Today is International Caps Lock Day.  I took a few moments out of my schedule to think about the importance of caps lock and why it deserved my attention on this October 22.  I came up embarrassingly short.  WHO ACTUALLY USES CAPS LOCK?

Except in extreme and rare cases of punctuating the mundane or marking yourself a tool, the caps lock is entirely unnecessary.  In 2006, Pieter Hintjens even started a campaign to get rid of it.  The XO-1 laptops don’t include it and if we’re spreading those to every child in the world, surely we can do without it.

Left over from the typewriter days where it took ones full strength to press enough keys to form a sentence, I would imagine we can finally do without it and casually hold the Shift key while typing our messages of dire importance and hilarity.

Honor your caps lock by TURNING IT OFF (doesn’t it sound like yelling?).  Remap it to something more useful.

Photo: Colin Fahrion

I have been obsessing over the Olympics, which is pretty standard for me.  I have all the races planned as best I can (they’re not very good at telling us precisely when races are going to air), and record my favorites in HD for archiving.  I don’t have a TV, but this all works out fine. Thanks EyeTV and HD Antenna.

The 2004 Olympics had no Internet coverage, except for one game, from what I can remember.  The quality was poor, it wasn’t live and few cared knew about it.  This year is entirely different.

NBC has truly scored broadcast points for making such an accessible and expansive website dedicated to broadcasting the Olympics over the Internet.  NBC really seems to get it now, first Hulu and now their Olympics coverage.

The best part about the online library of videos is the unique angles they’re now offering.  For example, you can watch the Men’s 4×100 Relay entirely underwater.  Exactly what I was thinking while watching the original!

In high school, our band marched in the parade at Disney World. We staged in the backlot, the protected area of the Magic Kingdom the size of a small city. I saw Mickey Mouse take off his head. Even at 17, I was traumatized.

It has happened again. The olympic flame was snuffed out in London this weekend when it was rushed aboard a bus to avoid protestors. This image from the NY Times is akin to seeing Mickey Mouse with his head off. The fantasy that the flame that reaches the Olympic cauldron every 4 years is the same flame they pick up from Mount Olympia is quashed.

Now, it’s ridiculous to think that the flame is somehow a static object, capable of being transported in its state from the eternal flame in Greece to its temporary resting spot around the world, shining bright over the athletes. It’s also illogical to think that the flame continues to burn as its being flown between destinations. Even still, no one takes pictures when the flame is out. Everyone just goes on believing that the flame keeps burning, somehow, without gas, as the Olympic spirit fuels its brightness. This picture kills a small part of my belief in the symbolic nature of the flame’s travels. A part of my soul is dead. Thanks, New York Times.

I attended the Reel Progress screening of the new documentary “Body of War” last night at the E-Street Cinema.  It’s the tale of Tomas Young, a soldier transitioning from a wounded Iraq War vet coping with his injuries to a vocal critic of the war.  Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro directed the brilliant, personal look into his life, marriage, injuries and activism.  Eddie Vedder wrote two moving songs that perfectly fit the film’s tone.

Where most documentaries would shy away from personal tales about recovery like relations with his wife, catheters, erections, etc., this film takes in stride.  It isn’t about numbers or figures, talking heads or political motivations.  It’s just a look into one soldier’s life and his quest to find voice in ending the way and bringing his fellow servicemen and women home.

Tomas was there last night, along with Sen. Byrd, Phil Donahue, Ellen Spiro, Ralph Nader and other personalities.  Byrd was featured throughout the film as one of the most critical of the war.  His vibrant orations were a perfect fit to juxtapose the talking points from the White House.  He didn’t refrain from throwing a few fists and yells during the screening either, even if his oratory is a little quiet these days.

It’s opening to the public in Washington this Friday, April 4th.  Don’t miss it.

Diebold, maker of electronic voting machines, released the results of the 2008 general election 8 months early. A bug in the software caused the machines to print the results, saving millions from the suspense of waiting for the sham election results to be released in November. Obviously, a joke. But…what if??

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Earlyvia The Onion

Another reason why I can’t imagine how anything got done prior to broadband Internet and cell phones.

HD TV is an amazing thing.  The quality of the picture, the clarity of the sound, the wider screen and field of view…all of it is certainly worth the extra pain of buying equipment or paying for service.  I rethought recently when confronted with David Letterman’s nasty excuse for finger nails on his return to live TV on Wednesday.