here’s a great way to start the week – a sweet mix of inspiration in the form of new hacks + variations and a discussion on crap.

one of public radio’s greatest features is no doubt, this american life, hosted by ira glass. a long time radio host/producer who’s now expanded into tv. you know that he knows his stuff by the way he puts his shows together. the topics are engaging and the edits are tight. was discussing my post “edit” + the idea of how to get to the best of your work lately and this came up. part of a larger series, here’s why we all have to deal with the crap.

in your quest to fight through all the ho-hum mediocre stuff, here’s some fascinating alternative firmware for canon point+shoots called CHDK. it unlocks a ton of hidden potential in your powershot camera – HDR bracketing, time lapse + my friend ross’ favorite, motion detection! supposedly fast enought to get lightning strikes… wtf! haven’t tried it yet but definitely worth a go. and if you’re wondering the G9 is compatible thank you very much. cheers for the connect ross.

the best way to find more info on CHDK or anything online for that matter is now here. google’s been great at searching + really can’t be beat there but for the new wave of information presentation, the future will look a lot like kosmix – the web organized for you. another well financed silicon valley start up it is but another search engine it is not. not only does it find what you’re after but it presents it an encyclopedic format – a wiki definition, images, blogs links, videos, related links – all right in front of you in a google second. hard to go back once you’ve given it a whirl.

more inspiration ala pdx’s own w|k with their latest for nike + king james. the candyman is back (which incidently is the only nickname i ever really had) is up on their blog.

and lastly a bit of bono, inline with the new release, on theft. in this case, music theft via the copyright alliance blog.