an ipod with a dash of rockbox

As I indicated in a previous post, this past Christmas I was gifted a 30GB Video iPod. I had bought one for Ann (a Nano) almost a year earlier, and had “borrowed” it on occasion. Its interface was much better than almost anything else out there (hence its incredible success in the marketplace), but I was hesitant. Being firmly against DRM the integration with iTunes Store did nothing for me. I also didn’t want to be tied to a platform (be it AAC, or anything else)....

WWW Tour 2.27.07

Overprice Tags -- In the back of my mind I knew this was a problem, but I had no idea how bad it really is. Are these sheer profits or do these academic publications sponsor things? Does it go to the authors? Catching up with the times -- I'm surprised it took so long for this to happen. I mean, satnav is basically useless in cities like Boston. What's going to happen when people are relying on 2005 version of maps in 2010?...

source vs creative commons

Mark Pilgrim has an interesting take on the Creative Common’s license. The CC license is a copyleft framework that allows content creators to choose what rights to retain, and what to grant explicitly, rather than the all assuming copyright ©. The GPL was designed for source code. Applying it to other media runs the gamut of success stories. CC was intended for all possible works… from written text, images, video… anything that you would traditionally stick a © on....

Hello... I'm Mac... & I'm a PC

Prior to getting started, regardless of which camp you support, you have to appreciate great British humor on the current discussion. Now with that out of the way. For Christmas Ann got me an iPod – there is a reason this things sell so well. They are just damn easy to use. they of course have their quirks, but they are at least not frustrating to use. My previous MP3 players where the “portable” Creative Jukebox 3 and the “great-for-workouts-if-you-didn’t-mind-listening-to-the-same-songs-over-and-over” Creative Nomad IIc....

WWW Tour 1.31.07

Let me first say, Sun keyboards suck. Let me add to that the frustration of two identical looking Sun keyboards at side-by-side terminals with opposite Control-CapsLock configurations… It literally boils my blood. Sun, stop making stupid shitty keyboards. This has been a public service announcement brought to you by the letter G. Now back to your anything-but-regularly scheduled program. Launchy 1.0 -- Every Windows user needs to be using this. And now its even more powerful!...

WWW Tour 1.27.07

Seeing Apollo Landing Site -- When you pause and think about it, it makes sense... however the fact that Hubble can't even see it, is really rather remarkable Mitsubishi Evo 8 vs. Lamborghini Murcielago (Top Gear) -- Holy shit! Incredbile! If it didn't look so bland (and its still a Mitsubishi) Ryu vs Scorpion -- Well done fight sequence. I don't think its a "game," just some video editing... but well worth it....

WWW Tour 1.25.07

Andromeda -- I never realized how big it actually is in our sky... this is quite cool! Meade RCX400 20" -- In keeping with the astronomy bit, for the price of a Porsche or BMW M5, it would be awesome to have one of these! Check out the gallery!

WWW Tour 1.24.07

Cringley's 2007 predictions -- complete with an assessment his 2006 results Apple TV -- With the iPhone stealing the thunder, does anyone else not get Apple TV? Its one thing if it was competing with Tivo/Replay... I guess if you are really really really into iTunes (those people who have spent tens of thousands of dollars in the store) it might be attractive... Caloric Values of Beer (et al) -- mmmmmm....

Exciting News

So the fantastic news is that Ann has been accepted to the Stanford Business School!! We are so excited and I’m incredibly proud of her (I know exactly how much work she put into it). Which means that indeed 2007 will be a year of very good change and transition. We will probably end up living on campus and heading out to the Bay Area in the July/August time frame. In the mean time, we are both incredibly busy at work – with the Democrats taking back Congress, and lots of GPS events (and travel)....

Awakened from the depths of slumber

Wow, has it been this long? Anyone who ever checked this must have given up by now. Talk about killing your audience through inactivity. Let me be the first to say, the spell checker in Firefox 2 is really nice to have. It unfortunately doesn’t quite work with the editor I’m using right now (ChenPress – the right click doesn’t show the alternative spellings) but at least I get a red underline when its wrong....