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Some early Zune numbers are coming in. Amazing the Zune is number 2 portable device at its debut. Read all about it at Zune reaches No. 2 in its debut week. The "consumer experience" should start filtering to blogs shortly…

The inventiveness of the ancient world never ceases to amaze me. The Antikythera Mechanism was found aboard some ancient roman shipwreck and has recently been meticulously studied. Surprise, the NY Times has a great article about findings so far. Pretty amazing what those ancient Greeks knew & built.

Absolutely stunning video of Richard Dawkins taking on all comers at Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Apparently quite a few "students" from Falwell's Liberty "University" (please note the quotes, enough said) showed up and tried to challenge him.  Dawkins brilliantly destroys their arguments and statements. What I find particularly funny is that a number of "scientists" work at Liberty "University" and try to cross swords with him.

Update: Thanks Ken , I hate spelling mistakes….

Update 2: By far the best is the last guy from Liberty who is really into "Physics" (probably was to scared to call himself a physicist after the beating the Liberty crowd took) and actually believes dinosaurs are 6000 years old (no, that is not a typo). Dawkins last comment is priceless…

Ran across a wonderful post on the interesting people mailing list. Ted Nelson, the legend himself , writes of his latest experience going through airport security. I quote for those too engaged to click on over:

Hi Dave–

Last week I went through security at Newark.  I had just put
  my carry-on, pocket stuff, laptop and shoes on the belt
  and was standing in stocking feet waiting to go through
  the metal detection arch.  A dozen people were in line
  for the arch ahead of me.

I looked down.  There was a bin full of discarded bottles.
  Most, but not all, were plastic.

I espied a long, thin bottle of dark fluid.  "Tawny Port,"
  it said, "20 years old."  Unopened.

I picked it up.  Nobody cared.

I opened the plastic.  Nobody cared.

I uncorked it.  Nobody cared.

I took a fine, heady draught of very very nice port.

Other passengers were curious but declined to share it
  with me.

Regretfully I put it back in the bin and strode through
  the arch, feeling for once that I had not been violated,
  but elevated, by the Security Experience.

Maybe that's the solution to make some of the homeland security restrictions more palatable.

I am in the midst of reading a wonderful account of the early days of electricity, Empires of Light. The books covers the euphoria of the inventions, the easy early money, followed by the grueling work of actually turning it into a business that changed people's lives. A riveting story that should be required reading for today's entrepreneurs. The book covers Edison, Tesla, & Westinghouse in some depth along with the investors who backed them. Its absolutely wonderful reading how Edison's investors had to be convinced that the invention worked and how he missed milestones and the trials and tribulations of raising money. 

The struggle between Edison, the visionary inventor, & Tesla, the young upstart is fascinating. A highly recommended read.

Looks like Microsoft is set to unleash unholy anti-piracy safeguards in their next version of Office.

The RIAA's Cary Sherman has a Nov 13, 2006 must-read editorial on CNet. In it Sherman calls CEA's President Gary Shapiro statements "extreme", Sherman goes on and describes what he sees as the limits & definition of fair use. Why all the brouhaha? The just recently launched digitalfreedom.org site sponsored by the CEA. If you haven't checked it out I urge you to do so now and while you're there make sure to sign the petition.

My own editorial: The CEA is doing very important work in defending the right of consumers to consume and enjoy media the way THEY want to and not in some manner tightly controlled by the RIAA. Pay close attention to what the new congress does, traditionally the Democratic party is very close to the traditional supporters of the RIAA & the MPAA (lawyers & media companies) and may try to strengthen laws that further restrict consumer's ability to use media that they lawfully own. The best refutation of Sherman's arguments are in Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. You can find Free Culture online either as a pdf or as MP3's, its a must-read for all 21st century consumers.

Looks like there is some trouble brewing in PS3 land, NY Times reports the game console is a big miss. This is EXTREMELY bad news for Sony, they have lost the battle in the music player space and are now poised to lose the battle in video games.

Simply stunning, wind powered robots

Today is that fateful day when Microsoft launches the venerable iPod competitor, the Zune. From all reports the Zune is pretty craptacular . Everything from a bizarre song sharing feature to not even playing previous Microsoft DRM-ed music. I really don't get it, if Microsoft is going to take a stab at the market why don't they actually release something that has a chance? 

Update: Even more Zune craptacularness…