From Slashdot:

Apple made four announcements at MacWorld Expo: the new MacBook Air, new features for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and movie rentals via iTunes from a TV without a computer involved. The new portable gets most of the attention. It is 0.76″ thick at the thickest part, tapering to 0.16″. It weighs 3 pounds and has a 13.3″ screen and full-size, backlit keyboard. Its Intel chip is the diameter of a dime and the thickness of a nickel. The MacBook Air will cost $1799 and up. Its storage is either 80 GB disk or 64 GB solid-state drive. 2 GB of memory. It has no optical drive (an external one is available for $99) and features a way to wirelessly use the optical drive of any nearby Mac or PC with the proper software installed.

This is a very cool, future looking macintosh. I’d love to get one, but the $$$ just aren’t there at the moment. But, I’ll be looking at one the next time I’m in a store. Kudos [[Apple]].

From Slashdot:

BlueMerle writes “Ars Technica is running a story about how EMI is disappointed with RIAA and ultimately they (RIAA) may disappear. ‘Is the RIAA as we know it about to disappear? As rumors continue to swirl that EMI will pull its funding from music trade groups like the RIAA and IFPI, an IFPI spokesman tells Ars that the group is in the middle of a major internal review of its operations.'” I wouldn’t bet the farm just yet.

God willing, eh? The RIAA is literallly destroying music. As far as I can tell, it only exists to make record companies money. It does absolutely nothing for music or musicians. It needs to just go away.

From Slashdot:

KDan writes to share an article he has written about what some of the key factors in recognizing a good programmer. “It’s not as easy as it sounds. CV experience is only of limited use here, because great programmers don’t always have the ‘official’ experience to demonstrate that they’re great. In fact, a lot of that CV experience can be misleading. Yet there are a number of subtle cues that you can get, even from the CV, to figure out whether someone’s a great programmer.”

So, are you a good programmer? I read the list, and I’d have to say I agree completely with everything he says. To summarize:

• Passion
• Self-teaching and love of learning
• Intelligence
• Hidden experience
• Variety of technologies
• Formal qualifications

So, if you’re a software engineer, how do you rank yourself?

From CNN.com:

Broadcaster Kelly Tilghman has apologized. Tiger Woods has accepted it. But the Rev. Al Sharpton says it isn’t good enough.

[Sharpton said] “Lynching is not murder in general. It is not assault in general. It is a specific racial term that this woman should be held accountable for”

Really? Racial? Ok Al… let’s look the word up in a dictionary (you know… the place where words are actually defined).

To inflict punishment upon, especially death, without the forms of law, as when a mob captures and hangs a suspected person.

Hmmm…. that sounds a lot like what Nick Faldo said leading up the Kelly’s comment: “To take Tiger on, well yeah, they should just gang up [emphasis mine] for a while…”

Mr. Sharpton, you are a bigger boob and media whore than I ever thought you were, and are lacking in basic education. It’s like when David Howard was forced out of his job for using the word niggardly because people like you thought it was somehow racist without looking the word up in the dictionary (it means stingy, just in case you think I meant something else. See [[PC Sucks!]].).

Words mean what they mean, not what we think they mean. Kelly Tilghman used a word, in a joking manner, suggesting that the only way the young guns on the PGA tour could compete with [[Tiger]] is to kill him. [[Tiger]] knew it was a joke, Nick Faldo knew is was joke, and everyone listening knew it was a joke. Nobody that heard it made any kind of racial connection, or considered it to be a racist remark. Hell, if I had to guess, I bet [[Tiger]] got a big grin on his face and thought to himself, “that’s right guys, I OWN you.”

I think it’s racist of you, Al, to go looking for racism and to persecute people for no damn reason. Remember the Duke lacrosse case? I still haven’t heard you apologize to those poor (white) kids whose lives you ruined. By this definition of racism:

discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race

you are one of the most racist people around.

Please, Al, don’t go away mad, just go away. You are not needed anymore (if you ever were).

From CNN.com:

Iran has denounced video and audio recording released by the United States of the two nations’ confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz as “fabricated”, according to statements carried by state-run television station.

God I hope we didn’t do that. Can you say Gulf of Tonkin? Can the neocons really be that ignorant of history? Or is that a stupid question?

From Boston Globe — Front Page:

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Senator Hillary Clinton of New York scored a narrow but impressive comeback victory in New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary yesterday, as the Granite State again salvaged a troubled Clinton campaign and rejuvenated the former first lady’s bid to return to the White House.

Congrats to HIllary for her victory (although I really don’t want her to win). My guy Obama came in a close second. Will that be enough to sway minority voters in southern states to vote for him? I hope so.

From Casino Facts:

R.I. aims to beat Mass. to draw in casino battle

The Cape Cod Times has some of the best coverage on the casino issue. This article reports

Rhode Island is looking to beat Massachusetts to the punch with as many as two resort casinos.

This will be done by turning Twin Rivers and Newport Grand into full blown casino resorts. Twin Rivers is run by our friends Kerzner and Wolman who are trying to drop a social nuke on Middleboro by backing the Mashpee Wampanoag casino. The article has this ironic tidbit:

Kerzner and Wolman contributed almost $3 million to a 2006 campaign against a proposed Narragansett tribe and Harrah’s Entertainment resort casino in Rhode Island. The campaign, called Save Our State, highlighted the social ills of gambling. The ballot question was defeated by 63 percent of voters

Someone must have some copies of this anti-casino campaign. Pure slime.

THIS is the kind of crap I was talking about! So, the main casino proponents for the Middleboro casino, fought a casino in Rhode Island by citing the social problems that would happen because of a casino? Are you f*@!ing kidding me? This fact alone should call into question the trustworthiness of these jack asses.

Again, to re-iterate:

• Casinos: Not necessarily bad
• Corruption: Extremely bad

Governor Patrick, do not trust these people. They’re filling your head with lies just to get what they want. Your administration is already being regarded as the worst in recent memory… this will just seal the deal.

From Slashdot:

The Financial Times reports that ” Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD DVD after Warner Brothers’ recent backing of Sony’s Blu-ray technology, in a move that will sound the death knell of HD DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.” According to the Times, Warner Brother’s recent defection to Blu-Ray allowed Paramount to terminate their exclusive relationship with HD DVD. Universal Studios remains the only major studio to exclusively support the HD DVD format, though rumors have surfaced that their contract may also contain a termination provision similar to that exercised by Paramount.

This is great news. This is kind of the reverse of the beta vs. VHS result… Blue Ray is the better technology. Once HD DVD is dead, the players for Blue Ray will come down in price, and then maybe I can afford to get one [[:-)]].

From Slashdot:

The Beer Brewing Bender Project is finally completed. This is a fan built, full sized Bender from Futurama featuring a 6502 CPU powered brain to make him speak triggered by a prop remote control straight out of the show. Inside his body is a beer fermenter used to brew up a batch of real Benderbrau beer!

This looks like an outstanding setup, and the builder had WAY too much time on his hands [[:-)]]

From Slashdot:

Domains May Disappear writes “Chris Howard has an interesting commentary at Apple Matters on recent trends in OS market share that says that while OS X has seen continual growth, from 4.21% in Jan 2006 to 7.31% in December 2007 at the same time, Linux’s percentage has risen from only 0.29% to 0.63%. The reasons? ‘Apple has Microsoft Office, Linux doesn’t; Apple has Adobe Creative Suite, Linux doesn’t; Apple has easily accessed and easy to use service and support, Linux doesn’t; Apple is driven by someone who has some understanding of end-user needs, Linux is not,’ says Howard. ‘Early in the decade it seemed that if you wanted a Windows alternative, Linux was it. Nowadays, an Apple Mac is undoubtedly the alternative and, with its resurgence and its Intel base, a very viable one.'”

I figured this would be the case. Linux should forget about the desktop and concentrate on the enterprise. If we can squeeze Microsoft from both sides, maybe it’ll stop doing the evil that it does and realize that its customers come first.