THE AMAZING MUSICAL MONKEY

1,000 files. 4.5 gigabytes. All in a month.

Numbers like these almost put me in the elite of digital music aficionados. I spent much of a month using one of my favorite programs, Stationripper, reviewed by me last July.

In its free version, Stationripper lets you record 2 Shoutcast MP3 streams at a time. Stationripper is useful because it saves songs downloaded as individual files with their proper names.

It’s a great way to build a large music collection in just a few days – and it’s all completely legal, as I mentioned recently.  Getting music is (more…)

CONTEMPT OF TRUTH

My friend Bill Roggio, an Army veteran and Web logger who was embedded with U.S. Marines in Iraq last fall, was a guest this week on a segment of the CNN show "On the Story."  The topic was news coverage from Iraq.

"On the Story" gets even lower ratings than the average CNN show, so there’s a question of how representative of American public opinion audience reaction is.  But before the segment with Bill began, host Ali Velshi conducted a little poll.

"Give me a show of hands if you have confidence in the news coming out of Iraq," Mr. (more…)

MAKING EXCUSES FOR MOSLEM VIOLENCE

On March 3, Mohammed Taheri-azar, a 22-year-old graduate of the University of North Carolina, rented an SUV and drove it into "the Pit," an area between two libraries on the UNC campus in Chapel Hill where students congregate, injuring nine.

Mr. Taheri-azar told police he made the attack "to avenge the deaths of Moslems around the world." He smiled and waved at his arraignment, and told reporters he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah."

Attitudes and actions like those of Mr. Taheri-Azar explain why 46 percent of Americans expressed a negative view of Islam in (more…)

THE WASHINGTON POST’S WARPED VIEW OF IRAN

As part of its relentless campaign to blame all of mankind’s misfortunes on George W. Bush, this Tuesday (3/14) the Washington Post unleashed Karl Vick (my candidate for the Walter Duranty Memorial Prize) and David Finkel on American efforts to help Iranians who dare to challenge the mullahs.

"U.S. Push for Democracy Could Backfire Inside Iran," screams the front-page headline, and the policy point of the article is nicely contained in the first paragraph:

Prominent activists inside Iran say President Bush’s plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote democracy here is the kind of help (more…)

GEEK HUMOR

I was sitting at Aroma Café this morning when another geek sat at the table next to me and booted up his laptop.  A woman, also a regular with a laptop, sat nearby, and another customer made a joke about Aroma becoming an internet café.

The three of us traded a few geek jokes.  There are so many funny computer stories and anecdotes out there, it’s a wonder some headliner comedian/comedienne hasn’t come up with a related routine.

Something like – "Did you hear the one about the computer programmer who gets shipwrecked on a desert island with a gorgeous (more…)