I spent the whole day heads down, coding.  From 0600 until now.  Whew.  Was it a good day?  Hard to tell :)

If you've hung around my blog for a while, you know at one point I was planning to write a book.  In fact, that was actually the point of the blog.  There's a long story here - I'll post it soon - but in the meantime consider this quote from E.L. Doctorow: [ via Cory Doctorow ]

"Planning to write is not writing.  Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing.  Writing is writing. . . .  Writing is like driving at night in the fog.  You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

I've given up on CNN.  Not only are they hopelessly biased, but now they're carrying ads with sound.  What could be worse than that?  There are plenty of other news sites, not to mention Google...

So, what do you think of Bush's Immigration Plan?  I think it is an interesting step forward.  I don't know all the details, though...  Check out Citizen Smash's analysis, with his thoughts and tons of links.

Oh, and stay tuned for more policy: Bush to Announce New Missions to Moon, Mars.  I'm a big fan of space exploration, but I fear these will be manned missions, which means they'll be really expensive and not nearly as useful.

Bruce Sterling doesn't think anyone will settle on Mars anytime soon.  "I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people setting the Gobi Desert.  The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach."  Yeah, but it isn't as cool.  (Sorry)

You know how there's this glut of "media adapters" so you can network your PC with your home entertainment system?  Well now Philips has Internet-ready TVs, too.

Remember the networked toaster?  You thought I was kidding, right?  Well here's a networked breadmaker.  And no, I am not making this up.

CES is going on at the moment, as I imagine you know; check out Gizmodo for complete coverage of all the cool new gadgets...

Another VoIP survey, from BW; Finally, 21st Century Phone Service.  "VoIP has been around as long as the Internet.  But until recently, it was the province of geeks and college kids who had more time on their hands than money.  Now, VoIP is reaching a tipping point."  When something is better and less expensive, it tips.

Interesting NYTimes interview of Steve Jobs, on video iPods...  His reasons why video players won't take off:  "First, on a video player 'there’s just no equivalent of headphones.'  Second, Hollywood has done a much better job of providing outlets for its wares than the recording industry.  Finally, people just don't consume music and movies the same way."  I'm inclined to agree; I love my iPod, but I listen to it most often in my car, and I can't actually imagine watching a movie while driving...  [ via Matt Haughey ]

Matt also shares some new Tivo announcements, like the HDTV DirectTivo and video extraction software.  Excellent!

And in other news, Yahoo reports Divers probed for giving fish champagne.  David Calkins comments: "Of course they're being arrested.  Everyone knows that when poaching fish, you use white wine - not champagne."  Bada bing.

Here's a weird cross-marketing attempt: Barbie and Ken as Arwen and Aragorn.  Are you kidding me?  [ via Glenn Reynolds ]

Megan will want these - badly - as soon as she finds out >:) 

David Lindley quotes Hunter Thompson: "The music business is a dark, plastic hallway; where pimps and thieves run free, and good men die like dogs.  There's also a negative side."  Well put.  [ via Ottmar Liebert ]