According to the Swedish news, Russia sends a good deal of its internet traffic via Sweden to the outside world. They say that the Swedish link is faster and cheaper. Meanwhile the Swedish equivalent of the NSA, called FRA, is spying on Russian traffic (legally) and it sends valuable info on to the US (legality unclear).

Finland:
1) Build a new data link that circumvents Sweden's NSA-friendly surveillance
2) Make it only slightly more expensive than the current data link via Sweden, but tout your net neutrality
3) Sell boatloads of capacity to Russia
4) Profit

How much a digital evidence trail is worth is simply a function of how much the plaintiff or prosecutor wants to exploit it. Take the actions of the MAFIAA groups and their flimsy evidence surrounding file sharing and such -- they're suing and settling right and left not because of the quality or even accuracy of the digital evidence against the defendants, but rather, because of the vigour with which they pursue the cases.

Scientists have received smite threats from God, who feels this wholesale collecting of data on his earthquakes is an invasion of his heavenly privacy.

Here's a video that shows it in action. It's pretty amazing to see -- and equally difficult to keep in trim. The leather bands have to be tensioned just so, etc, etc, which makes it notoriously difficult to demonstrate just once in a while.

I had a Newton Message Pad 100 (the very first model) which I bought cheap in '94 on a whim. It was already totally outdated when I bought it. Still, in its lifetime, I printed from it, sent and received faxes from it, all kinds of stuff you'd normally need a computer for. Totally handy.

Come '96 and I'm in grad school and I take every note for the whole two years on that thing and it was GREAT. I mean really, had it been a pain would I have kept on the entire time? Having a pretty big screen meant you had plenty of room to scrawl out those notes on the screen, and as I had maybe not 'neat' handwriting, but at least consistent handwriting it worked great.

In 1996, being able to search your notes on the computer saved me so much time that I could have a band. So maybe having a Newton didn't get me chicks, but at least the band did!

Then, in 2000, I was still using it. But I accidentally left it on a conference room table after a meeting and it disappeared. It actually got STOLEN. In the 21st century.

The 'Windows 7 Sins' stunt was pretty retarded, but the guy (I admit I don't know who he is, and what he's known for) in the interview afterwards is really articulate and makes a very good argument against proprietary software. No beard, no stink of geek, just a smart guy with a cause.

Maybe someone out there can edit out the giant garbage can?

This baby, the Trackman Marble FX, is the gold standard for pointing devices. Four programmable buttons and mousing position that doesn't require you to twist your arm and put your palm on the table. I would gladly use it today, except that if you use a PS2 to USB adapter, the buttons are no longer programmable. Major, major sadness!

On the other hand (no pun intended), I now make good use of a tablet with stylus -- another pointing device that doesn't require the arm-twisting. It takes getting used to, but it's sooo much easier on your arm. Take care of your arms -- don't just start using a mouse with your left hand.

Here's my market survey (of serious contenders) -- it doesn't mention Reaper, though we checked that too.

-snip-

OK, so we seem to be slightly cutting edge with our hy-tek plans for fame and glory. As I kept searching, I could hardly believe that there was such a gap in the software market between Macs and PCs. It all seems so very 1993 or something. I mean they all run on Intel processors now, so WTF, mate?

By my market survey, here's the options...

Tracktion -- Mac & PC, slightly dodgy, but it's 100 bucks (or free if you want to try the keygen).
Cubase -- Mac & PC, not at all dodgy, but it's 500 bucks.
Audacity -- Mac, PC, Linux, but please...way too limiting even for us.
Traverso DAW -- Mac, Linux, Windows, kinda better than Audacity, but not really. Need I say more?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Logic 8 -- Mac Only
Protools -- Must have Digidesign soundcard
Cakewalk -- PC only
Ardour -- Mac, Linux

So, 400 bucks difference is a lot of beer money or like a plane ticket to Berlin or something.

I was recently kicking off a recording project with my sister, who lives in the US and uses Vista. I use OSX and live in Sweden. I did a complete market survey, trying to find a cross-platform solution for OSX and Windows (also taking Linux into account, since I'm a geek that way) and there was simply nothing that measured up to Cubase in terms of compatibility and interoperability and capability.

I really wanted to NOT come to that conclusion, but I couldn't. I didn't want to support Big Software, but I couldn't get around it for professional use. I've tried Ardour with Jack and all that, but except for the simplest projects, it just doesn't make it. And I just couldn't possibly support someone else in trying to get all that installed and working on another OS on another continent.

Sometimes you just have to bite the sour apple, as they say in Sweden.

Inclusion in the S&P 500 could mean some index funds will have to acquire some shares. Inclusion in an index is usually seen as positive, and falling out of an index is seen as negative, when index funds have to sell.