Month: January 2003

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Creative Commons Launch

Here’s an article on the O’Reilly Network reporting on the rollout party for Larry Lessig’s Creative Commons project. My favorite line:

EFF provacateur Cory Doctorow was there sporting a slimmer frame courtesy of the Atkins diet and a new EFF bumpersticker.

Wow, the EFF bumpersticker can make you lose weight? I’m gettin’ me some!

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This is Your Freedom on Drugs

Tonight on NBC Nightly News, John Seigenthaler delivered the following news item without any further information or comment. This is basically verbatim:

“For the first time ever, Americans traveling outside the country will be required to provide details of their trip which will be checked against security databases.”

What the f**k does THAT mean? What security databases? How much detail? Checked for what? And by whom?

And how can something so completely Big Brother-esque be reported with a straight face, without any more information or further reporting?

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Gadget o’ the Season

I guess when you’re a gadget geek, it’s inevitable that everybody wants to know what great gear you got for X-mas. The answer is: none. I don’t have to get gadgets for presents. People send me gadgets for free all year long, sucking up to us Street Techies in the hopes that we’ll say nice things about their stuff. But if I HAD asked for a gadget this year, it would’ve been the AeroLatte. My mother-in-law had one at her house and we all fell in love with it.

The AeroLatte couldn’t be cooler (or simpler). It’s nothing more than a battery pack/motor and a tiny circular whisk on a shaft. Stick it in milk (or juice or anything else) and it whips it up to twice the volume in seconds. It’s so cool to put the spinning whisk right below the surface of the liquid, leave it there for a few seconds, and you can literally lift the liquid up. Pour in some strong coffee and you’ve got an awesome latte with no need for steam.

AeroLatte is available in the US from Restoration Hardware for $25 (incl. the stand).

OK, I lied, I did get one gadget. My brother-in-law is a tools salesman. He gave me one of those new-fangled bright LED flashlights. It’s a pen-sized light with a bendable eye-stalk. Perfect for looking into computer cases, behind entertainment centers, etc. Really bright light.