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Wednesday, April 30, 2003 |
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I waited a day to download Apple's new iTunes 4.0, which includes the ability to search for, buy and download individual songs from the iTunes Music Store. First impressions are that Apple is on to a winner here. Selling individual songs for 99 cents each rather than entire albums is a very good idea. Unfortunately you can't actually purchase anything yet if you live outside of the States. It will be interesting to see if here in England the price per song is 99p, which works out to about $1.60 under the current exchange rate. Bet it will, and Steve Jobs will just pocket the extra 61 cents. Nice work if you can get it. iTunes Music Store update: I've done some random searching and got some pretty random results.
The White Stripes: 0. Keith Jarrett: 63 tracks but nothing from the Köln Concert? Hmm. |
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Blur have a new album out, but probably much more interesting is the Think Tank on their website, which displays webcams submitted by visitors in a most impressive fashion. We have submitted Charlie Cam. Let us know if you see it. 8:09:50 PM 
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Sunday, April 27, 2003 |
 Charlie during our annual walk through the bluebell woods near Bletchingley. We've had such a dry spring (last measurable rain was on 7 March) that we weren't sure if they'd even be out yet. But bluebells obviously don't need much rain because there were more of them than we'd seen in previous years. Below is Charlie during our walk on 14 April 2002, and below that on 7 May 2001. It's really hard to capture the beauty of this place with a camera. You really need to be there. But I've done a slideshow and you can see more photos here.
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Friday, April 25, 2003 |
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"Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home." -- Bruce Springsteen speaks up for the Dixie Chicks. 7:40:06 PM
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Monday, April 21, 2003 |
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Relegated. 5:17:04 PM
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Thursday, April 17, 2003 |
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Note to Donald Rumsfeld: Whatever happened to those WMD-laden Iraqi mystery ships? Just wondering. 11:15:02 PM
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The BBC's war coverage played very well in America, according to Media Guardian. What? You mean everybody in America wasn't watching Fox News? Maybe there's hope for my country yet. 11:08:34 PM
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Thursday, April 10, 2003 |
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I googled Saddam Hussein just for the hell of it and found, near the top of the results, this fascinating read, Mark Bowden's cover story in the May 2002 Atlantic Monthly. 11:50:54 PM
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The Profits of War? According to Media Guardian, Sony has patented the term "Shock and Awe", and plans to release a Playstation 2 game by that name. Wonder if they will at least wait until the fighting stops? On a somewhat lighter note, MG reports that Mohammed "Those invaders are nowhere near Baghdad" Saeed al-Saha T-shirts, featuring everyone's favourite Minister of Disinformation, are selling fast. 8:19:58 PM
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Wednesday, April 9, 2003 |
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The end is near for Concorde. Tomorrow, British Airways will anounce that it will retire its supersonic fleet by the end of this year, according to the BBC. At least we'll get to have one more summer to see it fly over our house each evening. 10:15:41 PM
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We were mysteriously knocked offline about 1pm today (while nobody was home). Webcam wasn't uploading new images. Couldn't reach www.ridey.net. Came home to find the iMac had not crashed (uptime was reading 7 days plus), router was on, Airport Extreme base station was on, but for some reason was refusing to communicate with the iMac. A restart of the iMac and all is well again. Hmmmm, just when I was telling myself I understood this stuff... 8:06:32 PM
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The new Honda commercial is a must see. It's available online for 56k connections or broadband connections. I recommend the broadband one even if you have a slow connection. This one is definitely worth waiting for. 8:26:18 AM
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Sunday, April 6, 2003 |
 A shot via the webcam of today's White Sox game against the Tigers, as seen on my iMac's screen via MLB.TV. Sox won 9-2. Yes! |
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"I'm sorry to be so excitable. I'm bleeding through the ear." -- The BBC's veteran correspondent John Simpson maintains that English stiff upper lip as he gains first-hand experience of friendly fire. You can listen to Simpson's report from the scene moments after the USAF bombed his convoy here. (Requires Real Audio) 11:20:39 AM
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Last night, I got another glimpse of the future of the Internet when I watched the White Sox beat the Tigers live on my iMac via MLB.TV. The picture quality, while not quite the same as normal TV, was very good - much better than some of the live webcasting from places such as the BBC. 11:15:12 AM
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Saturday, April 5, 2003 |
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Space Imaging has a fantastic photo of Baghdad taken 1 April 2003. 12:57:00 AM
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I guess this is what you'd call Shockwave and Awe. 12:29:06 AM
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Friday, April 4, 2003 |
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Chris Gulker has had an interesting visitor to his site. His referrer log shows the following entry: http:&frasl &frasl homeland.fbi.gov/Watchlists/suspect/view.jsp "Does this mean publishing opinions that can be construed as anti-war qualify one for FBI surveillance?" he wonders. Strange days, indeed. Most peculiar, mama, as John Lennon once said. 11:53:44 PM
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Will the Republican Guard crumble? We'd all better hope so, none more so than Donald Rumsfeld. Seymour Hersh's latest piece in an excellent series of reports in the New Yorker paints a frightening picture of what could happen if this war doesn't end quickly. Thanks to Rumsfeld, who totally disregarded the Pentagon's military planners, the US forces are ill-equipped for a long war. And it will take weeks for additional tanks and other heavy equipment needed by additional armored divisions to reach Iraq. 3:16:54 PM
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 "Just before he left for the Gulf he planted some daffodil bulbs in our garden as a surprise, so they'd come up while he was away. We loved each other deeply and words cannot express how much I'll miss him." |
