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I used another utility (costs about $12) called KeyLaunch for many years. I heard about it on The Screen Savers and was amazed at how fast it appeared on TV. The generous developer released a free version just for Screen Savers viewers and I milked that free version for years before deciding I couldn't live without it and splurged, making it one of very few shareware apps I've ever bought. I like it much more than free alternatives like Launchy but not everyone will be willing to pay.

I am definitely a victim of this "Google effect". Search makes me lazy.

For example, for years I would pride myself on my well-tended Windows Start menu. I'd create base categories for my application folders like Hardware, Games, and Internet, and move applications into those folders to keep my Start menu manageable. I blogged about this procedure and included a screenshot.

Now that I'm using Vista I have little need to be so organized. I rarely have to navigate manually to an application folder thanks to the embedded search box on the Start menu. So now my Start menu is a huge clutter, but so what? I see that exercise as futile as dusting the cardboard boxes in the attic.

Here's a link to my blog with over 2 years of original written works. Note the Kopimi logo at the top right-hand corner. That logo, designed by the folks at The Pirate Bay, means that anyone may copy, make derivative works, or do whatever they want with my original content, with or without my consent. It's digital media I've posted on the internet so I'd be a fool to think I had any power to keep others from doing so anyway.

Some people embrace digital media and some stick their fingers in their ears and pretend it's still 1962. It all ends up copied in the end but people like me are the only ones without ulcers. The world has changed; change with it or swim upstream forever.

Your idea is definitely viable. I prefer the methodology taken by Radiohead and smaller indie artists like DJ Amber from San Francisco. Amber gives many recordings away for free on her website, and gives you the option to buy a cheap CD, to be delivered to your front door. I respect artists who ask for but don't demand money. I blogged about this if you're interested.

I'm not entirely sure what your conclusion is here. Are you arguing that if less people traded your brother's music then more people would attend his concerts?

I can only speak from personal experience but I can relay one story where an artist gives her music away for free and it was so good that I bought the same music from her on CD. I had the pleasure of exchanging emails with the artist, she shipped her album to me promptly within a week for a paltry $10,and she signed the album for me!

I talk about this and how I give my own music compositions away for free in my blog, if you're interested. http://blog.demodulated.com/2007/06/20/amber-is-no -sap/

If you're interested I wrote a short, informal essay related to this topic (and granting Katamari the crown jewel). Here's the URL - http://blog.demodulated.com/2006/09/15/we-live-kat amari/

I'd be interested to read your essay too if you've got it online.

I have very strong feelings on this issue and I'm very impressed with Prince's intentions here.

The day music started becoming easily traded online was the day music became monetarily worthless. The cat is out of the bag and will never go back in. Whether this is immoral is irrelevant because the morals have been rewritten for the 21st century. The music industry's only hope is to embrace this fact and make their money from "NOT music" - albums with nice art, books, t-shirts, concerts, and other services and widgets that are related to music and cannot be duplicated.

I highly respect artists like Prince who give their music away for free and allow people to purchase it after the fact. I also highly respect artists like Nine Inch Nails who release their songs and samples under a Creative Commons license to allow fans to remix their works. It's going to happen whether the industry likes it or not, so why not embrace it today and show the world you're a pioneer full of good will?

If anyone is interested I blogged on this topic last week. I spoke primarily about DJ Amber from San Francisco who sells CDs for cheap but also gives the same music away for free in MP3 format. For $10 she sent me a beautiful CD, autographed, within a week of sending her the money via PayPal. I had the pleasure of dealing with the artist personally and all my money went directly to her.

The internet empowers everyone but those who fight it. RIP music industry.

I blogged about my own experience at Googleplex in Mountain View. I concur that Google is very hush hush in general. My most surprising observation was that the security guards were rather laid-back while some engineers were very solemn and confrontational. This is not indicative of the overall feel of the place though - it's like a cruise ship party where people do work.

I was excited to download Safari because someone told me in a /. comment a few weeks ago that my blog template was garbled in that browser. I've loaded up my blog on a few Windows computers using Safari and it looks 99% correct to me (some text is bolded that oughtn't be) - nothing like the very scrambled screenshot that kind gentleman supplied me with a few weeks back.

Can anyone here with both OSX and WinXP versions of Safari vouch for the similarity in the rendering engine? For reference, my URL is http://blog.demodulated.com/ and I've verified that it's nearly identical in IE in WinXP and Vista, FF2.0 in XP and Vista and Ubuntu Edgy Feisty, and Konqueror in Ubuntu Edgy and Feisty.

If Sega discontinues Dreamcast service, how will they populate their canned technical support response?

I bought Outrun 2006 for PC via Steam a couple of months ago. The game consistently froze my computer every time I played the game for more than about 30 seconds. It's the only game I have trouble with so I asked Sega for support, noting specifically that I needed assistance with my PC. It took them 2 weeks to reply and they sent me a generic response featuring links on how to repair and clean a Dreamcast. Luckily Steam was understanding enough to issue me a refund - one of two refunds I've ever gotten for a software product in 20 years.

I was going to paste the generic reply letter here but it's longer than I remembered it, so here's a link to my blog where I give a full description of my account. Needless to say I won't be buying Sega software for a PC ever again.

I love counting to 7.

Thanks so much for sharing that video with me. You just made my day.

I used to listen to MODs right in the tracker or with the DMP player which showed the hexadecimal "code". I used to track S3M, XM, MOD, and MDL (from Digitrakker) back in the mid 90's. Here's my discography, if you care. Mind the "web design".

http://www.demodulated.com/mods.html

"This game seems to be, quite literally, preaching hatred."

I don't know much about the game content but I do have some insight on the motivation behind it. A few months ago I read (and blogged about) an article on religion and gaming. I found one of the quotes by Troy Lyndon, CEO of Left Behind Games, very hateful and disturbing:

"The world is set in the End Times, and in the single-player game you're fighting the forces of the Antichrist. But in multiplayer mode, you can play the other side; thus, we really have something for everyone."

You can play as a Christian or you can play as someone who is the very embodiment of evil. Apparently mankind can be split cleanly into these two groups. How diplomatic.

I agree with you entirely, mwvdlee. From concept to fruition this is a game that acknowledges one specific point of view and preaches hatred toward those who do not share it.

This reminds me of a similar occurrance last year when Dave Redl, owner of the "Familypants" brand, wrote a cease and desist letter to a website. This website had a discussion forum and one of the forum users named himself "Familypants". Message posts by that user appeared higher on Google than the Familypants website.

If anyone cares, I wrote a rather opinionated, juvenile, and scathing blog entry on this topic. The next day I felt bad about being such a meanie to Dave Redl so I wrote a follow-up article, but halfway through I realized that my wrath was justified.

Some consider Google too truthful for its own good, it seems.

This reminds me of a similar occurrance last year when Dave Redl, owner of the "Familypants" brand, wrote a cease and desist letter to a website. This website had a discussion forum and one of the forum users named himself "Familypants". Message posts by that user appeared higher on Google than the Familypants website.

If anyone cares, I wrote a rather opinionated, juvenile, and scathing blog entry on this topic. The next day I felt bad about being such a meanie to Dave Redl so I wrote a follow-up article, but halfway through I realized that my wrath was justified.

Some consider Google too truthful for its own good, it seems.

The new Sam and Max episodic series sold very well and its next episode is due out in January. For $9 you get a new episode every 2 months, or for $35 you get all 6 (plus shipping if you want the optional CD at the end of the season). At about 2 hours per episode this works out to be quite a bargain.

Half Life 2: Episode One is the best episode/expansion/add-on for any game ever. Period. It's so great that I actually wrote my first ever game review shortly after my second run-through. HL2:E1 sells for $20 for 4-6 hours of gameplay (it took me 4.5), but I got $2 off since I preordered. Episodic gaming (not including SIN, which sucked in my opinion) is successful and is only in its infancy. The Sam and Max game really illustrated to me just how stagnant and one-dimensional television is in the 21st century. It's time to get involved in the lives of our favourite protagonists.