We all know that Macs are easy to use, but this just takes the cake. Notice the instructions for setting up Mac.. er McDonalds free Wi-Fi on Windows and the Mac.

As John Gruber notes, “There is no step four.”

via McDonald’s Inadvertently Endorses A Mac To All Their Customers [Humor] | Cult of Mac.

New figures from the U.S. Treasury Department indicate that the government has a total operating cash balance of $73.768 billion, less than Apple’s own war chest of $75.876 billion.

My response: Steve Jobs for President!

via AppleInsider | Apple’s $76B in cash reserves surpasses US government operating balance.

snake oil or cure all? « orgtheory.net.

This Apple Store looks so real we still can’t quite believe it isn’t. The KIRF-ers have excelled themselves this time: mimicking or at least reinventing everything from the Brave New World posters down to the dog-tags and “We live here” demeanor worn by the staff. There were a few giveaways, however, which led observant blogger BirdAbroad to whip out her camera and start gathering evidence: slight imperfections in the decor, a lack of individual names on staff badges, plus an unlikely location in the Chinese Backwaterville of Kunming.

via The ultimate KIRF: fake Apple Store spotted in China — Engadget.

I like this quote from Rob Gifford’s fascinating book, China Road:  ”If you’re not confused, then you simply haven’t been paying attention.”

Interactive – National Geographic Magazine.

via Fiscal FactCheck | FactCheck.org.

This year’s shortfall between spending and revenues is heading toward a record $1.6 trillion — that’s 1,600 billions of dollars. That amounts to 42% of nearly $3.8 trillion in federal outlays, so Washington must borrow 42 cents of each dollar it’s spending. As a percentage of America’s gross domestic product — the value of what our nation produces each year — the deficit is at a post–World War II record high of 11%, nearly double the previous modern record of 6% in 1983, coming out of America’s last severe recession.

via A Balanced Federal Budget? Not without Pain.

From: Roger Pielke Jr.’s Blog: American Politics in a Single Graph.

Amazon.com said on Thursday that the company now sells more eBooks than books printed on paper.

“Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazons founder and chief executive, in a statement. “We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly — we’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years.”

Since April 1, for every 100 print books sold on Amazon, 105 Kindle eBooks have been sold, as noted by Times reporter Carolyn Kellogg on our sister blog Jacket Copy.

“This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition,” the company said. “Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.”The success of eBooks isn’t limited to just Amazon and its Kindle. The entire industry is pushing more digital copies now, with eBook sales tripling over the last year.

via Amazon: consumers buying more Kindle eBooks than print books – latimes.com.