Why must OS X Server be so difficult? It shouldn’t take 3 hours to frickin compile Apache. Another hour for PHP right now (got tired so I’ve just been removing options until configure stopped failing, although even with the suggested hacks, the linker is still busting my balls). This is certainly one of the singularly unpleasant experiences with server maintenance that I’ve had in quite a while. (spoiled by stuff that actually works, I know)

Moses Avalon Royalty Calculator helps you figure out how much you’re getting bilked (how many albums you have to sell to break even). Wow, it turns out that if you diy, you don’t have to worry about selling a million copies, or even 40,000.

Bnetd & Pacman @ Penny Arcade

Succintly put by Jeffrey Baker:

The biggest problem with Disney’s worldview — and by association the worldview of the RIAA, MPAA, Vivendi, et al — is that they assume no private person can create anything. All art comes from the generous people at Disney. There are no independent aritsts.

People like Macs in part because they can rip, mix, and burn their purchased CD collection, or tote it around on their iPods. They also like Macs because they come with the tools necessary to put your own videos on DVD and send them to your pals. The latter is a power Disney does not want you to have. All video entertainment must come from the corporate empire. None of it must come from regular people.

A good follow up on young professional artists’ ability to do business independently. (Completely on target)

Related to previous post, a tidbit on the whole Disney vs Apple thing. You have to remember that Michael Eisner speaking on this topic doesn’t mean much because he is a technological moron. His commencement speech at USC a fear years ago revolved around BCC’s in email and why you shouldn’t use them. I shit you not.

[sidenote: Preston Padden, head of government relations for Disney comes out and says it: “There is no right to fair use.” And you know what? Sadly, he’s right. With the ever-increasing extensions, and especially the paradigm-shifting DMCA (and soon to be strengthened with the SSCA), there effectively is no fair use. At least, not any that you can legally access.]

Sure Microsoft sucks, but I have to say, MSNBC has had a couple of redeeming editorials recently:

• Looking Grim at the Grammys – Is it really new or is it just part of the wax and wane of caribou populations? See samsara in action @ mefi
• The Customer Is Always Wrong – Steven Levy (who wrote Hackers) writes about the the BS that is SSCA. It’s currently the #1 article on the Viewers Top 10 with 1620 votes averaging a 6.17/7.00 rating. Undoubtedly helped by the /. effect.

OK, time to close tabs and get some work done now.

If some people are in the dark concerning my recent Scratch posts, I just remembered that I’d posted up a Q-bert freestyle mpeg that I’d gotten from a friend a while back.

A succint definition of turntablism from a Youth Radio article:

Coined in 1995 by world champion DJ Babu, “turntablism” is the use of a phonograph turntable as a tool to create music, not just to play it. In essence, turntablism is music based on sound manipulation. It centers on sounds called “scratches” that can be produced through the manipulation of sounds recorded onto records.

Random flushings as I close my Mozilla tabs:

• What will future people find of us in 10,000 years
• Frying eggs on Athlons @ the Tekhead Forums
• THE.MAN.PROJECT – a neat little Flash toy by Aaron Clinger, and 18yo whose favorite sites include Ultrashock, Infourm, and Miniml
• Who Lost China’s Internet? – for that matter, Who Lost America’s Internet? (Bruce’s ranting aside)

Also, good stuff in the new issue of New Architect (formerly WebTechniques):

• John Perry Barlow of the EFF writes on The Crime of Sharing.
• Legal and Binding – Mark Baugher writes about DMCA as a threat to Open Standards development
• Adobe backpedals about Dmitry. Still no apology from Adobe on that. Funny, how companies are able to so easily bulldoze over people’s lives so easily and with such impunity. Oh, what was that? CORPORATIONS GOOD. HACKERS BAD. Glad that’s all cleared up. Now, how about some more of that SLAPP…
• Several other DRM (read: content control, the stands ‘R’ for restriction) articles from an implementation perspective and a few other interesting tidbits

Too good not to link. I don’t know what this song is either, but I’m sure that this video is much better than the actual band’s music video.

VisIT is very very cool.

VisIT is:

• A graphical search engine interface that allows for faster location of desired search results.
• Instead of the lengthy lists of hits that we are all accustomed to, VisIT displays search results in an interactive, graphical user interface.
• Powerful analytical tool.
• Internet based learning environment.
• Better than Bookmarks.
• And More!