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December 19, 2006

iPhone launches: By Linksys, not Apple; More alt-holiday tunes; Border fence firm uses illegal workers; "Vanished' truly vanished

Scooped: From the BBC, iPhone surprises technology world:

iPhone has been launched by Linksys just weeks before analysts were expecting Apple to release a similarly-named device.

The wireless iPhone allows users to make free or low-cost internet phone calls using the Skype service. ...

Beyond "Santa's Boots": A new series of holiday mp3s begins at BigO Singapore, released a few a day. So far:

Graham Parker - New Years Revolution
Marshall Crenshaw - Felice Navidad
Sam Phillips - It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
John Hiatt - Happy Xmas (War is Over)
Dave Alvin - I’ll be Home For Christmas
Syd Straw/Rikki Lee Jones - O Holy Night
Tom Waits - Silent Night
Patti Smith - White Christmas
Del Lords - Merry Christmas Baby
Elton John - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

See the full playlist and download them here.

And... Derek And The Dominos, Cincinnati 1970, Side 2 is up now.

Bidness as usual: In Rolling Stone,

The Golden State Fence company, a firm that builds border fencing to keep illegal immigrants out of the San Diego area, has just been fined $5 million for… wait for it… employing illegal immigrants to build its border fencing.

Vanished vanished: Fox cancelled Vanished, a conspiracy drama series about the disappearance of a Georgia Senator's wife, after dooming it to the Friday 8 p.m. timeslot, and announced it would show the last four episodes only online.

Apart from cutting off those not on the Web, Fox has limited viewing to those who can download and install a proprietary video player (PC only, I.E. only, U.S. residents only) to watch them live at Fox's MySpace site. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

A Mac-owning friend is ripped, and wants the last episodes as a Christmas gift.

Fox, you're forcing former viewers to the darknets -- "private, encrypted spaces where social groups can communicate with each other and exchange files"* -- just to watch the end of the show you hooked them on, then dropped.

Off the hamster wheel: Today is my last day at work until Jan. 2. I haven't had such a long time off in years, and don't know what will happen. Maybe after Christmas I'll slow down enough to write something here, as anon suggested.

Till then, I'll be running around like you. Pheasant faded as a candidate for Christmas dinner -- too expensive, too unknown. Since the family will gather Sunday at one for the Patriots game anyway, we'll do a roast Christmas eve. I may make a small turkey Monday, just so the house will smell right on Christmas. (But now there's a movement afoot to have fish and stir-fry veggies, light... I'm easy.)

Late-night find: Conscious entities: A consciousness blog. On its blogroll, thinking meat offers "Thinking meat gift ideas and a reading list that's too short on fiction.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 11:15 AM | Permalink