Windows users have recently been given access to the popular Macintosh music player, iPod, and now Linux users may soon be able to take a bite out of Apple Computer’s gadget.

Last week, tex9 , a small software-development company in San Francisco, began beta testing an iPod plug-in for its xtunes music player software, which is itself a Linux clone of Apple’s iTunes. The plug-in will, tex9 promises, allow drag-and-drop access to iPod, which holds up to 10GB of music.

This will make a lot of my friends happy!

What a shame. I only hope that the his spirit lives on.

Kan, 25, rose to prominence online as one of the most articulate spokesmen for the Gnutella file-swapping community at the height of the Internet’s love affair with peer-to-peer software.

Kan died June 29. He was cremated Friday, according to friends. Details of his death were not released by his family.

I believe that Gnutella is critical to the future free exchange of information. Gene Kan will go down as one of the great pioneers of our age.

It seems like a natural match.

Auction giant eBay is acquiring online payments company PayPal in a deal valued at $1.5 billion, the companies said Monday.

Sounds right to me.

This very interesting article appeared this weekend in the [[New York Times]]. What if the low-fat diet has really been causing the obesity and heart disease? (Free membership required).

The case was eventually settled not by new science but by politics. It began in January 1977, when a Senate committee led by George McGovern published its *Dietary Goals for the United States,” advising that Americans significantly curb their fat intake to abate an epidemic of ”killer diseases* supposedly sweeping the country. It peaked in late 1984, when the National Institutes of Health officially recommended that all Americans over the age of 2 eat less fat….

Some of the best scientists disagreed with this low-fat logic, suggesting that good science was incompatible with such leaps of faith, but they were effectively ignored. Pete Ahrens, whose Rockefeller University laboratory had done the seminal research on cholesterol metabolism, testified to McGovern’s committee that everyone responds differently to low-fat diets. It was not a scientific matter who might benefit and who might be harmed, he said, but *a betting matter.” Phil Handler, then president of the National Academy of Sciences, testified in Congress to the same effect in 1980. ”What right,” Handler asked, ”has the federal government to propose that the American people conduct a vast nutritional experiment, with themselves as subjects, on the strength of so very little evidence that it will do them any good?*

This is amazing. **READ THIS ARTICLE**. It may change your life.

John Adams knew the importance of oversite all the way back in the late 1700s. Hasn’t the rest of the world learned this leason yet?

Although the ICC is supposed to advance the rule of law around the world, it is potentially – even inherently – inimical to the rule of law. And it is retrograde – premodern, actually – because it affronts the principle that every institution wielding power over others should be accountable to someone.

Yikes! Now I understand why we decided not to sign on.

Don’t follow the link to the page if you don’t want some Two Towers spoilers!

As wonderful as the Mines of Moria looked on the big screen, so much was lost in the alchemy of film creation. This direct digital transfer, however is an open eye as to every nuance in the film. Not only can you see all them pesky orcs in Moria now, but you can see what they are wearing, how their faces are reacting… The carvings and latice work in Moria that them industrious wee little dwarfs spent a millenia or two chipping out of solid mountain… Well now you can see it all.

Another thing that you might be interested in knowing is that some of the gaffes are now missing. Remember that long shot of Frodo and Sam, where Sam is saying one more step and he’ll be the farthest from home he has ever been before? Right around the time that Frodo is about to tell him what Bilbo told him about his feet? Remember that car in the far off distance and the trail of dirt it kicked up in the air that you annoyingly eagle eyed bastards always end up pointing out, thus distracting me to look for the damn thing… Well, it isn’t there anymore. Message received. Problem solved!

I can’t wait!!! Only one more month!!!!!!

It turns out that Ted helped save his daughter’s life.

The big voice was first heard by my family in 1993 when 8-year-old Kate Shaughnessy was diagnosed with leukemia. Ted and I had no relationship. I was just another annoying *writer* asking dumb hitting questions around the cage in Winter Haven and at Cooperstown. But when Ted heard there was a sick child at Children’s Hospital in Boston, he made Kate his mission.

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The phone rang in Kate’s room on 7-West at Children’s. Still fairly strong in the early days of chemo, Kate answered, and started listening. Early in the conversation, she jerked the phone away from her ear, as if it had delivered an electrical shock. She covered the mouthpiece and said, *Daddy, there’s a loud man on the phone telling me I’m going to be OK.*

He’ll be missed.

Ted Williams: 1918-2002

With the passing of Ted Williams, America has lost a baseball legend, said President Bush, a former baseball owner. Whether serving the country in the armed forces or excelling on the baseball diamond, Ted Williams demonstrated unique talent and love of country.

He was the best damn hitter the game ever saw.

You’ll be missed Ted!

We had a nice celebration at Jeff and Sue’s, and Mark brought along some scuba gear from his shop to give us a unique and wonderful experience. This July 4th was a special one for the United States (the first since September 11th). This just goes to show you that you can’t keep America down. Here’s some pictures that prove it.

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The musicians need to take control over their own futures again.

There’s only one type of person who makes money in the music industry. A savvy, wily, businessperson. Whether this person is a lawyer, manager, a&r person, record company executive, promoter, DJ, or the talent, as musicians are called, they all have business smarts…
Once upon a time music was a communal thing that happened when two or more people got together and wanted to celebrate, or pass the time. Now music is packaged and sold to us.

Read the above article, then read [[Courtney Love’s Speech]], then rethink the way you buy and listen to music. If you’re a musician, you should LOVE things like Napster and Gnutella.