TECH, LINUX, & HUMOR

• The Grinch Who Stole Linux: Very funny. Technically is this filk? Or does the term filk only apply to music? Interesting how satire and parody can bring some light into a subject.
• Uf Researcher: “Reversible” Computers More Energy Efficient, Faster: The research comes at a time when computers are estimated to consume as much as 10 percent of electricity in the United States... (Almost sounds like a perpetual motion machine with Rube Goldberg influences. If it can be done, then WOW!)
• Report from the first Desktop Linux Conference by Andy Oram of O'Reilly & Associates.
• 2+2=5: Microsoft Prepares FUD Security Assault on Linux: Hmm, Microsoft could always strive for better software rather than spreading FUD. Ha!

If you ever wondered what films the opposite sex watched during sex education (in the 50's), then check out Archive.org's Prelinger Archives.

TOPIC: history, media

Huzzah! I found Viking Kittens - Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song from this URL.

Of course there is this replacement (Gay Bar) by the creator, since the one above probably breaks some copyrights.

TOPIC: Fun with flash

I just read Will the Last Computer Hobbyist Please Turn Out the Lights? by John C. Dvorak.

Hello, John! What about LAN gamers, Linux users, robot hobbyists, arcade game enthusiasts, and hobbyist programmers?

Admittedly the plumage and behavior of your North American Hobbyist has changed. Consider that programming bar is much higher, so such programmers end up being contributors to OpenSource projects. Also, the computer field is less concentrated and much bigger compared to the era that Dvorak references. User groups now flock around a technology instead of a specific computer.

Maybe it's that the average computer hobbyist is now obscured because computers are now everywhere, and thus we no longer consider them hobbyists. They now are programmers, admins, etc...

Though I wouldn't doubt that due to the variety of modern past times that there has been a decrease in the tried and true hobbyist, for all hobbyist fields. Just look at the increase of discretionary interests: PC gaming, platform gaming, home theatre. In some ways everybody is a hobbyist these days.

And me? Well, I think I will paraphrase my sister on this, "You make your hobbies into jobs and your jobs into hobbies".

She's right.

MOVIE REVIEW
Saw Matrix Revolutions last Saturday. If you are a fan, it's a Bargin Matinee. If not, Rent It, assuming decent sound and picture at home. [Find the scale here.]

IMHO, the Matrix went from inventive execution of a plot with special effects and wire-fu, to a plot with special effects and some wire-fu (more effect than fu), to a plot getting in the way of special effects (and a near lack of fu). I wonder if Matrix Revolutions will eventually go the way of "That Highlander Movie Which Goes Unmentioned". Okay, it's not that bad, but almost as forgettable.

Matt at Mac Hall had a good comment about it:

I caught a matinee of Matrix Revolutions the other day. Personally, I think it's a cinematic landmark, as this film is the first time someone has managed to construct a narrative entirely out of plot holes.

Here's Retina's Quick Review.

Apple will 'make RIAA beg for mercy' - readers: Okay, some things in this article I get. Others I don't. Is English English and American English the same? It seems to me the author is leaving out many details and specific references. Sure, the title caught my attention, and the title as a concept very well might happen, but the article content seems ambigious. It makes me feel like Picard in "Darmok". (Geek reference!)

Your 99c belong to the RIAA - Steve Jobs: A companion article.

MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• Disney Does Digital, Ditches Drawings: Yup, Disney is losing it. You don't need digital to make good movies. Just look at Hayao Miyazaki's films (Spirited Away, etc). Besides, I've heard John Lasseter say that story is the most important thing.
• Online Competition Hurts Adult Magazines: Is this the way music will go? The whole elimination of the "middle man", like iTunes, or eBooks?
• Media Blasters Acquires Invader Zim and Invader Zim on DVD Spring 2004: Huzzah! About time. Thanks for the heads up Retina.
• Help me with my online music chart: A good summary of options, good and bad, regarding the current state of music "downloads".

TECH

• Ban on Internet Access Tax Dies in Senate: Nuff said.
• How To Become A Hacker and Chapter 5. Hacker Writing Style: Interesting. In some way's O'Reilly's writing style is Hacker Writing Style. Oh, and while we are at it, please don't confuse "hacker" with "cracker" (aka black-hat hacker). But you knew that, right?
• What's Hot and What's Not by John C. Dvorak.
• Pop Sci Best of What's New 2003: One of each please. And can I Super Size that?
• Go-Video D2730 Networked DVD Player: Okay, this one at the very least.

LINUX & SCO

• Novell's SuSE Buy Strikes Blow to SCO: I didn't think of this angle until this article brought it up.
• IBM warms to desktop Linux: Ahh, good, considering Matthew Szulik estranged comment about Linux desktops. Yes, the Linux desktop is not perfect, but I would have expected a bit more from a Red Hat chief executive.
• What is The Fedora Project?: Okay, I admit it, I was confused by Red Hat's move to drop the Red Hat distro and did not understand what Fedora was. Chock it up to not reading between the lines and an unclear message from Red Hat's marketing.
• SCO to Take On Hollywood: No comment. No, really, no comment. I just don't know what to say. *sigh*

RIAA! FCC! YES YOU! CLUE! GET ONE!

• Boycott the RIAA and stay informed. (Thanks Retina!)
• Federal Communications Commission Adopts Hollywood Tech Mandate: The FCC has decided that the way to get Americans to adopt digital TV is to make it cost more and do less... Slashdot too.
• US downloads beat CD sales: Some 7.7 million tracks were bought and downloaded since the end of June - compared with four million CD singles sold, Billboard magazine reported... digital sales had a "symbolic significance" because they marked the music industry's move to digital operations
  (Industry's move???? Yeah, right! A move that so far has required kicking and screaming and suing.)

LINUX: Cha-cha-changes!

• Red Hat: Stick with Windows at home: LOL, saw somebody call Fedora, "Fudora".
• Novell Announces Agreement to Acquire Leading Enterprise Linux Technology Company SUSE LINUX: Things only get stranger.
• IBM's patience runs out on SCO: And with SCO in the other camp, ACK!
• So what's left? Mandrake, Debian, Knoppix, Gnoppix, FreeBSD (yes, not Linux, but Free and *nix-ish)

TECH

• Things of the Past: Damn! Never saw those free computers. Hmmm, wonder what happened to the owners of them?

HISTORY

• Plot was Guy-normous: What if Guy Fawkes' plan succeeded. Sounds like an interesting alternate history story.

Time for another LINK ATTACK!

RPG:

• Are you an RPG junkie who uses a laptop? Then check out www.opengamingfoundation.com and Jamis Buck's RPG Generators. Need the latest in RPG news? Then take a look at Enworld. And while you are at it, need the latest errata or Sage Advice/FAQ?
  
• Make your own castles from molds.

FUN MP3s

• May Satan Claws bring you many things. Merry Christmas! (Big, 3.08mb)
  
• Dungeons and Dragons, Satan's Game (3.31mb).
  
• Happy B-Day! (2.65mb)

NATURE & SCIENCE

• Seafood Watch regional cards from the Monterey Aquarium.
  
• Milky Way's nearest neighbour revealed: Dwarf Galaxies! Nope, not Andromeda (as I thought) or the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy (discovered in 1994)."We found a large excess of these stars just below the plane of the Milky Way, spread into an elongated shape covering about 10 times the apparent size of the full Moon."
  
• U.S.S. Enterprise Tested at Mach5: Just watch out for that space junk with shields down.

ONLINE MOVIES & FLASH

• Endgame Chess made "interesting"
  
• This Guy is Falling: Neat student indie short film.
  
• Lap Dance: No, it's not exactly what you think. It's cat behavior distilled into Flash.

TECH & COMPUTERS

• G5's in Redmond?!?!
  
• Terahertz rays track down drugs: The scheme works by spectral fingerprinting -- illuminating a target envelope with tunable terahertz radiation and analyzing the absorption spectra of the resulting image. The results are cross-referenced with a database of spectra to check for the chemicals of interest. Can tricorders be far behind? How about Feinbergs?
  
• Interesting ideas about digital money
  
• Attack of the iPod Clones
  
• OldVersion.com: a great resource for old programs.

RIAA

• EMI to offer 140.000 songs online in Europe: Oh, the hypocrisy!

FUN: Plain & simple

• Wow! Bite My Shiny Metal Ass!
  
• Lego Castles: Made to scale by a professor from Britain.
  
• www.hawaiianshirtsonline.com: Great place to get Hawaiian shirts.
  
• WordSpy.com: Do you know what a glurge is? How about a duppie? "Brain on a stick"?
  
• The O'Reilly Cover Parodies: about time to update this page and add some new ones.
  
• Dorkstorm The Annihilation: The ten geekiest hobbies

INTERESTING & STRANGE NEWS

• Shades of Risky Business! Not just the contents of a house stolen, but also a whole house stolen. Same people? Who knows. Weird.
  
• Who needs radio anymore? Because radio rarely makes the music artist these days.

REFERENCE:

• Bynk's (old) Movie List

FUN: with Flash!

• Gonads and Strife
  
• The Cheese Family
  
• Badgers Badgers Badgers!
  
• I've seen things! aka Scampi, somewhat Badger-esque.
  
• Napster baaaad series
  
• Strong Bad, speaking of bad. Well he's actually very good (funny).
  
• Odd Todd, who likes to watch Sponge Bob.
  
• Radiskull & Devil Doll, who could forget THEM?
  
• Lenore: The Cute Little Dead Girl, very strange.
  
• Punk kittens
  
• Spoon menace