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Saturday,  01/17/04  11:03 PM

Always on hosts Bill Gurley interviewing Michael Dell.  "Gurley: Everybody in the world has heard about the Dell model.  It’s become a metaphor for a very well-run supply chain.  The question I'm most curious about: was it intentional?  Dell: [Laughs.]  Did we think all this up or did we just get really lucky?  Gurley: Well, along the way you might have fine-tuned it, but did you know early on about the economic benefits of the model?  Dell: No."  Very interesting, check it out.

The Essential Library, courtesy of godless.  Very difficult to argue with any of these; I've read most of them and some of them are among my favorites.  If I had to pick one, it would be The Selfish Gene, and if I had to pick another, it would be The Blank Slate.  Some light winter reading :)

These guys say Every OS Sucks.  A funny fake cable show.  [ via Scoble ]


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The Mazda transformer car!  I want one.  [ via Cory Doctorow ]

You know how I hate patents, particular tech patents?  Well Simon Willison says this could be the most ludicrous tech patent yet.  "What is claimed is:  1. A method for assigning URL's and e-mail addresses to members of a group."  You have got to be kidding.

CNet reports Oops!  They're Swapping Again.  "Illegal music downloading could be making a comeback, according to market researchers who note a surge in the use of peer-to-peer services."  Time for the RIAA to initiate more lawsuits?  Or will they figure it out?  Nah.

Paul Thurrot flies in the face of conventional wisdom, and thinks HP's iPod moves could hurt the industry.  I disagree; seems like a de facto standard is helpful.  Consumers want choice in products and features, not choice in internal formats.

For you browser nerds, Mozilla 1.6 is out.  I haven't tried it.  I must confess I kind of lost interest in Mozilla, now that Google's toolbar blocks pop-ups in Internet Explorer there just isn't any reason to shop around.

Although Tristan Louis has a modest browser proposal; why doesn't Microsoft drop IE altogether and adopt Mozilla?  Yeah, like that would happen :)  Sam Ruby is hosting a nice comment thread on this.

And while we're talking about browsers, remember Favorites?  I do.  But I never use them anymore; seems like RSS and SharpReader have completely replaced Favorite-based surfing.

Heck, even PRNewsWire is offering RSS feeds.

Tim Bray is a self-proclaimed Open-Source Person.  Notes from his job hunt...

Dude! Check this out.  Yeah, it's a new website called "Dude! Check this out."  How recursive.  Hey, check it out!  [ via Scoble ]