“They seem to have built the PS3 of netbooks” via Platformonomics - Sony and the Joy of Overpriced Netbooks.

* “Misquoting Jesus”:amazon by Bart D. Ehrman. Initially engaging, a bit too long at times, but overall very good discussion of the history of the Bible. Gives a nice overview of the field of textual criticism – using history, language skills, psychology, and physical document analysis to determine how a document has morphed over the years. * “A Voyage Long and Strange”:amazon by Tony Horwitz. Couldn’t make it thru. The stories of all the early discoverers of North America seems like something I would like, but the book just couldn’t hold me. The people they were and the world they explored are so distant from the modern day, not just in time. I could never find any relevance. * “Rising Sun Victorious”:amazon edited by Peter G. Tsouras. Military historians look at ways that Japan might have won (or at least fought to a draw) the Pacific war in WWII. Interesting, a lot of missed opportunities, well thought out scenarios.

* “Ahead of the Curve”:amazon by Philip Delves Broughton. An insider’s look at the Harvard Business School. The author tries to be balanced but the portrait is not flattering, a grotesquerie of ambition and ego and entitlement. * “The Star Fraction”:amazon by Ken MacLeod. Ultra-Balkanized über-libertarian future England in the throes of revolution. A lot of smart ideas but didn’t think it really led anywhere.

We Hardly Knew Ye: Beanie Wells, blue chip knockout - Dr. Saturday - NCAA Football - Rivals.com. 5.8 yards per carry, a stiffarm for the ages, man I am going to miss seeing Beanie in his OSU uniform. Good luck at the next level.

The 4th quarter was epic. Entered the quarter feeling terrible after the miserable offensive output in the 3rd, but then rose to a high with just 2 minutes left in the game as OSU went ahead, and then thought we closed out Texas once or twice on the final drive, and then a crashing low when they scored. Our failure to capitalize on our first half offensive success killed us, and our inability to sustain an offensive possession in the 3rd killed us again. The defense did an admirable job. We sat in a predominantly Texas section and the fans were all super nice. The facility is nice, tho lacks the setting and the noise level of Sun Devil Stadium. There were many empty seats on the Texas side and many more on the OSU side. It was an announced sellout but…] Next year…

Force Structure FY09 Beyond. – the armed forces wrestling with massive budget cuts. And the global manufacturing collapse – not a pretty picture. It is hard to see how we are not going to have significant unemployment issues for years.

* Hardcore Computer – fully submerged computer. So you can reboot more quickly and reliably. * HighSpeedPC – on second thought, screw the case, who needs it. * Innovative snow shovels – might need again in another 20 years. * Magnetic iPhone camera lenses – cool idea. For the 3 pictures a month I take with my iphone. * Lighted Garden Nozzle – I have no idea why but it is cool. * Map Quilts – awesome, love maps.

* “Carnival”:amazon by Elizabeth Bear. Far future dystopias wracked apart by multilayered conspiracies. Fun story, interesting societies, good characters. * “No Time For Goodbyes”:amazon by Linwood Barclay. Great opening and a solid story overall though it never quite matches up to the evocativeness of the opening.

OK I had pretty much given up on the Zune, but the latest devices actually look nice (the small form factor ones), and now with the subscription service PLUS the keep 10 songs forever each month offer, I am compelled to try.

Trying to get it to work on my XP machine tho was an abject failure. The software download went fine, but there is some DRM problem, I can’t download any tracks. Did a clean install of Zune, deleted all my DRM directories, ran the resetDRM tool that Microsoft provides – dead dead dead. Filed a service request with Microsoft 36 hours ago, no response. The forums are no help. Stunningly painful experience. Tells me that the Zune team doesn’t really test on old crufty XP installs.

I don’t have another machine sitting around, so I decided to go for degree of difficulty points and installed VMWare Fusion on my Macbook Pro, installed Vista, and installed Zune. OK I can at least download tracks now (after massive futzing with file directory permissions on the Mac side, in the Fusion app, and in the Windows install). Plugging in the Zune, USB connectivity wasn’t flawless but good enough, if it doesn’t work for you, just keep attaching the device and eventually all will be well.

So now downloading the top 50 albums of 2008 per the Rolling Stone, as well as the albums listed in the WSJ this weekend. This is what I like about the Zune, the ability to try out music for basically free. That said, the install troubles on XP (and the many forum postings indicating that this is a common problem) is going to kill acceptance of the device.

“Slumdog Millionaire”:imdb, “Milk”:imdb, “Gran Torino”:imdb – all fabulous in their own ways. Slumdog for some scenes into a country and culture and lives that are unforgettable; Milk for a view into our history that is moving and inspiring, and for great acting; Gran Torino for great acting in a touching and surprisingly humorous story.

We always buy some board games for the Christmas period and play them in the evening. Started the practice years ago with Settlers of Catan which remains the gold standard.  This year we tried:

• [Hanging Gardens, The

  BoardGameGeek](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/34707). OK it seems like this could be a fun game and we started to enjoy it, but the game exploded into a major argument about the rules. The rulebook is not the strongest.

• Tzaar – fun and quick, but only two player. It is part of some series of games called Project GIPF that interrelate in some fashion, need to learn more about
• Wasabi! – some liked, some did not. The winner liked, shockingly. I thought it was fun tho I pissed everyone off by playing the Wasabi! card late in the which really put the brakes on the action.  Late in the game, gameplay really slows down as the board gets cluttered which is a problem.

Settlers is still the best but these were all entertaining