@2: Yeah, I'm with you.

I guess my fundamental argument is that I'd prefer we encourage folks to think through their lifestyle and limit their impact on the environment where it makes most sense rather than blindly encourage folks to buy the cool Prius because it is trendy. Anyhoo, as I said above, the early adopters are inspiring an industry that can only help in the long run so that's very good.

I care about the environment and believe that early usage of alternative energy solutions is good because it sponsors an industry that will continue to perfect the technology. Still, I don't get the idea of injecting the notion into the mass market if it doesn't actually make sense financially or environmentally. If it is really just a symobolic gesture, isn't it a gross misuse of manufacturing potential and thereby the opposite of green?

define: poon

Definitions of poon on the Web:

*wood of any poon tree; used for masts and spars
*any of several East Indian trees of the genus Calophyllum having shiny leathery leaves and lightweight hard wood
*vagina; a wimp

How can you actually sit through Today? I caught a bit of it a few weeks ago and it was infuriating. They spend 20.8 seconds on each segement, say nothing at all of any value to anyone, and laugh and smile a lot. I guess something about us getting ready for work means we're stupid. I rarely watch morning TV but when I do I always flip to Today in Washington. You actually learn something and get to giggle at the wacko callers.

@27 Cory, I did read it. The fact that it is a quote doesn't mean that it fairly summarizes the entire case or the legal issue being debated. I believe my summary is more fair. You only need to look at some of the comments above to see that your selective quotation has given some the wrong impression.

@28 Takuan, I think you are goofy as heck but you always make me smile. :)

I'm no fan of the RIAA or the MPAA but I think Cory & Wired's spin on this is disingenuous. At odds here is the "making available" argument which needs to be ruled upon in the courts in a meaningful way. Reducing the MPAA's argument to "we don't want to prove anything" is a gross oversimplification. The debate focuses on which act by an individual constitutes infringement. This is a tricky point, enough so that even the District Court Judge made a ruling on it and now is second guessing himself.

So when am I guilty?

1. I install Kazaa on my computer.
-Not yet - Kazaa can be used to download non-infringing works.

2. I create a share folder.
-Not yet - I can put non-infringing stuff in there.

3. I place an infringing movie in the share folder.
-Hmm now?

4. Someone downloads the infringing movie.
-Certainly now - this is clear.

So the debate focuses on whether #3 is enough or we have to wait for #4 to consider me guilty. The difficulty is that I actually play no role in the situation after #3 which places my guilt in the hands of others. That presents a rather tricky legal situation.

Prior to computers, we had similar debates. In prostitution, for instance, it was determined that mere "making available" (advertising, standing on the street corner) was not enough to prosecute a prostitute. But in that situation the prostitute has to continue to participate in the act through its completion. With file sharing, my involvement ceases at #3.

There are very useful arguments against "making available". It could, for example, establish dangerous precedents such that Google could be held liable for making available links to kiddie porn. Still, reasonable and intelligent people can and do disagree on this issue and we're better off understanding the arguments in detail instead of engaging in straw-man attacks against those who have an admitted history of unfortunate douchebaggery.

Apparently I have poor taste because my D-link router died on Friday and I went to Best Buy to get a new one and saw these and thought they were too ugly for my home. I ended up with another D-link.

@72 UBIQ:

Stop it - I'm enjoying watching this swirl out of control.

Oh, great. Now we're going to have to endure a OMG! post everytime some conspiracy theorist experiences a glitch at the theater.

There are some interesting behavioral economics questions here. To what extent is leaving a nasty online review a cathartic experience vs. doing our civic duty to warn off future potential customers? And how does the answer to that question change our motivations when it comes to being bought off? I can't see $5 swaying me if the service was truly poor but I suppose we all have our price.

These new little laptops are so neat. It makes me feel silly for spending $2300 on a 3-pound Lenovo X60s a few years back that I only use for email, web browsing, Word, and Excel. It's a good machine, though.

Just yesterday I ordered two Dell SP2208WFP 22 inch monitors after doing a lot of research. The SP2208WFP gets very good reviews, includes an HDMI input and a webcam, and is on sale for $300. This lesser quality but more flashy thing is $1200! There's probably still a market for it.

I wonder if the comments here, especially David's succinct and perfect reply in #46, aren't good evidence of why it's better to talk our way out of stupidity instead of rely on the frustrating antics of a sometimes too involved moderator.

@45: 1) it's a very cool store - those baskets on the overhead rail and all that is neat, 2) they know cameras and sometimes you just really do want some real customer support, 3) fun to look at the pro gear they have there (at least for an amateur like me). That having been said, twice I've looked at things there and then bought them online cheaper.

If you want to see what one looks like and ever find yourself near Rapid City, South Dakota (think Mount Rushmore), the National Park Service has turned one old silo into a national park.

http://www.nps.gov/mimi/

And sharing this makes the world a better place how?

As a service to the Boing Boing community, this post served to successfully out a humorless dolt.

Dude, you're married to a woman that is willing to sing about computers? Sister?

@39: Thanks for the tip, Mindy - added it to my Netflix queue!

For your sake, I hope "left it at Port Authority" isn't a euphemism for "sold it on eBay."

Some of you clearly need a hug.

You people are horrible. He's the King of Pop!

While I agree Sam's first comment is dumb, I'm not convinced the subsequent arguments about Hiroshima are well reasoned.

It's true Japan was on the ropes and that surrender discussions were underway but all statements from Japan suggested they were unwilling to surrender unconditionally and their was international support for persuing unconditional surrender. You can't understand that bit of craziness without understanding the mindset of the time. WWII was fought in the shadows of the debacle that was WWI's conditional peace. Everyone was dog tired of war and pissed we had to do it all over again because things weren't settled properly the first time (not saying the attitude is right, but it was there).

Prior to Hiroshima, we killed just as many people at Dresden in Feb '45 and even more in the incendiary bombing in Tokyo in March '45 but strangely those events don't get the same attention because they used traditional weapons.

Even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military refused to accept surrender - Hirohito did it himself.

I think the use of atomic weapons is in general immoral but suggesting that historians all agree it was wrong or that it is a clear black and white issue assigns much more certainty to the situation than really exists.

Dinos & Robots looks neat, Mark! Steve looks a little like Bono in that pic.

Reed, thanks for your comments - very helpful. I ordered 2 Tivo HDs last night and can't wait. I had a Series2 ages ago and traded it for a HTPC running Sage. Sage is nice but I got tired of futzing with it constantly.

Get the kid a parachute. Problem solved.

They've had a bit of inflation in Russia. The exchange rate right now is one ruble = 0.0410627 American dollar. Thus, your one millions of rubles = $41,062.70. I guess the key would be to hire Russian coders.

Butthead Astronomer

The great thing about the abundance of video cameras is that we get to catch these boneheads that don't deserve a badge. The downside is that some people mistakenly assume these few videos are a representative sample of police conduct.

Sort of like how watching the news could lead one to believe that all is bad in the world because all the good stuff that happens just isn't newsworthy.

All the talk about "she just wants to use her name" seems a little silly since she's chosen only the part that she (and her management) would know for sure evokes John. She could have also used "Murphy" or "Lennon Murphy" to avoid confusion (like Elvis Costello). The fact she's been using it for a while doesn't seem too important either. It makes sense that no one would care until she became kinda big.

I've never heard of her but if I had seen the name before the story, I would have assumed it was a Beatles tribute band or somehow otherwise related.

Her statement that her career may now come to an end is pretty over the top. If her music is really any good, her fans will continue to follow her regardless of her name.

I'm not sure about the legal issues involved but I'm pretty sure that if my name was Icky Presley I'd not get talked into marketing myself as Presley.

It is clear to me that some very small, invisible squirrels are involved.

Awesome! Like many others, I had the Galaxy Explorer. I don't even remember it being a space ship really but seeing those parts reminds me of all the things I built with them. What a fun walk down memory lane. My favorite memories are my brother and I using every Lego we owned to try to build a structure that could contain our cat. It never worked, we would put him in there and he would explode out of it like the Hulk smashing a brick wall but it was always fun.

Quite a few years back I found myself in Denmark, realized Legoland was there, and insisted on burning a day to take the train/bus to get there. It was disappointing, though. No factory tour or anything like that - just the theme park which is fun for kids. They did, however, have these giant bus-sized Lego bricks laying around the grounds of the Lego headquarters which is neat.

Clever, silly idea - fun!

It pains me to say that several of the earlier posts lead me to predict that "FIRST POST!!!!!!" and "Clearly photoshopped." are in the not too distant Boing Boing commenting future. Sigh.

Joel, if I ever find myself owning a giant international communications company that sells out its customers, you are so not invited on our geek shows.

As they say, you're not crazy if they're really out to get you. By 1944, Klaus Fuchs (among others, but most notably) had already been furnishing the Soviets with information about our atomic research program for two years. In the end, the Soviets gained 2-3 years lead on atomic bombs as a result of their espionage in the U.S. and Britain.

@dculberson #22:

"Well, to be honest, most of the critique I've read here says not just that it doesn't meet their needs, but that it doesn't fulfill any of the requirements left wanting from Apple's current (or recent past) lineup."

And I still say it is a lack of imagination amongst those that don't find it personally compelling.

"The expectations were so high he probably couldn't have fulfilled them."

Right. Further evidence that the naysayers are reacting more out of personal disappointment than reality (which I totally get).

I'm also interested in some comments here and elsewhere about the closed case meaning Apple is leaning more toward turning its laptops into iPod-like commodity devices. I can see the downside to not being able to hack your gadgets but there are big upsides too. The average user (if you're reading a gadget blog, you aren't one) just wants something that works and doesn't hack, modify or otherwise gloriously manipulate. For those folks, the thought of having a laptop that is very simple to operate would be awesome. Fewer options lead to simplicity. Certainly it wouldn't be for everyone (I work in IT and like to tear stuff apart) but I'd love to find a sealed and super easy to use machine for my Mom and the majority of people that are just like her.

Finally (and I know I've already said too much so sorry!), I think we're in an interesting period here. Technically we're capable of building smaller and smaller computers but certain parts (screen, keyboard, etc) generally need to be big to make it workable. Many companies will find many different ways of marketing to those realities over the next few years and many of them will be duds - the key will be to find a form factor that is light and portable but still capable of getting real work done. I for one welcome all of those iterations and can't wait to see what actually sticks.

I've read a lot of criticism of the Air today. A lot of folks find it doesn't meet their needs I guess. Still, those are YOUR needs and highly individual. Tiny laptops are all about compromises. If you are a Windows user you have tons of options so you can find a company that makes a machine with the appropriate set of compromises to meet your needs (I don't mind the lack of an optical drive or the tiny 10" screen on my Lenovo x60s but others hate it). I guess if you are a Mac user you have only one company to get your hardware from so you hope they make a model that matches your personal preference. I'm sure the Air isn't right for all Mac users but I'm also sure they will sell a ton of them.

It drives me nuts though when people critique the Air for not being a perfect match for their personal needs. Not being right for you doesn't mean it is a mistake.

The only utility I see in you feeling guilty is the possibility that I can then blame you for my excess. Might come in handy.

Chumby on a stick.

I think humans have a natural urge to avoid ambiguity and thus prefer to turn all issues into black and white debates with one side vividly opposing the other. The reality of course is that we all exist on a continuum somewhere between two extremes, the extremes rarely defining more than a handful but getting more attention than the deserve.

Both pieces (Rolling Stone and Clive) are slightly guilty of framing the issue in ways that don't honor the reality. There are nutjobs who will buy anything and those who swear AM radio on a mono speaker is best. I'm somewhere in the middle!

For me the key problem with the usual gadget blogs covering CES is that they lose focus in much the same way that the mainstream media has lost focus on covering politics. Their excitement about attending such an event takes over and they end up spending as much or more time talking about CES the event as they do about the technology that can be found there. As a consumer, I couldn't care less about CES the event, the food they serve, the parties the vendors invite bloggers to, the prettiest booth, or the accomodations provided for attendees. What's truly new or interesting about the technology?

If you take the mold out of the situation, that note would actually be awesome. If I bought a house and stumbled upon a hidden room and found a note from the previous homeowner saying "you found it!" I would assume they decided to let me eventually find the secret on my own rather than ruin the surprise and in that context, the note would be cool.

#8: The Oregon minimum wage will be increased to $7.95 on Jan 1 and is among the highest in the country. $9 is still well above the min wage in most states.

After seeing it here, I broke down and bought the $500 Millenium Falcoln. It took me 3 weeks of free time to assemble. When complete, it was 3' x 2' and ~25 pounds - and very cool! I've already started dissasembly and have kept everything in good condition so it can go up on eBay. I knew I wouldn't keep it as I have nowhere to display such a thing but I wanted the fun of putting it together once. Joel, you can have first dibs before I offer it to the eBay gods. :)

I followed the links to all of the stories and nothing has yet been confirmed. There is a guy shown in a garage that sort of looks like Steve Jobs but it isn't clear. It isn't clear if Apple will even be mentioned specifically or if it will just be a generic nod to the early PC days when a number of companies started in a garage (Apple, HP, etc).

The Woz was certainly a huge part of the founding of the PC revolution but both Jobs and Gates have made a huge mark on the industry in their own ways and certainly no discussion of the success of technology would be complete without them either.

Certainly nothing about this seems "outrageous".

I'll bet the author of such hilarity is either a) college professor (the snooty kind), b) a wine taster or c) a reviewer for an audiophile magazine.

Cooling is certainly a big issue but my experience in the last couple years with colocation facilities has been more about power than cooling. Most data centers were built 10+ years ago and were based on the "sell per square foot" model but now that energy costs are so high and servers so dense, I can get as many servers in 1 rack that used to take 5 and want that much power in that 1 rack. Few data centers have that kind of power infrastructure. Obviously the energy to provide the cooling is part of the load but power is usually the issue. Thus, we too end up with giant cages with just a few racks and a lot of free space.

The upside to this for those of us who spend time in data centers is that now instead of working in tiny little poorly lit and freezing corridors between racks, we have large open spaces which we furnish with big storage cabinets and tables for building servers and such. It has made a nerd's life somewhat more enjoyable.

All of you people with Roombas and pets - how does that work? How loud is a Roomba? I have 2 cats that are scared to death of the real vacuum and nervous around anything else that seems to spontaneously move...doesn't the Roomba scare your pets?

Thebes, if you also knew a lot about law enforcement you would know that attaching a camera to a gun wouldn't increase the likelihood of said gun being removed from the holster. The same rules apply in which an officer is trained to only pull the gun when in a situation that appears to be dangerous or has historically proven to be dangerous.

Some of the above comments assume that the primary purpose of said device would be to police the police. Not true. Guncams would be an extension of copcarcams that have been used overwhelmingly to assist in prosecution, not in catching bad cops. A few bad cops have been caught, of course, and those are the scenarios we hear about not because they are the norm but because the opposite is true.

A secondary very useful purpose is in training new cops. Copcarcams have resulted in tons of video that would be very interesting to an aspiring police officer but wouldn't make YouTube because the reality is that the vast majority of cops are good and the vast majority of what cops do is really boring.

Ain't no IS in TexAS! :)

Pyros, you may want to reread yourself. I haven't even had a chance to watch the Lessig piece yet but your post is so condescending that you make me want to stick up for him anyway.

Your sole real argument about the people being the real source of change is questionable. The We may have been the source of the great changes of the past, but those in power have found new ways of playing, purposely obscuring their power and placing it outside the hands of the common man. If Lessig's argument is that change will require a certain amount of change from within, there is an argument to be made there I think. At the very least, intelligent people may disagree.

I admit I was impressed by homilitc and abstruse, though. That's some serious blog comment throwin' down! Heeaw.

>>we do a pretty crummy job of detecting spam, >>and stupidity is a lot more subjective

The difference is that stupid people aren't out there aggressively changing their tactics to evade detection.

I'd prefer you be a little more careful about throwing around the word "icky".

In college I worked the overnight security shift at a large suburban shopping mall. I was required to walk the back corridors checking for unlocked doors and suspicious activity. It was a horrible job but I came to understand that the parent company had similar policies in every shopping mall they managed (hundreds around the country). This makes me wonder about this mall...no security dudes?

Perhaps it is lame to comment on a 'Blowing Out the Dust' post but I won't let it stop me because two of these items inspired me.

1. The Navteq buyout sucks. This is going to be a major losing proposition for consumers. Nokia says they will continue to license the technology but Navteq has a big chunk of the market and I predict rising prices in the near future. We'll either pay more for the service on other carriers or the other carriers will opt not to buy so we'll have fewer features. Perhaps this is an opportunity for another player to move into this market.

2. eBay lost money eh? I haven't bought or sold on eBay for a couple years but just sold my old T-M-Mobile HTC Windows Mobile 5 phone and, boy, what a nightmare. I received 5 or 6 emails from scammers trying to convince me to end the auction and sell to them but of course the payment would arrive later but please help the guy out cuz he's headed to Iraq and blah blah blah.

Then, when the auction was complete and the nice buyer sent me the $, he received an email from some asshat in Romania telling him to mail a money order ASAP or he wouldn't get the phone. I suspect cell phones (especially pricey ones) attract the dregs in spades but sheesh, I think I'll stick with Craigslist and good 'ol greenbacks for a while.

There is another connection between gadgets and your UN experience, I think, that's worth noting.

In the past, Cory has noted how the U.S. has been a bit of a bully when it comes to intellectual property and treaties. More than once the U.S. has used admission into the WTO as a means to beat nations with the IP stick to get them to change something or kill something that U.S.-based film studios, record companies, etc don't like. Killing AllofMP3.com was a requirement for Russia to get into the WTO, for instance.

How then do we grok rigid absolute requirements for WTO status on one hand but push for 'voluntary', 'consensus', and 'sovereignty' when it comes to climate change? The simple (and cynical) answer is that we do whatever is in our own (or the administration's) best interest at the moment. Here's hoping there is more to it than just that.

The real story here is what the Bush administration is up to. Today's event, and the meeting in Bali in December, is part of the U.N.'s mission to have a meaningful post-Kyoto agreement. Then out of the blue, Bush calls a U.S.-led meeting to discuss all of the same stuff for later this week. Everyone is understandably skeptical when George Bush calls for an international meeting on global warming as he hasn't exactly been a leader in this regard in the past.

I think the general consensus is that Bush just refuses to let the U.N. lead the debate. Everyone assumes our position will stay the same: we won't sign a new treaty unless China and other developing countries also agree to the same limits; we don't think the rules should be mandatory but instead should be "voluntary guidelines" that we can then presumably ignore while appearing to have participated in some meaningful way.

Condi will be there today to represent the U.S. so it will be interesting to see what she has to say. I suspect the news from this event will be minimal and everyone will wait to see what happens later in the week to know how to react to Bush's supposed newfound leadership on global warming (oops, I mean climate change).

I don't want to own these larger sets but I do want to have them for a couple months so I can enjoy putting them together. Anyone want my castoffs at a 30% discount off retail? :)

I guess there's always eBay...

It would make more sense to me that the university would publish the ISBNs online. The bookstore is collecting that info from professors when they submit their booklist prior to each semester anyway and every school posts the list of books online somewhere just without the ISBN so you have to go in and look at the books to make sure you're buying the right stuff when you're shopping elsewhere. No doubt it would require a student movement to apply pressure to the right officials but since it is clearly in the interest of the students, it would probably work.

I've never managed a bookstore (or any other store), but I can imagine it would be unnerving if there were people in my store cataloging the inventory. I'd like to think I wouldn't call the police on them though.

I bought a pen-sized USB bar code reader to scan the ISBNs of my book collection which made short work of getting an inventory of a ton of books. These guys need to put together a similar setup with a wearable computer!

Sounds like an interesting project. I'll start using the powers of Google to see what else can be found online. I'm really interested in how to collect all of this information. While I like the idea of eventually boiling it all down into a giant poster/diagram, it seems one would need a database-driven tool of some sort to capture the data and make meaningful connections between companies that are purchased/absorbed/spawned/etc. I'm all ears if anyone has ideas on that. A wiki of some sort does seem like the right forum if it can be made to handle the data properly.

I do think it would be interesting to collect the same info for wireless and international carriers but perhaps small steps are wise and starting with American landline companies is a good start? It stays true to the inspiration if nothing else.