January 26, 2004
Pay Service Turns CDs Into MP3s

Seems my friend Nova is turning into a music listening unproductive guy, according to Wired's report about a new music service. While I doubt that claim, it is an interesting but expensive serivce...



Pay Service Turns CDs Into MP3s Time was that everybody was converting their vinyl into CDs. Now a New York firm will rip an entire CD collection to the MP3 format for a fee. Is this the death of the CD? By Leander Kahney. [via Wired News]

Posted by Howard at 09:20 AM
January 25, 2004
It's colder than Mars here!

Ok. Tempature outside here in NJ this morning : 7 degrees F.
Tempature on Mars: 12 degrees F.
So, give me a pressure suit and a down jacket and let me warm up, ok?

Posted by Howard at 06:01 PM
January 22, 2004
Damsel in Distress

I always hate to hear about times when evil threatens to overwhelm good. But apparently, Aina, a friend of Nova's, has had her identity taken by comment spammers!
So by linking to that page, we help give her back a legit net identity. Take that you spam bastards!

Posted by Howard at 08:50 AM
January 18, 2004
Hubble Hobbled by Bush's Bubble

Doug Rushkoff writes well what I've been thinking about the "Mission to Moon and Mars" proposed by the President.


Hubble Hobbled by Bush's Bubble ...In order to fund Bush's PR campaign for space - a series of pointless but publicity-rich manned flights to the moon and Mars - NASA will have to abandon the Hubble telescope. The shuttle mission to do routine maintenance and battery replacement has been canceled, and the telescope has been slated to die sometime in 2007.
...In spite of the fact that its images have been responsible for radical reappraisals of our understanding of the formation and creation of the universe (or, come to think of it, maybe it's *because* Hubble has been responsible for radical reappraisals of the formation and creation of our universe), Hubble will be scrapped.  (BOLD EMPHASIS MINE - ed.)

Perhaps I shouldn't have put that part in parentheses, because it's at least partly at the core of what's going wrong in America under his leadership. We tend to do things that people can rally around, ignorantly if need-be, rather than things that make any real difference. This is because people who believe that human actions can make a real difference tend to be people who believe in evolution...
[via rushkoff.blog]


I'd love to see the US go back to the moon, discover new things, visit Mars, and expand out to the universe. It is a positive thought in an otherwise depressing administration. But it comes at too high a cost. How much will my kids have to work to pay for these things? Because I'm just working to fund Social Security right now, and I feel like my bucket isn't bailing out the Titanic fast enough...

Posted by Howard at 02:11 PM
January 14, 2004
Leaking Heater Cited in Death of 2 in Family

There's no way to stress enough why you need a Carbon Monoxide detector in your home. I knew Martin through his work raising money for Silver Shield. He was a good man, and I can only pray for his wife and child.



Leaking Heater Cited in Death of 2 in Family Two members of a Bronx family, including an 8-year-old girl, died last night in what fire officials said was carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a broken heating appliance.


Posted by Howard at 11:02 AM
January 10, 2004
In the Beginning....

God created the Heavens and the Earth, and he looked out upon it and said "Let there be LEGO!"
And The Rev. Brendan Powell Smith saw that it was good, and created scenes from the bible out of lego.

Posted by Howard at 12:45 PM
January 04, 2004
From the mouths of babes...

I was kidding with my daughter today, and made up a silly joke. She immediately went and told the joke to my wife.

I said to this very precocious almost-6-year-old, "Hey, you're stealing my material!"

She said, wisely, "Daddy, isn't it more important that people hear the joke and laugh than who said it?"

 

We then got into the philophy discussion, such as one can with a child, about people who make stuff and only want money versus people who create things and want to share them with the world. She's still on the side of getting material heard.

 

And she hasn't even been reading blogs from Jerry, Kevin, Barlow, or any of the open source crowd I know.

Posted by Howard at 02:39 PM