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::: Wednesday, March 31 ::: |
Interesting: How to rise and shine when you're nocturnal by nature
I started taking a dose melatonin with 500mg of vitamin C before bedtime about a month ago. While it seems to have solved my nearly nightly bouts with insomnia, I'm not sure I would recommend it for someone with only occasional problems sleeping. There is a slight loss in overall energy with which I am still struggling.
I haven't been following their advice regarding weekends, however. If I can afford to stay up late into the night, I will almost always opt to do so. I suppose I will continue to rely upon my Sunday night melatonin dose to set me back on track for Monday.
2:47 PM CST ::
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Yep: Going down the tubes
This article echoes my thoughts exactly. The only compelling reason to move to LCD is if you have space contraints. It is a very easy way to cram a huge screen into a very small piece of desktop. Otherwise they are slower, muddier, and less color consistent than a similarly sized CRT.
2:35 PM CST ::
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Ugh: Microsoft Remakes DRM for MSN Music Service
"Janus enables songs distributed under a subscription model to be transferred to portable devices, with a built in time bomb that enables songs to expire in the event that a customer's subscription lapses."
In other words, pay your monthly MSN Music bill or all those songs you paid for go poof. Microsoft will likely side-step the ownership argument by stating that users are buying a license to listen the song rather than the song itself. This, of course, flies in the face of everyone's assumptions regarding personal property.
I can't see such a service gaining much of a market. Then again, I predicted that AOL would die when local ISP's became a wide-spread phenomenon. It's tough to bet against people's resistance to change.
2:29 PM CST ::
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::: Friday, March 26 ::: |
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Amen: Security patches via modem? Forget it!
"Microsoft should make these CDs available on a quarterly release schedule. In addition, they should be sent, in huge numbers, to CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, Wal*Mart, campus bookstores, and Bob's Computer Shack - anywhere that people go to buy hardware and software."
My thoughts exactly. It's hard enough keeping up with daily 1.5MB virus signature updates on dial-up. Downloading a extra 100MB+ service pack once or twice a month is next to impossible.
9:39 AM CST ::
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Sweet: Uematsu's Music
You've probably all seen this already since Tycho linked it, but man is it ever cool as hell. If they release an album in the states, I am *so* there. Nobuo Uematsu is a god.
The two samples on this page are simply amazing and only slightly tarnished by the delivery method. Flash is just not a particularly good MP3 player, at least not on any of my machines. I've decompiled the .swf files to MP3 and they sound 300% better.
I hate having to resort to such measures, but the way I look at it Square-Enix offered the files for download. All I did was make them enjoyable. If I could buy these songs I would.
[link courtesy of Tycho]
9:04 AM CST ::
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::: Thursday, March 25 ::: |
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Whatever: U.N. finds Net governance tempting
"The U.N. tends to be a very slow moving vehicle," Elana Broitman, Register.com's policy director, said in a recent interview. "It's very bureaucratic. Frankly it doesn't give the private sector a seat at the table very often. And so from that perspective, it's highly unlikely we'll see the same kind of innovation and efficiency that we see in ICANN."
<Jon Stewart>Whaaa?</Jon Stewart>
4:20 PM CST ::
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Eh: Yankee Independently Pits Windows TCO vs. Linux TCO
"Yankee found that four percent of Unix customers and eleven percent of Windows businesses plan to replace all of their servers with Linux."
The bigger question in my mind is what percentage of the 89% who intend to keep Windows intend to upgrade to Win2k3, Longhorn, or beyond. That number is equally as important in the overall scope of things. My point is that, yes these 89% aren't switching to Linux, but are they considering changing *at all*.
Microsoft's future livelihood depends on getting as many companies on the pay-to-play treadmill as possible. If everyone sticks with NT4 or even Win2k, things start looking grim in Redmond.
4:16 PM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, March 23 ::: |
Sweet: Mozilla splash screens
After upgrading to v1.6 I was disappointed to note that Mozilla's now familiar flame-spewing cartoon dragon splash screen had been replaced by a very generic and very uninspiring alternative. Today I began to wonder if that image could be replaced and, thankfully, it can. If you're on Windows, just throw a mozilla.bmp in the path where mozilla.exe lives and Bob's your uncle. Other platforms can pull a similar trick with a bit of patience.
Thank you mozilla.org for protecting our right to choose.
4:18 PM CST ::
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Ugh: Supremes Weigh In on ID Debate
I am left to assume that there are facts which have been omitted from this article. If not, then I can see no way any reasonable person could find merit in the state's claims. The most ridiculous part of the whole thing is that Mr. Hiibel "never acted in a threatening manner and cooperated when handcuffed" and yet was convicted of resisting arrest.
If we are heading toward a society where even the most basic tenets of the Bill of Rights are going to be challenged, I see very little hope in our future. The US might have made it to 200 years, but 300 is looking like a pipedream.
10:41 AM CST ::
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Shiny: JVC's New Mini-Laptop
This is exactly what Jake and I have been talking about. Packing a DVD-RW drive and a smaller form factor this unit makes much more sense than the supposed 'iPod killer'. Microsoft and Creative would do well to take note.
[link courtesy of Gizmodo]
9:57 AM CST ::
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::: Monday, March 22 ::: |
Mmm, brains: orneryboy by michael lalonde
Just when I thought I was done collecting web comix, Ryan points me towards orneryboy. It's tough to pick a favorite because I can relate to nearly every single strip, but this one is a good example. Don't say you've never considered that.
It's delivered as a flash app which takes some getting used to, but there is a "Print This Strip" button and a spot to gank a permanent link suitable for cut'n'paste. New strips arrive each Monday.
Update: If my wife ever sees this one my DoubleDash days are over. heh.
3:11 PM CST ::
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Hmm: 'Witty' Worm Wrecks Computers
Nothing like a "firewall" that opens a backdoor for worms. It may be silly, but I never trusted BlackIce Defender because of its name. Perhaps my mistrust was well founded after all.
11:37 AM CST ::
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::: Thursday, March 18 ::: |
WTF: Microsoft 'iPod Killer' to Debut in '04
I'm not sure how this thing could be considered an 'iPod killer'. First off it'll cost somewhere between $650 and $850. There's also the fact that it's nearly a foot long, a whopping 2 inches thick, and weighs in three-quarters of a pound.
This is not the definition of a iPod killer. In fact, it sounds like a slightly smaller version of a tablet PC. Considering that they are hobbling it with a maximum 40GB hard drive you'd be better off with a tablet or a laptop anyway.
Update: The Reg adds their two cents pence.
[link courtesy of Gizmodo]
1:03 PM CST ::
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Oops: MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action
Rumsfeld gets caught speaking out of both sides of his mouth. This, in and of itself, is not surprising. What is most surprising is that the media present at this interview had the appropriate quotes on hand to prove his duplicity.
I don't quite agree with MoveOn in their call to censure Mr. Bush, I think censure should be reserved for acts which fall outside the normal duties of the office. In this day and age, lying to the American people unfortunately doesn't fall under that definition. It's almost a requirement.
9:30 AM CST ::
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::: Wednesday, March 17 ::: |
Noonch: Heroes
Somewhat in the vein of Trooper Clerks, this little flash animation explores an alternate universe where Daredevil and Captain America are forced to work at the Quick Stop in order to make ends meet. The dialog is fairly true to the original, but you might want to give it a pass if you're still on dial-up.
[thanks to Jen for the link]
6:59 PM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, March 16 ::: |
Heh: Penny Arcade! [3/16/04]
Tycho's comments about the Littermaid are dead on. We had one of them a couple of years ago. During the very short period of time when it managed to work at all, it was a complete a utter failure at just about any task tangentally related to the disposal of cat waste. As an added bonus, the sound a Littermaid generates is very similar to hiring someone to drive a bulldozer through your house about 30 seconds after your cat leaves a deposit.
I'd suggest buying one for your worst cat-owning enemy, but no cat should be forced to suffer such a fate. If you can't bother to scoop as often as you should, then just buy five or ten of those cardboard "all in one" disposable cat boxes and replace it when necessary. Everyone living in your house, including your cat, will thank you.
4:52 PM CST ::
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::: Friday, March 12 ::: |
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Whoa: I, Cringely [3/11/04]
Bob discovers that, rather than costing millions to outfit Diebold voting machines with printers, the machines *already* contain printers. The only change necessary would be a slot in the top for the paper to come through. Not only that, but the paper supply in each machine would provide ample stock to last through a standard voting day.
It seems Diebold has been less than truthful at the very least. In fact, were I involved in the approval process, this would certainly prompt me to ask for third-party verification of any future Diebold statements. Even on items a simple as "Does your machine contain a printer?". It's obvious Diebold is concerned solely with making a profit and doesn't care one way or the other whether their actions amount to treason.
9:17 AM CST ::
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::: Wednesday, March 10 ::: |
Bzzt: Bill would lower voting age to 14, sort of
How about we lower the drinking age to 18 and raise the voting age to 30 instead? Don't get me wrong, I can fully get behind what the guy is trying to say here. If you can get a kid used to voting and being involved in the machinery of democracy, then they are more likely to continue that behavior into adulthood. I just don't think this is the best way to go about it.
[thanks to jwz for the link]
2:33 PM CST ::
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Heh: The Mac Killed My Inner Child
One could, of course, produce a very similar video detailing the failings of just about any OS you would care to name. No OS is perfect. That said, this one is well-produced and very funny.
11:33 AM CST ::
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dinoneil[at]newdream[dot]net
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