Archive for September, 2007

New features on Amazon.com

7 years ago

by David Veksler in General

I am really impressed with the new Amazon mp3 website. Not only are the downloads DRM-free, but they are cheaper than Apple’s iTunes store. I had stayed away from iTunes because I wanted some security in case I got a non-Apple media player, but also because I am deluded by rap songs on the iTunes homepage and have to search for the songs I like. In Amazon, I get great recommendations based on music I like. Why hasn’t Apple done this yet??

For those of you who are interested in such things, Amazon is making available an RSS feed with my recent purchases. This is a cool feature, but I think it would be even cooler to browse “John Smith’s Store” which shows everything a person has bought along with their ratings. Obviously, you’d need to build some privacy control into this.

How cool would be to browse a virtual store with all your purchases and your ratings of products? This would make grocery shopping much faster. When can we finally get a kitchen which will reorder products automatically? How great would it be to visit a bookstore with just the books all your friends liked? I’m afraid that the hysteria over privacy rather than technology is the biggest roadblock here.

Make October 20 "Light’s On" day in Los Angeles

7 years ago

by David Veksler in Environmentalism

The city and county of Los Angeles is organizing a voluntary “lights out” event on October 20 to “fight climate change.”

If you agree with me that this event is a moral atrocity and a stepping stone to coercive restrictions on human industry, then I urge you to use as much energy as possible from 8-9pm October 20^th, 2007. Shine your lights bright, and run your dishwasher, laundry, vacuum, and any other electronic device you have. If we don’t take a stand against environmentalism now, we might not have a choice when the next blackout hits because yet another power plant was banned.

(The site is lightsoutla.org, but please don’t link to it.)

MIT's learning Leonardo Robot

7 years ago

by David Veksler in General

How cool is this:

(More cool robots.)

Ayn Rand Institute editorial/press release RSS feed

7 years ago

by David Veksler in General

Since the Objectivist Metablog republishes most of ARI’s press releases, I created an RSS feed which allows you to feed those press releases to your newsreader/website:

http://www.objectivismonline.com/Feeds/ARI.php

Please note that the feed contains a copyright notice reproduced verbatim from ARI’s press releases. You will have to follow the rules in their copyright notice if you want to publish it on your site.

Censorship by any other name

7 years ago

by David Veksler in Current Events, General

“Net neutrality” is the new fairness doctrine for the Internet.

Edit: The crazy thing is that Verizon caved to customer pressure within 24 hours – proving the power of the market – yet its brief initial refusal has been taken up as proof of the need for government censorship.