Gak!  A week without blogging.  Horrible!  My brain overfloweth...

So, I got quite a reaction to my Emperor's New Code article.  You knew I would, and so did I.  Actually I wrote from an exaggerated point of view to stimulate response.  I'll post my thoughts on other people's thoughts soon...

I'm running Panther!  Very cool.  And very impressive.  No bugs so far, performance is better than before, and I love Exposé and the way Apple did "fast user switching".  It is interesting that while Apple did improve their development technology in this release (with something called Xcode), the focus was really on improving performance and the UI.  Quite different from Microsoft's apparent focus with Longhorn...

Did you see that Novell is buying SUSE?  This seems important.  It means Novell is going to join IBM as a major software company with a major commitment to Linux.

Remember The Island Chronicles, about the two journalists who moved from Los Angeles to Rarotonga?  When last we left them, they were searching for a new island to live on, somewhere about the coast of New Zealand.  Well, apparently they're back in L.A.!  "Everyone is healthy and happy.  We're writing an article for LA Weekly that explains everything, so stay tuned!"  So be it - they tried it so we don't have to :)

Business 2.0 on The Card Sharks from Silicon Valley.  "An unlikely collection of computer jocks and math whizzes have been coming up aces in high-stakes tournament poker, the hottest new spectacle in televised sports."  I actually can't imagine watching poker on TV, but whatever, to each their own.  I guess it beats the reality shows with silly "boys meeting girls" themes.

Wired on the plethora of devices attempting to connect PC to Stereo.  (...and PC to TV...)  This is going to be so big, so soon.  It might end up being the biggest driver of WiFi.

Have you checked out Napster 2.0 yet?  Wired reports New Napster off to Solid Start.  Overall it seems fine, but I have two problems; first, I can't figure out the licensing options (what do I get to do with which music?), and second, I dislike the fake street-cred attitude.  The original Napster was cool, this one is a business...

Speaking of potentially illegal digital copying (we were, sort of), consider 321 Studios, which makes software to facilitate copying DVDs to CDs.  CNet reports they're Taking on the DMCA.  This will be interesting to watch, because their ostensible reason for existence - making backup copies - doesn't really hold up under scrutiny (who really wants a low-fidelity CD copy of a high-fidelity DVD movie).

Oh, and here's an interesting take on P2P; Gomez is building a transaction network which pays clients for their participation.  [ via John Robb ]

Scoble was tempted by a $450,000 Mercedes while at the PDC.  Was that because it made engineering easier for the people who built it, Robert, or because of its beauty and performance?  Just pokin' :)

Wrapping up - one of the cool benefits of posting a popular article is having lots of referring sites, which means you discover new cool ones.  Consequently I've updated my extended blogroll.  Check it out if you're looking for cool new sites!