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Every business is predicated on profiting off someone else's work. Unless you're selling vegetables from your own garden, using water from your own well (that you dug yourself), using seeds that you came out of the womb with, you're doing some kind of value-add to a bunch of other people's work to make money. And Pandora is doing a significant value-add, called custom distribution that has exposed many, many people to artists they would never, ever hear on other commerical outlets.

Pandora is paying royalties -- and they are going to have to pay far more than any of their terrestrial or orbital competitors to a monopolistic, unregulated monopoly that only benefits the musicians in the most abstract and convoluted way possible. Panodora is not exploiting composers and performers, they welcome innovations like internet radio; SoundExchange and their RICO copyright cabal are the ones who are exploiting not only the artists, but also their fans.

But hey, don't take my word for it, take the word of a musician who has benefitted from it http://www.statesman.com/business/content/shared/money/stories/2008/07/RADIO_ROYALTIES30_COX_F2368.html

There may be some exceptions to this rule. For example, a Houston tourist was arrested in Austin for photographing two topless women in public. However that arrest is being fought using the logic that "being in a public place implicitly gives consent to being photographed."

Under state law, "improper photography" is defined as taking a photograph of someone or visually recording them without the person's consent and with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person. If convicted, Nguyen could face up to two years in a state jail.

The state's indecent exposure law does not bar women from being topless in public.

James Hemphill, a First Amendment lawyer in Austin whose clients include the American-Statesman, said that under a broad interpretation of privacy laws, a person implicitly gives consent to be photographed by being in a public place.

"As a matter of constitutional law, given that a person is in public and given that a photographer is in a public place and given no extraordinary technology is used, the Constitution must require that photography be allowed and not punished," Hemphill said.

"The lines start to blur when a person is in a private place but is visible from a public place, or with the using of technology to capture an image not visible with the unaided eye," he said.

There was an article on this company (High End Systems) in today's Austin-American Statesman here http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/technology/08/12/0812high_end.html

For starters, I'm absolutely NO fan of our country's zeal to prosecute drug users. Our prisons are bloated with people who are mostly there because they chose illicit narcotics to self-medicate psychiatric illnesses.

As for beat-cops, their careers progress based on their metrics. Every arrest they make resulting in conviction boosts their stats and they get closer to promotion. Drug crimes are the low-hanging fruit. Possession is difficult evidence to refute in court. And a bunch of states have mandatory sentencing laws focused on putting people in prison for possessing small quantities of narcotics.

In this environment, a car search can easily escalate into a possession / trafficking charge, and the defendant is likely to roll on other people to avoid hard time, which will result in further arrests and convictions for the cops & detectives involved with VERY little legwork. Compare that to a breaking & entering case where the culprit stole just barely enough loot to make it a felony. Lots of legwork and the judge is likely going to let the guy walk with probation because the jails are filled with all the drug convictions. Since it was wholly conceived and executed by the perpetrator, there's not even much chance the guy will roll on accomplices, etc.

I don't use drugs, and I wish our country would lay off those who do. It kills me that my taxes are going to pay for the 20-year incarceration of this guy who got busted with seven grams of cocaine in Hays County. That's the equivalent to the weight of seven paperclips. Meanwhile, spouse abusers and burglars get probation...

Seth

I doubt it. If you read this article on Asustek you will find things like, "Since the Eee PC hit store shelves last fall, sales have been strong. Between October and the end of the year, Asustek sold more than 300,000 Eee PCs, and executives say they expect to sell between 3.5 million and 5 million this year."

I've seen a number of them out and about - I don't think they can fail by any sane measurement, as they have already succeeded by most.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2008/03/05/clintons_delegate_lead_is_4_an.html

It's Hillary's extremely slim margin in the primary that MAKES the Texas Caucus a big deal. I wouldnt call a 4 delegate gain a "telling" loss by any stretch of the imagination. And before this is done, it may drop to 2. Hillary didnt drop anyone's pants here (especially not Bill's).

67 cents of every new retail dollar spent on PC software goes to MS Office.

Through end of November, U.S. retail PC software sales are up 10.3 percent year over year as measured in dollar volume, according to NPD. By comparison, Office sales are up 50.7 percent, by the same measure and in the same time frame. Office sales are so big, they make calculating broader PC software retail sales difficult. The "magnitude of Office sales relative to the rest of the PC software market is phenomenal. It's the massively huge tail wagging the dog." Retail Black Friday sales of Mac Office were up 215.8 percent year over year. While Mac Office generated blowout sales on Black Friday, Office 2007 sales growth was exceptionally good, too. Year-over-year U.S. retail Black Friday sales of Office were up 65.8 percent, as measured in dollars. The Year of Office 2007

Microsoft's profits are up 79%:

For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, profit rose to $4.71 billion, or 50 cents per share, from $2.63 billion, or 26 cents per share the previous year. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had forecast a profit of 46 cents per share. Revenue rose 31 percent to $16.37 billion from $12.5 billion in the year-ago quarter, ahead of the analysts' prediction of $15.95 billion in sales.

{and, in what must be the understatement of the year]

"It looks like a very nice report," said Sarah Friar, an analyst for Goldman Sachs. Microsoft Corp. earnings leap 79 percent

I was sorely tempted to give my response a flamebait title like "The Geek Turns Delusional."

I won't disguise my opinion here that the Geek's increasingly frantic retreat from reality has been the Slashdot story since the posting of Microsoft's second quarter results.

The CDW poll points to a softening of enterprise IT negative attitudes toward Vista. Familiarity, it seems, has bred content: IT departments are happier with Vista's features, particularly in the area of security, and less concerned about the hardware costs of Vista than they were a year ago. Another year will bring further declines in the relative cost of PC hardware -- and make a lot of corporate desktop hardware look even more antique. Only a major economic downturn would be likely to derail current estimates of another strong year for PC sales, so even if Vista remains tied to hardware sales it would do well, and corporate upgrades could finally kick in as old hardware is upgraded. This has been a year when Vista has had its rough edges knocked off, and the marketplace has adjusted its expectations. By Vista's next birthday it should be more differentiated and acceptable for both its consumer and business marketplaces. Assessing Windows Vista On Its First Anniversary

Comer was put on 30 days paid administrative leave shortly after she forwarded an e-mail in late October announcing a presentation being given by Barbara Forrest, author of "Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse," a book that says creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught in public schools. Forrest was also a key witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case concerning the introduction of intelligent design in a Pennsylvania school district. Comer sent the e-mail to several individuals and a few online communities, saying, "FYI."

And as a final point, the U.S. Military hardly behaves like the crips, and don't compare the two.

really? why are gang tags appearing on walls in baghdad? why are people in the army complaining about how gangs like the crips (and white supremacists) are gaining influence in the armed forces? thanks to lax recruiting. you have no idea about *any* army let alone your own. i'm not comparing the two. i am stating, with evidence, that one is literally becoming the other. and if that doesn't bother you, what do you think all those gang members are going to do when they get back home, to where you live?

again, you don't get it. modern wars aren't about numbers. the IRA never numbered more than about 2000 members and they successfully forced the british to give them most of what they wanted. there are hundreds of thousands of iraqi resistance fighters and millions of sympathisers. and everytime the us relies on technology to put force protection above accomplishing the mission (calling in air or artillery in urban areas) that number ticks up.

it's mathematics, something everyone on slashdot should understand. iraqis don't have to be monolithic, though the one thing almost all of them seem to agree on is that they want you all gone and that it's ok to kill you. keep in mind that there are 25 million iraqis. if even 10% wanted you gone and thought it was ok to kill you that's 2.5 million people. the actual number is more like 12 - 15 million people. i should also point out that iraq's population has a lot of people between 12 and 35 years of age. very , very few of them have jobs, or electricity, or running water and lots and lots of them were in the army or had some military training. in fact the only hope you guys have for mitigating the damage is that the resistance is so big. it makes it hard to operate secure cells and lets you get better intelligence. still, the numbers don't lie. you're fucked. it's just a matter of how fucked. will it be an honourable withdrawl with some face saving interim govt. that'll hang around long enough to save your blushes, or will it be helicopters on embassy roofs?

and you're right, there was an 'anbar awakening' until the us bombed the local sheiks it depended on to keep it going, and called them liars when they complained. as if they didn't have it hard enough already. look, this is how it works. you're a sheik, the americans offer you money and a grab bag of iraqi troops, many of whom work for the resistance. the resistance on the other hand know where you live and how many kids you have. which side has a convincing argument for you to join them? seriously man, you have the internet, how can you not know this stuff? you're going to lose in iraq and you won't even know why.

This actually takes quite a while; for most people, urine is upwards of 98% water.

A 2% plutonium nitrate solution is 98% water, too. Care to drink some?

You're free to disagree with the US Army Field Manual and the former president of the Texas Urological Society (and almost every survival guide) on this subject if you like, but please don't encourage behavior that will tend to get people killed in others. Why do you think your body is getting rid of it in the first place? You think we evolved a method to dehydrate ourselves to take ourselves out of the gene pool, and you're cleverly circumventing this bit of anti-evolution?

I hate to say it, but your father is just plain wrong about drinking urine.

So says the US Army Field Manual. So says the SAS Survival Handbook (no link, but page 494). So says Dr. William Elfarr, former head of the Texas Urological Society. So says Master Sergeant Gary L. Benton, survival instructor to B-52 crews. So says Tom Brown Jr., survivor school founder and instructor. So says Equipped.com, a survival site. So says Adventure Sports Online in its 5 basic survival tips. And on, and on, and on.

Your body is getting rid of urine for a reason. Urea is toxic, and the saline component of urine means that it dehydrates instead of hydrating.

Link

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n10/fodo01_.html
http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories /books/05/13/0513hofstadter.html

NASA would love to fix Hubble, but doesn't have the money to do so, since the money has been spent on "surge" in Iraq.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories /nation/01/30/30nation.html
Science has taken a back seat in this past 6 years. Instead we have right-wingers spewing Intelligent Design on Fox news.
This congress should stop funding this illegal war, put the money back to Treasury and ask NASA to partner with SpaceShip One to build a reusable space vehicle to replace the Shuttle.

We effectively have this in Texas. Every legislative session, the Texas Senate adopts a rule that 2/3rds of the Senate must agree before a bill is brought to the floor for debate. It was challenged this year by a freshman senator, but he was outnumbered 30-1.

More info: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legis lature/stories/01/10/10senate.html

Isnt this like saying that a company should offer the most expensive services in areas that arent able to buy expensive things. Anyway. Like saying that Blue Ray DVD players need to be accessible for all? I am on the Att side, and I think the following shows that they are not trying to hurt anyone. Have you heard about anything like this with cable? http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stori es/local/12/17/17internet.html By the way, my cable rates go up next year. I think we could stand a little competition in my area

Like for example this 4 year old and only hugged his teacher. Ofcourse he touched some private part and that is an A class felony in the States.. So, nice to make all these kinds of rulings: just think about where its coming from.

In 1995, the production of a single six-inch silicon wafer required 3,200 cubic feet of bulk gases, 22 cubic feet of hazardous gases, 2,275 gallons of deionized water, 20 pounds of chemicals, and 285 kilowatt hours of electrical power. In the process, 25 pounds of sodium hydroxide, 2,840 gallons of waste water, and 7 pounds of miscellaneous hazardous wastes were generated."

This doesn't apply only to the computer science industry of course: what big corporations in, say, hollywood marketing that make plastic happy meal toys for movies, and plastic super-soaker water guns are doing is shortsited and wrong too. There's plenty of more sustainable forms of entertainment: like chess, checkers, and capture the flag with bamboo water guns. Sure, we'll probably never run out of aluminum and steel. But that doesn't mean finding such resources is as easy as digging a hole in a field. No, in today's world resources are getting harder to find and aren't often the easy berries in the field anymore. It's gotten to where some companies in metal mining have investigated and are seriously taking into consideration mining under the ocean

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business /stories/technology/10/08/8goldrush.html and in oil, well most people have their own suspicions.

But most people planning on buying new computers probably don't consider this; while many people buy computers on a need basis, I suspect many others probably buy when they don't need to to keep pace with technology. With the allure of time conveniences and great performance associated with new technologies, its demanding, but as long as nerds takes steps similar to prolonging the use of an old computer to save resources, at least part of the population is not going to run into a doomsday dumpster world.

While I myself am all for unregulated business, I think it's important to achieve sustainability, not so much for the current general population, but for my own interest in the future population. For example, I read on a website that

it is now widely agreed among both economists and physical scientists that energy or mineral resource scarcity is not likely to be a growth limiting factor, at least for the next half-century or so.

As an example of the importance of recycling or continuing using copper and other such things in computers now, diesel used to be 10cents a gallon when my grandpa just started fishing with his own boat in the 1950's or so; I'm sure the price of copper and other such things have risen similarly. And I suspect that's the way its going to continue rising from today on. If something's scarce, recycle it and make a buck longterm while at it.

There isn't a single factory, communication system, transportation system or any other important part of our civilization that runs off solar power and baring currently unforeseen breakthroughs in storage technology there never will be.

A company called EEStor (coincidentally located near where I live) has a technology that could be significant. And for all anyone knows, there may be other companies making similar strides or even better.

Granted, there's no way we're there yet, but I think it would be a mistake to assume significant advances in storage technology won't happen.

Is Iran really a dictatorship? That's one of the reasons why I'm so concerned about them, is that they seem like a country united behind their wack-ass president. If I've been fooled by their PR, then I'm actually somewhat relieved.

I wonder if this is a way to avoid being labeled a mutual fund by the SEC. They drew attention from the SEC for investing in projects outside their core business and ascting more like a mutual fund than a company.

According to today's Austin American Statesman article , the other 16,000+ CPUs in this machine will be AMD Opterons.


And, the article also confirms that the machine will indeed be running Linux.

Correct me and I am wrong, but the witness protection program is for people who stood up and taken responsibility for what they are saying. Those who try to hide from what have done/said don't need the witness protection program, because we don't know who they are. Aside from that point, I think most people, as I surely do, that you have a right to stand up to accuser. Those that hide behind reporters deny the accussed that fundemental right.

The author of the article didn't investigate anything. She saw fit to report the accusations in the lawsuit as fact. The relavent text from the article:

"In May, after a series of e-mails and phone calls, he picked her up at school, took her out to eat and to a movie, then drove her to an apartment complex parking lot in South Austin, where he sexually assaulted her, police said. He was arrested May 19."

The actual Austin police press release:

"Austin Police Department child abuse detectives have filed charges against a suspect in connection with a sexual assault of a child case.

Pete I. Solis, 19, has been charged with Sexual Assault of a Child, a second-degree felony. He is in custody.

During the investigation detectives learned the suspect made contact with the 14-year-old female victim through her online web page. They continued to communicate using email and cell phones. The victim was sexually assaulted in the suspect's vehicle in the 6800 block of West Gate Boulevard.

This case remains under investigation by APD child abuse detectives."
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/ blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2006/05/19/police_man _sexually_assaulted_1.html

The age of consent in Texas is 17. Notice that he is NOT being charged with Rape. "Sexual Assault of a Child" is essentially a "statutory rape" charge, which strongly implies that she DID consent. Of course, since Mr. Solis is apparently poorer than his "victim", he'll almost certainly end up in jail.
http://www.ageofconsent.com/texas.htm

1) the girl alone is to blame for getting raped (as is usually the argument in this kind of a situation: a lot of guys seem to be _very_ quick to join in the chorus that there must have been something the woman said, or wore, or just being at the guy's house, or just being in a park alone, or whatever, that _clearly_ absolves the guy of any fault and makes rape entirely the woman's fault.)

The issue here isn't whether or not the girl was raped. That's irrelavent. The question is whether or not MySpace was irresponsible for allowing her to communicate with someone who (may) have raped her. An analogy would be suing AT&T because she arranged the date with the guy on the telephone. Which, in fact, she did. So why isn't her mom suing AT&T? Because that is obviously ridiclous. Her lawyer hopes the novelty of the internet and MySpace will allow him to screw MySpace by manipulating a gullible judge and jury who aren't familiar with the internet (or, MUCH more likely, prodive leverage for a settlement).

And think about the rules the plaintiff wishes to implement. They want to MySpace to require age verification of all users. Assuming this works, it means minors will simply not be able to use the service anymore. So we prevent children from using the telephone because a sexual predator MIGHT contact them? And it's not like this would affect any of the OTHER free homepage providers.

The fact remains that the girl was not kidnapped, and MySpace did not aid in that kidnapping. Everything that happened (according to both parties) was consentual up until a certain point in Mr. Solis' car. Are you saying that MySpace should SOMEHOW have monitored what was going on in that car?

Fundamentally, this has nothing to do with children. An adult woman (or man) could make exactly the same claim with the same rationale, and it would be just as bogus.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories /local/04/5PIANKA.html

Transcripts of his little talk made it plain he wished for "depopulation"

Space probe causes dead to walk in Utah

That's pretty annoying, but they made it easy to close. I agree with the "use printer friendly version" comment to avoid ads (on sites where that's available). I'm surprised more folks haven't made the connection.

Why would you think the Republicans would oppose it? The Democrats have been having a hemorage about talk radio for years now, and have made several attempts to stop it. From my perspective, if they thought what was being said on talk radio was BS, they should get the facts and point it out at every opportunity, NOT restrict free speech. That'd be as bad as Republicans trying to shut down that liberal talk radio syndicate, Air America. They should BOTH exist. Let the people talk.

Is it because you think the Democrats always do the right thing?
Far from it. For example, lately they've been doing things like this:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/shared-gen/a p/National/Maryland_Racial_Politics.html

Not exactly enlightened in this day and age.

But AIX is hardly an expanding market.

It's not?

I really think they will, eventually. And when they do, I bet they use this chip: http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business /stories/04/4slabchip.html

You're right. There was a show on the Discovery channel a few months ago about this procedure. They took photos of the faces from cadavers before and after the transplantation and presented them to a panel of experts, who concluded that the face on a different person only slightly resembles the donor. Even if you knew the donor, you most probably wouldn't recognize his face on the recipient, unless someone told you to take a good look.

As to who would want such a transplant, one possible patient, who was also featured in the show, is this girl. She was burned alive one night while she was going home when a drunk driver hit her car and it caught fire. 60% of her body was burned, she lost her nose, ears, fingers and most of her vision.

If you don't think poverty and race are factors in arrest and prosecution, then I'm willing to bet you haven't left your suburb for quite a while. Either that or you've never been outside. Or you live in denial. It's 4 o'clock on a friday, so I'm loath to dig in to a google search for links for you, but good grief man.

Across all analysis, youth who were African American or Latino were consistently more likely to be placed in secure detention.
Minorities not charged with resisting arrest subject to unequal force compared with whites.
Race continues to play a central role in police brutality in the United States.
Seaside man sent to prison for crime he didn't commit

but i don't know why I bother... if you haven't learned all this stuff by now, a few links won't change anything

They also flew over Dell too. Check it out. Personally, I would have liked a ride home in that instead of taking I-35.

The actual story about NYC hybrid taxis is in an Austin, TX paper.

NYC could encourage this conversion to hybrids, which get better mileage, by offering rebates on other taxes on the hybrids, making them up by increasing them on the nonhybrids in taxi fleets. Maintaining the total tax collected, but distributed to favor the hybrids. Including the gas savings (50%) on gas, which is about $2.60:gallon in NYC these days (including other taxes), such a move could convert most of the 13K cabs clogging the streets with filth. Once a critical mass was achieved, including garage mechanics with mostly hybrid skills, the city could drop the regime.

I'll be suggesting this approach to the NYC City Council "Technology" committee that I advise. It would help for New Yorkers (and others) to send constructive comments supporting this move to the committee Chair, Councilmember Brewer. Politicians, especially in the City, love to get public support for specific initiatives, especially when the ball is already rolling like it is with the TLC.

I just can't check for traffic jams on MoPac yet.

http://www.statesman.com/traffic/content/traffic/i ndex.html

This article (annoying registration required) quotes the HB 789 sponsor as saying he will try again in two years (next legislative session).

Actually, AMD is losing money with their flash business. They may be looking at dumping those products...

AMD Without the flash?

Time to toot my own horn. My Blog has my account of the FASB meeting.

The article I wrote on the meeting is available here. :wq

I hear the new roads (45 & 130) are way ahead of schedule, which is good news. They also mentioned they are going to add more routes. One thing that CapMetro needs to do is raise their rates. This may sound stupid at first, but check out this Statesman article. They are way below national rates in a community which can probably afford a little more than the dead minimum. Then maybe they could afford more routes.

Fear of layoffs? Far from it!

AMD to expand, add Austin jobs
Chip maker leases additional office space in Northwest Austin.

By Kirk Ladendorf

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has leased additional office space in Northwest Austin and plans to add more engineers there this year, a spokesman said Wednesday.

It will be the company's first expansion in several years.

AMD has leased an additional 36,000 square feet at 9500 Arboretum Blvd., which houses the company's Personal Connectivity Solutions division. The company previously had 56,000 square feet there.

The operation, which employs a few hundred people in Austin, designs low-power chips for Internet appliances, television set-top control boxes and Internet access devices.

AMD spokesman Drew Prairie said the company expects to complete construction of the new space this spring and begin phasing in new workers, with a focus on design engineers.

The company employs about 3,000 people in Austin.

CB Richard Ellis represented the landlord, Pac Trust, in the transaction.

The Austin American-Statesman also has a story about the return, recounting the incident with the Daily Texan which helped lead to the start of Bloom County.

We get this article printed in the Austin-American Statesman. Granted, it's old news if you follow this mess but at least that is reaching mainstream press.

Is this a smart mob?

Blackout affecting cities from New York to Detroit

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, August 14, 2003

NEW YORK -- A huge power blackout hit U.S. and Canadian cities Thursday, driving workers in New York and Toronto into the streets, shutting subways in blistering heat and closing four nuclear power plants in Ohio and New York state.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was no evidence of terrorism as a cause. "Probably a natural occurrence which disrupted the power system up there," he said, referring to a power grid based in the Niagara Falls area.

The FBI was checking into the extraordinary outages but had no immediate information about the cause, said spokesman Bill Carter in Washington. Blackouts stretched from New York City as far west as Detroit, at least.

"We have no idea how extensive it is," said an official with the Office for Emergency Management in New York City.

I just read this article, addressing exactly what you're talking about. Seems like it would be the kind of issue that would bring a lot of techies to the polls. It mentions toward the end about one guy beginning to lobby for changes in the visa laws.

> If you can't do that, then do what I did at my last job - squeeze it in. Park at the farthest point you can so you have to walk into/out of work. If there's public transportation you can use, do that - if you have to drive all the way in, then park far. Believe it or not, but my last job I parked about a good block away.

A report that was published in the last week or so gives more credence to the above then you would think at first. Walking from the back of the parking lot to and from work adds almost 1000 steps on average, and it only takes 2000 to keep off the 2-3lbs that Americans gain on average each year.

This news comes at a time when DSL prices are beginning to be slashed. Verizon has lowered their service costs by upwards of 30%, while SBC offers promotional offers.

I switched to SBC/Yahoo DSL last December, and I pay $39.99/month with the promotional offer. The same service is now being offered at $29.99.

If cable providers are forced to increase rates, I'm sure DSL companies will be willing to lower costs (at least for an extended period of time), in order to drive potential customers away from cable.

Of course, Earthlink DSL has announced that they are actually increasing rates; but that doesn't affect much of the broadband-aware states that have signed the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Including my state of California.

yea right, oh whoops they have who'da thought it

The in the article above was valid when the story was first postedm, but is no longer. The story is now at http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/auto/e paper/editions/monday/metro_state_2.html.

This Link gives a little info from the Centaur side of the issue.