onfocus

I'm leaving on Wednesday for 10 days and I probably won't be able to update or check email. I'll be back with lots of pictures.

"...in these coast landscapes there is such indefinite, on-leading expansiveness, such a multitude of features without apparent redundance, their lines graduating delicately into one another in endless succession, while the whole is so fine, so tender, so ethereal, that all penwork seems hopelessly unavailing. Tracing shining ways through fiord and sound, past forests and waterfalls, islands and mountains and far azure headlands, it seems as if surely we must at length reach the very paradise of the poets, the abode of the blessed."

- John Muir, Travels in Alaska

I'm thinking my trip will be like this.

Yet another Weblog Bookwatch addition: Top 50.

TomPaine.com: Stopping The Privatization Of Public Knowledge:

"Preserving the information commons may not be a topic of kitchen-table conversation just yet. But it is fast becoming a hot issue. With a few more turns of the screw by the content autocrats -- snooping on people's computers, lawsuits against individual file-sharers, intrusive new attempts to control personal behavior -- the fledgling movement to reclaim popular control of the information commons may explode into a mainstream juggernaut."

This article points out how absurd our laws have become as a company sued an avant-garde composer over a few minutes of silence. (To which the composer replied, "My silence is original silence, not a quotation from his silence.") The information commons might not be a kitchen-table topic, but it's definitely a weblog topic. Lawrence Lessig has done an amazing job of popularizing the problems with our copyright and patent systems in this community. Now it's a matter of bringing this subject to the attention of others. [link via sotd]

According to the FBI, there are just 200 hard-core Al-Queda members worldwide. [via Tom Tomorrow] This seems like a big story, but I haven't heard anything about it on CNN or anywhere else. At one time the experts were saying there were more than 5,000 Al-Queda members.

My cousin Matt's band, The Eye, is trying to get some exposure on their local radio station in Omaha. You could give them a hand by going here and voting for the second group that contains I Am Siam by The Eye. (You can also download that song and others from their site.) It's a close race.

Update: The voting has closed and they won! (by a good margin.) If you voted, thanks for pitching in. If you're in Omaha, you'll soon hear The Eye at 89.7 on your FM dial.

Cory is in the middle of a core blog dump after vacation over at boingboing. It's worth going over there now, otherwise you'll never catch up.

The garden is coming along nicely. We had a bumper crop of strawberries this year because we let the runners go wherever they wanted last year. They're winding down now, but the tomatoes are just getting started. We also have this crazy cayenne pepper plant on the deck that has half a dozen good-sized peppers on it. I need to figure out how to dry them when they're ready. And then what to make with them...salsa?

Weblog MediaWatch Top 10

I added a page to the Weblog Bookwatch for non-book items: DVDs, CDs, Software, etc. It's called Weblog Mediawatch Top 10. I also re-worked both watches behind the scenes so they're using Amazon's Web Services instead of the bag of http gets and regex that makes up a SCRAPI. (I think the best part of the burgeoning Web Services movement is the fact that people won't have to write as many regular expressions.)

This cracked me up: Real life if hackers ruled the world. it r0xor5! [via MeFi]

I spent all day yesterday taking a sea kayaking class through Tamal Saka at Tomales Bay. We learned how to maneuver the kayaks, paddle, get in and out, and various rescue techniques. We even had a brief introduction to reading tide logs, sea charts, and navigation. Today I'm discovering sore muscles that I didn't even know I had. Practicing the rescues all day was tiring, but I'm glad I went through it. It gets the worst case scenarios out of the way, and I'll know what to do when I'm out and the kayak tips over. I had only been river rafting before, so the first time I made a "wet exit" (tipped the kayak over) the salt water was surprising. Using the gear, and learning how to steer was awkward but I can't wait to go out again. There was something amazing about being out on the bay in a boat you're controlling—paddling through waves and wind while seagulls are flying overhead and fog is rolling over the hills. And the experience can only get better with practice.

Matt Kingston wrote a good TrackBack tutorial for all of you thinking about implementing a home-brewed system...or building it into your weblog tool. (I'm looking in your direction Blogger and Radio Userland. ;)

Speaking of the State of Web, some people in congress are standing up for Internet radio. U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA), George Nethercutt (R-WA), and Rick Boucher (D-VA) have introduced the Internet Radio Fairness Act. It will reduce the outrageous fees to costs more in line with traditional radio stations. Sounds fair to me...especially since there can only be a limited number of airwaves stations due to FCC restrictions, but the number of Internet stations is potentially unlimited. (for now.) [via MeFi]