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A THING OR TWO ABOUT A THING OR TWO
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Maximum PC ISSN: 1522-
I
n the spirit of trying new and exciting things in the year ahead, this month I
decided to upend my column-writing strategy: Instead of writing about what-
ever’s stuck in my craw, I asked the folks following my Twitter stream to tell me
what I should write about—a contest of sorts. The responses of my fellow Twitteri-
nos ranged from mildly kooky to wildly off -topic, and while there’s absolutely no
way to write about everything suggested, I’m going to give it the ol’ Maximum PC
try. Here we go. The fi rst respondent, @terryrobinson, wanted to know, “What’s
next aft er we win the battle against DRM and GNU becomes the
standard soft ware license?” Well, while I love your optimism,
Terry, I think it’s much too early to dream of a post-DRM world.
We’ve made good progress against DRM in music, but there’s a
long road in front of us with respect to movie and game con-
tent. And no one’s even talking about electronic books, like the
Kindle and its proprietary locked format. So while I’m sure we’ll
one day live in a magical Internet wonderland fi lled with open
content, free soft ware, and unicorns, for now at least, it remains
a long way off.
Fellow Rock Band afi cionado @strngwys wanted a column about
how excited I am to unleash my inner Eddie Vedder when Te n
is released this spring. No column required, stranger, just three
words: REALLY, REALLY EXCITED.
I can tell @wunderbar that I’ve never met a cupcake I didn’t like,
but I recently learned that Sprinkles cupcakes are worth a 90-minute drive—espe-
cially if that’s what your wife wants for her birthday. I’m partial to the peanut butter
ones; they’re best enjoyed with a tall glass of milk.
One of my coworkers, JT, wanted me to write about one of three subjects I’m
wildly unqualifi ed to off er my opinion on: piracy off the coast of Sudan, the
International Monetary Fund’s role in diplomacy, or popcorn-eating hamsters on
pianos. The hamsters are awesome, JT. AWESOME.
Finally, @johntr wanted me to write about Twitter. While I might not know much
about any of the aforementioned subjects in this column, I think I can safely say that
I managed to knock this one out of the park. See you guys next month.P.S.: People who sign up for my Twitter feed will have the only chance of winning in
our Win a Tsotchke Trivia Contest. That’s right, I’m giving away all the cool vendor swag
that’s sent to me, ranging from mouse pads to T-shirts to netbooks. The contest starts on
January 20, so sign up soon!THINGS
THAT ARE
AWESOME!HAMSTERS & PIANOS
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=tRzTfgds0UIWILL’S TWITTER
http://twitter.com/willsmithSPRINKLES CUPCAKES
http://www.sprinklescupcakes.com