Hillary or Nobody? Maureen Dowd: "Some top Democrats are increasingly worried that the Clintons' divide-and-conquer strategy is nihilistic: Hillary or no democrat."

Bush's War PBS Frontline: Bush's War - "A two-part special series that tells the epic story of how the Iraq war began and how it has been fought, both on the ground and deep inside the government."

Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster Lifehacker: Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster - "Commercial DVDs are far too expensive to let scratches turn your video into a glorified coaster, but most people still don't back up their DVD collection. Once upon a time, the four to eight gigabyte footprint of a DVD on your hard drive was prohibitively large. But since the price of a gigabyte has plummeted, ripping your entire DVD collection to your computer is not just possible, it's prudent -- and it's easy. Let's take a look at the best ways to back up and play any DVD rip on your home computer, along with how to burn a DVD rip back to a playable DVD."

Ubuntu 8.04: Plays Well with Windows Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: "Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" beta has made Linux adoption much easier by making it easy for Windows users to install Ubuntu onto their PCs without affecting their Windows installation."

John Ellis: 5-1/2 Weeks Old


(Click for larger view.)

'Smart' Phones LA Times: The Risk for iPhone Users: They Know Too Much - "Apple Inc.'s iPhone, which went on sale nine months ago, isn't the only so-called smart phone that provides itinerant access to the Web. But its wide screen and top-quality browser make it easy to use and read, which means it can in seconds change a lighthearted conversation into the Pursuit of Truth." (via BigJim)

My two cents? Never interrupt a good conversation by insisting that someone is wrong/lying. The art of conversation does not include the 'Pursuit of Truth'. It's about an interchange of expression and communication. If a lie/error sounds good in a conversation and the crowd is enjoying it, just go along with it. To do anything else is to be perceived as a kill-joy or an a-hole. (If you want to privately follow-up with someone on an issue, feel free, of course. Don't use a public conversation as a vehicle to correct someone or elevate yourself as all-knowing.)

Friday Fun Safe, natural way to feel better.

Buchanan Responds to Obama Pat Buchanan: "Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago."

Elvis Burger I would like to give a shout out to Brian, for having the coronary fortitude to eat an Elvis Burger.

iTunes Subscription Service? BetaNews: More rumors that Apple may eventually offer a music subscription service. Hardly revolutionary, but it would certainly allow iPod users to (easily) take advantage of millions of songs for a single, low price.

Changes at Starbucks New at Starbucks: Loyalty Benefits. "Starting in mid-April, customers who use registered Starbucks cards in select U.S. and Canadian stores will get several benefits: Starbucks will not charge for any syrups, milk alternatives and other extras added to drinks, no matter how numerous or complex. Senior Vice President Michelle Gass said she isn't concerned that will lead to more expensive, time-consuming orders. Refills of brewed coffee will be free during the same visit. They now often cost 50 cents. And any tall drink will be free with the purchase of one pound of beans."

Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator IRS Website: "In order to determine whether you qualify for a stimulus payment, we will ask you a series of questions..."

This site will allow you figure out when you'll get your check and for how much.

"In Defense of Windows ME..." I'm not sure if this is a joke or not: Why Windows ME Deserves More Respect.

Speaking as someone that actually used Windows ME, let me say the following: It was buggy and felt like a poor Beta release. (The same cannot be said of Vista. It did need some work, but the comparison is not fitting.)

No Competition = Bad News for Consumers The price of Blu-ray players has increased since the demise of HD DVD.

"In a move to expedite HD DVD’s downfall, Blu-ray manufacturers and retailers aggressively cut prices earlier this year, to the point where it was possible to buy a standalone BD player for less than $300. Now, however, according to Pricegrabber.com’s most recent information, the average price for Blu-ray hardware is around $400, which is right around where it was last year."

Windows Vista SP1 Now Available Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is now available. The standalone package is 434 MB and it is available for download on Microsoft's site.

Global Warming Update Montreal is suffering from all of the warming.

John Ellis Broome: 1 Month Old


(Click above for more photos.)

John Ellis turned 1 month old today. He is doing well.

Animated 'Clone Wars' Dear George Lucas:

Your art has sucked since the early 80's. You'll have to forgive me when I don't get all excited about your latest project.

Your Buddy,

Donny

Music Industry Proposes a Piracy Surcharge on ISPs RIAA: Still Crazy after All These Years, and now proposing a "piracy surcharge" for Internet users. How would it work?

"Griffin's idea is to collect a fee from internet service providers -- something like $5 per user per month -- and put it into a pool that would be used to compensate songwriters, performers, publishers and music labels. A collecting agency would divvy up the money according to artists' popularity on P2P sites, just as ASCAP and BMI pay songwriters for broadcasts and live performances of their work."

Keep dreaming, pal. Keep dreaming. If anything, the very mention of such an idea will anger people, inspiring them to download even more copyrighted material, just for the heck of it. Treating your customers like criminals has never been a winning strategy and it won't succeed this time.

"Obama and the Minister" Wall Street Journal: Obama and the Minister, The Atlantic Monthly: The Wright Problem.

Mamet on Politics David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' (via Drudge)

"The Constitution, written by men with some experience of actual government, assumes that the chief executive will work to be king, the Parliament will scheme to sell off the silverware, and the judiciary will consider itself Olympian and do everything it can to much improve (destroy) the work of the other two branches. So the Constitution pits them against each other, in the attempt not to achieve stasis, but rather to allow for the constant corrections necessary to prevent one branch from getting too much power for too long. Rather brilliant."

...

"I found not only that I didn't trust the current government (that, to me, was no surprise), but that an impartial review revealed that the faults of this president -- whom I, a good liberal, considered a monster -- were little different from those of a president whom I revered."

"Bush got us into Iraq, JFK into Vietnam. Bush stole the election in Florida; Kennedy stole his in Chicago. Bush outed a CIA agent; Kennedy left hundreds of them to die in the surf at the Bay of Pigs. Bush lied about his military service; Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize for a book written by Ted Sorenson. Bush was in bed with the Saudis, Kennedy with the Mafia. Oh."

I Am Legend: Alternate Ending Do you like the alternate ending for I Am Legend? I find it to be equally unsatisfying as the original, basically. While it does answer a couple of questions, it allows the main character to escape, in true Disney fashion, rather than having him go out with a big bang.

What Parenting Skills? This news report is sad on more than one level.

Associated Press: "At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group. A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls -- nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found."

Post-SP2 Update Pack RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack - "This pack is designed to bring a Windows XP CD with SP2 integrated fully up to date with all of the latest hotfixes released by Microsoft since SP2's release. It accomplishes this task via direct integration, where files on the CD are directly overwritten by the updated files. This method has numerous advantages over other integration techniques..."

If Celebs Moved to Oklahoma With all due apologies to Oklahoma, Wintrest.com gives us, If Celebs Moved to Oklahoma.

BitTorrent for iPhone/iTouch Slyck.com: "So if you're a die-hard BitTorrent fan with an iPhone, reside near a WIFI hotspot, and enjoy command line clients, this latest iteration might your cup of tea. The iPhone/iTouch BitTorrent client might be in its primitive stages, but then again, so it mobile computing. Expect great things from both philosophies in the coming years."

Updates For PC Gamers... There is a March 2008 DirectX update. Also, both Nvidia and ATI have released new drivers.

McCartney Signs $400 Million iTunes Deal Gizmodo: "Paul McCartney has signed a $400 million deal, which will see the Beatles catalog make its way to iTunes, at long last."

We're basically talking about $400 million for 214 songs, all recorded prior to 1970, by a band, half of which is no longer with us. The Beatles have sold more records in the United States than any other artist or band. This deal should send their numbers even higher, making it virtually impossible for another artist to ever eclipse their sales numbers. Not too shabby for 4 kids from Liverpool, who recorded pop music.

This money is pocket change for McCartney (who made over $90 million on his last concert your), but I'm sure this will put a smile on Ringo's face.

My only interest is in 5.1 surround mixes of the remastered albums on DVD. Their Grammy-winning Love album was a preview of this, and I can't wait for more.

Anthony Bourdain I have my DVR set to record all episodes of No Reservations wth Anthony Bourdain. It's a show about food and travel and I haven't seen a boring episode yet. It's hard to describe what is appealing about the show, so you'll just have to watch an episode and decide for yourself. It's on the Travel Channel. I really like the post-Katrina New Orleans episode and the one about the Mexican border towns.

SeeqPod SeeqPod - If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you'll want to bookmark this site. It's a playable music search engine, designed specifically for the mobile Safari web browser.

iPod Touch I can heartily recommend the iPod Touch as a portable Internet device. Its Wi-Fi capabilities and its Safari web browser are very impressive. Plus, with the latest software update from Apple (for $20), email functionality is added for most of the major services. The retail price is a rip-off, but they are readily available on eBay for far less.

Test Post I'm posting this from my iPod touch.

Microsoft StartKey ZDNet: "Microsoft has some big plans for the small-sized storage devices. Microsoft is working on turning USB-based flash drives into a "Windows companion" -- a new product known as "StartKey" -- that will allow users to carry their Windows and Windows Live settings with them. StartKey isn’t just for USB sticks; it also will work on other flash-storage devices, like SD memory cards."