Risk - Are we paranoid?

Risk - Are we paranoid? -- Amen. Related to The End of the Deep End as well as to Antibacterial Insanity. Is a world without risk desirable? We really only learn from our failures. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Daring Fireball: Closed Is Open

Daring Fireball: Closed Is Open -- John Gruber parses the comments of Microsoft's GM of Windows Digitial Media Division...

MSGMWDMD: iTunes captured some early media interest with their store on the Mac, but I think the Windows platform will be a significant challenge for them. Unless Apple decides to make radical changes to their service model, a Windows-based version of iTunes will still remain a closed system, where iPod owners cannot access content from other services.

Gruber: We're bad-mouthing Apple because they're not using WMA, and our goal is to establish a monopoly on digital media formats and rights management. You might think that the iPod and iTunes are in fact open, given that they work swimmingly well with MP3 files, but you would be wrong, because what we mean by "open" is "based on Microsoft's propriety formats". (In fact, we don't even mention "MP3" in this entire "Q&A".)

MSGMWDMD: Additionally, users of iTunes are limited to music from Apple's Music Store.

Gruber: Except for MP3s, which don't count.

MSGMWDMD: As I mentioned earlier, this is a drawback for Windows users [...]

Gruber: Where by "Windows users", we mean "Microsoft".

heh, heh. (via Channelling Cupertino)

(For an alternate view, there's the take from Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal.)

Go Fly a Kite!

Go Fly a Kite! - It made me smile, too. 'Nuff said.

Kill Bill

Kill Bill -- Hysterical, over the top, Grand Guignol video game violence and adrenaline for those (like me) too old to twitch game controllers, punctuated with beautifully nuanced visual moments and perfectly timed verbal humor, all capped off with a last line of dialogue that will make the wait until February's second volume excruciating.

The Uses of Technology

The Uses of Technology -- From Tom Negrino...

"We watched much of the Democratic candidates debate last night. Thanks to the wonders of ReplayTV, we got to skip the dull or foolish parts, which would be, respectively, pretty much any time that Lieberman or Kucinich were talking. I mostly watched what Clark, Dean, Edwards, and Kerry said, as these are the candidates that I would prefer."

Interesting...I did the same with my poor-man's TiVo, although skipped Kerry quite a bit as well.

On Scarcity of Resources and Budget Crises

On Scarcity of Resources and Budget Crises --

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
    -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

...as is every tax cut for corporations and fat cats.

Along these lines, I like what dangerousmeta had to say about a NY Times Editorial (free registration required) about the cynical political strategy of draining the bank account to kill social support programs...

"I think the country would prefer having the “Waltons” lifestyle remain voluntary."

By the way, it's nice to be able to quote a Republican president and be in agreement. I can't think of such a possibility since Ike. (opening quote via Bartleby.com)

Sins

Sins --

"According to Gandhi, the seven sins are wealth without works, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle."
    -- Jimmy Carter 

(via Bartleby.com)