually went into a coma--I've transitioned not to the latest Apple device, but to a ThinkPad w/ Linux. I never thought this would happen, something about those last two pronouns always screamed TECHY/GEEKY in a way that is never SEXY. But this new setup with its minimal forms and simple functions is sexy in the same way that a manual transmission is always sexier than an automatic.

Here's to another decade of simple, sexy computing.

Mark-it-ting's power to paradoxically (and effectively) communicate via erasure was popularly demonstrated yesterday by several websites that "blacked out" their content as a means to protest SOPA/PIPA. (If you aren't already familiar with these bills currently being considered by the U.S. Congress, please familiarize yourself. Or if you're too lazy, just take our word for it: they suck. If passed, your favorite websites would disappear.)

But despite the negative connotation these sites' "self-imposed censorship[s]" imply, we're impressed by the flexibility of Mark-it-ting to work its magic in many contexts, in many ways. We're also a little flattered given our prescience ;).

Here's to the power of Mark-it-ting, the most effective way to add via subtraction!

A few of us made it to Miami Beach this year for the hoopla that is Art Basel. It's always nice to drop in occasionally to see what the art world is up to, and glean what it deems hot or not. Not surprisingly, vulgarity still reigns large. But as I've noted elsewhere, hyper-superficiality can provide a breath of fresh air: making snap judgments based on whether or not something simply looks good is comforting in the same way that spending a December weekend in 80 degree weather is comforting.

Art Basel is definitely the most glamourous of all the art fairs that set up tent in Miami Beach, but several others created a strong buzz. Nada Art Fair, the free fair that focuses on smaller, independently-run galleries, is the younger, hipper and more tech-savvy alternative to Art Basel. The art at Nada wasn't exactly impressive, but their events were far more eventful and exciting than those being hosted at Art Basel. I was able meet the people who run Bad At Sports, a dynamic group of people who do podcasts on contemporary art and had built a makeshift hut inside the lobby of the hotel where Nada was staged.

Almost as entertaining as crashing private cocktail parties that weekend was watching Miami Beach return to normal after everyone packed up and returned to their own private corners of the globe. Minus the influx of well-heeled visitors and sensational party buzz, Miami Beach felt almost as drab as the mannequin pictured above—blank and confused after being disrobed of all the designer garb.