I would have blogged more tonight, but I had too much fun getting distracted over at The Daily Irreverent. I started with what was for me the first post ("To err is human. To really screw things up you need the root password.") and didn't look back for quite some time.

I'm having trouble adding new RSS feeds to my aggregator (oh, the humanity!), which I guess is one way to curb information overload. I'm trying to figure out the problem, so for now I'll just make a note to myself to subsribe to the DI's feed later when my setup is back to normal.

"Mike Langberg of the San Jose Mercury News takes a trip down memory lane and compares a Fry's Electronics advertising supplement from May, 1997 with one from this past weekend. While it's nothing all that surprising - DVD players cost 10% of what they used to, and a 200MHz Sony desktop cost $2,199 then while a 2.4GHz model sells for $799 today - all of this price cutting is hurting Silicon Valley and leading to further cutbacks and consolidations. Read" [Gizmodo]

"...DVD players cost 10% of what they used to...." You'd think the digital music industry would take a cue from the whirlwind of profits the movie industry has reaped thanks to DVDs. But you'd be wrong.

Shrook is another RSS news aggregator for the Mac (specifically OS X). I can't test it personally, but I like the fact that it has individual settings for each channel, the ability to view content chronologically or by channel, auto discovery, and more. It doesn't look like you can access the program remotely, which would have been a deal killer for me, though. Note that it does cost $20 to register this product. [via Too Much News]

Trailer Parks Convert to Wi-Fi

"Now, as more travelers add laptops to their inventory of must-have accessories, RV owners and the parks that cater to them are adding another item to their wish lists: high-speed wireless Internet access.

In a move to generate extra cash and attract new patrons, a growing number of upscale RV parks are rolling out networks that allow users to connect throughout their facilities using Wi-Fi technology....

'We have people who are actually working full time from their computer on the road,' he said. 'And we need to offer a service that's attractive to them.'

Mike Hinkle, co-author of a guide to modem-friendly campgrounds, says the push for faster connections makes sense given that, by his estimate, more than 80 percent of RV owners already expect to have some kind of Internet access on the road. Although Wi-Fi access is still rare, the majority of parks do offer some form of Internet service, usually by dialup modem." [Wired News]

I'm posting this so Diane can begin budgeting accordingly. Truly, though, it's amazing how quickly Wi-Fi can become pervasive.

Extra points if you understood the joke in the title.

Bag and Baggage and crib? Congratulations, Denise!

If you're not an Accidental Systems Librarian, perhaps you're an Accidental Webmaster. I'm sure one of your many hats is accidental.... [via beSpacific]

RSS iPod

"RSS iPod: Heh-heh, too busy to read your blogs in the morning? You can listen to them instead. "Read it to Me" from Adam Tow and Alex King connect Brent Simmons' NetNewsWire RSS manager to Apple's Text-to-Speech engine, burning MP3s which are then synched to your iPod. Automatically. Set it up once and all you have to do each day is fast-forward through the feeds." [via MacCentral, via JD on MX]

How many times I can be envious today? It's not ideal (like audioblogging, in my mind it defeats the point of the foundation of outbound links), but it would be nice to listen to my news on the way to work in the morning. My kingdom for a Windows version that works with my Archos! Yeah, right....

Frank Field is doing a bang-up job tracking copyright and digital rights management issues. I'm envious. Read his FurdLog daily.

Let Librarians Be Librarians, Not Snoops

"The nation's librarians were turned into unwilling agents of law enforcement when Congress passed a law most members never bothered to read -- the infamous USA Patriot Act, which gave the government unprecedented new powers to spy on citizens. The law turned us all into suspects.

It also turned librarians into snoops. Under the law, says Karen Schneider, chair the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the California Library Association. 'the federal government can access library or bookstore records-the books you have checked out, the logs associated with your Internet or e-mail activities -- without having to get a traditional search warrant.' And you, the library or bookstore patron, are not allowed to know about this fishing expedition into what you read.

I have no problem with the FBI getting ahold of someone's library records after getting a judge to sign a warrant, where some kind of probable cause has been established. But to give the government untrammeled -- and unmonitored -- access into our personal lives is a perversion of liberty....

...The best new idea is from Congress, believe it or not -- a bill that would repeal this section of the UnPatriotic Act. It's called the "Freedom to Read Protection Act" -- authored by Vermont's independent congressman, Bernie Sanders, and endorsed by about 100 of his colleagues, according to Schneider.

The bill, HR 1157, needs your support, too. Call your member of Congress (202-224-3121) and fight for your own freedom to read without someone reading over your shoulder." [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Thanks for the help publicizing this issue, Dan. Now it's up to you, the reader, to help preserve your freedom to read. If you want direct contact information for your congressperson, check out Congress.org.