Photosynth now available in Firefox!

Trust me, it's cool. 

Link

What part of "shall not be suspended" does he not understand?

Just when you think you've heard everything from this administration, it finds another way to demonstrate its utter contempt for the U.S. Constitution. And these people have the nerve to label Iraq war opponents traitors.

One of the Bush administration's most far-reaching assertions of government power was revealed quietly last week when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified that habeas corpus -- the right to go to federal court and challenge one's imprisonment -- is not protected by the Constitution.

"The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas,'' Gonzales told Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 17.

Gonzales acknowledged that the Constitution declares "habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless ... in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.'' But he insisted that "there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution."

Chilling.

So much for McCain the reformer

McCain Flip-Flops On Lobbying Reform, Caves To Pressure From Religious Right

The question is, why is the religious right against campaign finance disclosure? I understand why it would oppose finance caps, but disclosure? Aren't these people supposed to be pro-truth? Or has power become more important than principle?

The Computer With a TV, and a Family's Virtual Bulletin Board

 The NY Times' take a look at the HP touch-screen computer I mentioned earlier.

Link

iPhone & LG KE850: separated at birth?

Apple innovates yet again!

Engadget has the story

A lunchtime chat with Bill Gates at CES

No, not with me. But Engadget has an interesting inteview with Bill Gates about the future of the Xbox, which in case you haven't heard, will become a cable-like set-top box with Microsoft and its partners roll out IPTV services late this year. This is in addition to the high-def movies Microsoft already sells through the Xbox Line marketplace.

As Gates puts in in the interview: "The reason we got into Xbox at the beginning was not just gaming. It was very, very important."

Link

So THAT's why it's so addictive...

 Xbox designers explain the strange appeal of the system's Achievement Points system...

It's so clever," he says. "I mean, it's just a score. You may say it can't be used for anything, but gamers use them for pride. They're pride points! You can compare it to the feeling you get when you pull up to a restaurant in a Lamborghini. People go, 'Oooo, he must be somebody.' In the virtual world of gaming, points create that same sense of rank and envy, and that's why gamers have latched onto them. I read that people are picking up the Burger King Xbox games just so they can score additional points. If that doesn't prove how well this program is working, nothing does."

Not that I would ever resort to playing something as lame as, say Uno, for the easy gamer points..

Link

Happy New Year, from Microsoft

I and hundreds of other Windows Vista beta testers awoke Jan. 1 to discover that the operating system's Media Center functionality stopped working with nary a warning, even though the Vista beta (release candidate 1) isn't set to expire until this summer.

That wouldn't be so bad if the final version of Vista were available to purchase. Looks like Andrea and I are set to miss a whole month of Heroes and Ugly Betty.

Mouse and keyboard on the Xbox 360?

Everyone knows that first-person shooters were meant for the mouse and keyboard -- the mouse to aim and shoot and keyboard to run and perform complicated tasks. That's why I've never liked playing them on consoles. I even hated the much-vaunted Goldeneye.

With that in mind, you can imagine my excitement at the thought of hooking up this adapter to my Xbox 360 and dominating Gears of War.

Alas, it is not to be. As this review, explains, it's great in theory, but just doesn't work that well in real life. Sigh.

Possible contender for my next laptop?

I have my heart set on the nice-but-pricey Lenovo X60 tablet, but this HP tx1000 looks interesting.

I was holding off on the big upgrade until I see what Apple announces in January, but now, I'll have to wait to see the exact price, weight and keyboard size of this HP model.

TabletPCReview has the scoop.

Link

Reporters and Parrots

Google's research director, Peter Norvig, has an issue with journalists.

1. Parroting: The reporter's job is to do research to find the facts. But too often they seem to parrot back whatever is fed to them by press releases, politicians, or other news reports. My friend Joe C. calls this the stenographic approach to reporting.
2. Deception: Public figures lie (Marth Stewart, Kenneth Lay), and reporters do not know who to trust. Reporters lie, either to advance their career (Jayson Blair) or to serve the interests of their corporate sponsors. Sometimes the deception is self-deception: reporters (and others) believe what they want to believe.
3. Innumeracy: Prof. John McCarthy has touted the slogan He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense. Perhaps the budding reporters with an ability for arithmetic end up in other fields (like me), but it does seem that reporters repeatedly show they are not capable of simple multiplication and division.
4. Equal Time: Perhaps influenced by the sports pages, reporters tend to see issues as a competition with two sides, which must both be covered. Sometimes this is true, but sometimes one side is right and the other is objectively wrong. Reporters should do enough research to determine who is right and say so. They are too easily manipulated by those who have no facts on their side, but get equal press time anyways just by talking loudly.

Link

O Christmas Tree

Andrea's first multimedia project is up at the Mercury News site.

I'm person of the year!

But my accomplishment is somewhat diluted by the fact that you also have been named Time Magazine's person of the year.

Hypocrisy can be funny

From This Modern World.

Backstory here.

Sorry about the ads and popups

I had my debit card replaced and forgot to update my billing info with Tripod. It should be fixed by tomorrow.

Paul Krugman on the Great Wealth Transfer

 A well-reasoned piece in Rolling Stone magazine -- yes, Rolling Stone -- about why Bush isn't getting credit for a recovering economy.

The economic pie is getting bigger -- how can it be true that most Americans are getting smaller slices? The answer, of course, is that a few people are getting much, much bigger slices. Although wages have stagnated since Bush took office, corporate profits have doubled. The gap between the nation's CEOs and average workers is now ten times greater than it was a generation ago. And while Bush's tax cuts shaved only a few hundred dollars off the tax bills of most Americans, they saved the richest one percent more than $44,000 on average. In fact, once all of Bush's tax cuts take effect, it is estimated that those with incomes of more than $200,000 a year -- the richest five percent of the population -- will pocket almost half of the money. Those who make less than $75,000 a year -- eighty percent of America -- will receive barely a quarter of the cuts. In the Bush era, economic inequality is on the rise.

Some would argue that economic inequality shouldn't be cause for alarm, so long as everyone's standard of living is improving. But money equals power, and most would agree that concentrated power -- whether from a communist government, fascist dictator or capitalist oligarchy -- is a bad thing.

Andrea survives another round of layoffs

She didn't get the dreaded call this morning, so it looks like she's safe, at least for another six months. But this business had better figure out how to make money online, and fast.

HP's cool new Media Center PC

HP has been putting a a lot more emphasis on design lately, as evidenced by its soon-to-launch Vista showcase PC.

Among other features, it sports integrated FM and HDTV tuners, built-in camera and a touch-screen interface with this at-a-glance calendar and info center. It looks like it'll cost about $1,800.

Very cool. Expensive, but cool.

Engadget has the scoop.

A Brief History of Game Console Warfare

From BusinessWeek. Interesting graphic, though a bit inaccurate in places -- "Microsoft's Xbox marked the software company's debut in producing hardware of any kind." Really, BusinessWeek? Are you sure about that?

I have a really cool book, Digital Retro, that talks about the history of personal computers and mentions several of the game consoles. Naturally, it goes into a bit more depth than BusinessWeek could with its graphic and features lots of nice, big pictures. I would love to see the author tackle the game console business in a follow-up volume.

Link

Gears Of War trailer

Here's that game I wrote about earlier.

Why I've been neglecting this blog lately

 

In short, I've been kind of busy:

1. I got married
Andrea and I finally tied the knot in a small family ceremony in San Francisco. With a little help from a college buddy who's now a minister, we commandeered the steps of the City Hall rotunda, so the photos make the event look much more formal and planned than it actually was. To the left is an artist's rendering of the ceremony.

About nine members from Andrea's family came to the U.S. to participate in our union, along with the Phoenix contingent of my family. Everything worked out perfectly. More wedding pictures here.

2. I got an XBox 360
You know the old saying that it takes Microsoft three tries to get something right? Well they nailed the game console the second time around. This is a really well-designed system, with lots of power and an easy-to-use interface. I've always been partial to PC gaming because of the ability to download demo games and the fact that the keyboard-and-mouse combo is the best way to play first-person shooters. The XBox's hard drive and Internet connection takes care of the first problem, and while I still long for the free-look option of the mouse, playing with a controller isn't so bad. The nice thing about consoles is the economics -- you pay $400 every few years or so for a really powerful system that guarantees games written for it will work properly. No more worrying about having to upgrade the graphics card or memory. Now, my desktop computer won't feel obsolete as quickly.

And Microsoft did a great job designing this system. Connecting and playing with friends is a snap. Now I can finally use the video-game option on my Blockbuster rental plan. And -- aside from the original Quake, which was a breakthrough is so many ways -- Gears of War is probably the best game I've ever played.

My XBox even has its own blog. No, really.

3. The job
As I mentioned here earlier, Investor's Business Daily promoted me to Assistant Technology Editor, which has handed me a ton of responsibilities. Favorite part of the job: writing headlines. Least favorite part: dealing with angry reporters who swear I've ruined their masterpiece.

4. The election
Now the the Democrats have retaken congress and restored some level of sanity back into Washington, I won't have as much to rant about. It won't be enough to undo six years' worth of damage, but at least we have some semblance of checks and balances in the federal government. Let's hope the Dems don't blow it. 

Are nominations open yet for this year's Darwin Awards?

Man hurt after lighting firecracker in buttocks

Too cool for words.

Photosynth

Wal-Mart opts for ‘Christmas’ marketing

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Christmas cheer seems to be a hot trend this season as several other retailers including Kohl’s Corp. and Macy’s, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc., are also stepping up their Christmas marketing. The moves respond to mounting criticism from religious groups that staged boycotts against Wal-Mart and other merchants after they eliminated or de-emphasized “Christmas” in their advertising.

Because there's nothing Jesus wants more than to see his birth turned into a way for retail chains to boost shareholder returns -- during a traditional pagan holiday, no less. Cha-ching!

Link

Real ‘OC’ Starts Objecting to Its MTV Portrayal

"This is not depicting our town the way it should be depicted,” said Lisa Arthur, who has two children in the school and one who graduated. “Our town is about art and culture, and school should be about education."

Really? This is Orange County we're talking about, right?

 

Source: Real ‘OC’ Starts Objecting to Its MTV Portrayal - New York Times

GOP: Rumsfeld stepping down

Wow, that was fast. 

Link

Better than I could have possibly imagined.

Finally, a return to sanity.

Vote today

 If the Democrats can't win in this environment, they just can't win.

Link to Political News - MSNBC.com

Restore hotkey functionality to Windows Desktop Search 3.0

It's not as simple as it should be, but it's possible.

Strange but true

Here's a mountain range in Canada that looks like a carved profile of Egyptian royalty. UFO conspiracy theorists, start your engines! The Mars face has nothing on this.

Link

Windows Desktop Search 3.0 is out

This is a great free application, and the newest version promises faster indexing. It uses the same underlying technology as the search function in Windows Vista, which also is tightly integrated with Office 2007.

But as some have pointed out, this new version of WDS is a step backwards in some ways -- it doesn't index network-mapped drives and the hotkey functionality no longer works. So if you're a big user of either of those, you may want to hold off a bit.

Link

Transforming a 2D image into 3D

Very cool. Sort of reminds me of Microsoft's soon-to-launch Photosynth.

The nut jobs in San Francisco are going to ruin it for everyone

Davis Freeberg details a recent town hall about Google's efforts to bring free wireless Internet access to San Francisco:

The lunacy of San Francisco politics can take several forms and town hall meetings are sure to attract some of San Francisco’s craziest nut jobs. While I was surprised not to see San Francisco’s representative from the 12 galaxies, Frank Chu, attend the meeting, I did get to see Chris Sacca from Google face a parade of activist oddballs who neither understood technology nor the positive social impact that free wifi could bring to some of the city’s most disadvantaged citizens.

At the meeting, Sacca did an excellent job or remaining calm and explaining the technology in language that anyone could understand, still these local political gadflies seemed to feel that EarthLink and Google providing free WiFi to the citizens was akin to killing kittens because, they attacked Sacca with a venom that was absolutely shocking.

Some of the crazier demands that were suggested at the meeting included a “requirement” for every San Francisco renter to sign a lease addendum with their landlords before being allowed to install a WiFi card in their PC, forcing Google to agree to transport kids back and forth to the Zoo in their Google busses and a requirement for EarthLink to pay the electrical costs for running computers in order to prevent brownouts.

Another argument for requiring more science, math and logic courses in school.

Link

Court Told It Lacks Power in Detainee Cases

Where have I read this story before? Oh that's right, here.

Firefox still faster than IE 7

Or so says former Microsoftie Robert Scoble. Alarmingly, IE was especially slow in rendering AJAX-heavy sites such as Google Maps. So much for Steve Ballmer's vow that the company would own Web 2.0.

Judging from the beta I've used, IE is a big improvement, but still no Firefox. One big problem: IE breaks compatibility with some Web sites. So it's basically the worst of both worlds.

Microsoft designs an iPod box

Video: MS iPod

Old but funny.

I spoke just a little too soon

It looks like Sony is formally recalling batteries in its own laptops.

Link

Partying like it's 1991

My work e-mail has been down the entire day. On the whole, I think it's actually made me more productive, at least today. But, boy, has it reminded me how dependant we are on e-mail. How did journalists do their job before? I can't remember life before e-mail.

Kuo: White House ‘Seduces Christians’

More on the Bush's No. 2 guy on "Faith-Based" initiatives:

In some ways White House power is like [J.R.R.] Tolkien’s ring of power. When you put it on, it feels good and it’s dazzling. But after a while it begins to consume you in ways you don’t realize. That’s the nature of White House power. I have no doubt that Christian political leaders have gotten involved for all the right reasons. I just think over time it becomes harder and harder to stand up against that ring of power and the White House, to say no and walk away.

Source:  Newsweek, via MSNBC.com

Sony laptop battery recall widens

The massive global recall of batteries made by Sony Corp. widened Wednesday as Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu Ltd. said it is recalling 287,000 laptop batteries that are at risk of overheating or catching fire.

Isn't it interesting that one of the few laptop makers not to issue a recall over Sony batteries is Sony itself?

Link

At last

Bush's former No. 2 guy on for the faith-based initiatives wakes up to the fact that GOP is playing religious conservatives for suckers. He's written a book about it, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, which comes out Monday.

While I oppose much of what the Religious Right is demanding -- teacher-led prayer in schools, the teaching of creationism as science and government funding for religious programs, to name a few -- I'm thrilled to see someone finally realizing that the the group's devotion to the party, and some of the anti-Christian values it represents, is misplaced loyalty.

From a report by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann:

According to Kuo, Karl Rove's office referred to evangelical leaders as 'the nuts.'

Kuo says, 'National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy.' "

So how does the Bush White House keep 'the nuts' turning out at the polls?

One way, regular conference calls with groups led by Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Ted Haggard, and radio hosts like Michael Reagan.

Kuo says, "Participants were asked to talk to their people about whatever issue was pending.  Advice was solicited [but] that advice rarely went much further than the conference call. [T]he true purpose of these calls was to keep prominent social conservatives and their groups or audiences happy."

They do get some things from the Bush White House, like the National Day of Prayer, “another one of the eye-rolling Christian events,” Kuo says.

And “passes to be in the crowd greeting the president when he arrived on Air Force One or tickets for a speech he was giving in their hometown. Little trinkets like cufflinks or pens or pads of paper were passed out like business cards. Christian leaders could give them to their congregations or donors or friends to show just how influential they were. Making politically active Christians personally happy meant having to worry far less about the Christian political agenda.” 

Source: Crooks and Liars

Mark Cuban on business journalism

The Internet billionaire, who made a fortune selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo during the Internet bubble, has launched a journalism venture called Sharesleuth. The site aims to root out corruption among public companies.

In a magazine interview, he explains what's wrong with mainstream business journalism:

Despite the fact that most newspapers and media are making strong profits, they have become slaves to earnings per share and trying to grow them worse than Internet companies were to page-views, users, and revenue in the late 1990s. They are not looking to create the best newspaper or media companies; they are looking to get their stock prices up. I know this is a generalization, but I can’t think of a large media company it doesn’t apply to. You have companies financial-engineering with tracking stocks, stock splits, buybacks, dividends, debt, acquisitions. You never hear anyone anymore saying “We are investing to become the best because our readers/viewers/listeners want the best possible content.” It’s shocking to me that the CEOs haven’t said, “Stock price be damned, we are making money and increasing shareholder equity by being the best at what we do.” Right now everyone is so afraid of new media they may lose the foundation of their core competencies. It’s happening in media, in movies, in theaters, in sports, and when I see it, I see an opportunity and try to act on it if it’s interesting to me.

Source: Los Angeles CityBeat

More tips for newspapers:

 My favorite: "Fire any reporter or editor who refuses to learn how to use the Web to its greatest advantage, or to experiment with what works on Web vs. what works in print."

Source: Poynter Online - Forums

Newsbooks: the triumph of a journalism genre

Interesting piece on Slate about the return of long-form print journalism: books. 

Whoever said long stories put off readers hasn't scanned the New York Times best-seller list lately. Even though newspapers and magazines have crammed their pages with Iraq reporting, readers seem insatiable on the topic. The current Times list features four heavily reported and lengthy books about the Iraq adventure: Hubris, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn; Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks; State of Denial, by Bob Woodward; and Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

Source: Slate Magazine

Microsoft bought me a new mouse!

I finally got my voucher yesterday from the Microsoft-California Class Action Settlement, one of the little-remembered upshots of the software giant's landmark federal antitrust case five years ago (or 10, if you count when it all started). I filled out my claim almost two years ago and had completely forgotten about it.

California alleged Microsoft used its monopoly power to squash potential rivals, and that lack of competition meant consumers -- especially in California, apparently -- wound up paying higher prices they they would have in a more freewheeling market.

Personally, I overpaid exactly $98, just enough to buy the Logitech MX Revolution -- the slickest, sleekest mouse in the world. I really like it, even though it's "revolutionary" new scroll wheel makes middle-clicks a little tricky.

My only complaints: I wish the "doc-flip" button had the option of acting as an "alt-tab" key combo instead of forcing users to run Logitech's add-on software. And I wish I could map the "instant search" button to mimic a key-mouseclick combo (so I could use it with Answers.com's 1-Click popups).

Does this make me a geek?

New rules for newspapers

BrassTacks Design's Alan Jacobson offers some excellent and thought-provoking advice to newspapers hoping to survive the Internet age. 

1. Get real about the Internet

2. Tie journalists' pay to circulation

3. Ignore your loyal readers

4. Stop running news stories

5. Feed the cash cow

6. Drop the price

7. Solve the online revenue riddle

8. Promote as if success depends upon it

9. Join hands and sing Kumbaya

His design firm is partly responsible for the inverse-L craze that's so popular with the kids these days -- a layout I don't particularly like -- but you have to give the company credit for slapping some reality into publishers' heads. The Internet is fundamentally changing the business and pushing newspapers to more radical changes than they've been willing to make so far.

As Jacobson puts it:

The Internet is not evolutionary like the telegraph, telephone, radio or television – it's revolutionary like Gutenberg's movable type, because it provides everyone with a powerful publishing technology. It's not merely a new way to publish – it's the democratization of publishing. Freedom of the press no longer belongs to those who own one.

Furthermore, the Internet allows virtually everyone to publish (i.e. HTML, myspace, blogs, etc.), search (database) and communicate (email) – three killer apps in one. Nuthin' else comes close.

The job prospects for scribes were pretty bleak after Gutenberg. Our future could be just as bleak unless we act quickly and decisively.

His most controversial advice is to "stop running news stories," at least in print. Instead, he argues, breaking stories should go to the Web, and context and analysis should appear in print.

He has a point. But there's nothing print can do context-wise that's not online, too (see Slate, which excels at these types of stories). And frankly, analysis is cheap (see just about every cable TV news program on the air).

There are a couple of things newspaper companies can do better than the Matt Drudges and Digg.coms. (Besides actual journalism, that is. Lost in all the hubbub is the fact that few bloggers actually report news. They gather, link to and comment on the news -- something that should be exploited, not feared.)

In print, newspapers still do a far better job with graphics and photos. Newspapers should use them more.  I don't mean just running things bigger. My fiance recently did a graphic explaining the case of a years-ago local murder. A co-worker of hers mentioned that the graphic did such a good job telling the story that he didn't need to read the reporter's text.

And nobody covers local news like the local newspaper, whether online or in print. Newsies often moan about cutting overseas bureaus and a trend toward deemphasizing national and international news.

I say good riddance. The cuts leaves more room for local news. Local newspapers need to shake off the mindset that they're the sole source of news for local readership. That might have been true before 1994 or so. But today, national and international news is a mere click away at The New York Times, Washington Post and BBC -- which do a far better job at it anyway.

No, these notions aren't ground-breaking. The real challenge will be figuring out how to make money from online advertising. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for that one.

Wow.

Now here's a real-life example of what Christianity is supposed to look like.

Dozens of Amish neighbors came out Saturday to mourn the quiet milkman who killed five of their young girls and wounded five more in a brief, unfathomable rampage.

...

About half of perhaps 75 mourners on hand were Amish.

I don't think I would have been able to do the same.

Source: Yahoo! News

Adriana Calcanhoto - Fico Assim Sem Voce

Cute Brazilian video

Praise the Lord

Seriously.

GOP's Hold on Evangelicals Weakening

Even a small shift in the loyalty of conservative Christian voters such as Sunde could spell trouble for the GOP this fall. In 2004, white evangelical or born-again Christians made up a quarter of the electorate, and 78 percent of them voted Republican, according to exit polls. But some pollsters believe that evangelical support for the GOP peaked two years ago and that what has been called the "God gap" in politics is shrinking.

Giving Vista another chance

I got RC1 in the mail today and, against my better judgment, am going to install it. Only this time, I'm making a full recoverable backup of my XP setup.

The first public beta of Vista was basically unusable on my machine. Let's hope the second time is a charm.

The Foley Matter

This pretty much sums it up:

History suggests that once a political party achieves sweeping power, it will only be a matter of time before the power becomes the entire point. Policy, ideology, ethics all gradually fall away, replaced by a political machine that exists to win elections and dispense the goodies that come as a result. The only surprise in Washington now is that the Congressional Republicans managed to reach that point of decayed purpose so thoroughly, so fast.

That House leaders knew Representative Mark Foley had been sending inappropriate e-mail to Capitol pages and did little about it is terrible. It is also the latest in a long, depressing pattern: When there is a choice between the right thing to do and the easiest route to perpetuation of power, top Republicans always pick wrong.

From: The New York Times

Skype USB Phone

 

The Web page for this device leaves leaves one burning question unanswered: why?

Throw the bums out

Link to G.O.P. Aides Knew in Late ’05 of E-Mail - New York Times

Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday.

test

Times Reader

I've been testing out The New York Times Reader, an electronic newspaper of sorts created by the newspaper giant and Microsoft. My feelings are mixed so far.

The Reader is very well designed, easy to use and does a good job of bringing the newspaper-reading experience to the computer screen. It's prettier than a regular Web site (it incorporates photos better than any online newspaper I've read) and is easier to use than PDF-based "electronic editions" many newspapers, including mine, sell. I can see it being especially handy for Tablet PC users. The software downloads the entire paper at once, so users don't have to stay connected to the Internet to read. And it's easy to highlight and annotate articles, which users can then send -- with the notes embedded -- to friends and colleagues.

On the other hand, this works only for the New York Times, at least for now. Does this mean Microsoft expects readers to install a standalone reader for every publication they buy? Or is this going to be an semi-open format, like Microsoft's old Reader (not to be confused with this Microsoft co-created NY Times Reader)? Microsoft's original press release doesn't say.

This really should be a browser plug-in of some kind. When users go to NY Times Web site, the plug-in could spring into action and download the site in the Reader format.

You have to hand it to the Times, though. They've been on the cutting edge of this media transition and seem to be willing to experiment with electronic media. It'll be interesting to see if this one goes anywhere.

It's official: Zune to be $249

That's better than being priced higher than iPods of the same capacity. But even with the Zune's added features, I still think Microsoft's smartest move would be undercutting iPods on price.

Link to Zune details unzipped | CNET News.com

Answer the phone, dead man

Oops! Real ‘Itsy Bitsy’ songwriter still alive

The Paul Vance who wrote the songs — and provided proof with royalty payments he is still receiving for the hit — said he has been inundated with calls from people who think he died.

I think the writer means to say calls from people checking in on the death report. I don't know anyone who calls people they think are dead, but that's just me.

Falwell says Hillary would spark base - Yahoo! News

Falwell says Hillary would spark base

The Rev. Jerry Falwell says a White House run by Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton would energize his base of religious conservatives even more than if the devil were the Democratic nominee.

'I certainly hope that Hillary is the candidate,' Falwell told a private prayer breakfast. 'Because nothing will energize my (constituency) like
Hillary Clinton.'

Nice to know he has his priorities straight.

Iraq War Has Spread Terror, Agencies Say

Ahem.

So maybe Microsoft isn't so stupid after all

 It looks like my earlier rant was a bit premature. PVRWire reports that the Zune will go for $249 or less, not the $299 that had been reported elsewhere. This will make the device much more competitive.

But I still think the "Plays For Sure" debacle remains a major turn-off. Why shove yet another DRM scheme down consumers' throats and abandon everyone who bought WMP tracks through MSN Music, Urge, Napster, Musicmatch and Yahoo?

 

Update: Looks like the final price will be even less - $230.

Why the Founding Fathers bothered with "speedy and public" trials

Because sometimes the government is wrong. This is just reprehensible:

Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.

...

Arar, now 36, was detained by U.S. authorities as he changed planes in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.

Bush and torture apologists will argue that the U.S. was only following up on some bad information -- blame Canada! But again, this is the perfect example of why a fair trial is so important. What happened to Arar shouldn't happen to anyone. (For the record, he's a Canadian citizen, but was kidnapped on U.S. soil.)

A refresher:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

- Amendment VI, U.S. Constitution

Stupid, stupid, stupid

Microsoft's new iPod killer will be priced at $284 at Wal-Mart -- $55 more than a 30 gig iPod -- and won't play Windows Media DRM-protected files.

First, the price: I realize Zune has a bigger screen and more features than the iPod. But if Microsoft really wants to stop iPod's steamroller momentum, the device will have to sell at a lower price -- not a similar price and definitely not at a higher price. The iTunes has a far bigger ecosystem, which makes it a much safer bet for the consumer. Microsoft should appreciate better than anyone and price accordingly.

Now about the DRM: Basically, if you've thrown in your lot with Microsoft and bought music at one of the partner sites, you're out of luck. I'm not sure how Redmond is going to convince anyone to trust Microsoft again with yet another DRM scheme.

Or maybe this is just a clever ploy by Microsoft to convince everyone that digital-rights management technology is hopelessly broken.

Why our policies on terrorism suspects matter

U.S. war prisons legal vacuum for 14,000: "Seventy to 90 percent of the Iraq detentions in 2003 were 'mistakes,' U.S. officers once told the international Red Cross."

Suspects are only suspects until they're convicted in a fair trial. Because sometimes -- indeed, with this administration, most of the time -- the government is wrong.

Steve Jobs: Hypocrite?

A former Microsoftie chides Apple for blatantly copying its Media Center interface. I've criticized Apple for the same thing, though in this case, it seems especially egregious.

In most cases, Apple at least improves the technology -- sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Not this time.

Boing Boing: Amazon Unbox to customers: Eat **** and die

Nice rant against Amazon's new video download service. I tried it, too, but the software was so buggy I uninstalled it about five minutes later. Cory Doctorow's complaint is much more specific, but he absolutely right.

Windows Live Local

Freaky. You can almost see the ducks at my apartment complex.

Where have all the sound effects gone?

New York Times' David Pogue blogs today about cultural artifacts of obsolete technology, specifically, cartoon sound effects:

What about the needle-scratching-across-the-vinyl-record sound? It’s still used everywhere, in cartoons, movies and so on, to represent a rude awakening, an abrupt interruption of a scene’s mood or the main character’s reverie. But today’s children have never even seen a record player. Isn’t the record-scratch sound totally lost on them?

And what about “ka-CHING!”? Cash registers don’t go ka-CHING anymore–they go beep!

I'd add to that the whole notion of "dialing" someone's phone number on your cell phone.

 

A classic straw-man argument from the Decider-in-Chief

"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone," Bush said in an Oval Office address.

Again, completely missing the point. Not a single person has suggested leaving Iraq so the "terrorists would leave us alone." No, critics suggested not invading in the first place because Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and has become a major, intractable distraction in the war on terrorism. Is the president intellectually dishonest or just an idiot?

Heckuva job, Bushie.

Cheney: Govt did "helluva job" since Sept 11 - Yahoo! News: "The government has done 'a helluva job' guarding America, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday, as President George W. Bush prepared to visit Ground Zero amid an election-year debate on whether the country is safer five years after the September 11 attacks.

Yes, even after Katrina, the administration is still tone deaf.

Andrea has a Web site!

It's actually an online version of her portfolio, so if you'd like to see how talented she is, check it out.

Progress

Well, it's getting there. The formatting is slowly getting fixed, though new-and-improved commenting system is still whacked out. So everyone just shut up for a minute and let me think. 

Man at work

I'm performing a long-needed redesign of the site to make it a little fresher and less cluttered. So far, so good, I think. I need to fill up the left side and fix a few nagging style and coding issues, though.

If all goes well, I should have the update done before Andrea gets back tomorrow night.

Couldn't have said it better myself

I was wrong. Rumsfeld's outrageous, insane -- dare I say fascist? -- rhetoric does deserve a response. And MSNBC's Keith Olbermann delivers a doozy:

Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis—and the sober contemplation—of every American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence -- indeed, the loyalty -- of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse still, it credits those same transient occupants -- our employees -- with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential.  Because just every once in awhile it is right, and the power to which it speaks is wrong.

Of course, Olbermann is understating his case. This administration hasn't been occasionally wrong. It's been consistently, spectacularly, tragically wrong.

In the digital age, what does one buy at Barnes & Noble?

An ampersand-shaped bookend, of course! 

Rumsfeld: 63% of Americans morally confused, cowards, fascist appeasers

In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration’s critics as suffering from “moral or intellectual confusion” about what threatens the nation’s security and accused them of lacking the courage to fight back.

In remarks to several thousand veterans at the American Legion’s national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failed efforts to appease the Adolf Hitler regime in the 1930s.

This sort of rhetoric kind of speaks for itself.

Planet San Francisco

Your city can be a planet, too!

I've been promoted

This has been in the works for a little while, but I can finally talk about it openly now that it's official. I've been named assistant tech editor here at IBD, which basically means I get a little more money for a lot more work.

It also means I'll be stuck in the office most of the day rather than out doing interviews. I do, however, get a window cubicle. So I have that going for me.

I want, I want

Now this is what I call a monitor. Unfortunately, it looks like it'll cost about a million dollars.

Poor Pluto

It's no longer a planet.

Perhaps the most useless application of Linux, ever

Computer-controlled cat feeder.

The robots are taking over

The Financial Times reports that computers are generating breaking earnings stories for Thompson Financial and Reuters. My gut reaction, of course, is one of pure terror.

But on second thought, I don't know a single reporter who enjoys pounding out these boilerplate pieces. During my first year at IBD, the most mind-numbing part of the job was the quick-turnaround earnings shorts. In fact, my colleague and I used to refer to ourselves as highly trained monkeys every time earnings season rolled around. With standardized earnings reports, there's no reason why this "who" and "what" and "where" aspect to journalism shouldn't be at least partly automated. Reporters' time would be much better spent digging into the financials and asking the all-important "why" and "how" -- much harder questions.

If it's not loud enough, you're too old.

Test your hearing with this range of sampled frequencies.

In praise of South Beach

I was a little skeptical when Andrea and I embarked on the South Beach Diet (or as a colleague likes to call it, the "Pretend You're Diabetic Diet") a few months ago. I figured that the initial weight loss would be mostly water weight and quickly return. But so far, it's been the most successful -- and easiest -- diet for Andrea. She's lost 20 pounds so far. And I'm back to the weight I was before moving to California and discovering Rubio's.

The Amazon review sums it up quite nicely:

While the diet is sound, the book could be better organized. The first half mixes scientific study with anecdote in a seemingly random way, while the mix of meal plans and recipes can be confusing. Still, the recipes are varied and tasty, and you'll never feel deprived, unless you currently happen to live by bread alone.

The other criticism I have is with the author's opening statement that the diet is neither low-carb nor low fat. That's a blatant lie -- it's both of those things.

Still, not a bad return for a $10 investment.

Mac OS X Leopard and Windows Vista side by side

A nice, sober-minded comparison of the looming OS upgrades.

Cupertino, start your copiers

Steve Jobs mocked Microsoft for copying Apple this morning, while announcing some of the new features of the upcoming Mac OS upgrade, including this Spaces feature. He might want to know that this capability, available "only with Mac OS X Leopard," has been around for at least four years as a Windows XP Powertoy called Virtual Desktop Manager.

Sign of the times

Underwhelmed by It All - Los Angeles Times:

A new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, the first in a series of annual entertainment surveys, finds that a large majority of the 12- to 24-year-olds surveyed are bored with their entertainment choices some or most of the time, and a substantial minority think that even in a kajillion-channel universe, they don't have nearly enough options. 'I feel bored like all the time, 'cause there is like nothing to do,' said Shannon Carlson, 13, of Warren, Ohio, a respondent who has an array of gadgets, equipment and entertainment options at her disposal but can't ward off ennui.

Official Google Blog: Saved locations on Google Maps

Official Google Blog: Saved locations on Google Maps

Finally.

Civil war in Iraq possible, generals say - Politics - MSNBC.com

Civil war in Iraq possible, generals say:

Under questioning by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Pace said he did not anticipate one year ago that Iraq would now be in danger of descending into civil war.

Funny. Everyone else seemed to anticipate it. Well, almost everyone.

Cooler than Google Earth?

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth

Creepy

Sculptor Ron Mueck's Exhibition, Yahoo! News Photos

Passion of the what?

According to the report, in addition to threatening the arresting deputy and trying to escape, Gibson said, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the officer, James Mee, "Are you a Jew?"

As Mel Gibson's recent meltdown demonstrates, it's probably a bad idea to link Christianity too closely to any particular (non-divine) person, group or political party. (See also Ralph Reed, George W. Bush.)

Did someone order "freedom fries?"

From MSNBC: Iran president bans usage of foreign words

Another similarity between conservative Republicans and fundamentalist Islamists.

Pass Go, get a $200 direct deposit

Looks like Monopoly is going cashless.

Is it me, or is it hot up here?

Nope, it's definitely hot.

With temperatures reaching 104 degrees Fahrenheit today, I had to resort to some Arizona-style cooling techniques, including sealing off the air-conditioned living room from the rest of the apartment and sleeping on the couch, spending the day at an air-conditioned bookstore and the old standby, the cold shower.

Sometimes, the truth hurts

From BuzzMachine:

Then she said that news is “an industry with a lot of oversupply that is now exposed.” I liked that hard economic talk about the business. It reminds us that we are an industry and need to reexamine our business assumptions like every other industry.

So maybe the problem with journalism today isn’t that there are too few reporters and and editors but too many. I’ve talked before about the foolishness of sending 15,000 reporters to the political conventions, about papers sending TV critics to junkets or golf writers to tournaments. Inside the newsroom, too, there are overwrought processes. Meanwhile, of course, revenue is sinking and staff will follow.

Some good points here. As much as I hate to admit it, I think this probably goes for tech writers, too.

A step in the right direction

Buy A Customized Jessica Simpson MP3 At Yahoo! Music

No, I'm not talking about the song itself, but the idea that a major music service is considering selling music not crippled by "digital rights management" software.

Own your own flamethrower!

Brookstone Weed Burner

Product Description
Eliminate weeds quickly and permanently with a propane-fired weed burner. Use this lightweight burner to clear weeds and their roots in driveways or walkways in summer, or to melt dangerous ice patches in winter. Adjustable regulator valve lets you control flame intensity

The real Super Mario Brothers 2

Interesting story about Super Mario Bros. 2, the oddest game in the franchise. As it turns out, Nintendo had created a different Mario sequel but found it too hard for U.S. audiences. So it Mario-ized a completely different game called Doki Doki Panic and sold it as Part Duex.

Personally, I never liked the version they released in the U.S. It felt too different and was just, well, weird -- at least in terms of the Mario universe.

About.com has a long-overdue review of the real Super Mario Bros. 2.

Study Documents ‘Ghetto Tax’ Being Paid by the Urban Poor

From the New York Times:

Study Documents ‘Ghetto Tax’ Being Paid by the Urban Poor - New York Times

Drivers from low-income neighborhoods of New York, Hartford and Baltimore, insuring identical cars and with the same driving records as those from middle-class neighborhoods, paid $400 more on average for a year’s insurance.

The poor are also the main customers for appliances and furniture at “rent to own” stores, where payments are stretched out at very high interest rates; in Wisconsin, a $200 television can end up costing $700.

Those were just two examples among several cited in a report Tuesday showing that poor urban residents frequently pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year in extra costs for everyday necessities. The study said some of the disparities were due to real differences in the cost of doing business in poor areas, some to predatory financial practices and some to consumer ignorance.

From Deuteronomy 24:14:

Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.

And there's plenty more where that came from.

Happy birthday to me

I'm 37 today. That sounds so old...