The new Mac Mini starts at $499 and takes up less space on your desk than that Linux manual you*ve been pouring over. With a 1.25Ghz processor and a respectable amount of RAM, this product actually brings the Mac into a price range where I might consider buying one just to try it out.

And with such a small footprint (6.5″ wide and 2″ tall) there are already some interesting ideas on where to put them. Let*s just hope it is a bit more solid design than the ill fated Cube.

Engadget today brings us the Good News Bad News report. Sony’s CDP-NW10 & DVP-NW50: put more gear in your walls. The good news is that someone has finally made a networked media center type device that sits as an in wall console and includes all the media gadgets you could want.

The audio-centric CDP-NW10 has a CD player, integrated amp, AM/FM tuner, intercom and room monitor, integrated remote, and MP3 media adapter capabilities…

But alas, all good things come at a price.

…at about $1,000 per room (what!)

My sentiments exactly. Looks like my dream of a fully integrated house must wait for a few more years.

Seems that the Bush administration, in its latest attempt to flaunt tradition and common sense, has refused to reimburse the District of Columbia for expenses incurred by the inauguration celebration. U.S. Tells D.C. to Pay Inaugural Expenses

D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week*s inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.

The inaugural celebration has always struck me as a sick, petty display by a government that spends so much time talking about budgets. But while the federal government can probably absorb $12 million dollars, asking D.C. to do it is bordering on criminal. As a spokesman for a Republican Congressman points out “It*s an unfunded mandate of the most odious kind. How can the District be asked to take funds from important homeland security projects to pay for this instead?”

Amen Brother.

…but now, thanks to White Wolf you can get some practice safe in the confines of your own basement. From the folks who brought you Vampire: The Gathering comes Pimp: The Backhanding.

I can*t make these things up folks. I really can*t.

Now you can experience the dizzying highs and soul-bending lows of exploiting women, pushing drugs and dodging undercover cops. Will you become a Mack Daddy, leasing out high-priced call girls to discriminating clientele, or a lowly fishmonger making a sticky bankroll off the diseased crackwhores you’ve gotten hooked? Or will they find your unconscious body pistolwhipped into submission, lying in a storm drain?

Since the site is called Green Scissors, we must deal with cutting implements right? How else do you explain this email. I*m not even sure what they are hoping for in response.

Dear Sir/Madam

We introduce ourselves as manufacturer and exporters of Surgical

items we give underneath details of relevent items.

Our Products.

We are manufacturer & exporters of Tweezers, Scissors

Cutical Nippers, Beauty Instruments, Nail Cussiors

Dental Instruments etc,

,
Our Policy

We work to the entire satisfaction of our valued clients .

We consider client as a valuable asstes.

We look forward to here with you soon.

Thanks & Regards

Amer Saleem

Expocity international

E mail: expocity@skt.comsats.net.pk

Fax: + 92 432 588197

I woke up in a bizarrely good mood today. I don*t really know where it came from – I*m still feeling under the weather, work promises to be chock full of meetings and blame-laying, and I only got about 5 hours* sleep – but I*m not complaining. I have a great cup of coffee, I*ve been listening to Stuart Davis, and I came up with some great work-related ideas when I woke up today that have me a little excited for once. It*s fabulous.

Mind you, it won*t last long, but I*m gonna ride the wave as long as possible. Let*s see if it survives my 10:00 conference call.

Heard this on the radio this morning and was so tickled that I had to post it here. Seems that Mr. Bryant, once a marketers dream, is losing some of that Golden Boy luster.

Fans Shunning Kobe Bryant*s Jersey

Bryant*s NBA jersey was still the 10th-highest selling jersey for the year, but he finished the month of December at No. 72 — and in one week plunged to No. 90, a drastic slide for the player many once saw as the sport*s next marketing golden boy.

It warms my jaded heart to see that the public was willing to forgive him his indiscresions off the court but seems to have turned on him for commiting the one sin that Americans can*t stomach. Losing while being selfish. Make no mistake, if the Lakers were leading their division his jersey sales would be right up at the top. But the PR hit from the rape trial paved the way for folks to get off his bandwagon and the way he has strong armed the Lakers into giving him the reins of the team followed by his failure to win makes him the worst of all American villans. A loser.

The internet is a strange, interesting place, my friends. A great stash of information, millions of people sharing their interests and knowledge and opinions, and an ability to go from “Hey, funny!” to “Hm….” to “Uh-oh, I shouldn*t be reading this at work,” in a matter of minutes.

Today I was browsing (this is 21st century speak for “wasting time at work”) the forum on one of the webcomics I*ve started recently. I*ve chatted a bit with one of the creators and in addition to the hope that I might generate a little nugget of interest in This Game Sucks, I find the comic in question, Cheshire Grin, to be amusing and well-written. Anyway, I click one of the forum posters* profiles and end up at said poster*s LiveJournal. Here I find a link to a cute little “Measure your intelligence type” test. Fun stuff, and I discover that my dominant intelligence type is Linguistic Intelligence. Apparently this means I like words and stuff.

Now, after taking this test I find a link to the poster of this test*s blog (we are now three clicks from the Cheshire Grin forum) and find a series of rants including the one here, entitled Why I Can*t Rape My Wife, wherein the author spends a dozen or so paragraphs explaining why he thinks kinky sex is too much work. Here*s the link, for those of you who are interested (I won*t tell): http://www.theferrett.com/showarticle.php?Rant=24

Ah, the internet. Where you*re never more than three degrees from the danger of getting fired.

A note from Music Thing on the closing of the last analog tape manufacturing plant in the US and possibly the world. Last Audio Tape Factory in the US closes .

The President banned the use of any more German tape, and Major John Herbert Orr had to set up a US tape manufacturing plant in two weeks. That factory was in Alabama, and it closed this week after Quantegy filed for bankrupcy. And they seem to have been the only company in the world making open-reel tape. US Recording Media, who sell the stuff, say: “we*re convinced there will be analog tape manufactured once again and we don*t feel it*s dead”.

Strike another blow for the digital age. My dad had an old four track reel to reel setup when we were kids and I remember it fondly. Analog recording may be a dying species but I suspect that hard core audio-philes will keep it alive somehow. As good as digital recording technology has become, it can never match up to the purity and clarity of a high quality analog source. Just look at the never-say-die vinyl industry for proof.

So I was doing laundry yesterday when the washer stopped draining. Shoot. Time to break out the handy dandy tool kit.

An hour later I have the outer case off the whole washer and I am looking at the pump that is supposed to drain water out of the drum. (an hour is a long time to get to this point but I was not really on my game yesterday and almost destroyed the washer a couple of times in the process.)

Now, the washer is still full of clothes and water so I figure I will make everyone*s life easier by disconnecting the hose from the pump and just let the water run out of the drum. Easy stuff. now the washer will weigh about 60 pounds less.

So I remove the hose and water begins to gush. But as I am avoiding the deluge I notice something. One of my daughter*s socks has been sucked into the pump. Huh? How on Earth did that get there?

If you*ve seen the inside of a washer you know that the drum is basically a big strainer with holes small enough that even lint has trouble getting out. So how the heck does a sock make a break for freedom? I had a vision of the sock trying to re-enact the escape attempt from Finding Nemo only to suffer a horrible fate when it hit the impeller.

Anyway, hooked the whole thing back up. Put the case back on and viola! Laundry is once again flowing. But I think this lends a bit more credibility to the idea that socks are sentient beings who can escape the laundromat and/or reproduce in great quantities.

Next I will be investigating the possibility that cheap Bic pens and wire coat hangers are also their own species of intelligent life.