American Pie 2 is pirated on net before release. Over the last couple of years, I've wondered several times how Hotline, arguably the first peer to peer file sharing network by a few years, has escaped the attention that some other networks have gotten. Guess that will be coming to an end now.
I read Neil Gaiman's American Gods and Chuck Palhniuk's Choke on Saturday. Both books were really good and worth your reading time. American Gods is a more substantial book fraught with nuances that I will go back and re-explore. Choke was amusing, while not nearly as ground breaking as Fight Club, it was certainly amusing and inventive in a twisted way that is in line with Fight Club's general principles.
Dis adding video game, DVD to 'Tron' revival mix Yeah, bring me back some of that Tron!!
Reconsidering the Privacy of Office Computers. His logic seems to make good sense. In the work environments where I have been privvy to the inner workings of IT, no one has really had the time or energy to monitor people's email or Web surfing habits.
So I've been testing out Windows XP RC1 on the system at home I like to call "freak". It started out as an HP desktop about two years ago, but it doesn't resemble the machine it once was. In fact, the HP restore disks no longer recognize it as an HP, which has led to ocassional issues in installing software. Prior to installing XP on the system, I had 2000 Professional on the machine. Everything worked, and worked smoothly. So my expectations were that everything device wise would continue to work after the upgrade. Boy was I mistaken.
I should note that I'm something of an idiot. You probably know this if you have read this site on a regular basis or have met me in person, but rest assured that I'm not exaggerating a bit when I say that. I didn't read the install notes, I just burned a CD of RC1 and began my install. If I had read them, I would have noted that installing XP over Windows 2000 is an irreversible process. You can't go back without starting over from scratch.
So I installed. At first, everything seemed normal, then I noticed that my sound card, which is the newest component in my machine, wasn't working. After some surfing and a couple of emails, it was clear that the card wasn't going to work for at least a month. Then, suddenly, the ethernet card, the second newest component, stopped working altogether. Haven't been able to figure that one out yet. So that hampers my use of the machine a little. Then blue screen of death, blue screen of death, blue screen of death. Then constant rebooting without my interference. So now I'm debating whether I should make the huge migration back to Windows 2000 or wait for RC2 and the component vendors to release drivers and see if I can salvage things from where they are. It's a good thing that this machine is more of a test bed for me than a machine I actually do work on.(I was saying the same thing late last year when I installed the Mac OS X beta.) Developing a working operating system is not an easy task.
Radiohead: Creatively Nourished by a Steady Diet of Macintosh (via Exitwound)
Today's laptop update: I received a battered COD package this morning, and after paying the substantial fee, I unpacked a battered and beaten G4 Powerbook that is clearly mine. My data has returned, and I am now much more scared that someone else had access to all of it than I was previously. One twist I hadn't expected was that someone who knew Mac OS X well used the laptop while it was gone. Many settings were changed, things were moved around, and most of my customizations to the system were removed. This incident renews my faith in humans somewhat.
Fault-Tolerant File Storage. An interesting concept, which takes a peer to peer approach to file backup and storage.
Great article that clearly outlines why Apache ends up being a more secure Web server choice than IIS. At the bottom of the article, courtesy of ZDNet, you can also get the latest prices for Apache:-)
A new Huey Lewis and the News CD? I thought I would never see the day:-)
Things here seem to be getting crazier by the day. I finally got to the contract stage with the house I was offering on for the last two weeks, so that is getting hectic quick. Inspection tomorrow, and then things start to get even more stressful. At the same time, my stolen laptop reared it's head this afternoon in the form of someone who bought the Powerbook G4 at a tag sale for $500, then got suspicious later. I got a call out of the blue asking me about it, and I may be receiving it in the mail on Wednesday. Or maybe not. In related news, California law states that a hotel may only be responsible for a maximum of $250 for each bag stolen from a room. That's a great law for us business travelers huh?
Agitprop: All about text styling on the Web (via Web Graphics)
OpenSource Directory: OSD / XML dump You can now download the OSD in XML format. This has some very interesting potential.
It's true, it's all true. I do miss Kozmo for the exact reasons that they mention in this article: it was a symbol of an easier to manage life.
Here's some Stinger screenshots.
Microsoft hopes to create buzz for Stinger. In the article, a Jupiter analyst points out that Microsoft would have had a better chance of getting market penetration by partnering with Nokia, Motorola, or Ericsson. I'll point out right now that, by partnering with a smaller company, Microsoft will have more control, and probably more access to profit. Finally, they will be in a position to actually buy the company outright at some point. They like to be in control of the situation.
COLD FUSION Job Bank (hint hint)
Apple Previews Next Version of Mac OS X. If this press release is accurate, and the only way for current Mac OS X users to get the update to 10.1 is for $19.95, I imagine that there will be some angry people in the Mac camp.
The Standard: Broadband Could Add $500 Billion to Economy, Study Says It's this sort of very misleading projecting that caused the dot bomb boom.
Man am I ticked off at Sony right now. I bought a Sony laptop a couple of weeks ago to have a machine to use until I can replace my Powerbook. I made sure to buy a model that ships with either ME or 2000 for compatibility purposes. Since the store did not have the Windows 2000 version in stock, I went ahead and bought the ME version, knowing that I had an extra Windows 2000 license at home that I could use to upgrade the machine. Since there is a version that ships with Windows 2000 drivers, I figured that I could either download the drivers I would need or have Sony send me the drivers CD for the machine. Turns out that neither are available right now, and they can't give me a date when they will be. I'm stuck with crappy unstable Windows ME, and very unhappy with Sony. I wouldn't buy this machine if I had it to do again, and I may just go ahead and return it. God I sound like a Whiner.
DAVE for Mac OS X. Sharity was a one way, confusing and difficult to configure solution. I've always used Dave on my Macs, so I'm curious to see how Dave for X turns out.
Flaw in some AirPort Base Stations. I was having this problem a couple of months ago, and had called and gotten nowhere with Apple. I called today, and they are mailing out a replacement. It's nice to know that there is good customer service somewhere.
AKIRA2001.COM A special edition DVD of a restored version of Akira is being released July 24th.
Spider-Man Movie Trailer It looks really really good.
I'm making an offer on my first house today. I'm very excited about it, and the last few weeks as I dragged my feet making a decision have moved by quite slowly.
Beijing wins 2008 Games Can't say I'm happy about this. China has an awful record of behavior, human rights abuses, and a number of other things that are not quite in the Olympic spirit.
O'Reilly Network: Extending the Life Line of the Palm OS I have to say that, as I returned to the Palm platform after the loss of my iPaq, that the connection software seems a bit old fashioned to me now. It doesn't really seem like it has been revamped in a long while. Also, they still rely on third parties for even their integration with Outlook. Sure they bundle the software in the box, but this is an essential part of what their software does. Just from my own outside opinions, it seems like Palm is missing the boat on a lot of things. Each of their licensees has innovated in some way, but it would be nice if they could tie all of those innovations together moving forward.
Now, I'm not saying this is in good taste, but IsDickCheneyDeadYet.com ??? Is this something that merits it's own blog? I mean let's take this as seriously as possible. Is this person damaging the whole medium of blogging? Devaluing the very existence of "serious" blogs? In another case of dot com's over staffing, the site claims to have three staffers monitoring Dick Cheney. Do you really need three people for that or are they trying to burn through some VC money? I guess I just don't see a revenue model here.
OSXGNU Software Archive (via inessential)
"Hello my friend!!!" If you're ever at the corner of Marietta and Cone streets in Atlanta GA, you owe it to yourself to visit this man and pick up a fantastic smoothie. If you're lucky, you may turn out to be his friend. (link, picture and text courtesy of n0d.org)
Dan Gillmor: Microsoft's desktop `concession' taken from same old bag of tricks
Frankly, this is too little too late for this market segement. Microsoft managed to kill off any real viable alternative to Internet Explorer. Hold on, I know you are thinking "there's Mozilla, iCab, Opera" Well think about it this way, think of all the improvements that could have been made to Netscape if they had been able to charge for their software. Think of the innovations we might have seen had they been able to sink a huge, revenue based, R & D effort behind their browser. Well here we are in 2001, and the browser hasn't really moved very far from 1998-9. This is Microsoft's fault, and we need our government to step up to the plate here and not cave and settle.
Leo from Screen Savers on TechTV has a blog.
Osiris G-Bag is a backpack with built in speakers for listening to music.
Emusic has almost every George Carlin album as MP3's up on their site. I continue to enjoy the unlimited downloads for $9.99 plan at eMusic very much. Especially since I started using Musicmatch Jukebox Pro as my player on my new Windows machine. As some would say, it automagically loads songs I download into my library.
I've been watching Major League Lacrosse whenever the games are on here. I played for a couple of seasons in college, and have always loved the sport. It's so much more exciting to watch than some of the other professional sporting events on TV.
I am finally recovering from the massive data loss and sheer privacy invasion of my laptop disappearance. It has taken me a while. I bought new equipment, not the same stuff I had because I frankly couldn't afford it. I'm hoping the hotel's insurance will cover the rest. I've written up the whole story, but don't want to publish it yet in case the thief is smart enough to check this site. I must have changed 200 passwords in the last few days, and spent almost a week getting software installed and configured. Now I have to get back on track at work where this has cost me at least one work week. Back up your data every day boys and girls, and encrypt stuff you don't want others to see with PGP and password utilities like Web Confidential (Mac OS, Windows, and Palm).
Others have pointed to this book review about the Supreme Court decision on the election last year. It is worth a read, and I will without a doubt be reading the books it covers.
I apologize for the lack of updates. When staying in San Francisco over the weekend, someone broke into my hotel room and stole my Titanium Laptop, iPaq, and all of the other various pieces of computer equipment that I had brought on the trip for work. The most disturbing thing in the whole mess is the loss of my data and the invasion of my privacy. If you know someone in the bay area that may have purchased items like this at hot prices, feel free to email me. I, of course, have the police on the case.