Holy frack…if this thing is for real, it’s pretty amazing: magicJack. It’s a $39.99 VOIP USB widget…plug it into USB port, plug phone into other end, and a year of free calling ensues. Next year, $19.99 for another year of phone service (includes US & Canada LD). Saw it on Mark’s twitterstream…VOIP just keeps getting cheaper. If this thing works worth a damn, it’s yet another nail in the phoneCo coffin…

WELL worth reading: When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide

A great rant. I’d only heard of Oink in the most off-hand of ways…but I’m not surprised such a service existed, and I’m not surprised how it was portrayed when the hammer came down. I really think his call to action is a great idea: I’ve been avoiding the purchase of RIAA music for a couple of years now (thanks to my man Dave Slusher for the inspiration) but I did slip recently (bought the new NIN album, Year Zero…Trent is free now, after this record’s release, but I was weak.) As demonbaby and Dave both mention, RIAA Radar is a wonderful resource for determining the status of an album…I’m going to be poking my recent Amie Street purchases in there (so far, so good, it looks like! Unsurprising, but I’m still glad.)

Here’s to watching the tar pit struggles of the dying brontosaurs continue. See ya, labels! I look forward to dancing on your grave. (Metaphorically speaking, of course! *grin*)

Damn…Jonathan Schwartz (CEO of Sun) has severely thrown down vs. Network Appliance in his blog. Recap: Sun’s ZFS file system is…ummm…impacting Network Appliance’s business. ZFS is under a free software license…woot! It’s apparently starting to make a real impact (unsurprising…the feature set is amazing); and now it’s supported in OS X (Leopard) too. Network Appliance is not happy.

So last month, Net App sues Sun, trying to either remove ZFS from the market, or limit it’s usability via license restriction. Jonathan’s response? Not gonna happen. We can’t un-release free software in the first place, and besides…we don’t like this sorta thing. So we’re indemnifying our customers, and countersuing with many, many defensive patents. This was probably not what NA had in mind. Should be interesting to watch.

Aside: there are licensing issues with linking ZFS (CDDL license) into the Linux kernel (GPL) and distributing the result, so ZFS hasn’t been ported to Linux distros. But a) it’s been ported to FreeBSD, and b) there’s a badass ZFS on FUSE solution that’s just crazy enough to work (with the filesystem in userspace, linking isn’t a issue). So there’s at least two ways to run it on a Free Software system. I’d heard some about ZFS about a year back, but I hadn’t kept up. This thing is badASS…my next NAS device will be running this for sure.

I’ve used this site before, but lost the url…I tracked it down again today when getting ready to donate some money and decided to blog it this time, for future reference. Charity Navigator is a really nice, useful site for examining how charities spend the money they recieve. It has a detailed and thorough explanation of the rating process, tips for making the most of your donation, and tons and tons of ratings. Great stuff…really useful! (Oh, and a well-designed, speedy site as well.)

And for a double bonus today, I discovered that the president of Charity Navigator has his own blog, giving an insider’s perspective to the inspiring, intriguing, and sometimes idiotic inner workings of the world of non-profits and charities. Looks good…subscribed!! (man, I need to get into Google Reader and do some paring!)

Woot. Per boingboing, Senator Chris Dodd has committed to placing a hold on any bill that includes telecommunications amnesty. Bring it, buddy…about time someone showed some spine.

To be precise, here’s what I sent the senator:
Thank you very, very much, Senator. This is a principled act, and I realize you will be under a great deal of pressure to back down. Thanks for standing up for the rule of law and transparent government. Reading about this pretty much made my day. Take care, and good luck.

And it did, indeed, make my day. And after reading my fill of bad news this morning, I needed his post AND a unicorn chaser.

Wow…great link from Jon Udell, and something to defintely think about: A Vision of Students Today. (and, btw…the vision of business today isn’t much better)

Twitter’s support for OAuth is available at the API Authentication page. I just started reading about OAuth, and it looks like an EXCELLENT solution to the give me your userid and password craziness that so many SN sites try. And found the notification via Twitter’s new tracking functionality, btw…thanks, gwachob!

I listen to a couple of different podcasts by the The Economist magazine, including one called This Week in the Economist, which gives a preview of some of the upcoming issue’s content. A couple of week’s back, they included a powerful editorial describing the policy changes that have occurred in the Western democracies after 9/11, and the missteps therein. It’s well worth a read: Civil liberties under threat — The real price of freedom. Give it a read, and then give it some thought. They are dead on in my opinion.