Friday, March 21, 2003

A Business Reply: "This page is the follow up of our Business Proposal Generator, posted last month. It is arguably more useful, as it lets you easily create responses to send back to the spammers harassing you. (Note how it's nice and long-winded.) Simply paste in their details, and click "Generate". Then, cut and paste the result into a reply email. Who knows... It could be a start of a very lucrative BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP."   2:48:58 PM

With the Linksys EtherFast Instant GigaDrive EFG80 ($530 street), Linksys may breathe life back into the small-office NAS market. From PC - Bill Howard: The EFG80 (Linksys EtherFast Instant GigaDrive EFG80) is the cleverest implementation of affordable NAS technology I've seen. It looks like a metal shoebox with two drawers, each holding an industry-standard IDE hard drive that can be easily swapped, especially since the operating system, Samba, is in firmware rather than on the supplied 80GB hard drive. Setup is idiot-proof and took me only about 15 minutes. To add storage, just buy a standard 80GB or 120GB UDMA hard drive and plug it in. If you have an always-on broadband connection, you can access the server from any Web-connected computer. And the printer port on the back of the unit is easy to configure. The only way to get a cheaper standalone file server would be to add Linux and a big hard drive to a used desktop PC. 2:47:16 PM

From ArtsJournal: Baghdad Of Old "Between the 8th century, when it was constructed, and the 13th, when it was destroyed, Baghdad was the wealthiest, most learned and most opulent, city in Islam. Baghdad in the 10th century had a million inhabitants. In Europe at the time, where most people lived in huts, there was nothing to compare with it. Baghdad had 100 bookstores. And the grandest library assembled since the sack of Alexandria's. The city represents, and not only for Iraqis but for Arabs across the board, a time when the Arab world knew itself to be the center of civilization, of science and art and mystery. The symbol of Baghdad is richer, and deeper, than whoever is messing it up right now." Washington Post 03/20/03 An Adult Cover-up For Harry So you love Harry Potter, but you feel kind of funny toting around a kid's book? Harry's publishers have the solution - two covers - one for kids, the other for adults. "Bloomsbury Publishers unveiled the designs Thursday. The adult edition of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' features a somber black and white picture of a phoenix, while the children's version of the boy wizard book is illustrated with a more vibrant red and orange bird rising from flames. Newsday (AP) 03/21/03 Kermit Moving To Disney? Disney says it may buy the Muppets. "Disney had been on the verge of buying the company more than a decade ago, but the deal collapsed after the death of founder Jim Henson." BBC 03/21/03 The Oscars At $30,000 A Pop All guests, nominees and presenters at the Academy Awards will go home with "gift bags." At one time the bags were a modest thing, but "designers and companies looking to win some high-profile promotion have been vying to have their products included in the Academy Awards gift baskets for years. At first a relatively modest undertaking, Hollywood's version of the goodie bag has swollen to ridiculous size and value, with this year's priced at approximately US$30,000." National Post (Canada) 03/21/03 Will Oscars Become Anti-War Demonstration? "The thought of what might be said at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony - four hours of spotlight-loving liberals making live speeches to a worldwide audience of billions - has to be giving George W. Bush's spin doctors the spins. While presenters have been sternly warned to stick to their scripts," there is no policy concerning the acceptance speeches. "The only instruction nominees have been given is that they not begin a lengthy list of names that most viewers are unfamiliar with. Other than that, winners can choose to use their time on stage to air their opinions about anything else going on in the world." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 03/21/03 With Dropouts And Cancellations - Should Oscar Cancel? At what point should the Oscars be cancelled? The red carpet has been rolled up and a few presenters have dropped out, writes Roger Ebert. "Whatever the reasons given by the dropouts, they added up to a dilemma for the Academy: If there are enough cancellations, does there come a turning point when a pall settles over the Oscars, and Hollywood loses the spirit to carry on?" Chicago Sun-Times 03/21/03 "American Spirit": Sure We're Invading Iraq - But That Doesn't Mean We Can't Still Have Fun Should the Oscars cancel? Not if the American people have their way. A poll reports that 9 of ten people asked believe the show should go on. "This is a true testament to the American spirit. While nearly everyone is concerned about our troops, in post-Sept. 11 America, people strongly feel that we all must continue living our lives." National Post (Canada) 03/21/03 Radio - Music With A Corporate Voice What will people be listening to on the radio as the war goes on? Pretty much the same thing across the country. "I don't think it will be anything like radio during the Vietnam War when radio was the voice of the revolution and the voice of the other side. Now you're not going to get any of that: you're going to get the voice of the corporate world." The New York Times 03/21/03 Attracted To Coming Attractions Previews of movies "embody the great promise of modern consumerist entertainment: that there will always be more. They are like the still-wrapped packages under a Christmas tree: the one you are about to tear into might turn out to be a pair of wool socks or a cheap knockoff of the toy you really wanted, but there is still all this other stuff yet to be opened up. Whatever disappointments the movies themselves might bring are safely in the future, as you feel the rush of all their expensive promise — the fights, the explosions, the computer-generated imagery, the macho repartee — in compact, thrill-packed doses. Big, commercial movies may rarely be surprising these days, but the possibility that they might be is always there." The New York Times 03/21/03 Movies - What Are Today's Classics? Are there movies being made today that will be judged as cinematic classics? Yes. But it make take years before they're recognized as such. "The great movies tend to have a level of complexity to them that isn't entirely obvious to the viewer at first glance. Sometimes there's this stealth factor at work. A movie just plants a seed in you. And you don't realize it until you've gone home, and you've tried to forget about it - and you can't." Christian Science Monitor 03/21/03 1:22:29 PM

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