Old Media Hates New Media (Part 9328)

Terrific article over at Reason about the National Assocation of Broadcasters' opposition to the proposed Sirius-XM merger. We need more competition, not less, but like incumbents in all industries the NAB wants to protect its status quo.

A moment of silence

Just be quiet for a minute and remember how blessed you are. Then pray, think good thoughts, or do whatever your own faith calls for to remember the victims yesterday.

Debit-card vending machines

So we're at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, hanging out with our son while he recovers from brain surgery yesterday. Not much has changed about the hospital experience in the 18 years since my last multi-night stay. It still reeks of antiseptic, it's still too bright to be comfortable, the monitors still beep endlessly signifying that everything is fine. It amazes me that the sheer amount of technological progress over the past 20 years hasn't substantively changed the experience of hospitalization (though outcomes have improved dramatically, for which we should all be thankful).

One thing that has changed, though, is vending machine tech. The coke machines and snack machines here at CHOP can be paid for with a debit card. It's really kinda cool, and they even got the real-world use case on it right. You swipe your card, then you buy however much stuff you want from that machine (several sodas, a few candy bars, etc.). When you're done selecting junk food you hit the 'Complete' button and it debits your account for everything in a single transaction.

Kinda nifty tech. I'm pleased to see this stuff spreading through our day-to-day lives.

The new Cooper S

MSNBC reviews the new Cooper S and likes what they see. BMW has made the car 3 inches longer, made the suspension much more forgiving (something that I think I'll appreciate if I get another one), and done tons of other things in the process of totally revamping the internals of the Cooper while leaving the external appearance virtually unchanged. The best line from the story? That's got to be this:

If Apple designed a car, it would be the Mini Cooper.

The author does go on for a while about how hard he finds it to read the way-nifty center-mounted speedometer. I've never had a problem, but maybe I'm enough taller than the reviewer that I have a different angle on it.