Are you ready for the Grid? Get ready. It’s about to be the next phase of the Internet. The Net is currently comprised of ancient technology. We are using copper wires and archaic telephone hubs to transmit a digital signal. In some cases we rely on single-processor, PC equivalent machines to serve data from one end of the country to the next. There are far too many points of failure. The current infrastructure is bottle-necking. It’s like the 405 on Tuesday morning….a gianormous cluster phuk.

The Grid enables data to travel at the speed of light via fiber optic lines. No “noise” (telephone static) to interfere with the signal. Data will be able to flow without resistance from point to point, without hopping through 100s of nodes. The Internet as you know will be 100s of times faster.

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A few months ago, when I first installed Ubuntu, I heard a rumor that Compiz was going re-merge with Beryl, making the ultimate Window Management System in the world. It finally happened. The website is up, along with a Wiki. It’s so new, you have to install the dependencies and build it from the source code. No distribution packages yet.

In a few weeks this should be in all the repositories. I am downloading all of the dependencies as I type this. I am so phuking excited to see this in action. Oh shit, I just said phuking excited over CompizFusion. I think I need to go smoke crack while watching hard-core midget porn to de-geekify.

Update: I actually just found a distribution page. It was just updated, it’s that new. I swear it wasn’t there when I started this post. Choose your OS and download your distro. I guess there are packages after all.

As the world awaits on this iPhone eve, I feel compelled to at least say something. I have been pretty quiet about this phone. I reluctantly posted something about it when it was first announced. It looks damn cool. It's also damn expensive. So let's take a look at all the things your $500+ (and 2 year contract) doesn't get you.

The iPhone will not have:

• Songs as Ringtones
• Games
• Any flash support
• Instant Messaging
• Picture messages (MMS)
• Video recording
• Voice recognition or voice dialing
• Wireless Bluetooth Stereo Streaming (A2DP)
• 3G (EV-DO/HSDPA)
• GPS
• A real keyboard
• Removable battery
• Expandable Storage
• Direct iTunes Music Store Access (Over Wi-Fi or EDGE)

Not that I really care about having Akon as my ringtone…but you would think the innovator of the digital music player would be able to incorporate customized rings. Right? Doesn't that one just seem…well…dumb? No games, hmm… I guess with the price they feel like they are marketing this at the biz crowd, but still games are fun while waiting for meetings to begin. Cell phone batteries die as often as gold fish, I wonder what Apple plans to do in 6 months when half of these units are "dead?" I won't get started about the lack of GPS, that's just silly and will most likely being integrated in the next version. The one lacking feature that makes this phone a deal-breaker, MMS. The inability to snap a pic and send it to my friends (or enemies) at $500 (for the 5GB) and $100 per month makes me happy I bought my Motorola Ming.

While I was watching the eighth-seeded, Golden State Warriors almost crush the dreams of the 67 win, first place Dallas Mavericks, my friend Kelly pinged me with an IM, "Are you seeing what is going on at Digg?" I tried to pull up the site but it was timing out.

Digg received a cease and desist letter for anything related to the HD DVD Encryption Key 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0. As Digg continued to remove post after post, the posts became nothing but posts containing the key. Users of Digg revolted at Kevin Rose's attempt to silence them. Digg proved that it is now an entity bigger than it's creators. Kevin quickly realized his loyal readers were right. He wasn't about to stop them for saying a number.

Is this really an illegal hexadecimal number?  09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0. It's just a number. So many other things have to happen before this Key can unlock an HD DVD. Isn't it the intent which is illegal? The DVD burner isn't illegal. The blank HD DVDs aren't illegal. In a country that supports the right to bare arms, it is unfathomable to think a number can be considered illegal. I am entitled to protect my home and I am entitled to say any number I can possibly think of. Those are the first and second amendments, right? 

Kevin just posted a blog titled "Digg This: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0." Digg is back online with all the posts of the key. It's nice to know someone is standing up for our rights.