I have mixed feelings about this. As an Amazon affiliate (I send clicks to Amazon and when someone buys something via that click, I get a percentage of the sale - about 4%-6%), it makes me angry that I won't be able to collect any revenue from recommendations I make re: products for sale on Amazon. However, as an Amazon customer, I'm happy that I can still buy stuff from them without the 9.5% sales tax that would otherwise be charged. Here's a great open letter stating the case against Amazon for shutting own it's affiliate program in California. In total, I've made less than $500 from being an Amazon affiliate. I have probably saved three times this amount though in sales tax from stuff I've bought from Amazon. Could I have bought the same items from another out of state retailer? Of course, but I won't get the same customer service and feeling of security I get when ordering from Amazon. In the end, it doesn't affect me as much. I'll still buy from Amazon but I will no longer be an affiliate of any body. It's just too much hassle since there's no "all-in-one" online retailer I can link to as easily as Amazon.

Just did an upgrade to my current home theater setup by replacing my old Mac Mini with the new version. First impressions... Very impressive. Aside from the slimmer design (and included HDMI port), the playback performance was noticeably better. Mind you my old Mac Mini (2ghz - 4GB RAM) performed like a champ but had stuttering every now and then. Not so with the new model even with 2GB less RAM. Another thing I notice when ripping movies with MakeMKV was that I would often get the alert that my hard drive was not writing as fast as MakeMKV was ripping. Not so with the new model so I'll assume Apple sprung for 7200rpm drives instead of 5400rpm ones (can't confirm this though).