The internet did not replace television, which did not replace cinema, which did not replace books. E-books aren’t going to replace books either. E-books are books, merely with a different form.

via A List Apart: Articles: Web Standards for E-books.

ePub Zen Garden

CSS Zen Garden

In a sense, Americans seem to have done with mysticism what we’ve done with every other kind of human experience: We’ve democratized it, diversified it, and taken it mass market. No previous society has offered seekers so many different ways to chase after nirvana, so many different paths to unity with God or Gaia or Whomever. A would-be mystic can attend a Pentecostal healing service one day and a class on Buddhism the next, dabble in Kabbalah in February and experiment with crystals in March, practice yoga every morning and spend weekends at an Eastern Orthodox retreat center. Sufi prayer techniques, Eucharistic adoration, peyote, tantric sex — name your preferred path to spiritual epiphany, and it’s probably on the table.

via Op-Ed Columnist – Mysticism for All – NYTimes.com:

After three decades of ?guring how out the spine works, Stuart McGill has come to loathe sit-ups. It doesn’t matter whether they are the full sit-ups beloved by military trainers or the crunch versions so ubiquitous in gyms. “What happens when you perform a sit-up?” he asks. “The spine is ?exed into the position at which it damages sooner.”

via The man who wants to kill crunches – Health – Macleans.ca.

Interesting points. The comments on the article go both ways.

This website offers free downloads of the complete extant organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded by Dr. James Kibbie from 2007 to 2009 on original baroque organs in Germany.

via James Kibbie – Bach Organ Works – About.

When composers wrote for these instruments they sometimes loved them and sometimes chafed at their limitations, but in any case they wrote for those sounds, that touch, those bells and whistles. From old instruments, performers on modern pianos can get important insights into the sound image that Mozart, Schubert, et al., were aiming for. But music from the 18th and 19th centuries doesnt just sound different now than on the original instruments; some of it cant even be played as written on modern pianos.

via Why you’ve never really heard the “Moonlight” Sonata. – By Jan Swafford – Slate Magazine.

As new digital book tools and services roll out, we need to be able to evaluate not only the cool features they offer, but also whether they extend (or hamper) our rights and expectations.

The over-arching question: are digital books as good or better than physical books at protecting you and your rights as a reader?

via Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Plush and polished, not a big wine but it applies pillowy tannins around a core of dark berry and sassafras flavors. Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese, Grenache and Mourvèdre. Drink now. 50,000 cases made. From Washington.-Harvey Steiman

via Wine of the Week for January 11, 2010 | Wine of the Week | News & Features | Wine Spectator.

Albertson’s has this for $6-$7 per bottle. First few I found were 2006, which I think is actually better than the 2007 – what a little age can do.

SXSW has set up an official SXSW station called SXSW 2010 Music - which is featured in the SHOUTcast Radio Directory — where you can listen to many of the amazing bands who will be performing at SXSW 2010.  SHOUTcast Radio features over 32,000 radio stations from around the world and offers free broadcasting tools to set-up your own radio station. You can even get great SXSW music on-the-go via the SHOUTcast iPhone app.

via Listen to SXSW ‘10 Bands on SHOUTcast Radio | SXSW.com.

In 2009 there were over 1,200 tunes submitted to SXSW. I’ve made it through about 1/3 of them. Most haven’t caught my fancy, but a few (4) have. Catchy enough for me to rate them 3 stars or better. At this rate about 1% will make it into the “make sure we listen to more” list.

Espresso doesn’t cost enough.

via What’s It Worth? « Why Not? Coffee.

Interesting…

On the PBS website for the muckraking documentary King Corn—a film that roundly attacks industrial agriculture—the following declaration is made: “Before WW II, most Americans had never eaten corn-fed beef.” This claim, which has become a mantra in sustainable agriculture, is more often than not dispatched to rally support for grass-fed beef—a supposedly healthier and more environmentally sound way to feed cattle—which is to say, in accordance with the rhythms of nature rather than the time clock of industry.

via A Myth of Grass-Fed Beef – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com.

In iTunes, a very useful feature is the File » Show Duplicates menu item. As expected by its name, you can use this feature to help weed out duplicates from your iTunes library. However, many people (myself included) have different versions of songs, remixes and such, which will show up as duplicates when using this feature.

The solution is to hold down the option key prior to selecting this menu item. When you do, Show Duplicates changes to Show Exact Duplicates. In this mode, iTunes shows only true duplicates, and not remixes or alternate versions.

via Show only exact duplicate tracks in iTunes – Mac OS X Hints:

Oh this is so nice. I can get rid of a few (bunch) tunes that are replicants in so many ways.

So yes, the Jesus Tablet will appear.

via Five Ways Apple’s Tablet May Change the World – BusinessWeek.

READABILITY is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you’re reading. Follow the steps below to install READABILITY in your Web browser.

Readability – An Arc90 Lab Experiment.

Ohhh – my eyes thank you so much. Now I can actually read in the browser as opposed to copy/paste text. So nice.

TBUZZ is pretty neat, too.

The virtually infinite combinations within 12 keys can easily be reduced and understood, by adopting the Four Finger Closed Position system (FFcP).

via Jazz Mandolin Lesson – Four-Finger Closed Position (FFcP).

Today, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s new Bing have become the Internet’s gatekeepers, and the crucial role they play in directing users to Web sites means they are now as essential a component of its infrastructure as the physical network itself. The F.C.C. needs to look beyond network neutrality and include “search neutrality”: the principle that search engines should have no editorial policies other than that their results be comprehensive, impartial and based solely on relevance.

via Op-Ed Contributor – Search, but You May Not Find – NYTimes.com.

Who is John Galt? Didn’t he rail against legislating to favor one company over another in a competitive market? Hmmm.

Took me a few paragraphs before I realized the editorial was coming from a “wronged” competitor.

Underlying GarageBand’s simple interface is a host of complex functionality and features that offer some serious power in modifying your audio inputs. Many of these features are inherited from FinalCut Pro/Soundtrack, or from Apple's other audio products such as the eMagic line, including Logic. As users become more comfortable with GarageBand and want to stretch their recordings further and further, mastering all of the powerful features of the program becomes a desirable goal. In this tutorial, we’ll take you deep into the bowels of GarageBand’s high-end Audio Unit filters and explain how they can change the sound of your recordings.

via MacJams.com – Article: GarageBand Tutorial: Built-in Audio Unit Effects.

I can haz the #31?

can we git sumfing frum petsmart?

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: KamikazeKatze via Advanced Lol Builder

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via I can haz the #31?:

But let’s stop talking about “backups.” Doing a backup is too low a bar. Any experienced system administrator will tell you that they have a great backup plan, the trouble comes when you have to restore.

via Let’s stop talking about “backups” – Joel on Software:

Twice in October on the home machine – dead internal drive.

The vision will be carried on as Arizona will host the 4th Annual “Copper on Dirt”. USAC Silver Crown, USAC National/CRA Sprint Cars and USAC National/Western States Midgets will all take part in a sensational racing spectacle at Tucsons USA Raceways for two nights on February 19th and 20th marking USA Raceway as one of only two dirt track venues to host USACs Triple Crown all in one event.

via The 4th Annual “Copper on Dirt” – Auto Racing Forum | Big West Racing Forum.

Here’s a screen I captured on my iPhone, by holding down the button on top of the device and clicking the big round button near the bottom. It then goes into the queue of photos where you can email it anywhere.

or this way?

How to take the shots:

1. Download and install the Android SDK. Don’t worry – unlike some SDKs, installing the Android kit is completely straightforward.
2. Enable USB Debugging on the device by going to Settings -> Applications -> Development and checking the proper box.
3. Plug the Android device into the USB port.
4. Find the folder containing the SDK you just installed. The location will vary depending on which operating system you’re using, and where you chose to install it. On all platforms, the folder name should begin with “android-sdk-”. For example, the folder for the current build on OS X is “android-sdk-mac_x86-1.0_r1?
5. Open the tools folder within the Android SDK folder.
6. Double click the file titled “DDMS”. This stands for Dalvik Debug Monitor Service.
7. In DDMS, your device should be listed. Highlight it by clicking on it.
8. In the application’s top menus, go to Device -> Screen capture.

I can subscribe to my notes and/or the notes of my friends.

Let’s see how long this might take to get into the Notes.

it removes the signature from the original message

it removes certain unnecessary empty lines

it positions the cursor below the original message, instead of above it (in other words, bottom-posting instead of top-posting)

via quotefixformac – Project Hosting on Google Code.

W00t