No, I DIDN'T know that Amazon sold that

Yet somehow, my life went on.

FCC orders Comcast to stop restricting access to the Internet

Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate: FCC orders Comcast to stop restricting access to the Internet

Yesterday, in a historic decision, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to order Comcast to stop restricting its customers' access to the Internet, quit blocking BitTorrent traffic, and require public disclosure of its network management practices. Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Michael Copps, and Chairman Kevin Martin voted in favor of finding Comcast in violation of FCC rules.

A little surprised to find myself saying it, but, um, yay FCC? Ahem. Yay FCC!

The Hold Steady!

Just got back from seeing The Hold Steady at the Capitol Hill Block Party. Great show! The sound wasn't perfect though - I do wish I could see them at First Avenue next week!

Here's a few selected awesome The Hold Steady songs: Dan's The Hold Steady Sampler on Rhapsody

Sadly, Rhapsody does not have Lord, I'm Discouraged (or as I think of it, "Excuses, and half-truths, and fortified wine") which MUST be listened to for the guitar solo, not to mention the heartbreaker story. So here it is on Last.fm.

Part of the joy of The Hold Steady is in the lyrics. Here's an example:

Slapped Actresses

Don’t drop little hints. I don’t want them to guess.
Don’t mention Tampa, they’ll just know all the rest.
Don’t mention bloodshed, don’t tell them it hurts.
Don’t say we saw angels, they’ll take us straight to the church.

Stuck Between Stations

She was a really cool kisser and she wasn’t all that strict of a Christian.
She was a damn good dancer but she wasn’t all that great of a girlfriend.
He likes the warm feeling but he’s tired of all the dehydration.
Most nights are crystal clear but tonight it’s like he’s stuck between stations --
On the radio.

The video for Stuck Between Stations has a laugh-out-loud funny at the end.

A great turn of phrase

Whether or not you agree, you have to admit this is some cute wordsmithing:

To his supporters Obama isn't just an agent of change - he's the 007 of change!

Well done, Stefan Sirucek!

What a shocker

File this one under "coming as a surprise to absolutely no one..."

It has long been known that Fox Cable News head Roger Ailes (a former Republican Party official) and other high executives routinely sent memos to the newsrooms instructing them to spin stories in particular ways. And one always suspected that the talking points actually came over from Bush's and Cheney's offices. Now McClellan confirms it.

from Informed Comment: Fox News= W. T.V.

In case you didn't realize how Facebook is going to make money....

Dan Farber accurately quotes Om's key point:

Om Malik extrapolates from Facebook Connect that Facebook is building a money machine:

You are essentially telling Facebook's proverbial
brain what topics -- blogs or specific posts -- with which you like to
engage. In other words, you just told the system a little bit about
yourself. Now imagine such information coming from dozens of Facebook
Connect partners.

Each service adds a few more data points about you
inside the Facebook brain, which is quite aware of your activities
inside the Facebook ecosystem. The brain can then crunch all that
information and build a fairly accurate image of who you are, what you
like and what might interest you. With all that information at its
disposal, Facebook can build a fairly large cash register.

The cash register is an advertising platform, a follow on to Beacon,
that leverages the social graph and each member as a potential
marketing engine. With all the data and user permissions, ad targeting
could be more precise.

Universe Sandbox!

I got a chance to play with Universe Sandbox "pre-release" and it's awesome! If you're into seeing how galaxies spin, planets collide, and having other fun with gravity, check out the video.



And if you're running XP or Vista, download it! It's free!

PopArtMachine - free image search, covers Library of Congress collection

This is neato!

"Pop Art Machine is a CGI library that collects, curates and creates works of art. Our focus is the study of digital printmaking using public image sources as inspiration. Here you will find over 1,000,000 source images and countless finished prints side by side with the methodologies used to create."

As they put it over on boing boing:

"I found the photo via Pop Art Machine, which somehow has linked into the Library of Congress image database. The image search function through Pop Art Machine (I’m not sure what it’s really supposed to be for) is often better than the LOC search page."

Post-keynote thoughts on 3G iPhone

Mind y0u, I haven't actually seen the keynote yet, just read the coverage on Engadget and MacRumors.

So Mel & I won't be going to get his & hers iPhones tomorrow. We'll have to think of something else to do on my vacation day. (The boys will both be at their respective schools.) We won't even be getting them on July 11 -- we're going to be on vacation and we fly back to Seattle on the 12th, and arrive at Seatac too late to make it to the Apple store before it closes.

A few things are sticking out in my mind:

It's late! Yeah, I know, how can it be late, no date was announced before today - but why did AT&T put a vacation blackout on their stores from mid-June to mid-July if it wasn't supposed to come out now? Until we find out for sure, I'm going to assume the goal was to get it in stores in mid-June, but the date slipped. Still I wonder - what were all those mysterious brown boxes?

No 32gb option: bummer! I had a 30gb iPod, and it wasn't big enough for me - and that wasn't even a video model! I would've gladly paid $499 for a 32gb iPhone 3G. I have an 8gb Sansa e280r now and it's really not enough room for me. (I will probably keep using the Sansa so I can get 'all I can eat' music on Rhapsody To Go, at least for checking out new stuff)

No online purchases: confusing! When I heard they wouldn't go on sale for a while I figured I'd just order online. But they're not for sale on the Apple Store yet! I don't get this one at all. Unless... umm... they don't have much supply? They want to make people go to a brick & mortar store? I wonder if people buy more accessories from Apple if they go to a store vs. online, or they are more likely to also switch from PC to Mac if they go to a store? That's only wacky conspiracy theory though. I really can't think of a valid reason for this. (Ooh, looks like it might have to do with new rules requiring in-store activation -- intended to cut down on people buying iPhones to use on different carriers.)

No videochat: bummer! This would've been sweet for me to use to say hi to Mel & the boys while on business trips.

Price cuts, 3G, GPS and 3rd party software: sweet, sweet sweet!

No update or price cut for iPod Touch: wierd! Who the heck would buy an iPod Touch when an iPhone 3g with the same capacity costs $100 LESS? Yes, it is no longer possible to buy an iPhone 3G and not activate it, but still, something is seriously wrong here. Look at the prices:

8gb iPhone 3G: $199. 8gb iPod Touch: $299

16gb iPhone 3G: $299. 16gb iPod Touch: $399

Normally I'd guess that Apple ran out of iPhone 1.0 stock before they ran out of iPod Touch 1.0 stock - but why not cut the price to move the rest of the stock? This must be seen as yet more evidence that AT&T (in the US at least) is subsidizing the cost of the iPhone 3G.

Neil Gaiman on bipedal animals

Neil (author/creator of a ton of wonderful things, including Sandman, Stardust, and American Gods) wrote this to go along with a picture he snapped from his kitchen window, and it made me laugh in my coffee cup.

I took this yesterday from the kitchen window. As a small child, I was convinced that all animals walked around on their hind legs when we couldn't see them, and spoke fluent English; sometimes they wore clothes and probably drove really tiny, brightly-coloured cars down hidden streets between the bushes. This raccoon did nothing to disabuse me of the idea: