Dare To Despair

I see that Doc already has blogged the 2003 "Demotivators" collection, but if it and its domain (despair.com) don't deserve to be linked to death I don't know what does. If you've never seen this line before, it's a cousin of the Successories products you always see in the Sky Mall catalog -- with the important distinction that these you might actually hang on the wall. Doc likes Flattery, which is understandable, and as a Linux fan he'd probably love Limitations, too. Individuality and Get To Work are battling it out for my favorite. The apparel line is great, too, right down to: "(front of shirt is not smaller than back of shirt) ... "

Interesting how this came my way. A colleague at the firm is reading my blog, seems like fairly regularly (now that blows me away), and he thought this followed on well from Fast Company's observation that 2002 is the year of the cockroach. (Thanks PJK, this made my day!)

Public Loss, Private Gain

Well dagnabbit, Phil Windley resigned as CIO of the State of Utah this week. He offers more thoughts on realities of public service and why he'd had enough.

You have to hope this doesn't slow down the other Utah.gov bloggers linked from Phil's site -- Dave Fletcher, Bob Woolley, Dave McNamee, Joe Leary, Dave Willis, Al Sherwood, Q. Wade Billings and Craig Neilson -- though it's tough to see how it wouldn't.

Top Ten, Round III

I have twice before essayed to offer proof that weblogs and other tiny online sources insidiously yet inexorably are taking over the world. Ok, so maybe this only is proof they're taking over my brain, but that's a start, isn't it? Especially if I'm still blogging through The Cold That Ate Southern California, Work and The Holidays -- which are subject to no judicial extension of which I am aware. Regardless, here are my current Top Ten Signs Of A Microcontent Obsession:

1. Your RSS is not valid. Once this bothered you. Now you revel in it. [0xBADFEED via Dave]
2. Your blog is sick of globetrotting for you; now it sends you globetrotting for it.
3. You are familiar with the Meg and Jason story.
4. You are familiar with Doc's daughter's profession.
5. You sleep better at night if you check here first.
6. You have given presentations to your co-workers about the uses and benefits of weblogs.
7. You never much *cared* about traffic, but there are similarities between the way you covet your Technorati page and the way a pirate covets dubloons.
8. You are cramming for exams -- and still blogging.
9. You are grinding on a brief -- and still blogging.
10. Weblogs are integral to your holiday shopping strategy.

Scuttle, Scuttle

Fast Company: 2002 is the year of the cockroach.

Gateway: Alienable Rights

Well, there's this, from Gateway:

Gateway believes:
You should have the right to make copies for your own use of any CD you've purchased legally - so you can listen to it in different locations and have a backup if something happens to your original copy.
You should have the right to enjoy legally acquired music in any format you want - like converting CD tracks to MP3 files to take with you on a portable or car MP3 player.
You have the right to download music from the Internet that you've paid for or that's been made available for download by the artist or record label.

And then there's this, from today's L.A. Times (reg. req.):

[A] new line of PCs launching today from Gateway Inc. will be stocked with digital copies of hit songs. ... The preloaded music would be wrapped in electronic locks to deter piracy, trigger royalty payments and set limits on playback. In Gateway's case, those locks prevent people from moving songs to portable devices or copying them onto CDs unless they pay an additional fee of about $1 a song.

More on Gateway's deal to ship PCs preloaded with up to 2,000 songs from Pressplay (for an additional $150), from c | net News.com and PC World. The Gateway/Pressplay model also takes a page from the legal world's fee-based online services (and, I gather, the drug trade): get 'em started for free, get 'em hooked, get 'em paying.