Aside

Becky and I saw TMBG last night at Bimbo’s. What a great show. Just wholesome, clean, nerd rock. Corn Mo opened for them, he’s this sort of cross between Wesley Willis and Mitch Hedburg but less crazy and with an accordion. He’s awesome. In roughly the order they played them in: Dead Istanbul (not Constantinople) New York City Experimental Film Alphabet of Nations Damn Good Times Stalk of Wheat Clap Your Hands Memo to Human Resources Drink! Older Fingertips Particle…

Hats off to my co-worker Curt Poff and my editor Jason Snell for telling me about Sealand. The Principality of Sealand is a micronation (a self-declared, unrecognised state-like entity) that claims as its territory Roughs Tower as well as territorial waters in a twelve nautical mile radius. Roughs Tower is a former Maunsell Sea Fort located in the North Sea six miles (10 km) off the coast of Essex, United Kingdom, at 51° 53′ 40″ N, 1° 28′ 57″ E.…

Macworld: New Apple hardware and cool Mac gear are on my mind in this latest installment of the Macworld Podcast. First, the new hardware: Apple has spent the past month freshening up its computers, with updates to the Power Mac, iMac, and PowerBook product lines. That’s led to a lot of late nights for the Macworld Lab, as it prepares benchmarks to measure the performance of the new systems. In this podcast, I talk with Lab Director James Galbraith about…

A class action lawsuit entitled Chavez v. Netflix, Inc. was filed in San Francisco Superior Court (case number CGC-04-434884) on September 23, 2004. The lawsuit alleges that Netflix failed to provide “unlimited” DVD rentals and “one day delivery” as promised in its marketing materials. Netflix has denied any wrongdoing or liability. The parties have reached a settlement that they believe is in the best interests of the company and its subscribers. Netflix will provide eligible subscribers with the benefit described…

Hello from New York City and congratulations to everyone at Macworld. Tonight we won the silver Ozzie award (second place nationally) for best illustration in our class (consumer above 250,000 circ) for the illustration that went with our “Prevent Mac Disasters” feature. Congratulations to Rob for the excellent art direction! And we won the GOLD Eddie award (first place!) for the best consumer computer/technology magazine, defeating MAKE magazine and PC World. This is a gigantic win for Macworld, a national…

Here’s how to make a Mac on X86 hardware for $200, and here’s where you can get a refurb Mac Mini for $379. Hot damn.

My cousin Nena do Nascimento (who I lived with in Switzerland) is studying abroad in Brazil this year, on her junior year abroad at McGill University. She’s just started a LiveJournal. For those of you who’ve studied abroad before, some words of encourgement I’m sure would be appreciated. Go Nena!

#1 : Syriana: From writer/director Stephen Gaghan, winner of the Best Screenplay Academy Award for Traffic, comes Syriana, a political thriller that unfolds against the intrigue of the global oil industry. From the players brokering back-room deals in Washington to the men toiling in the oil fields of the Persian Gulf, the film’s multiple storylines weave together to illuminate the human consequences of the fierce pursuit of wealth and power. As a career CIA operative (George Clooney) begins to uncover…

They Might Be Giants Friday Nov. 4 – 2 tix @ $30 each – or Thurs swap? – $60 Eight Paris Metro Tickets (unused) – $5

The FOURTH NYT article about podcasting, almost to the day of the first one that I wrote? What is going on with the NYT’s tech coverage? (Previous post on this from May 11, 2005.)