Very good book, not too long, not too short.

I continue to be impressed with Cory’s work and attitude. I think we’re both on the same wavelength.

Time for some work.

Laptop -> Winamp -> Been Playing 553 Minutes -> Turn up volume on stereo to hear music -> Time to switch music -> D I G I T A L L Y - I M P O R T E D - European Trance, Techno, Hi-NRG... we can't define it! -> Now we're cooking -> Time to document every graphic in the Live build -> OOOOHHH FUN!

http://www.shoutcast.com/sbin/tunein-station.pls?id=3121&filename=playlist.pls

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My internal clock seems to be set at somewhere a couple hundred miles off the Pacific coast (towards Hawaii) as far as awake / sleep cycles go.

But I’m in St. Louis.

Cory’s new book really gets it right. I really like his work.

Over halfway through the book, reading it on my phone. I love it.

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Cory Doctorow just released his newest novel, Eastern Standard Tribe. He’s made it available again as a free download (already got mine in Plucker format for my Samsung i330 Palm/phone.) I read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom when it came out and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think Cory continues to set an excellent precedent for digital distribution of created works that really understands what it is that people want.

This is the second novel I’ve made available as a free download (the first, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times and sold like hell). I’m delighted to do it a second time.

Here’s the deal: I don’t believe that there’s any market-demand for teasers or for “Digital Rights Management” technology: none of you woke up this morning and said, “Damn, I wish there was a way I could get less of the books I enjoy and a way I could do less with them once I have them.” My goal here is to figure out what people actually want out of electronically delivered text, and so I’m giving this novel to you in three open and flexible formats with an invitation: …

Get your free copy today. It’s licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Click here to download Palm PDB version of the book (Plucker format, 136K)

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I’ll probably try to still work on the template so that it does work for IE some more and try to submit it for the WordPress CSS competition.

Update: Didn’t submit the CSS. Missed the deadline. Oh well, never got around to doing the PC-IE compatible transparent backgrounds. I may still submit if we begin a repository of CSS for WordPress.

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Listening to Radio Paradise right now, working on freelance projects. The latest is a web site for First Church Christ, Scientist in Hayward California, the church I attended growing up. Got the first layout finished and sent to the person in charge of leading the commitee for the project.

I’ve noticed an interesting correlation between the genre of music I listen to and the type of activity it inspires. For example, Radio Paradise plays a very ecclectic mix of music. I’ve found that when I listen to RP, I tend to wander from one activity to the next. It’s very good for contemplative activities, where there isn’t a lot of pressure. Like surfing the web, or hanging out, or just listening to music. It’s very nice.

However, RP is not for all time. When I’ve got a big project, where it requires my full attention for hours at a time, and includes coding as well as design, my preference is often for Digitally Imported techno music. I usually tune in whatever’s the high stream on Shoutcast. No commercials, basically CD-quality music, for free. That is a beautiful thing.

Other times, I’ll listen to 80’s music, again, via Shoutcast. With all the variety out there, when I’m working at my desk it’s pretty much Shoutcast streaming music all the time. Sometimes I’ll listen to NPR on the radio if I feel like it, but it’s not the best for working to, particularly if the job requires mental concentration on things like PHP code.

Time for bed. I was up til 5:45 am yesterday morning working on a project for GlobalStreams converting many graphics from .png to .gif (a step back in graphics-format elegance, a step forward in the application not crashing, had the side-effect of cleaning up the code as well since IE doesn’t natively support transparent .pngs).

BTW — I usually use Winamp for my listening habit on my Vaio laptop, not that it matters. On my G3 I still use Audion, but I’ve got my laptop piped into the stereo system these days, so that’s what I use.

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The ads were pretty disappointing for the Superbowl this year. The game was alright, but we didn’t see any ads that really pushed any boundaries. Some funny ones, but nothing groundbreaking. Oh well. Seems to reflect the general state of the nation / economy — more in conservative mode than in heady progress.

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