Check out my Tumblog

I haven't exactly kept on top of posting to this blog. Part of the reason for that is that I have this attitude that the posts need to be really well polished, with appropriate research. Like I'm a frickin' journalist or something? So I'm trying an experiment. Tumblr is an alternate blogging platform where the focus is supposed to be short & sweet. Want to come along for the journey? You can find my ramblings at http://ageeklife.tumblr.com/

Mini Post: Quote from Ki

DS was playing the other day. He brought a bunch of toys out to the family room, then clipped a lightsaber on each hip, grabbed his gladiator sword and headed back to his room for more. As the door to the hallway closed behind him, I heard him mutter "How do the Star Wars guys walk with these things?"

Thoroughly Fed Up

This post was originally going to be about global warming and the US government's continued lack of action. Then I had an epiphany – or maybe it was more of a collision between several trains of thought. Whatever.
In one such train, I realized that one more blog post on the subject wasn't going to convince the bone heads in power that are resisting change. These idiots still think the sun revolves around the Earth, and I'm no Galileo. What I can do, and what I should be doing, is changing those things I actually have control over.
At the same time, I was attending a national conference. Over the course of several presentations and conversation with other attendees, I realized "these are some pretty smart people!" Which inevitably lead to the question, "Are they smarter than me?" Did it matter?
Now, I'm damn good at my profession, but at the end of the day – or more importantly, life – how important will that be? Is the world as a whole going to be any different because of the quality of the software I produce? Quite frankly, no. And what good is it to be in the top of my profession if the rest of my life is solidly middle-of-the-road?
And that's when the real epiphany occurred. I need to change the way I'm living my life, so that it visibly reflects what I value. If you asked someone who casually knew me what I felt was important, would they be able to tell? Definitely not at this point in time, but I'm committed to changing that. Not everything at once; that would be doomed to failure. A solid, certain and deliberate change.
The first change I'm making – which I started last week – is to stop being a fat tub o' lard. I'm not counting calories, just cutting back on how much I eat and eliminating all of the junk. Trust me, there was a lot of junk; I've dropped 6 pounds in the past 6 days. Spring's here, so I won't have trouble increasing my activity level (lots of yard work to be done), but I also want to start doing more outdoor activities with my kids.
And that's the second set of changes I've started making. I am not proud of who I am as a father and husband. I'm not horrible, mind you, but I'm no where near where I want to be.
You see, that's where the real difference comes in. I'm going to be thinking a lot more about my life and how I'm running it. Does that mean that I'll be using less of my brain power for issues at work? Probably. But you know what? Fuck work. That's not the end all of who I want to be.

Better Solutions, Part 3

I'd hoped to try out some of the existing watch-movies-over-the-internet services before finishing this post, but life has been crazy lately. Perhaps I'll do a comparison in the future.

There are a couple of issues with the way in which movies are currently distributed digitally. Most of the rental services stream movies. This allows them to easily answer the question copy protection since you don't really have a file to illegally copy. The problem is that this approach doesn't scale. Streaming a movie requires not only that you transfer hundreds of megabytes of data, but that the download always stays ahead of playback. The physical structure of the internet simply can't support millions of homes simultaneously streaming movies every night between 6 and 11 pm.

Another approach is to have viewers download the files. This improves the scalability since the download can take place overnight and doesn't have the throughput constraints that streaming does. The ugly specter of copy protection raises its head again, but the services that currently provide downloads (iTunes, Amazon Unbox) get around this by requiring that you either "buy" the file, use their proprietary player, or both. The only drawback to those services are that the pricing is completely unreasonable for what they're providing; NetFlix totally blows them away from a value standpoint. Downloading files will probably scale okay for a while, but eventually services will need to encorporate some distributed downloading capabilities like those used in BitTorrent.

So in the war of Blue-Ray vs. HD-DVD, the winner will be neither. Instead, the war will be won by hardware for getting movies from the 'net to the TV -- such as Apple, SlingMedia and TiVo -- coupled with download services that can provide:

• Scalable video downloading
• Monthly subscription plans – so the technology can improve without viewers having to flush their investment in "purchased" content
• Reasonably-priced purchase options for customers who want to transfer the pre-formatted movies to a disconnected device (iPod, PSP, in-car system, etc.)
  
• Flexible download options such as additional audio tracks and extra content
• Streamable previews so you can check out the first 5-10 minutes of a movie before committing to downloading the whole thing
  

Better Solutions, Part 2

Okay, so if we (eventually) have a decent way to get digital media from our home PCs to our TVs and stereos, how do we (legally) get it to our home PCs in the first place?

There are two major obstacles that currently inhibit the distribution of traditional media (music, TV & movies) over the internet: piracy and bandwidth.

Until now, the industry's response to piracy has been Digital Rights Management (DRM). Unfortunately, this approach has been a complete disaster. First of all, every DRM-scheme that has been cooked up so far as been cracked – including that used to protect Blue-Ray and HD-DVD. This means that pirates have been only mildly inconvenienced, while legitimate consumers have been denied the fair use of the media that they have purchased.

In addition to this, the attitudes of the big production companies toward the people who actually pay their salaries is disgusting. From Sony secretly installing rootkits on consumer's PCs to the accusatory and insulting anti-piracy ad the MPAA seems to have on every DVD these days, these corporations clearly see little difference between pirates and legitimate consumers.

Instead of ensuring fair compensation, the result of DRM has instead led to an environment where consumers feel little sympathy for the industry and are likely to have little difficulty overcoming any ethical objections to casual piracy.

So, how should the industry proceed in order to ensure that their artists and employees can be fairly compensated for their efforts?

The first thing that needs to happen is that the industry needs to come to terms with how it markets its products. It is hypocritical to urge people to fork over $20 or more for the latest blandbuster – "own it today" the ads exclaim – and then try to claim that this ownership does not include fair use or even any guarantee that the consumer will still be able to play it a year from now. Note that most people don't care that there's DRM on the DVDs that they rent, it is when they purchase the music or movie that they expect to be able to play it on whatever media-capable devices they own.

The ironic thing is that the industry already has models in place that work extremely well. They just need to smarten up and extend these into the digital realm. Sony's misguided efforts aside, music CDs continue to be sold without any form of DRM. Millions of consumers have ripped their CD collections to MP3 so they can play their favorite music on their iPods, PDAs and cell phones. The physical nature of CDs has meant that it is not cost effective to deliver individual songs this way, but even Steve Jobs is now suggesting that there is no good business reason for record companies to insist that music files be DRM protected. And just recently a rumor has surfaced that EMI is considering making the switch to DRM-free music; here's hoping they do and that the other three big record companies quickly follow suit.

The second model is the one in use by NetFlix. For a set monthly fee, you get access to the company's complete library of (copy-protected) DVDs. Granted this is again a model based on physical distribution, but it's also one that makes sense for digital distribution of video – both movies and serials. Merely by implementing the technology to track and accurately charge for how much of the library a customer can access during the month, distribution companies will be able to make sure that the production companies are also compensated fairly.

Note that neither of these models prevent piracy, but then again DRM doesn't either. Unlike DRM, however, they do not insult the legitimate consumer. Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series where I look at the bandwidth challenge and possible solutions.

Better Solutions, Part 1

Ironically, if Sony and Toshiba had been able to get together and come out with a single standard for HD on DVD, consumers probably would have adopted it with glee. The fact that there are these two competing formats, however, has caused many folks to slow down and contemplate the situation. It's starts when we realize that we're not rushing out to buy Blue-Ray or HD-DVD for fear of betting on the wrong horse. Why is that scary? Because we don't want to spend a sizable amount of money building a movie library only to have to do it all over again in 5 -10 years. Wait a minute... it's that what we just did with DVD? The discs still play and look fine, its the technology that has moved on. That inevitably leads to the question: even if there were a single standard, would I really want to be purchasing & storing more physical media?
Enter three more recent announcements from CES: IPTV for the Xbox 360, Apple TV, and the SlingMedia SlingCatcher. Microsoft is clearly trying to make the Xbox into an entertainment hub. IPTV is interesting technology, but it's really just a way to let telcos provide the same closed-network services that cable and satellite TV providers do today. Next!
Apple TV is the company's take on the set-top box, allowing you to play anything from your iTunes library on your TV. A nice concept, but not that thrilling. First off, if it works anything like sharing your iTunes library with other PCs on your home network, it means that you have to be logged on and running iTunes on the host computer – really inconvenient if that PC is used by more than one person. More critically, iTunes doesn't support very many digital media formats and you can only purchase content, not rent or subscribe to it. I love my iPod, but I think Apple missed the boat on this one.
The SlingMedia's current product, the SlingBox, allows you to "placeshift" – streaming content from your home AV equipment to any computer, handheld or smartphone with an internet connection. While I personally haven't seen the need for this capability, the product has received high praise from the press. The SlingCatcher essentially reverses the relationship; it lets you display content from your PC on your TV. The statement from the manufacturer is "anything that can be viewed or played on [your] PC can now be slung to [your] TV". Price for this capability? US$200. If the reviews prove the manufacturer's claims, I'll definitely be buying one when they come out mid-year.
While the SlingBox is a great product, it's only part of the solution. It brings the content from your PC to your TV, but how do you (legally) get copyrighted media to your PC in the first place? Tune in for Part 2!

Blue-Ray or HD-DVD? Please.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

- George Santayana

So, in case you've missed it, there's a war going on over the format for delivering High-Definition movies on DVD. In one corner, we have Sony and its pals with Blue-Ray; in the other is the Toshiba gang with HD-DVD. Both formats use blue lasers and are incompatable with existing DVD players. There are pros and cons to each format, but what matters most to consumers is that neither one is the clear winner.
You'd think that the industry would have learned from VHS vs. Betamax that there are no winners in these situations. I blame the more recent DVD-R(W|DL) vs DVD+R(W|DL) for fogging the memories of these companies. That format war was "won" by producing drives that can record to either media. In reality of course, consumers were the losers since they're left with having to figure out whether they should choose the "+" or "-" variant of the three different recording flavors -- or more likely, they just pick one at random and pay a higher price since the media manufacturers have to cater to two smaller markets rather than one large one.
Several industry pundits have suggested that this latest format war should be "solved" by the exact same approach, producing a drive that was capable of handling either format. How they can honestly think this is a good thing is beyond me. Yet, lo and behold, LG just announced a dual format player at this year's CES -- provided, of course, that they can get the two camps to agree to license. I'm sure they won't have any problem finding plenty of fools willing to fork over the $1200 for the darn thing.
The whole situation gets me to thinking, however: who's really pushing for HD movies on DVD? It's the industry, of course. Most people I know don't even have a surround sound setup; nor do they have 50" TVs taking up half their living rooms. And as for those folks who are really into the movie experience, I don't suspect any of them are overly psyched about the prospect of replacing their entire DVD collection with new, HD versions.
No, John C. Dvorak, this opinion does not mean I'm being a luddite. I just think that the whole idea of HD on DVD misses the boat. Want to know where I think the industry should be headed? Stay tuned.

Making the Quicktime Q Go Away

I just installed iTunes on my laptop to see if I can access our home music library over the network. (I'll blog more on that once I try it out). The installation also defaults to putting a QuickTime "Q" in the system tray. Apple doesn't make it very easy to find where you stop this "Q" from showing up, so I thought I'd share it with y'all.

Right-click on the "Q" in your system tray and select QuickTime Preferences from the context menu. Click on the Advanced tab and uncheck the Install QuickTime icon in system tray option near the bottom. Click OK and the "Q" should finally go away!

In Fear of Wishful Thinking

Our daughter has started making a new combination of sounds that may, or may not, be her first word. Most of the time, the sounds she makes involve repeating a single phoneme. Sometimes the pitch varies and sometimes it doesn't. Variants on 'eeeee' are the most common, 'though she also frequently makes this 'nguh' noise that I can only come close to duplicating if I keep my mouth closed.

Over the past couple of weeks, she has occassionally said 'aaaaaaeeeeee'. DW has remarked that it is very much like the first time Stitch says 'hi' in the original Lilo & Stitch movie. It also shares many of the same qualities as the enthusiastic, stretched out 'hi's that we're in the habit of uttering when she greets one of us with an enormous, dimpled grin -- talk about joy being contagious! -- or when we find she's already woken up from a nap. She seems to use it appropriately; however, it is like a valuable treasure that she only occassionally allows us to glimpse, so it is hard to be certain.

Nonetheless, I find myself thinking about that 'Aaaeee' a lot lately and it always brings a smile to my face. At first. In about the same amount of time that it takes me to realize that I'm smiling, a voice in my head pops up and tells me "there's not enough evidence yet" and "don't get your hopes up". There's real pain and disappointment in that voice and I know it's just trying to protect me from experiencing more of the same, but it goddamn pisses me off. When did I become such an overwhelming grump? Would it be so bad to give up being a cynic for just a little while?

Modern Medicine's Lack of Logic

I've come to the conclusion that, while technology continues to progress, the attitudes and viewpoint of those in the medical community are regressing. Medicine in its current incarnation is not deserving of the title "Science". The primary evidence of this? The lack of a holistic view of health.

I'm not even talking about including spiritual, or even psychological health, but just the most basic idea of the body as a single, interrelated system.

To start with, look at the insurance situation in the United States. If you have Medical Insurance, why do you also need Dental and Vision? Last time I checked, teeth and eyes are part of your body. What's next, Dermal Insurance?

This attitude that physical health can somehow be neatly compartmentalized is also evident in the attitudes of many members of the medical community. When talking to numerous health practitioners about our daughter's autism diagnosis, I have been shocked and amazed by the number of people who take the attitude: "it's a neurological disorder, there's no way diet or circulatory conditions could have an impact on it."

What!? Are they really that stupid? Is there some invisible forcefield in everyone's body that keeps these things separate? Are the materials that make up neurons and neurotransmitters spontaneously generated?

I may be working as a software developer, but my undergraduate and graduate training are in Physics. As such, I know of what I speak and when it comes to scientific methodology, the practice of modern medicine is closer to astrology than any true science.

Getting closer...

A little less than two years ago, I blogged on the subject of watches; specifically, where I thought they should fit in the technology landscape. In that post, I described the features I'd like to see in a watch. Well, today I heard an announcement of a watch that's getting pretty close to that ideal. It's the Bluetooth watch from Fossil. The styling is a bit bland and it only connects to Sony Ericsson cell phones, but hey, it's a start. I also like that it includes two-way communication that allows you to send the caller to voice mail with the press of a watch button.

Word of the Day

Heck, this one's more like "Word for My Life"

You've probably heard the saying "Why do today what you can put off 'til tomorrow?" Most of us readily associate the word procrastinate with this sentiment, which turns out to be very apt. See, it turns out the 'cras' in procrastinate is Latin for 'tomorrow' so procrastinate literally means to put off until tomorrow.

But what about someone who makes procrastinators seem ahead of the game? The ones who followed up the cliché above with "Why put off 'til tomorrow what you can put off 'til the next day?" Thanks to the podcast of the very fun NPR show "A Way with Words" I now know the appropriate term for that sentiment: perendinate, literally 'to put off until the day after tomorrow. I love it!

Oh. Darn. I actually heard the podcast containing this word a couple of months ago and am just getting around to posting a blog entry about it... Now I need to find a word that means 'to put off until the month after next'...

Wait and F**king See

Back in college, we used to have a running joke about how the infirmary seemed obsessed about giving out packets of "salt and soda gargle" for almost any ailment. Got a cold? Salt & soda gargle. A stomach ache? Salt & soda gargle. A broken leg? Salt & soda gargle. Your left arm just fell off? Salt & soda gargle. It was funny in large part because the health services were essentially free so no one really expected fantastic service.

Unfortunately, I have come to realize that you should expect the same level of service in the "real world", particularly when it comes to health care for your kids. Only now the miracle cure isn't salt and soda gargle, it's "wait and see". Your child has a cold? Wait and see. A stomach ache? Wait and see. Reflux so persistent that she's either in constantly soaked clothes or has to have a binky in her mouth, which is interfering with her being able to develop her already severely delayed language skills? You guessed it... wait and f**king see.

I don't really know why I expected any different. The perception our society holds for doctors is that they are somehow superhuman -- after all, they survive all those years of school and a grueling internship, they must be to intellectual prowess what Navy seals are to physical fitness. In reality this is only an ideal, how we wish doctors would be.

I see the same thing in my own profession -- software development. There are a woefully small number of software developers who actually give a crap about what they do and an even smaller percentage of those who have the skills to do it well. Most are either clumsy wannabes or only in it for the money. The same principle applies to doctors, apparently.

Of course, the wait and see response is a perfect hedge against litigation -- after all how can you be sued for malpractice if you never practice at all!

The state of GF/CF foods

When I started my stint as a vegetarian 14 years ago, the options that were available were pretty slim and a lot of them were positively ghastly. The worst offenders were those that attempted to replicate the texture and flavor of meat. Here's a hint: you can't, so don't bother. Now, of course, there are a gazillion choices for meat-free alternatives and not surprisingly the best are those that have embraced the goal of making something that tastes good in its own rights.

The situation today with gluten and casein free foods is very much like it once was with vegetarian foods. There are many attempts at producing a gluten-free version of a wheat-based staple -- such as cakes, muffins, and pancakes -- but the truth of the matter is that most of them s**k. Once again the best ones don't try to be exact replicas. More companies need to focus not on how to make a gluten-free cake mix, but on gluten-free alternatives to cake. No doubt it will take a lot of experimenting, but with the rise in diagnoses of ASD, here's hoping that we start seeing more palatable options!

Veg-head no more (for now)

The big news in my personal life is that I've (temporarily) given up being a vegetarian. With DD on a GF/CF diet and DS allergic to wheat, soy and egg yolks, it really limits what the family as a whole can eat. In light of the fact that neither of the kids chose their dietary constraints, continuing to add my own, optional vegetarianism into the mix would be the height of selfishness. And so, I've reintroduced meat into my diet. I started small a couple of weeks ago with just poultry and fish. I still have a hard time ingesting mammals, although I have no trouble overcoming that when the practically intoxicating taste of bacon and pepperoni are concerned.

I also see this as just a temporary change. Some day, if I'm still walking around at that point, the kids will be out on their own and I can once again remove meat from my diet. The ideal of vegetarianism is still one of my core values, it just happens to be lower than the value I hold on my family!

Adventures in Autism

I've certainly been reading a lot more about Autism Spectrum Disorders that I ever thought I would be. DD's primary delays are in the realm of "expressive and receptive language". The team diagnosed other symptoms to a mild degree, but I have yet to be convinced whether any of those are part of her ASD, or are a result of her primary challenge, or are just normal individual variation. That's one of the things that has struck me about ASD -- the large number of symptom-groups and how much individual kids vary in which ones they have and to what degree. Bobby might have severe delay in A & B and a milder difficulty with D, while Billy has a lot of trouble with C and some issues with B & E.

The other thing that's struck me is the wide range of treatments and the fact that nothing's definitely effective in all cases. While my own science background is not in biology, the studies I've read and the widely varying anectodal evidence strongly suggests that there is not just one cause of ASD. There are likely multiple causes and therefore different kids will have different results for a given treatment. For DD, a glutin-free casein-free diet has definitely made a difference. This suggests that an opiate reaction may be part of what's causing her symptoms. Again, however, I don't believe there is necessarily a single cause for ASD. So while she will be starting Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy soon, we will also be pushing for more tests to be done where appropriate.

Barney is Evil

DW went to the video store with the kids yesterday and, among other things, brought home... a Barney video. DS really wanted to watch it last night but I distracted and cajoled him long enough that it was soon time for bed. This morning, I wandered through the living room and found that his mother had put it on for him. I've seen Barney before, of course (witness the delay tactics from the night before), but it had thankfully been a while. The topics are insipid and the writing is irritatingly lacking in creativity. Perhaps the most disturbing thing, however, is the performance of Barney's kid costars. Their faked smiles, their stiffly precise movements, it seems as if Barney has devoured their souls and is animating their lifeless bodies like his marionettes. Or maybe it doesn't just appear that way... ;Þ

Our own little Mount Ve-spew-vius

Earlier this evening, I was working in the home office when I heard my wife call out my name in that tone, instantly recognizable to all parents, that indicates the $#!& has hit the fan. I saved my work (safe computing before all else) and hustled downstairs. A glimpse into the dining room revealed DD in her highchair and DW standing holding the tray away from both of them in the universal manner that indicates ...here there be vomit. "Get something to clean her up", DW calls. I hurry to comply and when I return to the dining room I am able to take a closer look at the carnage. DD's left sleeve is covered and there's a fist size pile in her lap. The highchair tray is covered with a similar quantity. Not much for you or I but sizable for a one year old. Just as I arrive, however, she hurls again. Soundlessly, a tube of partially digested mystery lunch arcs down from her mouth and joins its cousin in her lap. The smell of bile and overcooked meat fills the room. Quickly, DW and I strip her out of her onesie and clean off her face and neck. I hold our diaper-clad daughter to my chest and grab a blanket from the pack-n-play while my noble wife starts the clean up effort. A few minutes later, DD gags and pushes herself away from my shoulder. Once again her mouth opens and emits a stream of hurlage. I don't think I could have contained it all even if I had had both hands free and the composure/lunacy to try to catch it. Instead, the gack landed securely in the crook formed between her body and my prodigious belly. I began walking her from the living room to the kitchen, where my saintly wife had moved on to rinsing the outfit that was the first victim of the evening's retch-fest. No sooner did I arrive at her side, when DD yacked again, and again it was voluminous. I am convinced that the episodes had by now produced regurgitations equal to her own weight. Freshly cleaned, DD was laid in the pack-n-play by my wife while I added my sweat- & tee-shirts to the growing pile of debris. How could she possibly have had that much food in her body in the first place? At least it was all out now. ...or so I thought, for as I was donning a nice, clean, dry shirt, the puke-o-rama was claiming another victim, this time in the form of the pack-n-play sheet. Should we call FEMA? DW and I continued the cleaning -- okay, it was still mostly DW -- and joked about the evenings events. We heard a happy coo from the other room and I remarked that at least everything seemed to be hunky-dory now. DW replied, "Don't you mean chunky-dory?"

Tales from Two Elizabeths

I enjoy reading, but I'm not the speediest reader on the planet, particularly compared to DW and my sister. Heh, compared to the two of them, I'm barely beyond the "see spot run" stage. Perhaps because of that, I usually stick to reading the work of only a handful of authors at a time. Unfortunately, I'd recently hit a sort of dead-end with my current stable of authors -- I'd either read everything they have out in paperback, or the quality of their newer work really didn't justify investing my time. Harsh, perhaps, but like I said, I'm not the swiftest reader.

Anyhoo, I was on the troll for a new author at the local Barnes & Noble when the cover of an Elizabeth Bear novel caught my eye. I know there's the whole "don't judge a book by its cover" colloquialism, but I've generally found that cheesy artwork graces the cover of cheesy fiction. So, I picked up Scardown and read the blurb on the back. Near future... semi apocalyptic... alien technology... tough-as-nails female lead. Sounded intriguing. It was the second book in the series, but Hammered wasn't on the shelf, I didn't know if I'd even like the author, so I decided to pick it up and see how it was. I barely got through the first chapter when I decided that I just had to start at the beginning. It's not that Bear's a particularly gifted writer -- there are times that I definitely stumble over her phrasing or find that I have to re-read a paragraph in order to make sense of it. I also found myself a bit annoyed that one of the antagonists is an AI based on the over-hyped, super sexist professor Richard Feynman. Nonetheless, Hammered and Scardown are fun novels and I tore through both of them with uncharacteristic speed. I just picked up the recently released WorldWired and hope that it continues the trend.

The other new author I picked up is Elizabeth Moon. Ages ago, I really enjoyed Sassinak, which she cowrote with Anne McCaffrey. Whether it was that memory or the nominal link to Elizabeth Bear that caused me to pick up Trading in Danger, I'm glad I did. Moon is a much stronger writer than Bear, but the story is just as compelling. Kylara Vatta, the main character of this series, is, on the surface at least, the polar opposite of Bear's Jenny Casey. She is young and inexperienced and her challenges stem from her powerful family and their limited view of her abilities. Marque and Reprisal is a strong sequel and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the third book in the series, Engaging the Enemy; 'though the paperback probably won't be out 'til late next year at the earliest.

Cool site for music fans

A coworker sent me a link to Pandora "a music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music that you'll love." The service is based on the work of the ambitious members of The Music Genome Project (MGP) who, according the website, spent the past five years listening to and analyzing the music of over 10,000 artists, quantifying "everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony."

I haven't found a new favorite band yet, and I definitely don't like all of the music they've suggested, but it has a lot to recommend it. First off, it's free! There's also a subscription if you want to avoid ads, but so far they're quite unobtrusive. Maybe if enough people buy music (from Amazon or iTunes) through the service, it'll stay that way. Also, their player uses Flash, so you don't have to download some proprietary media player or get stuck with something awful like... Real.
You start by creating a "station", seeding it with the name of a song or artist you like. The player then plays what it considers a "typical" song by that artist, followed by those it considers to be similar. You can click on a song to get various options. Why did you play this song? gives you insight into how the MGP catorized songs. If you like the song, you can add it to your Favorites list, which can be printed and also includes links for buying the song from iTunes or Amazon. Finally, you can give the song a thumbs up or thumbs down to govern whether Pandora should play it again in the future.
You can have up to 100 stations and you can share them with others by clicking on the down arrow at its right end and selecting e-mail this station to a friend. I haven't tested it yet, but presumably you can e-mail them to non-friends too. ;P
Check it out!