Darksyde has an interesting post up about the future of NASA. We’ve got a new president coming who has promised change — let’s see if one of the changes he will make is to kick the space program out of its rut. I don’t know if he can promise more money to every science program we’ve got, but he could at least put effective, principled administrators in place who will use their budgets more appropriately.

We do have a list of Obama’s promises on science and technology. They do include more investment in the space program, as well as opening up stem cell research, more money for science education, and lots of green energy research. We now have to wait and see if and how he fulfills them.

PBS has an article on poll crashing, which interviews yours truly and Greg Laden about our curious penchant for sending mobs out to vote on silly online polls. They also interview some of the recipients of the floods…and no one seems to mind.

I have been tempted many times by that over-expensive sexy slab of technology called the iPhone, so I don’t need Seed adding to the temptation with a list of science apps for the iPhone.

Fortunately, the strongest argument against the iPhone for me right now is that it’s closed and only supports one carrier…who does not offer good service in the wilderness of western Minnesota. If ever they opened the gadget up, though, or if ATT built a cell phone tower in my neighborhood, I’d have to rely on my wife’s ability to slap and shackle me to prevent wasteful spending.^*

^*Which is, obviously, a reason to hope for more flexible service plans even if I never buy one.

Look: you can buy me on Amazon now, for 99¢ cheap. It’s all through this strange new device Amazon is selling, called a Kindle, which is a fancy new e-book reader with some nice display technology and an absolutely evil business model. Now instead of buying books that you can do with as you please, you can lease them and get digital copies all bound up in DRM hindrances. The hardware is a step forward, the software lock-up of all the content is a big leap backwards, one that is going to doom it all to failure.

Kottke seems unimpressed, Business Week likes it, John Gruber hopes it flops. I’m with the nay-sayers.

Hey, is anyone reading this on a Kindle?

The Seed editors asked us to reminisce about our quaint experiences with computing in the Old Days. Old nerds are so pathetic.

I’m much more enthused about an event in future computing: Leopard is coming out tomorrow! Laelaps has an anticipatory video of what Leopard is going to do to Windows — haul it up a tree and eat it for lunch.

Prepare yourself for the true religious wars: I’m asking for advice on a new laptop.

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