If you live near a Target, and you were planning to get a DS Lite when they “officially” hit the street in 11 days, you might want to drive by and check today. The hot tip on the streets is that some Targets have the shiny new hardware in stock now and yes, they will sell you one. Go! Go!

The biggest of the “free port” torrent trackers went down today, falling victim to a raid by the Swedish authorities. Over 200 servers were confiscated from the Pirate Bay tracker community, and charges were laid all around. However, it appears that not everything in the legal process here was on the up and up, and the freebooters of Pirate Bay plan to be back online by the start of next week. Full details here.

The delightful GROW RPG game has been mentioned in These Very Pages on a number of occasions. The basic concept is fun and interesting and (best of all) accessible and intuitive. There have been a couple of variants on it (the GROW CUBE version is especially interesting, although nowhere near as intuitive as the RPG version) but the time has come to move on. The Eyemaze team apparently agrees, and they have pulled a complete 180 with the release of Chronon. It remains a cause-and-effect game a la GROW, but now the timeline is no longer a linear downstream kind of trip. Instead, you can move back and forth through the chronology by clicking on the times at the top of the screen. As you move the items around you then need to flip back and forth in time to get them to activate. It is a bit of a mental stretch to get into, but if you click around for a bit, you will figure out the gestalt of the thing.

Note 1: I am nowhere NEAR solving this yet.

Note 2: The “missing” time at the top of the screen is in the treasure chest, and the key to the treasure chest is in the clock that is lying on the shelf on top of the window. Have fun.

Some people have asked what I meant by people on “both sides of the pen” being cheesed about the application of the shield law to amateur journalists. Point taken – that was a little nebulous. What I was trying to get at with my less-than-effective metaphor is this: While it is obvious that those being reported on will be cheesed at this roadblock in their ongoing litigation efforts, there will also be a lot of resentment from “professional” journalists, who are getting increasingly pissy about the encroachment of the proletariat into their once-exclusive domain.

Of course, the logic behind connecting “professional journalist” with “journalistic integrity” is laughable at best. There are “professional” journalists at ESPN who feed us misty-eyed stories about Barry Bonds, never mentioning the fact that the company they work for also owns the San Francisco Giants. There are “professional” journalists at the L.A. Times who fabricated stories about the true cost of the Staples Centre to the taxpayers, never bothering to point out that the Times had a financial stake in the completed building. There are “professional” journalists at the Toronto Star who used absolute nonsensical logic to paint the Toronto Blue Jays as racists, making dangerous and unsupported allegations just to further their political point of view.

The court got it right – it is the process of gathering and publishing news that needs to be protected, and that protection can’t be confined to certain people based on their pay status or membership in a professional organization. There is a reason that the public has lost faith in “professional” journalists. Perhaps that particular group should worry more about the reasons for that loss of faith instead of wringing their hands over “amateurs” treading on their hallowed turf.

Lots of laptops have sudden motion sensors. But the newest Apple laptops have fully documented sudden motion sensors, which means you can do interesting things with them. Behold: MacSabre 1.0, a widget which allows you to swing your shiny new PowerBook or MacBook around and have it make cool lightsaber noises.

Yes, I am fully aware that this is stupid, but it is cool and stupid, so that makes it okay.

You will have to excuse me while I sit here and drool like Pavlov’s other dog.

This is what Nintendo fanboys do when they are bored. These guys are my heroes.

47: The percentage of companies that went public between 2001 and 2005 that have yet to record a profit.

Hoff was kind enough to email and remind me that there are far more important things to be talking about than Stephen Harper’s stupid list.

Amen, brother. Amen.

A couple of readers were kind enough to point out that the new Yahoo Maps not only sucks from a functional standpoint, but leaving it open for any length of time it will completely pooch your browser by pounding the cache into submission with some sort of odd streaming feed. Just another reason to stay away, I guess.

I have been hesitant in blathering about “Stephen Harper’s Magic List” (for full details follow this link, I can’t be bother to repeat it here) because quite frankly, outside of the journalism community absolutely gives a crap. The average mope doesn’t really care who asks questions of the Prime Minister because (a) bigger and bigger chunks of society no longer hold journalists with any sort of trust or regard, and (b) everyone knows that Harper is a lying snake anyway.

However. There are a couple of other journalism tidbits that came up today, so while I am going to be on the subject – and yes, mangling tenses – I might as well tackle this as well.

The big question here is not about the possibility of Harper and his minions using the list to screen questions and keep troublesome ones at bay. Of course they are – any fool can see that. This is nothing new – Francoise Ducros used to do this for Papa Jean Chretien, albeit without a list. She just ignored people that the Little Guy didn’t like. Shutting out unsympatheic members of the media is a long-standing tradition and not one that should shock anybody.

The real question is “Why is anyone having a conniption over this?” The members of the parliamentary press corps are being complete hypocrites if they complain about a “list” … because they are already on one. Not just any interested Canadian gets to ask questions of the PM in press conferences, you have to be a member of the special little press corps club. There is already an elitist and exclusionary list in place, one that the now-scandalized journalists willingly cooperate with. It smacks more than a bit of the old pot and kettle scenario.

As well, Harper hasn’t used the list to shut anyone out yet. So sign the damn thing, and then come back and whine when he does actually use it for nefarious ends. In the meantime, quit bitching.

Now then. On to more important matters of the press. You may have been made aware that Apple has been trying to put the legal boots to some bloggers who posted leaked data about the (then) new Mac Mini. As always in the corporate and political worlds, the aggrieved parties don’t usually bother to seek out and punish the source of the leak – that would be too hard. It is much easier to pound the snot out of the people who actually brought the info to the public eye … in the litigating world, it is a thousand times easier to just shoot the messenger.

Usually … except for now. In a decision that is easy to categorize as “landmark”, a California court has rejected Apple’s claims that bloggers are not covered by journalism shield laws. The entire 69 pages of the ruling are available here, but if you don’t want to wade through it, I have pulled out the good bits for you. To wit:

“We decline the implicit invitation to embroil ourselves in questions of what constitutes ‘legitimate journalis(m).’ The shield law is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here,”

and

“Beyond casting aspersions on the legitimacy of petitioners’ enterprise, Apple offers no cogent reason to conclude that they fall outside the shield law’s protection.”

It other words, gathering and disseminating news is what makes you a journalist, not having a membership in a press corps(*cough cough see above cough*) or a byline in some sort of a traditional publication. And if you meet those basic criteria, then dammit, you get the full benefits that go along with protecting freedom of the press. Credentials be damned.

There are going to be a lot of people on both sides of the pen that will be left more than a bit unhappy by this ruling. Bloggers with rights is not something that certain establishements will be comfortable with. Things just got a whole lot more interesting.

If you are really and truly a geek, you get off on unpacking new tech toys. Sadly, most of us don’t get new gear every day, and we only get to indulge in this sort of thing every couple of months or so. Too bad – opening up a hot product that also has killer packaging (*cough cough iPod cough*) is an undeniable rush.

At least we can all enjoy this guilty pleasure – albeit vicariously – on a more regular basis with a photo blog that shares this particular fetish. Unboxing.com is full of crinkly goodness. Yum.

Check this out – it’s peer to peer firmware trading. You don’t swap the files, you swap the actual media, meaning that it is totally legal, since the implied personal-use license goes along with the media. Sadly, little details like, oh, whether it is actually legal or not don’t really fly with the assholes who run the record labels so you can safely assume they will try and stomp this out.

Cool idea, though.

It is no secret at all that I am a huge Homestar Runner fan. Or, at least I thought that I was. Apparently, in the grand scheme of things I am but a piker. The people contributing to this particular wiki put me to shame. Or they have no life. Take your pick.

1: The percentage of corporate email accounts that are configured to forward or mirror to a mobile device.

There is a naughty rumour afoot that Apple’s new “widget” development tool has been leaked – the much-discussed “Dashcode“.

It turns out that the naughty rumour is true. Better yet, I have conveniently grabbed a copy for you, thus saving you the annoyance of trolling around grubby IRC channels and the like. You can download it right here. Yes, it is definitely Xcode inspired. And no, it’s not beta. Enjoy.

UPDATE: You have to have Tiger to make it go, Sorry for any confusion there.

66: The percentage of time that the average traffic light is red.

Speechless.

12: The percentage of time that the average traffic light is yellow.

There probably should have been seven types – add in the “Tech Blogger” and you truly have the complete set. The tagline, of course, writes itself: “Bill Gates is such an asshole.”

Oh – and the full archives of the Mr. Wiggles saga can be found right here. Just because you asked.

Meanwhile, Neil Swaab – via his alter ego “Mr. Wiggles” – has produced a quick and handy guide to identifying the six different kinds of bloggers. If you blog, this is funny. If not, well, sucks to be you.

Lots and lots of car makers are offering iPod integration with their 2006 model line-ups, but only one shoe maker is offering a way to wirelessly connect your shoes to your ‘pod. Really.

There are a million “shooter” games … Xevious, Gyruss, Defender, Stargate, insert your favourite here. But all of the games that spring from the genetic wellhead of Space Invaders can be broken down into two basic concepts: Dodge and Shoot. For your Tuesday morning amusement, here is a wee flash game that reduces the genre down to just those two elements … and is oddly entertaining because of just that. It’s Invader 360 and all you need is a mouse and a button. Enjoy.

22: The percentage of time that the average traffic light is green.

Another week, another Microsoft security flaw, and while they are long past the point where they are actually news, this one is interesting because of the way that it (a) exploits Word, and (b) covers it’s tracks. The fact that it masquerades as internal email will probably also help to catch a few mopes, but really, there are so many idiots who just open up forwarded junk (”OMG! This is sooo funny!” or “re re re re Fwd re fwd: You gotta watch this!!”) that there probably is no need for this level of subtlety.

It is also yet another argument as to why, if you are forced to use Windows by some heartless employer or something, you should at least use StarOffice and not the increasingly useless and expensive MS Office suite.

In response to your emails, yes, there are books that I like, which would probably explain the whole “Book of the Month” thing that pops up now and again.

Sheesh. Pay attention, people.

And in direct answer to the guy from Chicago, you are probably safe if you stick with anything by Neal Stephenson or Kingsley Amis. Amis was the man.

Just to clarify – yes, I fully expect to be wrong with the Edmonton pick. The Ducks have looked incredible in the first two rounds. But I want the Oilers to win, dammit, and don’t want to have the dilemma of cheering against my own pick.

And hey, the monkey agrees with me.

There has been some discussion about the fact that Apple has joined the majority of Windows laptop builders in giving the new MacBook a glossy screen. As noted here, glossy = shiny, and shiny = reflective, and reflective is bad. While I would like to believe that the real reason for the shiny screens is that matte ones in that size are almost impossible to get, I am more inclined to believe the third theory in the article – namely, that people are stupid.

Fortunately, the glare is non-existant if you look at the screen straight on – the pictures in the article are from extreme angles and yes, there is glare galore when you look that way. You can get around this problem, but I still think that it is a pisser.

Big thanks to Ter for the link.

On the other paw, the new MacBook might be the best portable ever when it comes to upgrades. Upgrading the hard drive on most notebooks is brutal, but Apple has designed the pretty new ‘Book with easy in, easy out bays for both RAM and your hard drive. Even convenient levers so that you don’t get your mitts all over the RAM when you are popping it out. Take a peek here. Very nicely done.

46: The percentage of the world that has type O blood.

Jon breaks his recent steak of Really Weak Episodes by going back to the tried and true formula of Foamy Fan Mail.

Hey! I think that fourth letter was mine!