Category: Plugs

Straight out the 402

I was disappointed to notice My Morning Jacket, Louisville band turned critical darling and national success, on the list of Sony CDs carrying MediaMax DRM software, which has recently shown to cause vulnerabilities as badly as the infamous XCP rootkit. I knew the band probably had little input in whether their CD would be DRMed, but it was still bad news. Then the EFF blog brought to my attention that MMJ is offering their own recall–a more ethical, more friendly and more business-sensible path to their audience than the one their own label has taken. I am positively flush with Louisville pride.

I fully expect you to correct this, interweb

I’ve tried and tried, but I cannot find a way to be cynical about the $100 laptop initiative.

Update 1348 hrs: But the interweb can, in “Problems with the $100 laptop” and the reaction from MetaFilter (both via Henry McEuen).

The arguments in the Fonly paper don’t change my stance, though. High saturation would lead to a pretty pathetic gray market, especially when you can eBay an old Compaq laptop (but not a million) for twelve bucks. And no, the requirements haven’t been met yet, and we don’t know what the consequences will be. Of course we don’t know what the consequences will be. That’s called the Law of Unintended Consequences. But we know what the consequences of broadening gaps in education and communication will be, and in this case I’m eager to let the proverbial street find its own uses.

I associate exclusively with overachievers

  • As my mother reports, my sister will be interviewed for an appointment to continue studying at Oxford. My predictions are on target so far! Yay Caitlan!
  • I have been thinking lately of what a little expletive I was from, oh, about ages nine through nineteen; my hyper, piping self-absorption stands in sharp contrast to Sumana’s high school martyr complex, but I still identify strongly with the behavior she describes. I wish my motivation had been as progressive as hers, and I wish I regularly could come up with the kind of beautiful phrasing she uses at the end of the column. (But read the whole thing first, dammit.)

On Saturday night, Maria, Michael and I went out and saw Serenity.

On Sunday, we went right back out and saw it again.