The topic of needing something to say in order to have a blog came up at lunch today. The answer is obviously no, you don't have to have anything to say. For New Year's treat yourself to getting started and just write about anything or nothing at all. In time it will come together, probably in a way you cannot now imagine.

I've taken a couple of weeks off from listening to podcasts and listened instead to a few great books. Now that I'm getting back to catching up on podcasts I have some pleas for those who are trying to make this a going concern.

1. Don't bash the iPod - there are plenty of links and time devoted in podcasts to how terrible the iPod interface is. One of the most common complaints it the inability to fast forward and rewind. This is not an iPod problem, it is a user problem. Every day I happily fast forward and rewind through selections. It is not complicated you simply hold a button down, no need to even look at the iPod itself.

   As an aside it is interesting that the same people who complain about not getting credit will post links saying "What's wrong with iPods," instead of "The iPod is by far the best mp3 player out there. Here are some additional features I'd like."

Traveling over the holidays gave me some time to catch up on listening to audiobooks. On the way home tonight I finished Michael Crichton's State of Fear. Wow. A lot to think about.

There is a central theme I'm sure I agree with. We must find a way to separate the funding of scientific research from the political process. Especially as the political process of the United States increasingly falls into religious realms the problems become greater. When we can label a disease such as AIDS as a "sinners" disease (and yes I know that is not proper, but it is an observation not an endorsement) it becomes easier to dismiss it as something that doesn't impact people like me, and therefore it can be ignored. With today's political funding of scientific research we're more likely to get the results that are desired by the funders than those representative of independent investigation.

NoTrueBill has a post about Yahoo's choice to stand by its privacy policy and deny the family of a soldier killed in Iraq access to the deceased's email account.

The issue raises another problem, which is an extension of something that has been brought up on Slashdot before. What do you do to make sure that people can continue to access your data once you're no longer here? In some cases it's even more dificult, what happens to the servers when the person who knew the password is no longer here. Boone's post raises the suggestion that you might want people reading your email, but what about the server where your blog lives?

One possible solution is to keep an envelope sealed with common passwords in a safe place such as a safety deposit box. Of course this is only as good as the other people who may have access to the box and only if they will continue to have access. And of course it depends upon trusting those with access. It may be possible to keep them at a trusted attorney or similar location.