I have faith in the local courts!
The RIAA brought a file-sharing case to court down in White Plains, trying to use their clout to intimidate the defendant and speed the trial, and the judge completely went off on their lawyer. Full transcript here. (via)
So I’ve been toying around with that free version of Opera. It’s certainly a good browser, but it didn’t convince me to switch from Firefox. Continue reading »
Apple is up to something — they’ve sent out teaser invitations to the media that say “1000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.” Rumor mill Think Secret has a few theories: in order of increasing plausibility, an iPod capable of video playback, a flash-based iPod mini, and an iTunes-compatable Motorola cell phone. The phone has been confirmed by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, so that’s a safe bet. We’ll see what they have up their sleeve next week.
AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo — the Big Three in the world of instant messaging — are apparently conspiring against Google’s foray into their territory. A good read.
If it’s true, the future doesn’t look bright for multi-protocol clients. Hopefully this will drive people away from AIM and onto Google Talk.
The web browser Opera is essentially the non-open source alternative to Firefox. As such, it comes with ads unless you pony up $39. I’ve heard good things about it, but I liked Firefox well enough and saw no reason to pay that much for such a similar program.
If you’re in my situation, or — heaven forfend — you still use Internet Explorer — today’s your lucky day. For one day only, as a celebration of its 10th anniversary, Opera is giving out free registration codes. Try it out! (via)
The descriptions on these things are interesting. You can tell which diseases are PC to joke about and which aren’t. Compare:
The Flu
OrthomyoxvirusThis guy may not look too tough, but don’t let his cute looks fool you! Once he and his friends show up you’re in for a pretty lousy time. Learn about his weaknesses so you can avoid unwanted encounters. Approximately 13 cm tall (5.5 inches)
H.I.V.
Human immunodeficiency virusThis plush can be used as a visual aid with your health curriculum. Use it to teach your students the fact about H.I.V., such as:
- H.I.V. kills CD4 cells, or T-helper cells
- Once the immune system is compromised, a person develops AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome)
- H.I.V. is most commonly transmitted by sexual contact with an infected person
- Insect bites and sweat carry almost no risk of transmission
- Studies show that drying H.I.V. infected fluids can reduce viral presence by 90-99%
- There is no vaccine for H.I.V. and no cure for AIDS
This GIANTmicrobe is appropriate for more serious discussions. It is not included in the set of 17 Plush Germs. Approximately 10 cm tall (4 inches)
If you use a Mac and you use del.icio.us — and if either of those is not true, you should try ‘em out — you should be using Cocoalicious. It makes organizing your bookmarks an order of magnitude easier, above and beyond the order of magnitude that del.icio.us helps by.
I think I might have to start following tennis. I’ve been watching the US Open today, and it’s awesome. I know the rules already, but I don’t know anything about the players and history. It’s a ball to watch, though.
Hurricane Katrina is set to be the worst hurricane in US history. Terrifying stuff, especially for New Orleans.
There’s a conflict brewing between Apple and a couple of major record companies. Apparently, 99 cents isn’t going to cut it anymore:
If [Apple] loses, the one-price model that iTunes has adopted – 99 cents to download any song – could be replaced with a more complex structure that prices songs by popularity. A hot new single, for example, could sell for $1.49, while a golden oldie could go for substantially less than 99 cents.
It may initially seem that this is a stupid move by the music industry. After all, the iTunes Music Store has done more for monetizing digital music than anything else — why mess with it? Still, that last bit about songs going for less than 99 cents has people excited, myself included. Maybe an iTMS with variable pricing will introduce the record companies to the Long Tail.
Sometimes the “random article” link on Wikipedia turns up pure gold. Check out the entry for Cottonwood, South Dakota, population 6:
The racial makeup of the town is 100.00% White, 0.00% African American, 0.00% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.00% from other races, and 0.00% from two or more races. 0.00% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
I put up my guitar tab of Chick Corea’s Spain in the brand new stuff section. It’s a work in progress — a beta, I guess — so I might update it if I come up with a better fingering. More “stuff” to come.
