I'm happy to announce that I finally finished editing three years or so worth of free verse into a snappy little 111 page manuscript that is now available for free download (digital) or purchase (analog).

8slices

The Nobel Prize in chemistry was announced today, going to three scientists who brought Green Fluorescence Protein (GFP) to the world. I have a little history with GFP...and thanks to the interwebs I can prove it.

Ever watch a movie and say, "hey I recognize that intersection?" Or wonder where a scene was done? Here is a totally cool mix of the famous chase scene from Bullitt combined with Google maps to show you where they are.

Nokia debuted its 5800 touch screen phone - but don't call it an iPhone killer. Or wanna be. Or whatever. They can say what they want, but it sure looks like an iPhone rip off to me. What is interesting is the fact that seminal devices and interfaces often spawn imitators...and most think, "oh, that's the only way to do it, of course it looks like that." Well then how does the *first* one get made? Oh yeah...someone has some creativity.

LG has a more interesting entry. Renoir is more camera than phone and it has some very cool tricks wrt focusing, etc. The collision of camera and phone needs a few kicks in the rear, this might be one of them.

Finally, a book (non-digital) that I contributed to comes out. It is an outgrowth of the work done by the Networked Publics cohort during the '05-'06 academic year at the USC Annenberg Center for Communication (now defunct). It is available from MIT Press. No, no royalties for me, but it is interesting stuff. And maybe provides the necessary kick in the rear to finish writing my book on the analog to digital conversion. Always more to do...

The Digital Entertainment and Content Ecosystem (wow, what a name) has announced a consortium that will put the customer at the center of the content universe. Well, isn't that nice of them? It is headed by Sony (uh oh), which as everyone knows has been at the forefront of open technologies and interoperability. Not.

If Apple and Amazon aren't on board (and they aren't), this will go nowhere...

There are that many examples of a single person pretty much defining a genre or talent or expertise. You've got Tiger Woods...and well, I'm blanking on anyone else who just dominates and defines.

Don LaFontaine, the king of voiceover work, passed today. God speed.

They say that arguing on the interwebs is like...well, pick your joke. And of course the topic really doesn't matter - though having something that doesn't really have any metrics (like politics or religion) is usually the most incendiary. That being said, those topics that have technogeeks around them (in this case motorcycles in general, fork design in particular) can generated heated "discussion." The rub is that logic often isn't. That's why I loved this post in response to someone claiming that BMW R1200GS forks are "wimpy" (with accompanying inane analysis):

"a bag of apples is better at becoming pie than a GS. so im gonna sell my GS and buy some pickles, so i can shave my dog."

I love it when google hiccups. Here are a couple of deep messages from news.google.com: