Boston Globe: Tufts may no longer bare a student tradition

Danny O’Brien: On following the rules. Insert a witty dig at the INS and its excessive bureaucracy here.

size matters– but Measurement is Tricky

While other aspects of the internet sector have been researched, dissected, measured and analyzed in depth, the online porn sector continues to be something of a mystery –in terms of the number of people who visit adult sites, how much money they spend and how much revenue the sector is worth per year. The reasons for this are fairly obvious: most internet users would rather not admit they visit adult sites, and most adult sites would rather not admit what exactly it is they do and how much they earn

Movies not available at all [Prof. Lessig]
Recordings never made available on CD [NPR Weekend Edition]

Creative Commons and Animation about the Commons
I’m going to read through the different licensing schemes at some point…

Jeremy Blachman is a mad genius (or maybe just simply mad.) If the world went by the Model Penal Code (in song.)

Citizens, not consumers

I am a citizen, or denizen, if you will, of the internet. A netizen. I’ve lived here for a long time (since 1984 – remember what was supposed to happen then?). I’m tolerant of my neighbors, even the noisy ones that just moved in and insist on playing their music loud and putting up banner ads everywhere. It’s my hope that those of you reading this are also citizens of the internet.
I’m a producer of things, I do not spend all my time “consuming”. I play piano. I write code. I parody the government’s crypto policy. I write articles and occasionally get paid for them. Just because I don’t work for one of the big five, oops, four, companies that control 84% of the music in the United States does NOT put me in the catagory of a consumer. I can’t believe you out there reading this spend all your time consuming, either.

Today, LMDC unveiled seven new plans for the WTC site

Begging for a Break?

Now then, you, umm, might want to download Realplayer by 10 PM GMT on Wednesday the 18th of December 2002. Do we? You might. We think it’s a good idea. Unless of course, you have something better to do.

New Radiohead material could be a nice break from the dormant (and active) Commerce clause. More at NME.

Didn’t accrue enough debt going to law school? Why not add some more immediately after law school? Law Schools Urge Graduates to Start Small and Think Local

Convinced that corporate largess and government programs barely dent the nation’s legal needs, [some] law schools are urging graduates to buck tradition, pass up big salaries and ignore mushrooming student debt to join tiny neighborhood practices or simply start their own, all with an eye toward charging no more than their clients can afford.

Since the tenative agreement between the MTA and TWU fortunately kept the subways running, exams continued to tick along today. It was mildly surreal leaving the law school after the torts exam to the scene of transit workers marching from MTA headquarters towards the Brooklyn Bridge with at least 5 news helicopters hovering overhead.
Now, only the final stretch looms (3 down and Con law to go.) At this point I am very anxious. I realized that I didn’t get around to addressing some issues in today’s torts fact pattern that I would have liked to and that I didn’t address the ones I did in sufficient detail. I realized that some of my answers for Civ Pro were conclusory and lacked enough explanation. and that I wrote from Crim Law probably lacks cromulency. But I can’t evaluate how much these errors might have affected me. In all these substantive classes (except for Civ Pro), there has been no feedback to date. Furthermore ,in these classes (except for Civ Pro), the entire grade rests on this one exam. These first year grades are then overemphasized when interviewing season rolls around next fall. I may have dug myself into a deep hole and not know it yet. Unlike undergrad, where I could generally tell how I did on a paper, or even the LSATs last year, where I walked out and knew I didn’t do so well, I can’t really evaluate how well I did on these exams. (Speaking of interviewing, I need to get started on finding something to do for this summer, since I have yet to get any non-negative response from my early inquires.)
While doubting whether I am on the way to suceeding in law school, I stopped by the old employer’s holiday party last week and spent some time with people not completely absorbed by exam season. I’ve been wondering if I would have not only better quality of life now than I do if I wasn’t in law school, but if my quality of life will not be noticeably better after law school. I also noticed that there’s a different vibe between the co-workers and the 1L’s, a manifestation of the collective, cooperative ethic rather than latent (and outright) competitiveness.
While it may be too late for other law students this semester, don’t forget that one can use The Simpsons to illustrate principles of tort law. See Bart Gets Hit by a Car (part of Season 2.)

Today was the conclusion of this year’s edition of one of the more unique events in sports, 24 Hours of Aspen, in which skiers compete to see who can complete the most runs in 24 hours. That’s one long day of riding the gondola up and skiing down 3,267 vertical feet.

The fastest lap on record, 2:10.98, was set in 1998 by brothers Martin and Graham Bell from Great Britain. (A lap is 2.69 linear miles.)
The most vertical feet skied in 24 hours by a man is 271,161 (83 laps.) Earning the nickname “Superman,” Chris Kent of Canada set the world record in 1991. The record still stands.
The most vertical feet skied in 24 hours by a woman is 261,360 (80 laps). The world record, which still stands, was set by Kate McBride and Anda Rojs in 1997.

Check out the video of a racer’s point of view.

The Free Expression Project: The Progress of Science and Useful Arts: Why Copyright Today Threatens Intellectual Freedom

Robert X. Cringely: Curtain Call: Finally, a Business Model for Music in the Internet Age, and Why the Music Industry Probably Won’t Go for It
Mostly a good article, but Cringely does suggest one idea with which I disagree:

The key to this is finding a way to sell music in a way that it can’t be ripped. What is unrippable is live new music at concerts, or a mix of old hits and new music with the emphasis on performance — on being there. DON’T sell CDs of new music at a concert. Sell CDs of older stuff, but make buying a ticket the only way to hear a new song in the first three months.

I have two issues with this strategy. First, as a fan, I want to walk away from the show with a copy of that great new song. As I musician, I want fans to be able to walk away with a copy of those new songs. I’d even be happy if they ripped a copy of those new songs and sent them to their friends, to encourage them to attend the next show (and buy their own copy of the disc.) The way to attract people to the live performance is by making each show unique and entertaining, by varying setlists, playing through a deep catalog and constantly trying new approaches to songs. Make every fan want to hear every set.
Second, is live music really unrippable? Etree.org members would disagree. I’ve gotten recordings of concerts within a week of the show. While not every artist allows taping of their live shows, enough do to make the field interesting.

Scott Rosenberg covers the Supernova Conference on decentralized technologies: Life on the edge
Or, you can read decentralized coverage about decentralized tech on the Supernova 2002 Trackback blog

Tim O’Reilly: Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution.

Lesson 1: Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy…
…And that’s the ultimate lesson. “Give the wookie what he wants!” as Han Solo said so memorably in the first Star Wars movie. Give it to him in as many ways as you can find, at a fair price, and let him choose which works best for him.

I had trouble picking out a pull quote from this piece, because it is consistently cogent and eloquent throughout.

Some reading on Total Information Awareness via Politech:

• The New Yorker: Too Much Information
• EFF’s Brad Templeton and Norm Singleton on TIA’s true threat
• Mordechai Ben-Menachem on Pentagon’s TIA: “Lies and obfuscation”
• Replies to “What’s so bad about Total Information Awareness?”
• More on data mining, TIA, and how to ID terrorists
• Village Voice: Nat Hentoff: We’ll All Be Under Surveillance

After finding Manhattan in WiFi, Metafilter maps Manhattan (and Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island)
The gem: guide to public bathrooms

Ever wondered where FedEx sends a letter to Santa?

Technical difficulties
and Oliver Willis put together a nice Bush/Lott Campaign Ad. For more coverage of Lott, see Atrios

Do Big Debts Keep Law Grads Out of Low-Paying Public Service Jobs or do Law grads turn to corporate crime fighting? When the economy is down, the government is still hiring, and less money is always preferable to no money.

Should Linking Be Immune From Lawsuits

Linking can trigger a whole variety of legal claims. They range from libel, to invasion of privacy, to trademark or copyright infringement, and more.
What are the theories under which linkers can be liable? Linkers should be wary when it comes to any area of law that allows for contributory, vicarious, or “aiding and abetting” liability; imposes liability on republishers or disseminators of information, as well as original publishers; or simply is vague about who the “publisher” is in the first place. And unfortunately, that describes many areas of law.

See also the discussion at Lawmeme

Fun with Flash: Swedish Singing Horses

Australia’s High Court delivers an opinion on Internet jurisdiction in Dow Jones & Company Inc v Gutnick

As bad as it may seem to be a student this time of year (and my crim law exam was not fun), we should appreciate just how easy we have it here in the US.
Iranian students have more than just exams to deal with. As they work against a repressive government to secure key freedoms, Iran Student Movement Finds New Vitality.

Students “would not burst into such protests if they had basic freedoms such as wearing what they wish, listening to music or if men and women could freely mingle, and have normal lives,” said one student, Sajad Ghorghi, 22. But because there are bans on such simple freedoms, he said, the students have to express their demands in political terms.
Reza Delbari, 24, said he would graduate this year, but even if he was lucky enough to find a job, he would earn only $150 a month, not enough to even rent a room.
“Then I have to be intimidated and humiliated every day by people who want to say what is religiously right,” he said. “We cannot even decide for our own future.”

In Iran, our contemporaries are fighting against a repressive government for those things we take for granted– economic opportunity (if any will be left after Bushonomics) and the freedoms to surf the web, watch MTV and not have government spies watching our every movement.

Where I’d like to be:

Where I am:

John Hiler’s new Cityblog: New York could become very cool.
Some improvements could catapult from a good concept to truly badass:

1. A music section.
2. More collaboration. To be more comprehensive, the site needs more bloggers. While some posters will gravitate towards certain types of events, each section can not be limited to one person’s opinion. But each post should be signed by its poster, so that users can get to know the personalities and preferences of the posters. While the site needs to have a voice, it has to be the sum of a number of unique voices.
3. Rankings. In addition to the event posters, other users could note what events look especially interesting. Then, as readers become familiar with the various posters, readers can also rank the quality of the posters, so that events suggested by posters who I like will have a higher default ranking than events suggested by posters who have different tastes than I.
4. An iCal format calendar to which users can subscribe.

Speaking of NYC events, tomorrow night,Modern Groove Syndicate is playing at the Lion’s Den. 11 PM. See you there.

Ernie the Attorney: Anatomy of a conversation among weblogs. What does Judge Posner really think about expanding intellectual property rights?
Expect few posts here this week as it’s finals season, and time for random attacks of panic.

Keep Big Brother’s Hands Off the Internet

There is a concern that the Internet could be used to commit crimes and that advanced encryption could disguise such activity. However, we do not provide the government with phone jacks outside our homes for unlimited wiretaps. Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to our communications across the Web?
The administration’s interest in all e-mail is a wholly unhealthy precedent, especially given this administration’s track record on FBI files and IRS snooping. Every medium by which people communicate can be subject to exploitation by those with illegal intentions. Nevertheless, this is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records, read our medical records, or translate our international communications.

That was Senator John Ashcroft writing in 1997. In 2002, “[Expanded wiretap powers are] a giant step forward,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said. “This revolutionizes our ability to investigate terrorists and prosecute terrorist acts.” In the Name of Security. Perhaps “Total Information Awareness” must only be a bad thing when you don’t have the information.

Will Ferrell: “Santa got hit by a lawsuit. I got my ass handed to me.”
Also, Ferrell reveals what’s on Santa’s iPod: “980 Christmas songs, 20 Doobie Brothers… and 1 Sheryl crow”

Just because the Internet makes everything distant seem local, does that effect jurisdictional issues for lawsuits involving sending stuff via the net? The California Supreme Court addressed that question in Pavlovich v. Superior Court
(via Bag and Baggage)

New York has quite a number of official state items. For example, the bluebird is the official state bird. Apple is the official fruit. The apple muffin is the official muffin. Milk is the official beverage. The American beaver is the official animal. The sugar maple is the official tree. The brook, or speckled, trout is the official fish. The Eurypterus remipes is the official state fossil.

Red Meat is the funniest comic strip I’ve come across lately.
It’s even useful for studying for torts:

How many bloggers does it take to blog a conference about blogs?

• Lawmeme’s Steven Wu
• Hylton Joliffe (Corante)
• Donna Wentworth (Copyfight)
• Denise Howell
• Henry Copeland
• Kate and Lily Malcolm (The Kitchen Cabinet)
• Jeff Jarvis
• Tim Schnabel
• Rory Perry

Posner on copyright law: Left gets nod from right on copyright law

One advantage of not being able to fall asleep is that it frees up time to do things you’re putting off so that you can sleep. For example, putting up my freshly revised, career center approved resume on the web. Get your own law student for summer indentured servitude.

Some people think in ways that I will never comprehend. For example, the inventor of turducken. Turkey Finds Its Inner Duck (and Chicken)

Prof. Cooper: “Sometimes I encounter an argument that seems so self-evidently wrong that I hardly know how to respond. ”

Is the personal computer a media creation tool or simply a playback device? I wrote a follow-up comment to the no Movielink for Mac users post from yesterday, and two articles I’ve seen today are discussing different aspects of the same idea. Regarding why there is no DRM for the Mac, I wrote:

I think the fact that no DRM (Digital Rights Management) scheme has been introduced on the Mac yet is the differing philosophies of the media technology developers. Microsoft and Real are focused on the PC as a playback device– one where “content creators” can decide how their content will be used. Apple is focused on the personal computer as a creativity tool– enabling the user to create and manage digital media in the way that is most convenient to the user. As a result, DRM is a very low priority for Apple, since they see Quicktime (and OS X) as a creativity enabler, not a mere playback device. Apple’s multimedia vision is consistent with the idea of the Internet as a two-way medium supporting the democratization of information and distribution, while the Microsoft/Real approach to DRM is more consistent with the traditional, limited, one-way distribution from a few sources.

In Tidbits, Adam Engst discusses the effects of “trusted computing” (an idea that is a superset of DRM) and the DMCA:

A trusted system could prevent you not only from copying a CD or DVD, but also from listening to the CD more than a certain number of times in a day or skipping commercials on a DVD or on broadcast television. Along with requiring us to buy new hardware to play such content and buy new protected versions of the content we already own, a trusted system could have another ill effect. That’s because it could prevent us from working with content we would create, using tools such as those Apple kindly provides in iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, and iPhoto.

Also, Lawmeme notes a letter from tech companies to cable companies expressing concern that cable internet access will not remain internet access, but become access to only “trusted” media sources.
I think there’s a connection between these ideas, but it also may be that I’m just sleep deprived.

Tunnel Visions

Few New Yorkers are aware that an abandoned railway tunnel runs under downtown Brooklyn, and for a good reason: Until 20 years ago it was more or less an urban legend, a massive Industrial-Age artifact that somehow had been lost in the bureaucratic shuffle at the city planner’s office.

Count me among those who didn’t know that the world’s oldest subway tunnel runs under Atlantic Avenue here in Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn Railway Historic Association not only runs tours and exhibits in the Atlantic Ave. tunnel, but is developing light rail in Red Hook, with plans to extend it to downtown Brooklyn.

Get a free copy of Sean Carter’s book If It Does Not Fit, Must You Acquit? — Your Humorous Guide to the Law. Sean writes:

I may have already relayed this to you but just in case, I wanted you to know that I am giving away a free copy of my book, “If It Does Not Fit, Must You Acquit? — Your Humorous Guide to the Law” to the first law student from each school who registers with my site. I’ve been running this promotion for a little while now and am almost out of free books but I wanted to let your readers get in on it.

Lawpsided.com

I’m not sure why my internal clock has decided that going to sleep earlier and sleeping straight through from 11:30 to 7:30 is a bad idea, but tonight is nowhere near the first night in the last few weeks that it’s told me that 2:30 AM is a good time to wake up. Maybe there actually is a reason to read through Federal Rules of Civil Procedure…

The Future of Music Coalition released a large study on the effects of consolidation in the radio industry: Radio Deregulation: Has It Harmed Citizens and Musicians?

The radical deregulation of the radio industry allowed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has not benefited the public or musicians. Instead, it has led to less competition, fewer viewpoints, and less diversity in programming. Deregulation has damaged radio as a public resource…
…Radio listeners want to hear a wider range of music that includes local musicians. Twenty-five percent of survey respondents said they hear too little of the music they like; 38 percent said that local artists are underexposed on the radio

NYPIRG’s Straphangers Campaign suggests that the MTA should lower fares without losing revenue.( full report.)

Macs have a number of easy to use tools for creating and managing audio and video, such as iMovie and iTunes, but to be the type of mere consumer the movie industry wants, no Macs allowed

If I took away anything from Standing in the Shadows of Motown, it is the importance of a good bass line. The bass is where it all starts. That’s why Standing in the Shadows of Motown the book looks very interesting for the bass line transcriptions.
I agree with many of the criticisms of the film that Charles Taylor raises in his review, that it glosses over many issues, but the movie fulfills its main goal well, introducing the men behind the Motown sound. The performances use merely serviceable vocals to keep them from detracting from the band, but like the rest of the movie, the concert footage is fun.
Speaking of good rhythm sections, this is a Good Thing.

Double majoring is becoming the latest hot trend in college: For Students Seeking Edge, One Major Just Isn’t Enough. Any double or triple major beyond a small marginal effort (like adding Russian to International Relations) is really not worth the effort. Unless, of course, one is very interested in both subjects and would take the same courses without needing to meet requirements.

Following up on the junior hockey lawsuit story is Bill Pennington’s Sports of the Times column National Passion Gone Awry.

What is red, white and blue and home to a burgeoning myriad of heedless litigation?
No, you hoser, it is not the United States court system. It’s a Canadian hockey rink.
Canadian sporting tradition used to be freezing the backyard pond so the kids could play. Lately, it has been filing suit to freeze the assets of your neighbor so he will pay.

NPR: ‘The Muppet Show’ Goes On

Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones’ original bass player) is suing Bill Wyman (Atlanta journalist): Will the real Bill Wyman please tune up?

“It has come to our and our client’s attention . . .” “. . . seriously misleading . . . unauthorized . . .” “. . . cease and desist . . .” “. . . your course of conduct . . .” “. . . the commencement of legal proceedings . . .”
As I read Mr. Siegel’s letter more closely I was shocked to see that the “cease and desist” part had to do with me using . . .My own name?

William Safire: You Are a Suspect

New words in the OED. NYT: Latest Word: ‘Klingons’ in, ‘Muggles’ Not Quite

“Obviously the majority of language references is not made up of fun phrases like ‘go commando,’ and we spend a lot of time arguing with equal vehemence about things that would seem extremely obscure to average people,”

Other new words to make it into the dictionary include “wannabe,” “aerobicist,” “body-piercing,” “comb-over,” “lipectomy,” “body mass index,” “orthorexia,” “Botox,” “Viagra” “Prozac.”, “Falun Gong” and the “Taliban.” “Klingons,” “Jedi knights” and the “Force” are joined by other sci-fi favorites “dilithium,” “warp drive, “dark side, “mind-meld” and “Luke Skywalker.”

Manute Bol to play minor-league hockey. No kidding. Fresh off his celebrity boxing match with The Fridge, Bol is going to become the tallest minor league hockey player in history.

By all accounts, Bol has never played the sport or ever laced up a pair of skates. At this point, equipment that would fit the Dinka tribesman has not been located.

Bol is going to become the tallest minor league hockey shameless publicity stunt in history.
UPDATE: Here are some links with more information about the crisis in Sudan, as well as NGO’s working to alleviate the situation:
UNHCR: Info
CIA World Factbook: Sudan
WHO: Situation Reports for Sudan Humanitarian Crisis
UNICEF: Sudan Overview
USAID: Darfur Humanitarian Emergency
CRS: Sudan: Humanitarian Crisis, Peace Talks, Terrorism and US Policy (4/23/03)
ReliefWeb: Sudan

RIAA to colleges: P2P is evil, take a look at it
EPIC to colleges: Do you really want to spy on your students?

While network monitoring is appropriate for certain purposes such as security and bandwidth management, the surveillance of individuals’ Internet communications implicates important rights, and raises questions about the appropriate role of higher education institutions in policing private behavior.

Colleges: we’ll kick some students offline for distributing copyrighted material, but we need to come up with a better policy

The jurisprudence of Bob Dylan

[New York Law School professor Michael] Perlin believes that Dylan has had a lot to say about the law over the years, and that Dylan’s songs lay out an entire system of legal philosophy—a jurisprudence of Bob Dylan, if you will—which Perlin has set out to decipher and, of course, publish one day in a reputable journal.

Court to hear porn case. Actually, the case is about mandatory filtering in libraries and the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
In related parody, from the Onion: Supreme Court Makes Pact To Lose Virginity By End Of Year

Northeast as Outsider, Begging for Scraps

With their capture of the Senate last Tuesday, Republicans will hold the presidency and majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in half a century (except for a few months early in 2001). At the same time, the Northeast has become the most reliably Democratic region of the country, a bit like a street waif in an old silent picture, nose plaintively pressed against the glass, hungrily watching someone else’s party.

Is the country outside of the Northeast really as different as the politics might suggest?

Rock and Roll Confidential’s Guide to being on MTV’s Cribs includes such sage advice as:

8. They are not friends. They are dawgz.
9. On the day of taping, you must have a minimum of 8 to 10 dawgz kickin’ it in your pool, studio and theater areas.
10. One does not relax. One cheelz.

(via BoingBoing)

Bondage Barbie is a parody that appears to pose no threat to sales of Barbie dolls and does not seem to violate Mattel’s copyright.
From US District Court for the Southern Disctrict of NY, the ruling denying Mattel’s motion for summary judgment in Mattel v. Pitt

Father sues team for not naming son MVP

A Canadian father is suing the New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association after his 16-year-old son failed to win the league’s most valuable player award. Michael Croteau is seeking about $200,000 in psychological and punitive damages from the association. He also demands that the MVP trophy be taken from the winner and given to his son, Steven.

(via Sportsfilter)

F-Word in Thesis Earns an F in Court

Next month, Christopher Todd Brown will try to get the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in an effort to establish what he considers a basic constitutional right — the right to write “F–k You” to university administrators in his master’s thesis.

John Wheeler, better known as Barley Scotch, the lead singer of Hayseed Dixie is on with Steve Inskeep for All Things Considered: CD Pays Bluegrass Tribute to Rockers AC/DC

New York State Artistic Freedom Act of 2002

The “Artistic Freedom Act of 2002,” will protect certain performing artists in the sound recording industry from the restrictions of overly long personal service contracts. New York is a national center of artistic expression, a dynamic which benefits the entire community of our state. It is incumbent upon the legislature to ensure that creative artists are not unduly restrained in their efforts to obtain
work, participate in the free market or to associate freely.
It establishes a time limit of three years for unrepresented artists and seven years for artists represented by qualified counsel. This period will allow both the employer and the artist to benefit from their bargain for a reasonable length of time. It is limited to certain performing artists in the sound recording industry where binding time frames of as long as 25 years have been found to unfairly burden the artist.

But,
RIAA Sees No Future For N.Y. Artists’ Bill (via Current copyright readings)

More U.S. homes have outhouses (671,000) than TiVos (504,000 to 514,000). I wonder how many homes have both an outhouse and a PVR.

Pud has the full Clifford Chance Associates memo. The associates have some concrete suggestions to improve the quality of life at the firm:

• “Put plates and utensils in the pantries, so that people working late can avoid eating out of containers.
• “Have people submit nominations for staff members who have done a particularly good job, draw one nomination at random, announce what was written (perhaps in “Americas Today” or of a firm social) and give the winner $100.
• Bigger refrigerator on 52.
• Get rid of the shabby office furniture and buy ergonomically correct chairs. Many associates have commented that the chairs they have hurt their backs.
• ” Free shoe shines.
• ” Give out corporate accessories and toys.
• ” Give a prize to associates who publish scholarly articles.
• ” Let associates who publish articles publish them in their own names.”

And they’d like the 2420 billable hour requirement relaxed.
Dahlia Lithwick: Free the Baby Lawyers

This week, I got a new mobile phone, the way cool Sony Ericsson T68i. The T68i has built-in bluetooth, allowing it to work with iSync. I’m impressed by just how cool this is, how easy it was to set up and how well it works. It even matches nicely with the iBook.
I may not keep the T68i, however, since I only get 1-2 bars (out of 5) of reception at my apartment, and that’s only when I hold the phone up to the window. Reception and sound quality is excellent by the law school and elsewhere in the city, but the phone doesn’t pick up enough signal at home. Since I have read that the T68i has some issues with reception, I may need to go back to a bluetooth-less Nokia.

Denise Howell discusses distributed legal research & commentary: Back Linking, Forward Looking
Today was our first computer-aided legal research training, from the Lexis rep. I am amazed by the volume of money that Lexis and West spend in order to hook law students on using their services. No wonder the services are so expensive.

Stop the Clock? Critics Call the Billable Hour a Legal Fiction

Carl T. Bogus, a law professor at Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., noted that “no human being can be productive every minute of the workday.”

I’ll admit I’m only quoting that paragraph because the Professor quoted is named Bogus.

More links to material on the Tenafly Eruv lawsuit.
Law.com: Removal of Eruv Found Violative of Religious Freedom
PBS/WNET: Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: Jew v. Jew, with Samuel Freedman (author of Jew Vs. Jew
Tanya Phillips, Rutgers Journal of Law & Religion: Appeal Pending in Tenafly Eruv Case
JLaw Amicus Brief
Becket Fund on Tenafly Eruv v. Tenafly, including some links to Bergen Record articles.

Demonstrating its penchant for getting involved in ridiculous lawsuits, my hometown of Tenafly made it to the United States Court of Appeals, for the 3rd Circuit: Tenafly Eruv Assn v. Tenafly

Though the plaintiffs are not likely to prevail on their Fair Housing Act claim and do not present a viable free speech claim, they are reasonably likely to show that the Borough violated the Free Exercise Clause by applying Ordinance 691 selectively against conduct motivated by Orthodox Jewish beliefs. Because the three other factors for injunctive relief also favor the plaintiffs, we reverse the District Court’s denial of injunctive relief and will enter an order directing the Court to issue a preliminary injunction barring the Borough from removing the lechis,

(via How Appealing)

Denise Howell on the present and future of legal research: Modern Taxonomies for The Digital Banquet.

TechnoPop: The Secret History of Technology and Pop Music

Just 15 years ago, a professional-quality recording studio that incorporated all of the technologies that have revolutionized music over the decades would have cost tens of thousands of dollars, or more. Today, anyone can make the same sounds on a simple home computer with a few hundred dollars of software. What’s more, the Internet has made it possible for musicians to distribute their music for free. Some people call it the triumph of the amateurs — the ultimate democratization of the means of production. Others say it’s the end of pop music as we know it.

Dilbert readers decided that lawyers are the second-“weasliest” professionals, behind news reporters, but worse than politicians, oil executives, tobacco executives and accountants. Dave goes Weasel to Weasel with Scott Adams.

Cookin’ with Google from ResearchBuzz.

Does eBay discriminate against independent artists? At least one Band Can’t Sell Own Music on eBay.

Do NOT download or read these books online if you or your system are in the United States. (via Prof. Lessig)

Somehow I doubt this is the kind of contract that we’ll be covering in Contracts class:
‘SPACE ALIENS SIGNED THE MOON OVER TO ME. . . AND I HAVE THE CONTRACT TO PROVE IT!’ (via Boing Boing)

Roadies, a flash time-waster from the BBC.

Get the Roadies to the gig on time, avoiding the perils of bouncers, big falls and of course every Roadie’s biggest fear: musicians.

In the discussion about freeing legal data, tph posted about citation copyrights and public domain citations, with citations to cases. Looking through the Bluebook, I see that ten states(Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin) have adopted public domain citations.
I am disturbed, amused and confused by the comments on this post

Chronicle of Higher Education: Who is Eric Eldred?

Anil Dash: Introducing the Microcontent Client

PageRank by Judicial Decree? SearchKing Sues Google

LawMeme is curious how much SearchKing is paying its attorneys to handle this suit, since LawMeme is of the opinion that any non-zero dollar figure is too much. Ill-considered legal fees may not lurk behind every dot-com death spiral, but this suit can’t be very good for SearchKing’s chances of survival.

Don’t forget to read the Search King’s reply in the comments on the Lawmeme article, or the Slashdot discussion, or The Kuro5hin discussion. Also, an: Exclusive interview with SearchKing

Ronettes’ Profits Limited by 1963 Contract

The New York Court of Appeals denied a pioneering “girl group” trio, the Ronettes, millions of dollars in profits from the synchronization of their work Thursday.
In a 5-0 opinion, the court said the members of the group are bound by the terms of a contract they signed without benefit of counsel when they were obscure teen-agers from Spanish Harlem.

Bands signed to bad contracts will be stuck in those contracts.

The Remote Controllers

With the aid of the Internet, the loftiest dream for television is being realized: an odd brand of interactivity. Television began as a one-way street winding from producers to consumers, but that street is now becoming two-way. A man with one machine (a TV) is doomed to isolation, but a man with two machines (TV and a computer) can belong to a community.

What type of interactivity is this?

Comic Book Guy: “Worst. Episode. Ever. Rest assured that I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.

4F12: The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show

I’m still thinking about open access to public legal documents. On a related theme, Yale Law professor Akhil Reed Amar on the Supreme Court records: Too Much Order in the Court: How The Justices Betray Their Own Free Speech Principles (via Lawmeme). Also at Lawmeme: The Truth About ”Some Truth About Copyright’.
Eldred v. Ashcroft oral argument transcript courtesy of Aaron Swartz
International Federation of LIbrary Associations and Institutions: Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in the Digital Environment: An International Library Perspective
Current copyright readings, from Northwestern University librarian M. Claire Stewart.

Alice questions the feasibility of my utopian legal research scheme and wonders if it would end up making research harder, by killing off West and Lexis. I highly doubt that courts publishing their cases in a standard electronic format would kill off West or Lexis, or even have a significant effect on their revenues. In fact, it might make it even cheaper for those services to add new data (although probably not. I assume they get material in some sort of electronic format already.)
Even if data is available free, there is still room for premium research services.

People are willing to pay for data that is otherwise free, if it is well organized and easy to search. For example, eMarketer (my former employer) does this for internet stats. West and Lexis provide a significant added value to the raw data (the value of human editing, classifying cases into the relevant materials.) What I’m suggested is a standard for distributing the electronic equivalent of official court reporters (which, according to a law librarian, “you’re never going to actually use.”)
Open legal data is not going to replace the proprietary databases, and probably won’t even make legal research all that much cheaper. What it does do is to allow law libraries, schools and firms to be able to create their own unique tools based on freely available data. A firm could create an electronic database of case law focusing in on a certain area, and index it using a much more detailed taxonomy than West’s. A tool that spiders through cases and pulls out the links between them from citations (ala Blogdex), and give entities the opportunity to have research tools that are better suited to their individual needs. A firm’s internal research system could store their own metadata alongside the primary materials. Open formats would open legal research to new creative, specialized tools. This is not creating a single monolithic scheme, but opening the door to many specialized and innovative search schemes. For example, look at Google API and offer lawyers a larger number of unique, specialized tools.
The biggest obstacle to this being useful anytime soon is not convincing the judges of the relevance– electronic publishing will likely be cheaper than publishing on paper– but in getting out the 200+ years of historical data that’s in books and proprietary databases into an open, standard format.
EDIT: Donna Wentworth asks:

Let’s just say that someone had a copy of the Eldred Supreme Court transcripts, culled from the generous-yet-decidedly-proprietary databanks of Lexis-Nexis. Could that someone then go ahead and publish the transcripts on her weblog?

On the same theme, wouldn’t that be easier if there was public access to public court records?

Label gets setback in royalties suit

A federal judge in Nashville has issued the first major ruling in a massive lawsuit over royalties related to rap artists’ sampling of music recorded by R&B legend George Clinton, possibly setting a precedent for how the court will handle related legal matters.

If you hear any noise, it’s just George and the lawyers for the band.This is the first decision from 486 separate cases arising from a single 1,077 page lawsuit filed by George Clinton’s (former) label and publisher.

Interesting things may show up in your web referral logs.For example, French U2 fans are talking about me:

j’ai le droit moi aussi demettre des liens ?
www.andrewraff.com
et quand on va dans l’onglet music on se rends compte que ce pti gars a de bons goûts….

And I have no idea what they are saying. Sherlock translates that to:

I have the right me also demettre links? www.andrewraff.com
and when one goes in the mitre music one realize that this pti guy has good tastes….

which leaves me even more confused than reading the post in French. Can someone translate for me?

Mike, at Method to the Madness talks about judicial decisions as an XML data object, something that I’ve been thinking about. As we’ve been learning legal research (today’s class covered proper Bluebook citation form… fun, fun fun), I’ve been impressed with the citation system and West’s organizational and research tools (headnotes and digests, etc.) But the internet and XML will be able to kick it up a notch. Good stuff will happen when the courts are publishing all of their opinions in an open format and law libraries can load them into their own internal systems. For example, dynamically created charts following the evolution of a rule.
Network effects should (hopefully) drive down the cost of electronic legal research. The next few years will be an exciting time as the members of the first generation to grow up with computers start practicing law.
For the record, I did start briefing in a Filemaker database, but found that it wasn’t as good a tool as I thought. The way I built the database offers little use in showing the relationships between cases or how the case fits in with the overarching themes of the course. I use OmniOutliner for case briefs and class notes (although I use the trusty pen and paper for most classes.) It seems to be the best tool I’ve found for organizing notes, but it’s not perfect. I’m still looking for the holy grail of data organization, but it probably will be in finding the correct balance of the proper tools.

Beer Toppling Vodka’s Reign. Beer is becoming more popular in Russia, and could threaten to change the ubiquity of vodka as a central part of Russian culture.

Vodka consumption has fallen somewhat, but not at the rate that beer consumption has risen. To many Russians, beer is seen as nothing more than a soft drink; teenagers regularly walk down streets or in and out of subway stations in the middle of the day, bottle in hand.

This story looks oddly familiar…
1999: BBC: Beer is the new vodka in Russia
1999: CNN: Russia’s beer market ready to be tapped
2002: BBC: Russian vodka faces flood of beer
2002: The Russia Journal: Russia’s alternative to beer is vodka, not health
Google also led me to Russian Beer Market – June 2001 from the British Embassy in Moscow

New copyright legislation to ban all imports of pirate copies

[Finland’s] new law on copyrights would ban all imports of pirate copies from abroad. In practice, a Finn returning home with five to ten pirate CDs would most likely not be penalised, but the recordings would be confiscated.

(via GrepLaw)

Prof. Lessig: from the front line

The greatest fear we had about this strategy (beyond the backfiring point) was that it all presupposed that the Court got it. It presupposed that the Court understood the problem with extensions of existing terms; that it understood the harm that would do to the internet, and the ability of people to build on the internet; that it saw the law as useless.

NYT: An Uphill Battle in Copyright Case

“It is hard to understand how, if the overall purpose of the Copyright Clause is to encourage creative work, how some retroactive extension could possibly do that,” said Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. “One wonders what was in the minds of the Congress.”

From Wash U, a forecast for Eldred v. Ashcroft
And as always, there’s even more at Copyfight

True law geeks can eschew fantasy sports for the Fantasy Supreme Court League. (via Ernie the Attorney)

I’ve occasionally wondered how law professors prepare for class. Jeff Cooper shares some insight.

We’ve got hockey

Copyfight links to scads of accounts from Eldred v. Ashcroft: AP, SCOTUSblog (Erik Jaffe), AllAfrica.com, A How Appealing reader, Washington Post, NY Times, Declan McCullagh’s photos, LawMeme (part 2)
Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to read these sometime today.

Q Daily News: Oh, how much I love rollerblading in Central Park. (with map.)
I usually start at Tavern on the Green (66th st.) and work my way around. The Central Park loop is unquestionably my favorite skate in the city, and the downhill at the north end is big fun (until 2/3 of the way up Heartbreak hill.)

Movable Type is 1 year old

Lawmeme’s Raul Ruiz and Ernest Miller report live from the Eldred v. Aschroft oral arguments (from memory.)
NPR’s Nina Totenberg on Morning Edition: Supreme Court Hears Copyright Case (7:26 realaudio segment)
Donna Wentworth has the motherlode of Eldred links at Copyfight and points to this Harvard Law School Berkman Center press sheet: Mickey Rattles the Bars

Yet another example of something that could only exist on the web: Collection of others’ grocery lists
What happens when you throw chunks of sodium in a lake? Fun with Sodium (via Boing Boing)
Did you know that:

• Andrew Raff is a pogo stick that hovers three feet from the ground, has been featured in Star Trek and is also available in white.
• andrewraff.com is a games console that tracks its position with GPS! It is programmed against harming humans.
• New York is a lunchbox that plays Nethack, produces 240v of electricity and requires a sample of DNA.
• New Jersey is a bar of soap that can be taken on holiday!
• Agents of Good Roots is like a normal tricycle, but it cannot be moved.

That’s what I learned from the Prior-Art-O-Matic (via Paul’s Boutique)

It’s First Monday, and the Supreme Court is starting its session. Hopes are high this year for the big free agent signings…oops, that’s for Wednesday, when hockey season starts. Wednesday is also when the Court will hear oral arguments in Eldred v. Ashcroft, the copyright case that Internet law geeks have been talking about for months. Today, it’s getting some press;

• Stephen Levy in Newsweek Glitterati vs. Geeks
• AP: Web site fights copyrights, royalties
• NPR’s Nina Totenberg: New High Court Session to Hear Range of Cases

For the motherlode of links, see Copyfight: Countdown to the Showdown and Jurist for previews of the season.

HR 5524, the Global Internet Freedom Act (revisit last week) is meant to ensure the Internet remains open and free worldwide. But LawMeme’s Ernest Miller has found the loophole that makes this bill no more than a $100 million pork project.

Looks interesting. Yale Law School: Revenge of the Blog.

SCOTUSBlog, a blog covering the US Supreme Court. Hopefully the admirable level of detail will continue through the Court’s term.

Wired News: Fighting Net Censorship Abroad

Rep. Chris Cox (R-Calif.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would establish an Office of Global Internet Freedom to foster development of censorship-busting technology for users in countries including China and Saudi Arabia. The bill would allocate $50 million each for 2003 and 2004

Clay Shirky: Weblogs and Publishing

A lot of people in the weblog world are asking “How can we make money doing this?” The answer is that most of us can’t. Weblogs are not a new kind of publishing that requires a new system of financial reward. Instead, weblogs mark a radical break. They are such an efficient tool for distributing the written word that they make publishing a financially worthless activity

The Onion: Temp Hides Fun, Fulfilling Life From Rest of Office

“At a job like this, where you’re surrounded by angry, perpetually stressed-out lawyers who are working 80 hours a week, it’s important to hide the fact that you’re enjoying a normal, balanced, happy life,” Braxton said Monday. “People get really pissed when they hear stuff like that.

If you have the money, you probably don’t have time to enjoy it. If you have lots of free time, you’re probably constrained by not having enough money. Or, if you’re in law school, you have no time and no money.

David Pogue looks at the latest batch of convergent devices (PDA/phones): Cellphones, and Then Some: The Latest High-Tech Mergers
My wireless service contract with AT&T is up and I’d like to get a new phone/pda hybrid, but nothing seems all that great. The Sidekick is close, but the voice part of the plan is pathetic and it doesn’t sync with the computer, one has to upload data to a website to make it available on the Sidekick. Close, but not quite. All the other devices are too big and more expensive than I’m willing to spend. Except for the Sony Ericsson T68i, which works with iSync. But that would mean switching to T-Mobile (the company formerly known as Voicestream), getting a new phone number and a plan that isn’t as good as what AT&T is currently offering.

Perhaps this is too strict a reading of the term video pirate? VCD pirates take to the high seas to avoid detection

The NJ Supreme Court ruling and video of the oral arguments in the Toricelli case.
(via Jurist)

The Onion: RIAA Sues Radio Stations for Giving Away Free Music
In Salon, former Gavin editor Todd Spencer: Radio killed the radio star
And where can I find the Make-Believe Ballroom?

I thought that the big draw of P2P and digital music was the ability to download and have new music relatively instantly. But it may be that it’s the piracy, and the desire to get tunes for free, not the method of downlading, that is the big draw. eMarketer: P2P Music Sites Present Problems for Industry.

Princeton computer science Professor Edward W. Felten is keeping track of what could be banned by the CBDTPA in Fritz’s Hit List:

Most readers have probably heard me, or someone like me, say that the Hollings CBDTPA has far-reaching effects — that it would regulate virtually all digital devices, including many that have nothing at all to do with copyright infringement. Though this argument is right, it is too abstract to capture the full absurdity of the CBDTPA’s scope.To foster reasoned debate on this topic, I’m inaugurating a new daily feature here at freedom-to-tinker.com, called “Fritz’s Hit List.” Each entry will give an actual example of a device that would meet the CBDTPA’s definition of “digital media device” and would thereby fall under the heavy hand of CBDTPA regulation.

(via Lawmeme)
Also from Lawmeme: Law School in a Nutshell, Part 1

Since leaving eMarketer, the amount of spam I receive has decreased. But what I received recently is pretty far out there. Fortunately, I’m not the only person getting such spam. Wired News: Porn Spam: It’s Getting Raunchier

Dan Gillmor: Studios’ copyright goal is total control

To protect a business model and thwart even the possibility of infringement, the cartel wants technology companies to ask permission before they can innovate. The media giants want to keep information flow centralized, to control the new medium as if it’s nothing but a jazzed-up television

On a similar topic, Doc Searls: <a href="Action on the Bored Level

It was clear to me at Digital Hollywood this week that Hollywood ￑ at least at the top level ￑ has no clues about what the Net is, much less about how to exploit its nature, which puts demand in direct contact with supply and gives both equal power to work things out.

Finally, BusinessWeek’s Jane Black on Eldred v. Ashcroft: A Case to Define the Digital Age

CamWorld: Trips: 2002: Siberia. Some very nice photos from Siberia, which remind me that I’d like to go back to Russia. Although, given time constraints, I would probably only visit Moscow and Petersburg. I don’t think my experiences from four years ago are all that relevant to Russia today.

Ted Rall: The Case for Regime Change

What kind of Star Trek villian would Saddam be? Salon.com: Been there, done Iraq

Classic Star Trek (1965-1968): Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the planet Iraq to hunt terrorists responsible for blowing up a Federation space station, and are promptly captured by rogue warriors led by a menacing guy named Saddam (to be played by Ricardo Montalban).

A French dwarf challenged a French law banning “dwarf tossing” claiming that it took away his right to be tossed in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The UN Council on Human Rights upheld the ban. Gillot v. France

The complainant, a dwarf who had been employed in discotheques as the object of “dwarf tossing”, was unable to continue this activity owing to a ban of the practice imposed by the relevant local authorities, because the practice was deemed to be contrary to human dignity. The ban was upheld on appeal through to the highest French courts…
The Committee, having reduced the complaint in substantive terms to a claim under article 26 [right to be free from discrimination], concluded that the ban in question did not amount to prohibited discrimination. It was satisfied that the ban on dwarf tossing was “not abusive but was necessary in order to protect public order including, inter alia, considerations of human dignity which are compatible with the aims of the Covenant.” It therefore found that the distinction between the complainant and persons to whom the ban imposed by the State party does not apply (that is, persons not capable of being thrown) was based on objective and reasonable grounds and consistent with the Covenant.

I’m going on hiatus from posting here for a few days, so I can reset my mental filter. I’ll be back next week with wittier titles.

The Cultural Anarchist vs. the Hollywood Police State

Before 1710, the Stationers’ Company, a guild of printers,
controlled the publication and sale of all works in England,
including those of authors who had been dead for thousands of
years. The Stationers scoffed at the idea that their monopoly
should be in any way limited. For one thing, they warned, if
the system were dismantled it would ruin the economy.

I feel like I’ve heard that argument recently…

Dtm%2Dcopyright38sep22001450

Mets Close Ranks After Reports of Drug Use

Mets General Manager Steve Phillips denied that the team or its minor league system was plagued by marijuana use. He was responding to an article in Newsday yesterday that said at least seven players were using marijuana

This might be an explanation for the Mets play this season.

Pros and cons of Moscow life

Corrupt traffic police and a lack of public toilets are the worst things about life in Moscow, according to foreigners who live there.

Release (in Russian): Life in Russia through the Eyes of Foreigners (when I get a chance to read the rest of it, I may pull some quotes.)

IM spellings are creeping into students’ writing assignments: Nu Shortcuts in School R 2 Much 4 Teachers

Ms. Harding noted that in some cases the shorthand isn’t even shorter. “I understand `cuz,’ but what’s with the `wuz’? It’s the same amount of letters as `was,’ so what’s the point?” she said.

I’m glad to see that procedure we discuss in class on Wednesday shows up in the news. How Appealing: We have ways to make you mediate

Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that a district court has the inherent authority — in the absence of any authorizing contractual language, statute or court rule — to order an unwilling party to participate in, and share the costs of, non-binding mediation conducted by a private, for-profit mediator

From Canada comes the Virtually Perfect Golf System, a new high-tech gadget to teach improving your golf swing. Wired News: Shadowing the Perfect Golf Swing. It looks very useful. The instant feedback should demonstrate how a good swing motion is supposed to feel.

iBush: An artificially unintelligent Oval Office Occupant simulator for OS X.

The Internet Archive is now archiving etree files. This could be the basis for an amazing centralized library of live music captured by amateurs. The server is very fast, although that may be because the site hasn’t been publicized or just because there isn’t all that much content up. The Internet Archive is already archiving movies and web pages and really could be the Great Library of this early digital age.

The American Idol contestants had to sign over their management rights to the producers? I’m outraged. Er, actually, I’m not at all suprised. Salon.com: Slaves of celebrity

[Kelly] Clarkson is less an artist, in the old-fashioned sense, than the extruded product of an impersonal manufacturing process. Clarkson and the other finalists signed an unusually onerous contract with 19 Group, the production company headed by British pop entrepreneur Simon Fuller. These young performers are wrapped up for recording, management and merchandising under the most restrictive terms imaginable: Their careers are literally not their own.

That’s exactely why Fuller did American Idol– to get cheap talent. Find some unknowns, have them sign one-sided contracts and then take advantage of them quickly before they fade from the spotlight. This is what happens with most the manufactured pop singers or groups, with the rare exception of a group that stays around for more than a year or two.

Lindsay reports on a workplace discrimination suit which alleges that the director of the Greenwich Housing Authority is attempting to infiltrate the housing authority with principles from Scientology.

I went to 55 Bar Friday night to see David Binney and friends. The friends included Brian Blade (drums), Chris Potter (tenor) and Craig Taborn (rhodes), three younger palyers whose stuff I dig. I’d never been to 55 before, but it’s a nice small venue with no real stage; the band sets up in a corner of the room. There were some great solos from Binney, Potter, Taborn and Scott Colley (bass.) Blade is one of my favorite drummers, and here he was playing around with strongly accented after beats and the concept of meter. (That description is intentionally vague and somewhat meaningless for now.) Even though I was not familiar with his work, I dig Binney’s songs.

Fortune: Where Are the Dot-Commers Now?

Ahh, the Internet. I can post something from New York to my server in Massachusetts which can be downloaded within seconds by someone in Denmark. Because the Internet completely ignores geography, what courts have jurisdiction over the Internet? California’s state courts want that jurisdiction. Denise Howell covers the oral arguments in Pavlovich v. Superior Court (or: why you may have to learn to love the California court system if you’re posting on the Web.)

Picturing Justice: The Online Journal of Law and Popular Culture discusses issues and portrayals of law on TV and the movies.

NYT subway columnist Randy Kennedy rides the subway with the “Organisation for Better Underground Living” to measure the success of the singles car: Eyes Meet, Hearts Flutter. Must Be the Subway

Dan Bricklin offers a cluestick with which to whack the record industry: The Recording Industry is Trying to Kill the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg

Record companies complain about the consolidation of radio station ownership and the cost of paying off radio stations to play their music so we can listen for “free” and figure out what we’d like to buy. At the same time they are trying to kill a goose that is laying a golden egg by fighting Digital Music Use rather than, as Forrester’s Bernoff suggests, understanding and joining it. Worse yet, they are trying to use legislation to hobble computing in general to get what they incorrectly think they need.

Anyone with an interest in the music industry and recording should drop some time into reading The Daily Adventures of MixerMan, a recording engineer’s day by day account of working on a Major Label album. His entries are not only coffee-on-the-monitor hilarious, but also very insightful:

If U2 were to put out Boy today, I contend that record would have been a sterile piece of shit. They really weren’t great players back then. But U2 had a vibe, and they were innovative, and the fact that they weren’t great players made the music all the more alive. Today, a young U2 would have more than likely been destroyed by a Producer and his Alsihad, that is, if they ever got signed at all.

I’m not the only person who questions the usefulness of people like Tom Lord-Alge:

It

JCA wonders law research is stuck somewhere back before the computer age. I have no doubt that this is something that is changing– Lexis and Westlaw have moved from expensive proprietary systems to expensive web-based systems. As the courts and lawyers get more familiar with technology, I expect that democratization of information will reach legal research in the next few years, but there will alwyas be a market for premium information services.
I’m wondering when law schools are going to give up on paper casebooks. As much as I prefer reading on paper to reading on screen, each of these casebooks weighs in the vicinity of 5-6 pounds. Why schlep 2 or 3 of these to the law school every day when I could have a hyperlinked and searchable version on my computer (which is smaller and lighter than any single casebook)? Copyright problems? License them to the school and increase tuition by $500. However, Ball State University studied The Usability of eBook Technology and found that students were not impressed with the implementation.

This week’s New York Times Magazine focuses on the construction of the WTC and some interesting ideas on what occupy the site with much bolder ideas and architecture than the LMDC concepts.

Theory: A significant number of pet owners in Manhattan enjoy an excess of disposable income.
Evidence: Pet Chauffeur

A brief history of the ongoing skirmish between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, in Washington: Digital Divide

After a year of draft legislation, proposals, counterproposals, speeches, hearings, behind-the-scenes negotiations, lobbying, and letter-writing, the fight is as fierce as ever. The clash between Hollywood and Silicon Valley over online piracy has now engaged additional players on each side. More important, it has engaged the broader public — millions of Americans whose lives are becoming more and more intertwined in the digital revolution.

(via Politech)

Hollywood has a secret agenda? I’m shocked. Shocked and Appalled. Actually, I’m not at all surprised. LawMeme: Hollywood’s Secret Agenda Revealed.

Moscow is suffocated by smog so bad that visibilty in the city has dropped to as little as 300 feet. The sheer unpleasantness has to be compounded by the fact that essentially no buildings in Moscow are air-conditioned, even while the temperature is moderate (72 F today).

Professor Rogelio Lasso of Washburn University School of Law imagines the law school class of the future: In a Classroom Somewhere in the Very-Near Future. I hope this is Professor Lasso’s dystopian vision of the future law school classroom, rather than a utopian one. In this future, Professor Lasso would not just delegate classroom management to his computer, but also education and evaluation. Would law school be better if the Socratic method was replaced by Turing tests?
Do law students need to be micromanaged like elementary school students? I hope not.

Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback column has moved from Slate to ESPN, but is still an essential read (for football (US) fans) Haiku me? No, haiku you!

in the past three years, professional sportscasters and commentators, possessed with their incredible insider knowledge, have proven themselves five times less likely than random chance to predict the Super Bowl winner.

Since cancelling Opie and Anthony last month, WNEW, has suffered from a lack original programming. How bad is it? The station’s “shock-talk” format was created around Opie and Anthony’s show, which pulled in high drive-time ratings, prompting the station’s wholesale format change (and a quick dive in ratings.) Already, the station had a programming gap that was being filled by reruns of the Ron and Fez show. Now, besides a set of interchangeable “Sports Guys” in the morning, the only original programming that NEW has is Ron and Fez. They’ve got to be thinking “format change” at 102.7.
I think it’s time for the station to return to its freeform roots. It’s never going to happen with the corporate radio mentality, but it would be great to see, and would build on the only programming asset the station has left, as Ron & Fez are essentially a freeform talk show. Bringing in some strong on-air personalities to create a diverse lineup with deep playlists crossing into multiple genres and spotlighting local music, like Ron & Fez did for some unsigned NYC area bands at their recent “Festival of Rock and Ribs,” would bring much-needed creativity to the NY radio market. I would think that this format would be successful, as it is what Americans want on the radio.
However, I doubt that a freeform format would be adopted by a corporate radio station, as their interests seem to be in keeping costs down, playlists short and DJ’s bland, little-known, interchangeable and inexpensive. The personality-driven, not-focus group tested naturects of inventive, creative radio is what makes interesting listening. Yet, those are the same features that radio’s new corporate masters find unappealing.

I caught the last set of the Bluiett Baritone Saxophone Nation’s week at Iridium last night and thought it was excellent. What’s not to enjoy about a sax quartet of all bari saxes? It’s lowdown, dirty, funky jazz, the most primal expression of saxophone. The first time I saw this group (albeit with a slightly different lineup) at Regattabar in ’98, it was in one of the loudest concerts I have ever seen (only recently surpassed by The Roots’ ineptly engineered Avery Fisher Hall appearance.) For this run at Iridium, Hamiett Bluiett was again joined by James Carter and Patience Higgins. Howard Johnson, who plays tuba in addition to bari sax and bass clarinet, played in the place of Alex Harding. Backing the quartet on percussion and providing some solid rhythm was Lee Person on drum kit and Kahil El’Zabar on African drums.
This set opened with Bluiett’s take on The Temptations “My Girl” that featured J.C. wailing some crazy solos using the whole range of the horn. While I knew that JC and Bluiett are both badasses, the second song opened my eyes to the fact tha Higgins is one, too. While he’s got a less raucous tone than JC (who doesn’t?) and Bluiett, he played one solo after which JC turned to him and said “that was sick,” an apt description.
Ben Ratliff’s review in the NY Times: Deep-Voiced Saxophones With a Variety of Styles

Sorta Golf Association (SGA)

Sorta Golf features a revolutionary collection of rules amendments, called the Sorta 7, that will dramatically improve your game without expensive new clubs, lessons or spending endless hours on the practice tee. It’s simple, it’s easy and you’re probably already following many of its principles and don’t even know it.

(via Ernie the Attorney)

Thinking Big in New York, Seeking a Grand Vision of Public Works
Since Robert Moses there have been very few large public projects in New York. When’s that 2nd Ave subway coming?

Have Gavel, Will Travel

Ladies and gentlemen, coming to Brooklyn next week for an exclusive three-day engagement, appearing outside Albany for the first time in perhaps 100 years, those lions of law, those giants of jurisprudence, the State Court of Appeals

I’ll be very disappointed if the justices are not introduced by the announcer from Madison Square Garden…

BusinessWeek investigates the The Underground Web

Warning: You are about to enter the dark side of the Internet. It’s a place where crime is rampant and every twisted urge can be satisfied. Thousands of virtual streets are lined with casinos, porn shops, and drug dealers. Scam artists and terrorists skulk behind seemingly lawful Web sites. And cops wander through once in a while, mostly looking lost.

I’m not particularly worried about gambling, drugs, porn, or credit card fraud online now that the FTC is going to do something. The commission plans to unveil Dewie the Turtle, who will be “teaching kids to take precautions when they are on the computer, traveling the Internet

Talk amongst yourselves. Topic: Should software be covered by copyright or patent? For how long?
Ideas from Daves and Larrys: Weinberger, Winer, Sifry, Staton and Lessig (and more Lessig.)

There may be a very interesting segment on the Today show tomorrow…

A word of advice for other first-year law students: it pays to be early to class, especially on the first few days of class, and especially on the day that the professor sends around a seating chart. Unless, of course, you enjoy sitting in the front (3 classes) or back row (1 class) of a lecture hall….
Some more classroom advice from Professor Jeff Cooper, of Cooped Up:

At about 2:15 yesterday afternoon, while delivering introductory remarks to my Evidence class, I put up the address for Cooped Up, figuring that with the link from the legal education site JURIST, I would be found eventually anyway. Over the next five minutes, according to Site Meter, this site received ten visits from IP addresses within the law school. Coincidence? Given that the wired classrooms in our new law school building have network connections at each chair, I tend to think not.

And IM’ing from class (I’m not mentioning names, but you know who you are) is probably not a very good idea, either. Although a Rendezvous network could be very interesting (probably not productive, but interesting)

A couple weeks ago, a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel contacted me about Conversations with the Active Buddies and we talked about IM bots in general. Here’s his article: Kids buddy up with digital pals

But other experts say kids aren’t as easily duped as critics think. “Marketers are always trying to exploit teens, but teens are so much more savvy about instant messaging than the marketers," says Andrew Raff of Brooklyn, N.Y.The 24-year-old law student maintains a Web journal, “Buzz Rant and Rave,” that covers music, culture, politics and technology. “The high school kids have instant messaging ingrained in their culture. Anyone trying to market to them will have to know their culture inside out.”

Wow, what a smart and witty quote. I think that expert should be offered a good job that will pay him lots of money.
Minor nitpick: BRR is a collaborative site, and I’m much less involved now that I’m in school.

What does it mean when an evil empire (like Verizon) thinks bad legislation is really evil? Does that make it super-evil? Why telecoms back the pirate cause

We oppose the Berman bill. It’s very troubling in that it essentially permits one particular segment of the U.S. industry to engage in vigilantism on the Internet. So, for example, the content community could engage in denial-of-service attacks, as long as they have a reasonable belief that they were defending their copyright.

Crazy Apple Rumors: Jaguar Release To Include Real Jaguars, No, really. Those wacky Canadians…

An interesting column by Dan Gillmor: Activists take on Hollywood cartel

A movement is beginning to stir in America, an overdue reaction to the predations of a cartel that is bidding to control how digital information may be created and used…
I’m not a one-issue voter, but this issue is growing in importance. The entertainment industry and its supporters are threatening free speech and innovation in their zeal to protect an outdated business model.

Election season is quickly descending upon us

Jurist, from the University of Pittsburgh Law School is a very large, interesting site, that I’m going to need time to go through. On their list of law blogs, I’m the first one listed. Let’s hear it for the English alphabet.

I’ve updated my ibook to 10.2. The process was fairly easy, but time consuming. Overall, I haven’t noticed any improvement in speed, but this version of the ibook doesn’t support Quartz Extreme. Mail, which I’ve been using, is much improved, with much better filtering, including an automatic spam filter, and folders are organized better by default. However, Mail is slower now. The one feature I’d like to see is to be able to have accounts only for sending, that don’t have an inbox showing up in the folder list.
I’m not sold on iChat. It seems impossible to sort a buddy list into groups, like all other AIM clients support, making it much harder to quickly scan through a buddy list to find if someone is on or not. I don’t see a way to expand the text entry field to more than one line. It takes a few steps to rid your screen of the annoying comic strip text bubbles. I may stick with using Adium until the next version of iChat.
Otherwise, 10.2 seems like a worthwhile upgrade. Overall, the system seems even more polished.

Kingtinued: “The Greatest Elvis Songs You’ve Never Heard!” It’s an Elvis impersonator singing some quality songs, like “La Vida Loca,” “Friends in Low Places” and “Achy Breaky Heart.” I’m at a loss for words.

NetNewsWire is a great news aggregator for OS X and one of the more useful programs I’ve come across recently. I’ve started using it and am now hooked. As a result, I’ve changed my RSS syndication file to include full posts, rather than just short excerpts. I think this would be a nice change to put in the Movable Type default template.

Well, I managed to be the first person in my first class of law school (Criminal Law) to be randomly called up to make an ass out of himself, and in that, I succeeded.

Professor Lessig: “I say that in addition to blogging, and coding and whatever, we’ve got to do something that matters”
That sentiment seems oddly familiar:

Milhouse: We gotta spread this stuff around. Let’s put it on the Internet!
Bart: No! We have to reach people whose opinions actually matter!

from AABF07: Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken
The blogiverse is still only a tiny fraction of the ideaspace in the world. While memes do eventually cross over into the mainstream media, the discussions about the implications of the digital future rarely make it into the larger public sphere of ideas, out there, this issue is tipped the other way.
Edit: This means that we need to bring these important issues out from the blogiverse into the larger public debate.

Howard Bashman: Poll-Tergeist – Why the Supreme Court shouldn’t care what you think.

Allowing the Constitution’s meaning to be determined by public opinion polls not only devalues that historical document, but it also ends up undermining the majority’s preferences by allowing a vehemently opposed minority to become much more influential than it would otherwise be. Recent history has shown just how tempting it can be to constitutionalize the public’s preferences. Instead of celebrating that result, both the Supreme Court and the public should recognize that it is in the majority’s own interest to reject constitutional adjudication by opinion poll in favor of pursuing change through the political process.

Political public opinion polls are highly overrated. Most are poorly written, using leading questions biased to get a desired result. With enough care taken to craft the qeustions, one could use two different set of questions to get two drastically different set of responses from a single sample.
The Clinton Administration’s addiction to polling is not a good model for the Court to follow. Look at poll-related decisions made around the Lewinsky case. Politically expediency is not a foundation for constructing optimal policy, but still better than the bush administration’s “our own self-interest first” system. Leave the Supreme Court’s deliberations as far outside the realm of politics as possible.

Law.com: Paying for Conviction: A 2L Summer

The thing that made law school so attractive to so many — that it can land anyone a job doing anything — is the same reason it’s gotten harder for us all: it has attracted so many. I like most of the people I go to school with. I like most of the people I work with. But it’s in the air. We’re all competing for fewer and fewer spots.

This is what I have to look forward to in a couple of years? Sounds like loads of fun…

Passport to the Pub: A British Guide to Pub Etiquette

Most anthropologists go off to remote parts of the world to live among exotic tribes, observe their behaviour and ask endless questions in order to understand and explain their strange customs. In 1992, the BLRA asked the experienced social scientists at SIRC to apply the same research techniques in the British pub. Some of SIRCￕs findings were published in Pubwatching with Desmond Morris (1993) and its sequel Women in Pubs (1994). In 1995, for Passport to the Pub, the SIRC Research team ￐ led by Research Manager Joe McCann and Senior Researcher John Middleton ￐ embarked on yet another six-month anthropological pub-crawl. In total, the research on which this book is based has involved observation work in over 800 pubs, consultations with over 500 publicans and bar staff and interviews with over 1000 pubgoers ￐ both natives and tourists.

(via Kottke)

Even more law school advice from Denise Howell and Garrett Moritz. I’m keeping score on these, but before even starting classes, I think Garrett’s is in the lead.

On Advice. Really, it’s all a load of manure (my advice included)… Embrace confusion.

In today’s NY Times, John Markoff speculates that Apple might be planning to introduce an “iPhone”: Apple’s Chief in the Risky Land of the Handhelds. The only thing I’m sure about an Apple portable device is that it’s not going to be the iWalk.

We decided that between now and next year, the P.D.A. is going to be subsumed by the telephone,” [Jobs] said last week in an interview. “We think the P.D.A. is going away.”

In the PDA Market Report, I wrote something to the effect of “the defining feature of the next generation of PDA’s will be that they are simply called ‘phones.'” Unfortunately, we are still a technology generation or two away from really good products, but closing the gap. Phones or music players that can sync with computers can replace the contact and calendar applications of PDAs. Convergent communicators like the Treo or Hiptop are getting closer to being convenient and inexpensive enough to be widely adopted. There is still room for a more elegant iPod-like phone, but can that be affordable now?

As I was walking to the subway this afternoon, I saw a parade marching up 63rd St, then up Amsterdam to 66th St. It seemed very random, with a very formal marching band, a very loose marching band, some guy with an acoustic guitar, and a company of pipers. This was Convergence

A highlight of Lincoln Center Out of Doors’ 32nd season, CONVERGENCE: SOME PARADES FOR CHARLIE’S DAD makes its New York debut with over 1000 participants including choral, percussion, samba and marching band ensembles. A series of parades, CONVERGENCE is an experiment in musical collision in the spirit of Charles Ives: marching ensembles of varied styles play different compostition simultaneously

NYTimes: A Century of Passengers in Chief

[Bill] Clinton caused a stir when he told autoworkers about a truck he had owned in the 70’s “when I had a life.” The Chevy El Camino’s bed was lined with AstroTurf, he said, adding, “You don’t want to know why.”

Tehran -> Washington, DC 1970-1973

Back in 1970, Hilary and Kathy were 14 years old and best friends in Washington, DC. Then Kathy moved to Tehran. They wrote to each other pretty often. Last year, Kathy and Hilary got together and reread their letters. They thought they were funny and hoped others might think so too. They propose to post alternating installments of these 32-year-old letters when they get around to it. We promise not to clean up mispellings, bad grammar, or silly opinions. Read and weep!

Hush-Hush Hooray, Says NYC

In what would be the first such ban in any U.S. city, New York City Councilman Philip Reed recently proposed legislation that prohibits the use of mobile phones in “places of public performance,” such as movie theaters, art galleries and libraries. The bill makes an exception for emergency phone calls, but punishes people who infringe on the law with a $50 fine

First they came for the cigarette smokers, and I did not speak out because I was not a smoker. Then they came for the cell phone users…
Did Bloomberg unearth a pile of unimplemented Guiliani ideas on his desk?

Record Labels Want 4 Internet Providers to Block Music Site

Testing out a tactic to combat online piracy, a group of record companies asked a judge yesterday to order four major Internet service providers to block Americans from viewing a China-based Web site that offers thousands of copyrighted songs free of charge.The 13 record labels that filed the suit in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan say the site, Listen4ever .com, is “even more egregious” than the music-sharing service Napster, which was shut by a court order.

Because they can’t use US law to shut down a file sharing site in China, the record labels just want to make that one site inaccessible from the US. Hasn’t this practice been used by China, despite strong US criticism? When this Listen4ever.com changes to a new domain name and IP space, will the record labels ask for that to be blocked? How long before they want to block the entire .cn netspace? The internet is global. Get used to it.

More advice to new law students from Prof. Lois Schwartz, Slate editor Dahlia Lithwick and CD Harris.
I should start keeping score on these advice columns…
(via Who Stole the Tarts)

More Students Seek Law Degrees

Many New York law schools are reporting a record number of applications received for this fall’s incoming class. The schools’ yield rate — the amount of offers of admission they make compared with the amount of students who accept the offers — also hit record numbers for some schools.

I’m glad I’m choosing to do something off the beaten path…

Robert Plant discusses artists who have borrowed from Led Zeppelin with Playboy.com:

PB: Now it’s time to play “Name That Tune.” I’ll play a song that “borrows” from Zeppelin and you have tell me which song it borrows from.
RP: That’s quite imaginative, isn’t it? That’s a demo of a very early version of Kashmir [from Physical Graffiti]. Who did that? … [Writing down the name of the artist and song] Fucking hell. How original can you get? All right, so you’ve been caught, boys.

(Thanks to Krikor for finding this)

Since I’m now some sort of knowledgable source on IM bots, I feel obligated to point to Donna Wentworth’s dialogue with three bots about ActiveBuddy’s patent.

Blogstreet is mapping blog neighborhoods, by analyzing blogrolls. As of now, I’m around the 8000th most popular blog (out of around 9600.) That’s pretty lame.
In the blogging ecosystem, I’m in the top 300 most prolific outgoing linkers, but am somewhere near the bottom in incoming links. This is not at all suprising, since no one reads this site.

Since I’m starting law school next week (and no, I’m not ready), I’ve started searching out some good law-related blogs (blawgs.) If nothing, these should be an easy way to find articles when I’m too busy to post.
For starting point, I like Ernie the Attorney and his very cool lawblog outline.
At the top of the heap are: Bag and Baggage, Outside Counsel, How Appealing, Unbillable Hours, Stanton.blog, Trademark blog.
Harvard and Yale get all Slash-y at Greplaw and Lawmeme. Harvard’s Donna Wentworth writes Copyfight at Corante.
Captain Warblogger Glenn Reynolds is a law professor. Law professor Eugene Volokh and cohorts blog at The Volokh Conspiracy
Who Stole the Tarts is excellent, and especially excellent for Alice’s advice to first-years (thanks!)

Last week, a random newspaper reporter contacted me after coming across an article I wrote for Buzz Rant & Rave (Conversations with the Active Buddies), and we talked for a bit about IM bots and their potential applications. I was entirely flummoxed about how to describe BRR, though, and I have no idea how I’ll be cited if the reporter does decide to use any quotes from me.

Rip, Mix, Burn: The Politics of Peer to Peer and Copyright Law

Whereas Lessig’s recent work engages with questions of culture and creativity in society, this paper looks at the role of culture and creativity in the law. The paper evaluates the Napster, DeCSS, Felten and Sklyarov litigation in terms of the new social, legal, economic and cultural relations being produced. This involves a deep discussion of law’s economic relations, and the implications of this for litigation strategy. The paper concludes with a critique of recent attempts to define copyright law in terms of first amendment rights and communicative freedom.

It takes about an hour to travel from Union Square to Yankee Stadium and back, if you don’t watch a baseball game. Last week, I had tickets to a Yankees-Royals game. After squeezing myself onto a 4 train (and realizing the only thing worse than the Lexington Ave. line during rush hour, is the Lex. Ave. line during rush hour on a Yankee game day) I realized that I had my messenger bag with me, and that stadium security is prohibiting bringing bags into the stadium.

No backpacks, briefcases, attach

Matt Haugey has found the phenomenon of Leonard Nimoy singing. Things like this will never stop floating around the internet and popping their heads up once a year or so. Nothing compares to Nimoy’s take on If I Had a Hammer. Nothing, except possibly the video for The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.

This is my last week at eMarketer. It’s been a good experience, but I start law school later this month.

I’m glad that there is quality research like this on the vitally important topics of business: SandwichTrak

SandwichTrak, which is Taylor Nelson Sofres

Experience some Jersey shore culture: NJGUIDO.com

The Guidothon is On. It’s summer time in New Jersey. Which means its [sic] time to party hard.

Last month, the Internet Debacle made the rounds of Lower Blogistan. Now, Janis Ian writes about Fallout– a Followup to the Internet Debacle

Do I still believe downloading is not harming the music industry? Yes, absolutely. Do I think consumers, once the industry starts making product they want to buy, will still buy even though they can download? Yes. Water is free, but a lot of us drink bottled water because it tastes better. You can get coffee at the office, but you’re likely to go to Starbucks or the local espresso place, because it tastes better. When record companies start making CD’s that offer consumers a reason to buy them, as illustrated by Kevin’s email at the end of this article, we will buy them. The songs may be free on line, but the CD’s will taste better.

Also, on related themes, Doc Searls writes about More on what’s fucked about radio

Commercial radio’s customers are its advertisers. It’s consumers are its listeners. Its business is selling air time to advertisers. It raises the value of that air time by attracting the largest possible number of listeners, in the most desirable demographics. How it does that is irrelevant to the business itself.

Wired News is running a series on the effects of Clear Channel’s domination of the US radio industry, focusing on the San Diego market: Clear-Cutting the Radio Forest

Over the past three years, Clear Channel programmers sacked San Diego disc jockeys and replaced them with voices from out of town, hoodwinked listeners by airing national contests as if they were local, and rolled out cookie-cutter radio formats designed elsewhere. Meanwhile, the company sweet-talked Mexican station owners across the border and tore through legal loopholes in order to build its mini-empire.

I’m probably going to run out of lyrics from Radio King to use as post titles before running out of this topic…

New York Magazine: Fool for Love

How did an Orthodox Jewish lawyer and family man fall so hard for a Scores stripper that he invited her to his kids’ bar mitzvahs?
When the prosecutor stood up and began weaving a sordid tale of strippers and a secret life and a love nest and all of the money Rothken had spent, everyone was stunned. [Rothken’s wife, his parents, his in-laws (including his father-in-law, an Orthodox rabbi), and several members of the community] had no clue this had been going on…Needless to say, after what they’d heard, no one volunteered any collateral for bail.

A mildly entertaining story involving a wealthy lawer, a stripper and hubris: what better workday entertainment is there?

Coming off the subway at Union Square this morning, I think I saw the latest Sony Ericsson promotion and I approve. They seem to have chosen well on the good-looking meter.

Marvel Comics has revealed that the Fantastic Four’s The Thing is a member of the tribe.

First it was the episode III script, now the trailer for Episode III has been leaked to the web, the Lego version, that is. It’s a very impressive example of Lego-based film-making. (via Mefi)

Most of Mostly Mozart Festival Is Canceled by Orchestra Strike. Is it still a “Mostly Mozart” festival if less than half of the works are by Mozart?

This year’s schedule is remarkable in a number of ways, including the relative lack of Mozart (only 22 of the 61 scheduled works were by the composer)

If baseball players go on strike this year, I think that will kill Major League Baseball as a major sport. Now, MLB is trying to shoot itself in the foot and alienate its fans, by closing down fan sites like Mets Online, a great site run by college student Brian Hoch. Can MLB be any less fan-friendly? (via Scripting News)

Now that there’s a RealPlayer for OS X, I’ve been able to again use one of my favorite web sites, DCN (Digital Club Network). Every night, they stream live concerts from a few venues across the US. They also archive many of these concerts and now have a very large archive of live music. Today, I’ve listened to Agents Of Good Roots (unfortunately, mostly Kevin-era shows) and Lake Trout today. I’d love to get some suggestions on other bands to check out who have concerts archived at DCN.

This looks way cool. Wired News: Read All About It

With over 3 million pages, over 25 million articles covering 148 years of history, and 4 terabytes of data, the Times conversion effort is unprecedented.

The Times digitization is part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers project.

While iVillage plans to eliminate its pop-up ads, could there be a use for pop-up/under ads? David Lidsky: Don’t complain about ads — find creative ways to use them

Pop-up poker. This is a fun new game sweeping the nation. Surf the Web until you have five pop-up windows on screen (check out the New York Post’s site, www.nypost.com, if you want to fill your hand quickly). What kind of hand have you drawn for yourself? Three X10s and two Orbitz.coms? Full house! You win. I only had two pair, Netflix high. Combine this with instant messaging and play with all your friends.

Manhattan Humberts, Watch It!

Listen up, fellows: Rich, bored teenage girls in New York City are on the prowl for twentysomething (and in some cases, thirtysomething) men. And this time, they

Following any URL cut and pasted from Silicon.com is bringing up Gates’ mansion overrun by incontinent geese. Interesting. The links on the page work, but copy and paste from the current location and incontinent geese follow.

This is why I won’t be using Virgin Mobile wireless service, no matter how good or cheap the service:

Virgin Group Chairman Sir Richard Branson did some revealing of his own to promote Virgin’s national launch and a content alliance with MTV — stripping down to the ”full monty” in New York City’s Times Square to nothing but a modified mobile phone to cover his ‘nether regions,’ the company says.

Politech: Peer-to-peer hacking bill officially introduced in House (includes full text of the bill and commentary.) Also, at News.com Hollywood hacking bill hits House

“The bill is a nightmare,” said Mark Lemley, who teaches intellectual property law at the University of California at Berkeley. “I am amazed that after Sept. 11, members of Congress are willing to sacrifice our nation’s computer security in order to give Hollywood yet another tool in its already formidable arsenal against piracy.”

The entertainment industry has better lobbyists. Time to write the congresspeople…

Rock and Roll Confidential makes fun of goofy looking band photos. The Metafilter thread picks out some winners. (via MeFi)

The Straphangers Campaign rates the the quality of announcements in the subway system

In three out of every four delays and disruptions experienced by our raters (74%), there was either no announcement

Declan McCullagh reports that Howard Berman (D-CA) and Howard Coble (R-NC) plan to introduce a bill to give the music and movie industry the power to hack into the personals computers of anyone they accuse of illict file sharing. Could Hollywood hack your PC?

The measure would permit copyright holders to perform nearly unchecked electronic hacking if they have a “reasonable basis” to believe that piracy is taking place. The legislation would immunize groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America from all state and federal laws if they disable, block or otherwise impair a “publicly accessible peer-to-peer network.”
Anyone whose computer was damaged in the process must receive the permission of the U.S. attorney general before filing a lawsuit, and a suit could be filed only if the actual monetary loss was more than $250.

So the MPAA or RIAA could damage data on or being transmitted to or from my computer without legal penalty if they have a “reasonable basis” to assume that piracy is taking place, and I have the responsibility to prove that it was not, if I want to recover from any damages created by the copyright holder? Would this give me the right as an individual copyright holder to perform electronic vigilantism without being constrained by other laws?

The Bush Administration is looking to repeal the Possee Comitatus Act, the one that keeps the government from using the military to enforce law within the US.

And it’s been obvious and freedom ensuring and clearly enforced for well over 100 years because, well, we aren’t Stalinist Russia, and we aren’t insane, and most of us are well aware that an overzealous military empowered with such draconian authority is essentially what every sociopathic fist-clenched dictator from Marcos to Hitler used to gain power and maintain control and hack away at the very soul of humanity and pick up their personal dry cleaning on the nation’s tab.

Does Dubya have aspirations to be a military dictator?

Marketers Push Single Servings And Families Hungrily Dig In

A frozen, individually wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Surely no one would want that, thought executives at jam maker J.M. Smucker Co. After all, there’s nothing easier for someone to slap together than PB&J.
But after testing a hockey puck shaped, plastic-wrapped sandwich in several midwestern states, and generating $20 million in sales, Smucker’s now is shipping frozen PB&J almost everywhere except the coasts.
“People were saying putting cereal into a bowl, adding milk to it and eating it is not convenient. Ten years ago, cereal was the simplest thing you could eat,” he says. Now, he says, people ask, “Can I do something else while I’m eating it?”

I thought I was lazy when slapping some peanut butter and jelly on two slices of bread or pouring a bowl of cereal. How long will it be before Americans have no connection with the natural state of foods? “You mean, you can eat an apple right off a tree?”

Slate has the first series of Corporate Scandal Trading Cards. Start speculatingly wildly and watch the value of these cards skyrocket!

Shocker: People like the Internet.
Investors May Have Repudiated the Internet, but Consumers Have Not

“The Internet may not be doing so great on Wall Street, but it’s doing great on Main Street,” said Marshall Cohen, senior vice president for research at America Online. “As far as the people who are online, they’re using it more and valuing it more.”
Various forms of micromedia, largely unthreatening to the likes of AOL Time Warner but growing nonetheless, have sprung up on the Internet as individuals become media producers. About 60 percent of broadband users have set up Web sites, participated in online discussion forums and shared photographs or other files over the Internet, according to the Pew study.

The Internet has become an integral part of culture. Who doesn’t have an email address these days? For me, the web has replaced other media as the reference of first-resort. The Internet decreases the friction on information-centric transactions, like applying for a credit card.
Unrelated, except for appearing in today’s Times, More Say Yes to Foreign Service, but Not to Hardship Assignments

Despite a record number of people applying to join the Foreign Service since Sept. 11, the State Department is having a difficult time filling hardship posts overseas, as American diplomats shun jobs over security and lifestyle concerns.

This is why I didn’t take the foreign service exam — at this point in my life, I’d much rather live in New York than Moscow or Ulan Bataar…

New York is now a more worldly city, or at least seems that way. I’ve noticed in the past couple of weeks that Fanta is not only readily available in the States now, but it is also being advertised on TV. While it’s consistantly been popular in Europe, Russia and Israel, it is not particularly popular here, so I associate seeing it in stores as an “abroad” experience. Coca-Cola started increasing USdistribution of all four flavors (I didn’t even know there were 3 non-orange flavors) in 2001.

The new courtship: targeted romance via Internet

“If you want to find Jamaican midgets, you can find them,” Cooper said. “If you want one-legged women, you can find them.”

This would be a great place for a pun about the Internet making the world smaller…

I’m continually amazed by how computer and communications technologies are making the world a smaller and more interconnected place. Environmental violation tickets from the City DEP are entered into a database by workers in Ghana. Accra is 5,120 miles from New York. In New York Tickets, Ghana Sees Orderly City

“They know the rules and they still are always violating them,” Ms. Mensah said. “Maybe they don’t understand simple instructions. But they have to keep doing it, because it’s how we make our money.”
“I am very used to the rules and regulations of New York now,” said Nora Kraku, 28, during a break. “So I think I can live there.”

Meetup is trying to get people to take the virtual communities from the internet to real life, and offer a way for these communities to organize gatherings. Yesterday was blog.meetup, and I met up with members of the NYC blogfia. [Links to be added later.]

Let’s be controversial and show up in the Daypop Top 40 by recommending getting rid of overrated “sacred cow” albums.
Let’s see how pretentious we can be.

Most jazz created after the Big Band era is essentially musical masturbation (and like masturbation, if you must do it, you should do it in private!). It’s self-indulgent noodling interesting only to the person playing it, a few fetishists, and lots of psuedo-intellectuals and wannabe hipsters who have to pretend to like it because it’s “cool.” Like porno, it’s dismissive of and degrading to both the performer and the viewer. People who watch porno do so alone for a reason… it’s embarrassing. Some pornos are glossier and prettier than others, and Coltrane may be the John Holmes of jazz, but porno is still porno, and Giant Steps is still a tedious, embarrassing, snoozer of an album.

Interesting idea, though. (via Daypop (via every other blog in existence))

The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has posted six conceptual plans for the WTC site. All these designs are lacking in grandiosity. The thinking behind the trade center seems to have been: “We’re going to build the tallest building in the world. Oh, and by the way, we’re going to build two of them.” While I tend to agree with the critics that we don’t need anything so overpowering, it should be something unique, not just bland office towers surrounding a memorial park, but something revolutionary, integrating open space, cultural, residential, commercial and retail space with style. None of these plans approach the potential of how the space should be used.

Murph’s Guide to NY Bars: Bar Room Banter, a very long list of overheard quotes:

Woman #1: Do you have college beers?
Bartender: What’s that?
Woman #1: Bud, Coors Light. You know, the kind of beers you drank in college.
Bartender: I drank Guinness in college.
Woman #2: I’ll have a Heineken – the graduate school beer.
“I can’t rip off a bar. I love bars. I want them to stay in business.”
Woman # 1: I don’t understand men’s obsession with boobs.
Man # 1: What, are you kidding me?!?! Men are obsessed with what they don’t have.
Woman #2: Men don’t have vaginas, either.
Man #2: Hello! Name the other thing men are obsessed with!

Without this Times articles, I never would have known that New York sidewalks are crowded and that people alwaystend to get in my way. Think You Own the Sidewalk?

“People no longer know how to walk on the sidewalk,” said John Kalish, a television producer in Manhattan. “There was a time that any real New Yorker had a built-in sonar in terms of walking down the sidewalk, even a crowded one, and never bumping into someone. Now

Having played kickball last week, I feel so trendy. Kickball is the next big thing: Grownups getting a bounce from kickball

“It’s not a game where the women will be intimidated because the guys played it in high school and got all jocked out on it,” LeHane said. “Nobody played it in high school.”

The World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) is “the preeminent adult kickball organization in the world.”

Adam Felber worries that the government may take away his job:

Once again, our government goes out of its way to make us comedy writers feel redundant. This isn’t even ‘fish in a barrel’ kind of stuff. This is a deer that walks into your hunting lodge, makes you coffee, cleans your gun, shaves a bullseye on its haunch, and then unfolds a tarpulin and promptly faints upon it.

Are Mac users smarter?

Those who surf the Web using a Mac tend to be better educated and make more money than their PC-using counterparts, according to a report from Nielsen/NetRatings.The study also said Mac users tend to be more Web savvy, with more than half having been online for at least five years. And the Mac faithful are 58 percent more likely than the overall online population to build their own Web page and also slightly more likely to buy goods online, according to the report.

Are broadband lines for telecommunications or data? The FCC has decided to classify it as an information service, and two groups have come out in opposition. The ACLU thinks that this will close off the internet, and not make it open and free: ACLU says cable could close Internet

The openness of the Internet is in danger of being compromised by cable companies that offer high-speed broadband services, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, and the U.S. government must act to protect the Internet’s freedom of communication from these monopolies.
In its report entitled “No Competition: How Monopoly Control of the Broadband Internet Threatens Free Speech,” the ACLU calls upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to treat cable networks along the same regulatory lines that telephone networks are governed. To date, the FCC has classified cable networks as “information services,” meaning they don’t fall under the same regulatory framework as telephone networks.

The other group opposed to this regulation is the FBI, who fears that it will make the Internet too open: FBI uneasy about plan to deregulate fast Net

The FBI and Justice Department are concerned that the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to classify broadband as an “information” service could disrupt their ability to trace the e-mail and Internet activity of terrorists and other criminals.

So the same FCC regulation could make the Internet both not open enough and too open? My brain hurts.

I’m working from home today on a project, but for today, filling in for the role of home is Bryant Park, thanks to the Intel/NYCWireless WiFi Network.
I’ve seen about 7-8 other people using computers around the park so far. I don’t know how many are using the network, but there are a lot of Powerbooks.

I’m not entirely sure why this is entertaining, but it just is. On the way to play kickball in Central Park today, I saw Gary Coleman on the corner at Central Park South and 7th Ave shooting a commercial. Dave got Coleman’s autograph. I just noticed that he’s quite short.

Andersen video puts Cheney on spot

In the video Mr Cheney – then Chief Executive of the oil company Halliburton – describes how Andersen gave advice “over and above” what would normally be expected from auditors.
“I get good advice, if you will, from their people based upon how we’re doing business and how we’re operating over and above the just sort of normal by-the-book auditing arrangement,” Mr Cheney says in a short section of the video.

What kind of advice was that?
“Andersen showed me how to construct a complicated series of offshore holding corporations that would allow me to show phony profits to my shareholders, while avoiding paying taxes to the government and making myself personally wealthy at the expense of my employees. Thanks, Andersen!”
“Before we hired Andersen as our auditor, I was afraid that we’d have to lay off some employees. After Andersen, I was able to cash in and get out before anyone else noticed that we were losing billions of dollars a month. Thanks, Andersen!”
“With my last auditor, I could never get in contact with a partner when I needed to. With Andersen, I can get great advice whenever I need it. My auditor has helped me through troubles with my love life and taken my phone calls at 4 AM. Andersen even bailed me out after a DWI incident. Thanks, Andersen!”

Militants wire Web with links to jihad

Lately, al-Qaeda operatives have been sending hundreds of encrypted messages that have been hidden in files on digital photographs on the auction site eBay.com. Most of the messages have been sent from Internet cafes in Pakistan and public libraries throughout the world.

Politech challenge: Decode Al Qaeda stego-communications!

Does anyone on the Politech list want to take a crack at locating one of these files with a hidden message? Extra credit is given if the hidden message can be decrypted!

I’d check images of certain muppets very closely for hidden stenographic messages…

Literally: elgooG

We played with another drummer last week, who is a great drummer and seems to be a nice guy. But he’s decided to join another band, instead of ours. Probably a step above the last guy, who simply disappeared after a couple of rehearsals, but frustrating. Instead of being ready to book gigs, we’re back to scouring for drummers. Are there any drummers in blogland (or NYC) who might have any insight on where to find someone?

A fire in Quebec has covered all of New York state in a haze for the last couple of days. Fortunately, Changing Winds Lifting Smoky Haze From Canada, just in time to be replaced by the haze from more hot weather.

Over at DCRP Jeff has put up some very nice fireworks photo Galleries.

How do you know if you’re a geek? If you find quotes like this to be funny:

hm. I’ve lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds to ping, it works completely, I just can’t figure out where in my apartment it is.

QDB: Top 50 Quotes

While the Trip.com FlightTracker is great for seeing the status of one flight, FlightView can show all
Current US Air Traffic.

Four-day weekend! Woohoo!

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…

Library of Congress: Declaration of Independence

Wired News: Wi-Fi Users: Chalk This Way

Warchalking, it seems, is so cool it doesn’t even matter if anyone is really doing it or not
“It’s got Wi-Fi. It’s got the tie-in to hobo language, which is really cool from a linguistics point of view. And it ties into the spirit of democracy, which was the original intention of the Web”

Unfortunately, I don’t think warchalking actually makes finding an access point any easier. With a 150′ (or so) radius around a WiFi access point, it’s pretty easy to miss a symbol in a football field sized area, or from one block over. Of course, walking around with your laptop open continually checking the Airport menu for a signal isn’t much of an option, either.
When I was at jury duty last week, I wandered around at lunch looking for a public access point. (There were a number of networks reaching into City Hall Park, but none of them open.) Much more useful would be a wifi city guide in an easy to carry around format. It would be a great feature to add to Vindigo. Or, better yet, a paper version, with a map and a list of access points and their cross streets, sort of like the NYCWireless network map database, but not requiring an internet connection to use, that can be folded up and put in a pocket. It’d be nice to print out this sort of map from a frequently updated PDF file.

NYT covers the Bryant Park WiFi project: Escaping to Bryant Park, but Staying Connected to the Web. On a pleasant day (not a swelteringly uncomfortably one, like today) it’s nice to be able to sit in the park and be connected.

On a hot day, like today, it is very nice to be able to wear shorts and sandals to work.
WeatherPop is a nifty little OS X application for getting the current conditions and forecast, which I highly recommend.

Janis Ian: Music and the Internet Debacle: An Alternative View

I don’t pretend to be an expert on intellectual property law, but I do know one thing. If a music industry executive claims I should agree with their agenda because it will make me more money, I put my hand on my wallet

(via BoingBoing)

In a shocking twist, the Future of Music Coalition Radio Survey finds that Americans want more music, less repetition, fewer ads, more diverse playlists and more autonomy to DJs and local stations. Yet the industry is offering less music with more repitition, more ads, and homogeneous playlists coming from corporate programming departments.

WSJ: The Hot New Field of Cyberlaw Is Just Hokum, Skeptics Argue

The skeptics start by questioning the very existence of cyberspace, which they say is no more real than a “phone space” involving all the people on the telephone at a given time. They go on to argue that something happening online shouldn’t be treated any differently by the law than if it occurred on Main Street.

Harvard Law School seems to think there may be something to this field. Dan Gillmor and Donna Wentworth are blogging the <a href=" Internet Law Program from Cambridge.

NYTimes: A Dispute Over Wireless Networks
Politech: Text of NYC Time Warner nastygram to free 802.11 access point and Why NYC Time Warner is right to send nastygrams: “It’s theft!”
Rickt: TWC Nastygram
There are 3 potential types of usage of public Wi-Fi.

1. Unintentional
   This is probably going to be the most common, where people set up insecure networks without changing (or understanding) the default settings on their shiny new access points. This is bad for the subscriber, who is letting anyone in range into the network.
2. Bandwidth leeching
   This is where I find that my neighbor has an open access point, and I can use that for free (or by agreement with my neighbor). This is bad for the ISP, because it is the equivalent of running cable from one apartment to another.
3. Free public wireless
   This is where I drop by a place, such as a park or cafe and use someone’s shared bandwidth serendipitously, the equivalent of having some friends over to watch tv. For example, I would have found this very useful in City Hall Park when I was on jury duty last week.

The problem is separating this type of occssional sharing from habitual sharing. Letting people at a cafe next door use your connection for a few minutes (where internet access would be nice to have, but not that anyone else would pay for) is very different from letting your neighbor piggyback a connection that he would otherwise pay for. The security considerations of an open access point are significant. Wireless Minefield: Insecure networks could lead to liability lawsuits
If you want to share your access, don’t use Road Runner and be aware of the risks in letting anyone borrow your connection.

I’ve upgraded to Movable Type 2.2, to see if I can figure out exactely what TrackBack is. Maybe this will work?

Big noises at odds over the sound of silence

Mike Batt, the man behind the Wombles and Vanessa Mae, has put a silent 60-second track on the album of his latest classical chart-topping prot

I had my first experience with jury duty today, it was definately less than I expected.
I’m pulling out all the Who cd’s I can find. The Who’s Entwistle dead at 57. His bass playing is among the most dynamic, but at the foundation of the Who’s rhythm. Perhaps the only modern player who I can think of playing anything approaching Entwistle’s style is Stewart Myers, in combining tonal movement, but solid rhythm.
The newest version of Movable Type is available. I’ll have to see how much of a hassle it will be to upgrade my installation, but the TrackBack feature looks very cool.

I like riding coasters, even though I very rarely go. Not to mention, I’m not too keen on the health risks posed by the hypercoasters. Fortunately, the Discovery Channel has some great streaming videos of their Top 10 roller coasters for 2002.
(via The Morning News)

This is a nice idea, but something about this strikes me as very odd. Fly a Cake

Thousands of Israelis are battling the physical and emotional after-effects of falling victim to a terrorist attack. Many are still in hospitals across Israel while others are at rehabilitation centers or at home, struggling to come to terms with their injuries.
Reach out and express your concern for these victims of terror. Send them a care package to show that they are in your thoughts. For your donation of $9, $18, $36 or $72, Fly-a-cake will put together a delicious care package full of chocolates and freshly baked cookies, and deliver it with your note direct to a terror victim.

I think it’s the pictures of victims in the hospital smilling and looking cheerful that is weirding me out. Seems like a nice cause, even though it isn’t doing anything to keep kids from wanting to blow themselves up and kill others.

How music is the food of brain cells

Musicians have larger and more sensitive brains than their non-musical audiences, researchers have found.Medical scans found that instrumentalists and singers have 130 per cent more grey matter in a particular part of their brains compared with those who are unable to play a note.

FindLaw: Porn Surfing at Work

Here’s a helpful tip: if you’re going to look at pornography on the Internet, DO NOT USE YOUR WORK COMPUTER.

The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can’t hear it
…
Now our children grow up prisoners
All their lives radio listeners

REM: Radio Song [audio/video]
More on NPR and linking to NPR.org: The problem with NPR’s linking policy
On the Library of Congress & webcasting royalty rates: Comments Are Coming in on CARP Ruling, kuro5hin: RIAA kills US-based Internet radio, Kurt Hanson: Time for Action

WORLD CUP | Germany v USA | Germany beat valiant USA

But try as they might, the States could find no way through Germany’s superbly organised defence and had to settle for glorious failure.

I watched both matches, the US-Germany and England-Brazil, which at 2:30 and 7:30, make for a rough Friday. But the US team made it further than I expected, and played a very competitive game against Germany. Team USA had lots of chances and played a great game, just catching some bad breaks. I was impressed enough by the caliber of some of the young national team players from MLS, to go see a Metrostars game,. It would be nice if they didn’t play in half-empty Giants stadium, though.

Fast Company is running The 15 Best Product Designs (via Premium Blend). Why do magazines feel the compulsive need to come up with lists of stuff (such as “The 100 greatest songs of all time”, “the 15 best product designs”, “the 10 best uses of theremin in avant-guard music since 1979”) in order to generate a couple of seconds of controversy? Why are we all such suckers to keep debating these lists and give them more relevance than they are due? We’re only encouraging editors to spawn even more lists. What’s next, “The 10 Worst ‘x Best Lists’ of All Time”?

The internet makes it easier for supervillians to shop. Save money on R&D by purchasing lairs, superweapons, doomsday devices and outfitting your henchpeople with the first quality equipment designed specifically for the supervillian market at VillainSupply.com Home Lair

www.villainsupply.com is owned and operated by Global Domination LLC, a consortium of organizations devoted to the consolidation of global capital by a single cabal or individual. Member organizations include The Trilateral Commission, The Bilderberger Group, Alternative 3, The World Zionist Conspiracy, VilAnon, The International Union of Mad Scientists, Majestic-12, World Freemasonry, SMERSH/The Second Soviet, Switzerland, The Arctic Nazis, The Hellfire Club, Price/Waterhouse/Coopers, Sanrio, Archer/Daniels/Midland, Dr. DeSpayr, The U.S. Military-Industrial Complex, and Amway.

(via MeFi)

Bush Warned to Be Speedy on Amtrak Funding

The chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation said today the Bush administration must quickly ask for enough money to keep Amtrak running through the rest of the fiscal year or “be prepared to explain to the American people why it will allow Amtrak to go bankrupt in the middle of the summer travel season.”

Maybe Amtrak will go bankrupt in the middle of the holiday season because “Congress has given Amtrak just enough money to struggle along year after year while ordering the corporation to operate trains that had no chance of covering their costs.”
I agree with John Tierny: Amtrak Must Die.

The Acela hits its peak speed of 150 m.p.h. for only 18 miles between New York and Boston. While European countries have been laying new high-speed tracks, Amtrak is deferring maintenance on tracks in the Northeast Corridor to subsidize long-distance trains elsewhere.

That’s with the caveat, that Northeast Corridor service is maintained and improved. It is the most convenient way to travel from New York to Boston or Washington.

Pets.com Sock Puppet Gets Second Life

Not only is it pledge week on WNYC, with lots of nagging throughout Morning Edition, (Did you know that NPR apparently doesn’t like links?), but kuro5hin is having a “we’re broke” pledge drive, too.

John Hiler: is the music industry scared of blogs?
I don’t think the music industry is not scared of blogs, per se, but rather of the idea of P2P communications, which the “blogosphere” is an application of. This doesn’t necessarily mean filesharing (ala Napster), but more of a democratization of information. If I recommend an artist to my 3 readers, someone else may pick up on it. Then, pass it along (and along and along.) No Big Media, no expensive full-page ads, no need for payola.
The Web is the independent musician’s best friend.

It drops the cost of reaching listeners much much lower. Instead of needing a record label to ship copies of an album across the country and promote those albums on MTV, in print and on radio stations nationwide (at a high cost), I can put up a web site for my band (this would be much more effective example if the web site for my band was up ;)), where people from all over the world can download MP3s, buy the album and merchandise and hear directly from the band. Then, I can start browsing for widely-read sites of people with similar musical interests to mine. Convince them to have a listen, and they might plug it to their readers and friends.
Actually, I misspoke above– the listserv is the independent musician’s best friend.. E-mail makes it very cheap to send out mailings to a list of any size– unlike post cards in the mail, there is essentially no marginal cost to sending out your email announcement to another subscriber. And, these mailings are more or less personal communication from the band to its fans. Just as blogs allow writers and readers to be closer together, the internet does the same for musicians and their listeners.
Anyone can start this process with a FREE hotmail/yahoo email account and a FREE page at MP3.com. That’s a much lower cost of entry to worldwide* exposure than getting a label to offer a deal.
*referring to the potential geography of internet-acquired listeners, not so much the reach. The catch of this type of online self-promotion is that your “worldwide” audience is not going to be very large. In all likilihood, the level of success will be lower than stardom. BUT, without the high costs of a major label contract, the level of fame needed to reach profitability is much lower.

Web gives a voice to Iranian women

Bill Keller has an excellent op-ed in today’s Times, Fear Factor, a follow-up to his Nucleear Nightmares piece in the NYT magazine.

The problem with threats like nuclear terror is that they are not solved but managed, not eliminated but faced, cut down to size and endured.
n the end, though, the question is not just how to fight terrorism, but how to live with it. Even if you give our leaders passing marks (or the benefit of the doubt) for dealing with the actual threat, they have been dreadful at dealing with the fear of the threat. The silly color-coded gimmicks, the pre-emptive we-told-you-so’s, the hype and spin and bluster and political opportunism, the willingness to make terrorism a lobbying prop for every cause on the Republican agenda

The Nets season may be over, but the US Open opens today for the “People’s Open” at Bethpage Black on Lon Gisland.
Hole by Hole Previews:
NY Times, PGA.com, ESPN (with flyover movies), WSJ: ‘The People’ Take on Tiger and Pals
In One Golfer’s U.S. Open Preview
About the course:
Bethpage State Park: The People’s Country Club, Albert Warren Tillinghast
Golf Course Architect, Course doctor breathes life into Bethpage, SF Chronicle: Splendor in the grass U.S. Open site a muni course with country club challenges, The Caddyshack
The players:
Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia, Tiger Woods, Team Tiger
Finally, ESPN.com’s Page 2 imagines If they pros had to play like “the people”

I love how it’s so easy to find random information on the web, when looking for other information. For example, Prepared Foods March 2002 – Market Trends: Delis Deliver

<td>
  28.6%
</td>

<td>
  28.4%
</td>

<td>
  34.2%
</td>

<tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Salads
    </td>
    
    <td>
      12.5%
    </td>
    
    <td>
      12.4
    </td>
    
    <td>
      12.4%
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Hot entrees
    </td>
    
    <td>
      10.9%
    </td>
    
    <td>
      10.6%
    </td>
    
    <td>
      10.2%
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Prepared chicken
    </td>
    
    <td>
      10.4%
    </td>
    
    <td>
      10.1%
    </td>
    
    <td>
      7.3%
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      Other meat
    </td>
    
    <td>
      5.4%
    </td>
    
    <td>
      5.9%
    </td>
    
    <td>
      1.4%
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td colspan="4">
      Source:<i> Deli Update; Progressive Grocer;</i> International Dairy Deli Bakery Assoc.; <i>PF</i>
    </td>
  </tr></table> </blockquote> 
  
  <p>
    I feel like I&#8217;ve learned something today. I&#8217;d also be very surprised if there are any other blogs out there linkning to info about the deli industry this week&#8230;
  </p>

Operation Teapot, short and stout

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The Smoking Gun has documents from the results of Operation Teapot, a 1955 test of an atomic bomb on beer and soda.

At the time, it must have seemed like a grand idea to the folks at the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Civil Defense Administration. In 1955, the U.S. agencies conducted experiments, dubbed Operation Teapot, in the Nevada desert to determine what impact a nuclear explosion would have on beer and soda cans

(via Muxway)

Laptop demise

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Top Ten Most Bizarre Laptop Demises
UK laptop insurer Complete Computer Cover highlights some of the most bizarre laptop computer accidents they’ve seen, complete with photos of reenactments.

Smilin’ Joe Fission

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Yesterday, I saw a news release about nuclear waste shipping maps going online, and found it ironic after this week’s news about the “dirty bomb” plot. I glanced through the site, and got the impression that the creators, the Environmental Working Group were against Yucca Mountain. This morning, I got some feedback from Liz Moore of the Environmental Working Group:

Thank you for pointing out our website. We feel it is very useful and we’d like to get the word out.
However, I must clarify that the Environmental Working Group is not opposed to the Yucca Mountain project. We have no opinion on whether Yucca would make a good repository.
We do, however, take issue with the fact that there is no clear transportation plan. Our purpose is to increase the public’s awareness that the Department of Energy is planning on shipping nuclear waste on trains, trucks and barges, and has had no dialogue with those who would have this high-level radioactive waste coming through their backyards. The government has also led the public to believe that there will no longer be nuclear waste at their local plants; that it would all be shipped to Yucca Mountain. This is absolutely untrue and even Spencer Abraham has been quoted in the Associated Press as saying that there will still be waste at nuclear power plants througout the country after the Yucca repository is full.
The reason we posted this website is because we believe the public has a right to know about this. We would like for the public to have a say in this before the government makes a decision.

Isn’t nuclear power great?

Uh-oh. Looks like there’s a little left-over nuclear waste.
[pulls out a hand broom] No problem!
I’ll just put them where nobody will find them for a million years!
[sweeps the wasties under a throw rug and stomps them down]
– Smilin' Joe Fission, “Homer’s Odyssey"

So why aren’t we providing more public funding towards creating an infrastructure of solar and wind power?

Mail this

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If you haven’t noticed yet (does anyone actually read this, anyway?) I added the “mail this” link to the site, which (obviously) allows you to send an email with that post to someone.

Get your nuclear waste here

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Need to find some radioactive material to make your dirty bomb? Thanks to theEnvironmental Working Group, Interactive Maps of Nuclear Waste Routes Go Online.
These are only possible routes for nuclear waste that could be used when the Yucca Mountain storage facility opens in a few years. From a cursory reading of the site, it looks like the EWG is opposed to the Yucca Mountain project and to shipping waste there from across the country.

NYTblog

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Some good links from today’s Times:
Tom Friedman: The Best of Enemies?

Despite the official ban, Iran-U.S. relations are still the No. 1 political subject here, and are still being openly discussed in Parliament and in the reformist press. And no conversation between an Iranian and a visiting American seems to be complete without some variation of the question: “When do you think we will have relations again?”

When the hardliners are no longer in control in Tehran, Iran stops exporting terrorism and stops calling for the destruction of Israel, the US and Iran will have relations again. Hopefully, the moderate majority in Iran will succeed.
The Russian mafia is boring? Clyde Haberman thinks so: Where’s Ivan (The Terrible) Sopranoff?
Subway columnist Randy Kennedy on the state of bathrooms in the subway system: A Difficult Call When Nature Calls
Quality fruit on the street: Fields on Wheels: Every Street Is Orchard Street

An evil petting zoo?

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AP: Bush pledges fight against evil

“When we see evil, I know it may hurt some people’s feelings, it may not be what they call diplomatically correct, but I’m calling evil for what it is. Evil is evil, and we will fight it with all our might,” Bush said

Is there anything more to say about this?

That’s a change

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While I’m not a fan of the trend of players thanking God for success in sport, it’s refreshing to see a player put the blame on God for a change. Saudi goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Deayea: “We did our best but God didn’t want to give us any goals.” I guess that’s better than blaming your teammates. (via Sportsfilter)

If these are the stars…

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The NY Post reports that BMG is fully acquiring Zomba.

The deal will turn BMG into a mega major with a hit list of stars, including Whitney Houston, Santana, Mystikal, Michael Bolton, Weird Al Yankovic, Tool, Pink, as well as Christian music acts Provident Music Group and Verity.

If these are BMG’s stars, I’d be scared to see what acts they have that aren’t doing so well…

Coming or going?

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This weekend in concerts included Coppersonic at the Luna Lounge on Friday with a solid set and a good crowd. These guys are good.
Sunday was Regan at the Bitter End, with the full band– Andrew Winn (guitar), Patrick Turner (on electric bass this time) and Robbie Sinclair (channeling Brian Jones on drums). The album, Coming or Going is out next month and promises to be very good.

PDA Genealogy

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This Palm Evolution tree is nicely done. While you’re interested, read all about the PDA Market Worldwide in the wonderful eMarketer report. (Why is it so wonderful? I wrote it.) If you’re interested in seeing the executive summary of the report, contact me.

Not Subway Q&A, NYCBloggers Q&A

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atNewYork interviews Mike Everett-Lane and Liz Maryland Hiraldo the folks behind NYCBloggers.

Psst…the Cold War ended 10 years ago

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NATO Must Attack Terrorists Before They Hit, Rumsfeld Says

As NATO seeks to maintain relevance as a military alliance, it must take the war on terrorism to the terrorists by pre-emptive attacks on shadowy networks or hostile states armed with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today.

Originally founded as a defensive alliance against the Soviet Union, for the last ten years NATO has been looking for something to defend against. Why not terrorism?

Bush loves Bureaucracy?

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Bush to announce new intelligence agency

President Bush will announce Thursday the creation of a new federal agency that will serve as a clearinghouse for intelligence information on terrorism

So, because our two intelligence agencies aren’t sharing information, we’re going to create ANOTHER agency to obfuscate the intelligence gathering and analysis process? Why not just merge the CIA and FBI into one organization, the Central Federal Bureau of Intelligence Investigations Agency (CFBIIA)?

Mac stuff

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OS X 10.1.5 + Mozilla 1.0 + silk= smooth browsing.
The computer industry makes much more sense now that I know the rules:

Although it is not widely know, since the early 1980s, the technology industry has been governed by the same rules that apply to professional hockey. These rules were put in to place after a number of industry executives were injured from a rash of cross-checking during the first COMDEX.

Digital Music: Forget the Labels, Forget the Fame

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How to beat the record labels on the Web, according to venture capitalist Robert von Goeben, is to start tech-friendly record labels and not try to compete with the major labels.

The online distribution of music is not about technology. More than enough technology exists to produce any consumer music service you could possibly imagine. The game will really get interesting when the very heart of the music industry–the creation and sourcing of music–is challenged.

This is a long-term strategy, but the one that could be a success. New web-friendly record labels need to start finding and signing good musicians and distributing and promoting their music using the web. Unfortunately, these labels will probably still need to get CDs in the stores, but should find it worthwhile to experiment with electronic distribution.
In New York magazine, Michael Wolff argues that the music bubble is over and that the reduction of friction in the music economy (an increase in digital distribution, decreased cost of production promotion and distribution, lower cost for buyers) will take the glamour out of the industry.

Other aspects of the business will also contract — most of the perks and largesse and extravagance will dry up completely. The glamour, the influence, the youth, the hipness, the hookers, the drugs — gone. Instead, it will be a low-margin, consolidated, quaintly anachronistic business, catering to an aging clientele, without much impact on an otherwise thriving culture awash in music that only incidentally will come from the music industry.

Combining these two theories, the music industry will become much more stratified. There will be a few stars, who are paid ridiculous sums of money for corporate masters, as it is today, but would represent a smaller percentage of the industry. The vast majority of acts will have a smaller level of listenership, but be more profitable and better connected with their listener. Rock/pop/hiphop could become more like the jazz world today. This is one possibility. We’ll see what happens…

Moscow Moles, Mysteries and Metro

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As always, BoingBoing finds some great links. Mark posted a link to this 1997 article Mysteries Under Moscow, which I’d seen a few years ago, but is still very interesting. Much more about moscow underground at metro.ru, which is a comprehensive site about the Moscow Metro. It’s simply a great site. (Translate it translated into English with Babelfish).

Around the US in 80 MPG

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Tank Tales: Hybrid Hot-Rodders Revved Up by MPG, Not MPH

He’s part of an obsessed subculture of drivers who gather in online chatrooms and at picnics and road rallies across the country to figure out how to squeeze outlandish distances out of a tank of gas. They trade arcane and surprisingly effective tactics, such as how to “feather” the gas pedal to reduce gas-guzzling lurches and when to coast in neutral to conserve fuel while driving downhill. Among his tips: go slowly, and for extra sensitivity to just how the car is responding, drive barefoot.

Somehow, I don’t think this is going to really catch on in the States.

They’re back

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As the Apple Turns is back:

And let’s face it: it’s a tough but true fact of life that when you do something every day for nearly five years and then stop for several weeks, it can be really hard to start back up again. Don’t believe us? Try it yourself. Pick a task you’ve probably been performing daily for the past five years: breathing. Then stop for a month. We bet you’ll have a little difficulty resuming when the time comes.

Engrish

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The China Internet Network Information Center Semiannual Survey Report has enough minor translation errors in it to be funny.

A good many of Internet organizations, supporting websites and media gave strong baking to us, by which our survey could carry on smoothly.
6．Distribution of Industry（Not including army man , student and unemployed people)
Facticity of Contents, Conveniency of Usage
Has your computer ever been invaded last year?

Old ads

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At Broadway and 64th Street, some buildings are being knocked down to be replaced by a new skyscraper. A couple of weeks ago, the building immediately on Broadway (which had a bank and The Saloon, a restaurant) was dismantled, opening the wall of the building behind it to the first public viewing in years. Before that building is dismantled, I took some photos of the advertisement that was hidden and will soon be lost.

Gr33nSp4n 0wnZ U

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This is very funny: H4x0r Economist, basically photos of Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan with captions in “hackerese.”
(via BoingBoing)

Mobile phones through history

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Forbes: Forbes.com: Wireless Evolution

Avoid Instant Death

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I’m always glad to come across sites that provide useful info, such as: How To Avoid Instant Death

A question for the ages

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As I’m sitting outside on a beautiful day surfing the web via WiFi today, I see someone in a gym walking on a treadmill. What’s the point of that? Why not excercise outside?

Slactivism

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They Weren’t Careful What They Hoped For

teachers setting up Internet projects underestimate the pleasure people get out of doing something that feels like a public service yet requires no more than a few keystrokes.
“It’s all fed by slacktivism,” [Barbara Mikkelson of snopes2.com] said, “the desire people have to do something good without getting out of their chair.”

I like that term: slactivism.

Episode 3

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George Lucas doesn’t want you to see this Star Wars Episode 3 script

I’d like to see a menu first

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Similar to Google’s catalog search, Amazon now offers restaurant menus. It may seem odd that Amazon is getting into information, rather than just e-commerce, but I see why Amazon wants to do this. People use Amazon for product research. More importantly, this allows Amazon another opportunity to use its recommendation engine, which is the company’s core asset.
(via MeFi)

NYC blogger subway map

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nyc bloggers is putting together a list of bloggers in the city, grouped by subway stop. It’s a very clever and well done site.

Panic

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This week’s NYT Magazine has a great cover story by Bill Keller about nuclear terrorism: Nuclear Nightmares

How afraid should we be, and what of, exactly? I’ll tell you at the outset, this was not one of those exercises in which weighing the fears and assigning them probabilities laid them to rest. I’m not evacuating Manhattan, but neither am I sleeping quite as soundly.

I think this is an excellent piece, well-researched and well-written. Keller is realistic and not simnply fear-mongering. Nuclear terrorism is a legitimate danger. I’m not sure whether or not to completely panic (I was very close to that last November) or just deal with it. Now, I’m all for living my life the way I want to in NY and living with a higher level of risk. This is nasty stuff.

Aqua audio

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This is cute: Sonata in X

Bush only half as popular as Clinton

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In Moscow, Clinton matroishka dolls outsell Bush ones nearly 2:1.
Unhip Bush dolls fail to stack up

But in the city’s matryoshka doll markets — the truest way to gauge what’s hip in this country — [Dubya] stands beaten, as his father was, by Bill Clinton. Yesterday, 24 hours before Mr. Bush was to land in the city, souvenir sellers on Moscow’s storied Arbat Street were hoping for brisk sales of the wooden dolls, some newly painted with the U.S. President’s face, smiling under a large white cowboy hat. But the Bush dolls were being scorned by tourists in favour of Clinton dolls that have been on the market for years.
“I guess he is not like Clinton, he is not so interesting,” a vendor named Igor said. Clinton dolls were outselling Bush dolls two-to-one, he said, just as they would on any other day.

I’m not all that surprised. I was in Moscow when the Lewinsky scandal was going full-blast. I remember walking by street merchants selling copies of the Starr report translated into Russian on the street outisde the Mayakovskaya metro stop, within a week of the report’s release on the Internet. I think that endeared Muscovites to Clinton…
(via boingboing)

I’m guilty

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I’ll admit it. I watched Fox’s Celebrity Boxing 2 on Wednesday. it’s hard to not watch an event that is just so absurd. Manute Bol vs. The Fridge. Screech vs. Horshack. Joey Buttafuoco vs. Chyna. Yes, it’s lowbrow, yes, it’s ridiculous, but that’s entertainment!
ESPN Page 2’s Bill Simmons watched and wrote about it. He asks:

Why does Fox try to present this like it’s a serious boxing card? Why not hire two comedians just to rip on everyone?

He should have listened to the Ron & Fez “Big-Ass Simulcast” which was just that– two comedians ripping on the entire event. They provided a running commentary and fielded live callers. A very interesting use of multi-media entertainment. Even though both are broadcast, the radio show is interactive and real-time commentary, like a participatory MST3K, but more moderated than a real-time internet chat would be.

Stop the Presses!

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A major label is releasing music in MP3 format! A major label is releasing music in MP3 format!
To be more precise, Maverick Records, a Vivendi/Universal label isreleasing one track from Meshell Ndegeocello (previously unreleased) as a 99-cent download. It will be interesting to see if this is just a one-time experiment, or the beginning of a trend.
(via Techdirt)

Fun Facts

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The Census Department released detailed Census 2000 data for New York today. Some facts about Manhattan (New York County):

• Average Commute: 30.5 minutes
• 81.5% of residents commute to work by public transportation or walking. I’d love to see the comparison with the rest of the country.
• Median Rent: $796
• Median household income: $47,030

Take Us to Fuschia Alert, Mr. Ridge

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Both Tom Friedman and Maureen Dowd have excellent columns in today’s Times about the Bush Administration’s campaign to scare Americans into unquestioning loyalty towards the Administration: Cool It! and Color Them Fatalistic. Perhaps we need to use just a little common sense:

The F.B.I. has warned apartment managers in New York that the evildoers might try to get a place, furnish it with explosives and blow up the building.
But first the Qaeda rats would have to find an empty, affordable apartment. Then they’d have to get past the withering front line of real estate agents. Finally, they’d have to penetrate the maximum security defenses of Manhattan co-op boards.

The Army at E3

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You’re in the Army now with military’s video game

America’s Army, scheduled for a July release and to be given away at americasarmy.com, is the first consumer product created by the military and designed to give an accurate depiction of Army life.
”We know that Americans love this type of electronic entertainment,” says Maj. Chris Chambers of the Army’s Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis. ”It just made sense the Army communicates its story where people like to spend time.”

So this is how the army plans to recruit? Interesting tactic…

Stop. Hammer time.

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Yo, let me bust the funky lyrics. You can’t touch this

Fun Google Stuff

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Google has a public window into their labs with demos of their latest search tools. Now, it includes a glossary search, voice search, grouping data into sets and keyboard shortcuts.

Upgrade?

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After configuring our installation of Moveable Type at work, I decided to upgrade this installation to version 2.11, also. The upgrade didn’t take, so I ended up doing a fresh installation. It did give me a chance to clean up the CSS, but it also broke all of the permanent individual entry links. Remember to always backup your data. (Fortunately, I had. This was still a PITA, though.)

I have a bad feeling about this

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Unfortunately, no one paid attention to the “noise” before 9/11: Foreboding Increased, but No Single Agency Had All the Clues. I’m somehat relieved to know that there was intelligence gathered on the plans and Al Quada’s involvement– it makes our intelligence services seem less incompetent at gathering data. Unfortunately, the problem is analyzing that data. At EMarketer, we can get overwhelmed with new research data, but the CIA is dealing with an order of magnitude more of fresh intelligence.
On the other hand, the way this was released makes the Bush Administration look much worse. Not necessarily for not acting correctly, but for their continued push to keep Congress from investigating. Tey have the appearance of wanting to hide something. Having blind faith in this president will create less security than if this process breakdowns are investigated.

Attack of the box office

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Like nearly everyone else in Blogistan, I’ve now seen Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I was pleasantly surprised, but I am a fan and I had very low expectations. Some sequences in the film are brilliant. But the writing is stilted and Lucas doesn’t seem to be able to direct actors. While Ewan McGregor (as Obi-Wan) and Christopher Lee as Saruman, er, Count Dooku both put in good performances, as does Frank Oz as the voice of Yoda. But Haydn Christiansen, Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson are completely lost in their roles turning in wooden performances with no emotion. The stilted script and lack of direction seem to be the problem, more than the actors themselves.
But the action and CGI scenes are brilliant. When the characters are not talking and doing something, the movie is quite enjoyable. Fans will appreciate many of the appearances in the movie (Owen & Beru, plans for the Death Star, Boba Fett, storm troopers and star destroyers.) I liked the ambiguity of who the cloned troops are fighting for.
Attack of the Clones doesn’t stand on its own as a decent movie, but as setup for what’s coming in the future for the characters. (As Obi-Wan says off-hand to Anakin: “someday, you’ll be the death of me.”) But, it delivers exactely what the fans want– a little more history about how the institutions of the Empire come into being, cool effects, Obi-wan using Jedi mind tricks in bar and Yoda kicking ass.

Big Brother

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Big Brother Is Watching, Listening

Kate Rafael, a California peace activist, often takes part in anti-war demonstrations. But she was stunned when an FBI agent called her, seeking information about Muslim men.
“If it’s your job to hunt Islamic fundamentalist terrorists,” said Rafael, “Then it’s your job to know that they don’t hang out with Jewish lesbians in San Francisco.”

We would especially like to welcome all the representatives of Illinios’ the Federal law enforcement community who have chosen to join us here at the Place Hotel Ballroom weblog at this time. We certainly hope you all enjoy the show and remember people that no matter who you are and what you do to live, thrive and survive, there’s still some things that make us all the same. You, me, them everybody, everybody. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love </gratuitous Blues Brothers quote>

Crazy blog stalkers

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John Hiler looks for synergy between the world of weblogs and the world of Jerry Springer: Are You a Blog Stalker?

Have you been keeping track of your ex through his or her blog? Have you ever stopped blogging because you don’t want an ex to know what you’re up to? Have you ever used fake names to harrass an ex in their comments?
If you’re a blog stalker or stalkee, Microcontent News wants to TALK TO YOU!!

Good Guys use Macs

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24’s Good Guys Do Use Macs

As Fox’s hit espionage thriller 24 draws to a close, the theory that the good guys use Macintosh computers while the bad guys use Windows PCs appears to be reinforced.

Paying artists directly?

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Kazaa, Verizon propose to pay artists directly

Recording Industry Association of America president Hilary Rosen calls the proposal “the most disingenuous thing I’ve ever heard. It’s ridiculous.”

Fans and artists might connect so that most of the money fans spend on music goes directly to the artist? That’s ridiculous! I mean, I’m not going to a concert to see an artist because I like their music or want to support them….oh that’s right, I am. Record companies are making themselves less and less relevant as they fight against new technology and as they also decide to drop artists whose albums I want to buy. Agents of Good Roots and Jump, Little Children both released albums independently after their labels dropped them. Wilco and Girls Against Boys are two higher-profile groups that were dropped by their labels and had to fight to get their albums released on other labels.
Of course, I don’t trust Verizon and Kazaa, either. Kazaa includes loads of spyware with their file sharing client and Verizon has trouble providing basic service, competent billing and broadband that works.
(via The Shifted Librarian)

Born to Run for office?

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Some in N.J. Want a Sen. Springsteen. Maybe they should try asking him first…

Know your audience

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The Adventures of AccordionGuy in the 21st Century

It all started with an airline ticket that never made it to my house…I handed customs my passport and boarding passes. They took one look at my ticket and decided I fit the profile — one way, bought at the last minute at the counter (and they mistakenly thought I bought it with cash) by a solo-travelling non-caucasian male born in a country with active Al-Qaeda-funded groups.
When [the customs officer] opened my accordion bag, he asked me to play it in order to prove it was a real musical instrument…It was then that I decided that there is only one song you play when trying to establish your bona fides with a U.S. customs official: The Star Spangled Banner.
About four bars in, he declared me free to go.

(via BoingBoing)

Astute

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Again, I think Tom Friedman does a fantastic job of summarizing the overall situation and basic positions of the various players and factions into a column-sized piece: Nine Wars Too Many

Oops?

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Canp’n Crunch’s Oops! Choco Donuts. Putting aside the obvious question of “what’s the point of a chocolate donut cereal?” Why does the Cap’n think it’s a mistake?
(courtesy of Krikor

It’s the bootlegs that got small

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The LawMeme Guide to Spider-Man and Star Wars Bootlegs

For reasonable people, the significance of this piracy is that it undermines justification for laws such as the DMCA and CBDTPA.

(via The Shifted Librarian)

Funky drummers

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We had a band rehearsal yesterday and for the second week in a row, the drummer bailed on us at the last minute. This is really frustrating– we find a drummer whose playing we like, but he doesn’t seem particularly reliable. So instead of being only a few weeks away from being able to start playing out that’s now indefinately far off. Why is it so hard to find a drummer in this city?

68% of all statistics are misleading

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Jupiter Analyst, RIAA Trade Barbs Over P2P Findings

To counter Jupiter, the RIAA presented its own findings…RIAA’s survey asked listeners, “What were some reasons for not buying more music in 2001?” Among its findings:
– Twenty-three percent of music fans said they did not buy more music because they “download or copy most music for free.”
– Thirty-eight percent of “heavy music buyers” under age 30 said they “did not buy more music because they could download or copy most music for free.”

This is a good example of designing a survey to prove a predetermined conclusion by using leading questions. Asking about causes for an event that did not happen is generally bad. “Why didn’t you buy more music?” is a very leading question. This is a question not about actual buying habits– “why did you buy less music?” or “why did your music purchases stay the same?” would have been two questions that would have led to more accurate results. Instead, respondants were asked what kept them from buying even more music than they actually did. Even with this leading question designed to demonstrate the largest impact of downloading, only 23% of music fans cited downloading as a cause.
“People can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.” -Homer Simpson
In addition to the RIAA’s survey design being constructed with an inherent bias, this press quote is misleading, because it doesn’t show what other causes were cited by survey respondants, how the differing answers compare in popularity and how the questions were posed: as a multiple-choice or freeform. Where do “music is priced too high” and “most music is crap” rank in comparison with “I can download.”

Cloned funk?

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While the BBC review makes it seem promising, I fear that the NY Times review may be more accurate

Like weary Brezhnev-era Muscovites, the American moviegoing public will line up out of habit and compulsion, ruefully hoping that this episode will at least be a little better than the last one, and perhaps inwardly suspecting that the whole elephantine system is rotten

News in Haiku

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Headline Haikus: All Your News in Seventeen Syllables

Not again!

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Everytime there’s an article about weblogs, it’s linked everywhere. At least Scott Rosenberg’s piece in Salon Much ado about blogging is orders of magnitude more clueful than most other pieces.

Classic Radio

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ReelRadio hosts an archive of old radio material, in streaming Real Audio (when is the OS X player coming out?!) A search for New York brings up some interesting items including WABC New York and The Beatles, August 28, 1964, Scott Muni, WNEW-FM New York 18th Birthday, 1985, WHTZ Z100 New York First Birthday, August 2 1984 Dan Ingram, WABC New York, 1965 Power Blackout. (via NY Times Radio Patter From the Past: Vintage D.J.’s Rock On)

Uncle George Owns Me

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I really was planning on planning on waiting to see Episode 2 for at least a week after the opening, but I was offered a ticket for opening night. No matter how bad it is, we’re all still going to see it.
But if you’re going to be sucked in, you might as well see it in a digital projection theater [Wired]. NYC has 3 such theaters: AMC Empire 25, Clearview Ziegfeld and Loews Cineplex E-Walk.

Lobbyist money vs. Reality Distortion Field

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When I met with Senators Kennedy (well, his staff) and Kerry a couple of years ago on the hill, I remember noticing that Kennedy’s office was all Mac. However, it’s the Macs’ Last Stand on Capitol Hill. When the government is prosecuting Microsoft for being a monopoly, the legislature is shunning alternatives– effectively endorsing a Microsoft monopoly. Ahh, minor irony.

Those pesky Germans

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In 1900, the Kaiser planned to invade New York and Boston

Headline, article, GIANT AD, article

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The New York Times on the Web has made a bit of a redesign so that its articles are now interrupted by the giant ads that many other sites have adopted recently. I’m not a fan.

Remember Crystal Pepsi?

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At the time, I thought the clear cola idea was pretty cool. Most people didn’t (with some exceptions, like those auctioning bottles of Crystal Pepsi on eBay.) Pepsi plans to market a blue cola. What, exactely, will a “berry-flavored cola” taste like?

Who says Internet users aren’t searching for sex online?

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Perhaps Google needs to reexamine just how much it loves blogs. Not longer after I post a link to Robert Loch’s post about getting lots of misdirected traffic, I start getting lots of visitors looking for photos of a certain blonde Russian tennis player. In fact, as of 10pm, my weblog is on the first page of Google search results…unfortunately I don’t have any such photos.

42 miles later…

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Yesterday, I rode in theBike New York 5 Boro Bike Tour. It was a lot of fun and rather tiring, since I don’t bicycle frequently. I brought the digicam and more photos will surface later. I did learn quite a bit about biking through New York:

• People ride the tour on all sorts of bikes. I saw lots of recombinants, a bunch of tandems, some tandem recombinants, and a couple of people were riding the old-timey bikes with the enormous front wheels
• Biking down the closed FDR Drive was faster than driving it in usual traffic
• The Queensboro (59th St) Bridge is rusting and its paint is peeling badly.
• Besides being very long, the Varrazano Narrows Bridge is very windy
• Remember to put sunscreen on above your elbows

And an article from NY1: Cyclists Celebrate New York In Five Borough Tour

When Dinosaurs Roamed the Net

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Business Week interview with Lawrence Lessig: The “Dinosaurs” Are Taking Over

The traditional vision protects copyright owners from unfair competition. It has never been a way to give copyright holders perfect control over how consumers use content. We need to make sure that pirates don’t set up CD pressing plants or competing entities that sell identical products. We need to stop worrying about whether you or I use a song on your PC and then transfer it your MP3 player.

Does this count as experience?

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Welcome to Our Law School, Young Man. We’ll See You in Court.

Louisiana law school is giving one of its students an unusually comprehensive legal education. In addition to offering him the standard classes and exams, it is suing him.

Angry Weblog Mob Justice Revisited

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Verisign is evil

Old-school web

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This is a real old-school and very funny ‘weird web’ page: Things my girlfriend and I have argued about

when I come to analyse my actions coldly, dissect my motivations and replay all the things I’ve said or done to try to assess how they may have appeared to others, I discover that I was surprisingly correct nearly all the time and everyone probably likes me simply lots and lots for being so splendid.

Sunday drive, er, ride

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A Day for Sunday Drivers on Two Wheels

No sideswiping taxis, no fume-belching buses, no zigzagging skaters, no oblivious jaywalkers, no manic bike messengers. One day a year, bicyclists in New York City can negotiate the streets, highways and bridges of the five boroughs without many of the usual distractions. That day this year is Sunday, when 30,000 riders are expected to take part in Bike New York, the car-free, 42-mile pedal parade that is the nation’s largest bicycle rally.

This is what I’ll be doing tomorrow. I’ll be back with the full report tomorrow (or Monday)…

Notes from the Altitude

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Alan Arnette is climbing Mt. Everest and blogging dispatches during his attempt to summit Mt. Everest 29035′. Good Luck! (via Doc Searls)

It’s funny because it’s true

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Concerts of the week

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On Tuesday, I caught Flickerstick at the Bowery Ballroom. Thursday was Jump, Little Children at Village Underground. (Both are among my favorite venues in the city.)
Flickerstick was decent, if unimpressive. I’ve seen them a couple of times in the last year, since first hearing about them on Bands on the Run. At the Wetlands, they were great. Unfortunately, they haven’t progessed much since then, playing pretty much the same set. They are limited by their lack of material and diversity in sound. Better bands tend to have a distinctive sound, but with different styles. Flickerstick has yet to branch out beyond their core sound (ala Beautiful, Smile and Got a Feeling, all of which are quality tunes.)
In contrast, Jump, Little Children (yes, the comma is part of the name) is a much more developed group. They have a wide range of material to draw from. More importantly, however, they have a number of different sounds to draw on, ranging from full-on rock to stringy ballads to funky beat poetry. They have some excellent songs, exude energy and have fun on stage– such as playing cellphone ring tones into songs to playing completely unplugged (no mics, no amps, no PA– it’s nice to hear truly live music.) J,LC is a quirky group that deserves recognition. Magazine and Vertigo are both representative discs.

Knowing your audience

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Robert Loch usually blogs about <a href=http://netmarketing.blogspot.com">online marketing, but he’s willing to adapt:

One post about [blonde Russian tennis player] and [er, adult magazine], and my site gets flooded. Somehow, my timely post got to no. 1… Since then my visitor profile has somewhat changed 😉 Still, from a marketing perspective, this does demonstrate the potential for opportunistically using news events to bring users to your site.

(edit 5/7/2002 to remove the search term that’s misdirecting traffic here..)

We’re the Devils

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Now that they’ve made their earliest exit in a while, the Record looks at what’s up with Devils contracts and free agency

We’re Number 25!

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In the 2002 State of the Air study, The American Lung Association ranks the New York metro area as the 25th most ozone-polluted city in the US. The Los Angeles metro area ranks number 1.

Back to Life, Back to Reality

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Jason McCabe Calacanis (from the magazine formerly known as the Silicon Alley Reporter) is holding the VentureReporter 100 “Back to Reality” Party at McDonald’s. Clever.

Imagine yourself in Lego

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Ever wondered what you’d look like as a Lego character? Wonder no longer and find out with the Reasonably Clever Mini-Mizer

NY Cheesesteak

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One good thing (maybe the only good thing) about Philly is cheese steak. Now there’s a New York answer: He Chose Cheese Steak Over Fancy
I went to BB for lunch today, and saw the NYT-effect in action– a long line of people who all read the article. It’s the real world predecessor to theSlashdot (or MeFi or insert popular weblog here) effect.

Save Internet Radio!

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Today, Internet radio stations are observing a day of silence in order to save Internet radio. Why does internet radio need saving? Well, no one’s making a lot of money off it. In fact, many streams are run from individual’s computers or by small companies who don’t earn enough money to pay the licesnsing fees that the RIAA has asked the Librarian of Congress to approve. As broadcast radio continues to consolidate leaving only programmed, generic broadcasts, Internet radio is where most of the interesting radio is happening, although there is the occassional exception.

Extra! Extra! Dallas Morning News Doesn’t Understand the Web

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Site Barks About Deep Link. The Dallas Morning News wants BarkingDogs.org, as well as anyone else, from linking to specific articles. Rather, they want the web to only link to their front page. This is the equivalent of saying that “you can tell people to read articles in the paper, but you can’t tell them what issue of the paper, or what section and page to look in.” An investment in a copy of Small Pieces Loosely Joined might be much more valuable than the legal fees for this case…

Jumping Sharks

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Matt Groening predicts the Simpsons will end soon.

“It becomes increasingly difficult as the years go by to keep on not only surprising the audience, but surprising ourselves.”

It’s about time that they wrap it up. While there have been some very funny moments in recent seasons, the episodes are not as consistently funny. The newer seasons lack the quiet, subtle, intelligent humor that made the earlier episodes so funny.

Decentralized web

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Doc Searls : Radio Bulletin

I want to see the Web restored to its original design as a symetrical system. I’d like speeds both up and down to be equal. I’d like Port 80 to go unblocked. Cable and ADSL (which constitutes most DSL) systems are set up today with the expectation that most people would rather consume than produce. In fact they actively discourage production. Yet most of us would probably rather put our photo albums and home movies on our own home servers instead of some BigCo or ISP server, if the choice was available. Decentralized weblogs, by appealing to relatively resourceful and motivated early adopters, will do more to drive a symetrcial web than anything else on the horizon right now.

Yes! I would like to be able to serve data from home. In particular, I’d like to plop all my MP3s on to a media server (an old computer with a big hard drive out of the way, in a closet or corner) so I can listen to them no matter what computer I’m using. I’d like to be able to share files from a local computer. I’d like to be able to host domains at home. Unfortunately, affordable cable modem or ADSL service is extremely limited in upstream bandwidth. This makes the web less web-like and more like traditional media. On the web, anyone can be an information producer, but the big companies building the Internet infrastructure don’t see it that way. They see individual users as consumers only. This fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the web could have a negative impact. But, the explosion of blogging may well lead to more people wanting to serve their own material.

Copyright, copyleft, copyfight

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Copyfight is a new blog about “IP Law, Politics and Technology on the Net” from Corante, written by Donna Wentworth from Harvard Law School

Shalom Nashville!

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In Effort to Lift Their Rankings, Colleges Recruit Jewish Students

Competition for top Jewish students is prompting a flurry of new Jewish cultural centers and Judaic Studies programs at universities across the country. But at Vanderbilt and a few other universities, including some officially Christian campuses, the unabashed wooing of the Jewish community has struck some Jews and non-Jews alike as a questionable new form of ethnic profiling — even though it’s based on a seemingly positive stereotype.
Although other ethnic and racial groups, notably blacks and Hispanics, have been targeted by many universities, that effort has largely been to promote diversity or to increase opportunity for the economically disadvantaged. Something else is driving the quest for more Jews — about which Vanderbilt is unusually forthright. It wants them to raise its academic standing.

I’m not sure what to think about this… It’s good to see more Jewish studies programs. It’s good to see schools actively recruiting Jewish students rather than actively discriminiating. But this is more like a way of treating a symptom rather than a disease. Yes, many top schools have a larger percentage of Jewish students than the general public, but that is not the cause of being a good school.

Small Pieces

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I was given a copy of Small Pieces Loosely Joined last week and I finished reading it today. I think David Weinberger has written of the best (and most succinct) explanations of the Internet to date. But even better is What the Web is For, a kids version of Small Pieces which distills the core ideas of Small Pieces’ 200 pages into 16.

Wireless blogging

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It’s a beautiful spring day here in NYC. After inline skating around Central Park, I’m sitting on a bench in Madison Square Park surfing the net (and blogging this) from my iBook. More info at NYCWireless)

That’s 3 for 3

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Unfortunately, my prediction was correct. In Fall 2000, the Mets lost to the Yankees in the World Series. In the spring of 2001, the Giants lost to the Ravens in the Super Bowl and the Devils lost to the Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Finals. Then the Mets failed to make the 2001 playoffs, despite having a legitimate run at the end of the season. The Giants also failed to make the playoffs after a mediocre season, but they too had a decent showing at the end of the season before falling short. The Devils had a very uneven season, but they did make the playoffs as the 6th seed in the East, so I figured they wouldn’t end their seasons like the Mets or Giants. Today, they lost to Carolina in the first round, which in the NHL is the equivalent of missing the playoffs in baseball or football. Oh well. I don’t think whoever comes out of the East is going to have a strong chance at winning the Cup unless they have a really hot goalie into the finals.

Lies, damn lies and statistics

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Newsbytes reports that Long-Time File-Swappers Buy More Music, Not Less, according to research by Jupiter Media Metrix

while music fans with all three technologies [file sharing, broadband and cd/dvd burners] were 95 percent more likely to increase spending than the average music fan, they were also 65 percent more likely to decrease spending.

While the study fails to show any causal link between using these technologies and music purchasing habits, it also appears to fail to prove anything else. As further anecdotal evidence, I spend more on music when I am an educated consumer. Today, that means being able to easily find and listen to songs online.

Apparently, it’s my fault

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French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine blames American Jews for the breakdown in the peace process. This is so absurd, I can’t even think of a witty rejoinder.

Jack and Hilary sitting in a tree

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Some good perspective on the latest MPAA and RIAA kvetching to Congress from George Scriban and The Shifted Librarian saves me from having to write a similar viewpoint, because they make the points concisely and eloquently.

Can we get a do-over here?

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All they are teaching gives peace no chance: At a few Gaza schools, children get an education in hate

Six days a week, kindergarten teacher Samira Ali El Hassain tells her class of 30 5-year-old boys and girls what makes the world go round.
“Who are the Jews?” she asks.
The children know the answer by heart: “The enemy!” they reply in unison.
“And what should we do to them?” Hassain asks in a voice that is as casual as when she discussed chickens and eggs.
“Kill them!” the children cry out.

Educating children to hate will only drag people deeper into conflict and prevent any end. It’s amazing that for two societies in such small an area, neither understands the other and many people don’t want to. I’ll point out POV: Promises again, which is an excellent film.

Elmo testifies

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Mr. Elmo goes to Washington. Before the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, Elmo testified in support of increased spending on music programs in schools, a goal I think is very important. Music and arts education offer students a creative outlet and a cultural education that is too important to be cut as non-essential programs

Vital stats

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Good to see that pollsters are getting their fingers on the pulse of Americans. Scarborough Research finds that Sports Fans Make Surprising Choices in Beers and Wines

Those who engage in Xtreme sports (bungee jumping, skysurfing, etc.) are 107 percent more likely to drink imported beer than the average person. In contrast, golfers and hunters display a clear preference for domestic light beer, choosing it 64 percent more often than the norm. On the other hand, the study reveals that wine drinkers engage in a wide variety of sports and entertainment activities, not just the fine-arts-related pastimes that stereotypes suggest. For instance, those who attended R&B/rap/hip-hop concerts are 94 percent more likely than the average person to drink champagne or sparkling wine, and snow skiers are 89 percent more likely than the norm to consume red wine.

Anyone want to join me for moguls and merlot?

Clues for sale

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I started to make a point about how clueless the anti-globalization protestors are, but gave up after a couple of sentences. Fortunately, James Lileks expands on this idea, from another angle, with more eloquence:

If this recent rally proved anything it

Fighting the parking war

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Theodore Angelus is trying to help people park on the Upper East Side, by linking up people leaving parking spaces with people looking for parking spaces, kind of like eBay for parking spots. Trading Spaces: A Parking Dream in a Pushy City

“I heard about this parking exchange,” he said, “and I said to myself, It’s never going to work. I said to myself, It’s only a matter of time before someone gets shot.”
So far, none of the club members are paying the projected monthly fee of $22.95 for the privilege of not finding a spot. Mr. Angelus is offering everyone who has signed up a free trial week in which to get parking information in the club’s coverage area, from 65th to 86th Streets between Fifth and York Avenues.

I think this is a clever idea that’s probably going to fail miserably because it’s not going to reach the critical mass needed to suceed, mainly because it’s going to break down at the times when demand exceeds supply, and more collective members are looking for spots than leaving spots. This, I assume, would lead to people stop subscribing or just stop calling when they’re leaving spaces, since they rarely receive benefits. If this is refined, it could offer a great service. I think this suceeds, it is the kind of service that would be a perfect application for a location-based wireless service– not only would you get a list of spots with their projected opening times, but also be notified when you have to move your car for alternate side of the street parking, but it’s better that someone is starting this using two phone lines and a dry erase board before investing lots of money into creating a wireless infrastructure that’s going to have an even lower chance of success, because fewer people have (or are willing to use) the client technology…

Shocker: Record Labels Screw Over Musicians

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Damien Cave in Salon: Musician to Napster judge: Let my music go

Professor and msuciant Joseph Byrd: “The record companies’ representation that they are legitimate agents for their artists is false,” he continued. “The only payments they make are to those who have the means to force them to be accountable; to the rest, a vast majority, they pay nothing. Therefore, allowing them to collect fees in our behalf does not serve the public interest. I personally would prefer to allow my music to be freely shared, to the present situation, in which only the corporations stand to gain. Until this is changed, the record companies and publishers deserve nothing.”

Because low to mid level artists haven’t collected royalties on their music, they can’t afford to take the record labels to court to get those royalties. Technology is changing the way that music is produced and is beginning to change the way it is distributed. The longer that the major label oligarchy tries to prop up its failing system, the less influence they are going to have when artists and fans find a way that makes more economic sense for both sides with a new support apparatus.

Network Solutions Sucks

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I’ve heard about instances recently of Network Solutions/Verisign letting domains get hijacked easily. The latest victim is Bernardo’s List, Bernardo Joselevich’s list of Silicon Alley events. Verisign just lost BernardosList.com:

Something quite e-shocking happened to me today, and it seems it could happen to anyone: my internet address, BernardosList.com, was erased by mistake for unknown reasons by Verisign/NetworkSolutions (they say they may be able to get it back for me in one or two months at the earliest!). No explanation was available on why an address that was paid could disappear just like that.

Sounds like time for another round of angry weblog mob justice…

So Long, Subway Q&A

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The Times reports that The Metro Channel is reinventing itself to focus on fashion:All New York, All Fashion, (Almost) All the Time

Gone is the eclectic magazine show “Gotham TV,” with its profiles of downtown clubbers and eccentrics; gone are the comedy showcase “New Joke City,” the live-music show “Daily Beat” and the reality show “Third Date,” which trailed city couples on their third rendezvous, on the theory that it’s the make-or-break encounter.

In particularl, Daily Beat was a pretty good local music show, produced very well that had a good mix of local and national acts of various levels of renown, with decent production values. I think it’s a shame that Metro is stopping the focus on a braod spectrum NYC culture (which I have an interest in) to focus solely on fashion (which I have no interest in.)

4-20 protest, dood!

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Radley Balko of The Agitator, wirtes a hilarious account of his day surrounded by cluelessness at the anti-capitalism protests in DC

The original plan was to do some demonstrating ourselves, to work our way in, then hopefully have some humorous stories to tell about the twisted logic, misplaced anger, and market ignorance of the militant left. When we got to the site, we realized we wouldn’t even be able to fake it. The stupidity was so overwhelming, the activism so empty and boneheaded, we were awed to silence.

I think it’s great that these protestors want to support human rights and social justice, but Starbucks is not the enemy. Globalization brings economic development to areas that wouldn’t otherwise have it. I wonder how many protestors have actually taken an economics class?

Rollin’

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I caught a very entertaining set from Regan with Andrew Winn and Patrick Turner last night at The Bitter End last night. Highlights included “Much Worse” with Regan singing– I was able to catch a lot more of the lyrics than when Andrew sang it with Agents; While Andrew was soling in “Come Dance,” Patrick did something that resulted in the bridge and all the strings coming unattached from his upright bass (pop!) Some random girl came up on stage to do interperative dance and sit in a chair next to Andrew sipping her drink. Andrew proceeded to borrow her drink to play a slide guitar solo using the glass, down the remaining half of the drink and go on to continue soloing with the empty glass as a slide. Regan’s album is due out April 30, though I don’t know what kind of distribution (if any) it will be getting.

Oh boy, sleep!

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Fairly interesting Kuro5hin discussion on sleeping habits. All I could think of was the Seinfeld episode where Kramer went on the all-nap sleep schedule…

Surfing in Molasses

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Wired News: Why Do New iMacs Surf So Slowly?

Tests conducted by Wired News confirmed reader complaints that a new 800 MHz iMac takes an average of twice as long to render Web pages as a comparable or cheaper PC running Windows XP.

Macs have always seemed slower at surfing the web than comparable PCs. I’m satisified with the speed of my iBook running Mozilla under OS X. I’m very impressed by the beta version of Chimera Navigator, a native version of Mozilla, which has the best looking web browsing I’ve seen. I’m looking forward to a final release.

Here Comes the Sun

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I finally found an issue of The New York Sun today. I’m not quite sure what I think of it. It’s interesting to see a new paper launch, and a daily broadsheet with strong coverage focusing on NYC could be good, but I’m not particularly impressed. That may be partially due to the fact that the Sun ran an AP article about the Yankees game, but included no Mets coverage…
Lots more on the Sun at Jim Romanesko’s Media News

I’d like to place an order for delivery…

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Who Was General Tso And Why Are We Eating His Chicken?

General Tso Tsungtang, or as his name is spelled in modern Pinyin, Zuo Zongtang, was born on Nov. 10, 1812, and died on Sept. 5, 1885. He was a frighteningly gifted military leader during the waning of the Qing dynasty, a figure perhaps the Chinese equivalent of the American Civil War commander William Tecumseh Sherman.

Yet, General Tso’s Chicken seems to be a New York invention. (via The Shifted Librarian)

Da? Nyet. D’oh!

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I think it’s a good idea, but Russians are overhwlemingly hostile to reforming the language: Russia Resists Plans to Tweak the Mother Tongue

many of its intellectuals are loath to tinker with a language already so devilishly convoluted that even Russian leaders seldom speak it well.

No Gary Cherone?

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Former Van Halen singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar are going to tour together

The flashy Roth, dressed in black nylon trousers and shirt, was accompanied by three bodyguards, three masked catwomen in fluorescent unitards and a beer-drinking midget sporting an Andy Warhol wig. Hagar turned up solo in jeans and T-shirt.
“Between the two of us,” Roth declared, “What you have is quintessential Americana…In the past, Roth has referred to Hagar as “a mediocre talent,” “a complete failure,” “a mindless little bridge-troll drone” and “my bitch.”

Roth’s autobiography, Crazy from the Heat was a quick, funny read.

Yikes!

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Plane hits Milan skyscraper

Love the Leader

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Anchordesk columnist David Coursey learns to love the leader, er, OS X.: Can a Windows guy learn to love the Mac? You bet!

I like this little iMac and don’t want to give it up. It’s a whole lot more fun than my Windows machine, and a great creative tool

• On the Mac, the computer just doesn’t get in the way of my work as much a PC does.
• Mac is a vastly superior platform for digital movies and photography than stock Windows XP.
• Instant messaging, including video conferencing, works better on Windows XP than on Mac OS X. Media players work better on Windows. For example, there’s no version of the latest RealPlayer for OS X, and nothing I’ve seen makes me sure there ever will be

The lack of a native RealPlayer is very annoying. It’s one of the only applications I use regularly that does not have a native OS X version. So I’m using less Real media instead of loading Classic more frequently.

NYC Water

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Now that we’re in a state of drought, I decided to check out the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) web page. I am highly impressed with how interesting and informative the site is, particularly the part about the NYC water supply system. There’s the current status of the system, a detailed map of reservoir levels, the restrictions on water use, the comprehensive drought management plan (PDF), a guide to saving water, a photo essay about the drought.
The history of the water supply, the history of drought and water consumption and the 3rd Water Tunnel feature offer some interesting basic history.

Mmm…procrastination and beer…

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Researchers find that 71% of procrastinating college students carry a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. 6% of procrastinators think it helps them do better in school.
Another researcher finds link between alcohol intake and wealth. “People found to drink more than average are also more likely to be successful and earn more.” Not quite what I expected. Beer anyone?

Fissile Material Not Included

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It seems that the British government released a step-by-step atomic bomb guide to the public, via its equivalent of the freedom of information act. Greaaat.

Why to buy YHF

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No Sales Depression

Wilco offered the album for free on the Web six months ago, and it has since been vigorously traded on peer-to-peer networks, making it the best test to date of the Internet’s culpability in the current record-industry slump. If the album sells despite having been released online, the industry could lose its favorite scapegoat–and have to focus attention on other explanations for the current listless state of CD sales.

First recorded for Reprise, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was available from Wilco on the Internet. Now, it’s being released on Nonesuch Records. Will the online distribution have an effect on sales? Since Being There is a good album, I’m now planning on picking up Yankee Hotel Foxtrot…

Lost in translation

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I use Altavista Babelfish and Google Translate, but they’re not particularly accurate. I’ve always found it interesting to translate thing from English to another language then back to broken English. Lost in Translation automates this processess, “babelizing” and mangling English into broken English through 5 steps of translation.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” babelizes to “It was better periods, he was work of the periods.”

Bush vs. Democracy

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Is it really surprising that the Bush administration doesn’t see democratically elected leaders as a good thing? Bush Officials Met With Venezuelans Who Ousted Chavez. Imagine, the Bushites suggesting that democracy isn’t always the best. “One administration official replied, ‘Legitimacy is something that is conferred not just by a majority of the voters, however.'”

Geek factor 8

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This is pretty cool, I have Moveable Type now running under OS X. I’m not entirely sure what to use it for, but it’s here. Next up: MySQL.

Tiger

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I’m continually astounded by Tiger. Woods Captures Third Masters. He may even be learning how to create his own Reality Distortion Field, since, as CBS analyst Ken Venturi noted, “Everyone is making sure Tiger Woods wins”
In other sports news, the NHL Playoffs start this week. The Devils play Carolina again in the first round. I’m pleasantly surprised that the Devils are even in the playoffs, since I was expecting them to just miss out, based on the performance of the Mets and the Giants, who both, after going to the World Series and Super Bowl and losing, failed to make the playoffs the following year. The Devils lost in the Stanley Cup finals last year, but did make it into the playoffs. Hopefully this won’t mean an early exit.

Send in the clones

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Why does Dubya want to Ban Cloning Research? Obviously, he’s afraid of the Attack of the Clones

X-ey

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I’m now venturing into the world of OS X on my new iBook. I’m very impressed with actually using OS X for a while now. I still need to figure out what e-mail program to use and replace lots of classic apps (none of which I’m bringing over to the iBook. Going completely OS X on here…)

Shocker: Americans Like TV

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The Economist reports that despite the rise of the Internet, television remains the most popular mass medium

“In most cases, what MTV viewers do less of, now that they are spending more time on the Internet, is sleeping, talking and personal hygiene,” says Betsy Frank, head of research and planning at MTV Networks

Notes from the Microeconomics

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George Scriban takes a look at the correlation between rising CD prices and the impact on CD sales over at his Blogaritaville

the years with the steepest price increases also corresponded with declines in the number of CDs sold. 2001, the year that the RIAA’s been trying to make the “Year of the Peer”, saw the largest average price increase since the price-fixing began (

R U F’d?

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Dave interviews Pud, asking nothing but the hardest-hitting of questions. F’d Interview

eMarketer: What’s the best thing you ever cooked on your George Forman grill?
eMarketer: What was it like meeting Ron Jeremy?

George on George

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Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/09/2002 | George Soros: The sound of one billionaire lashing

“Although the terrorist threat is real, and we must defend against it, we are going about it the wrong way. What makes the situation so dangerous is that nobody dares to say so. The nation is endangered, therefore it is unpatriotic to criticize our leader,” Soros said. “That is not what has made this country great. The strength of this country lies in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and the freedom of speech and thought.”

Nukes, chickens and spies

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This Reuters article at the FT has perhaps the best headline ever: Nukes, chickens and spies as Powell meets Ivanov. How many more stops can Powell make between Washington and Jerusalem?

Money for Nothing?

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Paul Andrews in the Seattle Times: Musicians are key to settling digital discord

All it would take to clarify the music mess is for one or two popular performers to say, “We’re going to change the system.” And then write great music and own the copyright, popularize it through live performances, record it at independent studios and sell it over the Internet.

Musicians may be beginning to see the need to self-promote, but that still isn’t enough to break through to the next level. What bands have made it really big without being signed to a major label? Probably the best example of a band making it big without being picked up on mainstream radio/MTV is Phish, but they were signed to Elektra. However, as more and more bands get screwed by major labels it will become possible to get access to the mass media in addition to making a decent living as an independent musician.

Falettinme Be Mice Elf

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Big thanks to John at Microcontent News for his kick-ass Google Translate Bookmarklet. I’ve been using this regularly for a couple of weeks now. The bookmarklet works very well and it is incredibly useful.

Bike NY

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I’ve registered for the Five boro bike tour. Now I just need to prepare to ride 42 miles around the city on May 5…

Pong: Behind the Paddles

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Behind the Scenes at Pong proves that violence has been an integral part of video games since the beginning

Letters, we get letters

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We get some of the most eloquent letters to the editor over at Buzz Rant & Rave. Such as this one:

ur site is stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! get a life loza!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks crazyangel1289@attbi.com!

Squeal

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Citizens Against Government Waste published Pig Book 2002, a list of what they classify as pork barel projects in the latest federal budget. Also, story at Wired News:Pigs Roasted Over Pet Port

I’ll take Saddam for $500, Alex

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The Council on Foreign Relations and Markle Foundation have a Terrorism primer: Terrorism: Questions & Answers. While it’s not in-depth, it does a very good job of sorting out the basics of the post-9/11 world.

Big dogs

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This is something that I’ve been wondering about for a while now:
I see people in NYC walking these enormous dogs relatively frequently. Where in Manhattan do these people live that they can keep such huge dogs in their apartments?

PDAs

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The eMarketer PDA Market Report, which I wrote, is finally out today.

Double standard?

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The BBC reports that the Nobel committee would like to take back the Peace prize they awarded to Shimon Peres. But while blasting Peres for not doing enough to stop violence as a member of the Israeli cabinet, they don’t say anything about also taking back Arafat’s award. That doesn’t make all that much sense to me….
What can be done? Unfortunately, Arafat has shown that he is not a partner for peace and that he does not have the capacity to lead an independent state. He’s too focused on being a resistance leader and inciting his people to violence against Israelis to have considered what a Palestianian state would look like. By refusing to negiotiate from the Barak plan and supporting violence in Arabic but peace in English, he has thoroughly discredited his desire for two states.
Sharon has shown that he is also not a partner for peace, but just a provacateur with a tendency towards using military force. He is sacrificing whatever moral force Israel should have as a Jewish, democratic state. That said, as a realist, I think Sharon does have a plan for establishing peace through victory– by making Arafat irrelevant and putting Palestianian moderates in control of a Palestianian state, he hopes to create an independent Palestine (ala the US and postwar Japan.) I see a certain logic in it. But that situation could only suceed with a confluence of circumstances that I don’t see happening in this reality.
Could a peace be imposed there by the US/EU/UN? Maybe. Close the settlements, create defensible borders for both sides, and offer compensation in lieu of the “right of return.” Arafat steps down, and is replaced thourgh a democratic election. Sharon steps down. Create economic opportunities in Palestine. Have LOTS of co-educational opportunities for Israelis and Palestinians. International peace keepers. Could that situation work? I’m sure both sides would see sticking points in that plan…
I’m tremendously disappointed that a peace treaty seems much further off than it did two years ago.

Celine Dion CD crashes computers

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There’s some poetic justice in here: Celine Dion’s new CD causes certain computers to crash

“The CD will probably cause a system to crash, but it will not alter anything,” the [Sony] spokeswoman said. “And it won’t eject properly, but that’s just because the computer has crashed.”

It’s easier to make fun of this because it’s a Celine Dion CD, but this is bad.

Monorail, monorail, monorail!

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Project has Muscovites going ’round and ’round

Critics complain that the [world’s largest ferris wheel] is the latest in a string of Luzhkov-sponsored boondoggles, decided with no public input and without concern for more urgent development priorities.

I’m not sure what to say about this, but I find it completely unsurprising that this is a Luzhkov-backed project.

Investigative weblogging

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Rob at Cockeyed.com (home of the highly entertaining how much is inside?) put together an excellent investigative report about Work from Home, unwelcome Herbalife Signs. (for the short attention span set: a summary)

April Fools Roundup

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Ahh, April Fool’s Day on the Web. here we go….

• Kuro5hin acquires Metafilter, er Met4filter.
• Fucked Company: Yahoo! News – PK Interactive receives funding from idealab
• Google explains the technology behind the search results: PigeonRank
• ESPN covers Cat racing and hosts a chat about it
• The Register: You’ve got Blogs! AOL buys into homegrown media. Now, Instapundit,Saltire and Scripting News are flying the imperial colors
• Hacker site 2600 has been acquired by the US Justice Department
• The Open Directory has been acquired by Microsoft
• BRR is just wacky. I can’t explain it. (and I wrote it.)

We’re Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely hearts Club Fellowship

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Beatles wanted to do Lord of the Rings film in 1960s

John Lennon wanted to play the grasping, thieving creature Gollum… Paul McCartney was to play the hero Frodo… George Harrison was to play the wise wizard Gandalf…Ringo Starr was to play Frodo’s devoted sidekick Sam
The Beatles’ idea fell flat when author J.R.R. Tolkien rejected the plan.

Two thumbs up

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An excellent take on the futility of copy protection from Roger Ebert: Don’t Confuse Fans With Pirates

That Universal has copy-protected it, and blocked out Macs and DVD players altogether, has to be the worst marketing decision in consumer electronics since the original DivX format (which was Circuit City’s widely hated, intrusive pay-per-view system). It confuses fans with pirates. My guess is that no musician or band still actively engaged in trying to build an audience will want to come anywhere near it.

Make me a map

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Map.net: Maps of the Web is a visual representation of the Open Directory. I’m not so sure how useful it is, but it is kind of cool.

Take the ‘A’ Train

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In some ways, I’m fairly impressed with Mayor Bloomberg so far. This is a welcome change: Mayor Sets a New Tone, Pushing Drivers Toward Mass Transit. Now, he just needs to work on getting the 2nd Avenue subway. Or, better yet, work on the lower east side -> east village -> crosstown 23rd st -> 10th ave -> 64th st -> york ave -> La Guardia line going…

30. GOTO JAIL

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CBDTPA bans everything from two-line BASIC programs to PCs

The CBDTPA says that if I were to write and sell this BASIC program…
10 INPUT A$
20 PRINT A$
…after the regulations take effect, I would be guilty of a federal
felony. That’s up to five years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine.
Distributing my two-line application without charging for it, either via
handing out floppies or by posting it on a website would be at least a
civil offense and, depending on the circumstances, a crime as well.
It’s no joke. CBDTPA regulates “any hardware or software that reproduces
copyrighted works in digital form.” My program above does that, especially
if my BASIC interpreter permits arbitrarily long strings.

I’m writing to Chuck and Hilary. Have you?

Polkaing pachyderms?

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Yet another take on the new Hollings bill, the music industry and technology: When elephants dance. I haven’t read this all the way through, but it looks interesting so far.

Your ideas intrigue me…

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Doc Searls suggests that Tom Friedman is putting out feelers for the administration’s foreign policy. Feedback suggests that his columns are feelers from within the rank and file at the State Dept— an interesting theory. Regardless, Friedman “gets” the Middle East as well as anyone else and can write eloquently about it. I think that Friedman’s columns stem directly from his understanding of the region.

Scandal-icious

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Playboy soliciting `Women of Enron’ for upcoming pictorial

Playboy Magazine may entice some of those who lost their shirts in the Enron scandal to reveal more than even investigating congressional committees want to see. The Chicago-based adult magazine is inviting Enron women, past and present, to send snapshots of themselves clad in bikinis if they wish to appear in an upcoming

Take a stand in the place where you are

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Dan Gillmor: Bleak future looms if you don’t take a stand

I’m not a thief. I’m a customer. When you treat me like a thief, I won’t be your customer.

I know the feeling…

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See– I am organized

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The Social Life of Paper: Looking for method in the mess

The piles [of papers] look like a mess, but they aren’t. When a group at Apple Computer studied piling behavior several years ago, they found that even the most disorderly piles usually make perfect sense to the piler, and that office workers could hold forth in great detail about the precise history and meaning of their piles.

As a consistent user of the filing by piling method of organization, I feel somewhat vindicated. Now to find the mouse under there so I can post this…

This is cool

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The Video Archive from This is SportsCenter has many of the entertaining spots from the This is SportsCenter campaign in streaming video.

Texting

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U.S. not getting wireless message

If you use your mobile phone to send and receive text messages, browse the Web (or even a stripped-down derivative) or do just about anything else that involves data — not voice — communications, you’re a rare bird in North America.

I wonder why. Actually, I don’t. I’ve used SMS on my phone recently (Robin [no link] and I were giving it a try– between Voicestream and AT&T, nonetheless) I’ve also messaged over AIM with Farhad [no web page], who was connected to AIM through his Sprint phone. The biggest problem is with actually writing messages. Typing out words on a keypad designed to type numbers quickly is incredibly slow and a major PitA. (Yes, I know millions of people in Europe and Japan do this) but I don’t have the patience to learn. Which is a shame, because texting is rather cool and useful. I don’t understand why cell phone makers are so attached to the keypad…

Free stuff?

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Tim O’Reilly responds to Michael Eisner’s comments in the NY Times piece on digital media and copying from yesterday.

The software industry faces exactly the same conditions that the entertainment industry fears will destroy its markets. Software is digital, easily and perfectly copyable, and pirated copies are in fact available through a variety of illicit channels, but that hasn’t kept companies like Microsoft from going on to become among the largest and most successful in the world. What’s more, copy protection was widely explored by software companies in the 1980’s, and what they learned was that consumers avoided copy-protected products.

(via BoingBoing)

24

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Wow. 24 years ago today. Another year. I’m pretty much in the same place I was last year at this time and I feel good about that. It was a chaotic year in a different way than last year, and I feel a sense of accomplishment in staying where I am. I need to put some thought into what goals I’d like to get through this year…

Go Fair Use!

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DigitalConsumer.org Home Page

We are advocating a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights that will positively assert a consumer’s rights to fair use. The Bill of Rights will guarantee your ability to use your own digital media in the way that you choose.

also Walt Mossberg: DigitalConsumer Takes Up the Fight Against Copyright Plans in Congress
and The NY Times: Piracy, or Innovation? It’s Hollywood vs. High Tech

Mr. Eisner said in an interview that it was “easy to encourage us to overlook the pirates when you’re making the sword.” He said he doubted that any new business model could compete with digital copies that were free, flawless and accessible from the comfort of his prospective customers’ living rooms.

Why not try? Legitimate digital downloading of music would take off if it was easier to find and more reliable to download than the alternative. Instead of worrying about what might be lost, think about what might be gained.

It’s Madness!

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SatireWire: Global March Madness

Selection Committee Gives U.S., China No. 1 seeds; Iraq a No. 3 in Mideast

How smart?

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Cardboard cards stop Russians drinking

Residents are largely paid for their work not in cash, but in a system of credit specially stamped into cardboard smart cards.

So smart cards are just an expensive way of implementing scrip. No wonder they haven’t taken off. Cash shortage a problem? Simply go back to the 19th century US “company town” approach. What’s next?

Arrrr… VCR, the video pirate

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Dear Jack [Valenti], A Music Lesson on Piracy for Hollywood
Piracy bill could lock up computers

“[The bill] would in essence turn your PC into only a VCR playback machine, and you wouldn’t have the capabilities to move digital content around like you do today, like burning a CD, e-mailing a digital picture, or saving a trailer clip of a movie”

And what about us that use computers to produce our own original music or movies?

How Dumb Can You Go?

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Business 2.0 presents 101 Dumbest Moments in Business. Some of the highlights include:

20. The Gartner Group issues trading cards featuring its analysts.
21. Houston, We Have a Problem, Part 7: Richard Gross, an analyst at Lehman Bros. , maintains a “strong buy” rating on Enron as the stock declines from $81 to $0.75. A Lehman spokesperson helpfully explains to the New York Times that the firm was advising Dynegy on its purchase of Enron’s pipeline, and it is Lehman’s policy not to change the firm’s rating on any company involved in a deal in which Lehman is an adviser.
22. “I only flew Concorde three times, and they were all special offers.” — Kajsa Leander, co-founder of Boo.com
23. Still Partying Like It’s 1999, Part 3: Peter Chung, a newly hired associate at the Carlyle Group , sends an e-mail to his friends bragging about his lavish new lifestyle. The e-mail — in which he boasts of the “hot chicks” he’s bedding and concludes, “CHUNG is KING of his domain here in Seoul” — is sent to thousands of other people and eventually makes its way back to his bosses. Chung, no longer king of his domain, is summarily fired.

Can you see the real TV?

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I found Bands on the Run to be highly entertaining. The producers decided not to make a second season. But I’ve found a replacement. Bravo’s The It Factor follows 12 struggling actors in New York. I think part of the reason it is enjoyable is that it is set in NYC. However, having only seen two episodes so far, I’m finding it hard to follow, because they can only focus on 3 or 4 actors out of the twelve in each half-hour episode.

Satire wired

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Gagpipe aggregates satire links the way that MacSurfer does for mac links.

Have I mentioned recently how much I like my job?

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The Times interviews some seniors at Tufts in an article about how terrible this year’s job market is: Not Wanted: ’02 Graduates Seeking Jobs.

PDA stuff. No catchy title.

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In today’s NY Times, David Pogue reviews 3 color PDAs with a good dose of realistic cynicism.
Dan Bricklin gives a tour of his Handspring Treo. I was glad to see the pictures comparing the Treo with a Nokia 8260 and a Palm III, since I carry my 8260 with me daily (and use a Palm IIIx less frequently). The Treo looks cool, just expensive.
The final draft of my PDA report is complete (thanks to Steve, Ben and Yael) and should be out sometime this month.

Baseball on speed

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I watched this year’s NFC championship game (Eagles-Rams) on video tape, fast-forwarding through the replays, time-outs and commercials. The game went by really quickly. Now Major League Baseball is one-upping this and is going to stream 20 minute compressed versions of this season’s games. When you edit out all the extra happenings from a 3 hour game, there’s only about 20 minutes of actual play.

March on Washington!

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Doc Searls: It’s time to show these fuckers what Democracy is all about

We face a plain conceptual choice here. Either the Net is a medium

Even more digi music links

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Two from the NY Times: Downloading Files and Storms and You Listen, You Pay: Post-Napster Music Services. OpenP2P also takes Pressplay for a test drive.

Movie Archive

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Internet Archive Movie Collection has digital versions of old film reels, educational things, etc.
I’m going to go through and watch some of these/add funny titles in here, but I’m going home now. 🙂

More on Digital Music

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Memo to Hollywood: Downloading Can’t Be Stopped

Vivendi and others don’t need Washington’s help. What they need is to embrace some radical thinking. . Face it: Downloading can’t be stopped….The industry needs to start learning to do the right thing by consumers and artists, or it will find itself even worse off than it is right now.

Life on the Tombigbee

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Why drawbridges are useful, as demonstrated by Jimmy Wilkerson in 1979

Get excited about statistics

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Think the Census Is a Snooze? Think Again

• In 1998, more Americans were injured by their toilet (48,964) than while using a hammer (42,426)
• Each American consumed an average of .3 gallons of buttermilk and 118 pounds of red meat in 1999

There are many more facts in the 2001 Statistical Abstract of the US, elsewhere at the Census Bureau and the Statistical Abstract Info Page

I hope this is the last one

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The logical conclusion of the proliferation of “which ____ are you” web pages is Which online personality test are you?

Angry Weblog Mob Justice (Part II)

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Corante’s Microcontent News (a weblog about weblogs) has an article about Angry Weblog Mob Justice (aka “Googlebombing”). (see also my original Angry Weblog Mob Justice post)

Panic? ok

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Tip on Nuclear Attack Risk Was Kept From New Yorkers

The report was kept a tight secret former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the New York Police Department and even senior Federal Bureau of Investigation officials were not told

Andrew vs. CSS

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Apparently, some of the revamped stylesheet I started on yesterday isn’t agreeing too well with windows browsers (both Mozilla and IE), since this page doesn’t look correct (the MT archive links in the gray box should be in a right-hand column.) Work on this later, I will…

Regan

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Last night, I headed down to the the Knitting Factory to check out Regan performing with Andrew Winn and bassist Pat Turner. While it was the AGR side project I was least interested in seeing, the show rocked– especially considering that it was an acoustic one. Regan is up here to master her new album (recorded with Stewart Myers), which I am now looking forward to. She has some great songs and is an excellent performer. Stay tuned for more details on the album as I get them.
This was in the Knit’s tiny AlterKnit room, which I didn’t even realize existed (it’s off to the side of the Tap Room). Since there were no more than 15 people there (and a bunch of them were there with Chris Keup, who played some songs to open), it was definately an intersting setting. [Setlist (via Bryan Hall)]

WiFi

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The NY Times has two articles about WiFi today: Good (or Unwitting) Neighbors Make for Good Internet Access and The Corner Internet Network vs. the Cellular Giants. Also, an audio interview with NYT tech reporter Amy Harmon on Wireless Networks. (RealAudio required)
More good WiFi info can be found at NYCWireless and 802.11b Networking News (who has some comments about these two NYT articles.)

Tourette’s Syndrome Barbie

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Tourette’s Syndrome Barbie: This is simply funny.

Feh

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I’ve been really pissed off today. Maybe it’s because it ended up not raining, but I still didn’t go skiing. Or maybe it’s because I watched the latest two installments of New York: A Documentary Film this morning and am dismayed about what Robert Moses did to the city and wanted to build. Robert Moses’s years of work to replace neighborhoods and the street grid with housing projects and highways definately screwed up many parts of the city. Now, when’s that 2nd Avenue subway coming?

Sun light

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It’s 6 pm and still relatively light out. That’s a sign we’re getting out of winter, but I only have 7 ski days in so far this season. I need to get the count up…

Big dig

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The Big Dig (The Central Artery/Tunnel Project — the very expensive project that involves replacing Boston’s central artery elevated highway by digging up basically the entire city) has a really great web site. This is a huge project and the site does a good job showing why they’ve been screwing up Boston traffic for 10 years or so.

StalinWorld

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Stalin World in Lithuania: The Amusement Park

“It combines the charms of a Disneyland with the worst of the Soviet gulag prison camp.”

Oh yeah, this is a, real clever idea
(via BoingBoing)

Yaks can pack

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Something not about piracy for a change:
The International Yak Association is at the vanguard of the effort to shake up the cattle industry, by bringing yaks to US ranches.
(via Mark Morford’s highly entertaining Morning Fix)

I am not a crook

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CD Technology Stops Copies, but It Starts a Controversy

What bothers some consumers is that the technology does not discriminate between legal and illegal behavior.
“Being treated like a criminal makes me want to act like one”

Even software piracy is easer on a Mac

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Have iPod, Will Secretly Bootleg

When Apple introduced the iPod, the company was aware that people might use it to rip off music from the Net or friends’ machines. Each new iPod, in fact, is emblazoned with a sticker that warns, “Don’t Steal Music.”
But it is unlikely that Apple imagined people would walk into computer stores, plug their iPod into display computers and use it to copy software off the hard drives.

I would not have thought of using an iPod quite like that! Maybe Apple needs to stock up on some new stickers.

A challenge

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I just turned on the Grammys to see National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences president Michael Green discussing how downloading music is theft and that consumers and the industry need to do what they can to end it. Perhaps you the industry should be doing more than offering half-assed, undesirable ways of downloading music that end up more expensive than buying a physical product with lower sound quality and more restrictions on what devices it can be played on. How about a system where downloading tracks is cheaper than buying a physical CD? How about a system that offers sound quality as good as a CD? How about a system that compensates the songwriters and performing artists fairly? How about a system that offers a good selection of tracks? Offer a good product and people will be lining up to buy it. Leave a system in place where consumers can not buy music in the format they want it in, and many will download music in that format. Perhaps if the big labels tried to understand what their consumers want instead of trying to force something on us, they could spend less time complaining and more time supporting new artists.

clueless

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Piracy blamed for CD sales slump
Perhaps instead of branding everyone who downloads music a thief, the music industry should make it possible for people to download music in a usable format. That means: not a crippled version that doesn’t allow copying to a portable player or sharing with someone, but a version that offers all the same features that I can get by buying the music on CD. Or if it is a crippled version, make it less, rather than more expensive.
Oh, and maybe the music industry should consider that the QUALITY of the product they put out is the reason that less music sales are happening.

Buy the Expos

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Some UPenn students are seeing how much money could be raised from the public to buy the Expos.

Donate $10 million, be the commencement speaker

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Omidyars To Deliver Commencement Address. I actually think this is a good choice, since eBay is a revolutionary business that takes full advantage of the benefits of the Internet. While not a big name, it’s a Tufts connection and is forward-looking.

So why not?

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Office of Strategic Mendacity: “So why not just tell the truth?”

Masters of the Obvious

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So I-bankers are motivated primarily by money. Is that really a surprise?

Can I borrow $20 million?

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NSync Band Member Lance Bass to Visit International Space Station

According to industry sources, NSync band member Lance Bass is in negotiations with MirCorp to fly on a Soyuz taxi mission to the ISS in November 2002. The rumored cost of such a flight is $20 million.

We need to get the band off the ground and making millions of dollars quickly, so that I can visit the ISS…

Herbie

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Herbie Hancock is endorsing all sorts of cool stuff.
Mac Fiends Who Live for Updates

“VersionTracker is the very first site I always visit when I go to the Web,” said musician Herbie Hancock in an e-mail. “It’s a must-have site.”

Why Can’t We Get CBC Here?

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I’m disappointed with NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics. It is better (and less shmalzy) than CBS’s Nagano coverage, but still not very good. I looked up today’s schedule to see when the Men’s Super G is going to be on. (8:30-9:15 pm) I appreciate showing highlights in the evening (especially during the week), but why can’t they also show the entire race live?

Why not at least show highlights live and show the entire race on tape late night? NBC claimed that CNBC and MSNBC would be used to show more live coverage. Then why are there no Olympic sports on MSNBC today? Why is there no live alpine skiing coverage at all?
American TV execs just don’t seem to get it. The Olympics are about sport. Sports creates its own stories and the less you surround those stories with annoying crap, the purer stories are more entertaining, more emotional and more fun to watch. I’m disappointed, NBC. Try respecting your viewing audience and giving us more options to watch the games. You can sell more commercials by showing both complete coverage for the more involved fans and highlights for the casual fans and have more happy viewers. Watch the CBC coverage. They understand how to broadcast the Olympics.

Sue Me Now!

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‘Miss Cleo’ faces lawsuits – Feb. 15, 2002

Some might argue that self-described television psychic “Miss Cleo” should have seen it coming.

Bezos knows e-commerce

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At somepoint in 1999, I added a Wishlist to my Amazon.com account. This week, I got an email from Amazon reminding me that “Your birthday is right around the corner…What
better reason to update your Wish List?”
It’s a clever way of drumming up business and just another example of how Amazon is using databases and e-mail marketing to sell individually to each of their customers. Clever.
And not that I’m expecting anyone to buy me the Powerbook G4, but…feel free to.

This is good

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240-to-189 Vote Caps Seven-Year Effort to Ban Soft Money

Pro Tools and the Music Biz

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Great article from the Denver Post: Ability to mask shortcomings puts musical talent in a minor key

“Now, everybody uses AutoTune software which goes in and analyzes and corrects the pitch for you. I can fix my 12-year-old’s flat or sharp or out-of-sync vocals in the blink of an eye.”

So would it now be innovative to go and record a rock/pop act direct to two track analog (or digital)? Something to think about… (courtesy of MeFi

Toys!

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Now this is a trade show that looks like fun to visit. Wired News covers the American International Toy Fair: Toys R Unusually Lame at Fair
I may need one of these:

An 18-inch-high R2D2 will do quite a bit more, responding to 40 voice commands. Ask R2 to dance, and it dances the Twist to the theme from the bar scene in the original Star Wars. Ask the droid if it remembers Darth Vader, and it starts to shake and squeal with fear. Of most interest to the frat house community will be R2’s retractable arm, just large enough for a 12-ounce beer can.

and…

Along with the usual variety of action figures and make-believe weapons, there are items like the Polyjuice Potion Maker – Harry Potter’s version of the chemistry set — which lets kids combine a half dozen powders and cups of goo into an orange soda-ish concoction.

Kids will be disappointed to find not only does the polyjuice potion not actually work, but it tastes bad, and it’s also an industrial strenght laxative, by the way.

The real story of the winter games

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b-may is blogging from behind the scenes at Salt Lake 2002.

Didn’t we learn to share in kindergarten?

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EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow onThe Crime of Sharing

Over the last several years, the entertainment industry has railroaded a number of laws and treaties through Washington and Geneva that are driving us rapidly toward a future in which the fruits of the mind cannot be shared. Instead they must be purchased

Oh no! Rupert Murdoch is Attacking Futurama!

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gotfuturama.com and Ain’t it Cool News are reporting that Fox is cancelling Futurama.
This has been perhaps my favorite television program (ok, with the exception of BotR), but it was always a pain to find it on tv. Maybe if Fox ran it at a time slot that wasn’t covered up by the last half hour of NFL games at the beginning of the tv season and ran new episodes on a regular schedule, the audience might have been able to find the show.
Yet, The Simpsons continues on riding its reputation from the first 8 or so seasons and may turn out to still be on the air in the year 3000. Yet Futurama is funnier, subtler and better written than the Simpsons over the same time period.
Also, a Wired interview with Matt Groening from 1999 is interesting.
(via MeFi)

Got etiquette?

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The Morning News Guide to Urban Etiquette: New York City

Don’t engage other passengers in mild conversation; they’re preoccupied with the same activities and usually don’t wish to be disturbed. The very act of riding the subway is a performance in itself. While many riders may secretly wish to have a chat with you (you may be very hot), they are far too involved — as should you be — in complete submersion in their chosen character: that of the mute.

Salon skips Salt Lake

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Red, White and Wrong

I couldn’t make it to Salt Lake City this year — long story, something to do with the NASDAQ and a bad bar scene — so my colleague King Kaufman and I will be performing the arduous task of filing daily dispatches from our front-line positions in dueling La-Z-Boys with beer holders pulled up in front of large-screen TVs.

In other words, Salon.com doesn’t have enough money to send us to the games, so we’ll write about them after watching them on TV. But I do agree with Kamiya’s take on the coverage…

Maybe “evil” words work after all…

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Iraq Calls Bush’s Bluff on Weapons Scrutiny and indicates that they’re willing to let UN weapons inspection resume.
This either means that Saddam perceives the war-mongering from the Bush Administration as a legitimate threat that can be reduced by allowing the UN weapons inspectors to return, or that the programs have either achieved their goals or been sufficiently well-hidden. The cynic in me believes the second option is more likely.

Economic sanctions have been the cornerstone of a policy of containment pursued by three consecutive administrations. Sanctions are essential to Bush’s plan to destabilize and eventually overthrow Saddam Hussein.
The resumption of serious weapons inspections would, by their very nature, open the door for the eventual lifting of the sanctions, which in turn would signal an end of containment.

Sanctions without weapons inspections has not led to effective containment. Rather, it has impoverished the Iraqi people and left Saddam with the opportunity to divert oil for food money to developing weapons of mass destruction. Sanctions have made the Iraqi people feel that they are the enemy of the US and support Saddam’s despotic regime, even though it has done much to oppress the Iraqi people. Lifting sanctions might allow Iraqis enough resources to mount a coup or revolution. Right now, the sanctions in Iraq are as effective as the ones the US has used against Cuba since the 1960s.

When simplicity goes bad

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After Dubya declares Iran part of the “axis of Evil”, Chants of ‘Death to America!’ Mark March by Millions in Iran. HThis is what happens when ideas are over-simplified, they lack nuance and are easily misinterpreted. Iran does belong as a part of the Axis of Evil ™. The Ayatollah and religous leaders are supporting terrorist groups. “Death to Israel” is still the official line of the government. But, when the President of the US states that Iran is evil, that made the average Iranian unhappy and anti-Americanism returns and support for the hardline clerics increases, rather than decreases. The question is: how do we win the “hearts and minds” of the Iranian people, while maintaining pressure on the hardliners supporting, encourgaging and exporting terror? The ousting of the hardline religous leadership will not come from Washington, but from withing Tehran itself, so Washington needs to do whatever it can to bring about that result.

a different persepctive

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Hunterm Mountain from Helicopter. These photos give a really different perspective on the mountain than from more conventional angles.

eBlog Interview

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Dave Berkowitz discusses blogs with Baron Lowery from RappDigital. he’s also set up a blog with the snazzy eMarketer colors

Radio song

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Krikor is going to be playing some songs tonight on Ron & Fez on WNEW (7-11 PM).

Jumbo fraud

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I’m so proud. Enron CFO Andrew Fastow is a Tufts alum (LA ’84, with a major in Economics.) His contact info happens to be in the online alumni directory (Tufts Alumni login/password required).
In the NY Times: Fastow: The Financial Wizard Tied to Enron’s Fall

In your polyester leisure suit

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[Boston Globe Online / Business / Lehman closets casual dress policy][1]

Now, men working at Lehman will have to wear suits and ties, while women will be required to wear either skirts, pants, dresses, or ”other equivalent attire”

Now I remember why I didn’t want to work at an I-bank. If [we][2] ever adopt a similar policy, I’ll be surprised, especially considering that I have essentially zero face to face client contact.

[1]: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/038/business/Lehman_closets_casual_dress_policy .shtml [2]: http://www.emarketer.com

Worst error message…ever

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For a company whose reputation is based on making the Internet easy to use, AOL’s software is not particularly clever. Ok, the AIM client has at least one particularly annoyingly braindead feature. For example: when signing on to the service, an error message box pops up with the text “You are attempting to sign on again too soon. Please try again later.” The dialog box has two buttons: “OK” and “More Info.” Figuring that I’d like to find out how long I need to wait in between signing on again, I clicked on the “More Info” button, which launches your web browser to AOL’s homepage. It doesn’t take you to a specific error page, or even a page about the instant messanger client program, but back to AOL.com. How is that useful? Shouldn’t that button link directly to the error message help page? Or do the AOL execs think that because I’m having problems with their software that I’d be more willing to sign up for services that cost me money?

You will conform

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US Department of Commerce: Nation Online: How Americans Are Expanding Their Use Of The Internet

Terry Gross and Gene Simmons

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KISS Frontman Gene Simmons Brings Trash Talk to NPR Airwaves
Gross: I’d like to think the personality you presented on our show today is a persona that you’ve affected as a member of KISS, but that you’re not nearly as obnoxious when you’re at home or with friends.
Simmons: Fair enough, and I’d like to think that the boring lady who’s talking to me now is a lot sexier and more interesting than the one’s who’s doing NPR, studious and reserved.

February madness

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“February 20th is a day all hockey fans should call in sick,” said Molly Solomon, the coordinating producer of NBC’s cable coverage. “All four men’s hockey quarterfinals will be shown live; it’s like the first two days of March Madness.” (The first two will be on MSNBC, the next two on CNBC.)

TV Coverage Will Be Live, Prime Time and Shorter

Porn on PBS!

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It’s no channel 35, but Frontline on PBS will be running a show this week (on Thursday, to be exact) about the porn industry in America.
Frontline: American Porn

In “American Porn,” FRONTLINE goes inside some of the most successful pornography businesses to see how their profits have exploded in the past few years: At Larry Flynt’s Hustler organization – where “synergy” is the buzzword – publishing co-exists with movies, strip clubs, sex shops, and the Internet to the tune of $400 million; at popular Internet site Danni’s Hard Drive, owner Danni Ashe went from exotic dancer to dot-com millionaire virtually overnight, earning $8 million last year alone. While most Americans decry the avalanche of sexually explicit material, the profits speak for themselves. Large numbers of Americans are finding something they like in the adult entertainment arena.

The recent Dot.Con: Wall Street’s Dot Com Scandal was very good and the upcoming Rollover: The Hidden History of the SUV looks interesting.

This is how to run a sports team

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Gregg Easterbrook: Offseason renovations at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field will reduce the number of luxury boxes and increase general seating. Perhaps you can tell from this that the Packers are the league’s only community-owned team?

Superbowl Ads

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iFilm is hosting the Super Bowl 2002 ads. Real and Windows Media only, though. No Quicktime.

M-life

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So how much of my mobile phone bill went to paying for all those m-life ads that AT&T ran at the Super Bowl (yea Pats!) I went to the mlife site and browsed the service offerings– basically they’re hyping services that AT&T Wireless already offers: ring tones, text messaging and the branded TellMe service. I assume that the point of the ads were to convince people to lead a ‘mobile lifestyle,’ but all the ads did were confuse me. I don’t think it’s possible to sell Americans on wireless data services without being able to demonstrate that they’re cool and worth paying for. Maybe it would be worth developing services that people want to use for the price you’r charging before embarking on a ridiculously expensive branding campaign.
The Superbowl ads were pretty disappointing overall, unortunately. Good game, though.

But did they take into account the massive corruption?

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April 2001: Online Energy Trading Will Exceed $3.6 Trillion By 2005, According To Forrester Research

“The leaders of the merchant hubs will be Enron, ICE, and TradeSpark — supported by traders willing to make markets and act as specialists for specific products.” For the Report “Net Energy Hits Hypergrowth,” Forrester spoke with executives from online energy marketplaces, energy producers, industrial customers, traders, and software suppliers.

Super Sunday

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It’s 11:30 and there’s already pregame coverage for the Super Bowl on Fox Sports, ESPN and CNN (about the commercials). The game is not starting another 7 hours.

today is 02/02/02

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and groundhog day, too…
Last night, went to see Victor Wooten at Irving Plaza, and once again, a kicking show, bringing the funk. James Genus ( bass for Brecker Bros, Uri Caine, SNL band among others) sat in for a song. On the encore, with 3 bassists playing (Vic, MC Divinity and Anthony Wellington) they passed up one of the few opportunities to play Big Bottom with the correct instrumentation….

nothing to see here

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Projection vs. Reality: is a new eMarketer whitepaper. I’m using this link to troubleshoot something in MT (not that this whitepaper doesn’t kick major ass)

Fitter, Happier, Full of iMac-ey Goodness

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He Writes the Songs: Mac Songs
Lots of music is made on the Macintosh, but there’s not a lot of music made about the Macintosh

Candidate 2012

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Reality tv, meet reality: Candidate 2012 is HBO’s entry in the field, as they follow someone around the country, who will be first eligble to run for President in 2012. I remember seeing a few articles about people starting their presidential campaigns for the future. For example: Andy Simmons or, even better, Yahoo! has an entire category.

W.E.F. Smackdown

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Billionaire? Supermodel? You’re Not Invited
If Heidi Klum can’t get into WEF parties, I guess that explains why I haven’t been, either. Maybe she’ll show up at the Victor Wooten gig tonight…

Diplomacy for Algernon

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Adam Felber’sFanatical Apathy: “This country started as a naive and mannerless little land, grew to become a sophisticated world power playing a complex game of geopolitical chess… and now we’ve come around to taking this approach. When the last book is finally written about US foreign policy, the best title might be ‘Diplomacy for Algernon'”

So a spammer, a lawyer and a priest walk into…

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I’m not entirely sure why, but this is one of the funnier spams I’ve seen recently.

FROM: makingabreakforit842211@yahoo.com
SUBJECT: We Will ORDAIN You Within 24 Hours So You Can Serve

STREET BISHOPS, a U.S. based international ministry, has the authority to ORDAIN you immediately.
STREET BISHOPS believes that ordination should be given to all who ask. One of the benefits of being a LEGAL member of the clergy is that you will be authorized to perform the rites and ceremonies of the church. They include:
WEDDINGS – You can earn part-time income officiating marriages on weekends. Couples are searching for a wedding officiates. Most states require that you register your certificate (THAT WE SEND YOU) prior to conducting the ceremony. Some pastors work full-time as a wedding officiate, so can you! And we’ll put you in our database of officates which receives thousands of requests for ordained ministers!
FUNERALS – The simple fact is that people die every day, providing a never-ending need for funeral officiates.
BAPTISMS – What a special way to welcome a child of God. As millions return to church and desire these official ceremonies, you are there to assist them! This adds to your part or full time income as a minister!
PRISON MINISTRIES – Since you will be a Certified Minister, you can visit others in need. Assist those who are ready to CHANGE their lives – You can play a major part in that decision!
HOSPITOL MINISTRIES – A an ordained clergy, you can be listed with most hospitals and conduct a successful hospital ministry.
WANT TO START YOUR OWN CHURCH? After your ordination, you may start your own congregation! We can offer much assistance as you begin your new place of worship.
YOU RECEIVE a professionally printed 8-inch by 10-inch color certificate and Letter of Ordination/Proof of Minister Certification in your name. We pay the U.S. shipping. For Shipping OUTSIDE the U.S. please add $15.00.
THE STREET BISHOP gaol is to make this life changing step easy and affordable so average folks like you can benefit from the advantages of being ordained, and you can be enabled to serve others. The administrative costs for processing the ordination is only $29.00.
FAX: To place your order by fax, complete the following form and fax to 1-413-487-7457, or use postal mail. We will not charge your credit card or deposit your check or money order until the documents are in the mail.
MAIL: For Cash, Check, or Money Order, complete the form below, make your check payable to “Street Bishops” and mail to
Ordination Committee
3206 South Hopkins Ave, #89
Titusville, Florida 32780 U.S.A.
ALL APPLICATIONS PROCESSED WITHIN 3 DAYS OF RECEIVING THEM
(Please print very clearly in dark ink)

Mayor Mike rides the subway

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I think this definately increases the chance of the 2nd Avenue subway getting built :It’s a Subway, and the Mayor Is Riding It

Protest week

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The Davos forum has come to New York and they’ve brought their own protestors. As I was leaving work today, I saw some police barricades and officers standing in front of the UA Union Square movie theater. After looking around a bit, I saw about 15 or so people protesting “Blackhawk Down.” So we’ve got a week of this?

hello, free speech?

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Tattletales for an Open Society

An Open Letter to Dr. Lynne Cheney and Senator Joseph Lieberman (from Martin Sherwin)

While ACTA’s report does not have the cachet of President Nixon’s “Enemies List,” nor the intimidating force (yet?) of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s too-numerous-to-list lists, as an American historian I am naturally interested in this project, and I have decided to offer your organization my full cooperation.
Therefore, as an example to my colleagues, I am stepping forward to name a name, my own–Martin J. Sherwin, the Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts–and to tattle on myself.

If you don’t remember ACTA “Defending Civilization” accussed university professors of being ‘un-American’ by having the gall to disagree with the administration. Hello, free speech? Professor Sherwin was one of the best professors I had at Tufts. His book A World Destroyed happens to be good, too.

it may be on a lousy network…

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Can Fox sink any lower?

Meanwhile, for people who tire of Winter Olympics competition on NBC, Fox has a special in the works for late February. Called “The Glutton Bowl,” the two-hour show will feature people competing to eat large amounts of foods like hamburgers and eggs.

Can someone explain this?

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From Dubya’s State of the Union Address

For too long our culture has said, “If it feels good, do it.” Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: “Let’s roll.”

So what does this mean?

fuzzy math?

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Today, President Bush announced $50 million in credit for private investment in Afghanistan to help train its own police force and military. [NYT]. As a point of comparison, last week, Mariah Carey got a $21 million buyout of her contract by EMI. In total, she received $49 million from Virgin/EMI. [MTV] Do I need to point out that Maria Carey is a soprano while Afghanistan is an entire country?

ooops

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And Now, a Few Words We Wish Had Never Been Written

In yesterday’s issue, The New York Times did not report on riots in Milan and the subsequent murder of the lay religious reformer Erlembald. These events took place in 1075, the year given in the dateline under the nameplate on Page 1. The Times regrets both incidents.

In last week’s Week in Review section, a collection of “some of the weirdest and most embarrassing of them,” as collected for the book Kill Duck Before Serving: Red Faces at The New York Times

Google-rific

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One more indication of how Google rules. A breakdown of some of the top search terms in the Google Zeitgeist

Where the links have no description

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U2 – Their vague majesties of rock. hmmm….

Cool Runnings 2?

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On streets of San Jose, Aremenians prepare. That’s right, the Armenian bobsled team. Krikor must be so proud…

Googlewhacking

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Googlewhacking is the latest craze to hit the web. The game? Searching on Google to find word pairs that appear only once together in the entire index.
For example, my find: sousaphone wasabi

iMac phone home

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Using AppleScript and Timbuktu to clean off and trace a stolen iMac: at Macscripter.net

Lego of the Rings

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It’s Lord of the Rings, told in Lego

huh?

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Back in December, Nick Smith (R-MI) and Curt Weldon (R-PA)
introduced to the House a bill (Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2001 (HR 3598) to reinstate a form of the draft. Specifically, all males age 18-22 will be required to undergo a 6 month training program. I’ll admit, I’m glad I turned 23 last year. But I also don’t get the point of this? If we are going to have a return of the draft, the it should not be limited to men only. And it shoudl require some sort of service to the country, not just training. Though, in general, I think this is just a Bad Idea. Yes, Israel has mandatory military service, but I just don’t see the point of it in the US, as proposed in this bill.

Two Bucks in Stock

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Get your Enron memorabilia here! Enron stock certificates are going for upwards of $100 on eBay. Consider that on the market, the value of the stock is, well, 0…

mmmm….locust bean gum

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I just bought a pack of these Listerine Pocket Paks which are pretty cool– these things dissolve on your tounge leaving a Clean Mouth Feeling¹. But I was curious and read the ingredient list. I don’t understand a word of it:

Pullulan, Flavors, Menthol, Aspartame, Potassium Acesulfame, Copper Gluconate, Polysorbate 80, Carrageenan, Glyceryl Oleate, Eucalyptol, Methyl Salicylate, Thymol, Locust Bean Gum, Propylene Glycol, Xanthan Gum, FD&C Green No 3.

Tear the roof off the sucker

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So, I went to two concerts over the last two nights. Flickerstick at Irving Plaza and The Roots at Avery Fisher Hall.
The presentation at the Flickerstick show was great. the sound and lights were well done, but the concert lacked spontenaity and passion and their set was only about 75 minutes long. The Roots played a 2.5 hour set, but the sound was painfully loud. It was pathetic that in a venue with good acoustics I could barely make out what Black Thought was rhyming. The production was as amateurish as Devils broadcasts on Fox Sports.

But the Roots concert was sick. They had all sorts of guests up on stage, and the solo turns at the end were highlighted by ?uestlove’s solo and Rahzel and Scratch doing dueling vocal effects. In contrast, Flickerstick was all about “hey, we’re rock stars now!” They had a big tour bus all new gear, but they approached the songs in a way to make them sound very generic. While the reworked “Got a Feeling” was much better done than the old way, ‘Chloroform’ and ‘Coke’ sounded much less distinctive and much more like any other song on modern rock radio. Beautiful was just a mess. These guys could be good, but they need to work making their sound more recognizably unique, not less so.

Devil’s Pretzel

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Got a Devil’s pretzel in my throat Bush meets Beck.

Me fail sleeping? But that’s where I’m a viking!

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“I felt like by the time you got to college you should be able (to use a) bed.”
Princeton, however, sees the need to provide instructions.

excellent!

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Wallace and Gromit return online

Aardman is going to release a series of Wallace & Grommit shorts on the web!

on the bbc

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Only the BBC gives you the whole story behind the story:
What are pretzels?

• Chewy salt-encrusted snack with distinctive, twisted shape, popular with beer
  • Originated in Europe, where some consider them a good luck charm
    • Introduced in America by early settlers
      • Annual US sales top $180m

Enrongate?

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I have seen the Enron collapse/fiasco/scandal/really-shady-affair referred to as “Enrongate.” (as seen Metafilter and elsewhere on the web). Fortunately this has not become a popular term, like Nannygate or Travelgate or any of the other little scandals that have affected US presidents since Watergate (which didn’t involve water at all.)
The real scandals, like the Iran-Contra affair don’t have a popular -gate moniker. The Enron Affair looks like it deserves to have its own name, not be another Watergate-imitator-wannabe. This one looks like it’s on par with Watergate, Iran-Contra or Teapot Dome (or the Harding administration…)

D’oh!

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I guess I should have called in sick today. 14″+ of fresh is quite a bit more interesting than any new mac…

way cool

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While the rumor sites were speculating about what the big announcement was going to be (iWalk, Gigawire), it ended up just to be the flat-panel imac. But what the flat panel imac ended up as is way cool. Plus, it’s a fast G4, has superdrive and is smaller than the cube… too bad a laptop is still first priority…

photo of the year

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Crowne Plaza, Richmond, VA, 1.1.02 4:19am Just over an hour post-AGR.
Not necessarily the best technical photo, but the rent-a-cops coming off the elevator with their beers was highly entertaining.

AGR NYE Photos

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Photos from the final Agents of Good Roots show on new years eve are up.

Slicing into a Share of the Deli Prepared meals have made gains in supermarket foodservice, as evidenced by their percent of service deli sales.

</td> <td> <b>2000</b> </td> <td> <b>1998</b> </td> <td> <b>1996</b> </td>

Sliced meats