Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• The Vista network layer slowdown that's been observed while Vista is playing music may be no more than a change in software priority. See this article. (Thanks to Tim Goss for the pointer.) This leads to the question: Why can't Vista summon the power to both handle the network at full speed and play music at top fidelity? How and where is Vista wasting all those cycles?
• Here is a marvelous photo-essay on "bubble cars," the tiny little cars that pop up on the scene from time to time (generally in Europe) and then vanish for reasons obscure. The smart car (which e.e. cummings would probably have loved, for its case and its oddness) is the latest to hit our shores, but it's an ancient tradition. Love those three-wheelers!
• Pertinent to the above, the Dark Toasted Blend site is a surreal collection of the odd and the interesting, perfect for browsing on days when you're feeling under it and can't summon the energy to do anything useful. My current favorite (even more than the bubble car essay, but hey, I'm a book publisher!) is Unusual Books and Book Sculptures.
• One thing that's gotten pretty high on my priority list to acquire and test is Crossover Linux from Codeweavers, a commercial framework for using Wine to run Windows apps on Linux. Supposedly it runs Visio well, and that's something I just have to see. Always interested in hearing reactions from people who have used it.
• Most of you have now heard that somebody has done the painfully obvious and created a utility to correlate the IPs of people who are editing Wikipedia anonymously with the organizations that are listed as owning those IPs. All sorts of groups have been caught with their hands in the wiki jar, from the Vatican to the CIA to-gasp! How could it be?-the Democratic Party. From BBC News: "...a computer owned by the US Democratic Party was used to make changes to the site of right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The changes brand Mr Limbaugh as 'idiotic,' a 'racist', and a 'bigot'. An entry about his audience now reads: 'Most of them are legally retarded.' The IP address is registered in the name of the Democratic National Headquarters." How very mature. So...can we please eliminate Wikipedia anonymity now?