Circuit City: Gone. Firedog: Problem Solved.

So now it seems that yet another chain has fallen victim to the economy... or in this case, itself.

Circuit City is closing its doors in all 567 remaining stores in the U.S., while Canadian operations will carry on as though nothing happened.

Well that's just wonderfuck.

So when Best Buy hikes prices because their primary competition is gone, we know who to thank - THIS MAN.

Fathers and sons for I dont know / care how many years have looked to this place for a source of inspiration and guidance. How many times can you look back and remember your loving father asking you "So, do you want to go to Circuit City today kids?", and you responded with "Gee Pop, that would be swell!", and he hit his knee and got into that old Buick station wagon and you drove off into the sunset to go to the land of red circled happiness.

No longer are those days folks. Big business has handed the playground over to a giant yellow price tag, and it wants your soul. No seriously, just look at this thing. It probably eats babies.

So, so long glowing red globe of happiness and wonder. We will miss your Firedog expertise. Woe is the Geek Squadian who tells me that it will be $50 to tell me what was wrong and what I should expect to pay for it. Darkness looms in the future for all who are looking for a Firewire MyBook external hard drive, or a 47 inch Samsung flat screen.

Oh well. At least they have Apple Stores.

Sales start as early as today, for all the soulless wanting to benefit on the dead. I personally could use that external, but I want to honor the place as it goes down in a blaze of glory.

Which was an excellent Bon Jovi song.

I'll miss you C.C.

Leave Of Absence: Steve Jobs

It would be a shame to not blog about the man that provided us with a changed world and optimistic mind, giving us all hope that technology isn't the mundane work center tool we all take for granted. It's more than that. It's a lifestyle, and a state of being.

The man that gives his all every day wants time to be with his family. He deserves it. He deserves every second of time off he can find. He doesn't deserve the scrutiny and prodding that every blogger, columnist and news story has tossed out into the open, like a domestic cat into a pack of ravenous wolves. He is but a man. Inventor and father of iPod and iPhone. We've taken enough of what he's given. Let's offer something in return. Peace perhaps. Tranquility from the madness.

Damn you who sleeps peacefully at night, after doing nothing but taking. Return what you received. Give back. Give time. Time is what will prove everyone wrong. That no, not everyone is immortal, but no, not everyone is as vulnerable as we presume. Some are tough. Some are fighters. Some are the crazy ones.

Cheers, Steve. We'll see you in a while.

Salute. Namaste.

Whoever hacked the MacRumors live feed...

...may you, your family, and all plant life around you rot and burn in hell for many painstaking years to come.

In Other Zune News...

Most of the new firmware 30gb Microsoft Zunes fail world wide (and some 80gb), thanks in part to Ozone radiating from Redmond computer terminals, and Steve Ballmer's bald spot. More at 11.

Skippy + MacRumors

I finally, for once in my life, made the front page of the holy site of MacRumors.

Some of you may say that it's merely a site with nothing more than Mac rumors, but you're wrong. The show is run by whom I consider to be a columnist genius, Arnold Kim, affectionately known everywhere around the Interwebs as Arn.

Also doing some amazing work on Touch Arcade, which I follow just as ritualistically, and dominating all of the readers that are looking for the latest info in Stevedom - as far as I'm concerned, he is the single best go to for anything Apple aside from the company website.

Yes. That's why I'm excited. As I've said before - oh (day after) holy day.