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SXSW (that’s South by Southwest) is going on. SXSW is a huge media festival, for lack of a better term. It’s tons of indie bands, movie makers, and media types (a growing number of which are Web media types) gathering in Austin to be… well.. corporately sponsored.

But, they do draw an incredible amount of very cool, very unknown (to a national audience) entertainers. And, as a bonus, they release all that music for free.

You can now get the torrents for the music here. Last year there was about a months worth of music and I kept a great deal of it. I hope this year is even better.

Enjoy

Check out the interface on this!

CeBIT ’06: Asus R2H Keyboard Interface – Gizmodo

I don’t know why, but this made me laugh this morning. Requires sound and low expectations.

[ via Wired:Table of Malcontents]

“Kevin O’Connor of University College Dublin and his colleagues heated polystyrene foam, the generic name for Styrofoam, to convert it to styrene oil. […] the scientists fed this styrene oil to the soil bacteria Pseudomonas putida, which converted it into biodegradable plastic known as PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates).” It’s about time because 2.3 million tons of polystyrene foam (styrofoam) are dumped in US landfills each year, and over 14 million metric tons of the stuff are produced annually around the world. Since the foam is very light (95% air), 14 million tons takes up lots of volume.

If this is viable, how hard would it be to scale up? Or can someone make money from it? Because if they can, this will take off in a huge hurry. Maybe the local recycling authority will start taking the stuff, too. Oh, what bliss that would be.

Treehugger: Finally Something To Do With All That Styrofoam?

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A criminal justice professor at Grand Rapids Community College has resigned after showing a video in class of a man having sex with a pig, students and a faculty representative said.

Ah, home. Grand Rapids, that is. Not GRCC or video-making facilities of such repute.

Link

I’m not big on this AJAX-y, Web 2.0, pre-bubble 2.0 crap, but I have to admit, Coastr is a pretty clever twist. Think social bookmarking (ala Flickr) crossed with Beer Advocate, plus a better web-designer. While Coastr isn’t likely to replace BA or RateBeer anytime soon, it’s a nifty little experiment. I’ve tossed a few of my favorites up there already.. wonder where it will go.

[via Real Tech News]

Update: I’ve been linked as an example of a “low signal-to-noise ratio with Web 2.0’s colloquial usage”. Oops. Just to clarify, on this blog, “Web 2.0” is synonymous with “Bubble 2.0”. AJAX technologies have opened the doors for some really cool innovations and development ideas. Social sites are cool because they’re niche sites created by people who live in the niche. If AOL thinks they’re on the cusp of “Web 2.0” innovations, that laughing you hear is the collective voice of the real innovators. You have some cool stuff going on AOL; stick with that (and stop farking with email). You can’t monetize everything, and you’re less likely to do it by mergers and acquisitions.

How’s my signal to noise ratio now?

You know, like any decent OS would let you do. (I’m looking at you, too, Apple.)

First, install this (This is the link I used a no nasties for over a month). XP SP2 only. This replaces a DLL that essentially locks you out from changing the Windows UI. Yeah, it’s stupid, but at least there’s a hack.

Then, head over to deviantART and grab a bunch of styles.

Unzip to \Windows\resources.

Open Desktop Properties, click the Appearence tab, and choose your new style from the Windows and buttons drop-down.

Enjoy the look of Windows for a few more months, at least until Vista screws this up yet again.

Inspired by this LifeHacker post.

Email + Dance Dance Revolution = dancing through your email? Note to the Washington Department of Health. Please visit One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 (link to map) and inspect the cafeterias and common areas of the buildings on this campus as an apparent outbreak of some as-yet-unknown contaminant is affecting thousands of workers at this address. Symptoms include delusional behavior, irrational thought patterns, and monopolistic business practices. Highly recommend a Vistectomy and/or application of Ointment SX. Research also indicates that exposure to other interests, such as Origami, may be helpful in recovery.

Link [via LifeHacker]

That would explain the damn lag! As one of the new million subscribers since the last report came out, can we get some new servers?

Notice that WoW captured 1 million new subscribers in under 3 months? Those are some impressive numbers.

Link

Was there any doubt?

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Ray Nagin should be fun to listen to for the next couple days.