Magnatune (motto: “We’re Not Evil”) is a new record label and music distribution system. Lots of other people have already blogged about them, but I’ve just gotten around to trying them.
One of their best features is that they offer streams of all of their music– classical, rock, electronic, etc.– so you can try before you buy. I just bought my first album from them, EPROMs from Belief Systems. For $8, it’s a great value, and the artist gets $4, which is, oh, about 25x what they would expect to receive from a major-label CD purchase. Rock on!
First MagnaTune purchase
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Filed under Musings
A new remote, and two books on TiVo hacking
After being seriously tempted by the Kameleon, I ultimately rejected it because there’s no way to add buttons, and its macro programmability is limited. Instead, I (somewhat reluctantly) bought a Home Theater Master MX-500, which is butt ugly but remarkably easy to program. So far, I have it doing everything I want to except for the one-button macros; once that’s programmed, someone (like, oh, Betty) can just press the “DVD” button to turn on and switch around the appropriate components. Mmmm, macros…
In other news, Amazon has a promo: if you order Krikorian’s TiVo Hacks and Keegan’s Hacking the TiVo together, you get both books for about $38. Since I love books, I bought both of ’em. All I need now is enough time to actually perform the surgery.
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Filed under General Tech Stuff
Spiritual baseball
So last night I was explaining to Arlene that I was planning on watching the Sox-Yankees game tonight. “Why?” she said. “I hate the Yankees,” I replied, “and, besides, as a Mormon it’s my job.” She was a little nonplussed, so I quoted Mosiah 18:9 to her. Now, hopefully my comforting won’t be necessary as the Sox send the hated infidels back to NYC, but just in case…
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Filed under Spiritual Nourishment
Happy Patch Day: MS03-046
Microsoft is moving toward issuing sets of patches once a month instead of in a steady, Chinese-water-torture stream. Accordingly, now there’s a big ol’ set of patches up on Windows Update. For all you Exchange 2000 and Exchange 5.5 folks, there are two of particular interest: MS03-046 covers a vulnerability that can lead to arbitrary code execution on Exchange 5.5 and Exchange 2000 boxes, while MS03-047 covers a potential cross-site scripting vuln in OWA 5.5. Happy patching!
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Filed under General Stuff
Comment spam, begone
Thanks to John, I am now running MTBlacklist, a plugin that blocks comment spam. Lots of other people have been looking for solutions to this problem, and although this may only be a temporary fix, it’s a welcome one. Thanks, Jay!
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Filed under General Tech Stuff
Israeli submarines
Yesterday the LA Times reported that the Israelis have submarines capable of firing the nuclear weapons that they won’t admit to having. (Note to readers: the Israelis have had nukes since the mid-60s, according to Sy Hersh, but they won’t admit it and none of the other members of the nuclear club have ever pressed them on it.) If this report were true, it would mean that Israel had a proper strategic triad, subs being the delivery system most difficult for an opponent to pre-emptively attack.
The LA Times report says that Israel modified Harpoons to carry nuclear warheads, which is a little odd. Harpoons are normally anti-shipping missiles, with a relatively small payload (220Kg) and short range (120Km). Of course, the Israelis promptly issued a denial of sorts, in which a former defense minister said that it was “impossible” to re-engineer the Harpoon to carry a nuclear warhead.
However, this statement doesn’t say a think about the homegrown Israeli Popeye SLCM, which is almost certainly the primary delivery system for those subs. The FAS has some other interesting reading, but I note that most of their cited sources are 2-3 years old.
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Dead cats and pep rallies don’t mix
Presented for those of you who think that Perrysburg is boring, this story from the 10/11 Blade:
A pep rally at Perrysburg High School yesterday prompted complaints from students who were upset that a teacher displayed a dead cat at the event.
Two parents called the school district to complain about the dead cat on behalf of their children, who are students at the school, Perrysburg Superintendent Michael Cline said.
“We will be doing a thorough investigation on Monday,” he said.
“The teacher is willing to talk to those students who were upset by the situation and will make an apology to them sometime Monday.”
The pep rally, held during the end of the school day, preceded a football game between Perrysburg and Maumee high schools. The schools are longtime rivals.
The cat symbolized the Maumee mascot, which is a panther, Mr. [He’s a Ph.D, folks — Ed] Cline said.
The teacher, who Mr. Cline declined to identify while the district is investigating the incident, got the dead cat from the biology lab. The cat was a dissection specimen.
The teacher tied the dead cat to a rod and waved it around at the rally.
“That was a bad idea, and not a humane example to kids as an educator,” said Susan Maxwell, spokesman for the Toledo Area Humane Society. [But I s’pose it’s OK to torture participles, huh?]
Oddly, searching the Blade’s page for “perrysburg dead cat” didn’t turn this up, but Google News did.
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Filed under Uncategorized
More Exchange blogs
Turns out that Exchange-related blogs are popping up like housepainters at a beer giveaway. Andy Webb has one (named, of course, “webb log”), and so do the dynamic duo of KC and David Lemson, who just happen to be program managers on the Exchange team. Welcome, y’all!
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Filed under General Stuff
Your tax dollars at work
So, I got a letter from the IRS asking me to resubmit a page (yes, one page, except they wrote “on page” in the letter, but I digress…) Here’s the best part: it was signed by one Robert L. Williams, Manager, Document Perfection. I feel just grand knowing that the IRS has a department dedicated to document perfection (I’m not the only one, either). That reminds me of part of the LDS Church‘s three-fold mission (see footnote 7), except with a government slant.
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Filed under Musings
Bayou Farewell (Tidwell)
I admit to some bias; having grown up in south Louisiana, and with a name like Robichaux, I expected this book (subtitled “Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast”) to be patronizing and smug. It was neither. Instead, Tidwell has written a powerful narrative that clearly explains the beauty and wonder of the Louisiana coastal ecosystem, the rich life of the Cajuns who live there, and the impending threat to both caused by the artificial levees built to provide flood control along the lower Mississippi. Along the way, I learned about the BTNEP project to document land loss and the <a href="http://www.restoreorretreat.org/solution.htmlThird Delta Conveyance Channel (TDCC), an ambitious project to divert a portion of the Mississippi’s flow to restore silt deposition– and thus wetlands– in the Barataria-Terrebone Bay areas. One of Tidwell’s major points is the seeming complacency of Louisiana residents toward this problem; I’m happy to say that in the recent election, a majority of voters chose to support three amendments that will help clear the path for obtaining funding for the TDCC.
Tidwell makes another, really telling, point: the fact that Louisiana is losing thousands of acres of wetlands each year is largely unknown in most of the environmental community. He’s too polite to say so, but it helps reinforce my suspicion that many “environmentalists” are really just “NIMBY-ists” trying to dress themselves up in more appropriate clothing. His book has done a great deal to get the word out, though, and it’s a fine read besides. Highly recommended.
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Filed under Reviews
Maintenance
One thing I learned from my dear mother: always clean up when you’re expecting company. The Toledo Blade is supposed to be running Karin Kowalski’s story on area bloggers tomorrow, and I want to be ready for the ten or fifteen visitors I expect to drop by– thus the new layout. Expect some bugs; I probably won’t get it all fixed before the paper hits tomorrow.
Update: I would be remiss in not acknowledging that my layout mostly came from PVRblog, and that Doug hooked me up with the initial template.
Filed under General Tech Stuff
Good news for Julie
Julie, according to this article, you’re not a spacker. The term has been hijacked to mean a “new breed of computer crackers who earn a living in cahoots with spammers.” Of course, the article’s author is a bit of a spacker himself. Perhaps WordPirates should get involved…
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Filed under Friends & Family
Jobs I’d like to have
I can’t decide which job I’d prefer:
- Working for the French government’s publicity verification service (see this AP story on ads for thong underwear)
- the International Earth Rotation Service. (Didn’t know there was such a thing? Well, now you do.) I can just see the business cards now…
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Filed under Musings
Book progress
I’ve just turned in the first 10 chapters of Secure Messaging with Exchange 2003. That means I’m halfway done. The current milestone date for 100% completion is 12/15, which would put the book on store shelves in late February, just about a year after the first book.
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Filed under General Stuff, Musings
If a Panther calls…
Despite what Ogden Nash has to say, I just preordered my copy of Mac OS X 10.3, code-named Panther.
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Filed under General Tech Stuff
