Meteorite causes illness.

I just had the privilege of hearing Neil Stephenson, author of Snow Crash, give a talk about some of his past work and new stuff, he pointed out this news story. Apparently a meteorite that crashed into Peru Saturday has caused locals to become ill and farm animals to die!

As Neil stated, talk about the best sci-fi (real) news story in our generation to appear in the media. Maybe the Martians are clearing the area of life for a debut shortly.

Ten Reasons NOT to buy an Ipod.

10. Still like FM radio and NPR
9. Abhors DRM
8. Would never shop from the Apple Store
7. Dislikes white
6. Use video formats like Divx, Xvid and will not waste time converting them
5. Use torrents for your tv shows
4. Wants to save money
3. Not won over by the wheel interface
2. Listens to music in all sorts of formats, none of which is sanctioned by Apple
1. Refuses to buy a product simply on its marketing merit. Does not want to become another one of the masses who bought an ipod, "Just because everyone else did,' but instead does he/shes own research to find the best mp3 player for the best price with the best features.

I'm a brand new owner of the Creative Vision: M 30GB mp3 player. Sadly Creative has discontinued this model for a 16GB version known as the Zen so I had to search mightily hard for it. Found one in town, settling with the 30GB versus the more optimal 60GB. Thus far, I'm rather happy, and glad to have gotten it. It will serve me well on my sojourner in Dublin.