03/03/2006

As I’m working and rocking to tunes on Friday afternoon, I just hit U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, which is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Good stuff.

03/02/2006

For some reason this photo reminds me of the time me and the Magnificent Seven filmed a ten-minute video for Mr. Ricker’s history class, in which we traveled through the mysterious forest to speak with the Oracle of Delphi… who was, not surprisingly, dressed like a hippie.

The best part was when the magic candles almost set the forest on fire, and there was screaming and shouting in the background of the video.

Good times.

03/01/2006

I had a surreal e-mail message in my box this morning. In it, some woman I don’t know wrote to me asking if I could help her buy a home computer. Quoting from part of her note:

Well it seems that when I talk about this computer to several different people – they have all told me the same thing which I quote  ” Why are you buying a computer from HP – Don’t you know about Neobox – They can build you a computer for the same price that would be a better computer”  I have talked to a gentleman named Brad (Conductor for  the railroad)  He said yes – ask for Jeff he is great.  Also the guys at the furniture store in Willis – Mike Attkins, Gene said Jeff will hook you up he is great.

Wow. Such glowing recommendations from… people I don’t know. Brad, the conductor for the railroad? Mike, the furniture guy in Willis? Where the heck is Willis?

But, since I’m generally a nice guy, I wrote back explaining that’s just not what I do, gave a few recommendations about how she should go about finding a nice cheap home computer, and wished her luck. Hopefully she’ll end up with a great system, and hopefully Brad, Mike, and Gene will stop recommending me…

02/26/2006

Here’s an actual photograph of some generic potato chips. The caption for the photo:

The chips taste exactly how you’d expect grey chips to taste.

Mmm, tasty! Sometimes it’s just better to spend the extra sixty cents (forty cents with your Safeway Shopper card!) and go for the Lay’s.

02/24/2006

… So I’m eating my daily 3:00 snack and decided to grab some chocolate chips to add to the crackers. I noticed the bag of Ghirardelli’s chips includes a nice banner proclaiming that these chips are good not only for home use, but for professional use as well! Wow. Who knew that there were professional chocolate-chip users out there?

Maybe I should look for one of those online courses or something, so I too can be a professional. Until then, though, I guess I’ll be stuck with “home use”.

02/16/2006

Truly, the greed of the RIAA knows no bounds.

As part of a review process of the DMCA that happens every three years, the RIAA has filed papers claiming that consumers should not be allowed to transfer music (“rip”) from a CD that they have purchased. In other words, you can only listen to your CD in your CD player– not on your computer, not on a mix CD you burn for your car, not on your iPod, not on your Rio MP3 player. Nowhere but a CD player.

Not only does this directly violate the definition of “fair use” in U.S. copyright law, it also violates the Sony v Betamax Supreme Court case twenty years ago. What’s more– and this is perhaps the best contradiction of all– it violates the very words of Don Verrilli, the lawyer for the RIAA in last year’s Supreme Court case MGM v Grokster:

The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it’s been on their website for some time now, that it’s perfectly lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod.

Apparently a year later they’re changing their tune (ha! get it?) by reversing their position and insisting that if you want to listen to music on your computer, you have to pay to download it. Note that downloaded music is typically more expensive than that on a CD, on a per-song basis. Oh, and you want it on your iPod? Well, I guess you’ll have to buy another copy from a different vendor!

Amazing.