Hey! Look what astronomers found!

Cory at BoingBoing points us to a pretty awesome post by Joey the AccordionGuy who details threatening phone calls he received after a less than flattering review of Quick Boys Moving was left in the comment section of a blog post asking about movers in Toronto. Because of this, the story has currently risen to the top entry at Google for Quick Boys Moving, where it's likely to remain for a bit. Note to business owners: diplomacy counts.

I made my first two initial entries into Wikipedia today. One for Lew Hill of Pacifica Radio fame, and another for Ralph McGehee, who created the CIABASE database (someone had written to me about the database, which in turn led me to Wikipedia looking for more info).

I pretty much block and copied text from elsewhere, being sure I referenced the source. But since there was no entry for either (Lew especially deserves so much more), I thought I'd begin with something. No attribution for me, but I didn't do it for the fame. All in all it's pretty cool, with a feeling I've contributed to the global knowledgebase.

I do plan on updating the Hill entry later if nobody beats me to it.

Mark at BoingBoing points us to a cogent DailyKos post comparing Washington's differing attitude towards guns and file sharing. For example, guess who the President is defending here:

"The president believes that the manufacturer of a legal product should not be held liable for the criminal misuse of that product by others," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

No, it ain't Grokster.

Like Christian rock music, Christian computer/video games promise to be a huge market. This week the Christian Game Developers Conference is taking place in Portland, Oregon with the intention to "equip game developers to glorify God."

Our guest last Saturday was Kevin Bankston of the EFF. We talked about the USA PATRIOT Act and its impact on civil liberties. We also talked about proposed changes and extensions to the Act as many of its provisions are set to expire at the end of the year.

PLEASE NOTE: The aircheck recording of this program did not work. I'm doing my best to recover the audio so it can be posted later. It may be several days before this can happen. Please check back here, or our audio archives to see if the audio is available. Or, if you have podcast software, simply link to our podcast file and you will receive the audio once it becomes available.

There's a posting today over at blogging.la telling the story of a photographer being handcuffed, "interrogated" and later visited (at 3am) by law enforcement asking more questions. It's not clear from the posting whether any photos were destroyed or even if the camera was returned.

Actually, there's scant information in the posting and its veracity is uncertain. But this kind of thing has been happening around the country for a while. NPR has covered it, and there's even a Flickr group about prohibited photo taking. It seems some cops will ignore certain rules when enforcing the law. To them, taking photographs is apparently a threat to our nation and its liberties.

Our guest last Saturday was Gary Cornell, author and co-founder of Apress, a small publisher of books for computer professionals. We talked about the occasional advantage of atoms over bits, the state of programming in the world, and why it's probably good to know what's happening underneath all that code.

- Listen to the interview -

Marina Bai is suing NASA over the Deep Impact probe which successfully crashed into comet Tempel 1 over the weekend. Claiming the experiment "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe" she is suing in a Moscow court for the equivalent of about $300 million dollars. She had claimed the crash would "deform her horoscope" and this amount is meant to cover her "moral suffering".

I've forgotten to post links recent guests, so here's a batch for you:

Our guest on June 4 was John Markoff. His most recent book What the Dormouse Said tells of the influence of the 60's counter-culture on the development of the PC and computer networks.

- Listen to the interview -

On June 25 we were joined by Jim Buckmaster, President and CEO of Craigslist.com, the wildly popular "sorta like classified ads" web site started by Craig Newmark. It's simple interface and lo-key presentation belie the powerful community it has fostered.

- Listen to the interview -

This last week, July 2, we were joined by Michael Page, lead counsel for Grokster, and Matt Neco, General counsel for Streamcast Networks. We discussed their loss in the Supreme Court earlier in the week and what it means now that MGM v. Grokster will go forward to trial.

- Listen to the interview -