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Google has added the Apollo landing sites to Google Maps to commemorate the first manned Moon landing which occured 36 years ago today (That’s July 20, 1969). If you zoom in all the way, you can really see the detail on the surface.

Google Moon – Lunar Landing Sites

I don’t think I’ve actually posted about my new house.

J– and I have finally settled into our new place in Chelsea. It’s a 1.5 story something or other, 2.5 bedrooms (ok, three, but if you can get a bed in that other room, good on yah), 2 baths, and detached garage. It’s our first place (purchased) and so far, so good. We painted 3 rooms, the kitchen cabinets, and a bathroom in two days. Yeah, barrel of laughs. But, on the plus side, I now have a kick-ass grill, a (small) backyard, and no damn highway within earshot.

Chelsea is a great little town West of Ann Arbor. I only have to spend working hours in AA now, and man, it couldn’t feel better.

Anyone in the AA area looking to work with a purchasing agent, I highly recommend The Home Buyer’s Agent of Ann Arbor. They don’t sell homes, only help you buy. After the experience we had with our first agent (no linking love for that douche), the people at The Home Buyer’s Agent were awesome.

In all, we toured over 50 homes, bid on three, and got one, all in about two and half months. I don’t think I’ll be moving in a year again.

Richard Stallman (RMS in the Open Source world) has called for a boycott of Harry Potter. I can sympathize with his premise (a Canadian court ordered that people who were erroneously sold the book early weren’t to read them), but this is the stupidest idea I can think of as a response. RMS obviously does not have children, and admits he’s not a fan. Wow, what a meaningful gesture he’s made, not buying a book he never had a compelling reason to buy in the first place.

We were at the midnight release here in Chelsea last night. It was madness. There were so many kids who would have stayed up all night if they could. Denying a child a book the only book they want all year out of the parents’ political motivations isn’t the answer. That child doesn’t understand why they can’t have the book. Stallman has good intentions but makes an emotional response to a problem with more angles than just his perspective.

Save yourself a ton of time and pain; backup Firefox bookmarks, cache, extensions, passwords, history, and cookies. Works for Thunderbird, too.

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Most are under 30 minutes to make.

Link [via Kottke Remainders]

This is a little dated, but Pope Benedict isn’t a fan of Harry Potter. Go figure, eh?

“It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly,” wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.

I’m sure sales will tank on the news.

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Fire up your BitTorrent client before the nasty classical music companies invoke copyright somehow on these public domain works which none of their artists performed.

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I can think of a few University departments that subscribe to the same customer service manual that Michael Dell does.

Dell has closed their public support forums because of the rising anti-Dell rhetoric going on on the boards. They even gave notice with this little re-history:

The Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum will be retiring at 3:30pm this Friday, July 8th. … Customer Service FAQs will still be available to help answer your questions. If you need further assistance, you may contact our customer service team via Chat for any non-technical issue you may have.

Of course, lots of Blogistanians are heralding Jeff Jarvis for this. While I’m sure Mr. Jarvis would love to take credit, Dell hasn’t been providing the world’s greatest support either. Jeff’s snit is representative of the experience of many. (Sidenote: Anyone who thinks Jarvis should have gotten special treatment because he’s an “A-list” blogger is completely missing the point (as Ed Bott so eloquently points out).)

I’m glad I build mine; at least I know who to blame when the power source goes pfhewt.

And you can make it at work, if someone doesn’t steal your milk.

Hob’s zeitgeist

Some guy has posted direct links to many of the AOL-hosted Live 8 performances. The Pink Floyd clips are excellent, as is the R.E.M. performance.

Check it out and sign the list at the Live 8 website.