So I just spent the last approximately 10 hours (minus sleep) binge reading the last Harry Potter book. Holy crap. I won't spoil it for you; I'll just state one thing: it was worth the wait.

Whoa nelly!

What?? Could Congress actually be doing something constructive? Heaven forbid!

Blind and stupid

I feel that. Let's all blindly follow Al Gore and his legion of actors and musicians who all clearly have well-informed scientific opinions.

Humankind

Humankind has advanced so far...

Netbeans 6

I downloaded Netbeans 6 the other day and my initial impressions are very positive. I can't stand Eclipse: I really dislike the look and feel, the code completion isn't as nice as IDEA, the perspectives are annoying to use, and I don't find it nearly as intuitive as IDEA (which is my main IDE for work). Netbeans 6 was comparable to IDEA for me in the short amount of time I have used it; check it out if you haven't already.

Fairness is foolish

The Fairness Doctrine mandates "fair" talk radio broadcasts by requiring equal amounts of airtime for both sides of the issues. Last time I checked, we lived in a capitalistic economy where "fairness" has no place. If you want "fairness" in your economy go to Europe where the economy is sluggish at best, the tax rate is astronomical, and the unemployment rate is at least double the rate it is here. Capitalism centers around efficiency, not fairness. It makes no difference to me who has more presence in talk radio; unprofitable businesses go bankrupt; that is the way capitalism works and that's the best system ever developed in the history of mankind.

For a wonderful example of how successful government supported media can be, check out PBS sometime; what an entertaining channel.

Whatever happened to Xen? Oh, and the iPhone is dumb

If you've ever wondered like I did, here's you answer.

Since everyone's talking about the iPhone, I'll jump on that train for the moment with my opinion: it's a huge ripoff. Tons of other phones have many more features and cost half or less than the iPhone but don't have all the hype so aren't as popular. The deal killer for me is the glacially slow Internet connection - I've heard many sites taking a minute or two to load. Why would you pay $2000 over 2 years for that? I guess if you want to be "hip" then go ahead; seems pretty foolish to me.