our wacky government

In the eighties, the CIA published a comic book for the people of Nicaragua which illustrated ways to help bring about the overthrow of the government. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can now read it!

For the record, I am not advocating that you do any of this.

retro gaming fun!

Todd Levin is writing a fun series called "Consoles I Have Known," a personal narrative of his video game history. Well written, and it will send you down memory lane.

designer life

Ever wonder what it's like to write software? Here's a pretty cool piece about the life of a software engineer, with some good ruminations on coding and art.

she has a way with sauce

more Bourdain love!

unmentionables

two weird sites:

• safe2pee, a searchable database of public bathrooms....this could be helpful if you have internet access from a cell phone
  
• KnickerPicker, an online lingerie store with virtual underwear models
  

art is where you find it.

Those wonderful folks at Coilhouse have introduced me to another fabulous artist, Edward Burtynsky, who specializes in manufactured landscapes They're a real shocker, a strange and wonderful mix of beauty and massively conflicting motions on civilization and the environment. Also, check out the Burtynsky's web site for more cool shots.

the next shot in the tech wars

The New York Times has a very cool article analyzing Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. In short, this bid, the article argues, is "a tacit, and difficult, admission that the company did not get its online business right" and is thus really Microsoft taking on Google. It goes deeper than that, of course.

I wonder how much in a panic Microsoft really is. Vista is regarded in many circles as a bust, and Word 2007 inspires more loathing than any piece of software I can recall seeing. On top of that, Apple largely spanked Microsoft in the music player war, and the Zune ain't gonna get them caught up. Microsoft might very well be panicking, looking for some line of business to enter when their software dominance finally dries up.

And their software seems on the ropes, getting smacked around by open source. Firefox is undergoing significant market share growth. More and more students are turning in papers using OpenOffice. And the signs of Linux's entry into the public consciousness are growing. Hell, even I now have an Ubuntu machine.

This should get interesting. Stay tuned.