Let's see. I have a kid. Father's an idiot and splits. I do the right thing and put my kid into a good religious school so she gets a good education. I have no job skills so I become a stripper. (Stop snickering Doc, Chris and the rest of you.)
Then the school finds out and threatens to throw the kid out of school, because I'm a stripper. I go public. REALLY PUBLIC. Hit every radio talk show and newspaper reporter who rings my phone. I play cool. Explaining that the only reason I did it was for "the good of my kid". The school still says they're going to kick the kid out if I don't stop dancing.
Then to my rescue, as well as the fact nothing like a little controversy to helps get those nasty ratings, a local radio station offers me, with no real radio experience an ONAIR job as the morning drivetime DJ. I take the job. Become an instant hit. The kid gets to remain at the school.
Is that how it goes? Jeeze! If I only knew this 20 years ago. Damn! I must be stoopid!
9:42:26 PM
This Just In Department
Holy Shit! KCRA in Sacramento is reporting that someone hacked the State of California Controller's computer system and have made off with the names and Social Security numbers of all 265,000 state employees, from the Governor down to the DOT clean-up crews. The Wiz-kids in the Controller's office along with state officials and the FBI have determined this has been going on for some time. Of course there are no suspects, but the FBI's real Wiz-kids say they have tracked the hacker to a Lycos email account and has broken into over 2500 other computers around the world.
Lovely. Couldn't they have played with the Department of Equalization's records and given them a couple spare bucks into my account? Jeeze.
However the quote of the day goes to California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick, who said
"I would not be overly concerned. However, I don't think it would be improper to go ahead and use these safeguards that we're going to put up on the Internet and do some double checking."
Yeah. I can see it now. Some poor state employee goes to buy a new car, gets their credit checked and all of a sudden they're broke or the cops come to nail them for credit fraud. This could get really nasty. This could be about as much fun as dealing with a IRS auditor having a bad hair day. yesss-sir. And everyone wonders why I love this State sooo much.
I have to go out and run a couple errands today. You will never guess what's out there. Traffic. Lots of traffic. Today over 2 million people will be getting out of LA for the holidays. Two of the three main routes are within 2 miles of home.
The little yellow ! signs mean traffic's stopped. Oh lucky me.
Traffic map snagged from http://traffic.tann.net Excellent service and the blue cameras you can click on for a real time view of the traffic. It's only available in limited areas, and it will download info to your PDA. It also appears they have wi-fi available in the Bay Area as well. Pity no Santa Barbara or LA.
Doc's pointed to Frank Horowitz ideas about how to embarrass the Hollywood bad guys to death. Let them make a complete and total ass of themselves. It's an excellent idea that makes complete and total sense. The major problem is: it makes sense. But these people do not respond common sense arguments. Remember, "Companies don't have a conscience."
Cory Doctorow is taking it a step further. I knew about the analogue to digital evolution for years, but damn I actually forgot to mention it. [Sorry] His virtual white paper Hollywood Wants to Plug the 'Analog Hole' explains how are clueless and greedy Hollywood and Entertainment Equipment Manufacturers really are. For years they have been pushing for digital and all the computerization of Hollywood's post production, storage and delivery system. With the recent turn of events, we know it's not for "quality's sake" but for greed and control.
Today we have things like TIVOs, HDTV or DTV and home computing networks with high speed connections are becoming common place in a rapid progression. And now the entertainment industry [Sony, Disney, TW, Insert the studio name here,] who demanded this revolution in technology are acting like they've been carjacked!Yeah. Rite. Sure. They aren't that stupid!
It's possible AMPAS should include a new Oscar (R) category for Best Acting Performance by a Entertainment Industry CEO next year. God knows we've sat through enough crap during Oscar Night before! So if given the chance, I would nominate Eisner in his performance in Fortune or his Lincoln Article. Eh! Gotta love him. He's been hit in the head with a soccer ball in his backyard one too many times because he was listening to bootlegged songs on his iPod.
I ran across this wonderful set of great recipes from Providence Rhode Island News Online. Lets see.. we got Lobster recipes in every shape and variation known to mankind. (Looking up phone number for Santa Monica Seafood.) Chowders, Clams, Steamers, Pasta sauces, and even Shrimp.
[Looking at Doug] Honey! Would you please load up the printer with a ream of paper? These are keepers!
"By building on the DMCA, the CBDTPA continues to shift the balance of intellectual property protection in favor of copyright holders, further eroding the rights of consumers and researchers. The U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM (USACM), Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and others in the computing community have expressed concerns that the CBDTPAwill raise the costs and degrade the performance of computers and software without benefiting consumers. As our community knows too well, legislating constraints on technology that may be developed, purchased, or used by law-abiding citizens has the potential to cause widespread and severe damage to society at large."
Jeff is exactly right. His article is worth a quick read. It gives me comfort to see such an established professional computing organization step to the plate and tell Washington they are going down the wrong path.
AP's reporting that Richard Reid (AKA: Shoe Bombboy) who tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with a bomb in his shoe told his mother in an email: " What I am doing is part of the ongoing war between Islaam and disbelief, (and as such a duty upon me as a Muslim). The reason for me sending you (a document he calls his "will") is so you can see that I didn't do this act out of ignorance nor did I just do it because I want to die, but rather because I see it as a duty upon me to help remove the oppressive American forces from the Muslim land and that this is the only way for us to do so as we do not have other means to fight them."
Mother should know this kid isn't a good Muslim, but a NUTCASE. May be Reid's and Talaban John's mother's should have a cuppa tea and talk about their fruitcake sons? That would be interesting Reality TV.
The documents also say that Richard Reid (who is British citizen) "was not unassisted in his efforts to destroy Flight 63." Reid was ruled out as the source of a human hair and palm print found in the bombs. FBI Director Robert Mueller said Monday that the FBI now believes that "an al-Qaida bomb maker" constructed the shoe bomb.
For a fruitcake this makes sense. Okay so we got Two. One in the cage. Who should be thankful he's NOT in England. One on the loose. We have a hair sample and other evidence. DNA testing anyone?
Washington DC - Ralph Hughes of Sony Music testified in the Senate today urging lawmakers to enact legislation which would ban felt tip markers. "These innocuous looking writing instruments are the scourge of our society," he said holding up a Sharpie. "Not only can this black stick of death be used to violate the DMCA, but it could also be used to write the instructions to incubate the anthrax virus."
Still Clueless in Hollywood
