Want to know how to get the old news feed back when you go to the home page? Here’s how in 3 easy steps:

1. Create a new friend list containing all your friends (or just the ones you care about).
2. Move that list to the top by selecting “More,” then dragging it up to the top of the list of… um… lists.
3. Profit!¹

I’ve been using something similar ever since Facebook introduced the live feed as the news feed last time they changed things. (Facebook is fickle, huh?) I have a list of people I really want to see up-to-date information for without getting bombarded by various people from grade school whom I haven’t seen in nearly 15 years but for some reason keep as friends on Facebook. (Sorry former classmates…) So it took me a while to notice the new change. Hopefully this helps.

1. Tired meme, I know… But still funny.

Michael Phelps swimming his fastest would take about 20 days to cover that distance. And that’s his fastest pace, sustained for three weeks, without ever stopping. Impossible.

Her longest time in the water was 8 hours, shortest was 21 minutes. Easy to see that there’s no way she swam the Atlantic. Now, Yahoo! says:

Many media outlets (including Yahoo!) jumped on the story that seemed almost too good to be true.

…while later saying:

Yet, somehow, the AP ran the story even though a few seconds of thought and a pocket calculator was enough to disprove it.

Now thing about that for a few seconds. Yahoo! is claiming the AP should not have run the story since it was so easily disproved… yet Yahoo! ran the story.

[via Daringfireball]

They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”

It’s not an audio-book. It’s not a recording. It’s not a derivative work. By that same argument, story-time at local libraries is a “derivative under copyright law.” Boing Boing agrees, so does Jon Gruber… and Neil Gaiman, you know, the author; the same person presumably represented by the Author’s Guild.

1. Sidenote, why the hell does Amazon still insist on using an image for their announcements on the front page? Is it that hard for them to properly format divs and paragraphs?

Ars Technica has a terriffic write-up about a group of Harvard Law students taking on the RIAA’s tactics. 3 pages long, but well worth the read.

Related links:
joelfightsback.com
Twitter Feed

[screenshot by fimoculous]

This post on Consumerist sums up why I don’t really feel too bad about it. In general, sales people are just pushed too hard to sell accessories and warranty plans. What really caught me:

4. Every salesman is ranked by the number of protection plans (or extended warranties) that they sell. At my store all the time we would throw on scratch protection plans to CD’s, since they’re only a buck, most people don’t notice. During the $9.99 CD special days, customers who weren’t aware of the sale were easy prey.

and

8. When being pushed for additional products and services, there are a few different tactics. One is that once you refuse it, it is thrown in anyways. The other is one common at Best Buy, called “Code Green”, in which we have another associate ring you up, and hammer harder to get the additional plans or accessories. Also while pushing sales associates will say that they’re not on commission (true) and it’s all from personal experience (not true). [emphasis added]

and

24. Circuit City has violated “minor labor laws” to the extreme. I know of 16 year olds who worked 50 hour weeks, when it was only legal for 20.

Sorry Circuit City, when you treat employees like drug pushers and your customers like you’re doing them a favor by just allowing them to walk in the store, this is what happens.

To the non-sales workers and ethical sales people who did not fall prey to the system, you have my sympathy. I hope you find new employment soon.

My Twitter feed was ablaze starting about an hour ago with variations of the above headline. Many news agencies are also reporting the same. The report is that he’ll be gone through June. But I’m not sure. I agree with Ryan Block:

Jobs finally stepping down (even if only for a few months), huh? I dunno, something in my gut tells me he might not be back.

We’ll see what happens over the coming months. Bot one thing can be certain: nearly every day most, if not all, of the tech blogs will be speculating and looking for information from their “sources” about Jobs’ health.
I just hope the man can get some peace.