POLITICAL: Copyrights for out-of-print books? No!

Friday, March 19, 2010

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23683

Volume 57, Number 4 · March 11, 2010
Publishing: The Revolutionary Future
By Jason Epstein

*** begin quote ***

To offset the decline of backlist I launched in the mid-Eighties the Reader’s Catalog, an independent bookstore in catalog form from which readers could order 40,000 backlist titles by telephone. The Internet existed but had not yet been commercialized. The Reader’s Catalog was an instant success, confirming my belief in a strong worldwide market for backlist titles. But I had underestimated the cost of handling individual orders and concluded, with my backers, that if we continued our losses would become intolerable. The Internet was now available commercially. Amazon bravely took advantage of it and in the beginning suffered the losses that I feared. But by this time I had begun to hear of digitization and its buzzword, disintermediation, which meant that publishers could now look forward to marketing a practically limitless backlist without physical inventory, shipping expense, or unsold copies returned for credit. Customers would pay in advance for their purchases. This meant that even Amazon’s automated shipping facilities would eventually be bypassed by electronic inventory. This was twenty-five years ago. Today digitization is replacing physical publishing much as I had imagined it would.

*** end quote ***

As a society, we extend “copy right” protection to authors to ensure that ideas are available to benefit every one. When a book is “out of print”, then why do we give it “copy right protection” when we are denied access to the ideas. With the Internet and publish-on-demand, there is NO reason for a book to be “out of print”.

Time to reassess copyright laws.

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RECOMMENDED: “The Invention of Lying”; just to true

Thursday, March 18, 2010

201003130929.jpg

The first lie ever told: “$800”!

Theology on two pizza boxes?

Stephanie March demanding sex. (Every boy’s dream?) “When he tests his discovery of lying by telling a woman that the world will end unless she has sex with him at that very moment but backs out at the last minute by claiming to have a phone call from NASA telling him the world is not going to end now.” ROFL!

“Let me know if you’ve lowered your standards.” (Too hot for me?)

“Man In The Sky forbid!”

Unfortunately, it’s a law of Nature that “hot” girls look down on fat old white guys with or without a “snub nose”. Sigh!

Hey, for a $1 from redbox and two hours of my life, recommended.

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TECHNOLOGY: Technology malpractice; Abbott Diabetes Care dictates how you interact!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

EMAIL RECEIVED AS A RESULT OF TEDIOUSLY ASKING A QUESTION ON THEIR WEB SITE

*** begin quote ***

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Abbott Diabetes Care, maker of FreeStyle and Precision products. We are pleased to provide you with a team of dedicated Specialists to help you understand your options in obtaining the FreeStyle and Precision products. Our Specialists are available to assist you toll free at 1-866-246-2683, Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 9 PM (CST).

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Abbott Diabetes Care

Join the FreeStyle Promise® Program Today and BE Supported! (https://www.freestylepromise.com)

This communication may contain information that is proprietary, confidential, or exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, please note that any other dissemination, distribution, use or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. Anyone who receives this message in error should notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete it from his or her computer.

*** end quote ***

No, I don’t want to call and talk to one of your “dedicated Specialists” (In a third world country?)

I just want you to answer my damn question.

If I wanted to endure the “fingernails on the blackboard” physical pain of calling your call center, I would have called in the first place.

My last THREE phone calls with product problems were really great experiences. Why would I want to repeat that experience? That’s why I sent you an email.

Argh!

If “marketing is a conversation”, Abbott Diabetes Care sure isn’t listening.

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RECOMMENDED: “Love Happens” An Aniston chick flick

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

201003130849.jpg

Hmmm!

Sweet and the bird steals the show.

Seriously, was it debunking self-help gurus (i.e.: the guru’s realization that he practices none of the principles he teaches)? Tony Robbins came to mind.

Hey for a dollar from redbox. How bad could it be?

I found it funny.

And, took a good message away. “A-OK”?

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WRITING: Words of Whizdumb (An Index Card Novel)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Words of Whizdumb (An Index Card Novel)

The fat old white guy injineer was a real tin foil hat to the end of his days.

He’d become one in high school, after reading about the “Winds Code”. It had been introduced in the Congressional Investigation of 1945. Even to a rank novice, a mere babe, he’d blown right through that deception. After that, he was a nonbeliever. He later absorbed Stinnett’s work.

Along the way, President Kennedy was assassinated. It wasn’t until much later that he dabbled in guns. It was then he learned first hand about how unreliable a Carcano was.

After that, he was a Truther, a Birther, or whatever -er was ever offered for consideration. He believed nothing. Except maybe the fact that no one ever spoke the “truth”. And certainly, no politician or bureaucrat.

+++

He wasn’t looking for his own conspiracy theory. He was just the below-average fat old white guy drifting through life. And, as an engineering student, he muddled through all the courses — math, physics, chemistry, strength of materials — to name a few. He drifted through the military with a stop at both NASA and NSA. He had a few jobs on Wall Street. He few jobs around NYC and the suburbs.

Along the way he collected souvenirs. And, he even wrote an obscure novel that he self-published. All his friends rolled their eyes at “a future alternative history”.

+++

The fat old white guy injineer was in a frenzy. It had struck him like Saint Paul on the road from Tarsus. A few chemical tests of his brick from 9/11. An photo identification analysis of a picture he’d taken in Princeton. Water analysis of some stored bottles on the porch of his Mom’s downtown apartment. Several late lights surfing the net.

+++

He put it all on a web page. He’d emailed it to every email address he had.

Then he sat back to wait.

+++

“Is it done?”

“Yes!”

“Clean?”

“Neat and clean!!”

“And, the material?”

“All the primary evidence!!!”

“Secondary?”

“No, sir.”

“No? Explain!”

Now sweating, “Sir, it was the encrypted page that alerted us. Ever since the Patriot Act 1, we have been scanning the net with our allies in the various ISPs. The code was unbreakable. That’s what brought it to our attention.” Now really sweating. “It was obviously a book code. And, it didn’t match any of the Library of Congress books. That was the key that put the investigation in overdrive.”

Grimacing, the sweaty man knew this wasn’t going to be taken well. “The ISP gave us the identity. It didn’t take long to track him down. He didn’t use any attempt to hide like the Onion Router. Or post from a hacked account. It was really quite easy to find him. Amazon’s sample look gave us enough text from his pathetic story to decrypt enough. That’s the story. The ISPs recalled many of the messages. We nuked the web page. Google cleaned its caches. Lulu and Amazon nuked the book for sale. So while secondary evidence is not totally clean, it’s clean enough.”

“OK!”

+++

The mail that day delivered a printed copy of the webpage to several people.

The thin old Luddite friend of the fat old white guy injineer looked at the page of gobbledygook. Sad about the untimely demise. It was another crypto challenge from his old friend. the last one. He was enough of a crypto nerd to know it was a book code and he knew what book his old friend had used. Now if he could just find it.

The mail was also delivered in Iowa; two letters addressed to each of the two twin children — just babies — who were heroes and heroines in the fat old white guy injineer’s book. The babies’ dad put each letter with each twin’s autographed and dedicated book in their memory chests. Like a hope chest for when they grow up.

+++

The nation’s sheeple slumbered. Never knowing that another disturbing -er had been avoided. Suppressed.

Or had it?

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POLITICAL: If this isn’t intergenerational theft, what is?

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100305/ap_on_go_co/us_budget_deficits_3

Congressional estimates show grim deficit picture
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 5, 6:17 pm ET

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON – A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.

*** end quote ***

Time for a serious acknowledgment. This generation was “robbed” by the last in the Social Security Ponzi scheme, as well as the continual addition to the debt. So to are we “robbing” future generations by piling on the debt and unfunded liabilities.

So what is the answer?

Well, clearly each year, the demographics change as to the intergenerational population. So there’s MUST be year to year deficit neutral budgets. Since there has to be a true up in the next financial year. So any deficit must be corrected in the following year. Since we can NOT eliminate the debt build up over 70 years in a few years, we need to have a 70 year deficit reduction plan. CLEARLY, we can’t have unfunded liabilities or off-budget expenditures.

So, it’s a giant mess.

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POLITICAL: Bears and bureaucrats

Monday, March 15, 2010

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100313/COMMUNITIES/303130002/Animal-groups-Could-ruling-lead-to-hunters-shooting-cats

Animal groups: Could ruling lead to hunters shooting cats?
BY COLLEEN O’DEA • STAFF WRITER • March 13, 2010

*** begin quote ***

The cat: Common, popular house pet or exotic, dangerous animal?

A number of animal activists have contacted state officials in an effort to head off a potential reclassification of feral cats, which could end the growing number of programs that trap, neuter and return them back into neighborhoods or the wild, and allow them to be hunted.

The state Fish and Game Council has condemned the idea of leaving cats in the wild and now another committee that reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection is studying the issue of TNR programs.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

What’s wrong with “hunting”? Is it more humane to let these past pets starve?

The NJ bureaucrat diddled with the bear population until, after a few “near misses” and one dead dog, they were forced to reinstate the “bear hunting season”. (My prediction is that is the last one will hear about NJ bears unless they are near extinction.)

How long before they are forced to do the same with feral cats?

An increase in diseases coming to humans a la the dear tick and lyme disease? An increase in children being threatened?

Maybe the remain bears will feast on the out-of-control cats?

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TECHNOLOGY: Amazing cars you probably didn’t know about

Monday, March 15, 2010

http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/car-tech/10-high-tech-cars-to-tear-up-the-tarmac-675005

Car tech News
10 high tech cars to tear up the tarmac
Our pick of the world’s most advanced street autos
By John Brandon
Friday at 15:20 GMT

*** begin quote ***

Car technology is advancing quickly – partly to save the auto industry from imminent collapse, but also because tech innovations can help save lives on the road.

*** end quote ***

Not sure if I need it to tell me that there are people in front of me. Maybe in a decade or two.

I probably could use it to remember the last speed sign we passed. Or remind where I see the radar traps.

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TECHNOLOGY: Insane, but good, taxonomy of entreprenuers

Sunday, March 14, 2010

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/06/replicators-innovators-and-bill-gates/

Replicators, Innovators, and Bill Gates
by Vivek Wadhwa
on Mar 6, 2010

*** begin quote ***

After agonizing over this for weeks, I went to my friends at the Kauffman Foundation, and they referred me to their book titled “Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism”. Carl Schramm and Bob Litan wrote that all who take the risk are entrepreneurs, but that there are two types of entrepreneurs: “Replicative entrepreneurs”, who constitute the vast majority of small businesses (such as restaurants and dry cleaners), and “innovative entrepreneurs” — the rare few who bring new products/services to market or who pioneer new production methods (such as Walmart, eBay, and Dell).

*** end quote ***

(Has Vivek gotten smarter since when I worked with him? Or, am I slipping?)

Interesting distinction.

My take on it is that the USA needs more of both kinds.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Health “something” takeover; just say “no”!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

FROM FACEBOOK

FJohn Reinke

>American Thinker Blog: A glimpse into our Kafkaesque future under Obamacare

“For a taste of the Kafkaesque under ObamaCare, consider the 159 new boards, panels and programs in the 2,733 page Senate Health bill, as compiled by Senate Republicans. These panels would be the face of ObamaCare for every aspect of every medical need of every American.”

WOW! And, this is better than the evil insurance companies?

# – # – #

FROM COMMENTATOR #1

Yes, infinitely better, because insurance company executives will not be getting rich on the backs of middle-class Americans while actively depriving working-class and poor Americans of access to health care for their families.

# – # – #

FJohn Reinke

Yeah, we’ll just have another slew of bureaucrats getting rich off of us. And, if you thought the insurance execs were highly paid, then wait until you see a bunch of gooferment executives and how much they get paid!

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FROM COMMENTATOR #2

In other words, America should remain in the position that it ranks 37th among the world in providing health care and have a mortality rate higher than some 3rd world countries.

# – # – #

FJohn Reinke

AND, (with all due respect to a fellow Jasper), you think that turning over “health”, “health care”, or “health care insurance” — depending upon whatever the Socialists in DC are using to sway us today — is the way to improve that? It’s worked out REAL well for the American Indians who suffer with the “Indian Healthcare System”. It’s gooferment at it’s best where they are reported to say “Don’t get sick after June!”!!!!

Sorry, but as BAD as the current system is perceived to be, what they are going to do to us is WORSE.

And, my best argument: when you get screwed, who will you complain to? A gooferment court! Yeah right. AND, if you decide it’s a mistake, how are you going to unwind it? Answer: You can’t! It’s a one way street. Like another example of inter-generational theft, Social Security…. See More

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing As a Free Lunch.

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Upon reflection:

(1) It is interesting how the Socialists “shift terminology”. Are we talking about “health”, “health care”, or “health care insurance”? These are all very different things. And that leads right into the next point.

(2) The Socialists mix stuff together. DOWNSIZEDC has a “One Subject At A Time” effort. Are we trying to reach the “uninsured”? Are we trying to lower the cost of “insurance”? Are we trying to address the “portability” of insurance without regard to employment (a vestige of WW2 wage and price controls)? What are WE trying to accomplish?

(3) “Pre-existing conditions” can NOT be covered. Covering them makes it into welfare or pre-paid medical care; not insurance.

(4) The gooferment, particularly in the FDA and in Medicare, is totally immersed in the minutia of “Health Care”. To the point of “regulatory capture”. Big Pharma, Big Insurance, and Big Medicine have a strangle hold on the regulatory mechanism. They have an incestuous relationship with congress critters via campaign contributions and regulators by employment opportunities.

(5) Government should be the “referee”. If you’re screwed by an insurance company, you can appeal to the “king” via the courts and regulators. With Obama-care, if you’re screwed, to whom will you appeal?

(6) Strategically, Obama-care plan is a one way street. Once we create an entitlement, and the sheeple plan around it and come to depend upon it, it’s immoral to jerk the rug out from under them.

(7) Tactically, Obama-care plan is a one way street. If this wildly unpopular bill becomes law, and even if the Congress turns over to the R’s, Obama will still be President for two more years. He’ll veto any repeal. So, the taxes will go into effect. Who knows who will be President in 2012? Hillary, Pallin, Ron Paul?

For these reasons, I am fundamentally opposed to this monstrosity being proposed.

I’m not so much worried for myself. But Frau needs her “health care” and can’t afford any screw ups.

Argh!

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