I snagged an illicit copy and was so impressed that I bought the real thing and wrote Beazley a letter telling how much I liked the book....

I was under the impression that Canadians liked paying taxes.

Well played, my American friend. :-)

Signed, A Canadian, eh

Dropbox is fantastic! It's definitely not a subversion respository, though it does support versions of files if you're willing to pay for that feature.

I finally ponied up the money for a paying account yesterday after having used it daily for about a year now....

Talk to Bunny:

http://www.bunniestudios.com/

Bunny is the guy who did the incredible XBox reverse engineering way back when. Since then, he's gone on to work for the Chumby guys. He loves open source, is brilliant, has huge experience getting hardware built, and is a pretty cool guy.

Take a look at his blog and read about his experience in China, lining up manufacturers for the Chumby. Also, his discussion of the Shenzhen hardware/software wizards is mind-bending....

Hey-- why hasn't there been a Lego movie? Given the brand appeal and the richness of the settings possible, a Lego movie would kick brick-ass....

Fantastic? Meh. It was a rehash of a lot of ideas we've seen done in films and books over the past 20-30 years, with nothing particularly new added. Go re-watch 2001, Bladerunner and re-read some early John Varley instead.

If, on the other hand, this is the first time you've seen these ideas explored in film or fiction, I could see this being a very interesting movie.

The "poet engineer" over at The Ergosphere does his usual amazing job of responding to this.

For those not familiar with it, The Ergosphere is an excellent blog that tackles energy related issues from an analytical/scientific/empirical point of view, neatly cutting through any associated hype. Definitely recommended for anyone with an enviro-geek mindset. :-)

As a teaser, here's the conclusion to the article, after a lengthy analysis, complete with verifiable stats:

In my less than humble opinion, the powers-that-be are promoting ethanol because it serves up subsidies to various interests while not threatening the status quo (oil companies). If you can make an end-run around those interests, you could improve the environment, the economy and the prospects of the average American while making a huge pile of money. Isn't that better than just being a shill for GM, the corn farmers and ADM?