Matthew Gifford

The Register is reporting that the RIAA is working to increase the price of downloadable music (via Slashdot). For what it’s worth, they reported this eleven months ago, too.

Wilco will be on stage at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., tonight. The full concert will stream live from NPR.org, along with an opening performance by the Chicago band Detholz.

Awesome.

Here it is. (via Ryan)

Sitting in the MINI’s sport seat with a big wallet in my back pocket is incredibly uncomfortable. Sure, I can put my wallet in the door or on the parcel shelf under the steering wheel. But I have a habit of getting out of the car without remembering to put it back in my pocket. I think I might be ordering a Jimi (via Marusin) in the near future.

Yes, I know this post is probably not very interesting to you. I tend to remember things that I write here.

I recently quit my web design gig and — as of today — will be working on kottke.org as my full-time job. And I need your help.

Jason Kottke has decided to make blogging his full-time job. Going out on a limb like that is an admirable thing.

HEAVY SPOILERS!!! (via Boing Boing)

From Exchange Security (via Interesting People):

You might remember that I ditched the Google Toolbar a couple of months ago. Steve Rubel is reporting on another good reason to do so: the newest version includes a feature called Autolink. Greg Linden explains it very simply: with this feature turned on, Google’s modifying web page content to add its own links. For example, addresses are linked to Google Maps pages. Book ISBNs and package tracking numbers are linked too.

When Microsoft tried this, the protests were overwhelming. It’ll be interesting to see how consistent people are in their criticism.

I think Microsoft’s smart tags were a bad idea. Google’s are no different.

A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

This doesn’t surprise me at all. If you look at the places where life has managed to survive on Earth, it’s hard to think that there wouldn’t be life on Mars now if it was there in the past.

At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators.

But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the ‘eye’ of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events.

Strange.

I fixed Mario Batali’s Pollo Avellino for yesterday’s supper. It was wonderful.