Forgive us if we yawn a lot today; blame those darn Hollywood types and their utterly abysmal sense of pacing. Three hours scheduled for the Oscars? Puh-leaze. Ask those event planners how long it takes to boil a three-minute egg and they'll say "about twelve seconds, but it might run a little long." Consequently, today the AtAT staff is puffy-eyed and crabby because we were up 'til 1 AM on a school night watching a seemingly endless parade of oddly-dressed (two words: "fringed tux") showbiz types thank the Academy, their spouses, and their accountants (and not necessarily in that order).

Of course, it doesn't help our moods much that Memento didn't score an award for either its screenplay or its editing, Monsters, Inc. lost out to Shrek (which we loved, but we still thought Monsters was the better film), and Amélie got passed over completely. Not to mention the fact that, once again, the AtAT staff wasn't even nominated-- and if the Academy is going to keep harping on the fact that we haven't actually done any work in the movies every time we call and complain, you'd think the least they could do is swing us a couple of tickets to the shindig to shut us up. All in all, it was one disappointing year.

It wasn't all bad, though, at least from an Apple fan's perspective; as promised, Apple managed to squeeze thirty seconds' worth of commercial time into that three-whoops-I-mean-four-and-a-half-hour time slot, though it was just the same "Window" ad we all know and love. And at least Pixar didn't come away empty-handed, since "For the Birds" rightfully snagged the "Best Animated Short Film" award. Better still, Mac fans may have gotten a little thrill when, as faithful viewer Dave Martin pointed out, director Ralph Eggleston actually acknowledged the Big Kahuna himself in his acceptance speech: "I would like to thank Steve Jobs and Sarah McArthur for encouraging the short films at Pixar." Woo-hoo!! Every little bit of Steve helps dull the pain of yet another academy snub.

Unfortunately, by that point in the evening, we were already far too glazed over to have noticed Steve's alleged on-camera appearance. Faithful viewer Paul Johnson claims (and who are we to say otherwise?) that when ol' Ralphie got up to pick up his shiny little gold dude, His Steveness briefly appeared from a couple of rows back to shake the man's hand. We'd ask how we could ever have missed such a thing, but by that time we were already drowning our sorrows in copious amounts of Cookie Avalanche and our faculties had clearly started to fail. Good thing we've still got the night's festivities on TiVo, so we can take a closer look once the sugar rush wears off.

For those of you without recordings available, fear not-- faithful viewer davenic has secured photographic evidence of Oscar-Action Steve with Kung Fu Grip (note that this was strictly a white-turtleneck affair) as he worked the red carpet before the big do. The only catch is, you're going to have to look past Gwyneth's see-through top to spot him. Good luck.

We should have seen it coming: as always, "As Apple Goes, So Goes the Industry." It's been mere days since Apple unleashed its latest breakthrough innovation to the world of high tech-- namely, computers that thumb their noses at Moore's Law and its various corollaries by actually increasing in price-- but other companies have taken note of Apple's infamous price hike and are already following suit. For those of you who are surprised at the quick turnaround time of this latest round of copycatting, remember, it might take six months or more to slap together a cheap and seamy approximation of a two-tone translucent iMac or even to glue some colored plastic to a notebook, but pricing policies are easy to reproduce in the blink of an eye.

And so, as faithful viewer Monasier informs us, NEC is first out of the gate with a round of follow-the-leader price increases; CNN/Money reports that the company "plans to raise the suggested retail prices for its PC systems," just like Steve cranked up the price of the iMac last week. And just like Apple, NEC claims that its price hike is mandated by "rising costs of key components such as memory and the increasingly popular flat-panel screens." In other words, NEC didn't bother to wait even a week before chiming in which what amounts to a shameless "me too."

Oh, wait; it's possible that NEC wasn't the first to jump on Apple's new price-hike bandwagon, just that it was first to announce it. Reportedly word leaked on Sunday that Fujitsu and IBM (at least in Japan, site of the Jobs announcement last Thursday; coincidence?) both plan to "raise their PC prices by 10 to 20 percent starting in April." Whoa, 10 to 20 percent? Even on the entry-level new iMac, an extra $100 only constitutes a roughly 7.5 percent increase; sounds like when the dust clears, Apple's price bumps might seem downright generous by comparison.

Says Roger Kay of IDC, "Apple led this charge on the upward side, and the other vendors are anxiously crowding in behind them." And who else numbers among these "other vendors"? Well, try not to be too shocked by this, here, but according to MacMinute, Dell's coming along for the ride, too-- though it's doing its best to hide it. The company still configures base systems with RAM levels "well below Microsoft's recommendation" but has "raised upgrade pricing for RAM," so that customers buying a build-to-order PC that's built to run Windows XP (as opposed to one that only limps it a little) effectively wind up paying a hidden price hike. Pretty sneaky, sis.

So there you have it, folks; apparently that whole "rising component costs" thing wasn't just a cheesy excuse for Steve to rustle up some extra gas money for his jet, because other manufacturers are feeling the pinch as well-- but only Apple had the guts to make the first move. Enjoy watching everyone else fall all over themselves to follow in Steve's footsteps now that Apple has taken the first step into the minefield. And meanwhile, if you're in the market for a new iMac and you didn't order one before the new prices went into effect, faithful viewer Jonathan Reitnauer points out that, for whatever reason, at broadcast time neither Outpost.com nor MacWarehouse had increased their prices yet. We're not saying that they'll honor what's posted, mind you, but we thought you might find it interesting...

Hey, remember a couple of months ago when a new page showed up at Apple's site describing and debunking some long-held Mac Myths? Remember how, since it was targeted squarely at Windows users, we surmised that it might represent a first step in Apple's fading reluctance to tackle the existing Wintel market head-on in its advertising? Well, something's definitely up, though we might have to wait a bit longer to see just what it turns out to be-- but in the meantime, Apple is apparently doing its homework.

Check it out: faithful viewer Justin Resuello notes that Apple is now flat-out asking current and former Wintel users to "share what's on [their] mind[s]." But please, no cheap jokes about the sound of crickets chirping amid otherwise utter silence (well, okay, maybe just one), because Apple appears to be gathering data not from the "BILL GATEZ IS GOD" crowd, but rather from Windows folks who are either considering buying a Mac or have already taken the plunge and unwittingly sold their souls to His Steveness like we have. And lest you think that no one's going to stumble upon this little page tucked neatly away on Apple's web site, we should probably point out that Apple has placed fairly prominent links to it on every single one of its Mac product pages: "Hey PC users, we'd love to hear from you."

If you ask us (admit it-- you know you want to), it's a step in the right direction. If the folks in Apple's marketing team have any grasp on reality whatsoever, they realize that Apple is never going to learn much by asking the die-hard Windows zealots why they won't consider a Mac, because all they'll get back is a bunch of drivel about how "MAC sux" and "MAC makes crappy compooterz"-- useful only as evidence of our civilization's continuing decline and eventual collapse. But by asking those Windows users who are already sniffing around a Mac (or those who have already bought one) what prompted them to investigate jumping platforms, Apple might be able to put together an ad campaign that'll persuade the relatively open-minded subset of the Wintel crowd to take a look at the alternative. We love this plan! We're excited to be a part of it!

So if you're a former PC user who has come over to the Mac side of the Force, first of all, welcome; If we'd known you were coming we'd have baked a cake. But secondly, if you're so inclined, Apple would like to hear about your platform-hopping experiences at apple@apple.com; if you tell them it's okay, they may even write back with "a follow-up question or two." So if you think that some of your Wintel-using brethren might benefit from a platform switch as you have, consider helping Apple help them. We can always use more members in the cult, after all.