Remember… [[MacOSX]] is now Unix [[:-)]]

…the direct-cost comparison shows a Unix advantage in the range of 50 percent over five years, but the unquantifiable indirect effects are clearly much more significant. These costs, measured in terms of how well the faculty does its job, play out over the lifetime of the university’s graduates and the careers of its teachers.

You just gotta love it when the technology rather than the FUD wins out.

As usual, Dave Winer has good insight into some computer industry issues.

These days I hear a lot from Microsoft asking what will it take to get us to invest in them. The answer has become clear — put some of your skin in the game. Implement our protocols and formats in your software, instead of trying to convince us to implement yours in ours. Been there, done that, lost, again and again. No more of that. Make sure that when you screw up, and you will, that you lose, not us. Then we can talk.

Exactly! Become a good net citizen, and then we can talk. No more proprietary protocols. No more embrace and extend (that is, destroy).

I hadn’t read this yet, but it’s just more evidence that the RIAA and everything they represent is evil.

New York City’s hottest new band is Grunthead, a four-piece hard rock group from Maspeth. Because they’ve got buzz, the band gets a 15% royalty rate, a few points above the usual amount for a new artist.

…

The Gold Record Gross: 500,000 albums sell at $16.98 = $8,490,000 The Grunts’ royalty is 15% of retail. That’s $1,273,500.

…

[After the record company, lawyers, agents, etc. take their cut],
That takes the band down to $161,909.

That’s not bad money, but it’s split four ways, or $40,477.25 each, about the same as a city sanitation worker with two years’ experience, without health benefits, vacation and retirement fund. But with, of course, groupies.

That’s just digusting!!!

Why are we going to war with Iraq?

Requires a password. It’s a free signup. What I don’t understand is why so many people think we’re going to war because of the oil. This op-ed piece in the NY Times shows that falacy of that argument.

Why don’t people understand the freedom is good, and its worth fighting for on its own merrits (even if its for somebody else).

Although Americans are divided on the wisdom of an invasion, only 22 percent of us subscribe to the cynical view that it’s just about oil. Even Jimmy Carter, hardly a hawk, rebutted the accusation at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony: “I know my country, I know my people, and I can assure you that’s not the policy of my government.”

…

The charge [the we’re after the oil] has a surface plausibility because Iraq does have the second-largest known reserves in the world. But we certainly don’t need to send 250,000 soldiers to get at it. Saddam Hussein would gladly sell us all the oil we wanted. The only thing preventing unlimited sales are the United States-enforced sanctions, which Baghdad (and the big oil companies) would love to see lifted. Washington has refused to go along because Saddam Hussein flouts United Nations resolutions. This suggests that our primary focus is the threat he poses, not the oil he possesses.

That’s right. Count me in with that group.

And here’s the most important line in the entire article:

After more than 200 years, Europe still hasn’t figured out what makes America tick.

Ain’t that the truth! They see everything we do in terms of our arrogance. They think we do things like this just to flex our muscles and show the world how powerful we are. How wrong they are!!!!

Can this be true?

From [[TheOneRing.net]]:

Asfaloth wrote to say that the IMBD Pro magazine had some snippets about ROTK. “Rumors in early 2003 have it that the first cut is six hours long because of the amount of material from Tolkien’s original story that remains to be covered.” So I guess there’s still a little bit of work to be done in the editing suite.

Sounds about right! Now, go easy on the trimming, and we’ll still get a 4 1/2 hour epic to end the series with!!!!

A German priest has found a way to brew beer in his washing machine. Michael Fey, of Duisburg, built a computer interface into the machine to let it run an automatic brewing program.

He said he was inspired by the tradition of monks who brewed beer in a cauldron over a fire. To imitate the technique, he opted for a toploader washing machine. Before he started brewing, he ran it about 20 times to remove any soap residue.

You just gotta love this! Where there’s a will, there’s a way!