BunkBlog

Here‘s a great way to circumvent the insipid file filter threatened by Napster. It just renames all your MP3 files into Pig Latin. Even better, it’s illegal under the DMCA (same blunt object the RIAA hides behind) to reverse-engineer it. Gotta love subversives.

And, an OpenNap server may be starting up at Sealand, using HavenCo’s servers to circumvent the DMCA by hosting on a sovereign site. Yep, the RIAA really should have taken the money that Napster offered…

Apologies to anyone who actually reads /. and my journal. 🙂
current_mood: amused

Just saw the RIAA representative talking outside the courtroom on CNN. She really sounds petulant. Of course, Napster can stop people from trading songs based on a simple filter. But, you willfully ignorant twit, that doesn’t mean people will not just rename files with funky characters to get around the filters. Here, try this example: Prinse n da rebolushun - Boyz und Girlz.mp3 would slip right by the filtering system, but would still be a pirated song.

Of course, the RIAA also claims they had a horrible 39% decline in CD sales last year, but it was actually a 39% decline in CD Single sales. Um, who buys CD singles anyhow, especially with the ability to preview individual tracks at CDnow, Amazon, or Tower Records stores? Slashdot had a great piece that tore apart the RIAA numbers.

Oh, and Courtney Love, after telling the world how record companies screw artists, is suing her record company for the indentured servitude forced on her, as with any other artist. But, she can afford to make noise about it. Cool.
current_music: Prodigy – Smack my Bitch Up
current_mood: amused

There’s yet another story about Linux PDAs, this one from the venerable Hewlett-Packard, possibly moving the Jornada line to Linux or Palm since WinCE blows.

There are plenty of other examples of such promises or hints, including some actual physical devices, yet nobody has brought one to market yet. What the hell? Here are the examples, can someone tell me why they aren’t done yet? Yopy has been hyped on Slashdot and elsewhere since February 2000, supposedly to ship in the summer of 2000. Still nothing. Agenda‘s VR3 has been discussed since August, but still not shipping except to developers.

Of course, Gateway is shipping their AOL webpad thing running Linux, but c’mon, it’s America OnLine! Besides the fact that it isn’t portable, it’s not much use except to check AOL email. And, really, if you are buying an internet appliance for your home, you probably don’t use AOL. AOLers don’t know what “internet appliance” means, for crying out loud.
current_music: Prodigy – MindFields
current_mood: bored

Major reorganization of my website this week, hope it makes it look more professional, or at least easier to navigate.

Here’s some highlights: moved most of the graphics, Thoughts, Reviews, and Lianna’s XXmas Archive to subdirectories, to aid in the future growth of the site. This makes it easier for me (webgeek) to navigate my site when I’m building it. Naturally, this is going to confuse many search engines and other folks’ URL pointers, so I made redirects for the two most popular pages that got moved: Lianna and RioVolt. Speaking of which, if you link to my site, please don’t put that useless www string in front of the site name. It is merely andysocial.com, nothing further is needed and when added it just confuses my stats program. Thanks.

Let me know if I’ve screwed anything up terribly, or if you have a suggestion to make the site more appealing.

Lianna’s archive was removed, so I removed the URLs here as well.
current_music: Everclear – AM Radio
current_mood: accomplished

Does anyone know a way to prepare Fried Ice Cream?

Apparently, it’s not a universal Mexican food, but a Baja California dish.
current_mood: satisfied

I’m so short, I had to rappel out of bed this morning.
I’m so short, I walk under closed doors.
I’m so short, I have to look up to see my boots.
I’m so short, I could trip on a dime.
I’m so short, I need a stepladder to get in my car.

This list of bad “short jokes” comes to you courtesy of a very happy soon-to-be former soldier. Woohoo!
current_mood: ecstatic

Is it wrong to prefer the Tom Jones & Pretenders remake of Lust for Life over the original Iggy Pop version? I feel dirty…
current_mood: playful

OK, so I’ve been intensely busy with . . . um, ok . . .

Let’s be honest, I’ve been playing Diablo II alot. I’m not proud of it, but it’s true.
I am also terribly annoyed with the state of technical job hiring in this country. For some reason, jobs must be filled the very week they are vacated, or the sky will fall. How in the world can an industry survive like that? I’m available to start working the second week in February, but a firm in Tucson insists that I start 29 January or forget it. Um, I don’t completely control my release from the military, but is two weeks going to put the company into bankruptcy? If they’re so hot to hire me, how can 10 days be a deal-breaker?

I don’t get it.

Back to Diablo…
current_mood: annoyed

How cool is this ? Someone unknown and unnamed has placed a 9-foot steel monolith in a Seattle park. I love Seattle, they’re crazy there. 🙂
current_mood: tired