Fun list:

• Sazeracs
• Cuties
• The loft room with the orange lighting

Snaps:

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2007.

Just ran across this little gem: Perian, an open-source QuickTime codec for a few of those other formats that QT chokes on.

Perian enables QuickTime® application support for additional media types including:

• AVI and FLV
• 3ivX, DivX, Flash Screen Video, MS-MPEG4, Sorenson H.263, Truemotion VP6, and Xvid
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio using A52Codec, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3

Woot.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2007.

First Jobs denounces DRM and then Gates announces support for OpenID?

Hell…freezing…

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2007.

Interesting letter from The Steve:

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free  and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2007.

Tina and I rode 160 miles this weekend. 75 on Saturday, taking a modified Mt. Tam, Seven Sisters + Alpine Dam route, out through Fairfax with a Strawberry detour. 85 on Sunday, on this brutal fun Luna Chix training route that took us to the top of every hill in Oakland, some twice.

High point: Riding on near-abandoned east bay roads on Super Bowl Sunday.

Low point: Missing Prince’s halftime show by 5 minutes.

I went to bed at 9. Pista was happy about that…

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2007.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in February 2007.

Show us a photo of someone else taking a photo.
Submitted by ydnar.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in January 2007.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in January 2007.

This morning Pista and I went for a run. Afterward (and still), my legs hurt. My legs haven’t hurt from any sort of exercise in years. Dear lazyweb: What’s going on?

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in January 2007.

Gut the estate tax? Check. Toss the dividend tax and reduce capital gains tax? Check. Propose new tax on health insurance? Check.

In case it wasn’t already patently obvious where Bush’s priorities lie.

Originally posted to ydnar.vox.com in January 2007.