PlasticBoy

A Microsoft lawyer says the company wants to build bridges with the open source community. Eric Raymond sums up what needs to happen:

“Nobody in the open-source world expects Microsoft to open-source their core products; given their business model that would be insane,” Raymond said. “But, realistically, they could do some important things. One, open up their file formats. That is, fully document things like the Microsoft Word and Windows Media formats, and make a binding promise not to sue people who write software to interoperate with them,” he said. “Two, put down the patent weapon. Do as IBM has, and offer their software patents under royalty-free, paperwork-free license to open-source projects. Three, support open technical standards, rather than sabotaging them. Microsoft has a history of destructive meddling at organizations like the IETF and W3C, and of attempting to hijack standards like Kerberos by making them dependent on proprietary ‘extensions.’ Simply not doing this would be a huge improvement.”

The album of the week is Ben Fold’s Songs for Silverman.

Kottke gets a look at the Sony Librie electronic ink e-book reader and loves it. I actually like reading books on the crappy 160×160 display on my Sony PDA so this thing would be a dream for me.

Fifteen reasons why geeks make good boyfriends. This meme is nearly as old as the Web but it’s always entertaining.

I like this article on simple living, but some the suggestions are just unrealistic. Everyone wants a 30 hour work week, few can afford it. [via Lifehacker]

Todd Harrell Celebrity Mix The 3 Doors Down bassist picks his favorite tracks. 1. Love Removal Machine - The Cult 2. That Smell - Lynyrd Skynyrd 3. Long Haired Country Boy - Charlie Daniels 4. Highway Song - Blackfoot 5. Funk #48 - James Gang 6. Photograph - Def Leppard 7. Free Bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd 8. Cat Scratch Fever - Ted Nugent 9. Them Bones - Alice in Chains 10. Creep - Stone Temple Pilots 11. Theme From The Dukes Of Hazzard (Good Ol’ Boys) - Waylon Jennings 12. No Rain - Blind Melon

Jimmy Chamberlin’s Hit List: The Smashing Pumpkins’ drummer selects his most influential tracks from the Rhapsody catalog. 1. Lost In The Supermarket - The Clash 2. Bargain - The Who 3. Power To The People - Curtis Mayfield 4. Dreaming - Blondie 5. Fever - Peggy Lee 6. Wouldn’t It Be Nice - The Beach Boys 7. The Lovecats - The Cure 8. Flesh For Fantasy - Billy Idol 9. Well You Needn’t - Thelonious Monk 10. Shiny Happy People - R.E.M.

The Killer’s Celebrity Playlist: 1. Tiny Dancer - Elton John 2. Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley 3. In Your Room - Depeche Mode 4. Drive - The Cars 5. Just What I Needed - The Cars 6. Under Control - The Strokes 7. Speedway - Morrissey 8. The Chauffeur - Duran Duran 9. Six Different Ways - The Cure 10. President Gas - The Psychedelic Furs 11. D. J. - David Bowie 12. Life On Mars? - David Bowie 13. Jeepster - Marc Bolan & T. Rex 14. Spanish Bombs - The Clash 15. Private Life - Oingo Boingo

The Burrito Blog reviews burrito-purveying establishments in the Boston area and beyond. Mmmm, burritos.

Matt Mullenweg notes some celebrities with WorkPress blogs. Rosie O’Donnell has a blog and uses Flickr. Kevin Smith has a blog. Interesting note from Smith’s blog: he’s seen Revenge of the Sith and loves it.

The Serenity trailer is up on the Apple site. Taking deep breaths and trying not to go all fanboy over here.

The new Rhapsody is out and it’s pretty much what you might have expected: a clone of Napster To Go (yes, called Rhapsody To Go) using Microsoft’s Janus DRM technology. The most surprising thing here is that Rhapsody is offering 25 free songs a month to non-subscribers, I don’t know if these are downloadable or just streaming. The new release has a lot to offer for those of us who hate DRM and love streaming music, though. For the first time in the two years since Real bought Rhapsody, the client software and the service have new features. The software now acts as a full-fledged iTunes-like music player and manages your local music library. There is now a Playlist Central area with celebrity and user-posted playlists. Finally, the player interface has received significant revamp.

So over all it’s a nice upgrade but I’m dissappointed that Rhapsody To Go is so uninspired. It’s too bad the technology companies have sold us out to the music industry when it comes to DRM.

WBUR sent out a survey basically asking if listeners think the station should make programming available as podcasts. Go tell them they should, and tell them they need to be MP3s. They only offer streams in proprietary formats and I’m afraid they’ll do the same with podcasts.

This annual event features the best in jazz, blues and rock, with an emphasis on hometown heroes. RHAPSODY Link

One of my favorite albums from last year has finally hit Rhapsody: the Eagles Of Death Metal’s Peace Love Death Metal. Turn it up.