Round-Up
A heavy thunderstorm rolled through the area last night knocking out power to most of my block, including my house, which unfortunately took this server offline and all the wonderful services it provides me with. That's the first time this machine has been rebooted since a motherboard and CPU upgrade, which took place back in Mid-June. Not bad for a Windows 2000 Professional computer that is running 24/7 with quite a few services installed on it.
I've added a "Fark Tagline Hilarity" box to the left-hand sidebar. Whenever I spot a tagline on Fark that makes me chuckle, I'll update the hilarity box. Perhaps once I get enough content entered in to it, I'll create a page to browse through them and randomize the quote that's displayed on the main page. Nothing like a clever Fark tagline to brighten up the day a bit.
The notebook computer I recently bought is performing well so far. I don't use it too much, as it's primarily my wife's computer. She spends most of the time during the day taking care of the kids (she just started work part-time again), so having a wireless notebook in the house is good for her. It lets her check email, drop me a quick IM while at work, or pay some bills without having to go to the basement (where my computers are located) and take her chances that the kids won't hang each other from the drapes while she's gone.
Talking about the new notebook seems to have brought a fair amount of new traffic to the site from search engines. It would seem a lot of people are doing research on the Compaq R4000 notebook. One person reached here looking for a car adaptor for their R4000. Another is curious about the adjusting the brightness on the display of their R4000. Still another wants to install Windows 2000 on theirs. And a final person is looking for information on the screen dying on their notebook.
I recently wrote a Konfabulator widget that displays the recent playlist for your favorite station from SomaFM. SomaFM is a commercial free, streaming radio station (using ShoutCast) that is supported through listener donations and some affiliate programs giving them a small kickback on music purchases coming from links on their site's playlist pages. A friend introduced me to SomaFM a few months ago and I've loved it ever since. I listen to it constantly while at work or messing around on the computer. It's introduced me to some great bands that I would have never heard listening to music through "traditional" sources. You can download the widget here, which also has a screenshot and a complete version history that describes some of the neat features I've recently added to it.
Finally, Ars Technica has a great editorial on the recent media frenzy over Tivo and it's built-in support for DRM-protected content. It's nothing new people. Like Caesar says in the editorial, you can either shoot the messenger (Tivo) that has no choice but to the follow the rules to do their business, or you can get on the case of those that make the rules. Don't let the FCC/RIAA/MPAA dictate what you can do with the media you acquire through legal means.