1. Empathize with your enemy.
2. Rationality will not save us.
3. There's something beyond one's self.
4. Maximize efficiency.
5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
6. Get the data.
7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
10. Never say never.
11. You can't change human nature.

] This is what the Earth looks like at night.

This is one of those pictures I find highly enjoyable to stare at for awhile. Might have to resize this one for a desktop background.

APOD: 2004 August 22 - Earth at Night

This is a color palette tool for webmasters. Sure to be very helpful for people like myself with very little sense of what colors go together well.

ColorMatch Remix

I am glad to see Salam Pax has a new blog. I had missed his sarcastic tone.

The return of Salam Pax: shut up you fat whiner!

The number 8 and the number 2. Laziness. Xscreensaver. ADHD and spontaneity. The many forms of Rorschach. Symmetry and sexual hang-ups. Freudian repression and expression. Asperger and initiative of others. Mutations and complications. Limited views. Dreams, no dreams, and morphine. Empathy for screensavers. Limited logical inferences per second. Tubes and pipes revisited. Tentacles, molting and emerging. Cycles and metamorphosis. Social grouping signals. Forks. Programable fashion. History handling. The best state handling money can buy. Life's iterated algorithms. Presentation continuity and forum. Passing surgery ahead. Tribes that hunt you down or make you explode. The next hundred years worth of predictions. Community, thank you.

I had not realized how much hell Larry had gone through recently. I am confident Perl's best days remain ahead, and I hope the same goes for Larry.

perl.com: The State of the Onion

] File-sharing companies that beat back an entertainment
] industry lawsuit now face a potentially stronger foe: the
] industry's lobbyists in Washington.

Swinging from one branch to another... The Olympics are going on.. Think uneven bars and government.

] Mitch Bainwol, chief executive of the Recording Industry
] Assn. of America, said Friday that "there's nothing
] inherently wrong" with file sharing as a distribution
] system, "other than in most applications it's been
] hijacked and morphed into a use that's destroying
] the creative process."

The use of the word "hijacked" implies the current industry folks had some active enterprise making an economically successful use of distributed p2p technology that evil pirates have pillaged. Arrrr.. And not to harp on semantacs, but it also connects to other more nefarious things in a shameless attempt to make the issue more emotional.

P2P is not destroying the creative process, but its certainly redefining the environment in which the creative process takes place, to an ends which in the short term is disruptive. I don't think anyone that is versed in the issues pertaining to IP these days that will disagree with that.

] "The fact is, the entertainment industry … they bring
] aggressive cases, and they litigate them vigorously,"
] Bridges said. "And start-ups often can't stand the
] burden of litigation itself."

Arrr.. Watch for them cannons at the mouth of the harbor..

Again, a common theme of this decade comes up: Fear. If you were a wise successful fiscally conservative investor, would you sail into those foggy waters? Certainly not alone you wouldn't.. That's team sport. The sparks of innovation on the other hand usually are not.

The beat of the distributed information market goes on.

File-Share Firms Face Tough Fight in Senate

] The Peaceful Political Activists visitor program is the
] first of its kind for a national political convention.
] Visitors can take advantage of special offers by wearing
] a Peaceful Protester Welcome button that can be picked
] up at NYC's Official Visitor Information Center located
] at 810 Seventh Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets.
] Additionally, you can receive discounts and special
] offers when you present the Peaceful Political Activists
] Savings Card.

nycvisit.com rolls out the red carpet. Special protester rates available for hotels, dining, attractions, and tours. Keyword is peaceful.

Almost surreal.

New York City Welcomes Peaceful Political Activists

] The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that
] Grokster (along with other vendors of decentralized P2P
] systems) is not liable for the copyright infringement of
] its users. Today's decision upholds a lower court
] decision, which had been appealed by a group of music and
] movie companies.
]
] The Court largely accepted Grokster's arguments, finding
] that although the vast majority of Grokster users are
] infringers, Grokster itself cannot be held liable for
] that infringement.

About damn time, because this lawsuit was bogus. It would be like the suing the Dept of Transit, because stolen goods are transported on their roads.

P2P is not a crime. Piracy is a crime. Don't stop emerging technology because some people might use it for crime, and its nice to see the courts agreeing with that. We have come along way since 2600 -vs- MPAA.

Freedom to Tinker: Grokster Wins in Appeals Court

It was roughly this time last year I quit smoking. I've managed to stick with it.

I'm just as shocked as you are.

One year free of the death sticks

On the corner of 8th and 30th in Midtown Manhattan, a block away from The Garden. The Molly Wee is as Irish as a pub can be, the staff is great, and its open really late.

The Molly Wee Pub & Restaurant