I mentioned this in the last post, but it warrants its own blurb. Sony, the electronics pioneer, has lost a lot of its innovative spirit to Sony, the media giant.

Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said he and other Sony employees have been frustrated for years with management*s reluctance to introduce products like Apple Computer Inc.*s iPod, mainly because the Tokyo company had music and movie units that were worried about content rights.

Read the whole article.

Normally I would be a bit outraged at the casting of another silly lawsuit, especially one that made it all the way to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. But this one was just too much fun to pass up. 5th Circuit Rules in Rappers* Battle Over Phrase *Back That Ass Up*.

Seems that two gentlemen came out with songs that contained the memorable phrase at about the same time. One of them sold 4 million copies and the other…. Well, ets just say he didn*t exactly get his bling bling.

After a 2003 trial, a jury ruled in favor of defendant Juvenile, finding that D.J. Jubilee failed to prove that his version of “Back That Ass Up” was substantially similar to Jubilee*s version of “Back That Azz Up.”

D.J. Jubilee appealed to the 5th Circuit, arguing that many of the jury instructions were flawed, including instructions on substantial similarity, specifically when applied to the use of the phrase “back that ass up.”

Juvenile believed that the songs were substantially different and used different hooks; D.J. Jubilee*s hook was the phrase “back that ass up” while Juvenile*s was a sample from the Jackson 5*s song “I Want You Back.” But D.J. Jubilee believed the jury should have been instructed to review specific portions of both songs, rather than both songs as a whole, according to the 5th Circuit*s opinion.

Now, can someone please get Tom Brokaw to read this story into a microphone somewhere? I would give my platinum plated teeth to hear it.

It is a strange thing indeed that last nights herculean domestic accomplishments should put me in mind of Trent Reznor and the boys from NIN, but what can ya do?

Last night was my designated “domestic god” night in which I undertake to catch up on all those household chores that I have managed to put off for a few weeks. Namely laundry and dishes (no, there were not two weeks of dishes but a couple of days worth). And so in the tradition of my hero The Sports Guy I offer this running diary of the evening.

8:30 PM – Kids are in bed. Its West Wing Marathon night on Bravo. There are a kitchen full of dishes and a pile of clean clothes on the folding table in the basement. Trying to psych myself up for the evening.

8:45 – Screw it. I*ll watch the end of this West Wing and then get started. Good stuff. Seems that Toby has overidden CJ about the location of a post-breakfast press conference and gets himself rodgered but good for his trouble.

9:05 – Next episode is starting and I am forced to drag myself off the couch. Let the folding begin! There are clothes in the washer washing, clothes in the dryer flopping around like some sort of trout on a rock and about 4 loads piled on my table. Here we go.

9:15 – Pile is not getting appreciably smaller. This is discouraging because at any moment the dryer is going to go BUZZ and I wil have to add to the pile.

9:17 – BUZZ

9:19 – Dryer is running again, the last load is in the washer and the pile on the table now requires me to reach above shoulder height to take things off the top.

9:32 – As if my some alchemist magic, the pile is dwindling. Political intrigues continue on the tube and I note, by hitting the recall button, that Oklahoma is beating the holy tar out of OSU. Guess the cowboys are a bit overrated after all huh?

9:43 – Another large chunk gone from the pile. I have really hit stride now and the West Wing gang is stuck in Air Force One due to mechanical problems. Will Bailey is my new hero. Kids underware does not like to be folded in quarters. Yes, I know you don*t care, but its my diary.

9:56 – Roll credits as the last unfolded garment comes of the table and into my nimble fingers. Job well done all around. The President is safe and I have three neat baskets full of ready to wear clothes and a hanging rack full of my ugly sweaters. Time for a short break.

10:20 – BUZZ!!!!!

10:22 – Last load is in the dryer. Much quiter down here without the washer running. Time to fold the warm and fuzzy laundry. On TV, OSU has cut the lead to a dozen with 10 minutes left, but you just know nothing is gonna happen there. Back to West Wing. The Prez is now welcoming new ambassadors to the White House and Leo is trying to shoot missles out of the sky. The Nobel Laureate makes a remarkably apt comparison to the Peanuts and Toby is going behind Sam*s back. Good stuff.

10:50 – Toby*s antics get him in hot water with Sam. CJ has a difficult conversation with a comedian and I am back on the couch basking in the glow of an empty folding table once again.

11:01 – Time to tackle the socks. This is an indication that I am in full on get-stuff-done mode because socks are the traditional enemy of the Domestic God. Hamper full of the little buggers just sitting there mocking me. West Wing offers “Evidence of things not seen” which has our plucky band of heros taking the night off to play poker and CJ espousing some nonesense about an egg and the Equinox.

11:15 – The socks are practically leaping out of the hamper in pairs. I am rolling. Of course, this is the easy part. Its that bottom third of the hamper where all the color-changing and shape shifting little bastards live. Right now they are plotting their next psychological assault on my sanity.

11:31 – The baskets are now brimming with paired socks. The pile of singles is growing but not as fast as I had feared. It seems that the sentient little snits are taking the night off. The poker game on TV has been interupted repeatedly but so far Ms Fitterer is the big winner with Will ailey a suprise second. The ball game is over and now the ESPN heads are breaking down all things college-y.

11:47 – Socks are as done as they are going to get. The bottom third of the hamper has staged a holding action but I have fished out enough of the little buggers to keep everyone*s feet happily warmed for awhile.

11:48 – BUZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11:49 – Last load. All I have to do is grab it and….. Damn! Jeans, sweaters and a few other things aren*t dry yet. Yank out the sheets and t-shirts since they are done and restart the dryer.

11:55 – Folded the half load and am happily resting my weary Keds on the couch.

12:01 AM – Entering the fourth hour of the evenings work, I tackle the kitchen. First to empty the dishwasher.

12:03 – I am continually amazed that Donna can squeeze all these dishes in here. Her loads always have 30% more in them than mine. How does she do it? Creative thinking. I would never put cups on the bottom rack. We just don*t do that kind of thing here. But she does and it works great.

12:10 – Trash is disposed of. Silverware is soaking. In go the plates and glasses.

12:14 – Here go the bowls and the first few pans. Sloppy Joes are good but they are murder on my dish brush.

12:19 – In goes the silverware. Two cookie sheets, three sauce pans and more glasses. I am incredibly efficient on this load. Amazing since its after midnight.

12:25 – Dishes are all loaded. Counters are scrubbed. Washer is started. Side note: Late night sports talk is the absolute worst. One guy in the booth and a bunch of drunks calling in. Ack.

12:32 – Kitchen is done!

12:35 – BUZZ!

12:39 – Last laundry is folded. I am lugging the baskets upstairs and dropping them off in the kids* rooms. Won*t they be suprised in the morning! “Dad! The laundry fairy came!”

12:45 – Time for some email and one game of Playmaker Football.

12:58 – Getting my ass kicked. Gotta try one more game.

1:15 – Ok, I clearly need a new strategy for beating tonights opponent. But I think it would be a good time to sleep now.

1:23 – One more check of email. Really, what*s another five minutes at this point?

1:30 – I*m in bed. The Domestic God can rest.

Why can*t I just leave things alone? DUnno, but I can*t. In my web wanderings today I found an open source php chess engine that supports both real time and play by mail chess.

Looks like I know what I*m doing tonight

I*ll post a link as soon as I get it running.

News stories appearing today about a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. I haven*t read the whole study yet but I may have to based on some of the truly silly things it appears people have confessed to.

Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or “sponsored” results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.

Link to story

Folks, this is how some otherwise good companies get bad reputations. If people aren*t smart ebnough to realize that the section entitled “Sponsored Links” means “We paid to have our site listed here” then I*m not sure they should be allowed to drive a computer.

UPDATE: Ok, these numbers are from the report itself and I find them oddly disturbing. Can you spot the inconsistencies in peoples* attitudes?

<ul><li>38% of searchers are aware of a distinction between paid and unpaid results; 62% are not. </li><li> 18% of searchers overall (47% of searchers who are aware of the distinction) say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. </li><li> 70% of searchers are okay with the concept of paid or sponsored results. </li><li> 45% of searchers would stop using search engines if they thought the engines weren’t being clear about offering some results for pay.</li></ul>

WWWalk details the adventures of a man who set out with the curious yet ambitious goal to walk around the world in order to promote peace and well being among the world*s populace. It will take him 12 years and I am willing to bet he will have some interesting tales when he is done.

On August 18th, 2000, at 9:00 am, Jean Béliveau left Montreal, Canada. His goal is to walk around the planet to promote “Peace and non-violence to the profit of the children of the world”. He is travelling alone with a three wheeled stroller to carry a bit of food, his clothing, a First Aid kit, a small tent and a sleeping bag. Jean plans to walk across all the continents, from North America to South America, then across to South Africa, up to Europe, then the Middle East, South and Eastern Asia, Australia, New Zealand and finally back to Canada.

Tons of photos on the site.

Amusing article of the day, from Reuters* Oddly Enough. This article tells us the tale of a group of thieves who actually used some mythological (or perhaps desperate) means to aid in their escape plan. Brilliant!

Why do these things infect our soul? No one knows, but things like The Transformers, The Partidge Family and Star Trek have become part of the national subconscious. But what about the next generation? How will they carry on this societal group affectation? Well, Hasbro can help.

It seems that in the spirit of preserving our earliest geek roots (not to mention trying to get some lucrative cross promotion dollars) Hasbro is introducing Darth Tater in February.

Darth Tater will come with a light saber, cape and helmet, in addition to the regular Mr. Potato Head accessories such as eyes, mouth and nose.

Just about two years ago, This article was posted on Space.com, outlining the selection process for the twin NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Take a look at the last paragraph:

Once they reach their landing sites, each rover*s prime mission will last at least 90 Martian days (92 Earth days). The rovers are solar-powered, and in approximately 90 days, dust slowly accumulating on their solar arrays likely will decrease rover power, bringing to a close each robot’s sojourn.

Well, it*s now been over a year since the first lander, Spirit, touched down at Gusev crater, and 51 weeks since Opportunity also landed on the Red Planet. Both of them have experienced system problems, notably a rather serious software problem that had scientists fearing that they would lose the ability to communicate with one of the rovers. Happily enough, NASA engineers were able to repair the software (from another freaking PLANET, mind you. Someone explain why I can*t get Service Pack 2 of XP installed right, dammit) and now both probes have exceeded their expected shelf life by, oh, a factor of 4 so far.

The mission to Mars was designed to find out whether, and where, water may have existed (or still exists) on the planet*s surface. Perhaps most fascinating to me is that after three years of discussion regarding 155 possible landing sites and a painstaking process to finally select Gusev Crater and the Meridiani Planum, it turns out that only one of them had ready evidence of hydrological activity. Years of work, analysis and collaboration between rocket scientists, and they still only batted .500. This is not an exact science. Or, rather, it is, but we do not have enough data to do better than a 50/50 shot (and even that*s pretty damn amazing).

There are days when I am proud to be a member of a race of explorers.

Over the last few years I find myself engaging in an intersting new hobby. When ever I read a book I am casting the movie adaptation in my head. Sometimes I am choosing from actors both alive and dead and others I am concetrating on trying to make up a cast from “available” actors. Either way it makes for a fun adition to whatever I am reading.

Jason and I have been discussing Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and we have some pretty good candidates for all but the main role (the argument about whether The Rock could play the villian still rages, but at least we have a name there).

Hopefully we will put together a full ensemble someday and add it to the site. Til then, what other books have you cast? With the recent trend of books-to-big screen (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Leminy Snickett and others) I*m sure there are actors you*d like to see as your favorite literary characters.