The Difference Engine: This book is necessary for any alternate history or robotics fan. It takes place in a Victorian era Britain with a highly developed mechanical revolution. Their are four main different viewpoints which are used to build up one of best endings I've ever read. The writing style is slightly dense and Victorian-esque, but the story is very compelling. The Difference Engine put the Steampunk movement on the map.
I think it's awesome, you?
In the late 90's, Capitol Records dropped the deal on an album with a band called Splashdown. Splashdown, being disgusted with the actions of Capitol Records, disbanded. Splashdown's music is now distributed freely by the wish of the band. Splashdown's singer, Melissa R. Kaplan, has gone on to form Universal Hall Pass and has sung for various movies.
Splashdown's work is available for free at: http://www.sadena.com/music/splashdown/
The popular Mac blogging client now works with Vox. MarsEdit can be found at: http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/
Below are my beliefs on many items I encourage you to disagree with. I only ask that you keep one basic principle in mind: Be open-minded. Even though all of my statements are phrased as if they’re unequivocal facts you agree with; they are only written that way to avoid the shear, dull repetition of phrases like: “I believe” or “I contend”. Also, because I cannot drag a massively contributing element of song in this I include highly relevant, lyrical quotes important to me. Lastly, the mood of all of the ante-ceding portions follows directly the mood of songs I listened to at the time of this paper’s conception; which lends greatly to the previous statement.
Part the First: Before All
“...In the light of god
I see myself
Improving things
Oh every day
The open sky
The breathing stars
When …. Come
In a world apart
`Cause in these times
There’s no way of knowing…”
-Røyksopp’s song “Beautiful Day Without You”
I believe their is no point when our universe, if you can call it our’s, was spontaneously produced. It was more like the unpleasant business of birth, kicking and screaming. Over time though particles coalesced into a mass that exploded outward (much like the mess my room is, in fact). What if the Universe was static though? What if the Universe didn’t change? What if all forms of energy were evenly distributed and total balance was pervasive? What if, in effect, all changes were rendered impossible? As you can see the foundation of our Universe necessitates change.
What set this creation into action? Pure, random, improbable chance (sheer, dumb luck). Changes occurred, speeches droned on. In all of the, for all intents and purposes, infinite depths of time and space it was improbable that a universe wouldn’t form. The myriad of energy and particles became galaxies, solar systems, planets, and astoundingly pervasive chains of coffee shops. With all of these things floating around it became improbable that Sentience and therefore astoundingly pervasive coffee shops wouldn’t form.
A great, free song to celebrate May is "First of May" by Jonathan Coulton. This eccentric song starts with a certain "theme" when it mentions first of May. Find this amusing song at: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/songdetails/First%20of%20May
Pity it's an iTunes exclusive 'till July 10th. I hope it will be available DRM free on iTunes. "13 new songs produced by the Dust Brothers, Pat Dillett and They Might Be Giants! First run of the CD includes a full length bonus disc and original photographs by Marcel Dzama!"
... is http://iappblog.com/. The other one is just for Mac software stuff. I'll still blog on some Mac software here if you want me to. Please note that everything and anything else I will write here, like a series on changes coming soon(ish).
The wonderful indietronic band Dntel's new album is available to preview at
http://myspace.com/dntel
Ungh, it's like a punch in the gut. It's also an assault on my wallet. iLife '07, iWork '07, and a new version of .Mac are
Here are some of the more positive of the implications.
- Stock - Don't mistake this date as a random day chosen to reveal this info. Apple knows this will affect their stock. So look forward to some stock-raising new things at Apple's NAB announcement.
- Price change - So what about the current combined cost of iLife, iWork, and .Mac? Between 240 and 260 dollars US is quite an expenisive proposition, one might even say Microsoft-like. That's why I think the prices of these will change. Most appealing is a bundle of these software and services for a more reasonable price.
- Thorough beta testing - Now developer will be able to test their software with feature complete builds of Leopard. More stability is hard to argue with.
- Holiday sales - The Mac geeks who normally wait out the pre-keynote season will actually buy Macs in December.
