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• Commented on Technology to generate power from slow moving river and ocean currents
  I'm afraid I can't post a link because this is from CoEvolution Quarterly/Whole Earth Review a long time back (maybe BB pal Kevin Kelly remembers it): A set of airfoil-shaped "wings" on a chain, driving a pulley/generator combo - worked...
• Commented on Associated Press loves fair use (we just wish they'd share)
  I don't think selling the book early is illegal - it might violate a contract they have with the publisher, and therefore might be 'breach of contract' I guess. I think, though, that if they don't want the book to...
• Commented on Associated Press loves fair use (we just wish they'd share)
  Really? Scanning the _entire_ book in to make it searchable for purposes of commentary is legal? What if someone at the AP downloaded the scanned text to their flash drive, is that legal - if they say they intend to...
• Commented on Chip Sounds
  This has reminded me, once again, of something I've often wondered: Are there software emulators of old analog synths like the Moog and the ARP?...
• Commented on Newspaper circulation over last 20 years: the great swandive
  There's a distinction which should be made: just because print newspapers are declining doesn't mean journalism and journalists are over - ask Dan Gillmor, Jeff Jarvis, and others. The need for journalism is not over - it's just going to...
• Commented on Skeleton Dance cartoon from 1929
  Here's my favorite skeleton-related animation: ¡Viva Calaca!...
• Commented on David Byrne: Kindle DRM means "you are f*cked"
  The DRM issue, to me, always comes down to one point: How are creators to support themselves? Cory and others have shown that people _will_ pay for content even if it is available free. They pay for the convenience of...
• Commented on Video of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan
  I suggested this as a link, but in case it doesn't make the cut, here's a take on "The Miracle Worker" by our local-but-well-travelled community theater for the weird community, the Mickee (why 'ee'? because we don't want to get...
• Commented on Awesome jump blues/swing duo doing "Nagasaki"
  I don't know if this is a lyrics-add-to version of the song "Nagasaki" by the Benny Goodman Quartet (MP3 at the Internet Archive, couldn't find it on YouTube), but it sounds similar. Both are enjoyable!...
• Commented on Celebrate Sysadmin's Day on Wednesday at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco
  (sort of self-serving, but...) On mainframes, sysadmins are often called 'systems programmers' - the reason why is probably covered by the chads of millions of punched cards - and we still exist. We do the same sorts of things, but...
• Commented on Bizarre Driving School Mural
  When I first saw this, because of angle or something, I thought JC Himself was driving, and so I thought "WWJD? Jesus would use a turn signal here! Pay attention@@" was what the passenger was saying....
• Commented on Jeff Bezos's Kindle apology: please tell us what the Kindle can do
  Are you listening and watching, B&N / Plastic Logic? This kind of PR debacle is something you can avoid with your new partnership, and if you were to have the temerity to actually come out in the beginning and state...
• Commented on Burk Uzzle's photos of Woodstock
  "Missed it by THAT much" - somehow didn't hear of it until it was over, but then again I was just 15 and probably wouldn't have had the money to make it up there and back... heard about it 2nd...
• Commented on New Orleans jazz trumpet icon Kermit Ruffins on barbecuing
  I've been to a Sauce Boss show (he travels the world, but is local to where I live) - it's great gumbo! He also has a charity to help feed the needy, Planet Gumbo which you might check out. I'll...
• Commented on HOWTO ask good skeptical questions
  In eighth (?) grade we got excellent baloney detection training via a game called Propaganda. Our school not only got the game, but the teachers had some materials to teach us about various forms of propaganda. This not only provided...
• Commented on Minimum font-size for credit card fine-print
  They _also_ ought to include a rule that requires that each individual contract contain a URL which locates the text of that individual contract in an XML-based format (ODF?). It should also probably include some kind of digest or hash...
• Commented on Artist: Kevin Cyr "Glorious Work"
  My first vehicle was a three-wheel Cushman mail cart very similar to this, bought as surplus from the USPS in around 1970... Two problems with it - the USPS had a speed governor installed limiting it to 35... and it...
• Commented on Review: A day with Peek Pronto
  Try this (note: contains instructions to get the most up-to-date version, which is recommended). http://www.faqs.org/faqs/internet-services/access-via-email/...
• Commented on Those Were The Days: Living in a converted missile silo
  Why does this guy remind me of my mental image of "The Finn" from Gibson's Neuromancer?...
• Commented on Ted "Lurch" Cassidy performs "The Lurch"
  I still remember in 63, 64, or 65 when the Addams family put in an appearance at the amusement park across from my house... A very short (under 4' I think) me got to meet a verrrry tall Lurch!...
• Commented on Janet Klein plays "Tonight You Belong To Me" on ukulele
  @27 - if a spinoff blog is formed, I vote it should be named plinkplunk.net...
• Commented on Brittni Paiva plays "Glass Ball Slack Key" on ukulele
  Mark, hope you run one from the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain soon. "Theme from Shaft" would be my pick, but they have many awesome (and humorous) covers....
• Commented on Quarter of all British govt databases are illegal
  I am _not_ in support of the surveillance state. I must say, however, that statements like "fundamentally flawed and almost certainly illegal" always raise my propaganda-awareness flag. Why are the authors certain that it is illegal, or not? Haven't they...
• Commented on Miraculous portable computers, ca 1982
  This reminds me of the intermediate, somewhat forgotten, generation of pocketable devices, the usually Windows CE- based pocketables like the HP Jornada or the Diamond Mako. More computer-like than PDAs (they had keyboards), they never seemed to catch on much....
• Commented on Basket Case Insurer Gets $170 Billion from Taxpayers, Still Pays Huge Bonuses
  One problem is this "too big to fail" idea. We're afraid to let something this big fail (or at least our politicians are). But nobody has the guts to regulate the formation of these corporations and prevent them from reaching...
• Commented on Free Range Kids book: introduction online free
  As I understand it, the 'free range' concept is what my parents did: told us to go outside and play, without abdicating their role of teaching us to be responsible, and without worrying about every little nick or bruise. It...
• Commented on Bad Times Spur Entrepreneurship, But There's a Catch
  A point I hadn't considered before about entrepreneurship being linked to health and insurance. One point I'd like to make that I don't see covered very often at all: In recent memory, charges for medical things in the US don't...
• Commented on Happy Pi Day!
  @squiggle - like everything date- and time- related, it's a convention and once adopted hard to change. I believe that we put the month first because we _say_ the month first: "January 19th, 2009" naturally changes to 01/19/2009. The European...
• Commented on Searching for an Honest Bank
  We switched from a credit union TO a bank, because my wife didn't like the CU's policy of not sending us the cancelled checks. Then, of course, the bank got bought and the new policy was 'no cancelled checks'! Everyone's...
• Commented on Twitter's Silent Star
  Correct that! Ellipsis _are_ not-quite-circular reasoning...