PlasticBoy

1970s One Hit Wonders: Rediscover great single chart-toppers from 1970 — 1974, the golden age of AM radio. 1. Venus - Shocking Blue 2. Me And You And A Dog Named Boo - Lobo 3. Reflections Of My Life - The Marmalade 4. Ride Captain Ride - Blues Image 5. Smiling Faces Sometimes - The Undisputed Truth 6. In The Summertime - Mungo Jerry 7. Ooh Child - The Five Stairsteps 8. Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) - Edison Lighthouse 9. Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight 10. Bonus Track: Good Time Charlie’s Got The… - Danny O’Keefe 11. Suavecito - Malo 12. One Toke Over The Line - Brewer & Shipley 13. Funky Nassau, Part 1 - The Beginning Of The End 14. Hold Your Head Up - Argent 15. (I Never Promised You A) Rose Garden - Lynn Anderson 16. Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody 17. Vehicle - Ides of March 18. Bang A Gong (Get It On) - T. Rex 19. Why Can’t We Live Together - Timmy Thomas 20. Mister Can’t You See - Buffy Sainte-Marie 21. Motorcycle Mama - Sailcat 22. Jungle Fever (Single Version) - Chakachas 23. Baby Take Me In Your Arms - Jefferson 24. The Rapper - The Jaggerz 25. Ma Belle Amie - The Tee Set 26. Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg With Marshall Brickman 27. Soul Makossa - Manu Dibango 28. Dead Skunk - Loudon Wainwright III 29. Brother Louie - The Stories 30. Natural High - Bloodstone 31. Smokin’ In The Boy’s Room - Brownsville Station 32. Woman To Woman - Shirley Brown 33. Midnight At The Oasis - Maria Muldaur 34. T.S.O.P. (The Sound Of Philadelphia) - M.F.S.B. 35. Rock Your Baby - George McCrae 36. I Can Help - Billy Swan (1) 37. Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer 38. The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace 39. Lovin’ You - Minnie Riperton 40. Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield

Greg Kroah-Hartman’s OLS keynote on Linux Kernel Myths is very interesting.

And by secure, I really mean it. A lot of times a security problem will be found in one driver, or in one core part of the kernel, and the kernel developers fix it, and then go and fix it up in all other drivers that have the same problem. Then, when the fix is released, all users of all drivers are now secure. When other operating systems don’t have all of the drivers in their tree, if they fix a security problem, it’s up to the individual companies to update their drivers and fix the problem too. And that rarely happens. So people who buy the device, and then use the older driver that comes in the box with the device, which is insecure.

The Daily Show segment with John Hodgman on net neutrality is brilliant, and actually explains the issue pretty well.

American HI FI Personal Playlist: The pop grunge outfit wears their influences on their sleeves on this playlist. 1. Making A Killing - Phantom Planet 2. Silence Kit - Pavement 3. Dirty Boots - Sonic Youth 4. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine 5. Can’t Get Out Of Bed - The Charlatans U.K. 6. September Gurls - Big Star 7. He’s A Whore - Cheap Trick 8. Rich Girl - Hall & Oates 9. Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne 10. Fix Up, Look Sharp - Dizzee Rascal 11. Happy Kid - Nada Surf 12. High - Feeder 13. I’ll Stick Around - Foo Fighters 14. Hackensack - Fountains Of Wayne 15. Game Of Pricks - Guided By Voices 16. Rock ‘N’ Roll Star - Oasis 17. End Of A Century - Blur 18. Between The Bars - Elliott Smith 19. Unsung - Helmet 20. Star Sign - Teenage Fanclub

Space Jams: NASA’s Favorite Tunes: According to USA Today, the following songs have been played for astronauts in space since in 1961. Rock on, NASA! 1. Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder - Usaf Band 2. Anchors Aweigh - California Wind Orchestra 3. Marine Corps Hymn - El Paso Wind Symphony 4. I Got You Babe - Sonny & Cher 5. What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong 6. Waltzing Matilda - The American Military Band 7. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd 8. Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes - Jimmy Buffett 9. Should I Stay Or Should I Go? - The Clash 10. Come On Eileen - Dexy’s Midnight Runners

I noticed this effort to run an ad for OpenOffice.org in the New York Metro last month but at that point they had a terrible site and a terrible ad mock-up. Now they’ve come up with a classy design that’s almost as good as the Firefox ad and it looks like they’re about to reach their funding goal.

My friend Sara is in the Globe today, fightin’ the good wetlands fight.

Tim Bray explains why he doesn’t want to use a database with the comment system that he is writing for his blog. It turns out he’s talking more about the publishing model, dynamic or static, than the data store.

Serving static files generated when you post something is much faster than generating the page every time a user visits, so you can handle many more concurrent visitors. I like the dynamic model, though, because I think it offers a better user experience. I used Blogger and MovableType before I switched to WordPress and the publishing step always seemed problematic. Site-wide changes required regenerating every blog post, which took a long time and was error-prone. Dynamic publishing doesn’t have this problem and has a simpler mental model, too. If you need performance, you can use the WP-Cache plugin, although I’m sure it’s not quite as fast as a fully static site.

Brazil Rocks! 1965-70: In the 1960s, Brazil was home to some of the hippest rock ‘n’ roll around. 1. A Minha Menina - Os Mutantes 2. Take It Easy My Brother Charlie - Jorge Gil 3. Divino Maravilhoso - Gal Costa 4. Super-Bacana - Caetano Veloso 5. Domingo No Parque - Gilberto Gil 6. Panis Et Circenses - Os Mutantes 7. O Telefone Tocou Novamente - Jorge Ben 8. Soy Loco Por Ti, America - Caetano Veloso 9. Nao Identificado - Gal Costa 10. Procissao - Gilberto Gil 11. Mas Que Nada - Jorge Ben 12. Bat Macumba - Gilberto Gil 13. Tropicalia - Caetano Veloso 14. Ave, Lucifer - Os Mutantes

There is a new design for the City of Boston web site. I like it, but it doesn’t validate. I also think it’s funny that the three available font size selections are named “small”, “xsmall”, and “xxsmall”.

Here’s an update about Robert Anton Wilson, who is apparently under hospice care. There’s also a documentary out about his life. That went to the top of my Netflix queue. [via RoWis]

Umphrey’s McGee Mix Tape: Toss all these eclectic influences and favorites into a blender and you have the perfect recipe for an Umphrey’s McGee. 1. Bayliss intro - Umphrey’s McGee 2. On “Women, Wine and Song” - Umphrey’s McGee 3. Women, Wine and Song - Umphrey’s McGee 4. Favorite Huey Lewis tune - Umphrey’s McGee 5. If This Is It - Huey Lewis and the News 6. I started playing guitar in high school - Umphrey’s McGee 7. Travelling Riverside Blues - Robert Johnson 8. I was into Guns N’ Roses before Led Zeppel… - Umphrey’s McGee 9. Mr. Brownstone - Guns N’ Roses 10. What about the softer side of Brendan Bayliss - Umphrey’s McGee 11. Save A Prayer - Duran Duran 12. Give me a few more words about the new record - Umphrey’s McGee 13. Believe the Lie - Umphrey’s McGee 14. European Tour commentary - Umphrey’s McGee 15. What bands do you dig from today? - Umphrey’s McGee 16. Becky - The Benevento Russo Duo 17. “‘No Woman No Cry” - Umphrey’s McGee 18. No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley 19. Bil Laswell remixes - Umphrey’s McGee 20. Black Satin / What If / Agharta Prelude Dub - Miles Davis 21. The ghost of Bob Marley - Umphrey’s McGee 22. Is This Love - Bob Marley 23. Jake got started with his parents record collec… - Umphrey’s McGee 24. Locomotion - John Coltrane 25. A drummer first before a guitarist - Umphrey’s McGee 26. Dreams - Fleetwood Mac 27. Blue Oyster Cult, The Long Island Sound - Umphrey’s McGee 28. Black Blade - Blue Oyster Cult 29. More BOC - Umphrey’s McGee 30. Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll - Blue Oyster Cult 31. Getting into Frank Zappa, “Inca Roads”… - Umphrey’s McGee 32. Inca Roads - Frank Zappa 33. It sounded so impossible to play - Umphrey’s McGee 34. Lumpy Gravy Part One: The Way I See It, Barry/D… - Frank Zappa 35. Early Van Halen covers - Umphrey’s McGee 36. Mean Street - Van Halen 37. Jazz Crusade - Umphrey’s McGee 38. Words - Umphrey’s McGee

The album of the week is Tapes ‘n Tapes’ The Loon.

Remembering Ella Fitzgerald: Dubbed the First Lady of Song, Ella was the most popular female jazz singer of the 20th century. 1. Blue Skies - Ella Fitzgerald 2. A-Tisket, A-Tasket - Ella Fitzgerald 3. ‘Deed I Do - Ella Fitzgerald / Count Basie 4. Love Is Here To Stay - Ella Fitzgerald 5. Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong 6. Mack The Knife - Ella Fitzgerald 7. Black Coffee - Ella Fitzgerald 8. I’m Beginning To See The Light - Ella Fitzgerald 9. Miss Otis Regrets - Ella Fitzgerald 10. Dream A Little Dream Of Me - Ella Fitzgerald 11. Gotta Be This Or That - Ella Fitzgerald 12. Midnight Sun - Ella Fitzgerald 13. East Of The Sun (West Of The Moon) - Ella Fitzgerald 14. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald 15. More Than You Know - Ella Fitzgerald

R.I.P. Roger “Syd” Barrett: 1946 - 2006: Celebrate the genius of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s original madcap leader and psychedelic gnome of the London Underground. 1. See Emily Play - Pink Floyd 2. Lucifer Sam - Pink Floyd 3. Arnold Layne - Pink Floyd 4. Golden Hair - Syd Barrett 5. Opel - Syd Barrett 6. Baby Lemonade - Syd Barrett 7. Birdie Hop - Syd Barrett 8. Octopus - Syd Barrett 9. Gigolo Aunt - Syd Barrett 10. Jugband Blues - Pink Floyd 11. Terrapin - Syd Barrett 12. Dark Globe - Syd Barrett 13. Effervescing Elephant - Syd Barrett 14. It Is Obvious - Syd Barrett 15. Bike - Pink Floyd 16. Wolfpack - Syd Barrett 17. Bob Dylan Blues - Syd Barrett 18. Dolly Rocker - Syd Barrett 19. Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd