As with documents, spreadsheets, and files, you also share objects you’ve uploaded to Google Docs with anyone in the world. For example, do you ever wish you could CTRL+F your house keys or your TV remote? Store your keys, remotes, rail passes, and other objects you commonly lose with Google Docs, and you’ll never have to worry about finding them again. Having trouble moving your piano from New York to California? Upload it from your home in New York, then download it once you’re in California. Change your mind and want to share it with your friend in England instead? No problem. With one click you can have your piano delivered to anyone you choose, anywhere in the world.

I signed up.

In one usage study, we found one person having more than 600 tabs open at one time.

Yasmin Mogahed for the Huffington Post on the Hutaree Militia (a domestic, Christian terrorism group):

Hutaree means “Christian Warrior,” yet the American public is not likely to blame Christianity. And Homeland Security probably isn’t going to single out all people with Christian names in the airport security line. The FBI most likely isn’t going to start wire-tapping Churches and Christian homes, and it’s unlikely that the whole world will be expecting every peace-loving Christian to apologize for actions they had nothing to do with — just because it was done in their name.

“Psychic fair canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.”

First, I don’t work for Google and don’t know anybody who works for Google. I also don’t own any stock (you need money to make money). I’m posting this because I’ve been using Google’s various apps and services for the last few years and have rarely had a problem.

Now that I’m here typing this up, I can’t actually think of any specific instance of a Google product screwing up and causing me problems. There have been features I’ve wanted that weren’t implemented yet, but I can’t remember anything ever being actually broken. Huh.

why switch

You already have an email address, maybe through AOL or your ISP. If you use Charter, your email address is something likeyou@charter.net; there’s nothing wrong with this address, but if you stop using Charter because they’re a horrible ISP or because you move away, your address and archived emails are gone.

Alternately, perhaps you’ve got something heroically stupid which you set up eight years ago and now kind of regret. microbust_2002@hotmail.com or hotlilcherybomb27@aim.com for instance. Why did you do that? And how does it feel to give those email addresses out to people in class or at work? Would you put them on a resumé? No.

So you want a nice, simple, straightforward address. I am creigpsherburne (at) gmail (dot) com. ¹  You could have one very similar. It’s resumé-safe (not embarrassing to give to coworkers or that good looking guy/girl, either) and easy to remember. If you move away or stop using your current ISP, you still have your email address.

Other cool advantages to using Gmail include the fast, single-step web-interface. Having recently helped a friend with a Yahoo! email address, I can tell you the differences between the two are staggering. Yahoo!’s is full of distractions, makes horrible use of space, and is slow. ² 

Further, Gmail plays well with Mozilla Thunderbird, OS X Mail, iPhones, Android (obviously), and even your dumb Nokia or Samsung (or whatever) flip phone: download the your crappy phone app for free, enter your username and password, enjoy. ³ 

fringe benefits

Switching to Gmail also gives you free access to Google Docs, an online office suite; the ability to set up a Blogger account, or a template based Google Site; Google Calendar (which works fantastic with an iPhone and OS X iCal). Oh, and the web-interface for Gmail also allows you to log into AIM chat automatically.

your old email

So you’ve got a shiny new email address and all the coolness that goes with it. What about the old address? It’s hard to notify everyone. I suggest setting up forwarding. Most email providers have some kind of filtration system set up; you simply tell it to send all email to your new email address. This means that email sent to microbust_2002@hotmail.com will show up in your new firstlast@gmail.com inbox; when you reply, your friends will automatically get the new address. It might be a good idea to let them know about the change anyway, but forwards will help catch errors.

Yahoo! requires you to pay them for the privilege of setting up forwards (ironic, since you’d be doing this so as to not use their service), and others might as well. For those, I’d set up a vacation response. A vacation response sends a reply to anybody emailing you. Just make the response say something like, “I switched email addresses, please resend your email to the new one and update your address book.”

While they’ll both get the job done pretty well, setting up the forward is the better choice.

and so

I’m not saying Gmail is perfect, it’s not. There are plenty of stupid little UI things that could be better. But it’s got so many good features and in general is so easy to use, that it’s not a stretch to forgive the dumb little things they got wrong (or just not quite right).

Switching is pretty scary. But it really is easy and with forwarding, the transition is pretty seamless.I feel the benefits far outweigh the half-hour it’ll take to set up the new account, the forwarding on the old account, and to download the your crappy phone app. You’ll have Google-class spam filtering, a fast web interface with all the features you could hope for, freedom to use an actual mail client on your computer, and the tons of cool extras your account will give you access to for free.

Oh, and your email address will look nice if you print it on business cards or write it on a cocktail napkin.

Spoiler: It’s a USB drive.

Here’s how it works. First, this method is only viable if you have access to computers. I am a student, and my school has four computer labs available to me that I know of. If you don’t have access to a bunch of computers, the USB drive thing likely wont work.

Anyway, I got a fast USB drive: the Lexar JumpDrive Lightning to be exact. There may be other, faster drives out there, but I haven’t seen them tested against this one, and I’m very pleased with the performance of this drive, plus the way it looks, though it is physically larger than many other commercially available drives.

On that drive, I put portable, Windows versions of Firefox and Chrome (Chrome, by the way, has built in bookmark syncing, which takes a lot of pain out of this setup), and also Mac versions (which are inherently portable). Advantages of doing it this way: Chrome is my browser of choice, and it’s not installed on the computers at school. And because I’m running the program from my drive, I can comfortably enter things like credit-card numbers and passwords without worrying about some student stumbling upon them.

Because I use Gmail, Google Docs, and Meebo (for instant messaging), a browser is really all I need.

I doubt this setup would work in a non-student environment, but I am a student, and am poor. A $60 USB drive is a lot easier to swallow than a $350 netbook or $500 iPad. Besides, I have to put my keys in my pocket; a USB drive on a detachable keychain is hardly even noticeable. A netbook would be very cool to have, especially running the not-yet-available Chrome OS, but it would require finding the money to buy it, plus figuring some way of carrying it everywhere. Again, not that big a deal, but for here and now, this is working great.

Disappointing.

My good friend Blaine sent the following to me in an email. I don’t think it was supposed to make me understand the opposition’s side, but it sure did give me some insight.

I had the following conversation with my father, the Republican lawyer/judge, over the weekend:

Me – ?!?

Dad – (sarcastically) “Oh great. Now we’re going to have to deal with ObamaCare.”

Me – (after waiting about 30 seconds) “So dad, what were you and mom paying per month in health insurance before you became a government employee?”

Dad – “Something like $650 a month, although I’d probably be paying over $1000 by now if I still had to pay for it myself.”

Me – “Do you think that’s reasonable?

Dad – “Hell no! That’s outrageous.”

Me – “So why exactly are you so opposed to ‘ObamaCare’?”

Dad – “Well SOMEONE is going to have to pay for it you know!”

“Are you Asian and don’t want to be?”

Stephen Gutwillig, writing for the Huffington Post:

It’s hard to overstate the significance of the vote this November. Banning marijuana outright has been a disaster, fueling a massive, increasingly brutal, underground economy, wasting billions in scarce law enforcement resources, and making criminals of countless law-abiding citizens. Elected officials haven’t stopped these punitive, profligate policies. Now voters can bring the reality check of sensible marijuana regulation to California.

Please, for the love of Hank, register to vote, and vote. Even if you vote against legalizing it, vote.

Compared to animals eating only rat chow, rats on a diet rich in high-fructose corn syrup showed characteristic signs of a dangerous condition known in humans as the metabolic syndrome, including abnormal weight gain, significant increases in circulating triglycerides and augmented fat deposition, especially visceral fat around the belly.

And:

When male rats were given water sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup in addition to a standard diet of rat chow, the animals gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, along with the standard diet.

Don’t act shocked or anything.

From their website:

tr.im is no longer accepting URL shortening requests via its website. May we respectfully suggest that you choose one of the many other wonderful alternatives available.

John Gruber in September 2009:

The tr.im URL shortening service, which announced it was shutting down a few days ago, now says they’re back, for good. But who’d trust them now? I’ll never use them again.

Makes me wish I’d payed closer attention to which shortening service I was using. I’ve switched to cli.gs because they’ve got tracking tools similar to that of bit.ly, which I use for this site.

Also, as long as I’m telling you what to do, get the Gmail app. It’s free, you’re using Gmail anyway, and you don’t want to be the only kid on the block without it.

“But wait,” I hear you say, “I’m able to check my Gmail using my phone’s browser. Why do I want the app?” Look, people, just hear me and evolve, ok? Just get the app. It’s faster, it’s easier, it’s better organized, it’s less clicking, it’s less frustrating. Oh, and it’s free, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

As long as I’m linking to Opera, I want to let my friends with crappy phones know about this app. As I said, when I used a crappy, unspecial, Nokia flip phone, I loved this program. It’s a real Web browser that’ll work on stupid (as opposed to smart) phones. So you have that free Samsung slider phone when your contract came up? Put a proper browser on it, make it a more useful device. Especially when waiting for the bus.

“But what’s wrong with my phone’s built-in browser?” you ask. Look, if you’re asking me that, there’s not a lot I can do for you. You can either trust me and download the free, exceptionally cool program, or you can keep on keeping on. I know what I’d do. Hell, I’ve done it.

From the site: “Opera Mini for iPhone was officially submitted to the Apple iPhone App store on March 23, 12:25 UTC.” And there’s a huge timer counting the seconds from that moment, waiting for the app to be approved.

I loved Opera Mini when I was using a silly Nokia phone (even more than Opera Mini, I loved the Gmail program). Because I believe in having alternate browsers on my computer for just in case anyway, I really look forward to trying out Opera Mini on my iPhone. Maybe it’ll make updating this blog while on the bus easier.

Whenever a band I like puts out a new album, I find that the next couple of weeks are usually filled with their back-catalogue. The new Helloween album has been no exception. And along the way, I rediscovered an absolute gem: 1998′s Better Than Raw.

I suspect the reason I don’t listen to it often is the cover. The cover is absolutely, positively fantastic. ¹  It’s also very slightly embarrassing. It was the risk of listening to it too much because the cover is so nice that the album sort of fell out of favor, and that’s sad.

This album actually reminds me a bit of the Children of Bodom, minus the black-metal screeching. The songs are really fast, especially Push and Time. Those songs in particular have one of my very favorite qualities in a song: they almost fall apart, and if played by anybody else, they’d probably suck, but played by these guys at this that, they’re great.

By way of comparison, I made a smart playlist for all the albums released in 1998. Here are some highlights: ² 

• Volume 8: the Treat Is Real by Anthrax
• Pig Iron by the Anti Nowhere League
• No Substance by Bad Religion
• Reunion by Black Sabbath
• Nightfall in Middle Earth by Blind Guardian
• The Chemical Wedding by Bruce Dickinson
• Obsolete by Fear Factory
• Something Wicked This Way Comes by Iced Earth
• Virtual XI by Iron Maiden
• Garage Inc. by Metallica
• Snake Bite Love by Motörhead
• Diabolus in Musica by Slayer
• Hellbilly Deluxe by Rob Zombie

August company. With the exception of Garage Inc., these are all albums I still play.

Every now and again, music needs to be rediscovered. I’m stoked to have rediscovered this one. I’m sure my wife’s getting just a little tired of it, though.

(iTunes link.) From the Wikipedia:

“Unarmed” is a 25th Anniversary celebration album, consisting of re-recorded versions of Helloween songs in an acoustic/symphonic style.

It features a 70-piece Prague Symphony Orchestra performing ‘The Keeper’s Trilogy’, a 17-minute medley consisting of the songs ‘Halloween’, ‘Keeper Of The Seven Keys’ and ‘The King for A 1000 Years’.

It’s weird. It’s cool and weird. I don’t know how much staying power it’s got, but quirky and I like quirky.

What a weenie.

Why do I put the Google, Mozilla, Camino, and Netflix blogs in Google Reader, but follow Kottke, Daring Fireball, and 43 Folders on Twitter?

Well, Kottke, Daring Fireball, and 43 Folders all have one major thing in common: their sites are well-designed and nice to look at. And I like the way they use Twitter. John Gruber described Daring Fireball’s Twitter page as, “Entries from Daring Fireball. Sort of like RSS but via Twitter.”

So if it’s just the same as RSS only different, then again: why bother to use Twitter for some and Reader for others?

Because when Gruber updates Daring Fireball, a tweet is automatically sent out. It contains the title of the piece and a link. ¹  Google Readera actually gives me more information: the title, the body text, and a link, all in black and white and Arial. But using Twitter, clicking the link gets me the Daring Fireball post on the Daring Fireball website, in all it’s thoughtful grey glory.

The important word here is thoughtful. Gruber put tons of thought into the way his site looks, and it shows. He also puts tons of thought into the sites he links to, and the essays he writes. The same goes for Kottke and 43 Folders. It’s no accident these thoughtful, careful guys have thoughtful, careful sites.  ² 

Blogspot, though, is not thoughtful. Oh, the posts can be, but the design is a cookie-cutter’s cookie cutter. Blogspot or Reader, it’s pretty much the same: a vehicle for getting words across. There’s nothing wrong with it, but there’s something so very right about reading a 43 Folders post at 43folders.com.

Really, I don’t want to take away the thoughtful formatting that Gruber, Kottke, and Mann have designed to couch their equally thoughtful words. That’s what Twitter gets me, even on my iPhone. Clicking that link in Tweetie or Twitterific opens the built-in browser and delivers an entry in the environment the writer designed for his posts.

Companies like Google, Mozilla, or Netflix (all with RSS feeds I subscribe to), are simply putting words on a website that’s been built according to company branding and the presentation doesn’t matter to them. Look: Mozilla’s Firefox website; Mozilla’s blog. See? It’s just a channel for communicating words, which is why reading those words in Reader doesn’t take away any experience, the way it does with Kottke.

We need communication to inform us about the things we care about just like we need clothes to protect us from the elements. But every day, we choose what we wear because we’re presenting ourselves to the world. Netflix’s blog is wearing the corporate uniform of a dark suit and sober tie; Gruber and Mann and Kottke have got style.

Will do batches of of songs, and adjust songs, artist names, album names, and composers. Handy!

It really is the choice between laughing or crying.

[iTunes link] Full review later on. Reviews on iTunes look pretty good, though. Five stars as of right now.

My brother, Chris Sherburne:

I know plenty of people who identify as Republican and are also good people.  I blame their social confusions.  Republicans get rich people to vote for them for obvious reasons; but poorer people need to be convinced to vote Republican by their queer bashing, race baiting and abortion hating.  I dont see how else you get people to vote against their economic interests.

The winners for best lugged frame and best titanium frame are simply gorgeous. (Thanks to Christopher Culbreath for pointing this out.)

What would I want in my (waterproof) backpack if I were to get stuck the island in Lord of the Flies?

First, we have to address what the basic needs are. I assume they’re food, water, and shelter first. That is, surviving the day. Which would put getting rescued second. I think I’d also want to document my lost-ness, if only to keep from going crazy.

Now, because I figure if I get to make this list, I also get to choose what backpack it goes into. I think I’d want it to be this one. It’s pretty large, waterproof, and bright red. I think it would very likely have room for all the stuff I’m listing, probably keep it all safe, and be findable. Plus, I could stuff it full of leaves and have a nice pillow.

Basic necessities:

• A high-quality knife. The SOG Seal Pup looks pretty good, but I’m not much of a knife guy. Also, something to sharpen it would be nice. Also, learning how to sharpen it seems important.
• A toothbrush.
• Extra socks.
• Military 550 cord. As much as will fit in the pack, really.
• Fishing line and hooks.
• A needle and thread.
• A cigarette lighter and a magnifying glass.
• One of those cool space blankets, and likely also an emergency bivvy (essentially a space-blanket sleeping-bag). They’re both tiny and lightweight. I figure I’d probably sleep in the bivvy and use the blanket as a shelter, or for other things I can’t think of.
• A Kelly Kettle, or something similar. It’s a chimney type thing that boils water, which is probably the best way to purify water while stuck on an island holding a conch. Most of the stuff I’ve mentioned above can go into the kettle, then into the backpack, so it ends up not taking up much space.

As for the clothes on my back, I think I’d want to be stranded wearing either all Dickies stuff, or a military uniform. The military’s got this survival crap pretty well figured out, so maybe I’d just let them do my research for me. I’d also want some good, lightweight shoes. I own some Solomon hiking shoes I’m very fond of, and would consider a set of more robust hiking boots. (Their stupid site is 100% Flash. Stupid stupid stupid.)

Stuff I’d try to make room for:

• Salt.
• My iPhone and a solar charger (I’d use it for reading books on, Kindle-style, among other things like games and music.) A man wiser than myself once said, “with some of the luxuries, it’s much easier to cope without the necessities.” I’m paraphrasing (poorly), but the logic holds.
• Some Moleskine books and some pens. I’d want to document my experience, and I’d much rather do it with pen and paper than tap-tapping on an iPhone. I acknowledge how silly this is. Maybe I could justify it by drawing maps.
• Because anything more major than cuts and scrapes will require real medical attention, I doubt I’d bother including much in the way of a first aid kit. Probably just some band-aids, neosporin, and a bunch of ibuprofen.
• Extra spectacles. Right now, they’re in my sock drawer in case of emergency.

I think this list is pretty good. I can’t imagine this not fitting into pretty much any backpack in the world. Once stranded, I’d be able to make my own spoon, dig a hole for a fire, use the space-blanket as a tarp or tent or other such things. I’d be able to document my experience, read some cool science fiction novels to ward off idleness, fish, and drink cleaned water that wont give me the runs.

I’m not too worried about food, because in the book Lord of the Flies, there were boar and fruit trees on the island. Throw fish into the mix, and I’d get bored our of my mind, but wouldn’t go hungry. I wonder what’s involved in making booze out of fruit. That would make the stay much much more tolerable, don’t you think?

Bill Maher:

It’s also been proven that just having books in the house makes a huge difference in a child’s development. If your home is adorned with nothing but Hummel dolls, DVD’s, and bleeding Jesuses, congratulations, you’ve just given your children the gift of Duh.

DISCLAIMER:

As always, and with any rule (except this one), there are exceptions. Thank you.

♥ Creig

My 59-year-old dad only uses the F-word to describe two things: mosquitos and Republicans.

I could end this essay right there.

My dad was telling me how back in Clinton’s era, the Republicans said the Democrats were using the filibuster as, in their words, “the nuclear option.” Now, in Obama’s era, the Republicans have used the filibuster more times than anyone used it in the entire decade of the 1960s. And it seems they’re calling reconciliation the nuclear option. All of this lead me to the conclusion that the Republicans think they can do anything they want, and they’re The Good Guys, but if anybody else uses a tactic they use, they’re The Bad Guys. They lack graciousness.

But it got me thinking. Bill Clinton was elected President 1993, nearly seventeen years ago, and served until 2001, about nine years ago. Using Bill Clinton’s presidency (the last time a Democrat was in office) as a kind of place to start, I ask the following question: what have the republicans done in the last nine years, since Clinton left office, that was good? What actual good have they done in the last seventeen years, for that matter?

My Internet research has come up with nothing. I honestly think the best thing the Republicans have done in the last decade is make Palin be McCain’s running mate in 2008, thus taking away what credibility McCain had, and eliminating the possibility of another Republican presidency.

The two things I hear most from Republicans are: (1) America is the greatest nation on earth, and (2) family values, God bless America, etc. The trouble with both of these is that they’re a lie. At least, they are when coming from the typical Republican.

America may well be the greatest nation on earth, but we have to consider what it is that makes us the greatest nation on earth. I think it’s twofold. First, it’s the American Dream. The possibility that anybody can make it big with a good idea and hard work. Second, it’s our programs: public schools, inexpensive education, even welfare.  ¹ 

A major problem I see is that the Republicans say how great the U.S. is, yet they want to dismantle all the programs that make us good. Free, unregulated capitalism (something Republicans love) led us to the financial crisis we’re all suffering. Now that we’re here and the budget is hosed, it’s arguably public education that gets hit the hardest.  ²  My daughter’s school, a school in the greatest nation on earth, is begging parents for donations of paper as a direct result of free, unregulated capitalism.

Oh, and then there’s health care. Free, or drastically cheaper health care for everybody? No way, say Republicans. I still haven’t figured out what’s wrong with that idea. I challenge anybody to explain why every American shouldn’t have access to free, high-quality health care.

Next, family values, and God.

Jesus, in today’s Christianity, has the title Prince of Peace. Yet according to CNN, “the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists.”

Not to mention the Christian Republican pursuit of outlawing abortion (has an atheist ever murdered an abortion doctor, by the way?), not caring how many coathangers will be murdered along the way. Or how about The War On Drugs? Gay marriage?

You know, for all their wanting to be left alone to pursue unregulated capitalism, Republicans sure seem to need to control others, and usually by saying no.

So Republicans consistently say one thing and do another, they consistently try to tear down the things that make America great, they consistently limit freedoms, and have demonstraited a preference for war over health.

Somebody please explain why you keep voting for them.

They are a high-dollar, small sized item, and easy to loose. I figure if your contact info is on there, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of getting it back, and everybody’s got a Sharpie floating around.

Speaking of really cool Google news.

From the Google Blog:

Once installed to a company’s domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications. With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity.

I bet Microsoft isn’t too happy about this.

William M. Welchand Donna Leinwand for USA Today:

A Gallup Poll last October found 44% favor making marijuana legal, an eight-point jump since the question was asked in 2005. An ABC News-Washington Post poll in January found 81% favor making marijuana legal for medical use.

Later in the article, quoting former federal prosecutor and county judge James Gray: “Taxing and regulating marijuana will make it less available to children than it is today.”

A major problem facing PC manufacturers right now is that all the computers are the same. They all run Windows. The hardware is all pretty much the same, with only minor variations. There’s really no compelling reason to get a Sony over HP or HP over Dell. Other than price, that is. John Gruber wrote that, “the PC industry is engaged in a race for the bottom…” and I couldn’t agree more.

But HP in particular is in a unique position. They’re engaged in the race to the bottom, and as far as I can tell, they’ve got nothing interesting in the computer department. They are almost totally irrelevant. When your computer is being sold for under $500 at Cost Co, I’m not sure you’re doing things right.

Reminds me of Apple, actually. In the 90′s, they weren’t being sold anywhere, and were largely irrelevant. Then Steve Jobs came back, they bet everything on OS X, and are now rocking hard.

Windows is killing innovation and killing the PC marketplace. The only innovation happening with PC computers is based on making them cheaper.

Well, not the only innovation. Dell has been selling computers  ¹  preloaded with Linux for a while, now, but it seems to be sort of a hobby, by and for hobbiests. They’re not doing anything special, there’s nothing about their computers or their Ubuntu treatment that would make anybody I know switch from Windows.

Which is where HP comes in. Their computer strategy is clearly not working. Their iPAQ isn’t even a joke. Their cameras are just another camera. Yet they’ve been around for a million years. The Apple I was designed and built by Steve Wozniak while he worked for HP. Outside the computer department, they still make some great products: calculators, printers, dvd burners, and blank media for instance. Despite ho-hum computers, they’re still selling some quality merchandise.

Now, what if HP dropped Windows entirely, spent some real money, and bet the farm on Linux? I think they could succeed where Dell hasn’t and create a whole new class of computer and customer. Or if not a new class, they could revitalize the Windows PC class.

But first, they need to spend some money on hardware development. They have one computer that looks like a direct, if poorly executed copy of a MacBook Pro. They should concentrate on this design. Take a page out of Apple’s book and simplify the product line, and make them beautiful.

Back to Linux: Despite Dell offering computers with it preloaded, Ubuntu has not caught on in the mainstream because it’s a pain in the neck. It’s sort of impossible to simply install it on a computer and expect it to work the way you might when you put Windows onto the same computer. So I envision HP pulling an Apple. Apple put OS 9 to rest and bet the farm on OS X. HP is the only company I can think of that can afford to (ahem) close the door on Windows and make Linux be the future. Well, maybe Sony, but they’re far too entrenched and big to make any kind of sweeping change like this.

Anyway, HP can do all this by putting the might of their computer division into making every modern and semi-modern printer with an HP logo on it work with Linux, making all their hardware work with Linux. They can’t do it halfway, and they should consider, even if they choose not to, making drivers so older models can be moved over to Ubuntu. Maybe not, though.

So they make Ubuntu easy to use. Every HP computer should work with all the hardware right out of the box. Webcam, WiFi, all HP printers, scanners, USB DVD burners, everything. And the computers should look lovely right out of the box, too. They should be able to DVDs and web-based video.

Which is actually a major problem. How do you get a 20 year old junior college student to buy an HP Ubuntu computer without world-class software? You can’t. So we look around, and we see that both major non-IE browsers work on Linux: FireFox and Google Chrome. Google’s Picassa is something of an answer to iPhoto, and that’s available for Linux, too. And Open Office is free. So we’ve covered the major things people want computers for in the first place: Internetting, playing with digital photos, and Office stuff.

Lastly, there’s iPods. HP can get around this by being the first company to make a world-class awesome Android phone. They can also do a non-phone Android device, iPod Touch style. They can also put time and money into an iPod-friendly iTunes-like piece of software for Linux.  ²  After all, why does Apple spend so much time and money on things like GarageBand and iPhoto? To sell Macs, that’s why. There is precedent for this kind of software: Missing Sync for Android, for instance, allows one to use iTunes on her computer, but put songs onto her Android.

And the Amazon MP3 service is also available for Linux.

Look, the list goes on. What needs to happen is someone with power and clout has to come along and put it all together into a bitchin’ little package, and sell them like crazy. I’ve even got a marketing angle: “Live in a post-Windows world.”

The point is not for HP to be Apple, though I suggest borrowing a few parts of their business plan. The point is to get out of the race to the bottom. The only way to differentiate themselves from the other PC manufacturers is to make a different product. But even that’s not enough. The different product has to be great. I think HP is the only company on earth who could do this; they have the money, clout, and other businesses to allow this shift to be a loss leader for a while. If they did it right and well and with commitment, they could see absolute greatness.

This is an opt-in experiment for HTML5 support on YouTube. If you are using a supported browser, you can choose to use the HTML5 player instead of the Flash player for most videos.

Frank Heinz, reporting for NBC in 2009:

Gonzales whips butter until light and fluffy, sweetens it, wraps it in dough and then, you guessed it, drops that bad boy into bubbling grease.

Filthy.