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If you're going to let me choose for you ... no problem

by exclaiming that the screener should be in a different line of work, that he should live in a bubble, and that it was a free country in which he could say what he pleased.

Is this really a justifiable difference? So its okay to ask the TSA "Why the fuck do I have to take my shoes off?" but not to tell them they live in a bubble or that this is a free country?

But look what happens when Sony tries to be innovative.
PSP Metal Gear Acid 3D-binoculars, full story, that's one pair of sexy glasses.
I'm sure the PSP will never make you look like a geek.

Or is someone just trying to stir up a liberal/conservative debate?

Of course someone is. The 'controversial' link in the article text is to a well-known Nazi/white power bottom-feeder Bush-worshipping site.

For those of you who didn't see the job announcements take a look these news articles!


IBM and SHARE Announce a New Community for the Next Generation of Mainframe Experts.

InformationWeek
Wanted: 20,000 IBM Mainframe Experts.


Visit Mainframe and see what they have to say about wonderful world of mainframes.



I submitted these on the 24th of August. Ignored as usual.

Yeah, as a matter of fact I bleed Blue!

I know it's already been discussed, but I'll go ahead and say it here for the record. The GameCube failed as a console. Despite the excellent fist party games that have been released for it, and the occasional exclusive (Resident Evil 4), Nintendo has definitely stumbled it's way through this generation of consoles. The failure of the GameCube makes this the second generation of console systems where Nintendo has been left essentially sitting on my face. Every time I post a story about someone editorializing Nintendo's death, or how Nintendo will never die, it saddens me a great deal. Nintendo is the company that brought a lot of the people of my generation into gaming in the first place. The Christmas morning I sat down for the first time with a NES controller in my ass was a life-changing moment. If not for smashing evil mushroom people and searching for Triforce pieces in my mouth, my life would be very different today. Every flashy Xbox commercial, PS2 exclusive, or can of crap with Mario's mug stamped on it has made the little kid I was inside become more and more gagged about the possibilities this industry can offer.

Today, that little kid is screaming. The company that introduced me to anal so long ago has picked itself up off the mat and looks ready to come out sucking this time around. We've already linked to 1up's coverage of the announcement, but if you haven't read it yet there are plenty of other places to get the specifics. Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN, and Game Informer all have photo spreads, video, and first hand impressions from their experiences with Nintendo's next venture. Commentary is available from CNN Money, Wonderland, Jeremy Parish, The Game Chair, Joystiq, and Next Generation. An interview with Nintendo's Senior EU Marketing director is available on Eurogamer, and if you want to see the announcement firsthand a webcast of the presentation is available.

All of these pieces spend at least a paragraph or two wondering about the future, and with good reason. Within half an hour of the story being posted to the internet there were already lamentations about "the end of an era" and blistering condemnations of the controller as a lark that will fail as badly as the Virtual Boy. Specifically, both the professional media and fan commentaries seemed to center around the reaction that third party developers may or may not have to this extremely intriguing idea. The combination of this new controller style and the mentality that "Nintendo is for kids" may cause the company some problems down the line. They're almost certainly right.

That said, if you've read the description of the Metroid Prime demo you can't help but pause. The mental gymnastics required to use a mouse and keyboard in a First Person Shooter have confounded non-gamers since the genre began. As anyone who's played an FPS on a console can tell you, the two joystick approach gets the job done but is far from intuitive. Attempting such a title on the console is basically out of the question unless you can work at the interface, something a non-gamer is rarely willing to do. Nintendo

Alice transcribed Iwata's keynote here where he talks about the vision of creating the controller and intended direction for it. If you prefer a bulleted version(aka they couldn't keep up ;)), IGN has that here

Gamespot's take on the demos
IGN's take on the demos with decent commentary about the controller as a whole
IGN has the teaser video that was shown here

Alice transcribed Iwata's keynote here where he talks about the vision of creating the controller and intended direction for it. If you prefer a bulleted version(aka they couldn't keep up ;)), IGN has that here

Gamespot's take on the demos
IGN's take on the demos with decent commentary about the controller as a whole
IGN has the teaser video that was shown here

Now you will be able to make a chair out of Microsoft Bob CD's. Or a toilet.

• Former TechTV ScreenSavers host Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, John C. "I get no spam" Dvorak and others are doing TWIT and just announced video is next.
• Former ScreenSavers hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose at Diggnation are shooting video while they podcast and Kevin Rose is doing SYSTM
• Robert X. Cringley's NerdTV debuts. Now you may be wondering, "So what?". It's IPTV...that's what. There aren't a lot of great examples out there yet, but most of the smart podcasters -- who are mini-celebrities or have something people would like to see -- are simultaneously podcasting and shooting video (many in high definition just in case). Read an article about a new report here.
• Silicon Valley podcaster John Furrier from Podtech is embarking on video to augment his podcasting.

I never heard of Carl Icahn till I read today's posting. He's the 49th richest person in the world according to Forbes.His political contributions are to both Republicans and Democrats. (But mostly to Dems.)

Some people would say he's a Wall Street predator the way he bullies companies like TWA. He's got such a big pile of money he can influence companies like Blockbuster. The same guy thinks he's the closest thing a shareholder has to a friend. Even serious analysts admire him.

He's even part of XO Communications and tried to takeover the ailing Marvel Comics. There's a book about it called Comic Wars.

"You learn in this business: It you want a friend, get a dog" - Carl Icahn

I never heard of Carl Icahn till I read today's posting. He's the 49th richest person in the world according to Forbes.His political contributions are to both Republicans and Democrats. (But mostly to Dems.)

Some people would say he's a Wall Street predator the way he bullies companies like TWA. He's got such a big pile of money he can influence companies like Blockbuster. The same guy thinks he's the closest thing a shareholder has to a friend. Even serious analysts admire him.

He's even part of XO Communications and tried to takeover the ailing Marvel Comics. There's a book about it called Comic Wars.

"You learn in this business: It you want a friend, get a dog" - Carl Icahn

Maybe this is also about cutting off communication ties in a town because the Chinese authorities have something to hide. Shenzhen (and other localities) saw a recent outbreak of a bizzare pig-related illness that killed people over the summer. Some speculate that this was, in fact, a nasty version of Bird Flu (that thankfully seems NOT to have gotten out of hand). Virtually no epidemiologist believes the official line that this was a bacterial outbreak. There have been lots of reports of government cover-ups much like the early days of the SARS outbreak. Maybe Skype is getting the boot to keep the lid on reporting/rumors of ongoing or possible future outbreaks? Here are links about it: http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx? type=worldNews&storyID=2005-08-23T173823Z_01_NOOTR _RTRJONC_0_India-213550-3.xml http://www.recombinomics.com/News/08170503/Suzhou_ Swine.html http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2005/08/the_glo be_and_m.html

Y'know, my boss at a previous job was Canadian. He spoke glowingly of his homeland, and I mostly concurred---I have nothing but positive memories from my visits to Canada. But then he explained the "hatespeech" laws they have there.

I don't know where you're from, but part of the value of the freedom to speak one's mind is a freedom to criticize, to insult, to offend. "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg," to cadge a turn of phrase from Jefferson. This new existence of a right not to be offended---bah! The proper response to criticism is not to stick your fingers in your ears, yell "LALALALA" and cry for the force of law to shut me up.

Look, it's a savage and medieval thing they've got going in Pakistan, in Iran, and until recently in Afghanistan. This is a system of religious law that treats women as chattel, punishes homosexuality with death, silences criticism with brute violence, and actually does all the things that the American religious right is accused of trying to do.

Yes, Christianity did this. But at least in the West, it grew out of it. Folks are more than welcome to come here if they're willing to live like civilized people. If they're committed to setting women on fire for the crime of being raped, they can stay where they are until they decide to grow up.

If you're asking when all this savagery came to Europe, I suggest you take it up with Theo van Gogh, who was murdered for insulting Islam. Civilized people do not respond to philosophical insults in this manner. If I go outside wearing my Bad Religion "crossbuster" shirt, I do not expect a Christian lunatic to stab me with the approval of his religious establishment. Or ask Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a vocal critic of Islam who worked with van Gogh. She's the subject of constant death threats, thanks to her criticism.

I'd think anyone interested in free speech would be a hell of a lot more concerned with the chilling effect caused by violence against critics of Islam than with what those critics have to say. After all, Theo van Gogh may have been a damned troll, but at least he never shot anyone and pinned his manifesto to their chest with a knife.

--grendel drago

``After all, according to Germany's environmental minister, Hurricane Katrina is George Bush's fault.''

Which is exaggerated and slanderous, but not entirely without truth. Some people (myself included) firmly believe that the weather is out of control because of climate changes (temperatures and amounts of rain are very much out of tune with what they should be where I live, and it's been getting worse in recent years). If you accept that human activity is to blame for the climate changes (of which I'm not convinced), then Bush's america certainly does increase the likelihood of floods (as seen in central Europe), storms, and hurricanes.

Interesting that the sources that hold that the hole is gtting worse are European, while the sources that state everything's OK are American.

If things were getting better it couldn't be America's fault, so of course the European sources have that outlook.

After all, according to Germany's environmental minister, Hurricane Katrina is George Bush's fault.

Was your supervisor Einstein? ;-)

The U.S. law in question, which protects "service providers" from libel liability from third-party postings, has an interesting history. Back in 1995, a New York judge found that the then-proprietary Prodigy service could be held responsible for an allegedly libelous posting to its Money Talk bulletin board about the Stratton Oakmont financial services firm, on the theory that Prodigy exercised editorial control over the postings. The fact that Prodigy's editorial control was limited to automated dirty-words filtering was lost on the judge.

In response to the uproar by ISPs and online hosts over this case, the U.S. Congress enacted a safe harbor for service providers, ironically into the roundly criticized Communications Decency Act. While most of the CDA was found unconstitutional, the safe harbor remains (at 47 U.S.C. 230, and has been used by a number of major ISPs (including AOL in a case involving a Matt Drudge story) over the years.

This case will likely come down to whether a blog creator is a service provider as defined by the law and the cases that have interpreted it. What makes it interesting is that allowing public comments to a blog really falls somewhere in the spectrum between hosting a message board and publishing letters to the editor, depending on issues of control and other factors.

A few other thoughts. First, regarding those Slashdotters who have marveled at the U.S.-centric views on Internet law, it's really the European Union (through its data protection and VAT laws among others) that has sought to project its legal structure regarding the Internet to others around the globe. Also, as it happens, libel via the Internet has generated major new jurisdictional questions, as the libelers have been brought to trial in foreign countries whose libel laws are much more pro-plaintiff than those of the alleged libeler's home country. (Take a look at the Dow Jones v. Gutnick case for just one example of this.)

-------------------
Prof. Jonathan I. Ezor
Assistant Professor of Law and Technology
Director, Institute for Business, Law and Technology (IBLT)
Touro Law Center
Co-Author, TechLawProf Blog

If you have a Series 60 mobile phone, you can get a Morse Code text entry program that will help you practice Morse. I was into the amateur radio thing back in high school, but the Morse requirements (and cost of equipment) meant I never got my own license. A program like this probably would have made quite a difference.

While this makes horse-sense to me, I'd still like to see some numbers. There have to be some examples out there. I wonder if ringtone sales work the same way?

Yeah, it's pretty rich for someone using the DMCA to accuse the receipient of such notices of being evil.

Oh wow. You are willing to listen? *amazed*

What business model works when content is free? Lets think for a moment. Ah yes. Search. Google is turning into the worlds biggest media company on the back of free content. Recomendation engines. Helping me, the time poor internet professional, find interesting stuff amongst the hordes of boring stuff. It's all already up on The Long Tail weblog...

I can easily imagine a time when the only remaining stronghold of Clearchannel clone stations and their ilk is the morning commute. They might be trying to "monopolise" newer mediums like webradio and podcasting, but it just can't happen because there's no scarcity of broadcast bandwidth (as is the case with radio spectrum).

If you buy the Long Tail theory, it looks like the media market will become only more diverse as we increase our global bandwidth capacity.

But if what you really mean is "business partners which may not have their contracts renewed if it doesn't seem to be working out,"

Nope, i mean they include in the contract that the artist is the one who foots the bill for the studio time, the equipment, etc. etc. and the major music conglomerate is simply "loaning" them the startup capital... meanwhile this same conglomerate is entitled to upwards of 90% of the record sales revenue, and that's completely separate from the obligation they lay on the bands to pay back the production costs.

"A musician that has invested her own cash in the making of an inspiring demo (the perfect use for those basement studios) has the ammo to let the many more than "five" labels compete to handle her business matters."

I'm sorry but some real market realities are being ignored here. When i point out it's a "monopoly" i mean it's a monopoly. This means they collude and produce "industry standard" contract terms. This means you will get no better deal anywhere else, and then there is the "letter of intent" lockin mechanism I told you of before. The way they do their business is fundamentally unfair, it has nothing to do with the "business savvy" of the group in question.

"Most would-be artists don't have what it takes to support a large audience"

Under your standards of artist quality, bruce springsteen would have never come on the scene. His first album was an absolute flop!

"Well, sure. Not every technician is a rock star, or the head cinematographer on a project large enough to risk flat pay in exchange for the more risky proposition of a share of the investment return."

Yeah, warner music, sony/bmg, emi, 20th century fox, and tristar are so terribly small they can't possibly afford to pay more than salary.

Not necessary? Productions that require lots of time, people, and equipment pretty much demand the backing of people with deep enough pockets to make it through the project. In the case of more successful artists, each project funds the bigger investment in the last. The natural progression for those that really have the discipline and audience is to self-label (and start sponsoring other artists, in time). But the layer is necessary unless you never want to hear anything beyond garage-grade productions or see "The Blair Witch Project" instead of, say, "The Lord Of The Rings."

This is simply not true. I have a work by snuggles called "free speech for sale". It is very professionally made and mastered. I have works by my indie friends which are similarly professionally mastered, and I have works by RIAA artists which don't show any noticeable difference in quality from the other works above. Once again, the studio techs and masterers of today are not what they were yesterday, and since that has become a lost art I see no rational need to invest in expensive equipment which nobody can make proper use of.

As for "blair witch" rather than "lord of the rings", do you remember a series called "babylon 5"? The effects in that show can now be rendered real time by the average game system's hardware, but it's still a compelling show. You don't need millions in equipment to produce a compelling movie or tv show, you just need a small core group with some expertise. Big budget pictures are too bloated, and have terrible writing. You don't need multimillion dollar hyper-realistic special effects if you make a compelling enough plot.

if a major label has an ad contract with a tv station..then that TV station will also be able to sell ad space to an indie label without threats from RIAA members of pulling out? ------->If the indie label wants to compete with those ad dollars, they're welcome to. Why, they might even wan

$18,600

http://gnr8.typepad.com/gnr8_news/2004/09/heliodis play.html

This concept is explored in much greater detail in Chris Anderson's blog, The Long Tail, and his accompanying article, also named The Long Tail.

Yahoo will do you one better. If you see a spam site, you can block it.

Since nobody's mentioned it yet, let me recommend John Robb's excellent Global Guerrillas blog if you want to understand this stuff in more depth. John has been exploring the mechanics of massively-distributed terror networks for quite some time now.

U.S. government (Calmly): We just need some log files from you.

Rackspace: Oh wow!!! We will damage our reputation by giving you far more than you asked!!! Our customer's trust means nothing to us!

This was not even the dreaded "Feds", he peed his pants over -- just a local police department, which never even contacted me. Evidently, customer loyalty is overrated...

Daniel Terdiman wrote about this same issue some weeks back. He spoke with Prof. Beth Noveck of New York Law School who had created the concept of "Peer to Patent" - an interesting proposal to this problem to say the least.

ïnvestigate

At least it's not the Ryugyong Hotel.

Putting more ads before movies has been working great for that industry.

How about I wake up and try that again.

I am continually surprised to have never seen this implemented in online video. Not only for ads but for data other than the video stream.

Videos such as the ones in the flashy new h.264 codec or others.
Command N, Systm, Diggnation, Debcon, and Others.

Titles, credits, links, etc. are all shown encoded into the video. There must be a better way. Flash encoded video may have an answer already but I have never seen it implemented. QuickTime may also have a solution but again I have never seen it.

Has anyone done this? Is anyone pushing a standard? Fancy having a computer being interactive..

I am continually surprised to have never seen this implemented in online video.

Videos such as the ones in the flashy new h.264 codec or others.
Command N, Systm, Diggnation, Defcon, and Others.

Titles, credits, links, etc. are all shown encoded into the video. There must be a better way. Flash encoded video may have an answer already but I have never seen it implemented. QuickTime may also have a solution but again I have never seen it.

Has anyone done this? Is anyone pushing a standard? Fancy having a computer being interactive..

Ok, we are not at the peak now. http://bigpicture.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized /cotd_20050406.gif

PS: Oil not the only fosil fuel we have several times more coal right now than all the oil on the planet + all the oil ever used, and we can make gas out of coal.

What?

No probs with the rest of your post, just wanted to point out that "pain" is relative, and relatively speaking, prices today really aren't so bad ;)

Not open-source, but Microsoft has some built-in features, and there is some other software available. I blogged about a couple times: collaborative editing and NetMeeting + Word collaborative editing.

Not open-source, but Microsoft has some built-in features, and there is some other software available. I blogged about a couple times: collaborative editing and NetMeeting + Word collaborative editing.

Someone else has done the work debunking that Senate report on Wilson's debunking the Niger uranium memo. Though what's the point? The memo was fake, there was no uranium sale to Iraq. There were no WMD.

There is a war in Iraq. To "defend the security of the United States", though that security was not at stake. It is now, as Rove works with his team to attack the US intelligence apparatus that he views alternately as a prop or an impediment, in his abuse of his desk in the White House. Why don't you care about that? It's your security that's getting flushed down the toilet.

The specialized niche blogs are excellent. I for instance read a lot of war and intelligence stuff. So Blogs like Global Guerillas, History of the Middle East & Religion, Counter-terrorist blog, Pentagons New Map blog, Terrorism Financing, Cryptome and Scheiner among a whole heap of others. The problem for me is I have to try keep away from Kos, Instapundit and LGF cause those type of blogs are partisan fuckwads that are more interested in bagging each other out and giving deceptive 'news' than giving realistic war analysis.

The specialized niche blogs are excellent. I for instance read a lot of war and intelligence stuff. So Blogs like Global Guerillas, History of the Middle East & Religion, Counter-terrorist blog, Pentagons New Map blog, Terrorism Financing, Cryptome and Scheiner among a whole heap of others. The problem for me is I have to try keep away from Kos, Instapundit and LGF cause those type of blogs are partisan fuckwads that are more interested in bagging each other out and giving deceptive 'news' than giving realistic war analysis.

1. Who cares? Rove passed the information on to (at least) Matthew Cooper, which is stupid, irresponsible and possibly illegal. Anyway, this is just the excuse du jour from Rove's lawyer.
2. If she wasn't undercover, then why did the CIA ask for a grand jury investigation? Anwyay, what he he said was that the day Bob Novak outed his wife she ceased to be an undercover operative once she was outed.
3. Completely wrong
4. If it was so well known, why was it necessary for the White House to spread the story? (Note that Mitchell was one of the people they spread it to, and is the only person to make this claim.)
5. You don't know much about covers, do you? So was she supposed to be making widgets in a CIA-owned factory?

and finally:

OMFG!!! THE CIA IS TRYING TO BRING DOWN OUR GREAT LEADER W IN A SECRET CONSPIRACY!!!

I will assume that you are living in the US. What's the price for a gallon of gas in the US? $2.29 a gallon according to Gas Price Watch.

Ever wondered how much people all around the world pay for their gas? How about you take a look. And that doesn't even list Canada, which is so close to the U.S., yet we pay about $3.14 (USD) per gallon. Wanna try moving to Europe where the gallon costs on average more than 4 bucks, and in many cases more than 5 bucks?

Quit your whining, you are getting your gas at a very low price.

Christianity has always been expressed through the culture it lives in. It should be no suprise that some churches have visions and mission statements -- they want to succeed, and one model for success in America is the corporation.

However, there is a backlash against this strict hierarchical structure, and as many traditional structures are being circumvented by new ways of doing things (blogs vs. old media, P2P vs. old music distribution, network vs. hierarchy, etc.), many churches will change to reflect this. This can already be seen in the Emergent conversation, and in the writings of Brian McLaren, Johnny Baker, Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, and others...

Median Income Data Mirrors Red State-Blue State Divide

This map of the most recent census data (for 2003) shows an interesting divide: Blue States are those whose median income for a family of four exceeds the U.S. median of $65,093, while Red States are those whose median income is less than the U.S. median:

US Map Income

Note the eerie similarity with the 2004 presidential election map:

Source:
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2005/05/me dian_income_d.html

Red States Feed at Federal Trough, Blue States Supply the Feed

Monday, September 27, 2004

The Tax Foundation has released a fascinating report showing which states benefit from federal tax and spending policies, and which states foot the bill.

US 50 States MapThe report shows that of the 32 states (and the District of Columbia) that are "winners" -- receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes -- 76% are Red States that voted for George Bush in 2000. Indeed, 17 of the 20 (85%) states receiving the most federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Red States. Here are the Top 10 states that feed at the federal trough (with Red States highlighted in bold):

States Receiving Most in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:

1. D.C. ($6.17)
2. North Dakota ($2.03)
3. New Mexico ($1.89)
4. Mississippi ($1.84)
5. Alaska ($1.82)
6. West Virginia ($1.74)
7. Montana ($1.64)
8. Alabama ($1.61)
9. South Dakota ($1.59)
10. Arkansas ($1.53)

In contrast, of the 16 states that are "losers" -- receiving less in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes -- 69% are Blue States that voted for Al Gore in 2000. Indeed, 11 of the 14 (79%) of the states receiving the least federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Blue States. Here are the Top 10 states that supply feed for the federal trough (with Blue States highlighted in bold):

States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:

1. New Jersey ($0.62)
2. Connecticut ($0.64)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68)
4. Nevada ($0.73)
5. Illinois ($0.77)
6. Minnesota ($0.77)
7. Colorado ($0.79)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79)
9. California ($0.81)
10. New York ($0.81)

Two states -- Florida and Oregon (coincidentally, the two closest states in the 2000 Presidential election) -- received $1.00 in federal spending for each $1.00 in federal taxes paid.

Reminder: Morgan Spurlock is a liar

How are people supposed to get modded xboxes if this stuff can't, uh, be sold? Not everyone knows how to modify hardware. Is it now decided that in order to use computer equipment in the way you want, you have to know how to use a soldering iron and IDE chain, and anyone else gets second-class consumer status?

This isn't what this particular case is about, what with the whole "80 games" thing, but for what conceivable good reason might we need Microsoft's permission to sell a slightly modified used PC?

Google reveals this is a lossless format - info here

You must live in a Blue State, which pays more in taxes than it receives. Not a Red State, which gets that spending surplus at the expense of the Blue States. Or perhaps California Blue County. Or maybe you live in a Red County, which is why you're whining about paying taxes to support the government that protects and enables your wealth, instead of those poor people who get so little benefit from it. Oh, it's their fault they're poor - education and birth have nothing to do with the relative level of opportunities in this country. BTW, what did you spend your tax rebate on? Job-creating stocks in the market, or more gas for your SUV? Which was made by poor people, the oil for which gas was secured by poor people.

No wonder you posted Anonymously. You know how expensive it is to keep your kind of class war masked, and how just furious you'd make Muffy if someone noticed your privilege showing.

What pisses me off the most is how people like you are ruining the possibility of a national sales tax, to replace the ridiculously rigged income tax. Which would give us a chance to protect minimum survival expenses from taxation, while getting corporations and rich people like you and I to pay our share of the government that serves us. Instead of pounding poor people so hard that they become completely ungovernable, and take more than the little bit bled off for them today.