Check out North Korea's official news site. Fascinating stuff.

Interested in lightning? I am. Check out this article.

About a month after suffering the devastating crash of one of my external FireWire hard drives (in which I lost some critical data), lightning struck twice: the internal drive in my trusty white iBook refused to boot.

I am now totally screwed, without a working laptop. Fortunately, I was able to grab the data off my hard drive by hooking it up to another Mac and mounting it as a FireWire drive- the crash, or whatever problem the drive's suffering, is not severe enough to have completely erased my data.

So TekServe's got my laptop, and I'm $400 in for a new hard drive to replace the old one. Pity this had to happen now, especially since, if the new Mac laptops had been out, I'd probably have bought one.

BACKUP YOUR STUFF!

Slate's running a good article about the iTunes Music Store. The iTunes Music Store is an excellent concept artfully executed- and it's doing so in an industry that badly needs it.

Digital rights management and content distribution are issues that we should all be aware of, because they will go far to define our futures. The nature of our abilitity to express ourselves, consume entertainment, and maintain independence from corporate control is the larger issue behind the specific cases coming to light these days.

So, viva el iTunes Music Store, and all e-ventues like it.

Not much to report today, but I'm interested in keeping the site current, so here we go.

Got ten minutes? Got Windows Media Player? Then check out Don't Copy That Floppy. It's a classic that's now very timely, given the issues associated with digital music (and movie) copying.

Thanks to Ars Technica for the lead.

Back to John Siracusa for a moment. I've been going through the archives of his Mac OS X articles, and I came across a really interesting bit about interface design and science within his review of the Mac OS X Public Beta release (which was back in the year 2000).

Check it out here.

For a history of the PowerPC processor that has powered Macintosh computers for years- and will continue with the PowerPC-based G5- check out this article on IBM's web site.

Star Wars: Episode III is currently in principal photography and is scheduled to wrap in September. Pickups and effects work will continue for about a year-and-a-half after that. As we go about our daily lives for the next several months, a team of highly trained, highly talented professionals is hunkered down in Australia making Star Wars. After that, all eyes will be on ILM in California, where the movie will take shape for its May 2005 release. This should be EXTREMELY exciting.

Too bad it's not. It's a shame that this whole process is being directed by a man who has, for some reason, completely lost whatever magic he once had (and he had a LOT), and is now systematically destroying everything that I loved about Star Wars.

The day before Episode I came out in 1999, I was "good old Jeff, the dreamer." After seeing what happened to George, and what he's done to Star Wars, I have become bitter and depressed.

There was a spirit that permeated the original Star Wars movies- something wonderful that a generation of people latched on to and loved dearly- that is so blatantly absent from the new ones. The "prequels" sadden me not because they're horrible movies, but because they've got no magic, no soul.

GEORGE L. RAPED AND MURDERED MY DREAMS.

The fact that celebrities date and marry other celebrities may seem like an odds-defying miracle (and a wonderfully entertaining one at that), but thankfully, this article at Slate sheds some light on the situation. Be warned: living vicariously through celebrities is not for the faint of heart.

The Register is running a very informative article entitled Mac OS X 10.3 Panther will not be a 64-bit OS. This answers a lot of questions about how Apple intends to handle the transition from its 32-bit processors to the 64-bit G5, and about how the G5 and OS X 10.3 will accomodate this transition functionally.

Think Secret has posted their second round of Panther Finder screenshots.

I trust that everyone's had a nice, relaxing Fourth of July weekend?

I went camping in Saugerties, New York, with some friends. We had a great time at the Blue Mountain Campground, which I would recommend to anyone looking for a campground in the region.

In other news, I have recently started eating a super-reduced carbohydrate diet, AKA the Atkins Diet. I did this last year and lost about 30 pounds. I am on day 5 and have lost 2 pounds. Let's see what happens.

On June 26, I wrote about John Siracusa, a computer writer I have long been fond of. I discovered John's work about two years ago, and have been a constant reader ever since. He's definitely one of my favorites.

Paul Thurrott is a writer that I have been following for much longer- at least six years. He's a Windows maniac- his specialty is writing and reporting about Windows and other Microsoft products, and he's the best source I've found for providing information about upcoming Microsoft product releases. He's got good sources, and a solid understanding of computers.

For regular news postings relating to the computer world with an emphasis on Microsoft products, check out Paul's WinInfo site. For detailed information about current and upcoming Windows releases- including thorough previews of unreleased software- check out Paul's SuperSite for Windows. And for even more of Paul, check out his blog.

Paul's got a lot of great content to share with the world. He's also got some weaknesses. His writing style often lacks polish. Sometimes he's even sloppy. Even better, he often comes across as haughty, which can be amusing, given the subject matter at hand (computers).

And finally, there's the Microsoft angle. Paul is a die-hard Microsoft apologist. This does not mean that he never criticizes Microsoft, nor that he always displays an unwavering Microsoft bias. But in an environment where it's often "uncool" to be a Microsoft supporter, Paul is not afraid to stand up and defend Microsoft, and it's... unusual to see that happen.

He's an interesting and often informative read.

One of my favorite Mac news and "rumor" sites is Think Secret. They're running a series of articles that discuss the new developer release of Mac OS X 10.3- check it out.