] U.S. securities regulators put a further onus on
] financial firms to keep records of their business this
] week, this time focusing on the increasingly popular form
] of communication known as instant messaging.
]
] The National Association of Securities Dealers informed
] its roughly 5300 brokerage-firm members Wednesday that
] they must retain their IM records for at least three
] years. Under federal law, every securities firm doing
] business with the U.S. public must be a member of NASD.

PCWorld.com - Companies Told to Store Employee IMs

] Hatch on Tuesday surprised a Senate hearing on copyright
] issues with the suggestion that technology should be
] developed to remotely destroy the computers of people who
] illegally download music from the Net.

] The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript
] menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software
] company based in the United Kingdom. The
] copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on
] Hatch's website.
]
] "It's an unlicensed copy," said Andy Woolley, who runs
] Milonic. "It's very unfortunate for him because of those
] comments he made."

] A spokesman in Hatch's office responded, "That's ironic"
] before declining to put Wired News in contact with the
] site's webmaster. He deferred comment on the senator's
] statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which did
] not return calls.

Wired News: Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?

] ASBURY PARK -- As she watched her niece graduate from
] kindergarten yesterday, Sherri Stanard's pride turned to
] shock and anger when a vice principal told the children
] to stand up to demonstrate that he believed one-third of
] a kindergarten class would not make it through high
] school because of alcohol, drugs or pregnancy.

] "He asked the kids to stand up, and he told us to take a
] good look at these kids because a third of them will not
] graduate from high school or make it to high school
] because they will be too busy drugging, drinking or
] getting pregnant," said Stanard, 42, of Neptune. Stanard
] said she also has a niece in first grade at the Bangs
] Avenue Elementary School, where the vice principal, Paul
] J. Banik Jr., has worked for three decades.

] Howard Mednick, the school's principal for the past two
] years, said that the context of Stanard's account was
] basically correct, but that Banik did tell the audience
] he was not talking about the children standing up.

Hahaha.. Asbury Park, where the truth hurts.

Warning hits sour note at Asbury Park kindergarten graduation

Laughing Boy wrote:
] ] Welcome to the most respected, domesticated penguin
] ] dealer on the Internet! Relax and take a look around our
] ] site where you can find information on our company, our
] ] products, and what goes into the care of a penguin.
] ] Penguin Warehouse, Inc. sells certified purebred
] ] penguins, useful penguin books, and many other items to
] ] make you and your new pet happy.
]
] $700-$3000
]
]
] Sorry to rain on anyones parade if they were saving up $2,200
] for an Emperor penguin, but this is a hoax...
]
] http://www.snopes.com/critters/farce/penguins.htm

Awww, damn.

RE: Penguin Warehouse, Inc. - Buy a Pet Penguin Today

] The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
] said Tuesday he favors developing new
] technology to remotely destroy the computers of people
] who illegally download music from the Internet.

] "I'm interested," Hatch interrupted. He said damaging
] someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach
] somebody about copyrights."

] Kerr predicted it was "extremely unlikely" for Congress
] to approve a hacking exemption for copyright owners,
] partly because of risks of collateral damage when
] innocent users might be wrongly targeted.
]
] "It wouldn't work," Kerr said. "There's no way of
] limiting the damage."

Not too worried about this.. I can't see this happening. Not only for technical reasons, but straight out legal ones. The court system exists to mediate disputes between parties. Aggrieved parties are not allowed to take actions into their own hands, their only option is to take their dispute into the court system. If they do not, they are commiting a crime themselves. Its the basis of our legal system's existance. If congress passes a law allowing our media masters to destroy our computers, it would be admitting failure of the legal system to tackle these problems and set an extrememly dangerous precident. Granted, it is pretty shocking that this has been suggested as an option at all, by someone who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee.

And then there is the whole collateral damage angle. It does not have the signifigance of the above, but it will likely be the reason this idea gets aborted before it grows arms. It would give consumers what they need to bring the dispute back into the legal system, only with the upper hand and the ability to address the above in the courts, which the courts would most defintally agree with.

I'm not a lawyer, so my understanding of how the law works in this situation may be completely flawed.. But I am pretty sure that this is not something to worry about much.

Yahoo! News - Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading

] The other big news - well, for me personally, anyway - is
] that I've decided to take a leave-of-absense after 6
] years at Transmeta to actually work full-time on the
] kernel.
]
] Transmeta has always been very good at letting me
] spend even an inordinate amount of time on Linux, but as
] a result I've been feeling a little guilty at just how
] little "real work" I got done lately. To fix that, I'll
] instead be working at OSDL, finally actually doing Linux
] as my main job.

] Snif. I'm actually all teary-eyed.

Its been predicted for awhile that Linus would move to OSDL.

Linus leaves Transmeta, goes to OSDL to work full-time on kernel

] SCO Group has upped the ante in an amendment to its
] suit against IBM, seeking more than $3 billion in
] damages for alleged copying of proprietary Unix
] intellectual property into Linux.

] SCO seeks at least $1 billion in damages from IBM's
] alleged breach of its contract with SCO; another $1
] billion for breach of the Unix contract signed by
] Sequent, which IBM acquired in 1999; and another $1
] billion for unfair competition. SCO also seeks more for
] misappropriation of trade secrets and punitive damages.

Hey kids! Its time for fun with numbers!

In SCO's last 10-Q, it claimed roughly $35M of earnings for the last six months.. So, lets just say they do $70M a year. That makes this suit the equivlant of aprox 42 years of earnings at SCO's current rate. [Insert Douglas Adams joke here]

SCO suit now seeks $3 billion from IBM | CNET News.com

E2 wrote:
] Right on Rattle, I think this might be a hint at something:
]
] ] ] And creeps gossiping about celebrities in
] ] ] the crudest of ways.
]
] Perhaps ol' billy dosn't like people talking when he can't
] interrupt them/change the subject/commercial break/ etc.

The man is a master of crafting a skewed argument.. Take this snippit for a few examples:

] In truth, The Chronicle's story [is] small stuff compared
] to other Internet sins. The child molestation people have
] now figured out a way to chat about their crimes without
] being charged with obscenity. And the Supreme Court
] actually helped these people by ruling that virtual child
] porn, computerized images of kids being raped, are legal,
] an extension of free speech.

First off, The Chronicle is the newspaper with the largest readership in Northern California.. Yet, this article is an attack on the Internet. This is clearly because the damage to Bill did not come from the Chronicle article, but rather the discussion about the Chronicle article on the net. "So which is the bigger threat to America? The big companies or the criminals at the computer? Interesting question." Indeed. Discussion can be dangerous. But in the context of that quote, I think its Bill's America that is threatened, not mine. Anyway, onward.

Next, he ties in child molesters, and later in the article, NAMBLA. Everyone hates child molesters. He makes it related, not because its particulary relevant, but because it creates an emotion reaction in the reader/listner/watcher which brings them closer to O'Reilly.

And then with the virtual child pron thing, he again breezes over any free speech implications. The Supreme Cout did not help child pornographers, they protected free speech. That court case would have been a very dangerous precident. Bill is an educated man, he likely sees this. But he also sees his large soccer-mom viewership, and in order to keep them glued to the TV, he needs that emotional reaction. Its in his best interest to be closer to that viewership then to the truth. He wants angry people behind him. If you watch his show enough, it becomes very clear that he panders to his viewship, while keeping them angry at all times about some topic where he can easily keep up the appearence of having the moral high ground. It appears to be his "forumla"..

This all supports the assumption that the root of the problem is an issue with control of the discussion forum. You see, its easy to air feedback when you can pick and choose. You get to narrow it down to the dominate viewpoints, and pick the ones that are small enough to read in 10 seconds and display on the TV.. You can keep it simple, and never address any of the hard parts of the topic.. You can keep it emotional. You can put the comments in an order where they address each other in a way that supports your views. Its funny.. Somehow, the comments that oppose Bill's views always seem to be badly written, and easy to confront. It seems to be Bill's style to pick at least one every day that says "You will never air this".. He likes to appear to be an open forum, yet he spews un-American dribble like this, and manages to do it in a creative enough mannor to get his audience to buy it lock, stock, and barrel..

I say again, this man is really dangerous.

RE: FOXNews.com | Bill O'Reilly still an idiot

] The reason these net people get away with all kinds of
] stuff is that they work for no one. They put stuff up
] with no restraints. This, of course, is dangerous, but
] it symbolizes what the Internet is becoming.

Becoming? I guess Bill thinks the free press (free expression?) is a dangerous thing..

] So all over the country, we have people posting the most
] vile stuff imaginable, hiding behind high tech
] capabilities. Sometimes the violators are punished, but
] most are not. We have now have teenagers ruining the
] reputations of their peers in schools on the Internet.
] Ideologues accusing public officials of the worst things
] imaginable. And creeps gossiping about celebrities in
] the crudest of ways.

How is this the fault of the Internet? Would Bill have us start to place limits on speech on the net?

Bill is angry about "word of mouth". "Word of mouth" pre-dates the Internet by thousands years. Its just grown more powerful and attained further reach due to the recent advances of information technology. Much in the same way it did because of the telephone, mail service, etc.. If this is a bad thing, then our human ability to communicate is a bad thing..

Do we need to return to the old arguments about "right to reply" and "equal time"? Europe seems happy to do so.. A mistake we made in the US for awhile, before we came to the conclusion that the entire concept was flawed..

] The Internet has become a sewer of slander and libel,
] an unpatrolled polluted waterway, where just about
] anything goes. For example, the guy who raped and
] murdered a 10-year old in Massachusetts says he got
] the idea from the NAMBLA Web site that he accessed from
] the Boston public library. The ACLU's defending NAMBLA
] in that civil lawsuit.

Is NAMBLA the problem? Or the web? Oh! Its the web! Thanks for clearing that up Bill!

Oh yeah, and the ACLU is also bad.. Couldn't have one of his rants without shit talking the association who's mission it is to protect our civil liberties..

See a common thread here? A gross mis-understanding of what freedom of speech means? Its not freedom of speech if only the people you think should be allowed to talk, can talk.

] So which is the bigger threat to America? The big
] companies or the criminals at the computer?
] Interesting question.

Take note, what brought this on was someone saying something about Bill that Bill didn't like. As the story goes.. The San Francisco Chronicle posts a story with an error, blogs link to story, Bill gets pissed at blogs. Now we have this Talking Point's memo, where he is pretty much suggesting that speech on the net should have limits. This is bullshit of the highest order.

Bill seems to think that the only speaking should be done from the top of the ivory tower.. An opinion that seems to be common in the big media circles..

This guy is really dangerous.

FOXNews.com | Bill O'Reilly still an idiot

] The labor union for striking workers at the Oyster Creek
] nuclear power plant met with representatives for Sens.
] Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg at the union
] headquarters here Thursday.
]
] The talks mostly centered on the union's version of
] events that led to a massive fish kill at the plant last
] year. The two-hour session came as the union begins its
] fourth week of a strike at the nation's oldest nuclear
] power plant.
]
] At the meeting, two union leaders and six power plant
] workers said on Sept. 23, 2002, that they warned
] management not to turn off pumps that cool water
] discharged from the plant into Oyster Creek.

] "We brought it up several times," said Bill Strako, a
] control room operator. "We said, 'You know, if you do
] that, you're going to violate the thermal limits.'"

] "Does it tie into the strike?" Stroup said. "Yes, it
] does in a way. Our members are the safety net for this
] plant. Now we're walking up and down Route 9 in picket
] lines. And they're bringing in people who will do
] anything they're told."

The plant workers are still striking. Its been about a month now. The outside of the plant has taken on the look of a shanty town. Tents, fires in steel drums, and at least a hundred ragged looking picketers stationed at the plant's three main entrances.. The length of rt9 that runs along the plant is sporting signs every hundred feet or so, "Don't Trust AmeriGen's Lies!", "Who is running the plant?", "Striking for saftey, not money!", etc.. Between the strikers and the heavy national guard presence, its makes for one damn surreal scene..

There has been almost no press coverage.. This is one of the few articles I have found, and I've been looking. The AC Press seems to be the only paper in the area even taking note that there is a strike going on. Of course, all the other papers in the area are Gannet. Still, I find it very strange that the workers of the oldest (and most accident prone) nuclear power plant in the United States or America are striking because they don't feel the plant is safe, and none of our local news papers give enough of a shit to cover it!

Oh the comedy of errors! Plant errors killing fish.. Working striking over saftey.. National guard soldiers accidentally shooting themselves.. At a plant with a rusted and cracked drywell that's over ten years past its design lifetime.

I gotta get the hell outta this town^H^H^H^Hcounty^H^H^H^H^H^Hstate.

AC Press | Union says members warned company before act that caused 2002 fish kill