] We've barely moved forward since those days of word
] processors and spreadsheets. Since 1988, the only major
] new software categories that have been created are email,
] IM, browsers and blogging tools. For all the flack, noise
] and supposed development -- we have barely innovated
] the initial concept of what a tool is.

The New Paradigm of Tools

] Now we've got launchd. The idea now is that instead of
] making the user wait for a bunch of services to start, we
] let launchd fire them both in parallel and
] asynchronously.
]
] I don't want to get extremely specific here for reasons I
] hope are obvious, but on modern (i.e., dual-G5) hardware,
] the time from the end of power-on tests and the
] initialization of Open Firmware to the menu bar and dock
] appearing and the system accepting user input is as
] little as four seconds.
]
] Four seconds to cold-boot the operating system.

A 2nd Core to Keep Windows Chugging Along?

] I don't want to blow anything out of proportion, but
] think of Spotlight as being kind of like the first
] bitmapped graphics. What we're doing with it right now is
] cool. But what's really important is what it enables us
] to do in the future.

Neat discussion of some of the thoughts of where integrated filesystem/search can get you, from an Apple employee...

Tiger's 200 New Features

] Fed up with his troublesome car, a Florida man fired five
] rounds from a semi-automatic pistol into the hood of the
] 1994 Chrysler LeBaron.
]
] "I'm putting my car out of its misery," 64-year-old John
] McGivney said after the incident outside an apartment
] building in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, according to a police
] report that listed the car as "deceased."

Yahoo! News - They Shoot Horsepower, Don't They?

] If you ever needed proof that the movie industry is
] peopled by idiotic meat-puppets, famed gamed developer
] Peter Molyneux has it in spades. He apparently went to
] Hollywood to show of his upcoming sim The Movies. Their
] first reaction? Why to turn the game about making movies
] into a movie.

Molyneux's The Movies: The Movie? : Kotaku

] Speculation has been growing that Sony (NYSE: SNE), one
] of the main proponents of the Blu-ray standard, has been
] extending an olive branch to the archrivals in the HD-DVD
] camp. Incoming president Ryoji Chubachi has now said on
] several occasions that he thinks consumers' interests
] will be best served by a single format and that he is not
] above "integration or compromise." In January, the
] company had also said that a format war is not in
] consumers' interests and that the possibility of uniting
] the competing formats was not out of the question.

A Blu-ray Compromise? [Fool.com: Motley Fool Take] April 20, 2005

] Everyday Tips Curious and Helpful Monkey: Here's my
] theory: We all have things that we think we do better,
] easier, cheaper. We should share them.

lots of misc tips.

MonkeyFilter | Everyday Tips

] Orgone energy is an alleged type of "Primordial Cosmic
] Energy" discovered by Freudian psychoanalyst Wilhelm
] Reich in the late 1930s. Reich claimed that orgone energy
] is omnipresent and accounts for such things as the color
] of the sky, gravity, galaxies, the failure of most
] political revolutions, and a good orgasm.

orgone energy, Wilhelm Reich

] Demonstrators who had played cat and mouse with riot
] police celebrated and shook hands with security force
] members after news spread that the former army colonel
] had become the third president of the Andean nation
] toppled amid popular unrest since 1997.

Yahoo! News - Congress Fires Ecuador President After Protests

] QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Lawmakers in Ecuador voted
] Wednesday to remove embattled President Lucio Gutierrez
] from office after a week of escalating street protests
] demanding his ouster, and they swore in Vice President
] Alfredo Palacio to replace him.

Just got some interesting emails from my sister (who lives in Quito) about this. Apparently within 2 hours the President was thrown out, left the palace for Chile, etc.

This weekend she sent me email about how the President declared martial law, and then took the order back when it looked like the people might take advantage of it. The military dropped support for him this morning, after tear gassing rioters last night. Dropped support means "time to make a break for Chile".

NY Times | Ecuador Lawmakers Vote to Remove Gutierrez