Re: more iPhone

Ya, whatever Mr Jobs. I'm not sure what to make of the iPhone. I'm not sure what it means. For one thing, it's really a whole new application of technology. It's taken things to a new level in a better way than others have done, so far. It's also a whole new level of cost. I think I paid $12 for the first telephone I ever bought. The service and hardware for the iPhone are an order of magnitude higher than anything that's gone before. And it selling! If anyone were to prove right about this sort of thing it would be Jobs. Yet we all know it is impossible to prevent people from using hardware, that they purchase and own, in the way they want to. So where's it heading? I'm not sure.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/att-welcomes-programmers-for-all-phones-except-the-iphone/

AT&T Welcomes Programmers for All Phones Except the iPhone

"You dont want your phone to be an open platform, meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the providers network, says Jobs. You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesnt want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.

"That sounds reasonable until you realize that there are many millions of phones that run operating systems from Palm, Microsoft and others for which third-party applications are created all the time, and networks dont seem to be crashing as a result."

Owe

Don't understand why America is in so much trouble? It's simple, Americans are really, really, really, really stupid! Just take a look at this. Go ahead, I'll wait.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/consumers-gone-wild/the-mom-with-135000-in-credit-card-debt-who-spends-400-a-month-on-starbucks-313156.php

Back? Here's a couple of things about this. First of all, this is not all that unusual. In fact, it's not even extreme! This woman has simply been written up because of her demographic. Secondly, this is illustrative of the typical manner in which people are stupid. Specificly, a complete and utter unwillingness, and inability, to comprehend reality, leading to a complete breakdown of any decision process - and even the inability to recognize that a decision is in fact to be made! This doesn't just explain massive debt. It explains everything from the Iraq war to creationism to the resistance of the lower income brackets to progressive taxation scales.

Simply put, most people are incapible of acting in their own best interest.

News Media: If Not Dead, It's Nearly So

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502488.html

FEMA created a fake news conference on the fires in southern California to avoid being asked any difficult questions. No actual reporter took part, but the staged "briefing" was distributed as actual news.

The Republican right loves top do this sort of thing, and they are surfacing with increasing frequency. The general public is far too stupid to care - they can't be bothered with something that isn't spoon feed by a mega-church paster or some other non-authority authority figure. It's got to be about fear and/or hate, and it's got to be extremely simple or they'll tune out.

No doubt this works great. There's less and less difference between Fox news, the government and the overtly political groups all the time. The Republican party should probably just go ahead and hire actors for the roles of all the key positions. Maybe they already do. I'm not sure how we'd be able to tell.

And why isn't the "real" media reporting on FEMA's fake briefing? That question is answered above.

"Real" media... Good one. I crack myself up...

Still Crazy, After All These Years

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/25/windows_update_snafu/

Something seems to have gone horribly wrong in an untold number of IT departments on Wednesday after Microsoft installed a resource-hogging search application on machines company-wide, even though administrators had configured systems not to use the program.

"The admins at my place were in a flap this morning because Windows Desktop Search 3.01 had suddenly started installing itself on desktops throughout the company," a Reg reader by the name of Rob informs us. "The trouble is that once installed, the indexer kicks in and slows the
machines down."

Who in their right mind would buy products from Microsoft. News flash people! It's CRAP!! Stop buying it! Fortunately some problems take care of themselves. More and dysfunctional companies that have crippled themselves by being in the MS-camp with both feet year after year are being left in the dust.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Windows 3.1. Anyway, meanwhile...

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2007-10-24-leopard_N.htm

Leopard, Apple's new Mac operating system, hits all the right spots

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119326655774870521-_1guKieddydNBOHhvRYV4F1ZCe4_20081024.html

Leopard: Faster, Easier Than Vista

Personally, I'm not a member of the Church of Apple and I don't own a single while box with rounded corners. But Apple is clearly firing on all cylinders. Hats off to Steve Jobs, nice work!

Bush Jokes About Staying in Power

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/bush-quip-might.html

Reporter: Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there ...

Bush: I've been planning that myself.

Harty, har har. Sure, even an important public figure is entitled to joke, but in this case it really shows that Bush is just not very bright.

New! Yet Another MS-BadIdea!

Oh ya, sure, great... Let Microsoft manage and secure your medical history. Sounds about as good as letting Windows auto-pilot passenger jets. Super! Here's the latest for all you MS True Believers from Redmond's MS-Ruin-Your-Life department.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/04nd-soft.html

"The company.s consumer health offering includes a personal health record, as well as Internet search tailored for health queries, under the name Microsoft HealthVault (www.healthvault.com).

"The personal information, Microsoft said, will be stored in a secure, encrypted database. Its privacy controls, the company said, are set entirely by the individual, including what information goes in and who gets to see it. The HealthVault searches are conducted anonymously, Microsoft said, and will not be linked to any personal information in a HealthVault personal health record."

And to make matter worse, the system will transfer data automatically!

"Microsoft does not expect most individuals to type in much of their own health information into the Web-based record. Instead, the company hopes that individuals will give doctors, clinics and hospitals permission to directly send into their HealthVault record information like medicines prescribed or, say, test results showing blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

"Such data transfers, Mr. Neupert said, would then be automatic, over the Internet, which is why the partnerships are so important."

Wow! This is nearly as bad an idea as MS-Wallet! 'Cause you know, when I think computer security, I think Microsoft! Just think of the fun everyone will have breaking in to this... I say "breaking in" but probably all you'll have to do to browse other people's data is backup over the URL and enter different paths, as has been the case with similar MSFT offerings. I think MS-Bob is in charge of product development.

People Are Stupid

Have I mentioned that? That people are stupid?

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0129688420071001?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"Fully 87 percent of Americans polled said they had anti-virus software, 73 percent said they had a firewall and 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software, according to the survey by security software maker McAfee Inc and the National Cyber Security Alliance.

"But when pollsters asked to remotely scan the respondents' computers, the story turned out to be very different.

"While 94 percent of those polled had anti-virus software, just half had updated it in the past month, the survey showed. Eighty one percent had a firewall protecting private information, but just 64 percent had enabled it. And 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software, but only 55 percent had enabled it."

How's your computer? Checked lately? Running Windows? Better check...

TSA Again

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071018/1a_lede18_dom.art.htm?

"Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.

"At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons . including toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco."

I don't have anything against the TSA. It's just that the publicly visable portion of what they are tasked to do is impractical, and is little more than theater for the fearful put on by the right in American polictics.

Lapped

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21030098/

"Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled an upgraded fuel-cell vehicle that successfully completed a 350-mile test run Friday, proving its ability to run a longer distance than its earlier model.

"The entire trip was completed with the air conditioner on and with no need to stop for refueling," Toyota said."

But in the US we're told that increasing fuel efficiency standards will destroy the automotive industry, cost jobs and ruin the economy. When you can't build a product that people want, you go out of business. That certainly costs jobs. Competitors are spending this time developing technologies for the future, while American companies spend their resources lobbying Congress. The eventual outcome of this is obvious.

Good Enough for Nixon, Good Enough for Bush

http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/nixonview.html

FROST: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST: By definition.

NIXON: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.

FROST: So, that in other words, really you were saying in that answer, really, between the burglary and murder, again, there's no subtle way to say that there was murder of a dissenter in this country because I don't know any evidence to that effect at all. But, the point is: just the dividing line, is that in fact, the dividing line is the president's judgment?

NIXON: Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate. We also have to have in mind, that a president has to get appropriations from the Congress. We have to have in mind, for example, that as far as the CIA's covert operations are concerned, as far as the FBI's covert operations are concerned, through the years, they have been disclosed on a very, very limited basis to trusted members of Congress. I don't know whether it can be done today or not.

v7.1

http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/10/ubuntu_gutsy

"On Thursday, Canonical, the London-based company which acts as Ubuntu's commercial sponsor, released version 7.10 of the software. This latest release, dubbed "Gutsy Gibbon," proves that Ubuntu Linux can compete with and, in some cases, trump Windows as an everyday desktop system when it comes to pure usability."

Download the fix for all your Windows problems here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

MS-Me2

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/27/microsoft_unveils_major_update_to_live_search/

"With this update, the company now claims that - on the whole - its core search engine is better than Yahoo!'s and on par with Google's.

""In 2005, when we started, we were way behind," said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president for Microsoft's search and advertising platform group. "But after this release, we feel that our slope of innovation is so good that we can claim that we're as good as Google."

"Feel free to chuckle."

Indeed. Microsoft has become nearly irrelevant, and they continue to pour resources into rolling out things that have already been done. Every time we turn around it seems, Microsoft is announcing its version of something that has already been created and, frequently, already peaked. Nice "innovation" Microsoft... They always blow it too. They are so tied to the idea of platform lock-in that they are consistently unable to create a meaningful product.

And it's a 20 year old platform at that - the dedicated desktop PC and all-compiled-in O/S that locks in everything including the kitchen sink. The design is a recipe for exactly what's happened - viruses and crashing software.

When will Microsoft stop holding back technologically progress? No time time soon apparently.

Google (symbol GOOG) shares are approaching 700. It's quarterly earnings are reported today and are expected to be outstanding.

WWIII

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/washington/17cnd-prexy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

"President Bush warned today that Iran would be raising the risk of a 'World War III' if it came to possess nuclear weapons."

...

"If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it.d be a dangerous threat to world peace," Mr. Bush said. .So I told people that if you.re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

It really is time that something be done. Something has to give. A madman is running the United States.

Consider:

* Russia and China are extremely unhappy with what Bush is up to.
* N. Korean nuclear matters are NOT settled, not matter what it looks like this week.
* America's questionable nuclear agreement with India has broken down.
* Pakistan is on the brink of a serious political crisis, and maybe a civil war.
* Turkey is about to invade Iraq.
* A sitting US President with a track record of intense secrecy and complete disregard for Congress (and the law) is talking about world war.

Have a nice day.

Markets and Public Good

http://uk.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUKNOA63183020071016

"Societies should not rely on market forces to protect the environment or provide quality health care for all citizens, a winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for economics said on Monday.

...

"The market doesn't work very well when it comes to public goods," said Maskin, a slight, soft-spoken 57-year-old who lives in a house once occupied by Albert Einstein."

Market forces (ideally) seek local maxima of return vs costs. Returns and costs, in theory, can be quantified as units of, well, nearly anything from money to effort, to comfort to pain.

Unfortunately, there are many examples where market forces can not lead to the best outcome for the greatest number since the best outcome for the greatest number would require a scenario or action that the market would never take for reasons of its own definition.

Some of these things are obvious. For example, a national armed force, to be affective, must be a public resource operated by a government. Market forces alone have a very checkered record when it comes to creating agents of private violence. Market forces would never create a national army capable of activities that benefit the nation as a whole.

Another consideration is that governments do something well that market forces do not, and in fact that market players actually have an incentive not to do - standardize. Witness VHS vs Beta and Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD... Compare this this systems that have been developed in an environment where the playing field has been defined by a player not directly involved in the market setting a standard; the phone system, railroads, interstate highways, and the internet.

The USPS delivers mail throughout the US (and overseas military bases) for a set of flat rates. No privatized delivery service would ever do this. As a nation, as a group, we place a value on having one price to deliver a letter anyplace in the US in a more or less consistent time frame. Yet, those are exactly the variables that a market-based service would adjust in defining a business plan. Clearly the point of market efficiency (best service for the most people for the lowest price) would fall on a curve of price, speed, geographic location and other factors. That curve assures a variable experience and/or price among possible individual customers.
Not value of a uniform price and service, which is a collective value, has no value in such a cost-benefit analysis.

To adjust for this, an outside force must adjust the playing field to create a value in a configuration that would normally not be part of the equation, such as a requirement of uniform price, or a standardized address system. Then market forces work much better for everyone.

And besides, one of those guys lives in Albert Einstein's old house.

The Futures

http://finance.yahoo.com/charts#chart2:symbol=^tnx;range=1y;compare=^gspc;charttype=line;crosshair=on;logscale=on;source=undefined

Is cash that good?

I guess if you're terrified... Take oil for example, which is a physical thing. It's price should be a factor of supply and demand. Our problem is that futures have overshadowed supply and demand as the lead factor in the price. The rising price has nothing to do with the markets of actual oil. It's all futures! I seems to me that all our markets have become meta-tized one level out, at least one. Even markets that where already based on speculation, like currency markets, are now driven by speculation about future speculation. Everything you buy is really a future now.

Smoke

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,506730,00.html

"Health education campaigns costing millions of euros have nonetheless led to a decline in heart attacks over the last few years, at an annual rate of about 3 percent. But now it seems a miracle has happened: The number of heart attacks in Scotland has suddenly dropped by no less than 17 percent in a single year.

"What has happened? Have the Scots stopped eating red meat? Has the whole country started knocking back cholesterol medication? Are they all training for the marathon?

"No. The reason is much simpler: Scots are having fewer heart attacks because they are no longer inhaling other people's cigarette smoke when they sit in the pub, the train or the office."

Texas is Full of Idiots

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5210459.html

"The law mandates that schools turn public events, such as morning announcements and football games, into so-called .limited public forums.. Student speakers are then permitted to use those events to promote their own religious beliefs or even attempt to convert their fellow students."

...

"The principle at stake is not hard to understand. One member of Houston's legislative delegation has already demonstrated it.

"During the last legislative session, Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston walked off the Senate floor when a Muslim imam opened the day with a prayer. A Christian, Patrick claimed his presence would have implied an endorsement of religious beliefs he does not share."

Credit Squeeze

"The recent collapse of Ginko Financial, a "virtual investment bank" in Second Life, has spurred calls for more oversight, transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to business practices in the metaverse.

"Last week, Ginko Financial -- an unregulated bank that promised investors astronomical returns (in excess of 40 percent) and was run by a faceless owner whose identity is still a mystery -- announced it would no longer exist as a financial entity.

"The declared insolvency meant the bank would be unable to repay approximately 200,000,000 Lindens (U.S. $750,000) to Second Life residents who had invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence."

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2007/08/virtual_bank

Obviously we need to be desperately worried about spillover of this lending crisis into the broader economy. The NYSE will nose dive on this news. Sell! Sell! Sell! We need a government bail out to make everyone whole and avoid a global credit squeeze. The Fed need an immediate, emergency rate cut to shore up the nervous markets. What are the positions of the presidential candidates on this institutional default? Where's the White House? WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!?

Literally

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/24/literal_truth/

A teacher at a US community college in Red Oak, Iowa says he was fired after telling his students not to interpret the story of Adam and Eve as a literal account of events circa BC 4000.

...

According to the Des Moines Register, Bitterman said: "I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job."

Don't forget the unicorns.

MS-Lawsuit, Unfood, Jenna Bush and Privitization

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071011205044141

If you can't compete, and you can't inovate, and customers don't want your product - sue!

"So in July one Microsoft executive arrives; then as of October 1, there is the second, a patent guy. October 9, IP Innovation, a subsidiary, sues Red Hat. And Novell. So much for being Microsoft's little buddy.

"I think SCO II has arrived. Except it won't be just one. It will be one after another, just like Ballmer predicted. Until Linux gives up the ghost. In their dreams. Here's how to fix it: fix the patent regime, as Ballmer calls it. Otherwise, it will destroy all innovation and you'll be stuck in Vista. Eek. Plus at this rate, I'll never get a vacation."

***

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=2439

"This cheese is a delicacy in Sardinia, where it is illegal. That's right. It is illegal in the only place where people actually want to eat it. If this does not communicate a very clear message, perhaps the larvae will, as they leap desperately toward your face in an effort to escape the putrescent horror of the only home they have ever known. Even the cheese itself is ashamed; when prodded, it weeps an odorous liquid called lagrima, Sardinian for "tears.""

We all try to by open minded, especially when it comes to cultural issues, but it seems that the may be things that simply should never be eaten by humans.

***

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/11/jenna-bush-its-not-eve_n_68043.html

Q: If the war in Iraq is so noble, why aren't you and your sister serving our country there?

Jenna Bush: I understand that point, but there are many ways to serve our country, and I think my skills are better suited for teaching and representing the U.S. in Latin America through unicef. I respect the men and women of our country who are over there fighting. It is an unbelievably selfless thing to do. But if people really thought about it, they would know it's not even a practical question.

***

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek/

"The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV."

In pre-Bush times America used soldiers to fight wars. Now it's all farmed out, off the books and off the record. This story isn't from any sort of remotely radical information source. It's from MSNBC. Why aren't people outraged? Well, for one they're too stupid.

Best Viewed With

http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2007/08/08/the-veterans-charge/

“This page best viewed in…”

If that phrase doesn’t provoke a shudder of horror and loathing, it should. It’s the battle cry of the Browser Wars, those terrible and ultimately futile years at the end of the last milennium. It’s the rallying cry of those who would take the open ubiquity of the web and fragment it into a collection of gated communities, where entrance to each is predicated on running a specific browser.

of the "web programmers" and the inability of their For a decade now it's been the trend that every business needs to have a website. At first it was really just the biggest companies. These days it's small businesses and single proprietorships (yes, many businesses are today creating their first websites). When business websites first appeared in the '90s, many of them were browser specific. There was no technical reason for this other than the incompetence of "web programmers" and the inability of their management to evaluate their work.

Amazingly, it's still going on today among new business websites and those of small business in particular. People, please, listen, there is no reason at all that a website can not look nice and function well with all major browsers. Just stay within the widely recognized and very solid and robust standards and you'll be fine.

Managers and business owners, please ask yourself the following questions when your "web programmer" tells you a particular browser is needed. 1) What business are you in? 2) Is the type of computer, browser or operating system someone uses a reason that you'd turn away a customer? Then tell your "web programmer" to get back to work and fix it. Or get someone how can.

PS. I put "web programmer" in quotes because when talking of building websites, there's no such thing.

PPS. Microsoft produces web products, like SharePoint, that need IE. They do not adhere to HTML and related standards. Those products are broken. But it's easy to understand why they do that - they are in the web browser business. Are you?

This Just In - Internet Not Dangerous!

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2007/08/07/schoolboards-net-dangers-over-rated-bring-social-networks-to-school/

But where will we be without the fear? Especially with an election year coming up! Luckily, there's always Marilyn Manson to blame... Whew that was dangerously close to individuals having to accept social responsibilities. Thanks Marilyn Manson!

The State of DRM

Here's something refreshing. It's a nice breakdown of various DRM schemes created over the years and how they worked out in the marketplace (hint: they haven't, not ever. File under "DUH"). Will the media industry ever adapt? Not so far.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/08/drm_scorecard_h.html

And here's a real explanation of DRM.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/02/how_to_explain_.html

MS-Threats

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071008205138925

"Users of the Red Hat Linux distribution will have to pay Microsoft for its intellectual property, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has cautioned.

"People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us," Ballmer said at a company event discussing online services in the UK last week."

Appearently, now that Vista is a joke, Microsoft has completely given up all hope of creating a product that works and that people want to use, and is going into the lawsuit business. No, strike that. They are only threatening to go into the lawsuit business. Microsoft has not put forward even one single claim of infringement and in fact has refused to do so on several occations now.

If Microsoft wants to monitize alienating the market, maybe they should form a partnership with the RIAA - those people are experts!

Meanwhile, from the "Doing it Right" file, we have Google - a company that looks at the marketplace, sees what potential customers are struggling with, phone lock-down in this case, and works up a business model built on a need, and, they hope, a product or service people will want to use! What a novel concept!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/business/media/08googlephone.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

"At the core of Google’s phone efforts is an operating system for mobile phones that will be based on open-source Linux software, according to industry executives familiar with the project.

"In addition, Google is expected to develop mobile versions of its applications that go well beyond the mobile search and map software it offers today. Those applications may include a Web browser to run on cellphones.

"While Google has built phone prototypes to test its software and show off its technology to manufacturers, the company is not likely to make the phones itself, according to analysts.

"In short, Google is not creating a gadget to rival the iPhone, but rather creating software that will be an alternative to Windows Mobile from Microsoft and other operating systems, which are built into phones sold by many manufacturers. And unlike Microsoft, Google is not expected to charge phone makers a licensing fee for the software."

TSA

http://www.natch.net/stuff/TSA/

Airport security is not about securing airports. Maybe they do that too, but that is not something done in public. No, airport security is not about securing airports, it's about the public appearance of securing airports.

Air travel has become impractical in the US. 'Nough said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3422372&page=1

"Americans, by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, support the increased use of surveillance cameras"

When the US Constitution was written, the authors knew all too well the forces they had to guard against. The self-evident freedoms of the people of the great experimental nation of America had to be protected from forces at every turn that would seek to restrict liberty and justice. In an era when some felt George Washington should be made a king, they knew this all too well, Americans had to be protected from giving up their liberty voluntarily, even eagerly.

The people's natural tendency is toward totalitarianism. Citizens would like nothing more that to live in a police state. They will fall all over themselves to give up any concept of justice and civil rights. The law, the courts', and the Constitution's challenge is the hold people back from bringing ruin to their society and ripping down everything the American Bill of Rights stands for.

People are stupid.

Hello Kitty Tires?

http://us.imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-09-21/#5

"Thrifty Sarah Michelle Gellar has quietly become the queen of the green celebrities by recycling shopping bags and cycling to work. But the former Buffy The Vampire Slayer star admits it has more to do with saving cash that being environmentally conscious. She tells Self magazine, "I take my reusable bag to Whole Foods so I get a discount. I go to Bloomingdale's on double rewards day. And I always print my dry cleaning coupons before I go. My dry cleaner laughs. He's like, 'You don't have to keep printing them out!'" But it's her bright pink bicycle which earns her frowns from friends and neighbors now she lives in New York. She adds, "Not only is it bright pink with the bell and streamers and the whole thing, but it has Hello Kitty tires. Every time I leave my apartment, my doorman just shakes his head."

You Don't Say

http://www.examiner.com/blogs/Yeas_and_Nays/2007/9/17/Cheney-writes-no-memos

Speaking on Friday at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich., Cheney said that because he served as President Ford.s chief of staff, "researchers like to come and dig through my files, to see if anything interesting turns up."

"I want to wish them luck," he quipped, eliciting laughter from the crowd, "but the files are pretty thin. I learned early on that if you don't want your memos to get you in trouble some day, just don't write any."

The Weakest Link

Every system has weak points, points of possible failure. A primary principle of engineering is analysis of failure points in order to avoid a catastrophic failure of any given system. But here's something more engineers should consider. The single biggest security threat faced by corporate networks is now internal employees, and mostly by way of their incompetence. People are stupid. They can not do their jobs. They can not operate the machinery of modern civilization.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070916-report-insiders-cause-more-computer-security-problems-than-viruses.html

"Financial fraud and viruses caused most of the monetary losses, but both have fallen in frequency over the last few years. Only 12 percent of all respondents reported financial fraud at their institutions. Viruses, which used to plague 90 percent of all companies in 2001, now affect only 52 percent.

"It's internal users who are now causing the greatest number of problems, though they may also cause minimal damage. Hiding porn on an office PC, using unlicensed software, and abusing e-mail all count as security incidents, though all pale in comparison to one successful phishing trip. These sorts of internal incidents can be pesky, though, and 59 percent of all respondents had to deal with them in the last year."

More MS-Me2

Wow! Yesterday MSFT introduces a half-assed web add-on for Office, that doesn't really do anything much, if you actually look into it (Microsoft simply can not stop limiting computer users). And today this:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2570485.ece

More classic behavior! Microsoft thinks they can do online ads now... They look around and see something that already been done, already successful, already dominated, and they think that their offering self-crippled-ware, that doesn't do half as much, is going to fly!

I can't wait 'til MSFT is gone and out of the world's way. It won't be long now...

From the company that made the email virus possible, brought us C# (just as good as Java but without the main reason Java is useful! C# only runs on Windows!), the worst search engine on the Internet, a browser that doesn't support standard HTML (MS-HTML works fine), and so many other "innovations", what should we expect? WHAT IDIOTS!

The Odds

Your one-year odds of dying in a car accident is about one out of 6500, that's one in 83 over a 73 year lifetime.

You odds of dieing in an airplane crash are one in 400,000, one year, and one in 5,000 over a lifetime.

Your odds of dieing while walking across the street? A one-year risk of one in 48,500 and a lifetime risk of one in 625. Wow!

What about a terrorist attack?

"Even if terrorists were able to pull off one attack per year on the scale of the 9/11 atrocity, that would mean your one-year risk would be one in 100,000 and your lifetime risk would be about one in 1300. (300,000,000 3,000 = 100,000 78 years = 1282) In other words, your risk of dying in a plausible terrorist attack is much lower than your risk of dying in a car accident, by walking across the street, by drowning, in a fire, by falling, or by being murdered."

http://www.reason.com/news/show/36765.html

Iacocca on G. W. Bush

"I campaigned for him because I knew his mother and dad for 30 years, and I figured he was from pretty good stock," the auto-industry legend tells Details magazine. "But Jeb was being groomed, too. They got the wrong kid. There's something wrong philosophically with how Bush's brain works. I feel sorry for him. I used to think [Al] Gore was nuts in his worrying about global warming, but he was ahead of his time."

-- Lee Iacocca

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/178628.php/There-is-something-wrong-philosophically-with-how-Bushs-brain-works:-Iacocca

Fools

The Mootley Fool has it exactly right:

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/09/24/riaas-day-in-court-nearly-over.aspx

"...John Doe filings against nameless IP addresses is wrong on so many levels that I can't list them all in this brief space. Let me just name a few of the most important flaws:

* It's a great way to alienate music fans, with very little payoff. The lawsuits have so far failed to stem the illegal downloading tide, and the costs must rival the settlement payoff by now.

* Even if the Internet service provider keeps very detailed access logs, it's nearly impossible to prove that a certain IP address was used by a particular person at any given time.

* Copyright is meant to encourage the creative process, not to fatten corporate coffers or limit the available means of distribution. Again, we haven't seen any payouts to the actual artists and composers here, only to legal teams and company bankrolls."

Followed up by this:

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/09/27/quick-take-riaa-changes-gears-just-before-hitting-.aspx

"It's real. It's happening. There's no way the RIAA could afford to start many more lawsuits when the chances of winning dwindle to nothing. Good riddance."

All this is coming from a business news and investing web site. Mootley Fool doesn't have a dog in this fight, other than reporting what's happening from a technology and business perspective. Capitalism is destructive. The new displaces the old and capital will flow accordingly.

In not so many years, young people are going to look back in wonder and ask us old timers why the media business worked so hard for so long and spend so much money to kill music, and what (by then) will be the music business.