Climbing on control rods... Manly!

Following onto the idea of personal reactors, this is really crazy... These guys have a strong sense of personal duty, and are quite insane:

A personal nuclear reactor? Not so fast!

Toshiba proposes to build nuclear reactors so small and reliable that they could be used by neighborhoods, individual commercial buildings, or even the personal homes of the wealthy. But do the numbers really work out?I think this sounds awesome! I definitely would sign up to get one of these! One of the best things the DOE (Department of Energy) could do is to diversify the grid such that every home generated its own power, and sold back unused power to the grid. That way there is no central point at which you could take out the nation's power.

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Joost Just Might Get Me to Watch the NBA Again

If they keep up the games on Joost, I'll probably become an NBA fan again.  Especially with the bungling of the use of technology by the NFL.  I really respect the NBA for trying something new, and I love it.

NBA "Instant Classic" Games on Joost

The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection (Part 6)

26. The Roots - Do You Want More

This album dropped like a slap upside the head. Distortion to Static was the perfect single to drop first. If they had pushed Datskat out first, it would have earned them the wrong audience.

The organic feel to the album, mainly due to Qwestlove's rhythms and the group's insistence on using only normal musical instruments, gives this album a live feel, even though it is studio album. The Roots always stand out.

27. MF Doom - Special Herbs 1 & 2

MF Doom clearly spends the most time of any hip-hop artist in the "lab." He finds the most obscure jazz loops and works them into beats that are sugary treats. I still have yet to find anyone who can make a beat like Doom. I am not certain what his relationship with Madlib is, but they are very similar in style.

Special Herbs is an album that belongs in any discerning hip-hop listener's collection.

28. Del the Funkee Homosapien - No Need For Alarm

Del is funkee, simply because he was Kanye West, a decade before Kanye West. When he came out, he was just Del. There was no bling, no talking about ho's, money, cars, etc... His beats were eclectic and his lyrics were strong. No Need For Alarm is an important contribution to hip-hop.

29. Dan the Automator / Dr. Octagon / Kool Keith - Dr. Octagonecologyst

It is hard to determine who Octagon is. His flow is stream of consciousness so he isn't for everybody. He hasn't really changed since he was with Ultramagnetic, and they were sick back in the day. Keith is still crazy, but Dr. Octagonecologyst was his best album.

30. Souls of Mischief - 93' til Infinity

This album is good, but not great, still it was one of the first albums from the Bay Area to achieve mainstream success. Digital Underground's albums were the first. That's When You're Lost was one of my favorite songs for years.

That round out my list. I believe that if you get all of these albums, you will have a good understanding of where Hip-Hop is today, and where it has come from.

The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection (Part 5)

21. 50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'

This album is probably the most raw, and ostensibly the most disarming album to be released since Wu-Tang released Enter the 36 Chambers. What 50 does in this album is let everyone know how hungry he is for success, as well as attention. His constant beef with just about every other rapper is evidence of that. I am not sure where Eminem found 50, but by putting him on, we are all eternally grateful.

22. Eminem - The Slim Shady LP

Eminem is far and away the best lyricist that is currently on. In a battle, he will destroy any rapper that approaches. On I Still Don't Give A F**k he delivers one of the best put-together flows I have ever heard.

The basic problem is the same one that happens to most anyone else who is successful and has no real competition. They get lazy and release basically garbage. As a result this album stands as, lyrically, probably the best album on the list.

23. 2-Pac - Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z.

2-Pac has to be one of the most prolific hip-hop artists ever. I'm sure the number of songs he has written number in the thousands. However, with all of that volume, there have only been a few quality albums. This was his best. The title track sounds like warfare, and he doesn't stop there.

Every song on this album would be a single on any other hip-hop artist of the era's albums. The only song that is out of place is I Get Around with Digital Underground. The song is a little too playful for the album, but is still an outstanding track.

24. Ghostface Killah - Ironman

Ghostface Killah is my favorite rapper, and that bias should be known, but his lyrics are insane, he can deliver fast, he can deliver slow, basically if you have a garbage track you can throw him on it and he will save the track.

If there is a problem with Ironman, it is too much of a good thing. Many of the gems Ghostface drops are lost in the flow of the album, and the RZA's hard beats. The Pretty Tony album and Fishscale should get honorable mention.

25. Digable Planets - Blowout Comb

Blowout Comb was a very moody album, and a departure from Digable Planets' mainstream style. I get the impression from listening to it that the success of Reachin' made them uncomfortable, and they wanted to go back to their revolutionary roots.

Many would probably wonder why I didn't put Reachin' on the list, but I think that artistically, Blowout Comb is a superior effort

How Dare the U.S. Congress Call Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft on Morality In China - A Rant

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.  This is obscene, this Congress, this rubber stamp Congress, has absolutely no grounds for blaming Yahoo for their behavior in China.  This is the most hypocritical action by a congress in my lifetime. 

They are the ones who don't apply tariffs on goods and services from China.  They are the ones who look the other way when the Chinese government slaughters students to keep doing business with them.  They are the ones who keep "good trade partner" status with China while they force people to work 18 hour days on dangerous machines and allow poisonous foods into the country.

If the U.S. Government wants to take a stand on China, they should sanction them, and levy hefty tariffs on goods and services from China to pay for us screening every item until they improve the quality of the goods they are shipping into our country, and not remove the sanctions until they improve their human rights record.

Or perhaps, if they really want to do something, instead of just passing whatever garbage the President wants to introduce, they could actually help hold them accountable for destroying our right to protection from unwarranted search and seizure by allowing cases against AT&T, Sprint, and the like.  It is the only way to challenge the constitutionality of those provisions of the USA Patriot Act.

Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft have only one responsibility as corporations, and that is to the board and the shareholders.  If Yahoo had not turned over the information about the journalist, they wouldn't have been able to do business in China, it wouldn't have been acting in the best interest of its shareholders and wouldn't have been being a good corporate citizen.  Morally, obviously they shouldn't have done it, but it is the U.S. Government's fault for making it so lucrative to do business with an immoral and repressive regime.

How can you expect for a business to not try to make money.  It is the government's responsibility to provide oversight, and to structure policies as to ensure the best behavior of the corporate world, not complain about it after the fact.  How can they say that it is OK to do business with them out of one side of their mouths, and then say that if you do, we are going to publicly embarrass you?  That doesn't even make any sense.

All the government has done is what they always do, screw up the market, screw up the economy and make themselves an obstacle to peace and goodwill in the world.  I certainly hope that in the upcoming elections we make a statement against this type of boneheaded posturing by politicians.

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Bill Belichick Straight Thug

Whether or not you like what the Patriots are doing this year, no one can deny their PWNING of everyone out there. Jemele Hill compares him to Suge Knight, making the rest of the Patriots organization Death Row. In any event Belichick owns the NFL

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The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection (Part 4)

16. Dead Serious - Das Efx

This album was sort of an odd-ball. Not directly responsible for the blunted Hip-Hop movement, these guys were definitely the weed poster children. Their somewhat silly and serious style of making up words and sound effects, combined with their quick delivery over PMD's hard hitting beats were a recipe for success.

I don't know why they didn't really get the critical acclaim they deserved, it could have been becuase Kris Kross had a similar style, and they were forever associated with the Miggety, Miggety Mack.

17. E. 1999 Eternal - Bone Thugs-n-Harmony

Honestly, I didn't like Bone-Thugs when they first came out, but when I got this album I knew that hip-hop had changed. I'm not sure if they were the first to come out with the singing hip-hop style, but I know that after they did it, everyone wanted to sing-rap. I still think this album was by far the best sing-rap album and so it gets the nod.

18. Big Daddy Kane - It's a Big Daddy Thing

Big Daddy Kane's first album, largely on the strength of Raw, was groundbreaking, but the entire album wasn't great. Contrast that with Big Daddy Kane's sophmore effort which left you begging for more. I Get the Job Done was probably one of Teddy Riley's best tracks, unless you really like Rump Shaker.


19. Dr. Dre - The Chronic

The Chronic was a ground-breaking album. Nuttin' but a G Thang set the reference for a summer jam. This album set the stage for Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle and set the direction of West Coast hip-hop for a decade.


20. Mobb Deep - The Infamous

I absolutely love this album, even if Jay-Z calls Prodigy a ballerina, every single track is bangin', and the arrangement is top notch. Shook Ones Pt. II could be one of the best East Coast hip-hop songs ever. Eye-for-an-eye is the illest track on the album. With NAS shining on this one, from the first track you know Mobb Deep mean business. Their first album, Juvenile Hell was somewhat misunderstood, and the next album sounded too much like The Infamous, however G.O.D. Pt. III is an incredible track that one could listen to over, and over again.

The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection (Part 3)

11. Criminal Minded - Boogie Down Productions

While Criminial Minded is one of KRS-ONE's best albums, I had real trouble between choosing this or Return Of The Boom Bap. Boom Bap is very similar in style, and the understanding you would gain of Bronx hip-hop isn't going to be that different. In addition to being more modern, I feel the album is of better quality and that KRS-ONE has, at that point, matured and his confidence is at a high. What you get are much better rhymes that are particularly poignant politically.

12. Doug E. Fresh - The World's Greatest Entertainer

Basically, this album is like an 80's hip-hop variety show. Doug's beat boxing is probably the best ever, and there will be none like him ever again. He broke Slick Rick, who was a better lyricist, and who really helped make this album shine. The reason this is a must have is that it bridges the gap between Africa Bambaataa and L.L. Cool J.

13. L.L. Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out

This album was an incredible comeback for L.L. He had been counted out for years before, with his only real hit prior to this album being his debut. Mama said remained one of the best hip-hop albums for several years during the 90's. It set a new standard for quality, with L.L.'s signature metaphors, and his smooth delivery. Paired with some real honesty, I know that this album was one of the few that helped Hip-Hop cross over to the mainstream, for better or for worse.

14. Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde

I remember listening to this in '97 and not knowing where they were from. When I found out they were from the west-coast, I denied it for years. This group was so original that they caught everyone by suprise. They sucessfully blended the conscious with the silly, as well as the terrible. Bizarre Ride is still difficult to categorize, but it definitely belongs in this collection.

15. De La Soul - Stakes Is High

De La is probably one of the best Hip-Hop groups that you may never have heard or, or you may think they were one-hit-wonders. With Prince Paul's production, on their first album, 3 Feet High And Rising they immediately changed the way producers put together Hip-Hop albums. This album was probably De La's darkest. There is a constant sense of foreboding as you listen to the album, it is almost as though they have a warning that is so urgent you have to hear it. The namesake song on the album is easily in my top ten, and is one of the few songs that I can listen to repeatedly without tiring.

I thought of submitting 3 Feet instead of this, but this album is so much better that it had to go on.

The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection 2007 (Part 2)

6. Ready To Die - Notorious B.I.G.

I really wanted to put this album in my top 5, but I just couldn't. I remember when I listened to it the first time, the day it came out, I thought, "This is really good." But I didn't think it was great. Later, after listening to it for a while, I came to the realization that the album was fantastic. The reason it couldn't go above Slick Rick is because much of what Big did was patterned after Slick Rick. Big, of course, was much more honest in his music than Rick, but Rick brought something different to Hip-Hop.

This album was strange coming from Bad Boy. I could almost see Big being on Scarface's label. It is funny that even though everyone, now agrees, Big's music crossed East-West lines as far as agreement that he was great, it was the beef that killed him.

7. Straight Outta Compton

Since I grew up on the East Coast, I remember wondering, "Where's Compton? I thought L.A. was all sunshine and movies?" when this came out. This album was game changing, because it made it OK to go straight after the censors and say whatever you want. Lots of "Conscious" rappers have given the group flack after the fact, saying that they were some white executive's token blacksploitation group. I think N.W.A. was more than that, perhaps they are right in some respect, but overall I think they advanced the cause of Hip-Hop, and gave us the "Death Metal" we had been missing.

Dre's style has forever changed the sound of Rap music, and this album was the first we had ever heard from him. The breakup of the group later, actually further enhanced Hip-Hop on both coasts. Everything was different about this group, yet it was still the same in many ways. You could hear Run-DMC, and lots of early East Coast influence in the music, but instead of relying on James Brown samples, Dre leans heavily on Parliament Funkadelic. However you love music, you have to respect this album.


8. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back - Public Enemy

So why is this album so low on my list. It Takes a Nation of Millions is so far down because the album wasn't adventurous or even interesting musically. Obviously the best song on the album, musically was Rebel Without a Pause.

The careening, huge beat that Terminator laid down for that is classic, and was perfectly timed for Chuck's delivery. I thought about putting Yo! Bum Rush the Show on there because it was their first album and had some sick tracks on there like My Uzi Weighs a Ton, but overall the album just wasn't that good. It Takes a Nation of Millions was P.E.'s first album as far as I'm concerned.

The lyrics were the first of their type, strongly political, even in a way that K.R.S. ONE hadn't even done. They challenged America to look at its uglyness during the Regan-Bush era in a way that no music had really done previously.

9. Lyte as a Rock - MC Lyte

For many, myself included, Lyte means Brooklyn. Well, I guess B.I.G. took that mantle, but she was the first big thing out of Brooklyn. I think its important to have a representative from the female Emcee category, and Lyte was the best. People can point to Kim, who is a force in her own right, but Lyte did it at a time when female Emcees were uncommon.

Every beat on the album was unique, there weren't too many samples. K-Rock did a great job of keeping the album intersting. Lyte, too, chose to go the story rap route. I really enjoyed the way she brought the other side of the story to the game.

After this album, there were many rappers who tried to copy Lyte's style, they tried to dis her, etc... But really I can't think of another female rapper, outside of Kim, who has duplicated her success.

10. The Black Album - Jay-Z

Jay comes with a lot of superlatives, some he may even have earned, but while Reasonable Doubt was an incredible album that brought back the story rap, Jay shines the most on The Black Album. His lyrics are clear, and his message is true. He give us what he really thinks, and stays away from the dumbed down techno-pop that litters his newer albums.

What more can I say? Points out what should be obvious, but isn't. How can you argue with the richest, most successful artist in Hip-Hop. 50 said it the best, Jay-Z, Big, and Nas are clearly the best still doing it, even if you question them artistically, you can't say anything about their success. Still, I have only liked 2 of Jay's albums, Reasonable Doubt and The Black Album, everything else can be left behind. This album changed the expectations of everyone, and probably will have killed Jay-Z's rap career, because I don't think he can ever make one like this again.

The Definitive Hip-Hop Collection 2007 (Part 1)

The idea behind this blog is to define the 30 must own Hip-Hop albums up to today in 6 posts. The concept is that if you had no Hop-Hop in your collection, you could buy these albums and you would have a full concept of what Hip-Hop is and was. Also, if you had some friends over who were in the know, you would look like you had a clue.

Many will argue that some of the more typical artists should be included like Run DMC and Sugar Hill Gang. I'll argue that the work of those artists are rolled into the work of more modern artists, and having those albums will not help you understand the current state of Hip-Hop. It has progressed beyond that, and is becoming less relevant to the current situation. Much in that while we respect what the Greeks did, we do not attempt to live as they did, their reality was different than ours is today.

For the sake of brevity, I will only go into detail on the first couple of albums as far as tracks are concerned.

With no further ado. The list, ranked in order of importance:

1. Paid in Full - Eric B. and Rakim

The inclusion of Paid In Full can not be disputed, however I would bet that its position would. For all those KRS-ONE lovers out there, I did indeed think about placing Criminal Minded at the top, but when I looked at the strength of the album as a whole, and the amount of influence it had on Hip-Hop, the influence of Paid In Full can still be felt today. The album had six seminal tracks, and four average to poor tracks. Rakim's vocals displayed an easy mastery of rhyme, basically when he came out, no one questioned his supremacy. It took years for anyone to be able to credibly echo his technique, and most would argue that no one ever has.

Rakim can also be credited with bringing awareness of Islam to much of the Hip-Hop culture. Prior to him, I can't think of anyone else who had accomplished that. Not that it is terribly important, however it is interesting that here, 21 years later, that influence is still felt.

Some may point to the album having weak tracks and argue that four not outstanding tracks out of ten makes it impossible for this album to attain such a high rank, but I would argue that the norm in 1986 when this album was released was for a Hip-Hop album to have perhaps 2 solid tracks, and 8 awful ones.

It is hard to select a best track on the album, but I believe that the number one track, and I know one may think this means that it is the number one track in all of Hip-Hop, but this isn't a singles list, so it just adds to the weight of the album.

1. Anyway, number one is number one: I Ain't no Joke.


2. A very close second is My Melody with its huge beat, smooth tempo, and easy delivery.


3. Obviously the next has to be I Know You Got Soul, which was the party anthem of the 80's, with its slick sampling of James Brown, and Eric. B's cuts. We know however, that Rakim could have done it solo.


4. Paid in Full, the title track was very strong, and also had much main stream success. It could have been number one, but I think it was a little too radio friendly.


5. Eric B Is President needs no description, it probably had the best remix of the 80's and most memorable rhymes. At this point, when you get to this song, most Hip-Hop afficianado's heads were about to explode, because they couldn't believe it could get any better.


6. While Eric B Is On The Cut was an instrumental, it showed off some of Eric B's meanest cuts. Its a shame that later he thought he could rap.

2. Midnight Marauders - A Tribe Called Quest

This album could easily have been number one. From beginning to end, this is definitely the highest quality Hip-Hop album ever produced, It is like the perfect storm for Hip-Hop. Shaheed and Q-Tip were at their peak, Phife was probably at his best, in that he wasn't a glaring weakness like he was in the other albums. In fact, the only reason Butter was good was because he was on what could be the best Hip-Hop beat ever created. Midnight Marauders is the only Hip-Hop album that when listened to from beginning to end, you wish it could go on, no matter what else you have to do that day.

The only track, that could be argued to be weak, would have to be Sucka Nigga. The reason I'd argue that it is weak is because the content feels contrived, and the beat is only good. Definately one of Shaheed-Ali Muhummad's off days.

Track Ordering:

1. Electric Relaxation would make it onto any singles list that I would ever consider compiling. Being influenced mostly through the late 90's by Hip-Hop, I have a soft spot for the jazzy, Jungle Brothers style beats that were a staple of the times. I know it dates me, but I think this is the strongest song on the Album. I think this is probably Tip's best lyrical performance. The beat's tempo is perfectly matched to his pace, he doesn't feel like he is rushing as he sometimes does, and the tones are singing backup to his lead. Phife could even be called decent on this track, he compliments Tip instead of trying to carry too much on his own. He was definately a 16 bar type rapper, someone who shouldn't have his own song, but instead only be given no more than 16 bars at a time.


2. Lyrics to Go is solidly number 2. Unfortunatly this track came toward the end of the album so is often forgotten. The composition was outstanding, with Tip coming at you from the left and the right. The flute tone that continues throughout the song is not obnoxious as it is in some of Dre's early productions.


3. Steve Biko (Stir it Up) could be interchanged with the next track, Keep it Rollin', it only falls to number four because the beat is a little slow for Phife, who can't keep himself under control. Anyway, Steve Biko is better, I remember when I heard it, I was wondering if this was going to be the best song on the album, and I rushed through it to find out, later I was able to take the track on its own merit.


4. Keep it Rollin' As I said above, it could almost overtake Steve Biko, but Phife gets a little out of control. It is interesting, without Phife, Tribe would have been too good, and as a consequence the albums would all have seemed like they were too formulaic.


5. Award Tour would have to come next. The lyrics are outstanding, and I am sure some people will not understand why it falls so far on the album. I felt that while it was radio friendly, the reprise coming asynchronously with the chorus was a little distracting.


6. We Can Get Down, if this song were on a hyphy album, it would have been called a "Bay Slapper." However it isn't, its a group from New York, still, the beat slaps, and the Rakim sample doesn't hurt.


7. Clap Your HandsI like leading into the song with Phife, it sets the pace for this track. Again, a predecessor to the hyphy movement, in that it has that slap, that knock, you know what I'm saying.


8. Oh My God...... "I like my beats hard like 2 day old shit" .... Now how can anyone argue with a metaphor like that. Busta on the track, with the tinkling, insane...

3. Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers

Again, this album could probably have been number one. This album had a strong impact on Hip-Hop, and started the idea of Gimmick rappers. So many took Wu's style at the beginning, it prompted Raekwon to create a song called Shark Niggaz. Almost every Wu album after Enter the Wu-Tang, started with a warning to other rappers not to bite their style. The album listens like a journey through the five boroughs of New York. You've got smooth flows coming from method, over RZA's crazy abrasive beats. I think part of what caused problems for Wu was when RZA got decent equipment. This album features drop-outs, uneven levels, unbalanced vocals, static, noise, you name it. All of this makes this album sound like a demo tape, and it is all the more brilliant for it.

It is really hard to pick out individual tracks especially since they all run into each other, Method Man was obviously a different type of track. Every track seemed to features yet another talent, it kept everyone wondering how many people were in Wu-Tang. I'm not sure we ever came to a definitive conclusion.


4. The Great Adventures of Slick Rick - Slick Rick

This album was different. I can only imagine a very young Eminem listening to this album and having this plus Rakim help him formulate his style. I can remember listening to this and having never heard anything so incredibly dirty. On the plus side, the beats were revolutionary, and Rick's delivery was incredible. Children's Story definately changed the game, it was an actual story, with a beat that just wouldn't quit. Rick was the master of the story rap. It would be another four years until anyone came along to rival him, in Jay-Z. I don't know if Jay would have been as big a hit if Rick hadn't gone to prison.

5. Illmatic

So this album was like the second coming of Rakim. Nas came with a style that was reminiscent of Rakim, but his own all the same. When I heard this album, I remember thinking of Scarface. Nas got better and worse as time went on, and Illmatic was far from being perfect, but it was true and real, much in the way Wu-Tang was.

I truly believe that success corrupts, and it is fitting that Nas didn't really come back until Stillmatic, as he was off doing some, who-knows-what. Still, until Big came out a few years later, nothing out of New York could touch Illmatic. Its effect upon Hip-Hop, in general, and Jay-Z in particular, although he is probably loathe to admit it, has been profound.

iTunes 7.4.1 already released -- free ringtone workaround is NOT ok

"Just thought we'd let the droves of paranoid upgraders know in on a small bit of good bad news. Yes, Apple did already release a new version of iTunes tonight, 7.4.1, and we tested to see if said update "fixes" the ringtone-renaming hack (if you really want to call it a hack) that lets users supply their own ringtones , well it's over!"

Well, we had to expect this. Apple is probably being forced to do this by the RIAA. The real enemy is DRM, not Apple. I'd expect that AT&T will start pushing Apple to stop the hacks on the iPhone and we will lose our NES emulators, and the like. But for now, I'm glad that Apple has not moved to stop the hacks. Now all we need is for Apple to harness the power of Jazelle and release JVM 6 with Swing support for the iPhone and we'll be in business.

read more | digg story

Is Apple's iPhone the Monolith of Legend?

Is Apple's iPhone the Monolith from 2001? Is it the cause of aggression, tool use, intelligent life on Earth? PC Magazine thinks so. Either that or they have a superlative sense of humor.

For those of you who do not receive the physical magazine if you could have seen the picture of the iPhone, it featured the object of so much attention over the past few weeks with the sun rising behind it, and its shadow being cast over some other object. Actually, it could be The Monolith. Perhaps it is responsible for manipulating our thoughts and actions. Maybe it has always been there, watching, waiting....

Why Didn't the Death Star Just Destroy Endor

What I don't understand, is if the Death Star were fully functional, and the Emperor was as evil as he seemed to be, they didn't just destroy all of the ships of the Rebel Alliance, and then destroy the planet of Endor.

Some people have suggested it was because it got its energy from Endor. But it seems that they only drew the power for the Death Star's force field from Endor. If that were the case, and they destroyed the rebel fleet, and then destroyed the moon, yes and their energy source, and their own officers, they would have completely crushed the rebel alliance.

Some might say that it was because the rebel ships got close to the Star Destroyers, but I figure the Emperor wouldn't have let a little thing like his own fleet get in the way of killing some rebels.

Ultimately I suppose the Emperor's downfall was arrogance. He left some things to chance and they came back to bite him. Still, I wonder why he didn't just destroy everything to send a message.

Say it ain't so Vino...

Vino caught for doping, and sent home from the tour? Can it get any worse? I hope he didn't dope and is cleared on his "B" sample. Otherwise, I'll probably lose all faith in the cyclists that ride pro...

I just can't believe that they are still doping?!!? Especially Vino, with all of the drug problems in Kazakhstan. I really hope he is innocent, but I can't say I'm hopeful...

Vinokourov "Vino" Wins Stage 13 at the Tour De France

"Stage 13: Alexandre Vinokourov is back

So, Alexandre Vinokourov is back in the Tour de France but exactly who will win in Paris is still unclear as we enter the final week. Depending on who you speak to, it will either be Michael Rasmussen, Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador , Andreas Kloden OR Alexandre Vinokourov! It looks unlikely to be Levi Leipheimer now but he has kept his hopes alive by moving up into fifth place."

- Versus.com

After the crash early on, I held out hope for Vino, although there were many others who wrote him off. Even if he can't win, his continuance and persistence through injury is a testament to himself, as well as his country of Kazakhstan. I am throughly impressed and motivated by Vinokourov and team Astana. He is truly inspiring. I hope they continue to impress.

BART EZ Rider Pilot

I have been a pilot user of BART's EZ Rider card. I noticed it one day while I was looking at the home page, they said that it was only for the first 1000 people who signed up. I signed up immediately.

For those who don't know what BART is. BART is Bay Area Rapid Transit. Its a two track train system for the San Francisco Bay Area. As an avid bike commuter, I use BART almost exclusively, well now exclusively. To get to work. While BART still has quite a ways to go to be convenient for cyclists. The EZ Rider service saves a tremendous amount of time and money. When you use it, you get $48 worth of BART for something like $42.

The way it works, you swipe the card over a round disc on the top or the side of the gate and it lets you through. It then deducts the amount preloaded on the card from your account. Whenever you get under $10 it loads another $48 onto your card, and charges your credit card directly.

It is so easy and quick that often I will prop my bike up on the other side of the gate, get out my card, and be through and on my bike before people without the service and no bike can get through the gates. Also, it doesn't break because it is wet or anything like that, and I don't have to fumble around trying to buy tickets ever anymore. It makes BART the optimal transit solution.

Most municipal services are way behind on technology, but it seems that BART is trying to stay current. I love this service and recommend that everyone demand that it become an official program very soon. All they have left to do, before I get a BART tattoo, is put on a few cars with rubber hooks, and seats on either side, for bikes and their owners.

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ATT 3G and iPhone 3G SIM Card

After reading a blog on the iPhone's 3G SIM Card, and after looking at ATT's plans for their 3G Network, I don't think it will be too long before we have broadband speeds on our iPhones. I guess it's delayed, but I would expect that ATT will be rolling out their 3G network sooner rather than later, and I wouldn't imagine that it will cost only an additional $20 per month. It would be awesome if it did, but I don't think it will.

Transformers the Movie *No Spoiler*

Yesterday I went to see Transformers the Movie here in Colorado. It was everything I was hoping it to be. I though it was a fantastic movie. The special effects were outstanding, and the Decepticons are simply, in a word, RAW.

The movie has incredible special effects, and the characters, while larger than life, were engaging enough. If you are into opera and stuff like that, you might not like this. It is literally 30 ~ 45 minutes of background and 1hr 30 minutes, or 1 hr and 15 minutes of action. I will definately buy this movie as a Transformers afficionado.

I have to admit to being something of a Transformers addict, I have the entire box-set on DVD, as well as the movie twice, once on VHS and another time on DVD. This movie will be a nice addition to them, even though Michael Bay took some liberties that I am not incredibly enthused about.

giro di peninsula

Sunday I rode the 100k in the Giro Di Peninsula. First I'll tall about how my bike did, then I'll talk about how I did.

My Tirreno Razza 900 did pretty well. After about 50 miles the pedals started making some unpleasant noises. The scratching sound from my rear axle didn't get any worse. I noticed a chip in my carbon fork, and it's clear that the Isis platinum bottom bracket won't last too long. I'll need to get the MegaQuad bottom bracket.

I guess it is just dirty. I'll need to clean and lube the pedals, I'm a little worried about the chip in the fork since I have heard that damaged carbon forks are suspect, but maybe that was only the old forks.

As far as me. I am stronger than I thought I was, but not as strong as I'd like to be.

Star Trek Phaser Auto Destruct

Some thoughts about the Star Trek phaser's overload function. My main question is why did the overload function exist at all. If it was a hack by the users, why wasn't it corrected by the engineers in future editions. I mean, I remember the captain self-destructing phasers in the first Star Trek, but Riker, Wharf and others were destructing phasers still in the Next Generation.

Initially, I thought I could understand why the phaser would need a self-destruct, but since it is already a weapon of undefinable strength, namely the kill function, and the rock warming function, I can't understand why anyone would really want to blow it up.

Also, as my friend JR pointed out, could you imagine the liability insurance the phaser manufacturer must have had to pay to sell that thing to the federation? The costs must have been astronomical. I wonder, did the first edition phaser have the timer on it, or did people just blow themselves up.

Furthermore, what did the product request look like, "Dear Engineer, We'd like to add a self-destruct function to the phaser. We know we can kill, destroy, or stun anything short of a Romulan Space Cruiser, but we really want to blow ourselves and everyone around me up." What kind of request is that? Why would Starfleet, an otherwise very intelligent and benevolent group, albeit with lax rules around the prime directive, allow such a weapon to be given to its people.

Well, maybe they had Aflac and there are no lawsuits in the future. Still, I'd be worried that the Ferengi would sue the Federation over the use of such dangerous weapons. They would certainly interfere with their pursuit of Gold Pressed Latinum.

London to Close 9 Miles of Roads to Encourage Cycling

London is serious about climate change, I wish our cities would take cycling specifically, and the environment generally more seriously. However, even though it isn't here, its good to see someone trying to change transportation habits, even for just one day.

Digg It!

Review: 07 Tirreno Razza 900 Road Bike

Frame: 7005 Aluminum w/ Carbon seatstays
Handlebar: PZ Racing Components 3.3 Aluminum 31.8 clamp
Stem: PZ Racing Components 5.3 Aluminum 31.8 clamp
Fork: SRC Carbon Blade/ Alloy steertube
Seatpost: PZ Racing Components 2.2 Carbon/ Alloy 27.2 x 300
Tape: Cork w/ Gel
Crankset: FSA Gossamer ISIS Compact, 50/34T
Bottom Bracket: ISIS (Platinum?)
Headset: FSA Orbit 1 1/8 integrated
Tires: Hutchinson Quartz 700x23
Chain: KMC DX10S
Saddle: Selle Italia XO Trans Am
Front Derailleur: Shimano 105 FD-5600 double 31.8 clamp
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105 FD 5600 SS 10 speed
Shift/ Brake Levers: Shimano 105 STI 10 speed
Cassette: Shimano 105 11/23T 10speed
Brakes: Tektro R-570
Wheelset: Easton Vista
Pedals: Wellgo W-40B Look Style

Well, let me start by saying that I am 5'10" and about 240 lbs. I was definately worried about the off brand frame with carbon stays, and the Easton Velomax rims. The Velomax rims have enough spokes to support my weight, although they do produce a whispering noise while riding.

I am now about 350 miles in on the bike. I average about 22o miles per week. My biggest surprise was in the Hutchinson Quartz tires. They provide incredible grip, and have fairly low rolling resistance. I have yet to get a flat (knock on wood) and have rode over some nasty stuff with my heavy frame.

I have shorter legs and a pretty tall torso so the 54" frame seemed like a good choice. So far the cornering is great, the FSA Orbit headset is decent. I didn't like the Selle Italia Trans AM seat until I was able to adjust the seat into a more aggressive position, although I am putting a lot of weight on the fork now. From what I understand this is the way I should be set up on the bike, but it definitely makes my arms more tired.

The FSA Gossamer ISIS crank is good so far. It is really good looking in silver, it doesn't make any noise so far, although I think I'll have to replace the bottom bracket before long. It is hard to determine which ISIS bottom bracket they used and if they have the QuadMax bearings, I think it uses the ISIS Platinum which does not have the additional ring of heavy duty bearings. But so far it hasn't given me any problems.

Of course what can I say about the Shimano 105 group shifters and the Tektro R-570 brakes. They all work the way they are supposed to, there are no surprises there. Once the brakes were broken in, they worked well, but the first couple of rides I had some scary stops.

This is my first compact crank, and I notice that I do miss the 53t or 52t large ring, but all-in-all it is versatile enough for me. I am now finding myself doing decent cadences. I noticed immediately that I have much better climbing habits, and people who used to leave me behind are having a much harder time shaking me now.

While the PZ Race Components probably won't set off any bells in any one's mind, in fact it is hard to find a website for this company, their components are strong and light. The only carbon component on the bike is the seat post. All of the PZ stuff looks good and works good. So far I am really happy with this bike. It retailed for $1499, but I got it on clearance for $899. Right now Bike Nashbar has the bike in most sizes. Except for the ISIS crank everything else is on the up-and-up. The only problem with the ISIS is that everything has gone to external cranks, so getting the FSA ISIS bottom brackets has become a fairly expensive proposition. At my rate of riding, I'll probably have to replace the BB every 6 months, but for most riders it should be fine.

Anyway, it is a great bike, at a great price. If you have the bread and need a bike I'd definitely recommend it.

China backs Russia over US missile plans in Europe - Asia-Pacific

China and Russia against the US on strategic policy. That is starting to look like a new Warsaw Pact vs NATO conflict. I really hope we reconsider our position, unless we like the idea of starting at best a new cold war, and at worst world war three. Is ballistic missile defense really worth it?It certainly looks like the US and Western Europe are trying to surround northern and central Asia with weapons systems. If we really want this, why not make them partners and ask them to build the parts of the system in their areas with our help. Why are we always pitching war instead of cooperation? I can't wait until this administration changes. I just hope the rest of the world can stay cool until then.



read more | digg story

Microsoft Google and Yahoo not leading the Web Standards Movement

Why aren't the biggest web companies building standards compliant sites, why aren't they leading the standards movement. I'd think they have the most to gain, yet they don't help, in fact yahoo and google's sites don't even have doctype declarations.



read more | digg story

The Slurpr WiFi aggregator: up to 324Mbps broadband for "free"

The Dutch have the best DJs and I guess the best hackers. This is a killer invention. To me, this is what bittorrent technology will do for all of us ultimately. Combine all of our FiOS lines into a massive bandwidth channel enabling everyone to have their own HD television channel broadcast (narrowcasted) from their house!



read more | digg story

Del Valle Bike Ride

Nice lazy Sunday afternoon bike ride. There are great spots to buy cherries and strawberries along the ride. You can smell the strawberries as you ride.

20 Mile Bike Ride Through Alameda

Who Says you can't get a 20 mile bike ride through the Island of Alameda, California?

New Exclusive Transformers Trailer

Yahoo! Movies just dropped the new trailer for Transformers. First reaction: school girl giddiness. Second reaction: Ok, there isn’t too much in here that we haven’t seen before, but I still like it.OK, I'm ready to buy it. At first, I thought that Michael Bay was going to mess the movie all up, but now I think it will be action packed, basically a robotic independence day. That is OK. I like ID4 as a reference disc. I'll like Transformers as a reference disk too!



read more | digg story

Bike Ride from Fremont Bart to Foster City

This is my long bike ride to foster city from home. Basically I take BART from Fruitvale down to Fremont and then ride over. I have averaged 15 MPH so the ride takes 2 hours. Surprisingly this method is the same amount of time as riding BART up and over the bay, with the added benefit of double the riding time as well as being slightly cheaper.




For a while I looked for a good route over the Dumbarton bridge, the first I tried was from Union City BART, but I either ended up on the highway or got turned around and went the wrong direction because it is too complicated at the other end.

At the end you'll see that I have the path going over what appears to be nothing. There is actually something there, its a trail that takes you basically from Oracle to Edgewater Drive in Foster City. My ride avoids El Camino Real and is very flat.

I hope this helps anyone who is trying to find their way to work in Foster City via bike from the east bay.

Amazon officially announces long-rumored DRM-free music store

Amazon announced this morning that it plans to launch a music store later this year that will sell unprotected MP3 files from thousands of record labels.Outstanding, it appears that the music industry is finally starting to get it. Now if only I could download the music in OggVorbis format, I'd be ecstatic.



read more | digg story

Volkswagen busted for using 'hidden text' to spam Google

Volkswagen was recently found to be using hidden text on its web pages in an effort to increase their Google exposure. Unlike the rest of us Google 'helped' them fix the issue rather than drop them into supplementary hell! Must be nice to have friends in high places?Well, the guy can't spell, but he has a valid point. Why wasn't Volkswagen de-listed and thrown in the sandbox? They shouldn't get customized help from them. Google's search is very, very broken.



read more | digg story

Was Philadelphia's draft a "Whoops", or was it genious

Its always hard to determine whether the actions a genius takes are brilliant, and if they indeed are, a genius, or if they are simply crazy or foolish. Joe Banner and Andy Reid's drafting of a quarterback in their first pick could be crazy or a stroke of genius. Kevin Kolb may be a good quarterback, but I am not sure this is a good draft for the Eagles for some political reasons. Not to mention that giving up a first round pick for this guy, must mean that he is some kind of good. At least we hope that's what it means.

Did the Eagles take a vote of "no-confidence" in Donovan McNabb? I don't think so. I think they are taking out a little insurance. No one in Philly is saying, but typically if your quarterback has what 4 of the last 5 seasons where he has season ending injuries, you have to start wondering how much gas they have left in the tank. How much more bashing can Don's body take? I think Philly doesn't want to be left holding the bag. If Kolb is as good as we all hope he is, I think that Philly is thinking that if Donovan is forced to retire in the next two seasons, they will have a great backup ready to take the reins. If he doesn't, then they can parley him into a first round draft choice to pick up someone they need.

I still don't agree with losing a first round draft pick and giving your rival a chance to pick up their need. Dallas got exactly what they wanted, Philly, I'm not sure what they've got. Donovan McNabb is arguably in the top 3 quarterbacks in the NFL. You've got to give a guy like that a chance. Feely isn't bad, he is good enough to handle the duties while Donovan recuperates, he has proven that. I think Philly has made a "Whoops," because they are making Donovan feel insecure, even though he is a class guy and isn't commenting on it, they shouldn't be doing that to the best quarterback in Philly history...

McNabb's treatment should trouble Kolb

News Stories with the same title

Its interesting that while on the web, we think that we are getting the most diverse news in the world, and I'd agree that its out there, but in fact, they all seem to be drinking from the same kool-aid as it were.

Check out this link (http://www.bothsidesofastory.com) and look at the headlines of AMD tries to scoop Intel's Santa Rosa launch. There are three stories that have the exact same headline with slight variations. I guess they are all just taking the associated press feed, but it is still slightly disturbing

CSS Reset Reloaded

Eric Meyer, CSS Guru gives us a run down on some extreme CSS Reset. Think of these as a starting point for creating your own defaults, in addition to being a way to illuminate the nature of browser defaults. Simply the act of taking those defaults into consideration and thinking about them closely puts you ahead of 99% of your peers.



read more | digg story

I think that this is awesome, and will really help with browsers that make assumptions about how developers want their pages to render, but at the same time it is a shame that we have to do this at all.

The strict doctype was established to tell the browser, "hey, I know what I am doing, don't add padding or anything." Its a shame that the doctype is mostly ignored by many browsers. At the same time in defense of the browsers, I see plenty of times where people are misusing the doctype by claiming strict, but their site does not even come close to validating.

Digg Cheating

I suggested essentially the same algorithm for how an open-source search engine could work without being vulnerable to gaming even by those who understood all of its inner workings. The main difference, of course, is that Digg and reddit actually exist now. Digg declined to comment on the possible merits of such an algorithm; reddit's Steve Huffman said that the idea sounded interesting, although even if the idea got full buy-in, naturally any proposed change would take a long time to bring to fruition.But it seems that an algorithm similar to this one would be the only way to prevent cheating on sites like Digg that sort content based on user votes. So it's ironic that HotOrNot, the only site I know of that is using a variation of this algorithm and hence is probably the most secure against cheating, is also the one where cheating is least likely to be a problem. Getting a high placement on Digg might enable you to make some money, but getting a highly rated picture on HotOrNot isn't going to make you rich (unless it helps you meet a millionaire who is using the site to find his third wife). Also, making HotOrNot meritocratic doesn't give people an incentive to improve the "content" that they submit, because up to the limits of what can be done with hair and wardrobe, you can't make yourself that much more attractive. With Digg and reddit, on the other hand, I might work harder at submitting a good story, if I knew that it worked in a perfectly meritocratic fashion that pushed good stories right to the top.

Slashdot | How to Stop Digg-cheating, Forever

I don't know about using any type of algorithm to stop digg cheating.  It seems somewhat impossible to do.  If you implemented this type of algorithm, how would you allow affiliate sites to have a "Digg This" button on them?  The users would be in essence voting on a single story by going directly to the URL.  It is impossible to come up with any type of algorithm, no matter how clever to stop people from cheating on popular sites.  Someone out there with way more time, and sometimes more money than you will always defeat it. 

I think that Digg has done a good job in that their users can bury a story.  So the fact that the story was quickly buried is an example of this.  And as the linked to wired story indicates, the story was quickly buried once it got to the front page.  So what if she got a ton of traffic, 100,000 hits is nothing, probably less than 1% of the total traffic that Digg forwards each day.  Saying that it is a valuable way of gaming adsense is clear.

As I have said before, I don't know what the answer is, but technical solutions such as clever algorithms won't work, there is just too much money at stake, so someone will always reverse engineer it. 

Perhaps a genetic algorithm would work, but having tons of clones that all needed to learn and sync would hurt performance and initial efficacy.  You'd have to install genetic an genetic algorithm, train it for years, and then deploy it to make it effective, and do the syncs when search traffic were at a minimum.  Its tough.

technorati tags:digg, gaming, search, gaming, pay-for-clicks, scam

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I-880 I-80 Bay Area Tanker Explosion

A tanker truck explosion caused the connector to Interstate 580 from the Bay Bridge to collapse onto the roadway connecting I-80 to I-880 and downtown Oakland. One piece has completely fallen down and another piece is hanging loosely and may fall today, Caltrans workers said.From Berkeley on the eastshore freeway heading toward the Bay Bridge there is no problem aside from traffic delays. But drivers hoping to go through the maze and continue on southbound on I-880 are being diverted onto I-580 and then onto I-980 and back onto I-880 because the only other route around the collapsed section would be on city streets.

Transit officials trying to find work-arounds

Well, several things come to mind.  First, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut 1.1 Billion dollars from the budget for public transportation.  Without acceptable mass transit options, an event such as this puts the San Francisco Bay-Area's transit situation in jeopardy.

If everyone decides to jump on trains during rush hour, the transit authorities have no ability to add additional capacity to support them.  The trains would be jammed, and someone such as myself who wants to bring my bike on board would be out of luck.  If we fully funded our mass transit options, there would be multiple methods of getting to work, ensuring that California's economy keeps right on humming.  I'm worried about outsourcing infrastructure, and diminishing public transportation as it greatly enhances the impact of disasters on the system.

Secondly, it exposes part of the problem of carrying hazardous materials around our highways.  Gasoline is hazardous.  Its another reason for using 100% electric vehicles and beefing up our nuclear energy program with more reactors.

technorati tags:explosion, San, Francisco, Bay, Area, I-880, I-80

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So Maybe when we screw up Earth, we can go to Gliese 581c

It appears that we have found at least one planet close enough to Earth in size and temperature at least to possibly support liquid water, and if it can support liquid water, the possibility of life on that planet is much higher.

"European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile, have hit pay dirt: the most Earth-like planet ever detected beyond the solar system. The discovery immediately boosted the odds that humans are not alone in the universe. London bookies duly took note, lowering the odds on extraterrestrial life from 1,000-to-1 to 100-to-1."

We'll just have to wait to see how this planet is put together, but I'd bet the Bush administration is already busy trying to figure out how to drill for oil on it.

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How Search Engines Treat No Follow : No Follow Doesn't Mean No Index

Google, Yahoo and Ask.com sound off on their treatment of the No Follow attribute and clear webmaster confusion that links from sites such as Wikipedia using this attribute have no value.

I'm not sure about how Yahoo! is treating the rel="nofollow" attribute. I think they should not index the resulting link. I understand why they would, but indirectly it will give attribution to the page, giving spam commenters a reason to spam a new site on the unsuspecting blog. Indirectly, they are encouraging spammers, and black hat SEOs to keep doing the same thing that is breaking the web. Google's approach is the right one.I personally hate all the SEO stuff. People are all url keyword stuffing, even Digg. The problem is that since everyone else is doing it, I have to do it, you have to do it, it makes ranking sites error prone, except for sites like Digg. Crawlers have become almost useless since the advent of blogs. There is no way a crawler can keep up with the pace of blogging, so everyone has to ping someone when their site is updated.Something has to give here. I'm just not sure what its going to be.



read more | digg story

New Amigas on the Way

For us aging geeks, this is the best news to come along in quite some time--new Amigas, minus the Commodore!

For those of you who don't remember them, look at this as an opportunity to take one more step away from the mainstream: "You still use LINUX? Humph!"The amiga used to be awesome for sound and graphics. I think the Amiga OS is now linux based, but if they can capture any of the coolness of the old one, I'm in!



read more | digg story

The Evolving Web

Semantic Web. Web 3.0. The Intelligent Web. Whichever terminology you want to use, it's a vision for the Web in which information is given explicit meaning, making it easier for machines to automatically process and integrate said information.

read more | digg story

I have been giving the semantic web a lot of thought. Ever since I added the Y!Q to my owensperformance blog site I have wondered if this technology could really do anything cool. The Y!Q is fairly cool, but it is the service behind it that is cooler. Still, the Y!Q service is pretty dumb, in fact currently all semantic services are pretty dumb. The hard part is to try to make them smarter without creating a bunch of work for the users. For example, tag clouds are cool, but having to enter a bunch of tags is too hard. Similarly, tagging a URL and providing a description and tags for each thing I find is too much work. I would want a service that does that for me, and also digests the resulting service.

The problem is that for this to work, the service has to know who I am, and know an awful lot about me. I don't really want anything to have that level of understanding of me, or do I. I guess that is our dilemma.

12-year old Nigerian becomes Sun certified Java Programmer

One less Nigerian spammer, who knows? Maybe just learning the tools to deliver more spam faster! In any case, a 12 year old Nigerian kid has earned professional recognition from Sun as a certified Java programmer. - Digg

I'm really surprised by the responses from people on Digg. So what if the kid says he thinks blacks are more intelligent than whites. First of all, the title of black and white don't mean anything. The kid is 12. He is clearly misguided. That doesn't mean that he is not smart, or that this is not an accomplishment. All Nigerians are not spammers. A lot of spam comes from China, but no one is saying that all Chinese people are spammers. I can't believe how racist, both this kid, and the people on Digg who responded to that are. Check it out for yourself....

Bottom Bracket 68mm x 118mm Specialized Allez Sport

Well, I guess my bike finally got to the point where it needed some serious maintenance. The bike is a Specialized Allez Sport from I guess about 2001. The bottom bracket was making a clicking sound on each revolution when I bought it from my friend. Once my 5'11" 240lb frame started abusing it daily for 26 miles, it finally started making a grinding noise and needed to be replaced.

One of the biggest problems was finding a square taper bottom bracket. It seems that they switched to Octalink a while ago, and now they are all about the two piece crank with external bearings. I don't actually know what the real benefit is to that, except possibly more strength from the BB.

Anyway, changing the bracket was really easy. I'd read Sheldon Brown's Articles on Bottom Brackets first because it is critically important to figure out what your bottom bracket's size is. It will affect your shifting and pedaling performance if you don't.

Next, take the cranks off, use a crank puller, don't try to remove it any other way, I did and it wasn't fun. Then use the bottom bracket tool to take it out. I'd clean up inside your frame while you've got it out. Finally, just put it back in the way it came out. Always unscrew the plastic side first. Sometimes it is a cheap chrome, usually it will be on the opposite side of the crank's cogs.

Anyway, if you have an old Allez from 2001, the bottom bracket you need is going to be 68mm x 118mm. The other thing to look at is the type. Probably the best you will be able to find will be the Shimano UN-73 Square Taper Bottom Bracket. I ended up going with the UN-52 because it was the only one I could find. Actually it was an upgrade from whatever was already in there. My bike is a fair amount lighter, and having a new bottom bracket is like riding on butter.

We have got to fix our tax situation

Halliburton Co.'s decision to relocate its chief executive and corporate headquarters to Dubai has scratched one of Congress' most sensitive sore spots -- suspicion that U.S. corporations are restructuring their operations to shirk domestic taxes.

Halliburton Dubai move revives foreign tax controversy - MarketWatch

Haliburton's motives are almost always suspicious, but this is an indication of a problem.  I agree that they are making a tax play, but more importantly, they could be just the first.

One of the great things about tech is that it is possible to work just about from anywhere, but that is also one of the reasons it is highly susceptible to worker relocation.  I'm afraid that with all of the free-flying free-trade agreements that have happened, it is possible to locate your business just about anywhere and reach just about any market.  While this is a great thing, and it opens up plenty of great opportunities for domestic business, they should want to keep their businesses here.

The government can help with this by running trimmer and keeping corporate taxes low, including payroll tax.  It is easy for congress to say, "lets shake down business for the extra money we need."  But that is a problem in that they can just split.  All they would do is reduce the number of jobs available in America, and long-term they would break our economy.

It is a tough problem, and I understand that corporations must pay taxes, but at the same time America has to remain a fertile place for businesses to grow.  Corporation bashing isn't going to get us anywhere, and we need to act soon before silicon valley is located somewhere in India or Saudi Arabia.

technorati tags:politics, business, taxes

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Amarok for Ubuntu Linux

Amarok - Rediscover Your Music - Amarok is the music player for Linux and Unix with an intuitive interface. Amarok makes playing the music you love easier than ever before - and looks good doing it.

Amarok - rediscover your music

You know, for a long time I thought that the music support in Linux was awful.  There were no applications, most of them didn't support aac, specifically Apple's wierd m4a file extention.    But that was a few weeks ago, before I found Amarok.  This program does everything that iTunes should do.  The music suggestion system is sweet, and the integration with last.fm is great to say the least.  I was worried when I switched from Windows that I would miss a lot, but actually I'm finding new stuff that has always been out there, but that I just didn't know was there thanks to Ubuntu linux.

The best thing about Amarok is that it is so easy to set up and get going through Ubuntu, but if you want to get into more deep stuff it is right there.  Furthermore, the integration with Wikipedia is genius.  All in all, this music player is truly a 10 / 10!

technorati tags:amarok, music, player, linux, ubuntu

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Who will get the "black" vote... There is no such thing

"Can he get any white votes?" That's the usual question asked when a black American files for a major public office like governor, senator or president. In the case of Barack Obama, a Washington Post/ABC News poll has turned that question on its head. The poll shows Hillary Clinton beating Obama among African-American voters by an astonishing 60 percent to 20 percent. When Jesse Jackson ran in 1984 and '88, his proportion of the black vote in the primaries was 80 to 90 percent. So, why the difference with Obama? The dominant theory is that, as the son of a white Kansas mother and a black Kenyon father raised mostly in the white community, Obama is not sufficiently black. We're not talking about skin color here; we're talking about a black identity. Many black Americans, such as columnist Stanley Crouch, don't consider Obama as one of their own. Said Crouch, "When black Americans refer to Obama as 'one of us,' I don't know what they're talking about."

Who will get blacks' vote? | IndyStar.com

OK, this is political and not related to technology, yet I had to say something. I think the original premise is faulty, that there is no such thing as a "black" vote. The question of whether or not Barack Obama can get "white" votes is also faulty. Just as there is no real "white" voting block, there is no real "black" voting block. African-Americans are intellegent enough, integrated enough, and diverse enough to vote for a candidate along the issues that most pertain to them. Just like European-Americans are savvy enough to vote for whichever candidate they feel voices their concerns.

Race is important, but I don't think it plays as centrally as it used to. I am an African-American who has spent equal time living in the north, south, and western United States. I have seen all types of people, and most people don't vote as a block. Ask the Republicans, they have become experts at this. If you look at 2004 and 2000, it wasn't race at all that enabled the Republicans to take total control of the governement, it was religion.

I resent that fact that political analysts still believe that they can stereotype "blacks" or "whites," or "latinos." What it really boils down to is that this is still a melting pot. When people come here, after a couple of generations, they are American. Racism does exist, but so does every other -ism you can think of. Ignorant people are always going to behave ignorantly. Even if we all were blue, the ignoramuses among us would find differences in the "blueness" of each other.

Speaking to this whole idea that Obama isn't "black" enough. That is purely ridiculous, and Hillary Clinton leading among the African-American voting segment is no suprise to me. Obama is speaking to a different class than many minorities find themselves in. This has absolutely nothing to do with race in and of itself, it has to do with access to opportunity. Hillary Clinton frequently speaks about equalizing this access to opportunity, Obama does not.

Really, the idea that someone can be blacker than someone else is insane. No one in America, unless your family has come straight from Africa, can really say that they are African. Maybe deep in your genes are some material shared with a common African ancestor, but African no. Obama is just as "black" as I am, and my family has slaves on both sides. But culturally we both have grown up with the same disadvantages, being that ignorant people would want to stereotype us, he probably more so than me. Ultimately we are both American, culturally, and that is what is important. Everyone who is "black" in America right now, except Africans, who aren't really culturally "black," is American. "Black" culture is American mainstream culture now. As soon as we all realize that we can't separate and we are stuck with each other we will be better off. There won't be a "black" nation, there won't be a "white" nation, and there won't be a "latino" nation here in America. We are all too equally represented, and too equally culturally indoctrinated.

What the real gist of the issue here is, is that we have become a rigidly stratafied class-based society; an anathema to American values. Obama represents one class, Clinton represents another class. The Republican candidates will represent yet other classes. People shouldn't buy into the "race-is-everything" myth. Classism in the U.S. is a lot more prevalent than Racisim. I'd bet that if you observed an African-American woman from the "upper-class" as she walked past a thugged out European-American on the street. She'd clutch her purse just as we are taught to belive the converse. Don't believe the hype.

technorati tags:obama, black-is-black, classism

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Digg leading to a more narrow world view?

Surveys show that people are not really spending more time with news. Data from the Pew Project for the People and the Press in 2006 showed that the amount of time Americans spend with news is essentially flat - even online. That's not to say that some people won't go out of their way to put together a particular news diet, but the number of people who will do that will probably be few.And maybe that's for the best. Social networking news sites such as Digg are fun to visit, but it is easy to imagine how they could quickly lead to a view of the world just as insular as that of the MSM, and maybe more so - either stuck within the preferences of the Digg crowd or the preferences of a select few Digg members whose list of "diggs" one regularly checks.It's not that there's anything wrong with that, but if your concern is being trapped by the worldview of the MSM editors, how is the worldview of the crowd on one website really better?

Have you been 'digging' the news lately? - Yahoo! News

I don't know about this.  I do agree that the end result of a site like Digg is that users only see news about what they want to see.  This has interesting implications since, i'd imagine, many Digg users are quite young.  I don't know if that is so terribly important, but there is the possibility that people will grow up completely unaware of what is happening outside their community.  I know that because we watch so much user generated media, such as YouTube, etc..., on the computer my daughter didn't understand why we couldn't just find cartoons on the TV in the same way.  Actually I don't really understand why we can't do that either.

Here's why I don't agree with the christian science monitor's assessment of Digg.  Curiosity.  Plain and simple.  As Digg adds more categories, and gets a broader demographic of users, I'd say that you will indeed end up with what is truly the public's opinion on the front page of Digg.  That could be a very interesting tool for politicians, etc.  It could also help to advance the topics of the lesser heard, at least where I live, right wing.  Not that I particulary want to hear what the right wing has to say.  It usually hurts my ears, but I feel that it is always important to understand both sides of a story, so that you won't end up arguing a point that you don't fully know about.

In many ways, I think that the christian science monitor has a point.  Right now, today, Digg will give you a very tech-heavy, left wing perspective on the news.  For me that isn't a big deal because that is what I want to hear.  However, when the right wing discovers Digg, I'll look forward to reading the comment section on some of those stories!

technorati tags:digg, politics, big, media, narrow, world, view, technology, future

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Michelin Pro2 Race Road Bike Tires

Well, I bought a pair of Michelin Pro2 race tires for a 1998/99 Allez road bike I bought from a friend. I was replacing a pair of Vittoria Zaffiros, which I have heard are one of the best suprises out there...

The pro 2 tires look like this:

The Zaffiros were great, but the problem was that they had no tread in the middle. They actually had worn to where they are flat in the middle. From what people have told me the Zaffiros resist punctures and are excellent. Well, at any rate since it was time I bought the Michelins. For one day I was in heaven. The tires had great grip and almost no rolling resistance. Then tragedy struck. I had read on the performance bike site that a heavy rider had some difficulty with the rear tire.

Well, I am heavy, well over 80 kilos. The first issue was that the tires can't be pumped up higher than 116 psi. That was OK, I don't care about a couple PSI. The Zaffiros, while much harder, are more durable and can be filled to 120 PSI. The tragedy was that I happened to roll across a piece of glass about 3/4 inch wide. The front tire, of course, was fine, the rear tire however was slashed to about 3/4 inch across the center of the tread, and the glass went into the inner tube and destroyed it. So now I have a Pro2 tire with what looks like a tiny slash in it, but is really, when pumped up, a wide gash where the tube shows through. I tried to ride it anyway, and of course I lost a innertube.

What I was upset about was that I spent $100 on two tires and one was gone. Fortunately a friend of mine told me about Mr. Tuffy. I got the Mr. Tuffies and a new Vittoria Rubino Pro rear tire. The Rubino is a great tire, it has a much larger PSI capacity at 130, and is supposedly grippier around corners. Well, I'll tell you they are not grippier than the Michelin. In fact the Rubino is downright scary in the rain. The best part is that it is scary in a predictible fashion.

I know when it will break loose. With the Mr Tuffies I felt like I couldn't get a flat. I think I'll stick with the Rubinos, even though they are a little wild in the rain.  It doesn't rain too much where I live, and in the dry they seem excellent.  I got the black on black, but I think I'll try to find the blue ones next time.  They will better match my bike.

All in all, I'd recommend the Pro2 Race tires if you are around, or less than 150 lbs, and you are in a race.  I definately wouldn't recommend them for commuting or if you weigh more than about 160 lbs.  The rear tire just won't hold up.

technorati tags:bike, tires, road, commute, race

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