] If Take-Two is in the process of developing any new
] games, may I suggest a title? How about The Recidivist?
...
] it's interesting to note that Lapin's employment contract
] was recently changed to allow him some generous payments
] if he leaves the company "for any reason." In other
] words, whether a founder of the company recently received
] a Wells notice from the SEC doesn't matter, whether the
] company has massive restatements (again) doesn't matter,
] whether the company flails on its new release doesn't
] matter -- you still get your money.
...
] What does the company do instead? It brings in as
] president Paul Eibeler, who served in the same role
] during the last time Take-Two was monkeying with its
] books. He had left in 2003 to serve as chief operating
] officer for rival Acclaim Entertainment (Nasdaq: AKLM),
] but now he's back.
...
] How about a sequel? Grand Theft Accountant.

No suprise that a videogame company is not a great example of a company. Have there been any good videogame corporations? EA doesn't count, its unclear what they've fucked up yet.

Fool.com: Take-Two and Don't Call Ever [Motley Fool Take] April 14, 2004

] The "billboard in your home" metaphor you used is totally
] inappropriate. There are no flashing colors, no obtrusive
] interruptions. If you'd seen the system, there's no way
] you could have made a statement like that.

A better "billboard in your home" metaphor is advertising on television, and junk mail. The concerns about Gmail are not addressed correctly here on either front.

Powazek: Just a Thought: Dear Senator

] Clear Channel Communications Inc. plans to begin
] installing digital technology in its outdoor advertising
] over the next two to three years to offer billboards
] whose messages can appeal to different audiences
] depending on the time of the day.

Pittsburgh already has several backlit billboards in particularly high-traffic parts of the city (28S, Forbes off 376 in Oakland, etc). It only makes sense that if they can display arbitrary advertising rotations, why not make it more temporal/demographically targetted?

I think eInk has been offering their technology for bilboards for a while, as well.

What they don't talk about, but would be likely even more effective, would be if they also took to displaying /useful/ data, so that frequent motorists became accustomed to consulting it -- say, weather maps, traffic condition maps, sports scores, whatever. Inject the ads among and between it. Do I smell a business method patent?

Clear Channel plans digital billboards - Apr. 12, 2004

] Apple sent a cease and desist letter to the SourceForge
] management. The C&D cited the DMCA. Legally, SourceForge
] had to abide and pull the project. The project is now
] being hosted by Sarovar in India.

The Apple DRM circumvention system outsourced its hosting to get around pesky US lawyers. Clever. Good luck to Apple to get the webpage blocked, Yahoo! Europe style...

p l a y f a i r

] New Hampshire is "two-party consent state" -- one of
] those jurisdictions that requires all parties to a
] conversation to consent before the conversation can be
] intercepted or recorded. The decision is the first of its
] kind to apply that standard to online chats, and the
] ruling is clearly supported by the text of the law. But
] it marks a blow to an investigative technique that has
] been routinely used by law enforcement, employers, ISPs
] and others.

How long before an IM client offers an initial pop-up message, by default, that enables consent to log and retransmit discussions? I know with at least naim and gaim, I have it set to show me the last 20 or more lines of a previous conversation. Yes, I log our conversations. Get over it... don't make me go to jail.

SecurityFocus Printable COLUMNISTS 233

Successful free speech examples of the year are nifty.

The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression

] Today, security tasks such as handling the keys that
] unscramble data are typically processed like any other
] task. As a result, it's possible that an errant program
] can alter, intercept or damage jobs that are supposed to
] be secure.

Intel releases cell phone chip with DRM. The spin is fascinating. While this is bad, it won't be unsurmountable, it can't be. Its the step they have to take if the industry at large thinks DRM is the Way to Go.

Yahoo! News - New Intel Chips Ensure Better Security

] This is a bizarre comparison because x86 is a CPU
] architecture, and Unix is an operating system family:
] they are not the same things! All the Unix flavors run
] perfectly well on x86. Yes: Linux is a Unix flavor. Where
] this relates to Java and Sun is that because such a huge
] fraction of customer applications that run on Sun
] hardware is written in Java, we can treat CPUs (and even
] operating systems) as commodities, in the same way we
] treat disk drives. We can use whatever underlying CPU
] technology (x86/x86-64/Sparc/...) or OS technology
] (Solaris/Linux/...) is most suitable for the situation at
] hand. We aren't constrained by the instruction set or OS
] interface that is baked into our customers' applications.
] This is hugely liberating for hardware design.

Gosling on defending the Microsoft payout, without saying anything
other than "you people have it all wrong, that's not how it is"... and lets slip why Sun no longer has a real business plan. If hardware is a commodity, and their customers software is in Java, does he really believe that Sun will remain powerful because it thinks it "controlls" Java?

NewsForge | Gosling defends Sun's new partnership with Microsoft

]How bizarre. When you first take possession of your Mini you
]have to sign a piece of paper promising not to use the hyperdrive
]in Earth's atmosphere. I bet that Belgian's going to get into
]trouble with the Mini Owner's Association...

Neil Gaiman drives a mini. But not at Mach 3, apparently.

Neil Gaiman

] The Tomahawk is likely to see the light of day, according
] to #2 exec Wolfgang Bernhard, who said we'd know by
] summer 2003. It's a Viper V-10 based motorcycle, a 500
] horsepower engine sitting out in the elements with some
] wheels beneath it. The price would be at least $250,000,
] and there would be only a few hundred made. Frankly, we
] suspect the Tomahawk will be built, due to a huge amount
] of public interest.
]
] The Dodge Tomahawk can reach 60 miles an hour in about
] 2.5 seconds, and has a theoretical top speed of nearly
] 400 mph. Each pair of wheels is separated by a few inches
] and each wheel has an independent suspension. Bernhard
] said four wheels were necessary to handle the power from
] the engine.
]
] The Tomahawk remains on display at auto shows - though
] well out of reach of the general public, elevated on a
] special display.

2003 Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle concept