PlasticBoy

MP3tunes has launched MP3tunes Locker, unlimited online music storage for $39.95 a year. I don’t know why it won’t have the same legal problems as my.mp3.com did, but it sounds cool.

On NPR’s This I Believe series Penn Jillette explains why he believes there is no God. [via Dr. Menlo]

Bloc Party Picks: The soundtrack that inspired South London’s Bloc Party as they traveled the country on their recent tour. 1. Got It - Sebadoh 2. Man Is The Baby - Antony and the Johnsons 3. Violence - Blink 182 4. Guess I’m Doing Fine - Beck 5. Une Annee Sans Lumiere - Arcade Fire 6. Take Me Somewhere Nice - Mogwai 7. First It Giveth - Queens Of The Stone Age 8. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac 9. Feed Me With Your Kiss - My Bloody Valentine 10. The Fallen - Franz Ferdinand 11. Funny Little Man - Aphex Twin 12. Mountain Song - Jane’s Addiction 13. Yeah (Crass Version) - LCD Soundsystem

Soulful Season’s Greetings: 1. Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto - James Brown 2. Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) (live) - Marvin Gaye 3. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - The Temptations 4. What Do The Lonely Do At Christmas? - The Emotions 5. Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town - The Jackson 5 6. Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas? - Staple Singers 7. My Favorite Things - Diana Ross and the Supremes 8. This Time Of The Year - Brook Benton 9. The Gift of Giving - Bill Withers 10. Winter Wonderland - Aretha Franklin 11. Purple Snowflakes - Marvin Gaye 12. A Holiday Thought - The Dramatics 13. Merry Christmas, Darling - Vanessa Williams 14. I’ll Be Home For Christmas - The Platters 15. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Dionne Warwick with Gladys Knight

Scoble says it would be too much work for Microsoft to add OpenDocument support to Office. Shouldn’t the debate be about whether Microsoft’s customers and the industry in general would benefit from having a single office document file format? If so, and if Microsoft is going to put in the effort to support an XML format, why not ODF plus extensions rather than a whole new format?

The album of last week was Andrew Bird’s And the Mysterious Production of Eggs.

Talking Turkey: Loosen your belts, folks. Eating becomes a contact sport on Thanksgiving Day. Just eat it! 1. Harvest Moon - Neil Young 2. Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen 3. Tofu Isn’t Turkey - beverly graham 4. Turkey Chase - Bob Dylan 5. Turkey Killer - Louisiana Red 6. It Ain’t What You Eat But The Way How You Chew It - Delbert McClinton 7. Mashed Potatoes, (Do The) - James Brown 8. Hot Biscuits - Jay McShann 9. Beans And Cornbread - Louis Jordan 10. Sweet Thing - Van Morrison 11. Country Pie - Bob Dylan 12. Cherry Pie - Warrant 13. Eat It - Weird Al Yankovic 14. Under Pressure - Queen 15. I’ve Got A Stomach Ache - Junior Wells 16. Sloth - Fairport Convention

Robert of The Radish has an excellent playlist of songs produced by Rick Rubin.

Rick got Johnny Cash the respect he deserved and he should be worshiped for this alone. However, he’s also given us timeless albums by groups as diverse as Run-DMC, The Cult, Neil Diamond, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Public Enemy, The Mars Volta, Paloalto, Tom Petty, Slayer, Jay-Z, System Of A Down, The Beastie Boys and Nine Inch Nails. Enough said.

Enjoy.

Microsoft has announced (again) that it is opening up it’s Office XML file formats and submitting them to the Ecma standards body. Tim Bray and Andy Updegrove have good posts on the issue. I share Andy Updegrove’s questions about whether the license and promise not to sue over patents will be compatible with the GPL and whether Ecma will certify both OASIS ODF and Office XML as standards.

You can now get a free WordPress.com blog. I’ve had an account for a while now and the service is getting very slick.

The two-year-old WordPress software, which until now required installation by web developers, competes with other publishing platforms such as Drupal and Six Apart’s Movable Type. It is downloaded 4,100 times per day, and runs content management for the CNET portal and tech blogger/journalist Om Malik, among many others. WordPress 2.0 is in beta, and it’s already powering WordPress.com.

The album of the week is Wilco’s Kicking Television: Live in Chicago.

The bad news for Sony regarding their rootkit DRM screw-up keeps rolling in faster than I can keep up with it. Boing Boing has a couple of excellent timeline posts for an overview: Post 1 Post 2.

The Songs of Johnny and June Carter Cash: Johnny and June Carter Cash’s romance withstood good times and bad, many of which are chronicled famously in the songs below. 1. I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash 2. Keep on the Sunny Side - June Carter Cash 3. Jackson - Johnny Cash 4. Will The Circle Be Unbroken - June Carter Cash 5. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry - Johnny Cash 6. Ring of Fire - June Carter Cash 7. Don’t Take Your Guns To Town - Johnny Cash 8. If I Were A Carpenter - June Carter Cash 9. A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash 10. Gotta Travel On - June Carter 11. Folsom Prison Blues - Johnny Cash 12. Road To Kaintuck - June Carter Cash 13. I Still Miss Someone - Johnny Cash 14. Wildwood Flower - June Carter Cash 15. What’d I Say - Johnny Cash 16. The Far Side Banks Of Jordan - June Carter Cash 17. The Long Black Veil - Johnny Cash 18. Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow - June Carter 19. Hurt - Johnny Cash

One to Watch: Chris Brown Picks: This R&B crooner with small-town roots (Tappahannock, VA) reveals his current faves and influences. 1. Pony - Ginuwine 2. Only Sixteen - Sam Cooke 3. Thriller - Michael Jackson 4. Candy Rain - Soul For Real 5. Run It! - Chris Brown 6. Caught Up - Usher 7. Part-Time Lover - Stevie Wonder 8. Soul Survivor - Young Jeezy 9. Motivation - T.I. 10. Knuck If You Buck (with Lil Scrappy) - Crime Mob 11. Oh - Ciara 12. Trapped In The Closet (Chapter 1 of 5) - R. Kelly 13. A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke 14. Grind With Me - Pretty Ricky

The Boston Herald tech columnist tries Linux and likes it.

The reasons you’re most likely to read in the popular press for using Linux are defensive.

• Linux is immune to viruses.
• It’s cheaper — free for individual users in most cases.
• It’s not made by Microsoft, a company with more than its share of enemies in the computer world.

The first two are unarguably true. The third may or may not matter to you. What has gotten far less attention is that there are all sorts of positive reasons for using Linux. Kubuntu is a darn-nice operating system. In this reviewer’s testing, it was more stable than Windows. Over a couple weeks, it froze only once. And for many applications such as word-processing and e-mail, it was faster than Windows mainstays Word and Outlook. The biggest surprise to this reviewer was the beauty of the interface. It was nicer than any Windows variation.