Crap, server / network problems.  If you're reading this, great, I fixed it :)

Okay, so what to say about the Sox / Yankees series that hasn't been said already?  Unbelievable.  Bill Simmonds has a great review of The Surreal Life at Fenway, and that was only after game 5.  (By now, he's probably in intensive care.)  Of course, this only sets up another heartbreak for Boston fans, you know the Yankees are going to win in the end.  Great Tivo action in the meantime, however. 

And the NLCS isn't too shabby either!  I've always liked Jeff Kent, ever since he punched Barry Bonds.  And I love it when a guy gets pissed because they walk the guy in front of him.  You just knew he was going to crank one, and there is was, first pitch: Bam, off the train.  My favorite play of game 5 was when Beltran ran up the hill in center field to catch Sanders' 420'  home run fly ball. 

Slate ran an interesting article about America's Worst College.  That would be the Electoral College, of course.  The scheme was originally devised to give little states more power, but it hasn't done that, and what it has done is give big states less.  Here in California our votes don't count. 

Via Joi Ito, iDebate.  Bush is probably listening to Adam Curry's daily source code via podcast :)  

Adam and Dave Winer have really cooked up a cool new thing using RSS enclosures and scripting to download MP3 content to your iPod.  This meme is blasting off...  as Doc notes "watching the Big Bang here, these few nanoseconds into the Event."  (I liked this anecdote from Adam about the challenges of podcasting.  This one from Dave is pretty cool, too.)  Even Medscape is podcasting! 

Yesterday I noted the long tail, the idea that the 'net makes distribution for content with small markets economical.  Ottmar Liebert blogged an interesting reply: "that could very well mean the death of acoustic music performed by trained musicians on expensive instruments and recorded by expensive engineers in expensive studios.  Good-bye Satriani, good-bye classical music (already less and less music is recorded for classical labels because the cost of recording an orchestra, around 1 million plus, guarantees a loss....), good-bye the next Beatles... and hello Midi, laptop recording, turn-table jamming, and lots of rapping."  Shudder. 

I have a more positive take.  Not only does the long tail provide distribution for lots of existing content, it also actively fosters the creation of new content.  Artists in many fields can create work which has niche appeal with more confidence that they can reach their audiences than ever before.  So if classical music becomes less popular – which was already the case, long before the Internet – now there is a better chance that some artists will still create new works in this genre.  Same with instrumental rock (Satriani) which hasn’t traditionally fostered many hits.  And same for nuevo flamenco!

Gizmodo notes CinemaNow Offers HD Content.  Do you use CinemaNow to watch movies?  No, I didn't think so, nobody does.  It is either too hard, too expensive, or the content is not compelling, or all three together.  There is a solution somewhere to the video-on-demand market, but they don't have it.  They're concentrating on the short neck instead of the long tail :) 

I had kind of a weird decision to make tonight.  My Norton AntiVirus 2003 subscription was about to expire.  Should I renew 2003, for $25, or upgrade to 2005, for $30?  It wasn't the $5 difference that gave me pause, it was the possibility that 2005 would mess up my computer.  2003 is working just fine.  I'm afraid 2005 might try to be a firewall, or prevent me from running utilities, or otherwise do "stuff" I don't want it to do...  In the end, I opted to upgrade 2003.  I know, someday I'll have to upgrade, but not this day. 

Finally, a German man has broken the record for throwing a mobile phone - 67.5 meters.  I am not making this up.  [ via Ottmar, who wonders "reaction to lack of service or sport?".  I know I've been tempted to enter the competition myself. ]