BunkBlog

This research indicates that 18% of internet users download music for free. Of course, the demographic samples is a bit heavily weighted toward the older end of the spectrum. Check out the charts – almost half of those under 35 download music online. I’m betting the other half are on slow-ass connections.

Charlie Daniels has a “soapbox” article up, which is an open letter to his entertainment compatriots. He takes them to task for, among other things, offering aid and comfort to the enemy. Fun read.

From Jeremyful.

The fake documents that Secretary Powell presented to the U.N. in February have not been getting much airplay. Wonder why?

Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air After Bashing Bush – guess Texan radio stations never heard of Edmund Burke.

According to a Congressional panel, downloading a pirated MP3 or copy of Photoshop may be putting money in the hands of Al Qaeda. Yeah, right.

What are they smoking up there?

This is kind of geek news, but more interesting to me is that I used to work for this guy. He wasn’t a Mac-head then, though.

Wired News: Army’s Apple Shines in the Desert

Although it’s not a done deal yet, according to this article, TV and newspapers may be deregulated just like radio stations were in 1995. Don’t you just love the nearly-identical radio stations you can pick up all around the country today, courtesy of such lovely people as Clearchannel (motto: Payola? We don’t know about payola.)? I particularly love all the “Kiss FM” stations you can pick up, with Rick Dees in the morning. Or, the oh-so-creative “Best of the 80s 90s and Today” breed, which is like quaaludes for the mind.

Strangely, the companies likely to be affected by this, the big networks, are not really covering it at all. What a shocker. If you appreciate having local news that is local, if you like the idea that your local newspaper is not just a satellite-cloned copy of USA Today, perhaps you might want to let your voice be heard? The FCC is soliciting comments from the public.

CNN.com – Court bans Turkish Kurd party – Mar. 13, 2003

I swear, I first saw the headline as dealing with Kurdish Turds.

I’ve moved the past 14 months worth of LJ entries into Movable Type (minus comments), and I’ve added the RSS feed as a syndication for LJ. Anyone who wants to keep up with the site via LJ’s friends pages can now add the feed to their friends list. Those who read via any other RSS feed aggregator, look on the main page for the “syndicate me” link.

Now let’s see if I can sit still for a while…

For the next few days, the site will be odd. I’m going to be moving files around, changing the main index file so often your head will spin, and otherwise being a right pain in the ass. Deal with it. My site – mine!

Here I am, in my new/old home. I’ve imported most of the Livejournal posts over from the past 6 months, and I’ll finish importing them all eventually.

For those wondering, yes, this does mean I’m not doing Userpics any more. Sorry, but I’ve got to pare down a few things if I want to make time for my family. One should never have to “make time” for the family – they should always be at the fore.

The fact that I type almost everything that I write has caused my handwriting skills to atrophy to the level of a brain damaged rhesus monkey’s scribbles.

I can relate to that.
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current_mood: amused

Just added a new section to my site, with not much in it. Scavenger hunt to find it, if you care.
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1. What was the last song you heard? “Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones – the woman across the office seems to only have the one song from that CD.
2. What were the last two movies you saw? I’ll say: last one in a theater was Treasure Planet and last one on TV was Gardens of Stone
3. What were the last three things you purchased? Groceries
4. What four things do you need to do this weekend? Watch TV, play with the boy, eat, sleep
5. Who are the last five people you talked to? Tom, Laurie, Jim, Alex, Angie

Boy, am I dull or what? Oh, well.
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According to an article on News.com, Microsoft is going to begin allowing multiple concurrent versions of each DLL on their new .Net Server platform. They claim this is a benefit so that applications that depend on a particular version won’t break when the new DLL is not backward-compatible with the old. I guess they couldn’t fix their flawed compatibility checking, so they just let every program have their own set of DLLs. Way to build on the modular, object-oriented thing there.

The article goes on to mention that .Net components will be able to be copied from one system to another without going through a tortuous installshield procedure, but can be simply dropped into the appropriate directory and they’ll work, no Registry-hacking required. According to a .Net manager, “It is good for scaling out–it means you can copy applications instead of reinstalling them. The whole process becomes much simpler.” Gee, couldn’t we do that with any program before MS decided that the Registry was a Good Thing?

Next up, DOS 2004.
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current_mood: amused

Re: the resignation of career diplomat John Brady Kiesling from the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, which was recently made public. His resignation letter is worth quoting:

“The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson.

We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.”

Kiesling later asks: “Has oderint dum metuant really become our motto?”

This phrase, now quoted regularly among the most militant denizens in the White House, means, “Let them hate us so long as they fear us.” It was penned by Lucius Accius, the Roman poet (170 B.C.), and was said to be a favorite phrase of the emperor Caligula.
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When I left San Angelo in 2001, the town had no radio station worth listening to. The best you could hope for is something inoffensive, such as the Top 40 Station. Upon returning a few weeks ago, I was pleasantly surprised to notice the one rock station, which had been using a 9-volt battery for power, now was actually capable of being received anywhere in town. I was happily jamming to Sister Hazel or Zwan on the way around town.

This morning I got in the car and was horrified to hear the soulful strains of 80s light rock coming from the stereo. With no fanfare, no information, and no apologies, the one station that didn’t make me cringe at regular intervals has morphed into the one station that can make me cringe non-stop. Great.

In other news, KDGE and KNDD no longer have webcasts, thanks to the predations of the RIAA and ASCAP. Bastards. At least 91X still streams. Equis Te Ere A, Tijuana, Mexico. Woohoo.

current_mood: annoyed

You want a North Korea calendar, don’t you? Be topical! Show off your knowledge of current events!
Check it out.
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1. What is your favorite type of literature to read (magazine, newspaper, novels, nonfiction, poetry, etc.)?
   Fiction
2. What is your favorite novel?
   The Last Dancer by Daniel Keys Moran, or the Foundation Trilogy by Asimov
3. Do you have a favorite poem? (Share it!)
   Sonnet 130
4. What is one thing you’ve always wanted to read, or wish you had more time to read?
   More of the modern classics.
5. What are you currently reading?
   Ties of Power by Julie E. Czerneda

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current_mood: awake