Once again, a UK group blows my mind with their musical loveliness. Thirty-one year old producer Dan Jones and twenty-seven year old singer Ellie Hajee form D’Nell. What kind of music do they do? Well, they are an amalgam of neo-soul, R&B, jazz, with a dollop of hip-hop (we club heads call this music “chillout” or “late night downtempo”). Producer Dan Jones is one of those rare people that has an uncanny feel for arranging music samples in a way that makes them sound fresh, new, and oh so groove-like. Singer Ellie Hajee sings with so much natural soul, conviction,...

Encryption…is a powerful defensive weapon for free people. It offers a technical guarantee of privacy, regardless of who is running the government… It’s hard to think of a more powerful, less dangerous tool for liberty. – Esther Dyson Tell it sister (I adore and respect Esther Dyson). Living here in the “connected” portion of the USA, we take for granted the notion of encryption. There are free encryption software out on the Internet that will safeguard your data from those who wish to see. Just think about it my fellow connected Americans… FREE ENCRYPTION!...

Your Blogging Type Is Thoughtful and Considerate You’re a well liked, though underrated, blogger. You have a heart of gold, and are likely to blog for a cause. You’re a peaceful blogger - no drama for you! A good listener and friend, you tend to leave thoughtful comments for others. What’s Your Blogging Personality? Not bad. Not bad at all. HMMM… Yep that’s me alright. I always get a kick out of these quizzes when they accurately peg you. Getting freaked out about the results doesn’t work for a “peaceful blogger” such as myself.

The Confederate Flag never affects me emotionally. I see it and it’s just there. Oh I’m well aware of the symbolism of the Confederate Flag. Succeeding from the union, the African slave trade, the Civil War; I’m fully briefed. Yet I feel absolute nothing when I see it. Being the child of two former Black Panthers, you would probably think that I was ready to kick some serious ass when that flag is raised. Nope. All that false outrage is bad for the stomach. Yes I call it false outrage when people react negatively to the Confederate Flag. Why, pray tell, would a black...

Once again, Comcast does SOMETHING and I’m without my broadband service for almost three days. This time my cable modem was “locked out” due to a security violation. Huh? When I called technical support about my outage almost three days ago, this is what the technician told me: “You violated security that’s why you don’t have Internet access.” When I asked for details (mainliy how) he couldn’t tell me anything. I said I wanted to avoid this in the future and his response. “You violated secuirity. I’ll have to escalate your account....

It’s Saturday night, time for a little meme stylin’! 1. What time did you get up this morning? 0800 2. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls 3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe 4. What is your favorite TV show? Battlestar Galatica (THE NEW ONE) 5. What did you have for breakfast? Cream of Wheat with cinnamon and bananas 6. What is your middle name? Middle name? 7. What is your favorite food? Real seafood gumbo 8. What is your favorite chip flavor? Cheddar 9. What is your favorite CD at the moment? 1st Magic 10. What...

A good friend of mine is a Muslim (born and raised in Egypt). We were having a general discussion about Iraq at my house when he just stops, gets a thoughtful look on his face and says: How can a keep believing in the peace in Islam when many of my fellow Muslims obviously don’t? Am I not a Muslim then? WOW! How could I answer that? I’m a weak agnostic with a intermediate knowledge of Islam. Yet here was my good friend looking at me for an answer. And in his look, I could see pain. He was clearly struggling with himself. So I took a swig of my iced tea, took a deep breath, and...

Dean is most impressed with Ray Kurzweil’s book The Singularity Is Near. Being a journeyman futurist, I have been a big Ray Kurzweil fan for a long time. But The Singularity Is Near is the type of book that transcends the futurist/nerdy niche. And Dean is right on point with these words: I’m continually amused by how many people I encounter who think Ray Kurzweil’s concept of the approaching human singularity as some sort of Rapture for Nerds. This is ridiculous, and is almst entirely coming from people who haven’t read the book and have decided they know what’s...

The blog may be acting a little crazy for the next day or so. I’m testing some new anti-comment/anti-trackback spam programs. A couple of these are homemade scripts (with the help of a friend who’s a devastating JAVA, PHP, and CGI programmer). Please bear with me for the next 24 hours. Thanks! UPDATE: 2006-01-03 22:18:18 Things are working well now. Got a little weird but hey, that’s life. And I upgraded to Movable Type 3.2 while I was at it. I likey! Normal blogging will resume.