same as it ever was

Bombs away

Bush sez, screw the economy. Let's bomb things.
Bush on the tanking-as-we-speak economy: "Message: I don't care." The markets continue their months-long plunge, poverty in America rose for... [Backup Brain]

Plato talk

Plato . "Wise men talk because they...
Plato. "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

Would you pirate a Bon Jovi CD?

Can Bon Jovi Foil the Pirates?
It'll be really tough to copy Bon Jovi's newest album. Besides which, fans who play along with the record label's quest to protect the album from piracy will get some fringe benefits. But the big question is: Who would pirate a Bon Jovi CD? By Noah Shachtman. [Wired News]

Yes, that is the big question. Here's more from the story:

But that's a pretty cumbersome process, considering the reward is priority tickets to an acid-washed-jeans flashback. Few hackers would be willing to go through the effort, the security experts said.

Then Pull added, "I would have to say this would be relatively secure, considering the merchandise is not all that valuable.

Broadcasters Oppose Net Radio FeesBig

Broadcasters Oppose Net Radio Fees
Big broadcasters don't want their streams taxed off the Net either, it turns out. Here's a progress report on this and other developments in the fight to save Internet broadcasting in the U.S. [Linux Journal]

Retro Mac Revival

One Man's Retro Mac Revival
Devan Simunovich trucks his collection of 50 compact Macs to raves, where he sets up classic game lounges. He's part of a thriving group committed to dusting off ancient Macs and getting them working again. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian Trailer

Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian Trailer [evhead]

Nelson Mandela: The U.S.A. Is

Nelson Mandela: The U.S.A. Is a Threat...
Nelson Mandela: The U.S.A. Is a Threat to World Peace [evhead]

The Pulse of Life: Music

The Pulse of Life: Music of Our World and Beyond [SPACE.com]

Antibalas

I just received the 2 Antibalas...
I just received the 2 Antibalas CDs I ordered.

ANTIBALAS IS...A diverse cooperative of music makers in Brooklyn, USA dedicated to making original revolutionary Afrobeat music inspired by the chief priest Fela Anikulapo-Kuti as well as other visionary artists, musicians and thinkers.Antibalas is more than just a band. It aims to be a movement in an era where the pursuit of money and fame has ruined the souls and work of our fellow humans.Antibalas is trying to lead by example as a functioning co-operative entity. We encourage you to try to do the same, be it as a musical group, food co-op, intentional community, credit union, etc.

Around The World in 92

Around The World in 92 Discs ....
Around The World in 92 Discs. Nonesuch plans to reissue its Explorer series on CD which aimed to share the delights of world music by mingling the scholarly and the sensuous. By Jon Pareles. [New York Times: Arts] [Roymond Radio]

Dude, where's my Wi-Fi? Movable

Dude, where's my Wi-Fi? Movable Wi-Fi

Dude, where's my Wi-Fi? Movable Wi-Fi: The fellow I mentioned yesterday, Richard Oh, gets a whole article about his cool moving hot-spot.

Stop being bored

"No one can "become" anything by being...
"No one can "become" anything by being bored. Bored = static. And "static" precludes "becoming". Every day, every moment is a new opportunity to learn, to grow, to "become" something more than I am now." - Jim Owen * [Archipelago]

iCal Calling iTunes! 0.9 .

iCal Calling iTunes! 0.9 . - This...
iCal Calling iTunes! 0.9. - This AppleScript applet lets you use iCal to schedule iTunes playlists to play. [AppleScript Info] [A Blander Blog]

Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up on Me

Don't Give Up on Me
Listening to the new Solomon Burke disc, and I can't believe I've put it off this long. Oh my God. The first track alone will lift off the top of your skull and lay some soul inside. And there are ten more after that. Just became one of my favorite albums of 2002. [jarretthousenorth News]

Here's another Fat Possum release that I have to have.

incomprehensibly comprehensible

Albert Einstein . "The most incomprehensible thing...
Albert Einstein. "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible." [Quotes of the Day] [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

Switching is easy

Bring peripherals when you switch
Using PC Peripherals on the Mac. Much of the "Switch" discussion has focused on computers and software. But what about those expensive peripherals Windows users have already invested in? Do they get tossed out the Window with XP? Wei Meng Lee says no. And he has the toys to back it up. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service] [Mac Net Journal]

iCal weblog

iCal fans will want to check the iCal Weblog
Adam Curry found an iCal weblog with tips, hints, info and answers. [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog] [Mac Net Journal]

Blogging over iCal

Blogging over iCal
Morbus Iff has been doing some really interesting things with Apple's iCal and Movable Type. Here's the O'Reilly entry that describes how to publish your weblog into iCal-compatible format [Movable Type News]

Curt Schilling - computer geek

New on SportsFilter : Arizona Diamondbacks...
New on SportsFilter: Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling has won 45 games in 2001 and 2002, the highest two-year total for a pitcher in a quarter century. Can any of his success be attributed to his unusual use of technology? [Workbench]

Hey guys, we're supposed to be quiet

ESPN.com - MLB - Recap - Mariners at Rangers - 09/11/2002

The scheduled moment of silence in remembrance of the victims of the terrorist attacks a year earlier was delayed momentarily because of an argument.
Just at 9:11 p.m., when the game was supposed to stop, Hollandsworth hit a grounder to Boone at second. Carl Everett, running from first, slid well short of the bag to try to avoid Boone's tag but was ruled out by umpire Larry Young.
As Everett continued to argue, Rangers manager Jerry Narron came out on the field. Seattle manager Lou Piniella then argued that Hollandsworth should have been out because of Everett's interference.

Blues World

Crepuscule with Valis Blues World...
Crepuscule with ValisBlues World is a wonderful collection of links and original content about the Blues and related subjects (record labels, artist profiles, etc.). It ain't pretty, but it doesn't need to be.
[Link provided by Valis Hertel, a fellow AotMer]. [A Blander Blog]

I've got to spend some time there.

Eliza

Eliza can solve all your problems. ....
Eliza can solve all your problems.. OS X comes with the simulated therapy program, Eliza. In the terminal type emacs and hit enter. When the editor has loaded, hold shift and hit the escape key. Then type x, then doctor and hit return. Answer the first question and proceed from there. When you're done, control-X control-C will quit the editor. [Xspot] [A Blander Blog]

Two words

Two words
There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. (189 words) [dive into mark]

Fink upgrade for 10.2

If you use Fink , you...
If you use Fink, you must follow these instructions in order to upgrade to a 10.2 compatible version or you will experience bizarre problems (I did). [Nicholas Riley]

SpeakNSave

SpeakNSave
- SpeakNSave is a small application written for OS X that uses built-in speech technology and AppleScript to save computer generated speech to .aiff files, which can then be used for presentations, movies, web announcements, or even converted to .mp3 for iPod listening. [AppleScript Info]

NetNewsWire Lite 1.0b22

NetNewsWire Lite 1.0b22
- NetNewsWire is an easy-to-use, customizable RSS news reader for web sites. This version fixes crashing bugs and some UI glitches. More detailed changes are listed on the change notes page. In related news, a very early prototype of a weblog editor that will be included in NetNewsWire Pro has been announced. It will support the Blogger and MetaWeblog APIs, so it will be possible to post to Radio, Blogger and MovableType sites. AppleScript integration is also desired. [AppleScript Info]

Thailand's musical elephants

Thailand's musical elephants
Preservationists at a Thai elephant reserve decided to provide the pachyderms with outsized, hephalump-friendly instruments, including a harmonica and a drum-kit. The elephants not only play with the instruments, they play together on them, jamming in what is clearly recognizable as music.

LinkDiscuss

(Thanks, Fred!) [Boing Boing Blog]

This Must Be the Place

Where the heart is. Performances have...
Where the heart is. Performances have expressed our feelings more powerfully than records in the last year. by Jim Farber

Two weeks later, David Byrne played a show at the Apollo that contained what must be the most moving moment I have ever witnessed at a live show. After completing "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" - which savors home and contains Byrne's most nurturing tune - the crowd began to applaud so loudly it surprised everyone, including Byrne, who immediately stepped back from the microphone and began to clap as well. Waves of applause followed, becoming louder by the moment, as it became palpably clear just what we were all really clapping for.

Bush 1.1

Download iBush 1.1
iBush 1.1 Released:

iBush: Artificially unintelligent Oval Office Occupant simulator... What's new in this version: even more eloquent, ReadMe explains aim and meaning of the program, now talks about gun control, too

User Review: (freeLunch.apps CEO speaking:) I just discovered that iBush was silently removed from the MacUpdate website. They continue to publish information about our other apps, but not this one. Censorship, you say? The app does little more than present a collection of things Bush has actually said. If this is reason for censorship, then ultimately the joke is on them. Thanks to VersionTracker for being more hospitable.

Blapp

Blapp
Michael McCracken delivered beautiful gift to my mailbox this morning. It's called Blapp and its a Mac OS X desktop app for managing and editing Blosxom-based weblogs.

And it doesn't stop there. You can drag-and-drop any text or HTML right into your weblog to be edited in its built-in plain-text editor and previewed in a built-in HTML preview window.

And it's even more scrumptuous than that! You can drag-and-drop from Brent Simmons's wildly popular NetNewsWire Lite RSS reader. Come across something blogworthy? Simply drag it into Blapp, edit as needed, and save.

And for those of us who blog locally, publish globally, Michael's working on adding a Publish button, pushing new posts up to your live server via rsync and other methods.

Now if this isn't just platz-worthy... [raelity bytes]

OS X under PPC LInux

Mac-on-Linux
The latest version of Mac-on-Linux can run OS X under PPC Linux. Now where is my Regatta... [Hack the Planet]

Answering machine greetings

Archive of answering machine greetings
There are some funny ones in here.

"Hi. I am probably home, I'm just avoiding someone I don't like. Leave me a message, and if I don't call back, it's you."

WINDOWS FREE ZONE

Linux Journal Store: Barricade Tape

Keep the enemy out! Now you can barricade yourself from the heavy-handed Microsoft world. Over 1,000 feet of yellow caution tape screams "WINDOWS FREE ZONE"!

BootX Patcher

Jaguar boot screen hacking
Yes, I'm one of those "Apple people" who finds the grey-apple-on-grey-background boot screen about as dry as a rusk without tea. And, yes, I'm one of those icon-huggers who misses my beloved Happy Mac.

Ryan Schmidt's BootX Patcher replaces that battleship grey with the boot image of your choosing -- even that erstwhile Happy Mac. And if you're a DIY'er, Ryan also provides gory details for doing it all manually. [raelity bytes]

Drive-by spam

Drive-by spam hits wireless LANs
The proliferation of insecure corporate wireless networks fuels the growth of this new spamming tactic, a security expert warned. And ISPs could cut off companies that fall victim. [CNET News.com]

MS patches Windows only

MS offers patch for Windows machines, not Macs
I see this morning that Microsoft has released patches for its affected applications on the Windows platform that are vulnerable to the latest security flaw, but patches for Mac applications are still pending. For complete details about the flaw, and to see when MS rolls out a fix for Macs, check here.

Once again, this is a great reason to avoid Microsoft applications. Unless you want to spend valuable time watching the news for details about future security problems - problems that once were not an issue at all on the Mac - then consider alternative applications to the IE, Office majority. [Mac Net Journal]

Security? What Security?

MS Exec: 'Our products just aren't engineered...
MS Exec: 'Our products just aren't engineered for security' [Slashdot]

Hunting with Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent Offers To Take *NSYNC...
Ted Nugent Offers To Take *NSYNC Star Hunting In Lieu Of Space Trip. The price for this special mission: one million dollars. However, Nugent adds that he'll throw in a few guitar lessons if that's what it takes to get the deal done. [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

wired vs. unwired

wired vs. unwired
As affirmed by the magazine of the same name, being considered a "wired" person in tech slang is to be considered hip, natty, with the times. With the
proliferation of 802.11* and its ilk, I suppose the 00s counterpart to 90s
"wired" would have to be "unwired." The issue this presents, however, is differentiating between someone truly "unwired" and someone quite simply just not "wired."

I suppose there is a subtlety at work here that just might be the ticket. Being "unwired" does hint at having been "wired" in the first place, without the
dreadful stigma that seems to suggest itself with being "unplugged." [raelity bytes]

Right, I named our new home wireless network "unwired", but we have been "wired" for quite a long time.

OSX Palm dev tools

MacNN | News: OS X port of Palm dev tools available

Zeno Crivelli has released an OS X port of the free professional Palm development environment, PRC-Tools, and has posted instructions ("three simple steps") on how to set up the necessary tools to start developing Palm applications on Mac OS X with PRC-Tools.

That'll teach 'em

Slashdot: First Commercial Moon...

Slashdot: First Commercial Moon Mission Approved.

Part of the mission is to "verify Apollo and other landing sites", which has evoked a rare thing on Slashdot, great commentary:

Who thinks that people silly enough to believe the first trip to the moon was a hoax will now believe that this trip is for real?

That was my first thought too.

But then I realized that the solution is obvious: We just need to round up all the people who think that the moon landing was a hoax, take them to the moon, and -- this is the important bit -- leave them there.

Jaguar - AppleScript and UNIX

OSXFAQ Reader Tips: Jaguar - AppleScript and UNIX
- by Jim Williamson. "Here's a very customizable and easy time-saving tip for reaching in and using those powerful UNIX tools without having to remember lengthy strings of commands." [AppleScript Info]

.Mac solution

A .Mac Solution

I admit it. I was one of those suc^H^H^Hcool people who bought a .mac account. Apple sent an update today that has lots of cool stuff, including a note that says I can buy up to five email-only accounts for $10 a piece. I know there were lots of people complaining that they'd have to pay $50 for to keep their email address.

Well now you only need to pay ten. If you send it to me, I'll buy one for you. Let me know.

There's an idea...

Ars Technica: OS X 10.2 reviewed

Ars Technica: OS X 10.2 reviewed...
Ars Technica: OS X 10.2 reviewed [The Macintosh News Network] [A Blander Blog]

Worries

"In the Clinton administration we worried the...
"In the Clinton administration we worried the president would open his zipper.In the Bush administration, they worry the president will open his mouth."--James Carville [Mike Cohen's Radio Weblog]

Algorithms and flowcharts

AppleScript: Roll Your Own: Charting Your Success
Building complex software is no easy task. There are so many things to think about and keep straight. Over the decades, programmers have come up with tools to help them through the process. One of these tools is the algorithm and another useful tool is the flowchart. [Studio Log]

Bloggin Doonesbury

Blogging in Doonesbury

Blogging gets a mention in today's Doonesbury. Nous sommes arrive.

LinkDiscuss

(Thanks Chris!)

[Boing Boing Blog]

Virus attack may wipe out

Virus attack may wipe out attacker
A minor variant of the Klez virus is set to trigger Friday, erasing a host of files on infected hard drives. But the action may backfire. [CNET News.com]

Jon Udell: The mission of

Jon Udell: The mission of RSS
Jon Udell: The mission of RSS. "Second, the primary obstacles to widespread blogging are cultural, not technological. Perhaps the biggest is that (regrettably) researchers are not used to sharing widely information about work in progress." [First that's Jon Udell quoting someone else (go read the post, it's excellent) secondly I agree. People aren;t used to sharing information at this level. For me it would really fun if I could get all the artisans and craft people blogging. It seems that these new channels would be helpful. Alas, computers haven't seemed to make much of an inroad. I'll keep trying.] [Archipelago]

No need for Windows on

No need for Windows on a corporate desktop
Interesting Open for Business commentary: Do We Still Need Microsoft?--

Many companies and IT professionals have come to understand the single biggest reason for Linux' upcoming success on the corporate desktop: There is no longer a compelling reason to run Microsoft Windows on a corporate desktop.

ZenIf a man says something,

Zen
If a man says something, and there's no woman to hear, is he still wrong? [The Peanut Gallery]

Blosxom 0+5i is almost aliveI'm

Blosxom 0+5i is almost alive
I'm putting the finishing touches on Blosxom 0+5i, along with a brand spankin' new Blosxom site, replete with more detailed documentation, integration examples, sample templates, news, and of course Blosxom release 0+5i itself.

Blosxom users, I appreciate your patience. I know that a new release has been a long time coming and many of you have been asking after its whereabouts. I've been running 0+5i on my raelity bytes weblog for some time now and finally have a little free (read: late night) time to put into making this release all that it should be.

0+5i is a huge leap beyond 0+4i and I'm very excited to finally be nearing launch. I'm already building a wishlist for 0+6i, including trackbacks, static rendering, integrated search, and more. Have any ideas or requests in mind? Please do pass them my way. [raelity bytes]

New Wi-Fi public hot spot

New Wi-Fi public hot spot listing site

New Wi-Fi public hot spot listing site: Noel Jackson has started up OpenNodes.com, a site that will make an attempt at collecting self-reported design-to-be-open Wi-Fi nodes.

Albuquerque Isotopes

Borrowing the name from The Simpsons...
Borrowing the name from The Simpsons, a new minor league baseball team has been named the Albuquerque Isotopes. More on the team, which will be the Triple A affiliate of the Florida Marlins, can be found on its official web site. [Workbench]

Best show at Safeco?

Best show at Safeco? The grounds crew

They were warming up, going through their routine, waiting for the game to start at Safeco Field.
Bob Christofferson was stretching, worried about pulling a muscle, uncertain if he could make the turn at second base.

Don Brisbois looked calm on the couch, but Mike Meyerdirk was nervous, and so was Brian Anderson, anxiously pacing 45 minutes before the first pitch.

A veteran bunch, they were prepared for a difficult afternoon during the heat of a pennant race. They had their brooms out, hoping to sweep the Twins, ready for this moment in spite of a distant diss from the press box.

"They won 116 games without that last year," said New York Vinnie, KIRO sports talk-show host.



I saw them two of the three games I attended in July, and I thought they were good. Can any of them hit?

What would replace Bullwinkle?

Evolution
You know about flying squirrels, right?

I think evolution will have taken a wrong turn if some day it comes up with flying skunks. That wouldn’t work out very well. [inessential.com]

the neighborhood just got a

the neighborhood just got a lot bigger

Black Alchemy Enterprises: Fake AP. "If one access point is good, 53,000 must be better. Black Alchemy's Fake AP generates thousands of counterfeit 802.11b access points. Hide in plain sight amongst Fake AP's cacophony of beacon frames." Perl, GPL.

MS Pushes New Tablet on

MS Pushes New Tablet on Students
Tablet PCs are just around the corner for some schools. The wealthier schools, that is. Regardless, Microsoft believes they'll replace the laptop in no time. By Elisa Batista. [Wired News]

Interview with Woz

A Q&A interview with Steve Wozniak
Macworld reprints the transcript of a chat with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on its site. It is interesting at the end of the interview that, as of this past spring when the interview took place, Woz was using Max OS 9.2.2 on his PowerBook rather than OS X. From his recent comments on a PowerBook-related mailing list I am on, I think he is using Mac OS X more now... [Mac Net Journal]

NPR segment on wardriving

NPR segment on wardriving

NPR segment on wardriving: Listen and learn.

UP: Peter Gabriel

UP: Peter Gabriel . On his first...
UP: Peter Gabriel. On his first collection of new songs in ten years, Peter Gabriel explores death, depression, loneliness, loss and, ultimately, hope. [All Songs Considered] [Roymond Radio]

Automating Audioblogging

AppleScript: Automating Audioblogging
In creating this Audioblogging script, an amazing number of different technologies and applications are employed. AppleScript, Speech, The Finder, iTunes, Quicktime, Internet Explorer, Javascript, HTML, PHP, Apache and MySQL all work together in the harmony of OS X bliss. The parts included here could be re-used for many purposes including building an online web reference, a diary, a bookmark repository and many more. [Studio Log]

RSS Tutorial

RSS tutorial
Mark Nottingham: RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters. (39 words) [dive into mark]

Are we not Sims?

Are we live or are we simulated?
"Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?" A white-paper from a Yale philosophy professor who's working on a book-length version.

Abstract: This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the transhumanist dogma that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

I wonder, though (duh). Arguments that we're living in a simulation remind me of arguments about The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy -- if there is such a Conspiracy, how come I never got a check? Likewise, if I am a simulation of my pre-post-human self, then why wouldn't I simulate an environment for me that, generally speaking, kicked more ass?

LinkDiscuss

(Thanks, Pamela!) [Boing Boing Blog]

ChimeraKnight 1.4- ChimeraKnight is an

ChimeraKnight 1.4
- ChimeraKnight is an AppleScript Studio application that automatically updates Chimera to the latest nightly version. Version chnages: Fixed progress bar shift when resizing main window. Added back up of bookmark and cookie files. Added ChimerIcon theme popup menu. Added ability to select and copy in Read Me and Change Log. Improved parsing of server directory index. Optimized code for speed and reliability. [d/l] [AppleScript Info]

Ken Bereskin's Radio WeblogKen Bereskin's

Ken Bereskin's Radio Weblog
Ken Bereskin's Radio Weblog. "Screen captures can be triggered from the command line (and therefore AppleScript, perl, etc.) using the new screencapture command found in /usr/sbin/" * [Archipelago]

Melange de bruit no. 11

Melange de bruit no. 11 [...
Melange de bruit no. 11 [Art of the Mix Recent Submissions] [A Blander Blog]

This one looks interesting.

Radio spontaneously invented

Radio spontaneously invented by genetic algorithm
An experiment in self-evolving circuits spontaneously invented the radio:

To pick up a radio signal you need other elements such as an antenna. After exhaustive testing they found that a long track in the circuit board had functioned as the antenna. But how the circuit "figured out" that this would work is not known.

"There's probably one sudden key mutation that enabled radio frequencies to be picked up," says Bird.

(Thanks, !) [Boing Boing Blog]

Scriptable Applications: TerminalThe Terminal is

Scriptable Applications: Terminal
The Terminal is a scriptable application and this page shows an example of some of the commands and also includes some info about directly executing shell commands using the pre-installed Standard Additions. [Studio Log]

Moof!

Moof
ClarusX 2.0. You know you want it. (31 words) [dive into mark]

Thoughts from Chris Cutler

Independent Music Downloads- Thoughts from Chris Cutler...
Independent Music Downloads- Thoughts from Chris Cutler

Making a record is not a cost free or work free affair; it's expensive. And those costs can only be recovered through sales. No sales, or sales so low that costs are not recouped, mean artists are forced either to cut the costs next time (with inevitable negative consequences for quality) or not to record so much - or at all. Along with a lot of dross, good music is lost this way, especially at the margins where the most innovative work is already barely paying its way.

Creating Web Pages with OpenOffice.orgThe

Creating Web Pages with OpenOffice.org
The basic OpenOffice applications have built-in HTML functions; here's how to find and use them. [Linux Journal]

Walmart Lindows box

Sub-$200 PC at Walmart:
"Microtel Computer Systems Inc. is selling a PC equipped with a C3 processor from Via Technologies Inc. and the LindowsOS operating system from Lindows.com Inc. exclusively at Walmart.com for less than $200." [evhead]

Jaguar boot screen hacking

Apple user? Mourning the loss of the...

Apple user? Mourning the loss of the Happy Mac? Hack the Planet tripped over a page by Ryan Design on how to Hack your Jaguar boot screen.

Waiting for Jaguar.1

LeVitus urges people to wait to upgrade
Long-time Mac writer and columnist Bob LeVitus argues that most people should wait to upgrade to Jaguar: "If you don't have a compelling reason to install Jaguar today, wait for the inevitable 10.2.1 update." [Mac Net Journal]

That's what I'm waiting for.