I have no idea if Steve Jobs is serious about getting rid of DRM (I’m all for it if he does), but Boing Boing has a great round up of commentary and links on the news.
Category: Interesting
Random Link Dump
In an attempt to get rid a few of my flagged links in my stash here until I can get something worthwhile written, here are just a few random links:
- Converting Physical Machines to Virtual Machines for Free
- Putty 0.59 is out
- Apparently there are lots of areas of the US that have their own currency
- Mobile Faker, a tool that would come in handy on the dating scene. I guess…
- 100 best fonts (PDF catalog)
- Tag Clouds of famous US Presidential Speeches (Iraq and Terrorists were the two most common ones in the last state of the union).
- Using the GParted LiveCD to repartition your hard drive
- FarkTV is stupidly entertaining.
- Google Analytics hack to optain full referring URL.
- Using a 9-Volt battery as emergency AAAs.
- Swear your way to a good score in the Profane Game
This week has just been crazy for me, and I’m hoping to divulge more about it later this week. Stay tuned…
Who Has The Worst Crime Rate Per Capita?
The top crime neighborhood in the world isn’t in Sao Paulo or Lagos. It’s not the Bronx in New York, or even Wedding in Berlin. It’s the small city ruled by Pope Benedict XVI, which apparently sees more criminal cases per capita than any other part of the world.
The Vatican’s attorney general Nicola Picardi released the astounding statistic at the start of 2007: The tiny nation’s justice department in 2006 had to contend with 341 civil and 486 criminal cases. In a population of 492, that measures out to 1.5 cases per person — twenty times the corresponding rate in Italy.
Obviously, this is mostly from folks who make the journey to the Vatican, not from permanent residents, but it’s still an interesting stat.
Stupidly Handy Windows Applications (and FireFox extensions, too)
I can’t believe I didn’t find Taskbar Shuffle a lot earlier, as I’ve always wanted the ability to rearrange my taskbar buttons like I do with my Firefox tabs.
Then I realized something: I have a ton of small little applications installed that make my windows experience a heck of a lot more entertaining, usable, and flexible, and all of them are free. And I’ve never documented them all in one place, so I’m going to make the attempt here (mostly so I can remember these in the future should my computer ever go haywire). These are in no particular order, and this post has been several weeks in the making.
Full list after the jump.
The Food Network is Trying To Brainwash You
I was wondering why I had a hankering for McDonalds after watching Iron Chef America on Sunday night (video after the jump)…
The Winner In The High-Def DVD Wars Will Be Decided By The Porn Folks
Out of the two competiting high-definition DVD formats that are coming out, I personally like HD-DVD. Why? It doesn’t have as much DRM-nastiness as the Sony product (or at least isn’t in bed with movie studios), it’s cheaper, and its encryption has already been broken meaning you can now make legal backup copies of your HD-DVDs. That, and I also don’t like Sony, the biggest backer of the Blu-Ray format.
But I have a feeling that the porn industry is going to make the format decision for us. Like it or not, the adult film industry generally sets a lot of the trends out there when it comes to video formats. They were the first to stream video online, first major adopter of DVDs, and they’re embracing the HD-DVD format. Biggest reason? Economics — Blu-Ray costs more to produce. If I remember correctly, HD-DVD discs can be produced in existing DVD factories with minor retro-fitting, while Blu-Ray requires new machines and processes. I personally just hope a format is settled on soon so that customers don’t have to try to understand all this mess.
Happy Birthday Dr. King
Be sure to read his great speech today, or listen to the whole thing on the video below.
TV Audiences Are Getting Fragmented
TV execs are obviously worried about the multitude of media options out there, and they probably don’t sleep better when they get stats that show that the #1 show last week was not CSI, Deal Or No Deal, or anything like that, but was the CBS’s NFL Post Game show.
You May Be Proud Of Your Kids, But Don’t Advertise It
You know those signs and bumper stickers you put up on your car or house saying how proud you are of your honor student/cheerleader/quarterback/pot smoking son or daughter? They’re helping sexual predators stalk your kids.
Flickr: Putting Professional Photojournalists Out Of Work
This just appeals to the journalist in me, but it’s interesting to see stories that use Flickr photos as primary news imagery. There are well-respected folks that foresee doom and gloom for the professional photojournalist.
Interesting thoughts. Links via E-Media Tidbits.