Slashdot Mirror

Well, it was something that happened in Texas. http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/16739153.htm

Here's the local newspaper article.

I'm not sure if the Softwarehouse chain from Dallas is the same as the one in California. It wouldn't surprise me if they changed names over a trademark conflict.

After Steve Job's open attack against the teacher's union,
you can expect Apple education orders to dry up very quickly.

Not to mention a Linux built PC classroom lab would cost half what an iMac lab would cost,
and cost much less than a Windows 'Vista Ready' classroom filled with Vista Ultimate top-of-the-line machines.

Open Source is the way to go for public education,
any Non-Open source software is a waste of public education funds.

The iPhone is typical Apple, big on flashy, big price tag,
and outdone by a dozen Asian companies in less than 3 months. Meh.
Cell Phone land is different than computer land, Apple will need a new model
every 6 months just to keep up with what the competition will be producing.

Attacking the teachers' union, one of Apple's largest customers. Brilliant!

Big talk coming from a guy who never ran a school.

Jobs should open his own school, if he thinks he can do better.
Deliver results, not excuses.

Steve - Put up, or Shut up.

"We hope this agreement with an industry leader will set standard best practices for Internet businesses across the country to follow," said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ... PayPal must also establish a conspicuous "Contact Us" link on its Web pages and provide a toll-free customer support number that operates at least 14 hours daily, according to the attorney general's office. - Star-Telegram Austin

I wonder how the ratings would differ if they studied the Fort Worth Star Telegram web site. Click on News and you see THIS WEEK'S MOST READ plus the most read for each of the last 6 months.

I betcha those older articles get more than a few eyeballs.

I wonder how the ratings would differ if they studied the Fort Worth Star Telegram web site. Click on News and you see THIS WEEK'S MOST READ plus the most read for each of the last 6 months.

I betcha those older articles get more than a few eyeballs.

A good idea, but apparently the paper trail doesn't always work, as they found out in Tarrant County, TX earlier this month:

A recount of ballots cast during the March 7 primary election ground to a halt Tuesday -- midway through its second day -- after workers could not resolve discrepancies that affected more than 1,400 ballots.

The problem in the recount appears to be with new, federally mandated electronic voting machines, provided by vendor Hart InterCivic. During a hand recount, the machines are designed to print out paper ballots for each voter's choices, but McKerley said the machines that were used to register early votes printed out only 75 percent to 80 percent of the votes believed to have been cast.

Ok, I live in Dallas and its all over the news here. Faked academic credentials. I have only seen vague comments before re this on /. So below are links to the actual stories. Pity about Forbes too. That story focuses on the business and not personalities. The WSJ in last Friday's RadioShack investor call did better by quoting the RS ethics statement - with no reply from RS.

Resume is in question
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13870480.htm

Pastor cannot verify RadioShack CEO's Account on Diploma
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13877117.htm

This one is a different perspective on "don't need no diploma" but you do need ethics
http://blogs.dfw.com/schnurmanator/2006/02/dave_ed mondsons.html#comments

TUESDAY 02/14/05 WHEN ALL WAS REVEALED Oh the degree? It got burned in a fire....
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13867927.htm

Ok, I live in Dallas and its all over the news here. Faked academic credentials. I have only seen vague comments before re this on /. So below are links to the actual stories. Pity about Forbes too. That story focuses on the business and not personalities. The WSJ in last Friday's RadioShack investor call did better by quoting the RS ethics statement - with no reply from RS.

Resume is in question
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13870480.htm

Pastor cannot verify RadioShack CEO's Account on Diploma
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13877117.htm

This one is a different perspective on "don't need no diploma" but you do need ethics
http://blogs.dfw.com/schnurmanator/2006/02/dave_ed mondsons.html#comments

TUESDAY 02/14/05 WHEN ALL WAS REVEALED Oh the degree? It got burned in a fire....
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13867927.htm

Ok, I live in Dallas and its all over the news here. Faked academic credentials. I have only seen vague comments before re this on /. So below are links to the actual stories. Pity about Forbes too. That story focuses on the business and not personalities. The WSJ in last Friday's RadioShack investor call did better by quoting the RS ethics statement - with no reply from RS.

Resume is in question
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13870480.htm

Pastor cannot verify RadioShack CEO's Account on Diploma
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13877117.htm

This one is a different perspective on "don't need no diploma" but you do need ethics
http://blogs.dfw.com/schnurmanator/2006/02/dave_ed mondsons.html#comments

TUESDAY 02/14/05 WHEN ALL WAS REVEALED Oh the degree? It got burned in a fire....
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13867927.htm

Ok, I live in Dallas and its all over the news here. Faked academic credentials. I have only seen vague comments before re this on /. So below are links to the actual stories. Pity about Forbes too. That story focuses on the business and not personalities. The WSJ in last Friday's RadioShack investor call did better by quoting the RS ethics statement - with no reply from RS.

Resume is in question
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13870480.htm

Pastor cannot verify RadioShack CEO's Account on Diploma
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/special_packag es/special_reports/13877117.htm

This one is a different perspective on "don't need no diploma" but you do need ethics
http://blogs.dfw.com/schnurmanator/2006/02/dave_ed mondsons.html#comments

TUESDAY 02/14/05 WHEN ALL WAS REVEALED Oh the degree? It got burned in a fire....
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13867927.htm

<sarc>
"yes we know we don't have any newspaper anymore, either"
</sarc>

Don't count on it. .. more... more... more...

A Grapevine woman was arrested last week after police said she switched the price tag of a trash can from $29.83 to $2.17 at the Wal-Mart Supercenter, 160 W. Texas 114.
[...]
The woman faces a Class A misdemeanor charge of fraud/removal, police said.
If convicted, she faces a maximum of a year in jail -- with no access to trash cans.

>Californians raise our power rates by buying ours, we don't mind.
Nah, it was Texans

It's about SBC and Verizon maintaining their ability to serve whichever areas of Texas guarantee *their* preferred profit level. Sixteen counties in Texas have no provider at all and 93 counties have only one provider which serves who they choose (I'm in the center of *Austin* and after years of promises, DSL isn't available to many parts in the middle of town here). Unsurprisingly, it's those unserved/underserved counties that are saying "our citizens want this, maybe we should provide it." Phil King wants to ban that, so that when SBC feels like doing it, they get the profit from wiring a community.

Oh no! what if Google, like TiVo, thinks I'm gay. http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/living/4662397 .htm

Yes I do like movies about gladiators.

What an irony that this sig appeared in an article about TiVo...

Does your TiVo think you're a closet homosexual yet?

(OTOH if you're actually an out gay man, that doesn't really work. Nor does it work if you're a woman, though that's unlikely with a name like Todd. Well, not unless you're a really scary butch lesbian, in which case I didn't mean to offend you, Sir. Err, I meant Ma'am...)

No, only tivos can do that. And Macs, obviously.

So maybe there'll finally be some truth in this?

My Tivo Thinks I'm Gay!!

>Fine but quit whining that stupid hysterical laws like Kyoto keep getting shot down.

Kyoto wasn't shot down. Every country with any leadership whatsoever ratified it. I'm sure it's pure coincidence that a president who is completely in bed with the oil industry would shoot down a treaty that calls for reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

>The idea that man is causing global warming is laughable.

Only by those who refuse to pull their heads out of their asses.

>As is the pathetic insistence that it is real in spite of whatever logic and REAL science is applied to your histrionics.

Pull your head out of there and have a look around sometime.

The 2004 election revealed many problems with electronic voting: lost votes, undervotes, overvotes, and votes rolling over into negative numbers. These links are taken from the group blog E-voting experts:

• Broward Co., FL - ESS software on their machines only reads 32,000 votes at a precinct then it starts counting backwards: http://www.news4jax.com/politics/3890292/detail.ht ml
• Wichita Co., TX - Nearly 6,900 of 26,000 total early votes had 'undervote' for President. Human error to blame. County has software problems that need ESS to fix before they can run ballots: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/trn/local_news/arti cle/0,1891,TRN_5784_3303816,00.html
• Lancaster Co., SC - Unilect Patriot voting machines were used and failed. Printouts of votes had to be taken from the machines memories and hand-counted: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/1 0094349.htm
• Mecklenburg Co., NC - More votes registered than voters: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/politi cs/10094165.htm
• Volusia Co., FL - Diebold optical-scan machines had another failure with 6 machines having memory card failures. "Ion Sancho, the elections supervisor in Leon County, said officials with Diebold told him that the new, higher-capacity memory cards tend to have more glitches than older cards.": http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/elections/orl- asecvolusiaglitches04110404nov04,1,3289659.story?c oll=orl-news-headlines
• Craven Co., NC - Software glitch forces a recount which changes the outcome in one race.: http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Templat e=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfmStoryID=18297Section =Local
• San Francisco, CA - A glitch in the new tabulation software made by ESS to handle IRV/RCV voting (more here) stoped the counting and forced a recount of 81,000 ballots.: http://www.internetweek.com/allStories/showArticle .jhtml?articleID=52200321
• Sarpy County, NE - 3000 phantom votes show up after an audit reveals that some tabulation equipment counted votes twice. (Im not sure if this is optical scan or some other system they used optical scan in 2002): http://www.wowt.com/news/headlines/1161971.html
• Willacy County, TX - Human error in reading results reports causes presidential votes for John Kerry to be counted twice and subsequently misreported to the Texas Secretary of State.: http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/101 23432.htm?1c
• Columbus, OH - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said. Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,25

The majority of arrests were of the bicycle brigade which WAS blocking streets and making it difficult for many old and infirm people to get home.

Erm. So you live in NYC, but you've never seen Critical Mass before? Admittedly it was a wee bit more impressive this time, from what I understand (not having been there), but if you're concerned about the little old ladies, I'm surprised you aren't out there sticking crowbars into bike wheels as they go by, every few weeks.

I wonder how many of the elderly and infirm were inconvienienced by all of the streets that were cordoned off by the RNC? Just a thought.

And I'll assume that you are merely ill-informed and not actually lying about 'the majority of arrests' being from Critical Mass. 264 people were arrested in Critical Mass.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/28/rnc.bike .protest/
1821 people were arrested in total:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/957815 9.htm?1c

More than 10%. Less than 20%. A whole LOT less than 50%. It's a pity you're not going to bother to read any of their stories, or believe them if you read them, because some of them are quite chilling.

The other arrests occurred after police officers were attacked, one of whom is going to be seriously fucked up for the rest of his life. There is ample video footage of surround protestors doing NOTHING to stop the perpetrater of that crime from nearly kicking the cop to death, and many encouraged it.

Yeah, all of the other arrests, all 1500 of them, happened right after an incident where a couple of policemen were assaulted. Oh... wait... no, actually, they happened all over the place, before and after the assault on the police, in unrelated incidents. Perhaps you meant to argue that the police started arresting people after that because clearly every protester in the city was conspiring to kill that one policeman?

Maybe you really do believe that. Maybe you really think that the peace protesters actually were there hoping to kill a cop, but that only one of them had the guts to try it. But if so, that is your own reflection you're seeing in that mirror there, not ours.

As for the 'why didn't they intervene?' It's so easy to be brave when you're typing away behind your computer screen. Being brave and trying to get between a possible addict and probable madman and the poor, defenseless (plainclothes) cop he's assaulting is, oddly, more difficult. Now, I'm sure you're Rambo, I wouldn't question the fact that you'd have gone in there and killed him with your teeth, and welcomed the opportunity to find out what it was like to kill someone. But most of us aren't Rambo, and by the time we've spent our 30 seconds wavering and nerving ourselves up to jump in there, the incident is usually over.

Thankfully, I am not in a position of power because people like that would be executed for failing to act as a responsible citizen. It is a basic staple of civilized society to come to the aid of your fellow citizens.

Thankfully, you are not in a position of power, because people who actually enjoy the idea of going around killing other people should be treated for it, not canonized. Especially if you think they should be punished for not living up to some standard of behavior generated straight out of the male gonads.

Another non-NY resident talking about shit he doesn't know about.

The graffitti is EVERYWHERE. It is much more coordinated than random acts of spray painting. People use stencils, custom graphics are added to subway advertising, and fliers are applied to private property. This is all in addition to the regular bullshit involving markers and spr

This response makes it clear that you either DO NOT read the NY times, or you are so partisan, that anything they say is fine with you.

Yet your response doesn't cite any sources, merely makes assertions.

The Times is so heavily in support of the DNC and the Democratic party that sometimes I wonder if those 'talking points' faxes actually exist.

What, like the talking points handed down from on-high by Fox News? I've never heard of the NYT doing that, but feel free to provide citations.

The times has on a number of occasions printed statements by people critical of Bush that were in fact never said. Furthermore, just what was that big pulitzer prize for? The one they're always trumpeting?

You're going to have to be specific, since the NYT has won 90 Pulitzers, more than any other paper, and 11 in the last three years.

The times is highly biased towards the left. Always has been. And again, the nuclear program was only one of several reasons. The only reason for this article is to help their candidate.

The reason the administration needs to come up with "explanation after explanation" is that each explanation seems to keep exploding in their faces. And your response fits in perfectly with the two-step process this administration uses for damage control:

1. Claim they never heard about X, where X is: Abu Gharib, the $560B cost of Medicare expansions, the aluminum tubes, warnings about the 9/11 attacks, etc, etc,
2. Paint the messenger as being a biased partisan attack dog for the other side, even if said person is a former employee of theirs (i.e., Paul O'Neil, Richard Clarke, General Zinni, etc, etc).

I still haven't seen any credible claims that the Times manipulates the news; their editorial page isn't for Bush, but I haven't seen that played out in the news sections.

Feel free to prove me wrong. Vague assertions don't count.

-jdm

Both parody and satire count as protected speech. The distinction's more because parody and satire cases have different precident cases backing them up, so the exact level of protection is different.

http://www.publaw.com/parody.html/

http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/958 2196.htm?1c/

One of the most significant Satire related cases:

http://www.sexuality.org/l/wh/whfalwel.html/

The problem for satire cases right now may be seen in one recent case:

"Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books USA
Penguin Books published a poetic account of the O.J. Simpson trial in a book titled, The Cat NOT in the Hat! A Parody by Dr. Juice. The 9th Circuit held that the book did not parody The Cat in the Hat, but simply retold the Simpson story. Therefore, there was no fair-use defense, and the book was deemed a copyright infringement."

For source of this, see:

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/speech/librari es/topic.aspx?topic=parody_satire/

Note that case was originally a ruling on a Parody claim, but a lot of people seem to think the decision, as worded, has severe impact on Satire based claims. This whole issue will doubltless come up again in further cases, at least until the supremes issue a ruling as definitive as in Fallwell.

This article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram mentions Slashdot.org and how it "nationalized" what would've been a local issue.


Posted on Wed, Sep. 22, 2004
Network ban in dorm creates student uproar
By Aman Batheja / Star-Telegram Staff Writer

A controversy over wireless networks at the University of Texas at Dallas stirs debate on several nationally read Web sites. ... realm of the university when it was covered on Slashdot, a Web forum on technology issues ...

"It turned into a much bigger issue than I had anticipated it would have," said Bill Hargrove, executive director of information resources. ...

The issue moved beyond the realm of the university when it was covered on Slashdot, a Web forum on technology issues read by millions. The posting received more than 1,100 comments in just 12 hours. The issue was soon discussed on other popular sites including Techdirt, News.com, and MIT's Technology Review. ...

The problem being that Barnes' own bio mentioned the Geneva gig only for that period.

Maybe it's like you say. Who are you going to believe, CBS or Barnes?

If Barnes, then you should also believe Barnes' own statement:"Neither Congressman Bush nor any other member of the Bush family asked Barnes' help. Barnes has no knowledge that Governor Bush or President Bush knew of Barnes' recommendation," the statement said.

Barnes has to be lying in one of his statements. So, do you believe the one in 1999, or the one now, when Barnes is a major contributor and vice chair of Kerry's campaign in Texas?

As I keep saying, read all the sources and then think for yourself.

On Kerry's medals.

Bush AWOL: Case Closed

It might be interesting to look at Ben barnes, who claims he helped Bush get into the TANG in 1968, as Lt GOV of Texas. The only problem being that Barnes was not sworn in as LT GOV until 1969 -- in May '68, when Bush was sworn into the Guard, Barnes was actually UN Representative to Geneva.

The LA Times and CNN investigated these exact allegations in 1999, and concluded there was nothing to them.

He's also a major Kerry contributor and lost his position at Lt Gov in a stock fraud scandal..

Just found out that the jury are to rule in this case real soon now.

Dallas Star Telegram article on this.

To get out of high floodwaters. (There's a flood in the Dallas-Fort Worth area right now)

Have you ever written military software? I have.

So have I. And while I agree that it's theoretically possible to write bug-free software (for a sufficiently small program), even sky-high military budgets can't afford that level of redundant effort. (By quantum physics, nothing is truely impossible. But some things are hard enough to be practically impossible)

The V-22? Lethal software bugs. The FA-22? Software crash every 2 hours.

Funny how those nukes don't go off by accident isn't it?

Just because you haven't observed any catastrophic bugs is no proof that bugs don't exist.

Serious bugs can be prevented if you just want to make the effort.

If you're now talking about "serious bugs" instead of "bugs" in general, then you've backed away from the stronger assertions made earlier.

But it can be done, and is done all the time in some industries.

Which industries, exactly? Aerospace and military software certainly isn't bug-free! They often try, but even they make publicized mistakes (and the majority of bugs found post-fielding are kept quiet for security).

is your source of stress.

People need to multi-task in more jobs today because all the single-tasking jobs are getting automated or moved overseas.

You know, it's not so much the multi-tasks that's the problem, because doing different things is really more interesting.

It's that today's typical set of tasks are subject to constant interruption that's the problem.

I know woodworkers that do lots of different things, but they decide when to move from one task to another; not some buzzer, phone, email, or person bursting into the office with "Guess what!?!" Consequently, they're more relaxed .

I bet Katharine Gun will be delighted to hear that.

"Every cop is a criminal" - Rolling Stones

Carl did not send out a dirty word. Carl received no warning. No written policy prohibits what he did.

Hey! Where's the problem?
Dave Lieber IN MY OPINION
Star-Telegram

Hey!

On its face, that expression is neither offensive nor disturbing. "Hey!" is an informal way to say hello. It indicates kindness, simple courtesy and an economy of words.

But a 13-year-old boy at Richland Middle School in Richland Hills was suspended for three days in December because he sent that simple message to every computer in the school using an archaic form of instant messaging. The software was created years ago in the old disk operating system used in earlier versions of personal computers.

Carl Grimmer, 13, was suspended last month for sending a one-word message to every computer at Richland Middle School.

Carl Grimmer's father taught him how to send messages through network computers as part of a tutorial on how DOS worked. DOS, you might recall, preceded Windows as the dominant operating system during the 1980s and early 1990s.

"It was neat," Carl Grimmer told me the other day. "I had never seen it before."

I guess it's only natural that the next day, Carl went to school and in his eighth-grade computer class showed a friend how the messaging system worked. That's what learning and experimenting is all about. I think that's what school is about.

The result of his trick was that every computer in the school, approximately 80 of them, received his message of "Hey!"

At first, Principal Tommy Rollins didn't think much of it. "I saw it," he said. "It didn't say who it came from. I just deleted it."

Beverly Sweeney, a computer teacher and campus computer liaison with the district, entered Carl's computer class and quickly figured out where the message originated and who sent it.

According to Carl, Sweeney asked him, "Did you do this?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Do you know that this is serious?" she asked him, according to Carl.

"No," he replied.

Then she asked how he did it, and he showed her.

The matter worked its way up to the principal, who eventually suspended Carl for three days.

Rollins told me that students had been using campus computers in unacceptable ways, and he hoped to make an example of Carl. The Birdville school district does not have a written policy on what to do in this kind of situation, so the decision rested with the principal.

"You have to use your own judgment," he told me.

I respect Rollins as a kind and sensitive educator, but in this particular case, he may have erred. A three-day suspension for this "crime" seems excessive.

Carl did not send out a dirty word. Carl received no warning. No written policy prohibits what he did. Missing three days of school for something so minor is overkill.

Job growth is trailing economic indicator.

The economy is growing.

Nothing actually hit the space station, and everything is fine. See here, here, here, or just skip them all and see Google.

But with this addition to the water, the sharks will be quite serene and happy, and lose that 'sharky edge'.

From here: President Bush's 2002 budget request calls for increased spending for the U.S. Department of Education -- but how much of an increase is a matter of some debate. The White House says the increase is 11.5 percent, while Democrats contend the actual increase is 5.7 percent. Bush's spending plan would bring the department's budget to $44.5 billion.

From here: Senators Boost Special Education Spending

From here: President Bush sat at a school desk Tuesday and signed the most far-reaching federal education bill in nearly four decades, a $26 billion plan to broaden academic testing, triple spending for literacy programs and help children escape America's worst public schools.


Bush has worked extensively with Kennedy (who then turns around and backstabs) to improve education. He's actually taken the liberal approach, I personally would have liked to have seen vouchers.

As far as the $87B goes, I look at it as an investment in our economic future. It sounds like a lot of money (and it is), but what effect will $0.05 cents/gallon cheaper gasoline have on our economy over the course of the next decade? And who does that benefit? EVERYBODY, even if you don't own a car, nothing happens without transportation. I agree that at least part of it could be a long term loan, but I also don't think this is one thing you can pick out and call an entitlement to the rich. How many rich people are benefitting from this? If 10% of the wealthiest people are paying 90% of the taxes, what portion of that 10% is benefiting from this? Tell me one government spending program that benefits the rich!

The way to prevent forest fires from devestating entire cities is to clear cut and clean out underbrush, two things that environmentalists have always opposed. If you don't think that logging will help prevent and slow forest fires, then you've got a problem. If you're insuating that forest fires are preferable to logging (when loggers plant new trees for every one they cut down anyway), I'd have to disagree - if the trees are going to be destroyed, we might as well get some benefit. Before you go on your environmentalist crusade, people like ELF have probably done more to HARM the environment then help it.

There's a story about a fire several years ago in California. In one area, the only house that survived only survived because the homeowner cleared the underbrush away from the house. He was subsequently fined by the government for destroying the habitat of the Kangaroo Mouse. Is that what you really want?

I don't give a flying fuck what Europeans think of Bush, as I wouldn't want to live in one of their socialist countries and don't value their opinions when it comes to how MY country is run. I'm sure they don't give a flying fuck about my opinion on Schroeder, either, but then he's doing worse domestically in opinion polls than Bush is doing internationally, so that's a moot point.

When Bush was governmer of Texas he did tons of non-partisan work with the democratic senate and was able to achieve a lot. I'll say it again, it's only since he was elected president that the partisans creeped out from under their rock, and instead of trying to work with him and improve things, they merely attack-attack-attack. Even Ted Kennedy, who Bush specifically worked with on education, who Bush actually called "a good guy" in casual conversation, turned around and made those ridiculous accusations.

I stand by what I said.

I hardly think so. Most administrators of larger mail servers have realized that blacklists are not the way to do spam blocking. Even blacklisting networks is becoming a chore leading to hassles for administrators or, in extreme cases, lawsuits (already /.'d today).

More complex spam abatement filters, such as Brightmail, use complex algorithms to scan incoming e-mail content and identify it as spam. In some cases it's as simple as checking the md5sum of the body of the e-mail. Fortunately, whitelisting, such as TMDA, is becoming more prevelant. If it weren't for spam filtering methods such as these, I'd be getting those hundreds of daily spams in my inbox instead of them going straight to /dev/null.

My Tivo Thinks I'm Gay

It's easy to find cases where people get light sentences for crimes that, at least to me, seem much more damaging to society than a few swapped files. How do you justify asking for billions of dollars of so-called damages or years of jail time when people who shoplift some CDs receive little if any punishment?

Remember, this is TiVo we're talking about. You'll be getting gay pr0n commercials!

Now mass marketers will think I'm Gay.

yeah mod me down for not checking my facts, i did a search as BBCTV (news24) mentioned that EMI was feeling the pinch and its sales where down due to piracy

some sources are even quoting a 13% drop in Q1 alone at that rate of decline sales could fall 52% for the year (ouch)

more bad news is they still want to promote pro kareoke singers like robbie williams (who? says the USA people) and still no sign of new inspiring acts on the horizon, oh except those that win/bid for these

As Jonathan Miller once said,

in the U.S. they have two parties, just as we [in England] have two parties. They have the Republican party, which is like our Conservative party. And they have the Democratic party, which is like our Conservative party.

I'm not sure what to make of your statement that you're concerned more with criminal than civil litigation. This whole thread was a about civil matters (California's laws on implied warranties). As to criminal matters, local judges and juries in the South in the 1960s accurately reflected racist community values and exonerated some awful murderers and terrorists, some of whom took advantage of the Constitutional protection against double jeopardy and sold the stories of their brutal acts to the press.

If you think this is all ancient history, look at what local judge Edward Self did in Tulia Texas. When rogue cop Tom Coleman framed about 15% of the black population of Tulia Texas for selling cocaine in 1999 (one 57 year old hog farmer was sentenced to 99 years), Judge Self refused to admit evidence introduced by defense lawyers that demonstrated a pattern of deceit and shoddy police work by Detective Coleman. Later Judge Self lied about his refusal to admit this evidence and despite being caught lying and forced to recuse himself from appeals of the Tulia cases, Judge Self was re-elected. This spring, the cases were re-opened by higher authorities who don't have to stand for election in Tulia. Detective Coleman has been charged with three counts of aggravated perjury and all the convictions are being vacated. The State of Texas is preparing to pay the victims up to $3000 for each year they wrongfully spent in prison.

Before you get too enamored of direct local democracy, I would recommend re-reading Federalist X on the danger of faction and the tyranny of the majority. This spring, people farther removed from the local level got involved and

Or, maybe, minimum efficiency, because multitasking makes you stupid.

After the Lisa Maria Presley fiasco I think he is currently busy Saving Face.

Even better, try to pull the sort of stuff Microsoft loves in the car industry and Congress comes down on you.

I think that spells

C-o-n-f-l-i-c-t o-f i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t

See Molly Ivin's column for a full rant.