Why I love the Internet

Wednesday night I watched the season finale of The West Wing, which is one of my favorite TV shows. This particular episode featured a song that I really enjoyed, but I had no idea who sang it or who wrote it. I thought I had heard the song before, but that was the extent of what I knew about it. So I did what anyone with my connections would do. I called Jenna's Dad, Bob. He has a god-like memory for music, and I was sure he would know who sang the song. Unfortunately, even after I sang the chorus, he didn't know where the song came for. So, I turned to the internet. First I went to the official website for The West Wing. I was hoping that they would have a credit on the page for the song they used. To my disappointment, however, they did not have any information on the song. They did, however, have a section dedicated to finding the best fan site for the show. I picked the second one on the list called The West Wing Continuity Guide. They already had a page up about the episode I just watched, and they had a FAQ for the episode which listed the song. They song, by the way, was Jeff Buckley's version of a Leonard Cohen song called Hallelujah, and the song comes from Buckley's album Grace. Now I knew the song, but I was still a little skeptical. So, I launched Morpheus. If you aren't familiar with Morpheus, it is basically another application that let's people trade mp3 files on the net. It is similar in function to Napster. I searched for Jeff Buckley and Hallelujah on Morpheus, and found three songs, I picked the one with the fastest ping time, and downloaded it. In minutes I was listening to the song I had liked so much. Then I decided to download the Leonard Cohen version as well. Again it only took a few minutes. I liked both version of the song, and I confirmed that the Jeff Buckley version was the one on the show. The story doesn't stop there though. Next, I went out to Amazon, and bought a copy of the CD. The interesting part here, is that neither the Leonard Cohen CD nor the Jeff Buckley CD showed up on my recommendations from Amazon, and it is highly unlikely that I would have ever come across these CDs by themselves. So the moral of this story is that because of free mp3 trading on the internet I bought two CDs that I never would have bought otherwise. Why is it that the music industry wants to shut these services down?

PCWorld.com - Cool New Notebooks Lead Gadgets in May

Normally I wouldn't post an article like this, but go to the site and scroll to the bottom of the list there you will find the following entry:
Takara Bowlingual If you want to know what your dog is barking about, let it wear toy maker Takara's "Bowlingual" device. A wireless compact microphone, which is placed on a dog's collar, will pick up and send its bark to a separate terminal with an LCD. The terminal will then analyze its voiceprint, categorize it into one of six feelings (frustration, menace, insistence, fun, sorrow, and desire), and translate it into words such as "I'm happy" and "cool!" The device can either display them on the screen or voice them from the speaker. Takara is planning to roll out Bowlingual in August at $119.

Cal Aggie Alumni Association News

Jenna sent me two article's this morning from the UC Davis Alumni Association the first is about the universities efforts to clone cows. The second article concerns a new program for mentoring start-up founders. Both are interesting reads.

Silicon Valley Grows Up

A really nice Op-Ed piece from The New York Times about the differences between Hollywood and Silicon Valley, and how the debate over technology and digital media is shaping up.

New Scientist: Quantum wormholes could carry people

An interesting article about quantum wormholes, and how they could be used to carry people at faster-than-light speeds. The downside? If people screw up when using one of these wormholes one of two things can happen. Either we would create a new black hole, or we would create a new universe that would expand at light speed.

PCWorld.com - Archos Shrinks CD-RW for Travel

I had an interesting conversation with my Dad last weekend. We spent nearly an hour talking about the best solution to power mobile devices. In the end, I think we decided the best way for travelers to power their mobile devices was from their notebook pc. That's how the Apple Ipod does it. Now here is another device that gets it's power form the computer it's attached to. This CDRW from Archos is a pretty interesting device both because of it's size, and the way it gets it's power.

.protozoa.us

Thank goodness someone is doing something about this.

Yahoo - Xerox's Digital Mail Service Transforms Snail Mail to e-mail

Business Wire is reporting that Xerox has announced a service to transform snail mail to e-mail. Basically mail is scanned, indexed and stored online. Users can then download or forward the mail as they would e-mail. Xerox will also maintain the hard copy documents and store them according to the customer's specs. Pretty neat service if you ask me.

With buy, Cisco foes will join forces - Tech News - CNET.com

Looks like Juniper is really going to give Cisco a run for the money. I didn't think Juniper was in a position to do an acquisition like this. Now we'll see if they can get the technology from Unisphere integrated into their products.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | OPEC chief warned Chavez about coup

For the conspiracy theorists among us... It seems that OPEC warned Chavez about the coup in Venezuela days before it actually happened. It also seems in this article that he stated the USA was responsible for the coup. I have heard the latter through other news sources as speculation.

Physics News Update: New Theory For Dark Matter

The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News Number 588 May 9, 2002 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein, and James Riordon ANOTHER UNIVERSE MIGHT LURK ONLY MILLIMETERS away from our universe, but we wouldn't know it because it exists on its own membrane separated from our membrane in some extra spatial dimension. Matter on the other membrane would be invisible but could exert a gravitational effect and would, in fact, constitute the "dark matter" for which astrophysicists have sought for some years. In a recent paper Paul Steinhardt (Princeton) and Neil Turok (Cambridge) propose that the structure in our universe may well have come about in the collision of two such membrane universes. All the historical events in the life of our cosmos initial big bang, subsequent expansion of galaxies, even the currently observed accelerated expansion phase, and finally a contraction into a "big crunch" would be played out in a recurring drama. This cyclic cosmology (an extension of Steinhardt's "ekpyrosis" theory; see Update 535) uses all the latest tools of string theory, accounts for the "dark energy" supposedly firing cosmic acceleration, and would have no need for an ad-hoc "inflationary" phase appended to the standard big bang model to explain such cosmological features such as the horizon problem (why the extreme edges of the visible universe seem to be at the same temperature). (Sciencexpress, 25 April, soon to be in Science.)

Tiny IBM transistor beats silicon

MSNBC is running an article that says IBM has used a carbon nanotube to make a transistor, and that the resulting transistor is faster than silicon transistors used today. Pretty cool stuff.

Courier Mail Server

Has anyone on the list, or those reading the blog worked with this mail server before? It seems like it does lots of stuff (mail filtering, IMAP server, Webmail server, SSL IMAP, and ESMTP). I'm going to have to give it a try, because I think it will help solve a lot of the mail problems I've been seeing lately on my machine. If you have worked with Courier, let me know.

O'Reilly Network: Tapping the alpha geek noosphere with EtherPEG [May 16, 2002]

Here is an interesting article I found from /. This is describing the conference I'm at, so I thought you would all find it interesting. I do have to say there was quite a bit of keyboard clicking during this particular presentation, but not as much as when the Microsoft guy was on the stage, and definitely not as much as when the BEA gave his talk this morning.

Yahoo! News - SONICblue Wins

Remember the article I posted a few weeks ago about Sonic Blue being ordered to spy on it's customers? Well, they appealed the order and a judge has issued a stay until the appeal can be heard.

The Register: Marker pens, sticky tape crack music CD protection

The Register is reporting that many people have demonstrated ways to defeat the CD copy protection that Sony is using with simple around the house items like Markers, and Duck Tape. There really is nothing that Duck Tape can't fix.

Another Run to a Deep-Link Suit

Well, here we go again. Last week we talked about the Dallas Newspaper suing people for "Deep-Linking" this week the publishers of Runner's World are suing a hobbyist for linking to a "printer-friendly" version of an article. This is completely absurd!

Fw: Obit for HP, written by David Packard

> A poster placed in the Stanford Theatre lobby: > > Hewlett Packard > 1938 -- 2002 > R.I.P. > > The Stanford Theatre still exists today only because of the employees of > the Hewlett Packard Company. Without their achievements over the years, > there would have been no foundation to purchase and restore this theatre. > > Palo Alto might have had one more book store, or perhaps another > restaurant. Architects had plans ready for a new "Casablanca Cafe" at > this location when the Packard Foundation rescued the theater in 1987. > > The Hewlett Packard Company was founded in 1938 in a garage on Addison > Street only a few blocks from where you are now standing. Back then, the > Stanford Theatre was showing brand new movies. In 1938 you could have > seen Cary Grant and Katharine > Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby > and Holiday > . You could have seen Errol Flynn > in The Adventures of Robin Hood > . You could have seen Alice Faye > , Don Ameche > , Ethel Merman > , and Tyrone Power > in Alexander's Ragtime Band > . You could have seen Jimmy Stewart > and Jean Arthur > in Frank Capra > 's You Can't Take It With You > . You still can see these same movies > at the Stanford Theatre. Our audiences know that they are truly timeless. > > The HP Way also touched many people's lives. Most of us expected that it > would last forever -- that it would prove as timeless as a Frank Capra > movie. But those entrusted with the duty to safeguard it have exercised > their legal right to make another choice. Dura lex, sed lex. The law is > harsh, but it is the law. > > HP employees are now on a new ship, being taken on a new voyage. The > company has even changed its stock symbol to HPQ to stress that the > "old" HP is gone. For the sake of the surviving employees, of course I > hope for a good outcome. But it is hard to imagine that their leaders > can invent something better than what they left behind. > > David W. Packard > The Stanford Theatre Foundation.

Lindows.com

I've been following Lindows for awhile now, and I think that many of you will find it compelling. Lindows is, basically, a Micro$oft Windows replacement. It is built on linux, and it's real claim to fame is that you can still run windows applications on this OS. They are expecting to have a product released by the middle of this year, and you can sign up to be an "insider" which gets you preview versions and the released version of the OS.

Fw: New York mob torched anthem singer's Maple Leaf

> New York mob torched anthem singer's Maple Leaf > May 2, 2002 > > Bruce Arthur > > National Post > > Days after being cheered as he sang the Canadian and American anthems > before an NHL playoff game in Toronto, Robert Pomakov watched, horrified, > as unruly New York hockey fans burned his Canadian flag in the parking lot > of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. > > Mr. Pomakov, an opera singer, saw both his Canadian and his Toronto Maple > Leaf flags torn from his car and set on fire by a crowd chanting "U.S.A! > U.S.A!" in the moments before Sunday's Game 6 between the Leafs and the New > York Islanders. > > "We lost four of our soldiers and they were basically defending these > idiots," said an outraged Mr. Pomakov. "If patriotism is what drives these > people and their ignorance, then I am ashamed to have our soldiers > defending them." > > Four Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on April 18 when a U.S. > fighter plane mistakenly bombed them. > > Mr. Pomakov, 21, is working on his masters of opera degree at the > world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, from where he > drove to Long Island for Sunday's game at the Coliseum, which is named in > honour of U.S. war veterans. > > He and fellow Torontonian Patrick Magee, also 21, decked themselves in Team > Canada and Leafs jerseys and attached one regular-size Canadian flag and > one Maple Leafs flag to broomsticks on their rental car. After being > heckled as they pulled into the parking lot before the game, they could > only look on as both flags were set alight. > > "I was just shocked," he said. "There's a line that needs to be drawn, and > this was so far across. You can't believe that you're watching the Canadian > flag burn. > > "There wasn't much we could do. There were a lot more of them than there > were of us." > > Mr. Pomakov felt the Americans' treatment of the Canadian flag was > disgraceful. > > Mr. Pomakov said the flags incident has not soured him on life in the > United States. Still, he was pleased to see Toronto's Game 7 win on > Tuesday, which set up a second-round Battle of Ontario series with the > Ottawa Senators that begins tonight in Toronto. > > Whatever the feelings of Torontonians toward the seat of federal > government, or of Ottawans toward the seat of national commerce, the anthem > is quite unlikely to be booed during the series. > > barthur@nationalpost.com

Welcome to Our Law School, Young Man. We'll See You in Court.

The New York Times is reporting that LSU's Law School is suing one of it's own students over a www page he maintains that, in some areas, is critical of the school. While the www page has a URL that could be confusing, there is a disclaimer on the homepage that says the page has nothing to do with the school. Is it just me, or is this stuff really starting to get out of hand? I'm just glad that I have Hutchison.org, and that I can show continuos use of the Hutchison name in my family back several hundred years. That fact has held companies with similar names, particularly a huge overseas conglomerate at bay for years.

U.S. Renounces Obligations Courts

How can our government expect other countries to abide by international law when we choose not to recognize an international court system?

Tivo is Theft

According to Jamie Kellner who is the Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting (an AOL-Time Warner Company) using Tivo is theft. "Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots... Any time you skip a commercial... you're actually stealing the programming."

Today's Dilbert is a classic

Today's Dilbert is a classic. I've heard all of those terms. People at Cisco talked like that constantly.

Supercomputing '@Home' Paying Off

According to the New York Times, sometime this year SETI will reach a milestone. It will have spent a million years in computing time looking for E.T. (I guess they didn't look at the Movie Theater). The story goes on to say that SETI@Home has signed up 3.5 million people to donate computer time to their system.

Mercury News | 05/02/2002 | SonicBlue ordered to track ReplayTV users

The Mec is reporting that a federal magistrate in L.A. has ordered SonicBlue to start monitoring it's users. This means that if you are using a ReplayTV 4000 everything you do with it will be recorded by SonicBlue and handed over to the court. Well, guess I won't be buying one of these for awhile.

Slashdot | Hitchhiker's Guide, Salmon of Doubt

Slashdot is reporting that you can now get the Hitchhiker's series on Region 1 (US) DVD. You can get it on Amazon. Also Douglas Adams' last book Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time is going to start shipping on May 7.

Woodside Networks Announces Investment by Nokia Venture Partners

Today my company announced an investment by Nokia Venture Partners. You can see the details on the www page above. Now maybe my Grandma will stop worring that Woodside has enough money to pay me ;-)

Deutsche Bahn to sue Google

Deutsche Bahn (The German National Railway operator) is suing Google for providing links to information that tells people how to sabotage the railway system. They aren't accusing Google of creating this information, just linking to it. It seems to me that they could better use their time going after the information producers, or better yet making their railway system more secure.

BookCrossing.com - Home - READ and RELEASE!

Here is an interesting idea. You buy a book, read it, get one of these special labels, and then release the book into the wild. The label lets people log on to this www site and register that they have the book. They also get the opportunity to write a journal entry for the book. This way people can watch a free book travel around the world. Imagine if you set a book free in a local laundromat, then some college student picked it up and took it to Europe on a backpacking trip. Then that student left it there and someone else picked it up. Pretty cool...