I have six Gmail invitations. The first six people to leave comments win, just make sure you fill in your email address when leaving the comment.
NOTE: Just cuz it might indicate 6 comments, doesn’t mean they’ve all been given away.
Congrats to the winners. If I get any more invitations, I will let you know. Thanks for playing.
I don’t even pay attention to what the Department of Homeland Security has to say. The warning system is severely flawed and it does little but keep people living in fear. Aside from being unhealthy, it’s a complete waste of time, tax dollars, etc. I’ve run across this link to an Op Ed piece from Bruce Schneier, author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World all over the place today.
A terrorist alert that instills a vague feeling of dread or panic, without giving people anything to do in response, is ineffective. Even worse, it echoes the very tactics of the terrorists. There are two basic ways to terrorize people. The first is to do something spectacularly horrible, like flying airplanes into skyscrapers and killing thousands of people. The second is to keep people living in fear. Decades ago, that was one of the IRA’s major aims. Inadvertently, the DHS is achieving the same thing.
I could not agree more. The man knows a thing or two.
Every once in a while I give my email address to people over the phone for one reason or another. I always have to spell everything out and I’m always pretty sure whatever the person on the other end of the phone wants me to read will never even make it to my inbox. Some people are smarter than others. [via kottke]
Gabriel Sherman wrote a hilarious bit for the New York Observer about his personal addiction to his iPod. One little gem that had me rolling was:
This winter, after a girl I briefly dated abruptly announced that she was “still in love with her ex-boyfriend,” I spent the night trudging through the Arctic air of Greenwich Village with Conor Oberst’s wallowing voice on repeat.
Hilarious. [via TMN]
Last week StreamCast Networks (makers of the Morpheus, Grokster, and Kazaa) won a monumental court battle against MGM. To put it simply, MGM tried to make the case that the makers of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software programs should be held accountable if the consumers that use their software infringe upon copyrights (i.e. trade music, movies, software, photos, documents, etc.). And guess what? MGM lost. When I read the news, I wasn’t actually too suprised, but it was good news for the entertainment industry. Yep, you read that correctly. It’s good for the entertainment industry. I’ve said it many times before, but the entertainment industry is moving at a snail’s pace when it comes to keeping up with the technology that is out there to distribute content – their content. The reason this is such a monumental case is because it wasn’t so long ago that Napster lost a similar fight, but the court realized that vague laws do nothing but stiffle innovation or as the EFF points out:
[T]he Court observed that, in the long run, a competive, unfettered market for innovation ends up helping copyright owners (even if it doesn’t help today’s entertainment industry oligopolists). In fact, today’s ruling will likely be remembered as yet another example of the courts rescuing the entertainment industry from its own short-sightedness. In the words of the Court, “Further, as we have observed, we live in a quicksilver technological environment with courts ill-suited to fix the flow of internet innovation. The introduction of new technology is always disruptive to old markets, and particularly to those copyright owners whose works are sold through wellestablished distribution mechanisms. Yet, history has shown that time and market forces often provide equilibrium in balancing interests, whether the new technology be a player piano, a copier, a tape recorder, a video recorder, a personal computer, a karaoke machine, or an MP3 player.”
Maybe I’m just a big geek for getting so excited about this, but I think it’s not only an exciting thing for consumers, but it’s going to mean that the entertainment companies are going to have to start acting a little faster and hiring people that think a little outside of the box. Or better yet, new companies are going to start cropping up to fill some of the voids. In any event, I was floored when I read what Jim Griffin had to say about it. It’s pretty clear this man not only gets it, but is in a position to make change from within the industry. I can only hope that people give some thought to what he has to say.
I don’t usually take the time to call your attention to albums here. That’s what the right-hand column is for, but an album came out today from a new band called West Indian Girl. I’ve been listening to the album demos for a long time and I didn’t think it could get much better, but this album is one of the most gorgeous I have heard in a long time. It’s very California (obvious references aside) and I could not recommend this album more. Go buy it.
I was talking on the phone with my dad this morning and he said, “do you have time for me to read you an article from the New York Times?” To which I replied, “Just give me the title of the article and I’ll find it online.”
For all you parents out there (holla!), dress our kids up right this Halloween. [via Kottke]
If you read my previous post on privacy concerns with regards to Gmail, you will most definitely want to read Tim O’Reilly’s article on the subject. He makes some very valid points. I think I’m ready to start moving my tons of email. I’ll bet your sorry you didn’t activate that invitation, eh? And no, I don’t have anymore (for now).
I’m finally getting around to posting albums of my old rock show photos (look to your left). It’s a hell of a lot easier to post these albums than to recreate the posts, which kinda sucks since you won’t be able to see the comments. Enjoy.