Republicans Need To Hire A Songwriter

Disclosure: The fact that I spent many of my idle teenage hours staring at this album cover no way influences the opinions expressed in this post.

Joining John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and Boston are the Heart sisters who, like their fellow musicians are objecting to the use of one of their songs, in this case "Barracuda," to promote Palin at the RNC.

From an e-mail sent to Entertainment Weekly by Ann & Nancy Wilson -

"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image...[It] was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women...There's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there."

Looks like the Republicans are running out of classic rockers to promote their candidates. Might I recommend Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" as a suitable alternative?

Food Fight!

I'm not sure which is stranger, a food fight at a Donna Summer concert in Chicago OR the the fact that it was a sell out?

Fox News Makes Racist Remarks About Kettle

Fox News, America's Election HQ and ever the bastion of fair and unbiased reporting has accused gossip rag US Weekly of "blasting" VP nominee Sarah Palin. At issue is a cover and story that is markedly unfriendly to the Alaska Governor. Apparently, by contrast, previous issues have devoted much ink to the happy Obama family of whom, the publisher is a big supporter.

I'm not a reader of US Weekly, however I am so terribly appreciative of Fox's one network crusade to keep election media reporting fair and balanced.

High Speed Longboarding

Rumored to be a Canadian, the video features a fearless longboarder hitting speeds of 100KM/H (62 mph) on the A8 autobahn (map) between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. He better keep going as apparently the German police would like a word with him about the stunt.

I'm partial to longboards myself (I have a Surf One) but even though we share the same wheel setup I'm not planning to hit my local freeway anytime soon.

From Rock God to RIAA Tool

"I hope he rots in jail," said Slash, the former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist. "It's going to affect the sales of the record, and it's not fair."

So says the former guitar player for Guns & Roses in the LA Times. He's referring to music industry blogger Kevin Cogill (a self-confessed GnR fan) who posted 9 yet-to-be-released tracks from GnR's long awaited new album on his blog. For his efforts Cogill received a visit by the FBI, was arrested and is currently out on a $10,000 bond. Suffice to say, his defence against the music industry heavyweights will be a public defender.

ADA Craig Missakian, prosecuting the case claims that Cogill's actions caused "significant damage." If by that he means the world discovered that the new GnR album sucks than I guess he's right about one thing. As for Slash (real name Michael McKagan), yeah, that's the spirit of rock n' roll, big bad rock star that you are. Why fight the man when you can work for him?

Browser Wars - New Forces Arrive

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's announcement of IE-8 comes a new entrant into the increasingly crowded browser space. Yesterday Google announced that it's browser project Chrome will be available for download sometime today. Google are claiming via an online comic book that this is not your father's software but a complete re-think of the way a browser should work and interact with the web and the user. They make a compelling case too.

A Bono style leak of some screen shots appeared yesterday and were subsequently removed. Currently (9am PDT) the Chrome download page takes you only to Google's search page.

Update: Press conference at 11am PDT, CNET will be live blogging.
Update: Windows version for download today at 12:00pm PDT

Strange Days Indeed

Palin seems to be an odd choice for VP for a candidate who is running on a platform of experience. The pairing seems a little like a Vegas wedding, the 2 having met only twice before and smacks of a desperate attempt to lock in the dissatisfied Clintonites. The Republicans are talking about her integrity and that she and McCain are like soul mates, or could it be that no one else (chris, Jindal, Romney) actually wanted the job?

Phil Hill R.I.P.

Lat night the USA's only Formula One World Champion Phil Hill died from complications associated with Parkinson's Disease. Hill dated from an era where so many of his co-drivers perished practicing their sport that his 81 years seems remarkable.

A very complex character, Hill seized the F1 title in late 1961 behind the wheel of his Ferrari. Tragically, the same race at Monza killed his team mate and fourteen spectators, a dark cloud always hung over his achievement. Hill went on to win 3 times at Le Mans before retiring to his native California.

The drivers of today stand upon the shoulders of great men like Phil who literally risked everything in their pursuit of speed. Next week's F1 round will be the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa, coincidentally a race Hill also won in 1961.

Phil Hill at Formula One.com

Last Night At The DNC

Nicely put, when can you start?

Byrne + Eno

The new album from Talking Heads' front man David Byrne and musical polymath Brian Eno is out and it's good. RIAA/label hating folks should head to the Everything That Happens Will Happen Today site where they can put their money where their mouth is and buy the whole thing direct from the artists concrned. $8.99 gets you a 320Kbs MP3 or FLAC (with 14 page PDF booklet), another $3 gets you all that plus a physical CD for the tactile amongst us. The album also streams for free plus there's a free MP3 single too.

Like I said, those who rage against the current system need to pony up and show our support for viable alternatives.

"The thing is nowadays, you'll have 20 men working, yet 60 men telling them 'You can't do that, you ain't got a tin hat on'".

The title quote is from Fred Dibnah, former Bolton steeplejack, TV star and steam engine fancier. Fred's philosophical musings, mostly uttered whilst at the top of some 300' chimney he was "felling" became a cult classic on UK television and thanks to YouTube can now be enjoyed anywhere.

Fred was a man who truly knew no fear. Not in our current tough guy, reality TV sense (Man Versus Swim-Up Pool Bar) but as someone who had a respect for the perils of his profession and had come to terms with the possibility that this day could be the last. A true character in a world increasingly full of pretenders.

Fred was taken by cancer in 2004 but has a website dedicated to him here. And as Fred would have said "By 'eck it were grand."

What If...

...Tom Waits had been part of Schoolhouse Rock? Would the conversation go something like this:

Teacher - "So Johnny what did you do this weekend?"
Johnny - "Well Teach, see there was this bar down by the docks. And back in the day she was a looker but now it's just a head of foam and legs like twizzle sticks. But the stilettos could still pierce and my blood ran red like Thunderbird on an obsidian sidewalk."
Teacher - "Er, thanks Johnny, Mary did you go to the park?"

Just wondering, that's all.

TV Production Trucks - A Study In Contrasts

NMT monitor wall & front bench, 1978 and NEP SS25 monitor wall & front bench 2008. Check out the pop-top Bud!

What Are They Gonna Do? Really I Mean

Many of Hilliary's supporters are still full of righteous indignation over slights, perceived and real, by the Obama campaign. But really, what are they going to do about it? Vote for McCain? Yep, that'll show that DNC. If ever there was needed a case of "get over it" now is the time.

Blogging

When blogs start to write about blogging it's generally a good indication that they've jumped the shark. This is not something I intend to do here by the way, my intent is just to mitigate any and all blame for my lack of recent postings.

The popular podcast This Week In Tech accused many blogs of doing nothing more than re-posting information from other blogs with a picture attached. I agree with their analysis and have always attempted to keep Life For Dummies a place of often ironic but at least original thought. Today, whilst feeling a little guilty about the irregularities of my postings I realized that it's better to post nothing than to write merely to fulfill an artificially self-imposed deadline or commitment.

Therefore, I plan to continue to blog, when, where and about whatever I want with a particularly big emphasis on the when and I shall not feel one wit of guilt for allowing extended periods of time to lapse between postings.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Lefsetz & Solzhenitsyn

I first read Alexander Solzhenitsyn at 12 years old after watching the movie adaptation of Ivan Denisovich. His books were the perfect food for my teenage angst and led me to many other authors writing about social & political injustice around the world. I'm saddened at his passing but instead of writing my own piece on the man I lead you to Bob Lefsetz who has done a much better job than I could ever have.

As for rockers… Shit, the art form expired with Bon Jovi and the rest of the hair bands back in the eighties. To this day, I’ve never heard Jon Bon Jovi utter a negative word. He doesn’t want to offend anybody, he doesn’t want to risk his lifestyle, he doesn’t stand for anything. Whereas Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was only about the truth, he was willing to risk his life for the truth, he was driven to stand up to a repressive government. While in the twenty first century Justin Timberlake serves up African-American Janet Jackson after disrobing her at the Super Bowl, needing to be on America’s Team, one that is always right and does no wrong.

What has America’s Team become? One solely of rampant commercialism?

You took the words outta my mouth Bob. Find the full version here.

TSA - The Best & Worst Edition

Frequent travelers are well aware that the TSA experience varies widely from airport to airport. Blog or no blog, the TSA experience is one of inconsistency.

So, may I have the envelope please?

Best : San Diego & Dallas/Fort Worth
Worst : Atlanta Hartsfield & Chicago O'Hare

San Diego is cramped but calm & polite, no shouting or pouting, pretty typical SoCal attitude. DFW has the advantage of multiple points of entry so the lines are rarely long. On the dark side, ATL has the rudest & most incompetent staff & ORD is just complete chaos.

So there you have it, trophies are in the mail.

Saving Fingers (and hands)!

According to Sawstop, every 9 minutes a table saw related accident occurs. Using the body's natural ability to act as an electrical ground the Sawstop 10" saw blade instantly brakes & drops below the table. The demo video using a hotdog is truly, wincingly amazing, I thought that a demo using a live finger might be cooler but I'm not sure I'd volunteer myself.

Now For The Brighter Side Of Life

Was Love Connection, that great 80's late night dating game the precursor to today's reality shows? If so, the latest variants forgot that the original was actually pretty funny. Maybe the new ones just try too hard?

Back in 2 and 2.

More Lessons From History

"They came as liberators but were met by fierce resistance outside Baghdad. Humiliating treatment of prisoners and heavy-handed action in Najaf and Fallujah further alienated the local population." CNN, 2007? No, Britain, 90 years earlier!

Robert Frisk writing on the eerie parallels between the 1917 British invasion of Iraq & the situation today, originally published in The Independent. He goes on to say:

"Within six months, Britain was fighting a military insurrection in Iraq and David Lloyd George, the prime minister, was facing calls for a military withdrawal. "Is it not for the benefit of the people of that country that it should be governed so as to enable them to develop this land which has been withered and shrivelled up by oppression? What would happen if we withdrew?" Lloyd George would not abandon Iraq to "anarchy and confusion". By this stage, British officials in Baghdad were blaming the violence on "local political agitation, originated outside Iraq", suggesting that Syria might be involved."

Upon Which The Sun Shall Never Set

A partial list of countries formally occupied & administered by the British:

Palestine
Burma
Somalia
Uganda
Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
Sudan
Iraq
Sierra Leone

Now children, can you find the connection here? That's right little Johnny, those nasty brutal colonialists were replaced by...

Paying The Piper - USA Style 2008

The story is actually dates from the 13th century, made popular by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th. The villagers renege on their deal with the rat clearing piper & he exacts his revenge in a horrific manner. From this we get the phrase, "paying the piper."

In the 1940s personal savings rates were close to 25%, perhaps this had as much to do with rationing and the lack of goods to purchase, however even in the 70's & 80's they ran between 6% and 8%. By the Millennium savings rates had dropped to around 2% and actually went into negative territory (people extracting more from their savings than depositing) in 2004.

Household debt (adjusted for income) as a share of disposable income rose from around 33% in the 1940s to 86% in the late 90's. However, from 2000 until 2005 it had risen 30 points from 102% to 131%, in other words, people were spending 30% more than they earned.

The savings rate & spending rate are closely tied, the less you save, the more you spend & it was this burst of credit fueled purchasing that drove our economy into overdrive over the past decade.

We lived in a beautiful upwards spiral, ever lax banking regulation funneled more & more dollars into consumer's hands. Buoyed with this wealth they bought bigger homes forcing property prices upwards. They then borrowed against these homes' inflated values to purchase big ticket consumer goods. By now financial institutions were repackaging loans & selling them off so a borrower's ability to pay became less important than the origination fees associated with the debt. The huge sums of money flowing into the economy by unrestrained consumer spending buoyed up every sector of the market.

However, a house of cards is just that. For all the endless analysis & chatter in the media it's a very simple equation, an economy cannot be built on top of a giant Ponzi scheme. An endless party of borrowing and spending was obviously not going to have much sustainability. And here we are, acting all surprised as usual.

Let's Fix Sport Doping For Good

Pity the Tour de France, for all their posturing, they can't even reach Stage 12 without a favorite rider testing positive for drugs. Of course, cycling's not alone, baseball, the Olympics and many other sports have been similarly tainted by drug scandals. With the summer games close, I think it's time we took some ideas from the drag racers' NHRA playbook and got back to openess in athletic competition.

I propose 3 major catagories of athlete;
1) Stock - a little coffee or diet coke is fine, energy bars & recovery drinks are permitted but beyond this the athlete is pretty much operating on the goods God gave them.
2) Top Alcohol - these guys & girls are allowed some performance drugs, steroids are in however drugs must be consumed/injected prior to actual competition.
3) Top Fuel - anything goes, want a second heart implanted in your chect? No problem. Prepared to ride with an IV strapped to bike? It's all good for the Top Fuelers.

An athlete would declare the catagory that he/she wished to compete in & like bracket racing the results would be adjusted accordingly. This way both the fans & atheletes win.

SF Held Captive

This story has legs...a disgruntled San Francisco city computer engineer is currently being held on $5M bail for refusing to divulge the password he used to lock all other administrators out of the city WAN network! Authorities claim that Terry Childs may also have an accomplice remotely accessing & deleting files. This seems a little far-fetched since obviously Childs could have engineered this instead of, or in addition to his password trick at the same time.

While this standoff continues it's interesting to muse on how much of our lives depend on data that could easily be compromised by a malicious computer administrator who may just as easily be thousands of miles away.

Link to story at SFGate

Torrent = Quality and Avant-Garde?

The video torrent traders seem to be most interested in the timeliness of their files rather than the overall quality. A handheld camera in a movie theater will often serve their purpose well. However, the audio uploaders seem to be increasingly concerned with the quality, of their offerings. 320kbs rips are very common on the torrent networks & far exceed the quality found on the commercial download sites (iTunes, Amazon etc.).

A group calling themselves The Vinyl Flac Project are meticulously re-recording rare avant-garde albums that have long dropped from the label's catalogs. These are then offered on the major torrent tracking sites like Pirate Bay. Alongside a complementary operation, the Avant Garde Project, the offerings include works by John Cage, Peter Maxwell & even Stravinsky. Find their releases here & here (you'll need a torrent program to download the files, don't forget to seed after finishing).

One Of Mine

Taken with my Nokia N95, Laredo, Texas, June 2008.

Lime 37 - Hot Rod Photography

Lime 37
Originally uploaded by thebobblog

Unique photographs from a fellow fan of dereliction. Find my own fascination with the subject here.

Bring On The Lawyers

Confident after their successful action against the NSA in 2006, the ACLU has already filed suit against the FISA warrant less wiretap law. Quote from the ACLU's Christopher Dunn:

"A democratic system depends on the rule of law, and not even the president or Congress can authorize a law that violates core constitutional principles. The only thing compromised in this so-called 'compromise' law is the Constitution."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is also rumored to be starting legal action against FISA although apparently staying quiet on the issue as not to tip their legal hand.

Interestingly, I worked with a Christian organization last week who are highly active in many of the countries considered as supporters of terrorism. Currently many of the objections to the new law revolve around journalists, however, religious & charitable organizations are bound to be caught up in the broad net cast by the act. As a former Brit, one could argue that my frequent calls to the same country that gave us a shoe, liquid & subway bombers could be subject to interception!

Thank goodness for the lawyers dedicated to upholding our freedoms in the face of ever increasing pressure. This could turn out to be an interesting fight, I am interested to see the government's case defending the act against the Constitution.

Meanwhile On The Other Side Of The Pond

Without the sanity of a Supreme Court or a codified constitution to stop them, the British authorities are waging war on the habeas corpus rights of their citizens originally enshrined in the Magna Carta over 800 years ago. Sir Bob Geldof has an excellent piece in today's Telegraph in which he writes;

What existential threat do we face greater than those of the past 800 years? What great terror exists today that not civil war, not world war, nor recent other terrorisms could make our forefathers change the fundamental basis of this state? What is so dangerous that our oldest statutes could be upended for such a ha'p'orth of momentary panic?

Wise words to heed on BOTH sides of the Atlantic.

The Eagle Has Landed (maybe for good)

Today the Senate passed Bush's bill extending the government's power to eavesdrop on it's citizens & granting immunity to the telco companies who assisted in illegal surveillance. Obviously the news & blogs are all over this with what appears to be pretty consistent condemnation of the bill & the 69 Senators who voted for it, including a certain Presumptive Candidate for President, Barack Obama.

The democrats are running on a platform of Change. But we already have a majority of Democrats in BOTH houses and yet the war continues and the trampling of the 4th Amendment alongside it. Perhaps I'm worrying needlessly, in fact Sen. Bond (R-Mo) claimed that "unless I have al Queda on speed dial I have nothing to fear" This from a government that can't even implement a functional no-fly list.

Three years ago this fall, I stood in a room with 842 others & swore an oath of allegiance to a country that I truly believed represented the highest ideals of freedom & liberty on our planet. It breaks my heart to see small minded, self-serving politicians, their lobbyists & the corporations that support them, trample on the very ideals I stood up for. To wit: “I will from this point forward grant my allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, and to its Laws, defending the Constitution and the Laws from all enemies that attack them.” Seemingly in 2008, defending the Constitution from enemies will serve only to get me wiretapped?

Squeeze-ing the $ out

Yes, these are actual concert ticket prices. Who for? Bette Midler? Streisland? The Eagles? Wrong, wrong, wrong! It's for one of my favorite all time bands, British pop icons, Squeeze playing at the House Of Blues. Big fan that I am (I saw their final show at the condemned Rainbow in London) there is no way I would pay this to see Difford & Tilbrook again. And the music industry wonders why it's going down the toilet?

iPhoto to Flickr

Nice little free application for exporting directly from iPhoto to Flickr. Neat.

My Boombox

Back when audio-to-go was anything but personal I came home with one of these. I think my parents recoiled in horror at the size & volume of the beast but I loved it. It traveled everywhere with me, complete with little pieces of tape to mark the locations of my favorite Sunday afternoon pirate radio stations in London. I remember sun-bathing on my apartment building roof with the Hitachi, Kenny Everett on Capital Radio & at least a six pack of Swan Lager. Had to be careful with the beer though, it was a long drop off the edge!

Thanks to pocketcalculatorshow for the trip down memory lane & Notcot for the inspiration.

The 4 Grand Chopper!

Rumor has it that a custom piece from the Teutul family can set you back well over $100K. For those with less (substantially less) funds there is this alternative from JohnnyPag Motorcycles. Retailing a scad over $4K these US designed, Chinese built bikes have a 300cc engine & are good for around 75mph, which is about as fast as you'd want to go on a chopper anyway.

It's no Captain America but still a great looking machine.

via Retrothing.

Doomed To Repeat

It was George Santayana in 1924 who coined the famous phrase "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." And like deja-vous the US auto industry is fulfilling the prophecy. Back in 1973 the OPEC oil embargo hit the US, gas prices rose about 70 cents a gallon & Detroit was stuck with dealer lots stuffed with V-8 gas guzzling monsters that no one wanted. Much hand wringing followed, with claims from the Big 3 that this could never have been anticipated & they were caught without any models that could appeal to the economy conscious consumer. The door was opened to the Japanese imports & the rest is history.

Fast foward to 2008, gas prices have been steadily trending upwards since 2004 to their current high of around $4 per gallon. Once again Detroit was caught off guard, stuck with dealer lots stuffed with V-8 gas guzzling monsters and no models to sell to the economy conscious consumer. And once again the Big 3 are hand wringing with the usual "no one could have predicted this" excuses.

What are they teaching in MBA class these days anyway?

In Search Of The Perfect Caipirinha - Update Spy Shot

This grainy spy shot was the best our undercover agent could get (at considerable risk to himself). What we have here is the Pineapple Mint Caipirinha reputedly served at Republic in NYC's Union Square. Hmm, seems like a fact finding mission to the Big Apple may be necessary?

Cinespia - The New Drive In (sort of)

Go to this intersection on Sunday nights to be a part of cinespia screenings at the Santa Monica Cemetery. Seems like a grand idea, bring a blanket & picnic, listen to some tunes & watch a cool movie projected onto the wall of the cemetery. Movie selection is not "please the kiddies" fodder either, upcoming showings include Easy Rider and Blue Velvet.

Thanks to Lefsetz for the idea.

Hardy Herons

Not a post for David Attenborough but one about the latest Linux distribution form Ubuntu which continues with the wildlife naming structure. I have a battered corporate lease turn-in Dell on which I had tried unsuccessfully to get a completely operational installation of Windows XP. After hours of playing with WiFi settings to try & get onto my open WiFi network I gave up, went back on the Mac, downloaded Ubuntu & burned an ISO image CD, total time, less than 20 minutes.

I booted the now OS-less Dell to the ISO, followed the very simple on-screen instructions & within 15 minutes, had a fully operational Linux machine, including a large array of business, games & internet software (Firefox 3 for example). The process rivals Apple's OS X for ease & beats it hands down for speed. Upon rebooting the machine it had recognized the WiFi network and was ready to Bluetooth to my phone. It then prompted me to start a seamless upgrade procedure (again, similar to Apple's).

Ah ha I thought, what about my WiFi printer? That'll catch it out! Proved wrong again...a quick search of the Ubuntu help pages & I was printing over my network (btw, kudos to HP for supporting Linux). So less than an hour after beginning the install I had 3 user accounts set up, music playing, IM windows open & a whole host of other operations & software.

In conclusion, this was possibly the most seamless OS install I have ever done. It's nice to see an outdated laptop (P-M 1.8GHz, 512MB RAM, Ubuntu claim reasonable performance down to a 700MHz processor) brought back to fast, efficient & useful service. I think that with Hardy Heron, Linux may well be ready for the average home user!

Defining Terrorists

Last weekend, Londoners celebrated Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday with a big concert in Hyde Park. The event coincided with attempts by some in the US Senate to have Mandela's name removed from the terrorist watch list. Growing up in the UK during the height of the IRA's campaigns (& being narrowly missed twice) I have a high level of sceptiscm for those politicians who use terror as a vote gatherer. As our news continues to blurt out scare stories it's interesting to note who was considered a terrorist but is now seen as a senior statesman and hero.

Yasser Arafat, popular visitor to the White House lawn lead Fatah and the PLO during it's reign of terror across Europe & the Middle East. His leadership were directly connected to the kipnapping and executions of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

But it isn't all rosy on the other side. Israel's founding father Ben-Gurion is still viewed as a terrorist by much of the Arab world after his violent expulsion of the Palestinians from Israel & his involvement in the Qibya massacre. British troops were often the target of his Zionist supporters as well.

Sometimes the journey from terrorist to statements takes an about turn. Robert Mugabe was seen both as the liberator of Rhodesia from white rule & as a terrorist by those fighting his Marxist rebels. He has degenerated back into being viewed as a terrorist as his violent grip continues to tighten around Zimbabwe.

So what of Mandela? As leader of the armed division of the African National Congress, he coordinated and participated in many violent attacks against government entities. Convicted & unrepentent in 1962 (he was outspoken at trial in his support for violent action) he began his now famous prison term. He was offered his freedom many times if he would renounce the use of violence but Mandela refused to negotiate with Cape Town.

What can we learn from all this? Obviously, one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter and the term itself is not one we should use lightly or as a cheap scare tactic to acquire votes or viewers. Osama bin-Laden seems an unlikely character for a handshake amongst the White House roses but if history is anything to go by, I wouldn't bet the farm.

ebay Woes

Today, French courts awarded damages of $61M to fashion house Louis Vuitton in their case against ebay. Claiming that over 90% of the ebay listings for their items were counterfeits the court decided that ebay were not doing enough to combat the rampant fraud on their auction site. This does not bode well for ebay, already taking a battering from users over recent rule & fee changes & facing similar lawsuits in the US from Tiffanys.

Tracing Social Change Through Rock?

My unofficial "lyrics that best represent the decade they were sung in" is as follows:

"A wop bop-a-lula, a wop bam boom, tutti frutti aw rooty" - Little Richard, 1957
"The times they are a' changing" - Bob Dylan 1964
"God save the Queen & the facist regime" - Sex Pistols 1977
"I want my MTV" - Dire Straits 1985
"You get so mad at me when I go out with my friends" - Hootie & The Blowfish 1995

See a trend here? (hint: narcissism)

The Symbians Are Coming

I was a bit ho-hum about the news that Nokia is buying the rest of Symbian, the operating system used on their N-Series handsets. I'm a big fan of the OS, I find it intuitive & efficient & like the way applications interact with each other seamlessly (for example if you hit save on an SMS containing a song it automatically gets placed in your music folder). However, initially this news was just a case of meet-the-new-boss syndrome.

Now we learn that Nokia plan to release the application as Open Source partly due to pressure from both Windows Mobile, the iPhone & upstart Linux systems. None the less it's a great step in the right direction.

The Manx Is Returning!

Launched in 1974, the iconic Meyers Manx introduced the concept of the Beach Buggy to the World. Based on the chassis of a VW Beetle ("even Hitler was capable of some good" quotes Bruce Meyers in an interview) it quickly became a national phenomenon. Bruce & his company have had a long & turbulent past, something he discusses in detail here but are back in business making both the Manxter 2+2, an updated version of the original & also the DualSport, a more off road orientated version.

The big news for fans of the original Manx is that this fall Bruce will launch a new version based completely on the classic 1960s model that started it all. Price for the kit is projected to be around $4,000 with the Beetle used again as the donor vehicle. I'm hoping for a second wave of buggies to sweep the country!

The Truth Doth Hurt

The tipping point for overpriced cable silliness might have been reached with Denon's new AKDL1, $500 Cat-5 cable. The Amazon product page has been hijacked with some completely hilarious reviews as contributors pour scorn on what has to be The Emperor's Clothes of audio. I kinda wish it was Monster Cable though.

Billy The Audio Guy

Just as funny even if you don't know Billy Walsh!

Mac on a PC? System 7 Lives!

For those of us that affectionately remember our days on the Macintosh, Mini vMac offers a unique way to relive the experience whatever your current platform. The always excellent RetroThing has an excellent how-to & in no time you'll be experiencing the joys of MacPaint, MacWrite & MacDraw.

Daddy Why?

Over the (free) breakfast at a Marriott the other day I overheard a young lady asking "daddy, why is all news on CNN breaking news?" She has a point but actually my favorite newsroom adjective is "Action." We have Action News, Action Weather & Action Sports in fact a Google search for Action+News turned up 116M hits, Wikipedia even has a page devoted to it's history. I'm wondering where the stations can go next though? What further adjectives can be applied to horribly reported, sensationalized newscasts? How about "Alarum News" or "Hyperkinesia Weather?"

Leopard Proves It's Mettle

I have been somewhat critical of Apple's Leopard OS. It did seem as if I'd upgraded only to get some eye candy & a slightly slower machine. However, having completely overwritten my entire Address Book (with a badly set up phone syncing program) Time Machine completely justified it's cost & existence by seamlessly replacing my corrupted data with good data from last week. Phew...

Fight The Lies

Bracing for attacks from the GOP, Limbaugh & the rest, the Obama campaign has started a Fight The Smears website where the usual odious rumors get debunked. No mention of this one there though, and what with infidelity and off-the-wall sex acts I thought Fox had the biggest scoop so far.

Fox News & British Slang - Not A Good Match

As if claiming that Obama & Clinton were "sneaking around at night" wasn't enough, Fox News' Heather Nauert refers to the pair as "buggers." Now Heather I know you think you're so cool slipping in these slang terms but here is the actual definition of the word. So, either you're a moron or this story is much bigger than anyone realized?

Back When Radio Shack Was Cool

Back in the day when the Shack had neat stuff they offered this synthesizer, the Realistic Concertmate MG-1. Basically a Moog Rogue is different packaging, it was nonetheless a cheap way to get into a real synthesizer. Vintage Synth Explorer has some sample sounds of the bloopity-bloop nature that we love so much. If you feel you have to own one, Craigslist would be a good place to start. Now, maybe it's time to start an ad-hoc thread here about the less obvious Radio Shack classic items?

Spoke Too Soon

Lewis Hamilton, obviously talking on his mobile phone, ran up the back of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari whilst leaving the pits in Montreal, Saturday. Both drivers were out of the race with Lewis getting a 10 place grid drop for the French GP. Then again, maybe he was just distracted by one of these?

Ironic or Inspiring? either way...

Come November there is a real possibility for the 1st black President of the United States and the 1st black Formula One World Champion. How the times are a changing eh? I'm rooting for both (but only sending money to one).

More Cool Stuff 4 Your N95

Users of the World's greatest mobile phone, the Nokia N95 can now enjoy eBooks on a free .prc Symbian reader from Mobipocket. For starters you could try Zittrain's "The Future Of The Internet & How To Stop It," also for free (and also available as a PDF). Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.