I see a new mode of distribution for newspapers.

Just break up all the articles in the 140 character tweets. Then all readers with a TweetTorrent client would be able to gather them together (and share them of course) and read the entire newspaper.

It makes me feel dirty somehow.

I did my Masters (in Engineering, not Comp Sci, but my example might still be relevant) and discovered that, although I enjoyed the program, as far as my career was concerned a Masters degree was worse than useless.

After I graduated I was hired at a starting salary. My Masters' experience counted for nothing. I was therefore making less money and had less seniority than my former Bachelor's classmates, and was essentially doing the same work. When I was looking for a job, some employers were openly suspicious of my intentions, saying that since I had a Masters degree I would probably quit after a couple of years and go seek a Phd (so why hire me?).

Would I do it all again? YES! Because I really enjoyed doing my Masters and was very very interested in the research that I did. That is the most important thing. If you don't love the subject, you will hate doing your Masters.

I know many people who have done Masters degrees, and the only ones who benefited career-wise were those who continued on to their Phd and those who did MBAs.

Sometimes hard to do.

The other day I was in a traffic jam, at a green light. Since there was no room to clear the intersection I waited at the stop line. Soon there was enough room for a single car, so I proceeded into the intersection, but before I was across a guy in the crossing road turned right and took up the empty space, leaving me stuck in the intersection when the light turned red.

The guy who turned right broke the law, but I was the one who got snapped by the camera.

I understand where they guy is coming from, even though his argument doesn't hold water. I am pretty sure that one of the "rights" sold by publishers covers a book's audio recording. In other words, not just anybody can take a book, record herself reading it, and sell the recording. You have to purchase the rights to do so. So he's complaining about the imminent evaporation of one of their revenue streams.

That said, too bad so sad. It's like a horse owner saying that an engine manufacturer is infringing on his right to pull wagons. If what you have to sell is no longer worth anything because of some new technology, you had better look for something else to sell.

You might have a devil of a time finding it (out of print) but Ascent to Orbit by Arthur C Clarke was very inspiring to me when I was in high school.

It's a collections of the scientific papers by ACC, explaining the mathematics of space flight (orbital velocities, geosynchronous orbit, space elevators, etc). Many of the papers were published before space flight was a reality, so it is historically interesting as well as mathematically approachable.

What's this then?

I used to take the bus, but the idiotic bus drivers in Ottawa have been on strike for over a month.

At least now I have a good excuse to work from home more often.

I can't speak for the entire world, but I've noted that the Apple Canada site (apple.ca) is advertising DRM-free music. So that's one place outside of the USA.