NEW HUMOR AND SITES FROM GREG BULMASH

Friday night, as I was talking with the only other person at our vacation cabin who'd seen Independence Day (while everyone else covered their ears and told us to shut up), he joked "I must have missed the alien ship interface section at Comp USA when I bought my Powerbook."

I wasn't about to mention that to anyone else until everyone saw the movie, because I didn't want to ruin it. But tonight Apple broadcast their latest Powerbook ad, featuring clips of Jeff Goldblum using his Powerbook to save the world. Since Apple now ruined it for you, I figure I might as well discuss it.

Besides all the other unbelievable plot contrivances, I think this is the least believable of all, because as we all know, nobody writes software for the Mac anymore.

Okay, cheap shot, but really... Apple is so protective of their hardware and software technology, I don't even think that Jeff Goldblum, who was apparently the greatest genius in the world, could figure out on his own how to interface with an alien ship using a Mac.

Now if it was a PC, it would be a little more believable, and if he hadn't been able to write a virus, he could have just uploaded one of the early beta versions of Windows 95. It would have had the same effect. Of course, the aliens would have had a better chance of winning if they'd put Steve Case (president of AOL) in charge of their invasion. They wouldn't have blown everything to hell. They'd have just dropped huge piles of free trial disks on us. Anyone who got hit in the head by one and said "ow" would have been counted as killed.

But, all in all, despite the huge plot holes, major suspensions of disbelief, and the fact that the world is saved by men while their wives, girlfriends, and daughters stand back and look worried, I enjoyed the movie. When you have that many explosions who wouldn't?