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Yes, we did this before. I couldn't hear it, but it turned out that my headphones were turned off. When that was fixed, I could hear it just fine. Well past 25.

Pretty much the same. I'm solidly a Gen-Xer, but I scored a 10. Must be rarely watching TV, thinking Facebook is stupid and not texting. Also, we have a (phone) land line, though that is only because of my wife. I would be more than happy to give that up. I am surprised the quiz didn't ask more about blogging and torrenting.

Yes, I can see that. There is some elevated debate going on, but for the most part tribalism and mug-slinging rule. That doesn't change the fact that the internet is not a fad, as the writer was intimating, and that it does change the way Americans shop (mostly for the better) and interact socially (for worse).

I guess I don't quite get your point, Moose. Some things have not happened (mass numbers of people telecommuting), but most of the things that the writer pooh-poohed have precisely come to pass. Kindle is taking over the way people read, though its take-up is a little slow. But certainly newspapers are predominantly read on-line -- and are collapsing because they can't figure out a workable paywall. And as for buying books, CDs and movies on-line? I'd say 80-90% of my music purchases are on-line rather than brick and mortar, and 95+% of books and movies.

Rapidshare has definitely become a real drag in a really short period of time. Since I am a night owl, I am able to occasionally get on for free, but it's real hit or miss. What I find so strange is that there hasn't been a mass migration from the blogs to megaupload or mediafire or some of the others that are vastly superior to Rapidshare.

Congrats on getting this done!! Or almost done at any rate. Let us know when some clips and/or writing excerpts if any are available. I do hope that if we order directly from you as these are released one at a time, you can let us in on any discount available to those buying all 4 volumes at one fell swoop. That might help smooth out cash flow on both sides. Just a thought.

Please do. I'm a big fan of his stuff. It's been almost 10 years since he last book, but apparently Katchor's The Dairy Restaurant is about to come out. I have no idea which strip it will collect. I kind of wish he would gather up all of Cardboard Valise and Shoehorn Technique, since there doesn't seem to be any easy way to look through them at once (or some of the uncollected Knipl for that matter). Those two also seem thematically similar, whereas Hotel & Farm is in a different setting.

My understanding is that he has had someone animate a bunch of podcasts he did several years back for the Guardian (which I downloaded at the time) but he might keep it going with some new episodes.

Now I thought you were referring to this story (same issue): http://www.latimes.com/business/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-us-film-3d-drama,0,7668113.story Ebert tells us he doesn't like 3-D in virtually all cases. I wholeheartedly agree and would go further to say that 3-D is an abomination. I will not go see a movie in 3-D, not even Avatar, and if they start releasing movies in just 3-D with no 2-D option, I simply won't go. Similarly, I think 3-D TV is the stupidest idea out there and if it becomes widespread to the point where everything is broadcast in 3-D, I will simply pull the plug and go without. I have a lifetime's worth of movies to watch (or watch again) anyway, so I don't think I'll be missing out on too much.

Do either have a built in crowd? I've never been to either, so it is hard to tell. Reggie's Music Joint appears to be livelier, but you are playing over people eating (and it is still rock oriented). The Viaduct is considerably harder to find, but maybe it fills up. At least people would be coming for the music. I know the Empty Bottle is even more off the beaten path, but it has a very devoted crowd. They may not be options, but Andy's, the New Checkerboard Lounge or The Hideout would be better. Possibly Schubas (not that they book "jazz" though).

I haven't had a chance to watch him "speaking" on Oprah, but I will try tonight. On his blog he said that the shows themselves were pretty useless, since Gene was always interrupting him or there was noise from the film playing in the background! The voice comes almost entirely from 6 or 7 DVD commentaries he did, since they were recorded as clean, separate tracks.

I don't think either is particularly good, but the Viaduct is probably the better of the two.

Tinariwen at Old Town School of Music here in Chi-town. Absolutely awesome. They are wrapping up a US tour, but are playing 3 more dates in Canada (Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec City). They actually come through Chicago every year, despite being fairly unknown in the States (compared to the much higher profile they have in the UK). But this year, they are coming back through for some summer festivals - Summerstage in Central Park, KCRW World Fest at the Hollywood Bowl and 3 dates in Chicago's Millennium Park in June! I'm so stoked. Millennium Park has been able to get some absolutely fantastic African groups through. Last year Orchestra Baobab. This year we get Konono #1 and Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba. Toumani Diabate is supposed to play with the Grant Park Orchestra in August. It does help make up for some dreadful and dreary winters (though this year the East Coast got it much, much worse than we did). I'll just have to block out everything else to make sure I make most of these concerts.

I still don't see much balanced press coverage of this. Maybe the big story is this: How much does Google care about our privacy? ... The issue will still be privacy. Anyway, it looks like the story may have run its course. For me, the bigger case is whether Google's settlement with the American Association of Publishers will allow it a preemptive monopoly of the market with Google Books. Well, there is a huge generational issue, which definitely breaks Google's way and that is the young-uns don't care at all about privacy, don't seem to even understand the concept and will post anything and everything on the Web. Maybe they've just been conditioned by the growing number of security cameras in the public arena in the US and way, way more in the UK. If the State doesn't give a shit about privacy, why should Google be different? To them the idea that someone don't understand the difference between an unread (by Google) comment and flagging means that that person is an illiterate moron who probably talks to the computer and expects it to answer. No sympathy.

Don't disagree with you, but it will always be hard to know how many people would be necessary to make a "good faith" effort. I also don't know how many people actually did flag the video. If none did, then YouTube would have no reason to investigate. If many people did, then I would be more sympathetic to the court's ruling. I have heard that it can be notoriously difficult if you are a "little fish" to get YouTube to take copyright violations seriously and that should change too.

Yes, but EU directives still set up a "safe haven" for internet hosts where they are not responsible for pre-screening content, merely removing it when notified of various privacy or copyright violations. I suspect Google will succeed with an appeal to some higher EU court, but if not, they probably will block people with Italian IP addresses. The difference between this and China (where it looks like they may be leaving the market after all), is the system Italy is pushing onto them would cost them millions of dollars.

According to this piece Italy v Google Italy is effectively saying that Google Video and presumably YouTube must pre-screen every video uploaded to make sure that it doesn't violate their privacy laws. It isn't good enough to remove offending content when notified of a violation, which is basically how every other modern country handles the situation. Frankly, I would imagine this is impossible. Can you imagine if it took a week or so to gain clearance for posting a YouTube video? The kicker is that Italy is considering making things even tougher for content hosts, although this is just in a preliminary phase: Frankly if I were Google, I would just say F.U. Italy and block anyone from Italy from accessing YouTube rather than bowing to this ridiculous mindset.

One fairly new website that looks promising is blurb.com The main drawback is that they have only a few formats/sizes of books. They have a very inexpensive text-only option, ideal for poetry chapbooks or journals. Then they have a wide variety of styles better suited for photographs. In fact, I just ordered one from a "real" photographer represented by a gallery. The hard cover looked great (at the gallery). I'm hoping that the soft cover version looks as good. I'll report back when I find out. It's basically a very good looking vanity press, but some people have gotten some high quality products out, and the prices are competitive (you literally only need to order a single copy, which generally comes to $25 plus shipping). In fact, I am toying with the idea of putting together a couple of books of my kids' art projects, since they will last longer and we can clear out some of their portfolios (my wife is getting tired of the clutter). But for something that is nearly all text with a handful of photos (I'm assuming this is what Allen would be trying to do), I am not sure what is the best approach. Another interesting issue is that while these places clearly ask you to check copyrights/clearances and try to indemnify themselves, they are also encouraging people to put their blogs into books, which is just ripe for copyright problems. And they (blurb.com, lulu.com) may not be as immune as they think. So enjoy it while it lasts....

Now is this before or after Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove?

Maybe not quite in the same league, but Newbury is selling Phineas Newborn's A World of Piano for $2.99: Newborn - World

Well, there you go. There is an option to run as administrator, but it only seems to be available when you do something special (it wasn't coming up through QuickLaunch). Well, again a total pain in the ass layer of security that doesn't mean much of anything, and just interferes with the normal operation of the program. I'm never going to be a fan of Windows 7, though I will concede it is marginally better than Vista.

Well, that was the first thing I tried, but I will attempt to change the settings again through dos, even though it doesn't say read-only. More permanent that way. I think it is still some extra layer of "protection" that Window 7 slathers on.

Well, I've probably already moaned a bit about the stupid security settings in Vista and Windows 7. Most things you can ultimately do, but not right away. Anyway, I have Outlook (a legit copy) and am trying to import a .pst file. I've tried a number of things, but it keeps telling me I don't have permission to open this file. Well, I certainly had no problem opening and importing the exact same file in XP, so it isn't inherent in the file itself, but either a Windows 7 or Office2007 setting that I can't change (or perhaps locate to change). Any advice would be appreciated. Eric

in the good old days of cassettes it was easy but now? possibly naive of me but how does one save such a session now(IT dinosaur alert!) ? I'd dearly love to be able to revisit this session many times There are a lot of programs out there that will record a program as you stream it, either as a .wav file or sometimes even as .mp3. I've had the best luck with TotalRecorder. Just a caution that if you start saving as .wav files, you will need to quickly convert or you will run out of hard drive space! (My favorite for manipulating .wav files is the the new version of CD Wave Editor which now lets you save output as MP3s)

Well, I saw there are some vinyl copies of X-75 floating about for $25 or so. However, you might want to hold off for the Mosaic, which apparently will also have the unreleased X-75 (vol 2):Threadgill Mosaic. I'm a bit on the fence. I wasn't at all interested in the Braxton set, but this potentially has more appeal to me. I'll have to listen to the clips when they are available. More discussion here (Threadgill thread)