More then a year ago I wrote a short post with my thoughts on the Kindle. 

Here's an updated list, with adjustments for Kindle 2. 

• Who in the world would actually want an ebook in the first place? 
• Well maybe it would be good for all my manuals. Mac OS Server 
references are hundreds of pages. 
• Maybe I can get WOW to pay for one?  Don't even want to play with it anymore.
• $0.10 to get a PDF on this thing? 
• Ambiguous wireless, for free, but you surf in B&W. 
• It's really fucking ugly. Still true
• Why are the keys tilted, but not the type?  At least they fixed that.
• Typography, it's more important than Amazon thinks. 
• Why can't that little scroller thing adjust the font size? Now there's a joystick
• 30 hours of battery life isn't bad, but do I have to have yet 
another power cable, or does it use USB? Charges via USB, lasts two weeks
• $2 a month to read TechCrunch? I'll pass. 
• Finally a good excuse to stop lending out my book collection.

And apparently Amazon will be making ebook readers for other devices, ie iPhone. Though there's already competition for that.

So now there's even less reason to get one.

What Carriers Aren't Eager to Tell You About Texting (NY Times).

Not exactly a shock that text messages are a huge profit maker for the phone companies, but I do have a story about Senator Herb Kohl from Wisconsin who is doing the digging.

About 12 or 13 years ago, when I lived in Milwaukee, after a long night of drinking (and other fun things) we used to go to George Webb for breakfast. On most days, at the counter, Herb Kohl would be sitting reading the paper and drinking a cup of coffee.

I suppose it isn't that strange, but this particular George Webb was a notorious after hours / crazy people breakfast location. This was not the type of place people went to for a cup of coffee before work, it was way to sketchy for that. In fact, Herb is the only one I remember.

If you tried to talk to him, which eventually you would be high enough to do, he would simply say that he was trying to have a quite moment before work, and then turn back to his paper.

Ok, so it's not a great story, but it's the closest I've ever been to a politician, plus I always liked Kohl's Grocery and Department stores.

Amoeba no longer buys VHS from distributors such as Distribution Video Audio. But customers bring in tapes every day to trade and sell. "We actually sell maybe 200 a day, almost all of them between $1 to $3," Henderson said. "Almost the same amount comes in as goes out."

Who are these people buy VHS tapes? I do know one person who still watches them regularly, he has a massive collection, but buying them?

It wasn't that long ago that WOW recycled about 10,000 VHS tapes that were used for reviewing cuts, but even we stopped buying new stock a few years ago. We still have a few thousand in the basement and now I'm think we should keep them for posterity.

Artist Austin Young made a Christmas video with his friend's band, The Heathers, shot along Hollywood Boulevard in all its Christmas glory. It's a very sweet song and Young thinks it has a chance to become a classic carol. At least, for some. Remember The Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping"?

– Saban 

The Ruins of Detroit Industry (via Coudal)

If anyone is looking to get me a gift this year, these headphones by artist Parra are a good start.

zeitgeist: noun [in sing. ] the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time : the story captured the zeitgeist of the late 1960s.

Amazing photographs from the 1940s of the Macy Thanksgiving Parade. (via Daring Fireball)