NYTimes: Tolerant Dutch Wrestle with Tolerating Intolerance.  Great headline and a good survey article.  "The Netherlands is undergoing a sea change."  My sense is that the murder of Theo Van Gogh has been a wake up call, and that intolerance will no longer be tolerated... 

Tony Blair has it right: "Asked whether he felt the United States owed Britain something for Mr Blair’s support of the war in Iraq, Mr Blair rejected the notion.  'We’re not fighting the war against terrorism because we are an ally of the United States.  We are an ally of the United States because we believe in fighting this war against terrorism'."  I believe John Howard would agree.  [ via Command Post ] 

Here's a terrific aerial shot of Fallujah.  [ via John Robb ] 

Deacon on Powerline: Why the PLO must go the way of Arafat.  Truth. 

Cabal Sasser: The true story of audion.  This is what software development is really like, you could not make this up.  Not even the chili from Wendys.  Not even the joy of debugging in kernel mode.  And especially not this: "'Yeah, that's impossible,' I told him.  And then a few days later I had a semi-working prototype.  The idea was so cool, I just had to try it."  And then there's this: "The feeling of being beat to market by days is an interesting one — imagine being punched in the face by a drunk kangaroo then finding five dollars while lying on the floor, a simultaneously crushing but ultimately inspiring experience."  You better just go read the whole thing - now!  [ via Daring Fireball ] 

Among all the great things in this article is a link to Slashdot from October 2001 about the iPod.  "No wireless.  Less space than a nomad.  Lame."  Not everyone has future vision :) 

More audio: Logitech now has speakers that go up to 11.  What a great marketing ploy.  And of course, they are loud :) 

Bigwig posts great advice: "One's spouse should not make the mistake of being asleep when the ball-throwing child knocks the fancy cherry-red lamp-oil candle off the television, as this implies gross callousness on their part when it comes to their regard for the calamitous potential of ball-throwing lamp oil accidents occuring within the home."  Got it. 

Slashdot threads on a pocket projector under development by Fraunhofer.  "It uses a laser beam and a rotating mirror to display the image. Another laser and a photo diode is used to verify whether the displayed image is shown correctly, so the electronics can adjust the image when the beamer moves."  Excellent. 

Doc Searles with some sage advice: Dude, don't be so, like, harsh.  "Hating L.A. is a Bay Area tradition, even though it's not reciprocated.  L.A. folks are often surprised to find there's some kind of war going on.  They'll be all like, You hate L.A.?  Really?  Dude, like, y'know... why?"  As a lifelong LAer who lived in Silicon Valley for a few years, I find this is so true.  When I lived in Los Altos people would hear we were from L.A. and they'd say "oh, you must be so glad to live here now!"  And we'd be like, "uh, no, we like it here, but we liked it there, too."  

Weekly New Year's Resolution update: 104.  Not good. 
Maybe I have to breathe more...