Rather than keeping all my tunes to myself, where only I can enjoy them, I've posted an iMix featuring twelve of the tracks I've been listening to of late to Apple's iTunes Music Store. Featuring music from Daft Punk, the Chemical Brothers, Depeche Mode, Blank & Jones, M83 and others, each of the tracks is unique and plays well - either for working out, for working with it in the background, or driving in the car.

You can access the iMix, and download it, or individual tracks, here.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=165245625

Listening to ''Technologic'', by Daft Punk (Play Count: 7)

1. Hardwood Hearts
2. Yeti Sports (Download them All!)
3. iConquer
4. Quinn
5. Classic Cribbage
6. Reckless Drivin'
7. Airburst
8. Reversi Deluxe
9. Scramble
10. RockNES (Find your own ROMs, of course)

I was lucky enough to be granted an extra day to extend the four-day weekend, and I spent it just where I belonged, at the Oakland Coliseum, watching the A's take on the Central Division leading Detroit Tigers, after having taken the first two games of the series. 

Better yet, I met up with Blez and Nico from Athletics Nation, and the three of us took in today's game, under sunny weather, and in great seats. The game was my fourth in six days, after catching Friday and Saturday versus Arizona, and Monday, with my wife and parents, where we saw the A's beat the Tigers in the first game of the series, followed by the customary fireworks. And we're set to see the Friday and Saturday games against the division rival Angels, which would mean we were in the Coliseum for six games in the space of nine days - a practical windfall!

Seeing the game with Blez and Nico is a challenge. One is the founder of Athletics Nation, while the other used to run the sports desk at KALX in Berkeley. Both know their baseball, and while I can hold my own, it's a lot of fun to project what the A's will do next, or who they should sit or trade. Both are key assets for the Athletics Nation site, without which I probably wouldn't have ben motivated to get season tickets or even attend Spring Training, as we did earlier this year. In fact, I tried to outline my appreciation for the site on AN earlier today, in a "Public AN Appreciation Thread".

Somehow, despite today's 10-4 loss, the A's are still in first place. Though they've got a well-respected pitching staff, their offense continues to drag. We'll see if changes are made, or if they'll stand pat. My guess is no changes.

Listening to ''Space Manoeuvres'', by Sasha (Play Count: 8)

Yes, it's the 230th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and in this era, when patriotism has been waved high, and flags flown in the name of imperialism and cultural superiority, or simply to submit that you are opposed to the idea of terror, I'm sure that we all can rest more easily knowing that the CIA has closed the unit focused on capturing Osama Bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda. We must have caught him! Right? (Kos Comments)

In less head-shaking news, it turns out that the reason we haven't seen exceptional click-through rates on any of our electronic marketing campaigns is that we left out a very important topic - pornography! While it's always been true that sex sells, recent statistics show that more than 5% of all porn-related spam is clicked on. Those are outstanding numbers!  In comparison, spam related to pharmaceuticals only gains a click-through rate of 0.02%, according to the same survey.

On the technology side of the house, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer features a great interview with Blake Ross, one of the wunderkids who took on Microsoft's Internet Explorer with Firefox. Firefox of course is my default browser on Windows (when necessary), and serves as a strong backup to Safari on Mac OS X. While not making money by taking the non-profit public, Ross expresses his frustration with Microsoft who trolled out IE just to defeat Netscape and then discontinued innovating. He says, "The truth is I think Microsoft is very directly responsible for spyware and adware and the pop-up ads in general that proliferated across the Web after they abandoned their product."

Listening to ''I Don't Owe You Anything'', by The Smiths (Play Count: 4)