I have a feeling the guys at Downhill Battle may well break the $500 mark now that they've gotten slashdotted. Congrats to them and all that they're doing.
However, I wanted to point out a way you can help the fight that's not just defensive, but offensive. Let's go after the people in congress who make this sort of thing necessary. Head on over to IPac and sign the petition. Donate. Help elect representatives and senators that understand our issues, and will fight on our side, not the side of the RIAA and MPAA.
To further save unnecessary expense, facility managers can remotely lockout each tenant by disabling the thermostat buttons from tenant interaction to safeguard against inefficient temperature overrides.
Also worth checking out is CivicSpace, the new incarnation of DeanSpace, currently being developed by Civic Space Labs. They recently released a free (speech and beer) zipcode database, and are building in tools mimicing the "get local" aspects of the Dean campaign along with some really cool GOTV stuff.
Everything is based on Drupal, and is very tech friendly....RSS feeds, iCal files for events, etc. It's syndication gone political and is damn impressive stuff.
I built a few sites during the Dean campaign using the first iteration of the tools, and have watched them progress from there. It's definitely worth checking them out if you're looking to build a camapaign site for a candidate or a movement.
Trippi didn't control the money. He didn't have "X money to spend" on ads, because he didn't get to spend ANY money on ads. Not that I expect ACs on slashdot to know a damn thing, but Jesus Christ, this information is pretty easy to find online. It was debated to death at BFA and Trippi has talked about it in numerous interviews and wrote about it in his book.
Re:Similarities between democrat party, communists
on
Joe Trippi Interviewed
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· Score: 1
Two years ago, in the New Jersey race for the senate, the democrat candidate got replace by someone who didn't even run in the primaries....
This kind of crap is still going on from the Democratic party. This week Ginny Schrader, who most considered a sacrificial lamb running against a well liked republican, got lucky when said republican dropped out. Now, Schrader won the Democratic primary a few weeks ago and immediately blog readers saw in her a chance to win back a Repubican-held seat. They rewarded her with $20,000 in a few hours in contributions. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee used "no comments" in an interview with a reporter to make it seem like they were looking to replace her with a "more electable" candidate.
The firestorm from grassroots activists was quick and brutal. We don't like this top-down approach and its not going to work anymore. Just because they're the DCCC doesn't mean they get to pick the candidate. The people do, and we're going to be vigilant and make sure it stays that way.
Check out some of the comments at the DCCC's blog. It's really pretty impressive to watch the storm of activists comment on their mistakes in such a lightning fast response.
Re:'the candidate lost but the campaign won'
on
Joe Trippi Interviewed
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· Score: 5, Informative
Trippi didn't get advertising kickbacks. Trippi's firm didn't get advertising kickbacks. Read the book, this is all explained very clearly.
The way political advertising works is this: the media firm does the ad buying. They get a 15% commission on the ads they buy. So the Dean campaign gave millions to Trippi's firm to spend on television ads. From that, the firm took a 7% commission, less than half of what the industry standard is. Trippi ended up making a little over $100,000 for his work on the Dean campaign. But he would have made that money whether he had worked his ass off as campaign manager or not. His firm had already been hired to do the media, and as a partner, he would have gotten 1/3 of the 7% commission no matter what.
There were no kick backs. There was nothing fishy about the situation. Anyone involved in media or politics knows that this is the way it works, and the speculation that Trippi got kickbacks or embezzled is such pure bullshit.
There's not a chance it will actually be done in time for the superbowl. Town planners came up with all sorts of improvements that would be complete before the Superbowl. Almost every single one of them has been postponed or cancelled.
I have no idea how Jacksonville expect to have a successful superbowl. Thier downtown area is tiny, their main downtown attraction "the Landing" is desserted every night of the week, the hotels aren't great, their are three good restaurants in town (Bebe's, The Pom, and Bistro Aix, if you're heading to the SuperBowl), and each seats about 20 people.
I have a feeling this superbowl is going to be a disaster for Duval county.
Here's why a useless, crappy, DRM'd version of these songs is being offered to Penn State instead of an AAC and the usage rights that Apple's iTunes offers.
There's a member of the RIAA's board on Penn State's Board of Trustees.
That's the reason this is going on. They're charing all kinds of fees to a bunch of students who can't even USE the service on their Macs, and providing shitty DRM'd technology to those who have PCs just so a member of their board can buy another yacht.
I think it's rather dispicable.
Just a quick note...
My dad is the one who's working on the live.psu.edu site. It's running on apache and php on MacOS X Server.
The server's getting hammered today, he says, but the machine's holding up quite well.
It's a shame that open source and Mac technologies can be used to promote this new Napster program at PSU, and yet students with machines running similar OS's will be wasting their fees paying for a service they can't use.
It's a shame PSU couldn't figure out way to work with the cross-platform iTunes Music store.
Over at MacSlash we've got coverage of the conference call between analysts and Apple's CFO, Fred Anderson. It's fun to listen in on the conference calls, although there's not a whole lot of new information from this one. One of the most interesting things I heard was that the education market has fallen off so significantly for Apple. It'll be interesting to see how this picks up in the June quarter, when schools traditionally do a lot of buying for next year.
I heard that report too. It was lying bullshit, according to their own freaking web page.
http://www.smarterchild.com/
It's obvious that Microsoft bought them out and moved them to MSN, or at least had some sort of influence on why SmarterChild no longer works on AIM.
How about the fact that ActiveBuddy's only decent buddy, SmarterChild, was cancelled from AOL and is now only available on MSN Messenger. Certainly smells of Microsoft money somewhere.
I actually used SmarterChild daily as a reference source and had to depend on the less convenient, but still cool, Watson when he dissappeared from AIM.
Ahh, I think you're the one who's missed something.
In the age of broadband connections always on, do you think the RIAA cares about the distinction of whether an MP3 exists on a computer or is being streamed. Something tells me they're gonna' consider it stealing either way. I don't agree with the way they feel, but I doubt they'll change their minds based on my slashdot post.
And, I, in fact, have an iPod and just yesterday copied 4.38 gigs of music to a new PowerBook I just bought. Nice assumption, but you're just plain wrong on that one.
I don't think Apple's trying real hard to keep things legal. And I applaud them for that.
Steve Jobs blasted the RIAA on Headline News the other day. He just demoed a way to share playlists over any IP network without any configuration, allowing a user to listen to virtually any song with iTunes. He created the iPod whose only "Digital Rights Management" is a sticker which says "Don't Steal Music." I don't think Steve is excactly the biggest friend of the music industry.
No way Geeks can fund PACS the size and stability of a MicroSoft, Oracle or Enron.
True, corporations will always have the money to hire lobbyists and other high powered DC folk. But, the PAC scene is a bit different.
There are limits on the amount of money a PAC can donate to a candidate. Currently, it's $5000 per election. So, if the GeekPAC can target the right candidates, they can have a large influence on some of those races.
Re:Score 0: Bad '70s Reference
on
GeekPAC
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· Score: 2
Hmm....
They may need to check on this one. I don't know as much about PAC fundraising as I do about candidate fundraising, but I'm fairly sure that corporate donations are not allowed for a multi-candidate committee.
From the FEC Guide for corporations and labor organizations (page 18)....
Election law prohibits
corporations and labor organizations from making contributions...in connection with federal races.
I hope they double check that. FEC violations are very very serious things for PACs with signifcant fines.
Why is trying to get people to put money and energy behind this a better idea than helping to promote the existing organizations working towards similar goas, such as the EFF?
The EFF isn't a Political Action committee, though. They're an issue advocacy group, but one that can't give political donations to candidates.
While there is no quid pro quoe (spelling?) when candidates accept political contributions from PACs, its obvious that some of the liars and cheaters in Congress use the donations when deciding on what legislation to support.
The EFF is a wonderful organization and I'm a paying member. But, I've also gotten out my checkbook this morning to help support GeekPAC. It takes both to combat the effects that big business and corporate special interest groups have in Washington.
But, PACs can still donate up to $5000 to each candidate directly each election, to let the candidate run his own race.
I'd much rather see that hard money going to campaigns which follow incredibly strict FEC guidelines for reporting sources of income than have an ad on TV paid for by a PAC which isn't identified.
Apple generally builds up demand to a feverish pitch and then releases the product to the world and because of the heavy demand the product usually is snapped up in droves.
Hmm...I think I'd have to disagree with that. Take the iMac, for example. Before the first iMac was introduced, no one knew they wanted one. In fact, when it was first released, the media was fond of saying that no one would ever buy one.
The iPod is another example. It wasn't expected at all, and generally downplayed and dissed by a lot of the media (including my site), because we didn't think it would be successful. Apple proved us wrong.
Both of those cases are examples of Apple doing something unexpected, as opposed to building demand for something expected.
I think this is a great idea. I have some background in political fundraising and would like to contribute. I sent a message to what I hope is the originator's email address, but I thought I'd post my address here just in case anyone else would like to get in contact and discuss the idea.
if I were going to be living in isolation with a small number of people, I don't know if people who are dedicated to bringing down governments and complete individual liberty are the best companions. Although *bland* people are probably the "easiest" to get along with, if I were picking some people to spend long amounts of time with in a remote location, once basic skills were taken care of, people interested in science, art, literature, etc. would be a lot more interesting than "glee club" or debating society or politicians or lawyers or the others Sterling mentions as the most interesting.
I've got to agree. As someone who spends all day working for politicians (who are usually lawyers), I'd much rather have people who are interested in all sorts of different aspects of life. Politicians and lawyers, debate team captains, all know the rules for formal debates. But quite often they lack the passion and knowledge to really share something significant about a subject.
It must be interesting to have an opportunity to, in some sense, choose the kind of people who will be around you. The interview process for SeaLand must be an interesting one.
Completely off topic, but I know your sister Jess really well. We were friends when I was at PSU, and worked together last summer. I still talk to her a few times a month.
you forgot smart students who don't excel because they forsee the pointlessness of school in general.
I might have forgotten to mention them. But, I was a high school drop out who had horrible grades because I was bored by high school. I now have a successful company and do outside consulting.
If there's one thing I can suggest to smart but frustrated high school students, it's this simple message: Get out now. Run, don't walk to take the GED. Just get away from the poison of school.
This article is nothing more than a chance for zealots in the "education reform" business to tout the amazing wonders of their baby, cooperative learning.
As someone who dropped out of high school because of stupid ideas like cooperative learning and "team teaching" and block scheduling which were the antithesis of learning, I'm so tired of seeing this drivel being accepted and put into practice.
The Article quotes a 'cooperative learning' researcher extolling the joys of diversity that it produces. It doesn't mention that while kids are learning diversity, they're not actually LEARNING anything.
Group work in a school setting produces smart students who don't excel because they're holding up the rest of the group, mediocre students who can slack because the intelligent ones will do the work for them, and slow students who never get the attention they deserve.
I'm tired of these education theorists taking their insane pet theories and putting them into schools. And its even worse when they use some sort of silly robotic experiment to back them up. Isn't there some way to stop these wackos?
Slashdot Mirror
However, I wanted to point out a way you can help the fight that's not just defensive, but offensive. Let's go after the people in congress who make this sort of thing necessary. Head on over to IPac and sign the petition. Donate. Help elect representatives and senators that understand our issues, and will fight on our side, not the side of the RIAA and MPAA.
Also worth checking out is CivicSpace, the new incarnation of DeanSpace, currently being developed by Civic Space Labs. They recently released a free (speech and beer) zipcode database, and are building in tools mimicing the "get local" aspects of the Dean campaign along with some really cool GOTV stuff.
Everything is based on Drupal, and is very tech friendly....RSS feeds, iCal files for events, etc. It's syndication gone political and is damn impressive stuff.
I built a few sites during the Dean campaign using the first iteration of the tools, and have watched them progress from there. It's definitely worth checking them out if you're looking to build a camapaign site for a candidate or a movement.
Trippi didn't control the money. He didn't have "X money to spend" on ads, because he didn't get to spend ANY money on ads. Not that I expect ACs on slashdot to know a damn thing, but Jesus Christ, this information is pretty easy to find online. It was debated to death at BFA and Trippi has talked about it in numerous interviews and wrote about it in his book.
Trippi didn't get advertising kickbacks. Trippi's firm didn't get advertising kickbacks. Read the book, this is all explained very clearly. The way political advertising works is this: the media firm does the ad buying. They get a 15% commission on the ads they buy. So the Dean campaign gave millions to Trippi's firm to spend on television ads. From that, the firm took a 7% commission, less than half of what the industry standard is. Trippi ended up making a little over $100,000 for his work on the Dean campaign. But he would have made that money whether he had worked his ass off as campaign manager or not. His firm had already been hired to do the media, and as a partner, he would have gotten 1/3 of the 7% commission no matter what. There were no kick backs. There was nothing fishy about the situation. Anyone involved in media or politics knows that this is the way it works, and the speculation that Trippi got kickbacks or embezzled is such pure bullshit.
There's not a chance it will actually be done in time for the superbowl. Town planners came up with all sorts of improvements that would be complete before the Superbowl. Almost every single one of them has been postponed or cancelled.
I have no idea how Jacksonville expect to have a successful superbowl. Thier downtown area is tiny, their main downtown attraction "the Landing" is desserted every night of the week, the hotels aren't great, their are three good restaurants in town (Bebe's, The Pom, and Bistro Aix, if you're heading to the SuperBowl), and each seats about 20 people.
I have a feeling this superbowl is going to be a disaster for Duval county.
And, I guess he's not a member of the board, but Senior Counsel. I guess that means he's responsible for suing grandparents and little girls.
There's a member of the RIAA's board on Penn State's Board of Trustees.
That's the reason this is going on. They're charing all kinds of fees to a bunch of students who can't even USE the service on their Macs, and providing shitty DRM'd technology to those who have PCs just so a member of their board can buy another yacht. I think it's rather dispicable.
Just a quick note... My dad is the one who's working on the live.psu.edu site. It's running on apache and php on MacOS X Server. The server's getting hammered today, he says, but the machine's holding up quite well. It's a shame that open source and Mac technologies can be used to promote this new Napster program at PSU, and yet students with machines running similar OS's will be wasting their fees paying for a service they can't use. It's a shame PSU couldn't figure out way to work with the cross-platform iTunes Music store.
Over at MacSlash we've got coverage of the conference call between analysts and Apple's CFO, Fred Anderson. It's fun to listen in on the conference calls, although there's not a whole lot of new information from this one. One of the most interesting things I heard was that the education market has fallen off so significantly for Apple. It'll be interesting to see how this picks up in the June quarter, when schools traditionally do a lot of buying for next year.
I have no proof, of course, but I think maybe the comment yesterday may have spurred action on the part of Apple's PR department today.
I heard that report too. It was lying bullshit, according to their own freaking web page. http://www.smarterchild.com/ It's obvious that Microsoft bought them out and moved them to MSN, or at least had some sort of influence on why SmarterChild no longer works on AIM.
I actually used SmarterChild daily as a reference source and had to depend on the less convenient, but still cool, Watson when he dissappeared from AIM.
Ahh, I think you're the one who's missed something. In the age of broadband connections always on, do you think the RIAA cares about the distinction of whether an MP3 exists on a computer or is being streamed. Something tells me they're gonna' consider it stealing either way. I don't agree with the way they feel, but I doubt they'll change their minds based on my slashdot post. And, I, in fact, have an iPod and just yesterday copied 4.38 gigs of music to a new PowerBook I just bought. Nice assumption, but you're just plain wrong on that one. I don't think Apple's trying real hard to keep things legal. And I applaud them for that.
Steve Jobs blasted the RIAA on Headline News the other day. He just demoed a way to share playlists over any IP network without any configuration, allowing a user to listen to virtually any song with iTunes. He created the iPod whose only "Digital Rights Management" is a sticker which says "Don't Steal Music." I don't think Steve is excactly the biggest friend of the music industry.
True, corporations will always have the money to hire lobbyists and other high powered DC folk. But, the PAC scene is a bit different.
There are limits on the amount of money a PAC can donate to a candidate. Currently, it's $5000 per election. So, if the GeekPAC can target the right candidates, they can have a large influence on some of those races.
I hope they double check that. FEC violations are very very serious things for PACs with signifcant fines.
But, PACs can still donate up to $5000 to each candidate directly each election, to let the candidate run his own race. I'd much rather see that hard money going to campaigns which follow incredibly strict FEC guidelines for reporting sources of income than have an ad on TV paid for by a PAC which isn't identified.
The iPod is another example. It wasn't expected at all, and generally downplayed and dissed by a lot of the media (including my site), because we didn't think it would be successful. Apple proved us wrong.
Both of those cases are examples of Apple doing something unexpected, as opposed to building demand for something expected.
Feel free to email me at acaben@mac.com.
I've got to agree. As someone who spends all day working for politicians (who are usually lawyers), I'd much rather have people who are interested in all sorts of different aspects of life. Politicians and lawyers, debate team captains, all know the rules for formal debates. But quite often they lack the passion and knowledge to really share something significant about a subject.
It must be interesting to have an opportunity to, in some sense, choose the kind of people who will be around you. The interview process for SeaLand must be an interesting one.
Completely off topic, but I know your sister Jess really well. We were friends when I was at PSU, and worked together last summer. I still talk to her a few times a month.
If there's one thing I can suggest to smart but frustrated high school students, it's this simple message: Get out now. Run, don't walk to take the GED. Just get away from the poison of school.
As someone who dropped out of high school because of stupid ideas like cooperative learning and "team teaching" and block scheduling which were the antithesis of learning, I'm so tired of seeing this drivel being accepted and put into practice.
The Article quotes a 'cooperative learning' researcher extolling the joys of diversity that it produces. It doesn't mention that while kids are learning diversity, they're not actually LEARNING anything.
Group work in a school setting produces smart students who don't excel because they're holding up the rest of the group, mediocre students who can slack because the intelligent ones will do the work for them, and slow students who never get the attention they deserve.
I'm tired of these education theorists taking their insane pet theories and putting them into schools. And its even worse when they use some sort of silly robotic experiment to back them up. Isn't there some way to stop these wackos?