If you noticed a brief outage this afternoon, it is because I replaced my hardware. Because this system is smaller then my Sparc, my total operational costs remain the same month to month, but this system is a lot more powerful. Financing rules.

1gig p3 with 512M ram... I have a few design & service criticisms, but they are minor. Biggest problem: Fan is loud as hell. Only buy one if you plan to colocate it. Happiest about: They picked a bios that supports serial consoles.

There are many penguin computing machines in my datacenter (inflow) so I've adorned this one with a Pumpkin sticker so I can find it later.

They sent me a plush penguin. :) Its going right next to the plastic yellow blow-fish I'm getting from work.

Penguin Computing - Relion 105 - Pentium III 1U Linux Server

This is what Phreaknic would be if I was as cool as I think I am.

"Supernova is a new conference exploring the distributed future. With the bursting of the Internet bubble, businesses, end-users, investors, and technology vendors face a bewildering array of challenges. Yet a common theme runs through the fundamental questions facing software, communications, and media. That theme is decentralization. "

SUPERNOVA 2002

Looks like Warez has a new friend this year.

Wifi the Pumpkin

"The problem is that a non-stimulated neuron doesn't simply lounge around bewailing its boring fate; most scientists believe that a neuron stuck in a boring brain will also die. So keeping your cranial neuron colony frisky but relaxed seems to be the key to successful living and aging. "

Wired News: A Word for Brainy People: Plastic

"Though the other side had written literally 300 pages trying to show all the good CTEA did (and pronounce it like it is a disease -- sateeeya), the Court hadn't bought any of it. Congress was not acting to promote progress, it was acting to reward "court favorites." The only question the Court was struggling with is whether it has the power to do anything about it. "

Lessig on the Eldred hearing

"A mummified dinosaur, unwrapped from the rocks of Montana, has revealed how the creature looked and how it lived 77 million years ago — down to the texture of its skin and the contents of its stomach, scientists say."

Dino-mummy shows some skin

I know it's sort of a terrible premise, but it's also fricking funny.

"I rule!"

I am better than your kids.

Maybe the sexual revolution wasn't as big a deal as everyone says it was. Turns out there are contraceptives as old as the hills.

Now, where did I put the tequilla...

Yahoo! News - Sex with a Twist ... Lemons Provide Protection

"This chart is a visual representation of amici's understanding of the decline of the growth of public domain as a result of repeated copyright term extensions."

Growth Rate of the Public Domain

"One point we didn't initially mention is that the issue that had intrigued a number of legal commentators is whether or not the court was interested in extending the precedent set in Lopez, which for the first time in many years constrained Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce. Some have thought that this issue would be raised by analogy from the commerce clause to the copyright clause. The Chief Justice is the only one who raised the issue in a single question to Prof. Lessig. The question was oblique, and only implied the question, but Prof. Lessig recognized it and provided the appropriate answer, which seemed to please the Chief Justice. It was not raised by any other justice, nor was the Solicitor General provided a similar question. "

What the Supremes do in oral arguements is effectively "forensics" style debate. They are trying to pick both arguements apart and see how well they stand to scrutiny. Can they poke holes? Where do things break down?

I think they ought to webcast the supreme court. This system of only letting a limited number of people into the room and then only letting some of them take notes is just so antiquated it hurts. There is no need to protect the public from the commercial press if I can just turn on my damn TV and hear the arguements.

LawMeme: Live From Eldred v. Ashcroft