Specter of $105 oil spooks stocks

MSN Money - CNBC News - Specter of $105 oil spooks stocks: "Goldman Sachs says oil is in the early stages of a 'super spike' period."

I can hardly afford to drive now.

Slashdot: Wordpress Banned by Google for Spamming

Slashdot | Wordpress Banned by Google for Spamming

This wasn't an issue with blog spam, but Adsense keywords Google says were hidden in articles on the Wordpress site.

The Real Nick W writes "Wordpress, an incredibly popular Open Source Blogging system was found to be spamming google by inserting hidden links to junk content on high paying Adsense keywords such as mesothelioma and debt consolidation. Following Threadwatch picking up the story an anonymous Google rep appeared in the original thread admonishing bloggers not to use sneaky tactics to rank highly for "duplicate content" such as the 100,000 hidden articles on the Wordpress site. The articles have now dissapeared from Google and it remains to be seen whether Google will ban Wordpress outright as they tend to do when SEO's and web dev's pull these kinds of stunts."

Cerysmatic Factory

Cerysmatic Factory :: Factory Records, Manchester, England :: :: :: blog, history, archive ::

Wow, Factory Records has a blog

Bluetooth "Sniper Rifle" Tested at Library Tower

Bluetooth "Sniper Rifle" Tested at Library Tower :: LAVoice.org :: LOS ANGELES SPEAKS

This story comes with a tip that a law firm a few hundred yards from my house have given all their attorneys and staff Blackberries.

I have installed wireless networks (802.11b) in law firms, but I made sure they had WEP turned on. As I set here at my desk I can see at least one other wireless network labeled "law frim" with no WEP protection.

In light of HIPPA and common sense one would hope there would be a best practices document out there to give these folks some help securing their wireless networks. A simple Google search turns up some good resources.

She's gone...

Terri Schiavo has died, according to the family's spiritual adviser.

MSNBC Coverage

Return of the Mac

Return of the Mac

A ton of people who write software, design websites, and run networks (read geeks) have switched to Apple. Even Linus Torvalds, the guy who wrote Linux, is using a Mac now. Torvalds, of course, is running Linux on his Mac.

Slashdot, once the home of rabbid Linux users, has an Apple Section and covers almost every piece of Mac with the same geekly fervor as they do Linux and Windows stories.

At this point Macs are not only for graphic designers, but are also firmly in the world of code monkeys. OS X is based on BSD, unix under the hood, and if you don't want all that eye-candy on your screen, you can always install FreeBSD or Linux.

Blogging and Jounalism, yet again

Jeff Jarvis beats the dead horse:  Journalism is a verb, not a noun

Jay Rosen says newspapers are dying: Laying the Newspaper Gently Down to Die

Dan Gillmore repsonds: A Dying Craft, or a Dying Business?

Shop Oncee

Oncee's store is open.

Get your Oncee@Blogger Hoddie, Thong, Mug, Mousepad, and/or Messenger Bag while supplies last.



Come visit my store on CafePress!

Three by Dan Gillmor

Dan Gillmore always hits the nail on the head. Dan is a journalist turned blogger that does a better job than anyone when it comes to covering journalism in the blogsphere:

Hypocrisy in the Ranks of the Powerful

It's not just DeLay who's a hypocrite. Turns out that Bush sued a car-rental agency, looking for a deep pocket.

In fact, there's hypocrisy in big amounts from the Republican pols who want to keep government out of our lives or insert it directly into our lives, depending on the circumstances.

AP Won't Say It; Blogger Does

Bruce Schneier, a world-class authority on security-in-technology issues, points out an AP story reporting on the flagrant lies told by the Bush administration's Transportation Safety Administration about its scandalous handling of "private" passenger data. AP won't call the agency's dissembling for what it is -- lying -- but Schneier does.

Another Journalist on the Govt. Payroll

The only word for this latest tale of a journalist on the take from government is "sickening" -- and the question is how many more of these people will be exposed?

McDonalds's to pay rappers

I got a phone tip on this story yesterday, but never found it on Google News. Of course Boing Boing has it.

McDonald's will pay rappers if their Big-Mac-praising songs are played on the radio.

Though it's not offering money upfront, the fast-food giant is willing to pay rappers $1 to $5 each time songs with the plug hit the radio, according to today's Advertising Age. McDonald's hopes to have its signature sandwich in several songs by summer, the mag says.

Oncee: The Album

I have uploaded two finished tracks from my music project. You can download them here and here.



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0

You are free:

• to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to make derivative works

These links will expire in 7 days.

Thanks Doc Searls

A big Thank You goes to Doc Searls for the link.

I'm reminded of the huge stack of the Cluetrain Maifesto I saw at the local independent bookstore. The only thing I can figure out is the book must have been used in a class at a local university. The stack became one copy within a few days.

I received my first link from Doc back in July.

Here's a software easter egg for Easter

Easter eggs are hidden pictures or movies, at least  in the software world. Apple has been putting easter eggs in products for a long time.

Slashdot reports:

AnamanFan writes "Many years ago an easter egg was uncovered on the MacOS System 7.1 CD included with the Quadra 660av and 840av machines. A 91mb MOV file shows the Cyclone/Tempest team celebrating with a nice pirate flag in the background. Don't have your old System 7.1 CD from your Quadra? It's now available online, or if you'd like to you're welcome to use the Torrent."

Pictures

kokopelleigh took these pictures last Sunday morning with her camera phone. I think I look silly as always.

 

I'm not sure I was hugging that tree as much as I was trying to hold myself up after working a 12-hour shift.

Looking forward to time off to finish a few things

I need to finish this music project I started weeks ago. I've been listening to Stomp, and Grace and I think they turned out pretty well. The real problem now is getting the sounds I hear in my head recorded. GarageBand is a great product, but I'm finding some limitations. I hope to have 8 or so tracks when I'm finished.

I will either burn my own CDs and give them away, or sell them at cost via cafepress.com. CafePress is cool because they will also print your cover art as well.

As of today three people have heard the first two tracks: me, Blair and misfitina. I burned misfitina a mix CD and threw my tracks in.

Speaking of cafepress.com, I'm thinking about opening an account because I would like to produce an Oncee© messenger bag. Oooh and don't forget Oncee© hooded sweatshirts, boxers, and thongs.

The woman behind Groklaw

Tom's Hardware has an interview with Groklaw's Pamela Jones, AKA P.J.

How many hits per day does Groklaw get?

"I don't track it. A journalist asked me some time ago, and I investigated and it was 2 1/2 million a week then. That was back when SCO seemed like more of a threat, so I believe it would probably be less now on quiet news days, but I don't really know. Would you want to know? Groklaw is noncommercial, so it doesn't much matter. I don't have to impress advertisers. Groklaw doesn't actually need to be big to be effective. In fact, it's the opposite in a way. I've taken steps to keep it as small as I can. Past a point, it becomes more work to administer than is helpful. I need to stay focused on certain elements, and size brings a certain kind of extra work that I'd rather not deal with until the SCO case is over.

You have to admit, numbers like that are intimidating. At least they are to me. I'm shy by nature, and it makes me nervous when I realize how many people are reading Groklaw. I met an executive at LinuxWorld who told me that he knows people on Capitol Hill are reading Groklaw. Some of his employees, he told me, have their phones set up to notify them every time there is a new article. I told him he was making me hyperventilate.

Don't get me wrong. I'm very grateful people like Groklaw, and I'm happy so many want to read it. I'm proud of what we've done. But usually I try not to think about numbers. When I'm writing, I think in my mind like I'm talking to a group of real friends. I know that our membership has continued to grow, though. We have just under 8500 members now, and of course most of our readers are not members. I write an article, go get a cup of tea, and when I come back, there are maybe 100 comments. There is no way to describe that feeling."

In realted news Slashdot is reporting the SCO website is using Groklaw's content without attribution.

darkonc writes "It looks like they didn't learn from the BSD debacle (where, having sued Berkley for copyright infringement, AT&T found that they were using BSD code without acknowledging it's source). Groklaw has an article detailing how SCO has documents created by and for Groklaw on their site -- without even acknowledging the source. It seems that the defenders of the holy IP principle have hoisted the skull and bones."

Imus Ranch flap over

Jeff Jarvis sums up the Imus Ranch flap

: Howard Stern was remarkably restrained this morning gloating about the Wall Street Journal story that reported on an investigation into the Imus Ranch and the PVS jock not paying the charity that runs the spread for his personal use of it. Howard, who has harped on this for years, played his Imus theme -- "I'm a Fake Cowboy" -- only a couple of times. The Journal story is a great read that also shows restraint: It doesn't accuse Imus of anything but let him paint an amusing self-portrait. But today, the Journal also had to report that the investigation is over. It's not scandal. But it is comedy.

I'm sure this won't stop Imus from talking about it on Monday.

Has Boing Boing sold out?

It appears Boing Boing's stats tell an interesting tale: They are raking in tons of cash with advertising.

Boing Boing, Ka-Ching Ka-Ching

But, last year, the ostensible purpose for exploring “sponsorship, context-sensitive text-ads, etc.” was to “survive,” to “re-invest in Boing Boing,” to “cover our costs,” to “cover the costs of hosting.”

They’re pretty obviously well beyond these goals. It’s all of a hundred bucks a month for 1.2 terabytes of bandwidth (or about 150% of what the site currently needs), server included. Given February’s 14.5 million pageviews, each advertiser — taking the low number above — would have to pay less than a tenth of a cent CPM. It would be easier for everybody involved — if the goal was to cover costs — to let one sponsor buy the machine and give them a small, tasteful badge on the front page.

But that’s not the goal anymore, is it?

How to make 10k a day

dana boyd figures out people love to pay large sums of cash for experts to give them advice. Maybe I need to charge more for consulting.

What on earth can we say that's worth $10K?? But i think that my frustration is the answer... it's worth $10K because that's enough to make the business people wake up and listen, to make them actually pay attention. And that's why certain conferences cost $5K - people take them seriously at that rate - they actually want to make something out of it.

Support the Imus Ranch

Imus Ranch Foods
All after tax profits from the sale of Imus Ranch Foods Products go to
The Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer in Ribera, New Mexico.

Now available in 105 languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu,to Romansh

The Google Blog reports Google is now available in Romansh.

I'm afraid I'm guilty of using this one...

Blogosphere, The Internet's Latest Cliche

By Jeremy Wagstaff

Here, inspired by a comment to a recent post from Graham ‘pieman’ Holliday, I thought I’d start tracking Internet words we’d rather not have around. First off: The Blogosphere.

The term, according to Wikipedia, was coined on September 10, 1999 by Brad L. Graham, as a joke. [1] (http://www.bradlands.com/weblog/1999-09.shtml) It was re-coined in 2001 by William Quick (http://www.dailypundit.com/) (quite seriously) and was quickly adopted and promulgated by the warblog community.

I've been reading too much Doc Searls.

Jossip get the scoop a day late

AlcohO'Brien: Coked up voicemails revealed (Really Not Safe for Work)

Jossip says they had to run it by their lawyers first: "Okay, we've had it for a bit, but our legal team just cleared it."

Related Jossip post:   AlcohO'Brien: 'Betsy' revealed as publisher's daughter

Earlier Post: The Pat O'Brien Tapes

Everyone is on a death watch now

Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing points us to Terri Schiavo status Firefox extension

The author says: "I wrote a Firefox extension that sits in the status bar of Firefox, and tells you at a glance the morbidity status of Terry Schiavo."

You can download the extension here.

Imus Ranch flap

The I-Man took it on the chin yesterday, when the Wall Street Journal ran a story about how he and his family were using the Imus Ranch as a vacation getaway. Imus spend most of his TV and radio show defending himself. He pointed out that he did spend Christmas and Thanksgiving at the ranch every year, but it was far from a vacation. Imus points out that he and his wife Deirdre run the ranch, and take no salary.

Imus calls claims that he uses the ranch as a vacation home "absurd." He says he and his wife manage the ranch as volunteers, working the entire time they're there. "I'm not getting anything out of this other than having fun helping the children," he says.

He points out he reimburses the ranch for every expense, and he raises all the money it takes to run the ranch.

"Does it cost too much per kid? Maybe it does," Imus says, adding that "I would spend $2.6 million or $1.8 million per child if I thought it could change their lives."

The flap started when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office began a routine inquiry into the operation of the ranch.

The New York Times reports:

A spokesman for the attorney general's office said that two developments had triggered the examination: the charity had requested an extension to file tax data, which typically prompts an inquiry, and the office received an anonymous letter saying it ought to check into Mr. Imus's use of the ranch.

The notification that the attorney general office's had ended its inquiry came after a morning in which Mr. Imus spent much of his show criticizing the article.

Mr. Imus called the article "a vicious hatchet job" and added, "Anyone who had been to my office in New York knows that there is not a day that goes by that I'm not on the phone with the ranch."

Related Stories:
New York Times: Radio Host Criticizes Report on Charity
Newsday: Imus on the defensive

Also see Google News Coverage

Doogie Howser, blogger

Was Bloggie Howser, M.D. one of the first blogger? A reader at kottke.org makes the case.

That's a lot of traffic

If you even want to see live stats of the most visited blog on the web check out BoingBoing's stats page. For some background you should also vist their About our stats page.

Your body as data

MetaFilter:

2 GB of data per second, piggybacking on your skin's electrical field. You == organic lan for small electronic devices. And it's a little more secure than bluetooth.

The Pat O'Brien Tapes

Idle Hands: What do coke, Betsy and 2 billion voice mails have in common? Pat O’Brien.

Low Culture: Sixty-Nine Love Songs (Or, "Pat O'Brien's Awesome Rehab Playlist")

milk3ysw0ld: Pat O'Brien in Rehab....after Drunken Voice mail message!

Jeff Weise's had a blog

News report are true. Jeff Weise, the student who killed 9 people before turning weapon on himself, had a LiveJournal. There is a total of three post. He hadn't posted anyting since Jan. 27th. It make me wonder if this was his only journal.

Baby's Got ...

Brian the Attorney sends the following link: Grammy Award winner Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back redone as Christian rap--really.... (Quicktime required)

"I like big Bibles I can not lie, / You Christian brothers can’t deny, / When a girl walks in with a KJV* / And a bookmark in proverbs, You get stoked" * King James Version

M M M My Sharona

MetaFilter has the untold story behind the women who inspired the the Knack's "My Sharona" and the Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays"

M M M My Sharona... M M M My real estate agent? Sharona Alperin was only 17 when she inspired the Knack's 1979 hit single "My Sharona." Now she sells real estate in Los Angeles...On the flip side of lyrical fame, 16-year-old Brenda Spencer inspired another set of lyrics in 1979 -- the Boomtown Rats' haunting song "I Don't Like Mondays" -- which chronicled Spencer's slaying of eight school children and a principal at an elementary school near her San Diego, CA-area home. It's not an urban legend: Spencer told a reporter who called her during the 6 1/2 -hour siege that she opened fire because, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." Spencer reminds us today that schoolyard shootings are not a new phenomenon. Now 42, Brenda is serving a 25-year sentence and is up for parole soon...

It's about time

Ex-Miss West Virginia files suit over sex tape

Not only have porn sites violated her privacy, they have also defamed her. New lawyers have to undergo an ethics review at bar exam time. This situation will cause her a lot of headaches. The damage has already been done.

Williams’ lawsuit names 59 defendants in the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Cayman Islands, Canada and South Africa who allegedly took part in distributing the videos. She is seeking damages and injunctive relief.

Williams, 23, is a West Virginia University law student and was Miss West Virginia in 2003. Last fall, videos began to surface on Internet Web sites showing a woman said to be Williams engaged in sex in the back of a television news truck. Many of the sites said the video was shot while Williams was working as a television reporter in Virginia.

However, Williams said she never worked as a television reporter and never lived in Virginia.

Williams has blond hair, while the woman in the videos appears to be a brunette. Some of the Internet sites juxtaposed legitimate photographs of Williams alongside pictures taken from the videos, and some of the images were allegedly altered to make the woman in the videos look more like Williams.

I wrote about this story before here, here, and here.

Move over, outsourcing. Insourcing might be the next new trend

The Motley Fool reports: "A funny thing happened on the way to dollar devaluation -- America, apparently, has become a source of cheap labor… at least in currency exchange-rate terms."

10 Years of bad answers

MetaFiter has the story on what the Bastard Operator From Hell has been as of late.

The latest BOFH, or Bastard Operator From Hell. If you read The Register you're familiar with him... It's the story of an abusive IT guy basically doing whatever he wants to users and getting away with it. It's been going on for about 10 years, all of which is archived, so if that one doesn't tease your fancy, maybe some of those will. If you're not familiar with basic IT stuff some of it may be foreign to you, but once I started reading I couldn't stop. Try a couple years back, 2002 is a good vintage. >clickety<

This is funny stuff, but I wouldn't try this at work. It could get you fired and/or sued.

A Linux distro that fits on a thumb drive

I've been looking for a Linux distro that will fit on a thumb drive. I had no luck, but now a blogger named Jeremy Wagstaff has put together a directory of programs designed for usb drives that points to at least one. It's a 50M disto I've never heard of before called Puppy. Another product they have is called Flash Puppy for booting off a flash card.

Too bad I don't have a Windows box around the house for testing.

What's next: debtor prison?

I'm not against banks making money but the rates banks are charging on credit cards and other unsecured loans are too high. This comes at a time when interesting rates charged by the Fed. are near record lows. Some people are being charged rates over 20% on credit cards debt. Banks can raise rates by sending you a notice in the mail, and there is nothing you can do, but try to pay the principle to avoid paying the interest. Now that the Republicans in Congress have had their way and gutted bankruptcy bill, there is no protection for the consumer.

The Rev. AKMA points out that "...Jesus explicitly repudiated the practice of lending at interest."

The people of Israel set distinct limits to the scope of interest (including the jubilee year, a sort of pre-market-economy form of bankruptcy protection), and Jesus explicitly repudiated the practice of lending at interest. The church institutionalized laws against lending at interest, and only relatively recently has the topic dropped away from the church’s social agenda. Fred surveys the history of usury, then turns his attention to the exploitation of greed bill bankruptcy bill weapon of mass expropriation of wealth that the Republican Congress and the Bush administration have deployed.

Fred’s nauseated by the spectacle of lawmakers who proclaim their allegiance to “family values” and “biblical morality” rolling over to strip away the small borrower’s protection. Me too — but I’m simultaneously intrigued by the ways that some forms of “tradition” become old-fashioned and mutable, whereas others reflect timeless morality and must be upheld at all costs. The phenomenon gets even more intriguing when — as so often happens — someone takes the pains to explain what I obviously haven’t yet understood: that there’s a perfectly transparent premise in the light of which these differences are revealed to be natural and necessary. Oh, right!

Starving Darren Barefoot

Thanks goes out to Darren Barefoot for playing along with the Killing Darren Barefoot post.

Darren is doing the 30-Hour Famine, a part of the World Vision Canada program that fights hunger in the developing world. His goal is to raise CAN $1,000 byt the end of the month. He is matching the first $200.00.

Henry Hill is in trouble with the law again

CNN: 'GoodFellas' inspiration charged with drug possession

NORTH PLATTE, Nebraska (AP) -- Former mobster-turned-chef Henry Hill, whose gangland experiences inspired the movie "GoodFellas," has been charged with felony drug possession.

Police said Hill's luggage was searched on August 15 at the North Platte Regional Airport and methamphetamine and cocaine was found.

On Friday, Lincoln County Judge Kent Florum sent him to district court on a felony charge of drug possession.

Hill, portrayed by Ray Liotta in "GoodFellas," had sought refuge in the witness protection program after agreeing to testify against his former mob bosses from New York.

However, he left the witness protection program and now lives in North Platte with his wife, who is from the area. He has been working as a chef and helping establish an Italian restaurant.

I watched David Hauslaib and Wil Wheaton on MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast yesterday. Hauslaib runs my favorite celebrity gossip blog. It was typical TV: talk fast, not enought time for real answers, only sound bites.

What's weird is Wil Wheaton didn't say anything about the appearance in his blog, but Hauslaib did.

RSS enclosures support for LiveJournal

LJ creator Brad Fitzpatrick annouced last night RSS enclosures support for LiveJournal. Now LJer's can join the podcasting revolution.

Bloggers are not journalists-Part 2

The First Amendment states: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press..." Blogging is the exercise of free speech. Journalism is a profession: an occupation or career. Journalist becuase of the nature of their profession, need to use anonymous sources from time to time. Watergate would have never been uncovered if it wasn't for Woodward's and Bernstein's use of anonymous sources.

Bloggers are web diarist and opinion columnist. Bloggers became the darlings of both parties during the last election, because of their ability to stir action and raise money.

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines journalism as "writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or descriptions of events without an attempt at interpretation. Dictionary.com defines journalism as, "The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation."

Full Disclosure: I hold a Masters Degree in Journalism from Marshall University, and I worked, for a brief time, in the profession of journalism. I have been blogging since August 25, 2000. (I have never been paid to blog, but I do have ads running on my blogger blog. I have received no money for blogging. If you know someone who wants to pay me to blog, please email me.)

Saying all blogger are journalist is like saying everyone who practices first aid is a doctor. Boing Boing's and others effort to lump every blogger into the journalist pot servers no one. In fact, it might be dangerous.

Related Posts:

Bloggers are not journalists - Part 1

Shielding sources

State of the Blogosphere Part 3

David Sifry: State of the Blogosphere March 2005, Part 3: The A-List and the Long Tail is up.

Bloggers are not journalists

Boing Boing is filing an amicus brief in the appeal against Apple. Last week Apple won a ruling against Apple Insider and PowerPage forcing the websites to reveal their sources. This is not a journalism issue. It's a free speech issue. Boing Boing's attorney is looking for links where bloggers broke a news story for the brief.

This muddies the issue. Holding bloggers out to be journalist won't do much to protect anyone. A three-judge panel recently upheld a ruling that found two reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, in contempt of court for not revealing their sources.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May your inbox never be full of spam
And your downloads always be fast

Google's X Files 404

There was a lot of blog traffic about Google X this morning, but by the time I went looking for it, it was gone. Slashdot has the story, and the project is mirrored here.

Killing Darren Barefoot

The more I read Killing Bono the more convinced I become that Darren Barefoot is my doppelganger. Darren Barefoot is a sucessful technical writer and important voice in the blogshpere, among many other things. But like Neil McCormick, I'll just have to sit back and watch Darren lead my life.

Le Français

It's been almost twenty years since I studied French and I'm surprised I can read this.  I can't speak it nor write it at all, but I can still read it.

Anyway, Vincent-Olivier Arsenault needs a job since Jetsgo went belly-up. He worked for Agence Braque, Jetsgo's main marketing agency.

The Catholic Church v. Dan Brown

The Vatican is finally taking on Dan Brown. The books has been out for a couple of years now, so I'm sure this move will do more for the sale of The Da Vinci Code than to debunk the "theology" in the book.  At best the book is mildly entertaining fiction. At worse it's complete it's making heretics out of little old ladies. Maybe they are concerned because there is a movie in the works.

The book does raise some questions about the role of women in the Catholic Church, but it's just a novel, and should be taken as a work of fiction.

Acquiited

ABC News reports Robert Blake has been acquited.

Ubuntu 4.10 "The Warty Warthog"

I haven't used Linux in a long time but play with Ubuntu 4.10 makes me want to wipe OS X off my iBook and replace it with Linux. The only problem is the lack of support of the Airport Extreme card. I downloaded and booted from a Live CD. If they can figure out the wireless card problem I'd at least duo boot. Maybe I'll go over and look at Gentoo.

Oh my goth

Bats Day in the Fun Park, the annual goth gathering in Disneyland have been set for August 27-28.

Nobody dominates the blogosphere

Steven Levy didn't use the BlogAds Reader Survey for this piece, but still came away with the impression that blogging is dominated by white males: Blogging Beyond the Men's Club — Since anyone can write a Weblog, why is the blogosphere dominated by white males?

Doc Sears points out: My own 2¢: Nobody dominates the blogosphere. What makes the 'sphere is indomitability. Of anyone. By anyone else.

David Sifry's State of The Blogosphere Part 2: Posting Volume is up.

Great phone, Poor documentation

I got a new phone. This one fits in my pocket and has a color screen. It would be nice if Virgin Mobile gave you the correct instructions for activating the thing. I spend an hour using their instuctions, the finally figured it out on my own.

If they need a technical writer, I'm available for a small fee.

The BlogAds' survey is interesting but flawed

I posted this in response to Darren Barefoot's post about the skew in the BlogAds Reader Survey.

David Sifry's State of The Blogosphere has much better data. I find it hard to believe that bloggers are middle-aged men who are democrats and make more than $90,0000 a year.

The BlogAds data on rss and podcast usage also seems more than a little skewed.

The data is skewed becuase they used data from blogs who already use BlogAds and their reader, who really are middle-aged men who are democrats and make more than $90,0000 a year.  As a result of the skew we get headline like this: Study: Blog Readers An Elite Minority. It appears people are taking notice of these flawed numbers. Even Maureen Dowd has noted the results.

Sifry will release more data on the State of the Blogshpere in the morning.

More blog numbers

David Sifry: State of The Blogosphere.

We are currently seeing about 30,000 - 40,000 new weblogs being created each day, depending on the day. Compared to the past, this is well over double the rate of change in October, when there were about 15,000 new weblogs created each day. The remarkable growth over the past 3 months can be attributed to the increase in new, mainstream services such as MSN Spaces, and in increases of use of services like Blogger, AOL Journals, and LiveJournal. In addition, services outside the United States have been taking off, including a number of media sites promoting blogging, such as Le Monde in France.

There is a dark underbelly to these numbers, however: Part of the growth of new weblogs created each day is due to an increase in spam blogs - fake blogs that are created by robots in order to foster link farms, attempted search engine optimization, or drive traffic through to advertising or affiliate sites.

So you want to be a Mac Genius redux

I just noticed the themacgenius blog has been deleted.

Related:
The 'right' way to blog about work
Reprimanded for blogging
What is happening to personal expression in this country?

The farewell farewell tour

It appear the Eagles are playing tonight. Sunday night seems like a strange day for a concert.

While the Civic Center site says they are sold out, you can still get tickets here for $125.00. They have six left.

Chappelle's Show - Season 2

Chappelle's Show - Season 2 has been pushed back to coincide with the start of the 3rd season. Amazon.com reports it  will be released on May 2.

From the everyone has a blog these days file

According to MetaFilter the Rosie O'Donnell blog is actually written by Rosie O'Donnell and not some fan.

formerlyROSIE hit Blogger with Rosie O'Donnell's name and photo in the profile, but of course we all knew the poems about the Black Album were posted by some fan or mocker. But the New York Times interviewed Rosie and confirmed that she indeed wrote this blog. The article depicts Rosie as the ultimate blogger, though some may feel she belongs on LiveJournal.

What's in your bag redux: This time with pictures

Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing points us to this Flickr gallery of the thing people carry around with them. Much more fun than a list.

Related :
What’s In Your Gadget Bag, Dave Barry?
What’s in Your Gadget Bag, Cory?

The return of the song of the day

Song: Krafty (Album Version)
Artist: New Order
Store Front: USA

Middle-aged men who are democrats and make more than $90,0000 a year

BlogAds: Blog reader survey March 2005

I took this survey. It was open to everyone. I'm sure the sample could be better. BlogAds makes money putting ads on blogs and the purpose of this type of survey is maketing more than anything else.

Here is what they found:

• 30,079 blog people responded
  
• 75% are over 30 years old
  
• 43% had family incomes greater than $90,000
  
• 75.5% are male
  
• 24.5% are between the ages of 31-40
  
• 39.3% are Democrats
  
• 71.9% signed a petition in the last twelve months
  
• 75.3% read blogs for news they cannot find elsewhere
  
• 72.4% never read blogs via rss
  
• 92.1% have never listened to a podcast

I'm sorry, but who is Jeannette Walls?

MSNBC gossip queen Jeannette Walls reveals a once closely guarded secret — that she grew up poor in Welch, W.Va. — in a just-released autobiography, “The Glass Castle.”


I watch MSNBC all the time, and I have no idea who she is.

Software, Supermarkets, and Books

Here is a list of the 20 richest individuals and their estimated net worth in billions of dollars, according to an annual ranking by Forbes Magazine.

Is it any suprise Bill Gates is number one? All those Walton's you see are not from the TV show, but are kin of Sam Walton of Wal-Mart fame. Also making the list is Paul Allen, the co-founder of Mircosoft, Larry Ellison of Orcale and Micheal Dell of Dell. Notice you don't see Steve Jobs in the list.

Also of note on the list is Kenneth Thomson who owes West Law, which is part of Thompson Publishing.

1. William Gates III US 46.5 (Microsoft)
2. Warren Buffett US 44.0 (investments)
3. Lakshmi Mittal India 25.0 (steel)
4. Carlos Slim Helu Mexico 23.8 (telecom)
5. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Saudi Arabia 23.7 (investments)
6. Ingvar Kamprad Sweden 23.0 (Ikea)
7. Paul Allen US 21.0 (Microsoft)
8. Karl Albrecht Germany 18.5 (supermarkets)
9. Lawrence Ellison US 18.4 (Oracle)
10 S. Robson Walton US 18.3 (Wal-Mart)
11. Jim Walton US 18.2 (Wal-Mart)
11. John Walton US 18.2 (Wal-Mart)
13. Alice Walton US 18.0 (Wal-Mart)
13. Helen Walton US 18.0 (Wal-Mart)
15. Kenneth Thomson and family Canada 17.9 (pubishing)
16. Liliane Bettencourt France 17.2 (L'Oreal)
17. Bernard Arnault France 17.0 (LVMH)
18. Michael Dell US 16.0 (Dell)
19. Sheldon Adelson US 15.6 (casinos)
20. Theo Albrecht Germany 15.5 (supermarkets)

Source - The Drudge Report

Eliot Spitzer has the last laugh

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Express Scripts last year, seeking $100 million dollars for " inflated the cost of generic drugs, pocketed rebates intended for customers and sold patient information."

Now for the funny part. The New York Post reports:

WRONG SCRIPT FOR THIS PARTY

THE prank worked better than its evil mastermind could have hoped for Sunday night at the Hard Rock Café in Phoenix. Express Scripts — one of the participants in a National Council of Prescription Drug programs confab at the nearby Hyatt Regency — was throwing a dance party. Express Scripts is being sued for $100 million in damages by Eliot Spitzer, who claims the firm inflated the cost of generic drugs, pocketed rebates intended for customers and sold patient information. Between songs, someone handed the lead singer of the Starlight Band a note. "I have an announcement. It's someone's birthday today, Eliot Spitzer," the clueless frontman said. "Where is Eliot?" The place went silent. Express Scripts executives started rushing to the stage and someone yelled, "He's in goddamn New York." But too late — the band had launched into a version of "Happy birthday, dear Eliot." One witness said, "It was the funniest thing I ever saw."

Via Mark Frauenfelder at Boing Boing.

The Internet in the age of terrorism

Dan Gillmor at Grassroots Journalism reports Dan Gillmor gets the anti-terrorism people on the Cluetrain:

The Infrastructure of Democracy
Strengthening the Open Internet for a Safer World
March 11, 2005

I. The Internet is a foundation of democratic society in the 21st century, because the core values of the Internet and democracy are so closely aligned.

1. The Internet is fundamentally about openness, participation, and freedom of expression for all -- increasing the diversity and reach of information and ideas.
2. The Internet allows people to communicate and collaborate across borders and belief systems.
3. The Internet unites families and cultures in diaspora; it connects people, helping them to form civil societies.
4. The Internet can foster economic development by connecting people to information and markets.
5. The Internet introduces new ideas and views to those who may be isolated and prone to political violence.
6. The Internet is neither above nor below the law. The same legal principles that apply in the physical world also apply to human activities conducted over the Internet.

II. Decentralized systems -- the power of many -- can combat decentralized foes.

1. Terrorist networks are highly decentralized and distributed. A centralized effort by itself cannot effectively fight terrorism.
2. Terrorism is everyone's issue. The internet connects everyone. A connected citizenry is the best defense against terrorist propaganda.
3. As we saw in the aftermath of the March 11 bombing, response was spontaneous and rapid because the citizens were able to use the Internet to organize themselves.
4. As we are seeing in the distributed world of weblogs and other kinds of citizen media, truth emerges best in open conversation among people with divergent views.

III. The best response to abuses of openness is more openness.

1. Open, transparent environments are more secure and more stable than closed, opaque ones.
2. While Internet services can be interrupted, the Internet as a global system is ultimately resilient to attacks, even sophisticated and widely distributed ones.
3. The connectedness of the Internet – people talking with people – counters the divisiveness terrorists are trying to create.
4. The openness of the Internet may be exploited by terrorists, but as with democratic governments, openness minimizes the likelihood of terrorist acts and enables effective responses to terrorism.

IV. Well-meaning regulation of the Internet in established democracies could threaten the development of emerging democracies.

1. Terrorism cannot destroy the internet, but over-zealous legislation in response to terrorism could. Governments should consider mandating changes to core Internet functionality only with extraordinary caution.
2. Some government initiatives that look reasonable in fact violate the basic principles that have made the Internet a success.
3. For example, several interests have called for an end to anonymity. This would be highly unlikely to stop determined terrorists, but it would have a chilling effect on political activity and thereby reduce freedom and transparency. Limiting anonymity would have a cascading series of unintended results that would hurt freedom of expression, especially in countries seeking transition to democratic rule.

V. In conclusion we urge those gathered here in Madrid to:

1. Embrace the open Internet as a foundation of 21st Century democracy, and a critical tool in the fight against terrorism.
2. Recognizing the Internet's value as a critical communications infrastructure, invest to strengthen it against attacks and recover quickly from damage.
3. Work to spread access more evenly, aggressively addressing the Digital Divide, and to provide Internet access for all.
4. To protect free speech and association, endorse the availability of anonymous communications for all.
5. Resist attempts at international governance of the Internet: It can introduce processes that have unintended effects and violate the bottom-up democratic nature of the Net.

CNN via RSS

RSS for CNN.com

Link of the day

Interactive Human Body - Rotate, drag, and drop human organs into place. Educational and fun.
Via  MetaFilter

CSI: The Next Generation

CSI airs tonight with special guess star Wil Wheaton as a homeless man.

Related:
Boing Boing - A Computer Is Also a Screen, Wil Wheaton Discovers

Bankruptcy as we know it could soon become a thing of the past - Part 2

Senate close to passing tougher bankruptcy bill

I wrote about this earlier.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate marched Wednesday toward passage of landmark legislation that would make it harder to erase medical bills, credit card charges and other debts by declaring bankruptcy.

Democratic opponents made last-ditch attempts to soften the bill's impact and restrict practices of the credit industry that they said were especially hurting the poor.

Not a dent was made in the legislation, which was armor-plated by the Senate's Republican majority against amendments and enjoyed bipartisan support.

With Senate passage expected Thursday and House approval likely next month, the bill would deliver to President Bush the second of his pro-business legislative priorities since the GOP augmented its majorities in both chambers in November's elections.

Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career

Blogging has never gotten me a job, but Tim Bray says it's good for your career:

Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career

1. You have to get noticed to get promoted.
2. You have to get noticed to get hired.
3. It really impresses people when you say "Oh, I've written about that, just google for XXX and I'm on the top page" or "Oh, just google my name."
4. No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.
5. Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.
6. Knowing more also means you're more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.
7. Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.
8. If you're an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.
9. If you're in marketing, you'll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.
10. It's a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.

I'd like to see a case study. Me thinks he is full of it.

Hardware switcher

Slashdot: Torvalds Switches to a Mac

Linux creator Linus Torvalds said this afternoon that he's now running an Apple Macintosh as his main desktop, mainly for work reasons, although partly simply because he's a self-described "technology whore" and got the machine for free.

Nothing shocking here. It's running Linux on a Mac, not OS X.

A funny take on blogging at work

kuro5hin.org: How To Get Rich & Famous By Blogging At Work

Here are the basic points:

• Blog Everything You Find Annoying About Your Job, No Matter How Small
  
• Blog With A Cover Window Ready
  
• Stay In The Office 'Rumor Mill'
  
• Examine The Contents Of Other People's Desks When They Leave The Office
  
• Take Covert Pictures Of Your Co-Workers & Boss For Fun Blog Commentary
  
• Hack Into Workplace Computers For Incriminating Evidence
  
• Point Out Your Company's Fiscal Weaknesses
  
• Refuse To Stop Blogging About Your Work, Even If Threatened With Dismissal

In Conclusion: if you get fired for blogging about your job, sue the bastards on any legal precedent having to do with "Free Speech". Collect the settlement. Find a new job. Blog about your new job. Get fired for blogging. Sue. Collect settlement. Repeat. You'll be rich in no time, and maybe you will have enough funds to start a company of your own! You'll have to hire employees, though...uh, wait a minute...

Disclaimer

The commentary expressed on this weblog is my point of view and may not necessarily represent the point of view of anyone but myself.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Related:

• Reprimanded for blogging
  
• What is happening to personal expression in this country? Part 2

What is happening to personal expression in this country? Part 2

Technorati and the evolving corporate conversation

Niall Kennedy has now posted an apology.

I have since realized the imagery was in bad taste, especially to the organizations involved. I used the logos of other corporations I felt represented the printing press at the fingertips of the masses and associated those companies with an image of a dying American soldier, a rifle butt, and barbed wire. It is not the type of image I would want associated with my business. I apologize to the companies and open source projects pictured. I see you as leaders in the space and empowering the conversations I love to see happen. At some point in my blogging history I have used every piece of software pictured.

I failed to comprehend the effects of my actions on Technorati. I have always operated under the assumption that until I reach executive status at any company I work for I remain an individual voice and do not represent the organization. Just as weblogs and corporate transparency changed the world we love to interact with daily, it has also changed the way we see corporations. We establish relationships with companies through their engaged employees for better or for worse. The voice and actions of individuals become associated with the companies and organizations of their employ.

Sounds like he has been spanked and he's very sorry. No one should be forced to issue an apology for statements not related to work, outside of work.

I posted about this earlier this morning.

No news here

Editor & Publisher: First Blogger Gets White House Access, Here's How It Went

The blogsphere now has access to canned statements and spin control.

It's not a transcript:...It's a script

E! is reenacting the Jackson trial using the daily court transcripts as the script. It's very weird.

Reprimanded for blogging

Technorati censoring employee blogs?

Jason Kottke reports Niall Kennedy posted some propaganda posters from the 40s showing how how corporations would like to control what their employees say on their blogs. His employers, Technorati, made him take it down, then allowed him to repost with a disclaimer: The original post is back up on Niall's site with the following disclaimer: "The commentary expressed on this weblog is my point of view and may not necessarily represent the point of view of Technorati."

This takes the control of employee expression to a whole new level. If you look at Kennedy's blog, it's a personal blog, not unlike my own blog. He is not blogging on the company's dime. He doesn't talk bad about Technorati nor their customers. What is happening to personal expression in this country?

Local story rocks Statehouse

The Charleston Daily Mail reported today that Vic Sprouse will not step down:

State Sen. Vic Sprouse says he isn't going to step down as the Republican leader in the Senate, even though his father-in-law, former state House Minority Leader David McKinley, is throwing his political clout into Sprouse's ouster.

Sprouse also denies having an affair with a local TV reporter:

Sprouse denied rumors that he had an affair with a local television reporter during the time he lived with his current wife.

Mercury in vaccines

Vaccines including the ones given to children contain Thimerosal. Thimerosal is a preservative in vaccines. Thimersoal contains mercury. There is growing concern that mercury might be linked to autism in children and alzheimer's in older adults. Thimersoal is also in flu vaccine.

More info:

• nomercury.org
  
• Mercury in vaccines - autism - Pharmaceudical co's conspiracy
  
• Evidence of Harm : Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy
  
• Autism 'Linked to Mercury Vaccine'
  
• Thimerosal, Mercury, Autism, and Children
  
• Thimerosal Content in Some US Licensed Vaccines
  
• Vaccinations and Mercury

The 'right' way to blog about work

So you want to be a Mac Genius

We have heard a lot about not blogging at or about work. Here is a blog about the life and times of a Mac Genius. (Yes its an actual title.)

He isn't following oncee's rules of how to blog about work: don't post post suggestive photographs of yourself, especially in your uniform; don't talk bad about your employer or their customers; don't blog on the company dime; and don't post copyrighted material or trade secrets.

Will this this guy from get in trouble? It might. It depends on how Apple views the blog, if it comes to their attention. (I found this blog on del.icio.us.)

With Apple's recent move against bloggers, it will be interesting how this blog plays out.

Bono Update

MTV is reporting U2s has announced fall tour dates and Bono might be in line as head of the World Bank.

I still haven't finished Killing Bono. It's a great book but all my reading time is being spend studying for the i-Net+ exams.

Vonage problems

There is news this morning of problems making calls on Vonage over the weekend. This is interesting after last weeks news that the FCC fined a regional phone company for blocking VoIP calls.

Bloglines banned from Slashdot

Slashdot feeds has stopped working with Bloglines. Slashdot has a policy that a rss client cannot use its feeds more than once an hour. My Bloglines Slashdot feed now appears with a red exclamation mark beside it. I'm not sure if there is a fix for this. This appears to happen from time to time. Slashdot lifts the ban after 72 hours. There has to be a better way. Slashdot isn't like to change their rss policies because of bandwith concerns, and while Bloglines caches content, the Bloglines client is likely to access Slashdot's feeds more than once an hour.

Bloglines says they fixed this issue back in September.

Fun with the People's Democratic Republic of Korea

Boing Boing posts: North Korea promotes vacations with wacky Flash movie

An hour later the webmaster at the People's Democratic Republic of Korea website replaced that movie with a message scolding Boing Boing for having had the audacity, as Xeni Jardin puts it, to link to it:

Access to the requested object was denied.

Due to some inconsiderate people linking directly to our multimedia we were forced to take the content offline since it generated too much traffic.

This kind of careless linking to high-profile sites is typical of the internet where people no longer respect that such links could make free content less available.

We will never charge money to pay for the bandwidth, so if people are going to expect high-quality content they should make their own copy of the large file and share it from their own server.

Questions can be sent to support@korea-dpr.com for technical advice.

Thank you and have a nice day.

As Wil Wheaton puts it: " As Communists, their commitment to sharing leaves a lot to be desired."

Ex-Korn Guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch Baptized in Jordan River, Weeks After Quitting Band, Drugs

Korn announced Welch's resignation last month after 13 years with the band. Welch said he had become increasingly depressed and drug-addicted in recent years, but that religion helped him quit.

He said he plans to release more music without the band.

"My songs are God saying things to me, him talking to people. He's going to use me to heal people and people are going to be drawn to it, just watch, they will be," he said.

Thousands of pilgrims are baptized annually in the Jordan River where, according to Biblical tradition, John the Baptist baptized Jesus.

Adware makers now installing needed frameworks as well as adware

Dont have the .Net framework on your PC?  Adware makers will gladly download it for you without you knowing. You might notice it. It's a 65MB download. Slashdot has all the details.

friendditto

LiveJournal user grimmtooth has posted a very good summary of what friendditto is, and why you should care if you use LiveJournal.

So you want to be a hobo...

Watched Catching Out this afternoon. I didn't know people still hopped freight trains.

Watch the Dukes of Hazzard every night and blog about it...

MetaFilter:

Daisy Duke Needs A Blogger! Yeeee-Hah. Put your pedal to the metal to see how fast you can apply for the ultimate dream job: getting paid $100,000 to watch the high-flying, stump-yanking muscle of the #1 rated car in TV and film history - The General Lee '69 Dodge Charger on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD! Watch the Dukes of Hazzard every night and blog about it, and you could be a 6 figure blogger!

The Dukes of Hazzard movie with Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke, Burt Reynolds as Boss Hogg, Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse, and Johnny Knoxville as Luke Duke is in post-productions and should be release this year.

 
Johnny Knoxville as Luke Duke, Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke and Seann William Scott as Bo Duke in Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dukes of Hazzard - 2005

It's a start...

CyberJournalist.net has created a model Bloggers' Code of Ethics, by modifying the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics

A BLOGGERS' CODE OF ETHICS

Be Honest and Fair
Bloggers should be honest and fair in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Bloggers should:
• Never plagiarize.
• Identify and link to sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
• Make certain that Weblog entries, quotations, headlines, photos and all other content do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
• Never distort the content of photos without disclosing what has been changed. Image enhancement is only acceptable for for technical clarity. Label montages and photo illustrations.
• Never publish information they know is inaccurate -- and if publishing questionable information, make it clear it's in doubt.
• Distinguish between advocacy, commentary and factual information. Even advocacy writing and commentary should not misrepresent fact or context.
• Distinguish factual information and commentary from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.

Minimize Harm
Ethical bloggers treat sources and subjects as human beings deserving of respect.
Bloggers should:
• Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by Weblog content. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
• Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of information is not a license for arrogance.
• Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone's privacy.
• Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
Be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects, victims of sex crimes and criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges.

Be Accountable
Bloggers should:
• Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.
• Explain each Weblog's mission and invite dialogue with the public over its content and the bloggers' conduct.
• Disclose conflicts of interest, affiliations, activities and personal agendas.
• Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence content. When exceptions are made, disclose them fully to readers.
• Be wary of sources offering information for favors. When accepting such information, disclose the favors.
• Expose unethical practices of other bloggers.
• Abide by the same high standards to which they hold other

As a journalist I only had one golden rule: Take nothing of value.

Everyone has a blog these days

The famed Geico Gecko has a blog.

Shielding sources

In Apple case, court says bloggers' sources not protected

That's ok. It appears the sources of big-J journalists aren't protected either. Look at the case of Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller.

Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times face up to 18 months in prison if they don't comply with the government attorney's request. Nearly a dozen reporters nationwide are fighting subpoenas that seek testimony about confidential sources.

Without confidential sources we would have never gotten to the bottom of Watergate.

Ya'll come back soon now ya hear...

Goodby Martha Stewart

Maybe next time we can put you up in the Greenbrier and serve you some ramps.

Martha is free

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Martha Stewart, the lifestyle expert whose own life has been consumed by scandal in recent years, was released at 12:30 a.m. Friday from a prison in West Virginia.

Stewart spent the last five months at the minimum-security prison for women convicts in Alderson, W. Va. known as "Camp Cupcake." She was expected to go to a local airport, where she will begin her 550-mile journey home.

Next week marks the one-year anniversary of Stewart's conviction on felony charges related to a personal stock sale. Last summer she was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home detention, followed by two years of probation.

This time it's local

The Braxton County teacher admitted having sex with three middle school students, State Police said.

A Braxton County middle school teacher is in police custody after allegedly confessing to sexual misconduct with five of her students.

Toni Lynn Woods, 37, of Strange Creek was arrested Wednesday on eight counts of sexual assault.

State Police said several students reported they had been treated or touched inappropriately.

In the criminal compliant filed against Woods, she admitted she had sexual intercourse with three students a total of four times.

She also admitted to performing oral sex on two different juveniles a total of four times.

iTunes Music Store have topped the 300 million

From the press release:

CUPERTINO, California—March 2, 2005—Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded more than 300 million songs from the iTunes® Music Store. Additionally, the benefit single “Across the Universe,” available exclusively on the iTunes Music Store, debuted as number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart making it the most successful exclusive digital track ever in its first week of release.

Copycats

Intel rips off the Mac mimi

Naked Sushi Update

Kevin Hundsunruscher of elaisted.com (NSFW) wrote yesterday to say the pictures of naked sushi are from his 28th bithday party.

It turns out the lovely model has a blog on LiveJournal.

Unconstitutionally Cruel

The United States was one of the last western nations to execute juveniles. The U.S. Surpreme Court changed all that this morning.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in 19 states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, were unconstitutionally cruel.

It was the second major defeat at the high court in three years for supporters of the death penalty. Justices in 2002 banned the execution of the mentally retarded, also citing the Constitution's Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishments.

The court had already outlawed executions for those who were 15 and younger when they committed their crimes.

Tuesday's ruling prevents states from making 16- and 17-year-olds eligible for execution.

The State of Podcasting according to The Boston Globe

While reading a story in The Boston Globe about how Podcasts are boring, produced by a bunch of amateurs who don't want to make money at it, I was reminded that Doug Kaye has been Podcasting for quite a long time. I've been listening to ITConversations.com since early last Spring, and ITunes has been selling Fresh Air shows for at least that long.

I'm suddenly hungry for Sushi

Boing Boing: Naked Sushi: just one more bite

Bankruptcy as we know it could soon become a thing of the past

The Senate is debating a new law to make getting out from under credit card and other debt harder. Debate on this issue has gone on for years but supporters say this time it will pass.

Congress Debating Bankruptcy-Limiting Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Escaping credit card debt and other bills by declaring bankruptcy will be tougher if legislation being debated in the Senate passes Congress as its supporters predict.

President Bush called the proposed revisions of the nation's bankruptcy laws "commonsense reforms" that will curb abuses. In the House, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., has proposed identical legislation.

Senate Democrats, many of whom support a bankruptcy overhaul but oppose the bill as written, have prepared scores of amendments that would, for example, protect employees of bankrupt companies and exempt military personnel from new restrictions on filing for bankruptcy.

Yet another banned item

If you are going to fly, take an ID, but don't take a lighter.

I miss him on MTV

Good thing Tom Green has a blog.