Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Patriot Education

After finding Bob Cesca's quote on the level of understanding of the Patriot Act by the American Public:
"What's infuriating about this Patriot Act poll is that only 42 percent of Americans know what the hell the law actually says. And only 23 percent of those polled support the part of the Act which says the government can enter your home any time it wants without telling you."

I though I would provide a pointer to the Electronic Privacy Information Center's summary of the provisions of the Patriot Act.

Read and act on this information, as if your life and privacy depend on it, because they DO!

>JjV<
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Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. -- Unknown

Katrina, Irony and Oil

Great post by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over at The Huffington Post about Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's role in squelching the United States' ratification of the Kyoto Accord on CO2 emissions.

Just thought I would point out the irony of having your state slammed by a hurricane whose power has been amplified by the CO2-warmed Gulf of Mexico. CO2, whose levels might be reduced by our participation in CO2 reductions mandated by Kyoto.

Anyone else believe that the entire arc of coastline from the southern tip of Texas to the southern tip of Florida is going to become fodder for a ongoing procession of Katrina-class storms over the next five decades or so?

>JjV<
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If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments. - Earl Wilson

Haloscan

Added Haloscan's free track back service to this sight. Now if someone would just link to me....

Sigh....

>JjV<
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If at first you don't succeed, quit; don't be a nut about success.

RIAA Radar

If you want to avoid putting anymore monies into the hands of the RIAA-affiliated labels, use the RIAA Radar site to verify that the artist/lablel/album is not affiliated with the RIAA.

There's also a mobile version to let you verify individual albums by UPC code over the web from your cell phone.

Take that!!


>JjV<
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Samson had the right idea about advertising. He took two columns and brought down the house.


Friday, August 19, 2005

Fiona Apple's Album to be Released

I see from an Epic Records press release that Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine album will finally be released October 4th, 2005. 'Bout time. Although with the large number of leaked copies out there, I hope sales aren't impacted. In fact I hope the sales go through the roof.

For those unaware of the back story, the Extraordinary Machine album was actually completed in early 2003,but was deemed to have insufficiently commercial potential to be released, by her label Epic Records. In March of this year the entire album found its way onto the Internet; available for free. fionapple.org reported in June that she is re-recording the album with a new producer.

For more details check these links.

Another win for the Market!!

>JjV<
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Si Non Oscillas Noli Tintinnare (If you don't swing, don't ring.) - Sign at the Playboy Mansion

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Comments Engage!

After some gentle prodding with a clue bat from my #1 daughter last night, I checked the comment settings for this blog only to find the default still in place. I have changed the setting to anonymous so anyone should be able to leave comments. I'll leave it this way until I get tired of dealing with abuse and spam, although at this point at least there would be comments :-)


>JjV<
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Beware of a tall dark man with a spoon up his nose.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

I SO wish I had said this.....

Excellent column from our favorite IT curmudgeon, John Dvorak. He takes government, telco and cable officials to task for the abysmal state of broadband connectivity in this country.

The man-in-the-street needs to realize that fast, cheap broadband in everyone's home is the new intercontinental rail system. Pervasive, neutral broadband will spur innovation and stimulate the economy. But do we get this, Noooo!! We get all the dinosaur incumbent carriers buying legislation to protect their obsolete business models. Business models, I might add built on government granted monopolies. Sound familiar?

Where are we going to find elected officials who will do the right thing: pushing back on the incumbents, telling them to fix their business models and compete rather than buying the legislation needed to preserver their current model?

When will Joe and Jane Sixpack wake up and realize that the telecommunications special interest groups are selling out the economic future of this country in exchange for a few more years of telecom/cable profits?

So when gasoline is $5.00 a gallon and you do not have enough bandwidth to telecommuting to you job, who you gonna call?


>JjV<
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Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles. - Frank Lloyd Wright