For some reason, the Whitehouse isn’t posting any links to the MP3 version of the 2008 State of the Union.

I will: 2008 State of the Union MP3

EDIT: The 2008 SoTU is now in the GWB archives, found here.

Enjoy!

I never disliked the NY Times before, but this week they have gotten under my skin with their terrible reporting. Three examples:

1. Bids Total $2.78 Billion in Opening Day of Auction for Airwaves
   

   Bidders put up a total of almost $2.78 billion on Thursday in the opening rounds of the Federal Communications Commission’s auction of federally owned airwaves.

   Excuse me, but federally owned airwaves? I’m sorry, but I don’t recall where in the constitution it specifies that the airwaves are property of the government and not of the people or the states. What next– is the NY Times going to tell us that the constitution grants us rights instead of protecting inherent rights that all humans should enjoy?

2. CBS to Make Internet Music Unit More Like Radio
   

   Under the new arrangement, users who visit the service’s Web site can search for and select any of 3.5 million songs to listen to on their computers through technology called streaming.

   Streaming audio, huh? Wow, that is an original concept of which I have never heard. Your ideas intrigue me, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter. NY Times, don’t insult our intelligence. Anyone reading that article is well-aware of the concept of streaming.

3. Entrepreneur Unveils New Tourist Spacecraft
   

   (image caption) Richard Branson and aircraft designer Burt Rutan unveiled two new aircrafts Wednesday in New York.

   Aircrafts, huh? I was always under the impression that the plural of aircraft was– brace yourself– aircraft. < << Checking online dictionary for the word 'aircrafts'... >>> Yup, I was right. Aircraft is not a word. Call me old fashioned, but I like my newspapers using actual words. I mean, hey– if you can’t get the words right, what is that chance that you got the facts right?

So yeah, the NY Times is driving me nuts this week.

So I was surfing presidential candidate sites looking for unauthorized script usage (yeah, I’m that kind of loser).

What did I find?

Well, it turns out that Mitt Romney at his MittRomney.com site is using a script from Dynamic Drive called Featured Content Slider.

Fine, it’s there for the taking. There are, however, conditions. From DynamicDrive:

< link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="contentslider.css" />

< script type="text/javascript" src="contentslider.js">

/***********************************************
* Featured Content Slider- © Dynamic Drive DHTML code library (www.dynamicdrive.com)
* This notice MUST stay intact for legal use
* Visit Dynamic Drive at http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ for this script and 100s more
***********************************************/

From Mitt Romney’s site:

< script language="javascript" src="js/contentslider.js" type="text/javascript">

Note the difference (bolded) between the required code and the Mitt Romney code?

Yeah, that’s right. Mitt’s site is missing something.

Sure he could have special permission to remove that portion of the copyright.

But come on… does anyone think his campaign went through the trouble to get special permission to remove a few lines of text that only losers like me would see?

Yet another reason not to vote for Willard. As if I needed any. I mean, come on. It’s Mitt Romney.

Greetings readers. I’ve got a couple of new toys that I’d like to tell you about.

My birthday was this past October, and the money that I was kindly given as gifts had been burning a hole in my pocket, so I finally spent it. Here’s what I bought:

What is it? It’s a guitar amplifier, an Epiphone Valve Junior. It’s a 5-watt all-tube Class A tube amplifier. As stock, it’s a pretty good little amp. Once I do some modifications to it (add a tone control, voice it as a Fender-style amp, remove the negative feedback, and possibly replace the output transformer), it will sound a lot bigger, badder, and better than the $130 price tag suggests. Of course, I didn’t spend $130 on it– I paid an even $104 after applying a 20% off coupon that Musician’s Friend sent me.

The second new toy was purchased with money that our families were nice enough to give to Jaime and me for Christmas. Here it is:

Actually we got two, obviously. They are Alesis M1 Active 520 studio monitors. These are inexpensive studio monitors that, in comparison to big monitors, are toys. But for us, they represent a huge increase in fidelity and accuracy compared to our old craptastic Altec Lansing 221 setup.

They ‘re only $200 at most retailers, and there is currently a $25 rebate on them. Of course, I used my coupon, so I paid $160, and after the rebate they’ll come out to $135– certainly a bargain.

For those of you who value quality audio and for those of you who have crappy satellite/subwoofer speaker setups on your computers, I highly recommend these. The difference in accuracy between these and just about any computer-aimed speaker product is astounding.

That’s all for now. I’d write much more, but I happen to have a broken finger that is basically making typing a one-hand adventure.