Jason,
How did your Halloween go? I'm really proud of Matt for writing that political tech piece today. I think it was well put, but you can always count on flames when you put something like that on a tech blog. Not so with puppies. We just got one.

When I met Lisa, she had a miniature pincher named Ruby. We felt like she needed a friend so we picked up another one last week in Tuscon after my cousin's wedding in Phoenix. His breeder was nice, although we suffered a touch of culture shock out there. They had a gun shop built into their house, I kid you not. The dog's name was Malcolm, which we intended to change. If you say, "Malcolm, COME!" it sounds silly. So we came up with a long list on vacation last month in anticipation. The top three included Esteban (From the Life Aquatic), Battlecat and Martin (named after a cool chateau we stayed in in France, not Martin Lawrence). But he seemed to know his name, so we didn't change it...too much. Now his name is Malky, which is Short for Malcolm Little. He's a little bastard, who I have to walk every 3 hours or he pees in the house. He also pees after walking for an hour outside, inside the house. We're going to puppy school soon. And he's going to get his balls chopped off at the vet, which should help with the marking of everything.

That's a photo of him in a sweater, because its freezing in SF compared to Arizona, and I think I'm yelling "CRAZY YARN FACE CRAZY YARN FACE" at him because he's really crazy when he plays with yarn on his face. And yes, I feel self conscious walking a 10 pound dog, but that's the price you pay for having a dog you can carry-on to Tokyo.

Here are my three favorite posts today, aside from Matt's post endorsing Tech:
• Herman Miller Embody Review: The Best Chair We've Ever Sat On
• New MacBooks Disable Pwnage Tool, Open Second Front in War on Jailbreaking
• AndroidBoy Gives the G1 Some Overdue Emulation Fun

A few of us at Giz debated this for awhile, but using it while on the road for a month made me sure that that the new nano's case is too sharp on the corners, compared to the old chubby one.

I prefer the old one by far, because it is shaped with both impressive lines and curves, like any nice modern automobile, but more importantly, it feels both smooth and slightly "edgy" in the hand. The modern Nano leaves with the impression that its shape is a result of a very simple manufacturing system, not really designed to fit a person's hand first and foremost. I picture it being made by taking a long piece of aluminum, extruding/cutting out the middle to form an oval, and cutting off the proper lengths. The corners end up being very sharp, and putting it in my pocket, I can feel my pants wearing down, and while holding it in my hands, its definitely poking into my palms in a not nice way. And you never get over the jarring feeling when holding it in your hands. The curved screen is neat, but it picks up glare. And not just regular glare but glare like that in a funhouse mirror, which is slightly more distracting than regular glare. I'm sure its cheaper to make the case, but I prefer the case of the old one better. I even like holding the fat Nano in portrait better to watch videos. So why not buy an older one? Because the new one has a far superior menu system and you can shuffle to the next song by shaking it. Design goes beyond just the form factor. [iPod Nano Review]

If you are one of those people who constantly forget where you've parked your car, the Fireworks Locator System concept—a button on your key—could help grab your attention by triggering a holographic explosion of fireworks above your vehicle. However, the effectiveness of this gadget is questionable as there would be more and more fireworks exploding in parking lots as this device becomes more popular. This, however, would be problematic not only because of how distracting it may be to other drivers, but also because of the difficulty of distinguishing your set of fireworks from another's—unless, of course, your fireworks exploded in the shape of a wang. [Yanko Design]

OK, a Game Boy emulator might not be in the same league as an NES or SNES emulator, but seeing as it's the first real emulator for the Android platform, G1 owners will have to take what they can get at this point. Available in the Android Marketplace now, the AndroidBoy control scheme looks like that of the first iPhone NES emulator, with virtual controls at the bottom of the screen. The lack of an on-screen D-pad, however, has me assuming the trackball is used in that capacity instead. In any case, if you needed a reason to revisit Game Boy classics such as Kirby's Dreamland or Link's Awakening, I think this will do just fine. [IntoMobile]

This hand-sewn floppy disk coaster set will put you back $28 for stain-free coffee-table goodness for the neat-freak nerd. Available in five colors, it'll also make you reminisce for the times you sat there for forty minutes, inserting floppy disk after floppy disk to install Microsoft Office 6.0. At least you won't have to worry about those drink stains when you are sitting in front of the television Election Night, with your ol' friend Jack Daniels, choosing between celebration or consolation. It's a shame they don't cure hangovers for a bright and early day at work Wednesday morning! [Etsy via GeekSugar]

France's Senate just passed a law proposed in mid-summer that would cut the families of illegal fileswappers off from broadband internet access for a year. This makes France the first country to pop anti-piracy legislation against users, and it's probably not going to be the last.

This would be a "three-strike" system. You get two warnings before your ISP is legally empowered to cut you off. The first warning arrives by email; the second is snailmail, perhaps just in case the first got caught in your spam filter.

Just months before, the powerless rubber-stampy European Parliament called a denial of net access a violation of "civil liberties and human rights." Apparently President Sarkozy, his totally hot recording-artist wife and a lot of other people disagree.

Though the bill still has to get past France's lower legislative house before it can go into effect, it's looking good: The Senate passed it with near unanimity. Oddly enough, the Communists abstained and one hard right-winger opposed it, due to the fact a ruling could seriously complicate a bundled net-phone-TV package. (10 bucks says his kid's all over them torrents.) [UPI]

The market for home proctology isn't exactly thriving, which is probably the reason why the makers of the USB Endoscope decided to take a less daunting route: The two-foot-long USB-powered snake has LEDs and a camera at one end. Outfitted with a powerful 40X microscopic lens, it focuses in on things you yourself can't reach. Conventional examples include components inside a PC case, or wiring at the rear of a component rack. (For less conventional examples, ask a Geek Squad guy or a Florida college student.) I would like to see more functionality with this thing, though. Tack on a robotic claw, some kind of drill and maybe a teeny flame thrower, and I'd definitely pay the $140 price tag. [USBfever via Gear Diary]

Kotaku's Ashcraft's book on Japanese arcades may document how well those gaming centers are doing in Japan, but arcades are pretty much on their last legs here in the US. These high quality Supermandolini arcade buttons are how you can keep hope alive. Sixteen euros ($20) gets you ten badges, or buttons, that you can shove on your backpack or shirt or pants to show just how much you love putting quarters into things. Bonus: putting any one of these 10 on strategic areas of your pants can make for a funny joke. [Super Mandolini]

The standard Apple line about what's next in the pipeline is that they don't comment on future products. So when an Apple spokesman Bill Evans lays out fairly directly that “our holiday line-up is set," it doesn't look so good for those iMac gut refreshes previously rumored to hit this month. But hey, it's not like we really had any hope for a Mac mini update in the first place. [MacWorld]

Peek, the feature-sparse, email-only handheld will be adding unlimited text messaging to its service within the next few weeks. This will be done by taking advantage of the fact that most cellphones can receive text messages that have been emailed and send text messages to email addresses. Sure, it isn't an elegant solution but it's a clever workaround and it gets the job done. What more could you expect from the guys that somehow garnered enough votes to be considered the best gadget of 2008? [Alley Insider]