An awesome interview from PBS (" The Way the Music Died") with David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills and Nash) about the music industry and what it's turned into.

8 in '04 Giro
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Today Alessandro Petacchi became the first rider to win 8 stages in a single Giro d'Italia since 1927. That year, Alfredo Binda won 12 out of 15 stages as well as the overall classification. So far in this year's Giro, there have been 10 stages that finished in a bunch sprint, and Petacchi has won an incredible 80% of them. Today's stage was the second to last opportunity for a sprint finish before the Giro finishes on Sunday in Milano. If things go well for Petacchi on Sunday's final stage, he could bump his record up to 9 stages in a single Giro. He's obviously one of the greatest sprinters of all time. Combining his 6 stages from lst year's Giro with those from this year, he's won 14 stages in only 2 years. If he continues to have good form over the coming years, perhaps he'll beat Cipollini's all-time Giro stage record (42 stages total).

Results from stage 15, the 8th stage victory for Petacchi this year's Giro d'Italia.

I just discovered that Microsoft is trying to lure people from the popular (free, secure, fast, extensible, etc...) web server Apache in favor of their own Internet Information Services web server (or "IIS"). The marketing hype is called simply Try IIS.

On the main page at tryiis.com, they list 6 reasons why you should consider IIS 6.0. I like picking on Microsoft (sometimes it's too easy to resist), so here I go...

Reason #2: "Rebuilt security from the code level up that reduces attack surface area and blocks most known types of Web attacks." -- That means you'll get more security against the massive security flaws regularly discovered in Microsoft's software. Got that? You could leave a fairly secure OS such as Linux or OSX, and switch to a Microsoft-based system. And even though you had a perfectly secure system before, you'll enjoy IIS's "rebuilt security" (whatever that is). Or you could avoid the Microsoft security disaster altogether and go with Apache instead (even if you have to run Windows, it would still be a security improvement to run Apache).

Reason #3: "Reliable support you can depend on for tested solutions, training, and more." -- This means that when (not "if") you encounter problems with your web services, possibly trying to do basic things that other products might do without problems, you can call somebody to get help. This may sound like a feature of IIS, but in reality it's a necessity. I know a lot of individuals and companies that base their entire web presence off of Apache, and they've never needed any support for it. Who needs support for something that works, and is modifiable if you discover that something's busted or not the way you like it?

Reason #4: "Powered by Windows Server 2003." -- Yikes! See Reason #2 above concerning security.

Reason #5: "A complete set of integrated application services that enable faster application development and reduce time-to-market for critically needed Web applications and services." -- I'm not sure about this, but it smells like they give you a big sack of VB or .NET widgets. One more thing to break or open up security vulnerabilities on your machine, but thank gawd you've got that "reliable support that you can depend on"!

My summary: the President was on the tail end of a 17 mile mountain bike ride when he crashed his bike and landed on his face. He had a throng of people riding with him, including a personal doctor who touched him up on the spot. The White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, thinks Bush is a risk-taking mountain biker, "You know this president. He likes to go all out".

I wonder, has anyone invited the President to a TMBRA race? On second thought, that might be a bad idea, because the pack would be filled with his bodyguards and secret agent henchmen. I guess that would make a very uninteresting race.

Article below, originally from this story, "Bush biffs while mountain biking":

President Bush suffered cuts and bruises early Saturday afternoon when he fell while mountain biking on his ranch near Crawford, Texas, according to White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

Bush was on the 16th mile of a 17-mile ride when he fell, Duffy said. He was riding with a military aide, members of the Secret Service and his personal physician, Dr. Richard Tubbs.

"He had minor abrasions and scratches on his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees," Duffy said. "Dr. Tubbs, who was with him, cleaned his scratches, said he was fine. The Secret Service offered to drive him back to the house. He declined and finished his ride."

Bush was wearing his bike helmet and a mouth guard when the mishap occurred. Duffy said he didn't know exactly how the accident happened.

"It's been raining a lot and the topsoil is loose," Duffy said. "You know this president. He likes to go all out. Suffice it to say he wasn't whistling show tunes."

Duffy said Bush probably would be wearing a bandage on his chin during a party Saturday night for his daughter, Jenna, who graduated from the University of Texas earlier in the day. Bush left Crawford shortly after the bike mishap for the party in Austin.

Earlier this month, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry took a spill from his bicycle while riding with Secret Service agents through Concord, New Hampshire, about 18 miles north of Boston. Kerry fell when his bike hit a patch of sand. He was not injured.

This is awesome - Cicadaville.com - Premier Cicada information source

FACT: Cicadas are vicious killers.
FACT: Cicadas prey on innocent children and pets.
FACT: Cicadas are seething with deadly venom and flesh-eating bacteria.
FACT: This year Cicadas will kill more people than snakes, spiders, scorpions, and sharks combined!

I've been reading about the various people who have gone over Horseshoe Falls over the years. This guy, Jesse Sharp, had a shockingly bad way of riding the water - in a kayak, with no life vest or helmet. Here he is about to go over, the last experience of his life. A separate news report said his body was found the next day.

The results of the 2004 Webby Awards are out. Among the winners and nominees are Google, the iTunes Music Store, the BBC and How Stuff Works. Of course, most of us have probably heard of these sites (at least some of them), but plenty of Webby Awards/nominations go to the truly random. For instance, where can you go if you've got a fetish for women who drive their cars into mud and sand, and get stuck? Well, thanks to some publicity in the 2004 Webbys, I now know that you can go to www.carstuckgirls.com! (No, I'm not joking, and yes, there are not only pictures for you to see, but you can also buy VHS and DVD videos...).

Interesting article at Wired ("How Does Fat Kill Thee? Many Ways") discussing new correlations between excess body fat and general health issues.

"A series of recent discoveries suggests that all fat-storage cells churn out a stew of hormones and other chemical messengers that fine-tune the body's energy balance. But when spewed in vast amounts by cells swollen to capacity with fat, they assault many organs in ways that are bad for health.

The exact details are still being worked out, but scientists say there is no doubt this flux of biological cross talk hastens death from heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer, diseases that are especially common among the obese.

'When we look at fat tissue now, we see it's not just a passive depot of fat,' says Dr. Rudolph Leibel of Columbia University. 'It's an active manufacturer of signals to other parts of the body.'"

This Wired article ("Hybrid Mileage Comes Up Short") sheds some less-than-positive light on gas-electric hybrid vehicles. Even though the manufacturers claim fuel ratings like 47 mpg city / 48 mpg highway, in practice drivers are really getting about 31 mpg.

PB FixIt has some nice repair tips for various Powerbooks and iBooks. They also sell replacement parts. I imagine I'll give them some of my money when I find myself in need of breathing new life into my Powerbook.

It looks like IBM is taking a stab at building a web-based application suite to replace common office needs of email, spreadsheets, word processing (IBM plans Web-based desktop software). This is basically what we were trying to do at Agillion (previous job, long dead in the dot-com bust) only the Agillion pricing model was $20 per user, per month, whereas IBM says they'll charge $2 per month per user, with an additional $1 for each IBM application (messaging, document management).

It will be interesting to see if this gets any real momentum behind it. I still think web-based apps are a great idea, and it's pretty clear that Agillion's death was due to poor marketing and ineffective pricing choices, not a bad product idea. I could see spending $2 per month if that meant I would never have to use Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, etc. again. As it is, I refuse to pay Microsoft for their bloated, feature-crammed applications that sometimes end up wasting more of my time than they save.

Donnie Darko is a cool, creepy and weird movie. The ending was a bit confusing at first, and I had to think about it to piece things together. The cast was good (except for Drew Barrymore, who pretty much blows in anything other than a silly/goofy/dumb role), the cinematography was cool, and story was just plain odd. Watch this movie tonight.

Awful, awful, awful. This movie sucked hard. Don't watch it, don't think about watching it, and don't ask anyone about it. Just pretend it doesn't exist.

Found this article at The Register this morning ("Major labels 'force 70% price hike' on Apple | The Register"). I guess the record executives weren't happy with a sales model that people actually liked, so they thought they'd ruin it by charging a whole lot more.

Highlights: Apple has signed agreements with EMI, BMG, Sony, Universal and Warner that will see prices on some songs rise from $0.99 to $1.25. Many albums will remain priced at $9.99, but some will be priced as high $16.99.

Update: Follow-up article from The Register reports that an Apple spokeswoman said: "We have multi-year agreements with the record labels and our price remains 99 cents a track."

Wireless connectivity isn't too special these days, nor is streaming radio. Tiny high-power PDAs aren't too impressive either. But a co-worker put them all together - listening to streaming radio over a small, handheld PDA, with no wires attached - and it's ultra-cool. He's got a headphone jack on the unit, too, so he could easily plug in and take his music with him around the office, coffee house, etc.

This reminds of what's cool about being a geek. The rest of the world will need to wait a long time before this kind of thing is mainstream enough to buy it at Fry's or Best Buy and set it up yourself. Sure, anyone could go buy the same pda and follow the same steps, but most computer users don't have the skills to configure anything more complicated than a vcr (and we all know how many vcrs still flash 12:00...).

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I have achieved negative unread emails with Microsoft Outlook. This is really cool. It means I can receive several email messages before my unread count reaches a positive number, which will help me stay on top of all the email I receive at work. Thank you, Microsoft.

As a guy, I was braced for a sappy "chick flick", but it turned out to be more than bearable. This movie was fun and worth watching (especially if you're into romantic comedies).

As I write this, there is a couple engaged in heavy petting behind my office building, in what appears to be an illicit relationship. How can I be so sure?

First, the man arrived in a truck, and parked in one of the least visible spots in the parking lot (though it's visible from my desk at work, which is where I am right now, happily spending part of my Saturday working for The Man). Curious to find out more, a co-worker and I looked for clues. No more than 30 seconds after the arrival of the man in the truck, we watched a small sedan (driven by a woman) zip right over to the same spot. She hadn't even stopped the vehicle when he opened his door and got out, and her car had barely stopped moving when he hopped in.

With no time to lose, they immediately got intimate (nothing raunchy, just lots of kissing and hugging). And when I say "no time to lose", I mean the guy got into her car, shut the door, and about one second later they were going at it.

Not convinced yet? Kevin, my co-worker, pulled up a website that lets you look up information by license plate. I read the plates on the guy's truck, Kevin looked up the info. Turns out that the truck is registered to Fritz and Debra (they have the same last name, but I don't want to print it here). Unfortunately, we couldn't find any info on the woman's vehicle (and thus cannot confirm her identity), but I'm extremely comfortable believing that she is not his wife Debra.