How Fast Are You?

Guardian Shutters Print, Switches to Twitter

Highlights from the Guardian’s Twitterised news archive

• 1927 — OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day otherwise *sigh*
• 1940 — W Churchill giving speech NOW – “we shall fight on the beaches … we shall never surrender” check YouTube later for the rest
• 1961 — Listening 2 new band “The Beatles”
• 1989 — Berlin Wall falls! Majority view of Twitterers = it’s a historic moment! What do you think??? Have your say
• 1997 — RT@mohammedalfayed: FYI NeilHamilton, Harrods boss offering £££ 4 questions in House of Commons! Check it out

Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink

YouTube Launches New Interface

http://www.youtube.com/

BugMeNot Switches to Registration-Required Model

http://www.bugmenot.com/

Reddit Has a New Look

http://www.reddit.com/

Qualcomm Ups the Convergence Ante with Two New Products

http://www.qualcomm.com/

Swiss Government Promotes Volunteerism

http://www.myswitzerland.com/

The SaveIE6 Campaign Launches

http://www.saveie6.com/

Google Announces CADIE

• Project Page
• Gmail Integration
• Google Docs Support for Documents, Spreadsheets and Presentations
• And now, Google Analytics!

We are truly living in exciting times, my friends.

I am a cult member: I admit it. But if Microsoft doesn’t screw up this new Surface technology too much, it will truly make the world a better place.

Nerdgasm #2: Commence.

The current trial underway in Sweden is important to all consumers, especially those of us who are of the nerd persuasion. The outcome may decide how media is distributed and how much hold the music industry still has on your entertainment dollar (spoiler: not much).

The music industry, in particular the terrorist organization known as the RIAA, has been whining for years that piracy is stealing precious dollars from their coffers. Even when presented with clear statistics that file sharers purchase more music and media, they turn up their noses and turn the screws.

But as a recent article from Torrent Freak explains very clearly, the music industry killed itself. To quote the simple and elegant logic:

The fact is that the music industry’s revenues have been artificially inflated for decades because of limited consumer options. The last 15 years of innovation have lifted those limitations, effectively leaving the music industry with an obsolete, defective business model of monopolized production technology, forced album bundling, and almost nonexistent competition in the realm of home entertainment. What is happening now – the decline of music profits and the piracy witch hunt by the music industry – is merely the panicked struggle of a dying business model, a complacent industry’s refusal to accept its diminishing role in a digital world. The pirates are not the reason, and the decline is the not the disease. It is the cure.

We have been spending our heard-earned dollars elsewhere: computers, gaming consoles, MP3 downloads. The music industry refused to budge from their business model of CD unit sales, which were astronomically priced for years. Now they are suffering as a result of their stubbornness and trying to find scapegoats in innocent people in desperation.

What can you do? Support efforts to fight DRM, support digital freedom, and be a good guy.

Hildegard

Our new secretary, Hildegard, has laid down the law regarding the filing situation around here. From now on, categories will be categorized in the following manner, categorically, says she:

Art and Design — Dance, Design, Pin-up, Advertising, Sculpture

Books — Stuff We’ve Read, Writers

Culture — Atheism, Copyleft, Cosplay, Events, Men, Religion, Sex, Women

Commentary — Feature Articles, Opinion, Rants

Epicureanism — Food, Drink, all manner of sybaritic delights

Film and Video — Movies, Television, Short Films, Online, Broadcast

Music — Listening to Music, Making Music

News — Real News, Fake News, Site News, Newsie News, Infoporn

Photography — Taking Photos, Admiring Photos, Manipulating Photos

Ping — Location, Microblogging, Status Updates

Public Interest — Ecology, Law, Politics, Privacy and Security, Public Interest

Science — Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Cognition, Health, Inventions, Mind Hacks, Physics

Technomancy — Internet, Inventions, Toys and Gadgets, Privacy and Security

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to make her a fresh pot of coffee. Hildie spank when we serve her burnt coffee.

UPDATED to add Epicureanism

The Beeb set up a camera pointing at the stairs in front of Waterloo station in order to film people falling down them.

They couldn’t have warned people? Let the station staff know so they could put up a sign? Nope, they just filmed it happening. ‘Cause that’s news, American style.

Via Boing Boing.

I really don’t care for gossipy news, like who yelled at who, who wasn’t wearing underwear, who assaulted who with a golf club, blah, blah, blah.

But this is pretty funny. If you feel the need to know what Christian Bale said in his much touted blow up, this is the only way to go:

Via The Underwire.

T-Rock has left town, despite instructions to the contrary. She will, however, be very happy.

Damn, I miss her already.

Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino (November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009)

Without a doubt, one of my favorite actors, and originator of “the five stages of the actor”:

1. Who is Ricardo Montalbán?
2. Get me Ricardo Montalbán.
3. Get me a Ricardo Montalbán type.
4. Get me a young Ricardo Montalbán.
5. Who is Ricardo Montalbán?

Via If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.

Patrick Joseph McGoohan (March 19, 1928 – January 13, 2009)

More from The Los Angeles Times.

via If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.

Tower Records is dead. Chapter 11, the business dirt nap. Quite frankly, I’m wondering what took so long. The obvious answer is: The American public finally wised up. After years of paying 19 friggin’, hard-earned dollars for each shiny, plastic disc, they finally stopped. Now, Tower is paying the Jethro Tull piper for its sins of avarice and greed.

Yes, the recording industry is whining about illegal downloading, file sharing and piracy (by honest Buccaneer-Americans), but they also have only themselves to blame. Just like Congress, old white guys in suits tried to keep the gravy train rolling. The problem is, people weren’t coming to the station anymore. They found that bicycles were faster, and… well, let’s stop beating that metaphor into the ground.

The point is, many of us wised up and realized that when you buy something, you own it, and can share it at will. You can let a friend use your car, your computer, your phone… why not your digital music files?

Now, if we can just stop the RIAA from suing dead people’s families.