Finally, a glimmer of hope that the RIAA might understand the need for a new business model. Although I’m sure that this product will be fraught with DRM in soul crippling propotions at least its a step in the right direction.  The VCR was going to ruin Hollywood, the radio was going to destroy musicians and P2P was going to bankrupt the record labels.  Guess not.  When does hindsight matter?  When history repeats itself.

RIAA Supporting Commercial P2P – cgibby98 writes "The AP reports: ‘In the last few months, major record labels have signed licensing deals with companies working to field file-swapping services that would block unauthorized files from being traded online.’ Most interesting is a service called Peer Impact, which ‘can be used to find and purchase tracks from an initial catalog of a half-million songs from all the major labels…. After a user buys a song from Peer Impact, future buyers get it from that member — or others who have gotten it in the meantime — instead of from a central server. Users have to pay for each track they download, but sharing songs they’ve purchased from Peer Impact earns them credits they can spend on the service.’"

(Via Slashdot)

 7-10 year olds my tired foot!  I want one!  A huge nod to Michael Albers and a quirky little coincidence since he studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design and I will be landing in Savannah later on tonight.

After you watch the movie listed below (and you must watch it or you won’t appreciate how cool this really is) check out the rest of the site.  Methinks this guy would be fun to go shopping with.  From hobby shop to computer store to the toy store.  My kind of day. 

Arcade racing brought to life –

Designed for 7-10 years old boys, Floor it! is arcade car racing brought to life. The radio controlled cars sense and react to course conditions like oil slicks, turbo power-ups, water hazards, etc.

The cars are controlled through a free floating steering wheel. When the wheel is turned left and right the vehicle acts accordingly. Tilting the steering wheel forward and back controls the throttle and direction of the car. Optional throttle and brake buttons can be used in place of the throttle tilt control.

The car also reacts to the course conditions on the ground. Drive over an oil slick and the car will spin wildly out of control. Water traps will slow the car down. Hitting a green arrow will give the car an extra turbo boost.

Course conditions are made of a thin elastomer or electrostatic sticker. They are flexible and re-usuable and allow you to create a race track almost anywhere.

Scoring gates provide a rating system for different types of races and challenges. They can also store information over time to provide a weighted index or ranking of different cars or racers.

There are two compartments in the steering wheel, one which contains the vehicle and the other the course conditions and accessories. The steering wheel becomes a carrying case that enables the child to keep everything in one place and transport it to other locations.

Don’t miss the movie!

A genius project by Micheal Albers and Shawn Bonkowski.

(Via We Make Money not Art)

 I love Heinlein.  Read almost every book he’s published.  So it is with mixed feelings that I present this little ditty.  On the one hand, its kind of neat to see the pictures.  On the other, the idea that there are a group of people out there who find it interesting to look at pictures of Heinleins bedroom and his cat is a bit disturbing.  However, I think the painting of Nichelle Nichols at the bottom of page 3 is spectacular.  Of course, I find that fact disturbing as well.

Heinlein’s house – Cory Doctorow: The Heinlein Society has a collection of photos of the groovy, circular California home of Robert A Heinlein, legendary science fiction author. Pictured here: Heinlein’s groovy rec-room. Link (Thanks, Kirby!)

(Via Boing Boing)

 Media PC or otherwise, this is some pretty good hardware for the price.  Tempting to me since I have been noodling the idea of setting up my own web server at some point.  This machine, running Linux/Apache/PHP/MySQL would make for a tidy little web beast.

Sub-$600 media PC from eMachines –

The race to the bottom continues for media center PC pricing (not that we’re complaining or anything). The latest is from eMachines (aka Gateway’s even cheaper brand). The company’s first media center PC, the eMachines T6520, has an Athlon 64 3400+, a 200GB drive, 1GB RAM, dual-layer burner, and goes for $599 (after the obligatory mail-in rebate). Not too shabby, considering that just a few months ago, Gateway was talking up their $899 3250X, which has a smaller hard drive and less standard RAM.

ReadPermalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments© 2005 Weblogs, Inc.

(Via Engadget)

 Why why why?  This story begs too many questions to all be answered at once.  Why cash?  Why in her bra? And why did they seize it? I can almost come up with a good answer for the last one.  But the first two?  No clue man.  Just no clue.

Woman Carrying $47K in Bra at Airport Sues (AP) – AP – A Quincy woman who apparently stuffed $46,950 in cash in her bra before trying to board a plane to Texas for plastic surgery has sued a federal agency, demanding the return of her money.

(Via Yahoo! Oddly Enough)

 Its math folks and the only reson I’m blogging this is because details matter and it pisses me off when they are ignored.  There is a damn big difference between "$1.4M Pennies" and "1.4M Pennies".  The difference is that one of them is just a freakish hobby carried too far and the other is an obsession that might need therapy to correct.  Hopefully they fix the headline soon.

Gas Station Owner Cashes in $1.4M Pennies (AP) – AP – Edmond Knowles started out saving pennies in a 5-gallon can. Thirty-eight years later, he was storing them in four 55-gallon drums and three 20-gallon drums — nearly 1.4 million in all.

(Via Yahoo! Oddly Enough)

P.S. Yes, he really had only $13,804.59 in pennies.  A rather large difference.

This guy has a wonderful take on the whole Intelligent Design argument that is taking place in Kansas (coming soon to a school board near you).  If we have a state religion in this country, it is science.  I am not above calling science a religion since it has several things in common with more traditional religions, but science is the one constant strategy for explaining or world that bridges all gaps and historically this country has adhered to the idea of seperation of church and state. 

But when the government opens the door for a particular religious belief to be taught as part of the curriculum it leads to problems like this.  And no, I don’t think this is far fetched despite the nature of the claims made.  Someone will challenge Intelligent Design in the courts and force the state to either go back to teaching only science or to flood the curriculum with every theory on the nature of the universe that can afford a lawyer.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

Well, the import of the old phpNuke content went about as smoothly as could be imagined.  It imported the old user accounts and stories from the first serious version of Green Scissors.

So root around a bit.  All of the imported content has been filed as a blog entry in the appropriate category (although I will probably make that more granular soon) as well as being listed en masse under their own heading.  Check out the content directory under the heading "Original Site".  Finally, I took some of the related amterial and added them to their own book. So be sure to stop by the book section of the site as well

 Now this is what I’m talking about!  A wireless music system that breaks a house into zones (rooms) and lets you control the whole thing with a single remote.  Very slick.  By the time I can affod such things I expect to see the remote reduced down to something wearable.  Maybe watch sized, but something small and voice activated (can you say "Star Trek communicator badge"?) would be better.

Linux HiFi: The Sonos Digital Music System – TractorJector writes "Mad Penguin published a 5 page review of the Sonos Digital Music System, a wireless music distribution system built on Linux. According to the site, you can use a single remote to control up to 32 "zones" (locations throughout your house where the receivers are placed). The interface is intuitive and well done for such a compact device. According to the review, it’s extremely simple to setup as well."

(Via Slashdot)

 When the Supreme Court speaks, people listen.  And today I am listening with an offended ear.  I understand the need to seize property in order to create a bypass or a new school.  But saying that it is in the public interest to build shopping malls is basically condoning vigilante economics.  All you have to do is get several developers together and have them pay a visit to the city council with some finely tuned forecasts and some nice tri-color line graphs and your house is history.  Soon it won’t just be local businesses being displaced by Wal-Mart, it’ll be the residential neighborhoods too.

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes (AP) – AP – A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people’s homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

(Via Yahoo! Top Stories)