Works Thanks to apple.slashdot.org I saw this page about the History of ClarisWorks. If you remember using ClarisWorks (or AppleWorks) then this story by Bob Hearn might be really interesting to you. The story of Clarisworks weaves in and out of the great conflicts of the software world and is especially intgrated into the fight between two companies.

If you think this fight is a thing of the past, then you may have another thing coming. As I mentioned right after MWSF, Apple announced its own web browser. I failed to mention that they also announce a program called Keynote, which is a direct competitor for Microsofts PowerPoint. Mr. Hearn mentions in his story that some of the former ClarisWorks team have been hired by Apple to work on a project. It is not built on the ClarisWorks code, but other rumor sites say it may have something to do with a Apple productivity suite. That would be sweet (groan, hiss, boo).  ¶ 10:26 AM

  Mickey Mouse 1, Lawrence Lessig 0 As you may have seen, the Supreme Court rendered its decision (1 majority, 2 dissenting) in Eldred v. Ashcroft. The decision was 7-2 in favor of the government. This means that according to the Supreme Court, the Congress acted constitutionally in extending the terms of Copyright. Now any material that is copyrighted is protected for the life of the creator plus 70 more years. Aaaack! Can you believe this! Any way, this law (the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act or Mickey Mouse Protection Act) has the effect of stiffiling creativity. Lawrence Lessig was the lawyer who argued this case in front of the Supremes and he seems to be taking it pretty badly. I guess if I could say one thing to him it would be, "You fought the good fight. You fought fair. You did good. You still lost, but that's OK. Keep fighting the good fight. Keep fighiting fair. Keep doing good. You will win." Also, Lawrence is one of the founders of the very cool Creative Commons project.  ¶ 1:37 PM

  Pixel Crazy Well, the IconFactory has announced the official rules for this years Pixelpalooza contest! If you are not familiar with Pixelpalooza, it is a annual contest for icon designers run by the some of the best in the business. I created an entry last year, which you can download(Mac, Windows). The biggest change in the rules is a change in the categories. Over the last few years the folks at the IconFactory have changed the categories a couple of times to reflect the change in the Mac OS and how it handles icons. The categories this year are OSX, Classic and Candybar. The first two are pretty self explanitory, but the last one isn't. Iconfactory recently came out with a little piece of software (with help from the folks at Panic) called Candybar. This little piece of software allows you to change all of the system icons in OS X very easily. So basically, the Candybar category is for system replacement icons. This is good, mainly because Pixelpalooza used to have a very popular category called System Replacement, which had to be ended for legal reasons (I believe). More about the history of Pixlepalooza can be found here.

I have been thinking about my entry to this years contest, and I think I have a pretty good idea. That idea will remain secret until I am finished with my entry and it has been submitted. I also think that I might release my entry under the terms of the Creative Commons license.  ¶ 10:22 AM

  Mac Lust I want, I want, I want. Well, iCan't afford any of them, but that won't stop me. Overall I think it was a pretty good set of MWSF keynot announcements. I like the new Powerbook G4s. I think that the 12" model is particularly cool. I think it will sell like gangbusters in Japan. I hope that it doesn't canabilize sales from the terrific iBook.

Apple also announced a new web browser called Safari. Since I am at work, I can't download it yet, but I am looking forward to getting it. I will be very happy to stop using piece of crap browsers (cough I.E., cough Netscape). I hope that Apple has a plan to come out with an whole suite of programs to replace Microsoft stuff.  ¶ 1:34 PM

  Domo Arigato Have I mentioned how much I like Bookcrossing.com? I know I have, but consider my faith renewed. Today I found out that the book that I left in Chico, California at Thanksgiving was picked up by a touring musician. The musician, her name is Tamaras, was just about to leave for a tour of Japan and she needed a book. What does she see? The copy of Stupid White Men that I left at Moxies Coffeehouse with a Free Book sign on the front. So she grabs it and takes it to Japan with her! Now she is going to leave it there when she is done. Wow, my first international Bookcrossing!  ¶ 9:21 AM

  Pinhole This is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. A pinhole camera made of photo paper.  ¶ 3:43 PM

  Nice Shirt Wow, the guys at Panic have created these really cool t-shirts. I particularly like the Jaguar and 1982 shirts. To bad I'm not going to MWSF. Maybe those nice Panic folks will have mercy on us that don't get to go and offer them up for a small fee.  ¶ 3:30 PM

  Visit Beautiful San Onofre So I saw a posting about this website called Nation States on Meta Filter. The ideas is that you get to start up your own little nation, and then decide on important (and not so important issues). How you decide on these issues will determine how you are looked upon by the rest of the world. So I have started my own nation: San Onofre (the name is an homage to the Kim Stanley Robinson book The Wild Shore) Right now the server for Nation States is really slow, but hopefully it will get a little better.  ¶ 10:36 AM

  Home Theater So I have been looking into getting a new home theater system because I am getting a little tired of the piece of crap Magnavox reciever/tape deck that I have right now. It seems like the Home Theater in a Box systems are a great value and I have been looking at the Sony HT-DW840 and HT-DW740 are pretty nice. Does anybody out there have a recomendation of a nice system?  ¶ 1:35 PM