Ahh, has been too long since I blogged. Been damn too busy at work. You know, work putting a cramp in your fun?

So, I'm heading off to Kansas City to visit the Stoics and DrunkJeff and Vybex for New Years Eve. Should be lots o' fun. Here's the email I sent to the crew on Sunday.

At this very moment I am sitting [picture to follow] in the lobby of the Westin Hotel near SFO, since my flight leaves at 6:00am. Ack! But it's well worth it. More time with the Stoics. And besides, it's a very nice hotel.
o Right next the airport.
o Great restaurant. (Pricey but good, and good beer.)
o Room with a king size bed. The bed must encompass two area codes of its own. When you get lost they send in the search dogs. [picture to follow]
o The room even has its own safe.
o Long mezmorizing hallways, like many hotels. [picture to follow]
o And best of all? Wireless in the lobby! Yup, in #Ampedout right now, chattin' with me droogies.

Only downside? The wireless, in its usually freaky corporate way, requires that a browser remains open to a specific page. Okay, and the musak xmas music playing. (Headphones and streaming Ampedout goooooood.)

Kudos!

SCIENCE

• It's showtime for Leonid meteors

TECH

• Seven flights of fancy that fizzled
• PowerLabs Electro Magnetic Weapons!
• Bollywood Goes Digital: To boldly go where no Hollywood exec has gone before!
• Feds to launch $10 million investigation of cell phones, wireless technologies: Cancer from cellphones? Hasn't this one been around before? Never the less, something to keep an eye on.
• Microsoft to Open Music Store: Store will compete with iTunes: 500lb gorilla see, 500lb gorilla do.
• PalmSource Gets Connected, Company's new program could lead to smart phones, wireless devices.: Finally, more integration, predicted o' so long ago. Seems Palm is becoming more of a service company. Reports have it that Tivo is changing in the same way.
• Deskbar seeks in small space: Google without a browser? Doesn't MS' Longhorn tout something like this? Looks like Google beat them to the punch.
• London Wireless Map: Could have used this last September. Hey! The Starbucks where I used t-mobile is on here. Bummer that this map doesn't cover free wireless hot spots.
• Why Personal Websites Matter
• CDs 'could be history in five years': By Gibson! Shades of Cyberpunk! Could it be pie in the sky tech?
• Would you buy drugs from Bill Gates?: Cringley as usual takes things textremes, but you've got tlove the byline. Oh yes, the article is about Microsoft's use of earnings management.
• Are the Days of 32-Bit Chips Numbered? AMD says it will shift entirely to 64-bit chips by 2005.

LINUX

• Sun makes deal in China/Linux desktop software to be used on 200 million computers, McNealy says: Unhappiness in Gates Manse tonight! So you might want to stay out of Redmond.
• SCo to pay lawyers millions for more legal firepower: Ouch, the brawl is going to get bloody. No mention of SCO's venture capital infusion.
• Forbes Examines SCSubpoenas
• Real Desktop Linux, Part I
• Tpush desktop Linux, radical shift may be required
• The Linux Enterprise

POLITICS

• Mobile users told to 'chase Bush': Tech in action! "Chase Bush", sounds like a movie plot. (No Freudian remarks please!)
• Mass. Court Strikes Down Gay-Marriage Ban: With the current conservative bent of the US, amazing that this made it through. Congrats ladies and gents!
• The Story of Mouseland as told by Tommy Douglas, 1944. Enlightening parable.
• Uncensored Gore (Vidal): The take-no-prisoners social critic skewers Bush, Ashcroft and the whole damn lot of us for letting despots rule.
• Judge Needs Time For E-Voting Decision

GENERAL NEWS

• Flu Cases In State Up 300 Percent In One Week. Flu Season Still Not At Its Peak: Yikes! Though I'm not surprised. I had the flu a few weeks ago. Glad I got my flu shot too.
• Mickey Mouse, American icon, reaches 75: And he doesn't look a day over 39. Surprising that the article doesn't mention the Eldred case.

SCIFI

• Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex by Larry Niven, is online! Ahh, a SciFi classic.

MUSIC

• Get the wax out! Goodbye Turntables The New DJ Revolution: mp3j's (and iPods): It keeps on spreading. Nothing new though. This type of thing has been happening in New York. With IPod, WhNeeds a Turntable?

POETRY
[Bio-Death] let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated anchor
[Bio-Death] let the oceans take and transmucate these leaden grudges into gold
* Bio-Death dances
[RayTracer] what's that from?
[Bio-Death] Tool
[Bynk] Which album?
[Bio-Death] Lateralus
[Bynk] Ahh, "The Grudge"
[Bynk] Funny, I like Tool now, more than when I got Undertow from the BMG club years ago
[Bynk] Lyrics remind me of some of the poetry I have written in the past.
[Bio-Death] ooo
[Bio-Death] bynk poetry
[Bio-Death] i wanna c

So, with a request like that, how could I resist? My fans are calling! Besides, I've been meaning to put up my poetry for a while now. Thanks Bio for giving me the impetus!

Ahh, yes, 1990, my early years.

TOPIC: writing

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*