Posts filed under ‘News and Politics’
Way back in 1995
A guy named Michael Kovatch registered a domain name, hoping to build a business around it. Not much different than about a million other people. The thing is, the domain name he registered was iPhone.com.
Apple just bought it from him for seven figure sum.
A win-win situation for everyone.
ALL DVD copying to be illegal.
Not just the rent a movie, rip it to your computer, and make copies for all your friends kind.
A proposed amendment to the current copy protection license governing DVDs would completely ban all DVD backups, and prevent DVD playback without the DVD disk being present inside the drive.
They (Chris Cookson of Warner Bros., Ben Carr of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Lawrence of Intel, Gabe Beged-Dov of Hewlett-Packard, David Harshman of Toshiba, and Andy Parsons of Pioneer Electronics) apparently don’t want you to be able to rip a DVD so you can play it on your PC or HD TV using Media Center.
Hotter weather = less gasoline
Here’s a link to a Houston Chronicle article explaining how heat makes gasoline expand. Since gas is priced at a 60-degree standard and gas pumps don’t compensate, you’re losing money at the pump – from 3 to 9 cents/gal.
I couldn’t think of a better title so I’ll use theirs.
AT&T Decides To Start Throwing Money Away By Attempting To Filter Copyrighted Content
They’re trying to legalize spyware.
Well, sort of. Spyware is already illegal. One of the effects of this bill will be to protect companies that put spyware on your PC (think Sony Rootkit DRM scandal.)
If you want to send an email to your congress(alleged)person, here’s a link to the Electronic Freedom Foundation’s (EFF) piece on the bill with just such a thing.
Bikers Attack Family in Minivan
No, not those bikers. I’m talking about those lycra-swaddled thighs-like-tree-trunks bicycle riding bikers.
I bet the Ferrando family wishes they’d never heard of Critical Mass. Unfortunately, now lots of people will know about this particular Critical Mass ride and how an estimated 3,000 bikers terrorized a family in a minivan.
Link to whole sad story here.
For shame, all of you.
Don’t you just love it when space junk burns up?
Link to the video and link to the story from FOXNews in Denver.
Opting-out
Ever since I ‘kind of’ retired I get one of those prescreened/prequalified credit card offers just about every day. I figured there had to be some sort of Do Not Call list type of thing for unsolicited credit cards, and there is.
Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion – the four major credit reporting agencies – have created OptOutPrescreen.com which lets you opt-out of getting these offers for five years, right from the web site. If you want to opt-out forever, you can do it by mail.
The site and its service are free, as required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Dems To Change Sarbanes-Oxley?
Anyone that has ever participated in (or, God forbid, administered) a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audit of IT will probably find Alan Greenspan’s words encouraging.
Speaking last week at the AMR Research’s Executive Leadership Conference in Boston, Greenspan predicted that Sarbanes-Oxley Act would get an overhaul from the new Democrat-controlled House and Senate regarding financial reporting related to IT, leaving in place the accountability required by CFOs and CEOs.
Sarbanes-Oxley was passed by Congress in reaction to the corporate financial scandals like the collapse of Enron.
File This Under Satire
Now let’s not all get our panties in a bunch here. We can still laugh at ourselves, right?
If so, here is a link to a (completely tongue-in-cheek) Democratic Manifesto.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses.
- Math classes replaced by encounter groups
- All taxes to be tripled
- Freeways to be removed, replaced with light rail systems
NOTE: The above linked-to document has absolutely nothing to do with the recently victorious Democratic party’s actual plans for world domination the NRA getting along with the other party after the elections.
Peace out…
notastute 