this is mikel.org — Page 261 — Michael Boyle's weblog

William Gibson

January 9, 2003 by Michael Boyle

Be Good Tanyas? I’ll tell you. They’re Very Very good. Blue Horse is an almost perfect first record, in that style, and Chinatown is due out in a month or so. The worst part is, though, that I’m just figuring this out now. I’ve missed at least three of their shows (that I remember), they shacked up at a friend’s apartment last time they were in Montreal, and I (and friends) drank a LOT with the guy who played drums on their last tour after the show. Never quite managed to listen to ’em before now, at least not straight through. Damn.

A Norwegian Court acquitted

January 8, 2003 by Michael Boyle

teenager Jon Johansen over the creation of DeCSS, the software he made so that he could watch DVDs on his Linux box rather than an industry-vetted player. The judge stated very strongly that as long as a DVD is legally obtained, no one could dictate which machine could be used to use it. Looks like a showdown will be coming on these issues between Europe and the US.

Still catching up:

January 7, 2003 by Michael Boyle

Daegan has posted a lovely and moving memory of a Joe Strummer moment she had when she was 15. “And I remember finding myself directly behind Joe Strummer, and reaching out and touching his back before the song ended. What a strange, strange emptiness it is when heroes die.”

Steve Jobs’ Keynote

January 7, 2003 by Michael Boyle

at Macworld has been over for a while now; they unveiled some very interesting things today. Most interesting to me in the short term is Safari, Apple’s new browser. As well, an Apple-born X11 system which is interesting to folks from the Unix world, a super-sized 17″ Powerbook and a super-small 12″ Powerbook as well. Jobs understands that the middle ground in laptops is cluttered – either end of the spectrum is where the good stuff lives. Also: 802.11g is being called Airport Extreme, they have released Jobs’ own pet software, Keynote, and some other stuff.

Maybe some of the huge announcements of past Keynotes were missing, but I like this one anyhow. It has that feeling of taking care of business.