corigin.com

• Mozilla Corporation CEO and Chairman
  Mitchell hands over the reins to John Lilly after an amazing run at the helm herself. From the description it sounds a very rational move.
• Microsoft admits Office 2003 ‘mistake’
  This is a lousy fix. Non-expert users (read “everyone”) need a GUI in the code to toggle this setting in 2 years when they find they need to. Also, I still can’t see why these data files are so different that Office can’t be made secure to load them.
• Belkin Podcast Studio, iPods Get XLR
  This could be very cool, I’d love to play with one.
• NSI Registers Every Domain Checked
  I lost all respect for Network Solutions a long time ago, but this behaviour (clearly documented in the comments, do take a look) shows they deserve no trust from anyone. Certainly not a company I ever want to do business with again.
• Demeter Fragrance Library
  A scent for every eventuality.
• Why It Won’t Work

  Great pseudo-dialogue with Sony over their latest near-miss.

[Processed manually since the sucky gadget at del.icio.us failed again despite numerous attempts to ask them to fix it]

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• 2008 is the year of Linux on the desktop [dive into mark]
  no one is to show this to my parents, the new owners of an iMac courtesy of my brother. so far, they’re happy, but we’ll see if that lasts considering that i couldn’t get their Canon i850 printer working (worked flawlessly on Ubuntu)
  (tags: apple linux mac parents desktop markpilgrim)
• Christopher Blizzard » Blog Archive » Firefox 3: rocking on Linux
  excellent news
  (tags: linux firefox christopherblizzard)
• %w(Akita On Rails) * 2.0 - Chatting with Adrian Holovaty
  interesting interview with Adrian
  (tags: adrianholovaty 2008 django interview python web)
• My del.icio.us bookmarks for January 1st through January 2nd : AccMan
  appreciate the kind words, sir; however undeserved
  (tags: accmanpro sogrady)
• blog.pmarca.com: What’s that sound Wile E. Coyote makes as he’s plummeting towards the ground?
  “OK, now look at those numbers and tell me with a straight face that the DVD business isn’t going to go through the exact same thing in a couple of years, and that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren’t already the walking dead.” - no can do
  (tags: entertainment music dvd blu-ray hd-dvd economics sales revenue)
• 2007 music wrap-up
  heard a bunch of these, and they’re solid.
  (tags: jwz music recommendations 2007 albums bestof)
• Winning Even When You Lose
  “At the end of the day, it’s not important if your product doesn’t win when your offerings can make changes for everyone.” - or push your competitors into directions they’re not comfortable with and are costly
  (tags: competition google pressure)
• What’s the ceiling for Rails? - rc3.org
  don’t agree with all of this, but very useful input on the Rails yay or nay question
  (tags: rails rafecolburn ruby)
• Interview: Why Warner Went Full Throttle With Blu-ray
  “Home entertainment president Kevin Tsujihara told us that what was “somewhat troubling” is the “impact consumer confusion was starting to have…Consumers were saying ‘Hey, I might was well wait.’” - i’m shocked. wait, no. what’s the opposite of shocked?
  (tags: blu-ray hd-dvd hd dvd formats gizmodo)
• ESPN - Revelations from the Rocket on ‘60 Minutes?’ Not likely - MLB
  forget the subject matter; the science behind how this interview expert would approach the question is interesting
  (tags: interviewing techniques espn johnsawatsky rogerclemens steroids)

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• Taking The Plunge
  “Yesterday was a big day for me. It was the first day fully devoted to my new job, which is basically this website. It still hasn’t fully sunk in - I quit a perfectly good, pretty cool salaried position to run my baseball blog full-time.” - awesome
  (tags: blog baseball job economics)
• Q&A: Red Hat CEO believes Delta past isn’t a liability | Underexposed - CNET News.com
  “One is focus, focus, focus. This is a company that is almost encumbered by the opportunities we have.” - i wonder what that means for OLPC, Online Desktop/Mugshot, desktop efforts generally, etc
  (tags: redhat jimwhitehurst stephenshankland q&a)
• Inside the Box » Blog Archive » Product Hype
  i’m not hearing a no
  (tags: lenovo thinkpad rumors product hype)
• Ask for directions while driving from your iPhone with the new Ask.com | Apple iPhone tips and forums for iPod touch | Touchtip
  cool, i’ll need to try this
  (tags: ask.com drivingdirections iphone touchtip)
• Joe Gregorio | BitWorking | Tim Bray on Ruby on Rails
  Joe pushes back to Tim’s Rails predictions. i’m in between, though like some of the commenters i am skeptical of the authority of Google Trends posts
  (tags: ruby rails programming jvm statistics joegregorio)
• Boston Red Sox - Peter Gammons Red Sox chat transcript - Boston.com
  tons of interesting tidbits in here, for the baseball fan generally, and the Red Sox fan specifically
  (tags: boston globe redsox baseball petergammons chat)
• ConsortiumInfo.org - At a Loss for Words
  note to self: i need a briefing on the “blocking file formats” thing when i get back. like Andy, i’m perplexed
  (tags: andyupdegrove microsoft office file formats compatibility interoperability)

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• The Futurist » Blog Archive » WOXY.com Google Calendar Now Live!
  very progressive use of Google Calendar by the WOXY crew: kudos
  (tags: google calendar woxy programming schedule)
• The Scoble scuffle: Facebook, Plaxo at odds over data portability | The Social - CNET News.com
  i’d be more sympathetic if it wasn’t Plaxo; while they’ve somewhat rehabilitated themselves from their spamming past, i still get far too many “reminders” from them
  (tags: plaxo facebook data portability privacy open service)
• FOSSwire » Bullet proof your server #2 - SSH
  hadn’t known about ’ssh-copy-id’ - cool stuff
  (tags: ssh security linux howto sysadmin)
• RE: Deployment Cases
  “Take a look at what has happened in the film industry…Every manufacturer of 35mm film has understood that digital would replace film in the consumer market…Virtually everyone in that business understands exactly what the story is.” - ostriches, all
  (tags: 35mm camera film business strategy planning reinvention disruption via:bill)
• ZSFA — Rails Is A Ghetto (2007-12-31)
  everybody and their mother is talking about this one
  (tags: rails ruby rant rubyonrails zedshaw programming community culture performance)
• » Farewell to ZDNet (and CNET) | Berlind’s Testbed | ZDNet.com
  best of luck to Senor Berlind; CMP’s lucky to get him
  (tags: zdnet cmp davidberlind)
• Paul Buchheit: Should Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail block Facebook?
  “So the question is, should Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail block Facebook (or close the accounts of anyone who uses Facebook’s “friend finder”) for violating their Terms of Use?”
  (tags: paulbuchheit control economics privacy plaxo facebook)
• BostonHerald.com - Blogs: Bradford Files» Blog Archive » BA names Sox system second best
  sweet news
  (tags: boston redsox minorleagues baseball baseballamerica ba)
• Why don’t you try git for the new year? — Edward O’Connor
  “I expect the dvcs space to winnow considerably in 2008.”
  (tags: dvcs dscm git edwardo’connor)
• Charles Stricklin » Blog Archive » Graffitti disses WordPress
  this is a fight i would not have picked were i Graffitti. as Jonathan says, you can compete with a company, but competing with a social movement is another story altogether.
  (tags: opensource wordpress graffitti cms)
• one small voice » Blog Archive » Jabber is Nine
  “Tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of Jeremie Miller’s original announcement of Jabber technologies. How time flies — and we still have so much more to do!” - congrats to Jabber!
  (tags: jabber pierrestandre anniversary birthday)
• A Heart-to-Heart with GigaOM Readers - GigaOM
  wow. i don’t know Om, but best wishes on a swift and complete recovery
  (tags: ommalik heartattack health recovery)

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• Looking back on 2007: aqualung
  “Still using, still happy and have opened up tagging to all at Steph’s suggestion.” - cool, i didn’t even know you could do this. done.
  (tags: flickr tagging public richayman)
• “Calibrated Journalism” at Churbuck.com
  “The tyranny of metrics has firmly spilled into the newsroom. This is bad. This pushes enterprise reporting into the realm of chasing traffic.
  (tags: journalism reporting metrics economics ethics)
• Microsoft admits Office 2003 ‘mistake’ | Tech News on ZDNet
  “Microsoft updated the advisory on Friday evening and included links to four downloadable updates that would unblock the file formats. One update was provided for each of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and CorelDraw file types.” - good news
  (tags: microsoft file formats security blocking interoperability)
• FT.com | Maverecon: Is too much respect given to fundamentalist/literalist clap trap?
  yup
  (tags: evolution fundamentalism politics religion via:cote)
• WebUrbanist » 7 (More) Abandoned Wonders of America: From Military Islands to Mills and Institutions
  what can i say but that i love stuff like this. would that one of them was nearer Denver or Boston
  (tags: architecture abandoned art cool photography travel)
• YouTube - David Lynch on iPhone
  not a fan, apparently
  (tags: davidlynch iphone humor apple via:bree)

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• DataPortability has big names on board, but a long road ahead | The Social - CNET News.com
  “It’s a good first step. But the road ahead isn’t going to be a smooth one, and social-media enthusiasts hailing the age of “true interoperability” shouldn’t hold their breath. This will take a while.”
  (tags: dataportability facebook google plaxo privacy exitstrategy carolinemccarthy)
• cardboardutopia - Increasingly less impressed
  heard this a lot recently
  (tags: vmware fusion parallels virtualization mac)
• TEAM RUDY’S BOMBER BLUNDER
  “Some Rudy Giuliani volunteers bused here from New York City struck out as they went door to door in advance of Tuesday’s Granite State primary while wearing caps or jackets of the hated New York Yankees.” - hahaha. good luck w/ that in NH
  (tags: newhampshire boston redsox baseball newyork yankees rudygiuliani politics)
• Mark Shuttleworth » Blog Archive » Good architectural layering, and Bzr 1.1
  “It seems that one of the key “best practices” that has emerged is the idea of plug-in architectures, that allow new developers to contribute an extension, plug-in or add-on to the codebase without having to learn too much about the guts of the projec
  (tags: markshuttleworth architecture plugins firefox bazaar layers add-on extension)
• Jaiku users flee to Twitter as a result of Google’s neglect
  Google does many things better than some of the established large vendors, but acquisition do not appear to be one of them. Urchin, Grand Central, Jaiku, Dodgeball, and Blogger have all stagnated under their care.
  (tags: google jaiku m&a grandcentral acquisition socialnetworking)
• Amazon.co.uk: Things the Grandchildren Should Know: Books: Mark Oliver Everett
  i’m picking this up soon as it makes it over to the US
  (tags: amazon mre eels markolivereverett bildungsroman)
• A Taste for Brews That Go to Extremes - New York Times
  “Overproduction of hops in the early 1990s resulted in excess supply and depressed prices, said Ralph Olson, a hops dealer based in Yakima, Wash. As a result, world hop acreage has fallen from about 234,000 in 1994 to 113,000 in 2006.” - uh oh
  (tags: hops supply ipas beer american via:marcia)
• muellerware.org: projects/getfwa
  pmueller’s script for including Flickr images with attribution. cool, though i’m lazy and just use what Flickr has built in.
  (tags: patrickmueller flickr script attribution)

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• How to Shoot Light Trails
  neat. i know this is trite for the real photographers in the audience, but i’m not a real photographer, and hence will probably try this. maybe I-25 to start, as it’s just blocks away.
  (tags: digital exposure photography howto night photos light)
• Joe Gregorio | BitWorking | Batteries
  “If there is a technology realm that could have a larger impact on today’s society and yet has been less funded and had slower growth, I haven’t seen it.” - amen
  (tags: joegregorio batteries innovation energy economics)
• Square Pegs: Ha-ha! | pegasusnews.com | Dallas / Fort Worth
  “ha ha, your medium is dying!” - this is one for Senor Churbuck
  (tags: print media economics thesimpsons)
• Advogato: Blog for trs80
  sweet recap of RIA developments and news, and yes, James, i am very happy you blogged this did appreciate the original email too, of course.
  (tags: ria mozilla eclipse microsoft prism spicebird silverlight trs80)
• Wired News - AP News
  “The introduction of MusicPass is an important part of Sony BMG’s ongoing campaign to bring its artists’ music to fans in new and innovative ways,” - Napster, in the 90’s, was innovative. the last record company to release non-DRM’d music - in 07 - is not
  (tags: sony musicpass drm napster music delivery)
• International tipping tips - CNN.com
  this is why a lot of the folks i know in the service industry don’t enjoy serving folks from abroad; clearly it’s not their fault, but a 5-10% tip here is going to cause you problems on a return visit.
  (tags: tipping international service industry culture)
• The ‘Myth of Market Share’: Can Focusing Too Much on the Competition Harm Profitability? - Knowledge@Wharton
  this is interesting, but misses the point in newer markets i think
  (tags: analysis economics competition competitive marketshare strategy)
• Redmond | Feature Article: Google’s Secret Weapon
  “Moreover, things are likely to get worse as other companies realize that one way of weakening Microsoft is to strengthen open source. This has been an important element in IBM Corp.’s strategy for nearly a decade”
  (tags: google opensource microsoft ibm strategy)
• Virtualization in the Enterprise Survey: Your Virtualized State in 2008
  the surprising thing to me? do a simple find on ‘managment’
  (tags: virtualization strategy trends statistics systemsmanagement)
• Amazon Web Services Blog: Increasing Amazon S3 Data Transfer Performance
  can’t wait, given the increasing volume of data i’ve made Amazon’s problem
  (tags: amazon aws bandwidth beta performance s3 via:jeff)
• Mozilla promotes Lilly from COO to CEO | Underexposed - CNET News.com
  most of the folks i’ve spoken with seem fairly ambivalent about this, which strikes me as a bit odd
  (tags: johnlilly mitchellbaker stephenshankland mozilla firefox ceo executive moves)

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• There Will Be Blood at Churbuck.com
  i’ve got plans to see this with a friend coming up. can’t wait.
  (tags: therewillbeblood davidchurbuck movie review)
• .:: BPONG.COM ::. || Beer Pong and Beruit || Home of The World Series of Beer Pong ™
  “Beer pong, also known as beirut” - uh, no, sorry. beer pong is a completely different thing altogether. a separate, purer, and nobler sport, requiring actual skill.
  (tags: beirut beerpong games)
• BaseballAmerica.com: Prospects: Top 10 Prospects: Boston Red Sox
  you have to like BA’s take on our farm system: lots of promise
  (tags: boston redsox baseballamerica prospects minorleagues)

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• The Verdict Is In: Our Voting System Is a Loser
  Actually much more positive than its title, this is an interesting overview of voting systems. Maybe OpenSolaris should consider “range voting” for the 2009 OGB elections?
  (tags: Politics democracy Election voting OpenSolaris)

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• Porting OpenBSD to UltraSPARC T1
  Looks like the UltraSPARC hardware we donated is being put to good use - nice work, Mark.
  (tags: OpenBSD OpenSPARC UltraSPARC)
• #opensolaris logs
  Wow. I found out about this today too. Most IRC-ers I know hate online logs like this. It makes all that casual conversation on-the-record and actionable. I do hope the people speaking there know they are being irrevocably recorded.
  (tags: IRC OpenSolaris OpenSource)
• Tell Me: Wax Poetic
  Previously unknown (at least to me) Norah Jones track emerges on Amazon MP3. Without DRM.
  (tags: Music Amazon DRM MP3)
• Confirmed! Sony is Barking
  I can understand why a channel manager would want this (”But what will I sell WalMart if we go for downloads?”) but it seems about as smart as Burger King requiring you to queue in-store for a token to use the drive-through.
  (tags: MP3 DRM Sony Music)

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• Dance, puny customer, dance!
  Ironically, David probably got the spam from InfoWorld in the first place because he filled a form like this. I hate them everywhere I find them, including Sun’s web sites.
  (tags: Privacy)
• Lost in translation
  Classic sign. I like this site, I keep finding cool music and art there.
  (tags: Language Translation Humour Signs)
• OLPC’s account of Intel’s behaviour
  “Actions do speak louder than words in this case. As we said in the past, we view the children as a mission; Intel views them as a market.”
  (tags: Intel OLPC DigitalDivide Exploitation)
• One bag or two? The luggage laws that defy all logic
  Some UK airports will now, like the rest of the world, allow passengers (including transit passengers) two carry-on bags instead of just one. Which airports? Ah, well if it was simple it would be no fun.
  (tags: UK Travel rights security)

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• Those who forget Santayana…
  “DIS 29500 is already obsolete, has already been embraced and extended. You just don’t know about it yet. You weren’t meant to know. In fact, pretend you don’t know. Give Microsoft a big head start. They need it.”
  (tags: OOXML Standards Microsoft RTF Ecma ISO)
• ODF Alliance Annual Report 2007
  Incredibly powerful statement about the uptake of ISO26300 OpenDocument Format. See how far the open source movement’s first true international standard has come. Truly amazing.
  (tags: ODF OpenDocument standards ISO26300)
• The Scoble scuffle: Facebook, Plaxo at odds over data portability
  Scoble’s spin is creative but he doesn’t own any of that personal data (he didn’t enter it) so letting him give it to a spammer like Plaxo is clearly wrong. It’s more than just a Freedom to Leave. issue - see Dare’s post for more.
  (tags: Scoble Plaxo Privacy Facebook via:sogrady)
• Facebook Right, Scoble Wrong
  “So if Facebook allows you to extract information about your Facebook friends via their APIs, why would Robert Scoble need to run a screen scraping script?” We desperately need a common microformat for social graphs as well as a common policy.
  (tags: Data Facebook Identity Privacy Scoble)
• Farewell to ZDNet (and CNET)
  CMP nabs the best journalist in the technology industry. Congratulations, David, looking forward to seeing what happens next!
  (tags: DavidBerlind journalism)

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• Google’s Secret Weapon
  Glyn does a good job documenting how Google tactically supports open source to damage Microsoft without actually letting openness spread into the company.
  (tags: Google OpenSource Microsoft business)
• Burma hits satellite TV where it hurts
  While the attitude of the Burmese dictators is detestable, they have at least learned the lesson of the Prohibition and figured out that banning things isn’t smart since you can’t control what’s illegal.
  (tags: Burma rights abuse Television news censorship)
• Sun’s Game: Friends Close, Microsoft Closer
  I think this article has it about right. Sun’s future is open source. In that context, dealing with IBM and Microsoft through a tense relationships works better than not dealing at all.
  (tags: Sun Microsoft business OpenSource)

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• Disturbed sleep link to diabetes
  This looks like it could be important.
  (tags: Sleep Health Diabetes)

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• Conroy announces mandatory internet filters to protect children
  Another politico-Luddite who doesn’t realise the “filters” are a vector for commercialised prejudice and create a control point for political control of expression in the future (”we have to stop these terrorists using the internet…”)
  (tags: Australia Politics censorship Internet government privacy)
• RIAA Shifting Sands
  Dan Gillmor spotted that this (now erased) FAQ from the RIAA website explicitly endorses making personal copies of your CDs and using the music elsewhere.
  (tags: RIAA Sleaze rights abuse copyright)

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