Doesn't VirginAmerica have a deal with showing BoingBoing tv , and haven't you named one of their planes ?

The text with "Or" suggests that tips are cycled into the bakery's pot - not the tip pool.

I'd like to see a followup from the bakery to explain this better.

@Jason - way to go.

It seems clear that the retailer's POV is that they won't treat their customers with respect or care... unless they complain publicly. It's almost a moot point to argue semantics of what a bribe is, or the technicalities of the situation. what matters is that the retailer didn't care about the customer, until an honest account of their experience threatened new business.

@BUGS-

"The card works out cheaper than paper tickets because they want everyone to use Oyster. It isn't some innate feature of the card, it's a deliberate policy to get as many people on the database as possible. The only advantage of the card for users is reduced queues at the ticket machines. Admittedly, this is a biggie."

Actually, it is some innate feature of the card - and has nothing to do with building a database. Bringing people onto electronic systems means less paper ticketing waste, less mechanical parts, less machine maintenance, and less lines as you said.

Take NYC as an example: when we were on tokens, the turnstiles jammed nonstop and had to be dissected for maintenance. When the system went to metrocards, maintenance is mostly swapping out a cardreader for another. Instead of waiting on lines forever, vending machines pop cards out - and they fired most of the station personnel. The more that people buy with credit-cards, and not cash, the less maintenance the vending machines need: its mostly part swaps and stocking receipt paper, not taking cash out (which requires multiple guards). They're still dealing with tons of paper waste -- discarded cards littering the platforms and turnstiles -- so they began a pilot program with RFID chips. If that takes off, 1/2 the trash in the stations would be gone - and they can lay off more workers to save cash.

So yes, it is an innate feature of the card -- as more people use electronics and credit, they need less humans to manage the system and drive costs down.

also: chances are the chip stopped working in the video because the antenna got too bent. RFID chips are VERY sensitive to antennae configuration.

@#3

"Agreed - it is not all of Oregon doing this. It is the representatives of Oregon who are doing this. Let the true voice of Oregon rise up and smite these dull and blunt minded trolls. Please!"

That reminds me of a line from the David Cross album 'It's not Funny':

"I'm not saying that all Republicans are racist, sexist, homophobes; just the people they to choose to elect into office to represent them are."

@#4

artists make money off of touring and merchandising ( tix, shirts, selling branded crap )

though labels are increasingly mandating they get some percentage of that

a medium band will make 20k -> 200k for an appearance

a small indie band will get 1-10k ( imagine 500person venue, 4 bands, $8 tix. headerliner gets ~$2/tix, supports get $1, venue the rest )

off of shirts, etc -- cost to band $3/shirt; sold for $10-15 - all pocketed ( though that is changing )

I'm more and more irritated by this. Mostly by the insurance agency:

From the article link:
"It took more than a year to devise a plan that satisfied everyone. The city of Portland wanted assurance that nearly 5,000 cars' worth of antifreeze, brake fluid and other hazardous goop wasn't mishandled. Insurers covering Mazda's losses wanted to be sure the company wouldn't resell any cars or parts -- thereby profiting on the side. So every steel-alloy wheel has to be sliced, every battery rendered inoperable, and every tire damaged beyond repair. All CD players must get smashed."

The insurance company could have at least sold that stuff on eBay, or found some deal with Mazda to credit back the resale value of the parts. Nothing was recycled.

I'm glad that the cars were wrecked - from a public safety and brand standpoint, it makes sense. The cars were at 60° angles for weeks in salty air - who knows what damage could have been done, if any. Unfortunately, the only way to find out would be the first few accidents and deaths.

It's just sad that we didn't see parts salvaged. Now those parts will all be remade, there's a ton of waste, and there are scraps being sent to china and back again.

I would have liked to see those cars stripped for salvage/repair parts: 4,703 doors, windows, mirrors, radios, mufflers, tires, steering wheels, cup holders, etc

The video made clear that they were not to be disassembled, but shredded. i dont understand why the tires were gone in the video though. that was odd.

The manhattan & brooklyn critical mass riders are a bunch of self-righteous arrogant assholes. you can quote me on that.

This isn't about a right to a simple fun 'bike ride' with dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people. This is about the use of 'critical mass' and traffic blocking techniques for the riders to ignore all traffic regulations - lights, stopsigns, pedestrians in a crosswalk...

While the participants love to talk about how this embraces alternative transportation, they seem to ALWAYS forget that this is only about embracing their group's transportation. Pedestrians and other bicyclists trying to cross the intersections have to wait... and wait... and wait... for their parade to pass.

In the first 10 seconds of the video, the videographer claims "Sgt. Horohoe is physically interacting with bicyclists on roadway, causing unsafe conditions for traffic" as he tries to grab the bicyclist.

What the video FAILS to mention is that all those bicyclists were actually running red lights, stopping the cross-traffic ( which is both dangerous and stupid ), and keeping pedestrians from crossing.

The first clue is the group of people just standing on the corner. New Yorkers don't do that.

That was a joke (though true)... In all seriousness, note the crossing signal at 15s in - the red is facing the direction the cyclists are coming from; the white is facing the cross traffic (the cars that are stopping, the pedestrians that are queueing up, unable to pass)

So technically, the video should have read "Sgt. Horohoe is physically interacting with bicyclists on roadway, trying to stop the cyclists who are causing unsafe conditions for pedestrians and vehicles with the right of way, by ignoring traffic signals."

I'm 100% for Critical Mass needing to have a parade permit for this type of 'bicycle riding' - it inconveniences everyone outside of their group, and creates really dangerous situations. Getting 1000 people together and saying "your laws don't apply to us" isn't free speech, assembly or a protest - its pure unadulterated egotism and arrogance.

Signed,
the liberal New Yorker who walks, rides a bike, and takes public transportation everywhere, doesn't own a car and never takes cabs -- and never ever NEVER claims his right to protest or assemble (both of which he exercises regularly) is more important than obeying basic traffic laws or simply being considerate to others.

@11
"This is a prime example of how the executive power under Republicans has interfered with the judiciary branch."

Sorry, the Dems are to blame on this too. Many have voted for policies, others were lackluster in their opposition.

Blaming either party is pointless -- they're all complicit in one way or another.

I'm with WalMart on this one.

(I feel so dirty saying that!)

In the pro photography/video industry, if you hire someone and don't specify some alternate arrangement, the photographer owns the negatives... and you pay for prints / licenses.

But in this case, there are 'internal' meetings and such. The archivist probably has every right to sell access/prints to WalMart, but selling to an outside company? That just defies any sort of reasonable expectation of privacy or services rendered.

I don't know if there's anything legal there, but morally its abhorrent and blackmail.

There are so many better things to be critical of walmart on, and ways to 'get back at them'. This is ridiculous.

whoops, let me rephrase:

they're on processing which he's badass at. and look like magnetosphere.

but you should still download magnetosphere.

disclaimer: tbg are really good friends of mine.

Those would be videos based on magnetosphere...
http://software.barbariangroup.com/magnetosphere/

flight404 aka robert hodgin aka executive creative director of the barbarian group aka really great guy

The answer is patent system REFORM and BALANCE, not abolition.

The system is undoubtedly being abused. Claims should be more finite and less vague, technologies should be proven/prototyped/working... not some science fiction idea.

But patents exist for a reason - they were designed to spur innovation. They were designed to say "hey small person with an idea... develop it! make it work! quit your job, spend your savings, compete against the large companies!"

The world is not idyllic or utopian. Abolishing patents isn't going to free innovation - its going to mean that small firms will lose all incentive to innovate. It's going to mean that only the Googles and the Microsofts can compete, because they have the marketing dollars and ability to clone fast. It's going to mean the end of progress, and the rise of braindead corporate lock-ins of technology.

-signed a former open source developer turned patent holder when large companies decided not to work with him, but instead clone his technology and push his company out of the market through economies of scale.

didn't they often dj / play @ the bulgarian disco in chinatown?

it seems the problem is that there's a legal limbo of the foreclosure process.

instead of trying to game the system, why not actually fix it?

make the banks liable at the moment of foreclosure. give them the incentive to be responsible and actually make the loans they should not have made work out.

a lot of people did stupid things to get mortgages... but the mortgage companies and the banks constantly looked the other way and gamed the situation. instead of bailouts and propagating limbo loopholes, they should be made responsible... so should the 'subprime' borrowers.

taking out a 750k mortgage and trying to default on it after 100k and 'get a free house' is morally reprehensible. these people aren't gaming the banks- those costs are recouped by responsible people getting LOWER interest rates, straining the banking system so that responsible people can't borrow as easily, and making taxpayers foot the bill.

The revolutionary/consumerist view of 'take back the system!' sounds nice and pretty - but its really just a group of assholes who want the general public to foot their bills. Grow up.

David-

Check out the "Nylon Canvas Tech Field Bag" from Jack Spade - http://www.jackspade.com/shop/product.php?productid=19618&cat=306&sku=CH8446765C401

It's a great bag... i've had mine for 3 years now and its still in solid shape. A bunch of pockets, a bunch of compartments... and a removable laptop sleeve -- which means you just yank that out at the airport and you don't scratch your case on the conveyor.

@squirrelgirl

have you looked at petfinder.com ?

if you check every few days, the breed you want (or a mutt with most of its characteristics) is likely to show up for adoption from a foster family or rescue shelter.

just about every dog you could want ends up for adoption at some point.

I wanted to do this in NYC years ago... rent out a dog, and take it to the park to play for a few hours. My friends all yelled at me.

A few years ago, I found I 'hack'...

Many local dog shelters have a signout policy where you can volunteer to walk a dog during non-adoption hours (before noon, after 5pm). You get a few hours of a dog for free, and actually help out the shelter by reducing their workload and giving the dogs some much needed attention.

Even better, most of the dogs that need/can be walked are sick in some way, and a little down... they respond to attention and a smile much more than other dogs.

@Boomzilla

"Didn't Britain used to run an empire?"

Yes, but they also fucked it up and lost it all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Former_British_colonies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

@#3 danegeld

I saw an argument over that on a tv 'news' program the other day. The proponents simply stated over and over "If you're doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide," and talking at-length about 'so-called' privacy rights.

It was then that I decided your argument is the best one - and the only one worth talking about now: these corporations and governments are incompetent and stupid.

Why argue about rights to privacy, about 'do you have something to hide?', or 'will the government abuse their trust?'... the crushing argument time and time again is simple: we don't live in a perfect world, and these organizations are just plain stupid. They're too dumb to use the data, let alone abuse it. With an innate inability to process or safeguard personal information, they shouldn't be able to track/compile it.

maybe he missed his wife, and she was killed from the accidental discharge on that plane...

Is he the Iraqi version of Stephen Colbert?

Wow...

it went from a poorly reviewed Pirate-themed vegan restaurant, to a poorly reviewed strip-club themed vegan restaurant.

Maybe he should have just done pirate vegan strippers, with no food?

Go go keeping jobs in America!

that looks like a great way to get books wet!

i've never seen a tub that didn't form puddles on the platform area that drip down the sides

then you have to deal with kicking water every each way off your feet/legs as you walk

my vote is for performance art

i thought it was real, until i saw that interview the other day. their mannerisms and personality are a stark contrast to the movies - they actually have a personality in real life.

btw, i saw an SNL repeat the other night that looked like it was a parody of Fred & Sharon.

What will Maury Povich do now?

This ruins his concept 'talk show'.

i wonder if the 'banned' / 'broadcast 1x' episodes are online.

this seems like an affront to the separation of church and state

or should i say 'sepastaration'

(groan)

Wouldn't this issue be best affected by finding a semi-intelligent politician to sponsor a bill that requires all voting machines to be independently tested by parties not chosen by the manufacturer?

This debate happens over and over and over again - each time a different city and a different state. Hitting it at the federal level could just stop it, once and for all.

McCain and Obama both have records suggesting they would sponsor something like this. With voter disenfranchisement a recurring issue in the news, it might be timely for people to start bringing this up as open questions at rallies and such.

$12,000 sounds like a fair price to find out that the girl you thought you wanted to marry is a superficial, materialistic waste.

He should be happy at all the money he's saving from the divorce -- because her response is very telling that there will be a divorce, and it will be very expensive.

@REXRHINO

The sliding dollar only makes US exports more attractive than what they were -- not to the global market.

Unfortunately our imports dwarf our exports, and we're not competing against our economy last year -- we're competing against developing nations that have significantly lower production and agricultural costs.

While a sliding dollar will kick up exports in certain sectors, its certainly not going to solve the entire problem and re-balance the system.

The people who took out the failing mortgages were conned to some extent... but to a far larger extent, they were absolute idiots and irresponsible.

The real-estate and mortgage industry convinced consumers to buy bigger... and would qualify them for HUGE loans based on rising housing costs.

The dialogue was something like this:

Realtor: Why move in 5 years when your family grows? Buy bigger now. We can finance it.

Bank: Take a X year loan, and we'll do it at the variable rate, so you SAVE money

Bank (to self): SAVE money until the interest rate rises... then we make a killing!

The realtors work on a % commission, so they're always trying to inch prices up. I was once shown a rental in NYC that was just way overpriced, so I walked out. When the landlord asked me outside, I said "1500? I've seen 4 nicer places on this block for 1100 from another agent this week. you want too much." She replied "1500? I was asking 1050" - and just looked at the real estate agent who tried to weasel out of it, then said "I thought i could get you more for it".

The banks were all hoping to turn 5% interest rates into 11% rates through the variable rate scheme... they approved everyone for the low-end of the cash, but never thought through the "wait... what if people can't pay on the high end?!?"

My point is this: a lot of consumers were convinced into buying bigger than they could afford by the industry that got tanked. They're both responsible.

should also add

whois hillaryismomjeans.com
Created on: 15-Feb-08

whois barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com
Creation Date: 13-feb-2008

http://barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com/

In NYC, the boutique eyeglass shops will charge ~450 to put lenses in a pair of frames ( ultrathin, ultrilight, polycarb with all the trimmings ). The chains charge 300.

There are a handful of not-fancy boutiques who charge 150. They contract the same labs as the fancy-boutiques for the grinding, but just do a 50% markup, not a 400%.

@13

I once worked in marketing & branding for some luxury lines.

A certain all-natural face cream from Japan was made using Urea, Shark Fin, Placenta, and some other 'odd' stuff. It sold for $200/oz.

At the same gig, we got an invoice once for luxury makeup brushes... the kind that sell for $15-30 each at sephora. Again, without naming brands, I was AMAZED to find out that they were made primarily with squirrel and badger hair (even the retailers don't know it.. but they have to declare to customs on the pallate). We joked that the next shipment would have racoon. It arrived, It did.

"Be warned that the nails are in poor condition and would need to be straightened and de-rusted before you could reuse them in a carpentry or woodworking project"

Yes, but in this condition they should be more than adequate to be used in the crucifixion of the seventh coming of christ. Duh.

http://www.founditemclothing.com does the same for movies...

They launched a few years back with recreations of the shirts from Real Genius. If I believed in cool points, they won.

The Gaggia line of home espresso machines use something called a 'thermoblock' ( other midrange home machines do too. better machines use a boiler or 'heat exchanger' )

Thermoblocks are basically a chunk of aluminum that has a mazed channel through it... the thermoblock is heated, cold water is pumped into one end, and hot water comes out the other. (see http://www.coffeeco.com.au/articles/july2002.html )

It's very likely this machine is using a thermblock. If so, they're not particularly fun to use -- they take some time to warm up , and any sort of standby mode means that you're actively keeping the block hot all the time -- meaning they're not really capable of 'efficiency' as we might like.

I recently went through a similar situation...

Another company created a product with a similar name to ours, and filed for trademark protection. We started work filling the USPTO to oppose the trademark, and a c&d notifying the other company of the confusion. One journalist interviewed me and ran a piece. More than forty publications then reported on the situation, quoting and interpreting the original journalists story.

The next day I start getting phonecalls from friends asking me if I've gone crazy... as journals and newsfeeds everywhere report that my company has filed a lawsuit against a gigantic tech company.

The moral of my story: There are 4 sides to every story. Person A, Person B, the Truth, and shit the media makes up.

What I LOVE about modern blogs and industry reporting, is that almost no-one interviews or fact-checks. They just report on other people reporting. It's like that game 'telephone' you played in 1st grade... except it makes everyone involved look like an asshole at some point.

A Windows sponsorship REALLY worries me in light of BoingBoing's MS coverage in the past

According to search engines, there are 2,380 articles on BB about Microsoft; few of them are positive and many are critical of DRM and IP positions.

Will we now see less criticism from boingboing?

Will boingboing decline to run certain articles at all?

Will there only be no 'mobile posts' of articles critical of MS as well? ( ie, no mobile posts of an anti MS DRM rally )?!?

I think I seriously might need to start reading other blogs for tech 'news' from now on -- taking sponsorship cash from a company you've been highly critical of in the past raises serious ethics concerns.

When i subscribed to the BoingBoing lauded 'Make' magazine, and started to get nonstop snail-mail spam, I was angered -- I signed up for that magazine, because the journal with strong online privacy concerns gave it amazing reviews. Then I found out my personal information was sold or rented.

A MS partnership for most other sites would not be an issue - but with BoingBoing's history of MS coverage... this is just above and beyond acceptable.

when i skated in the late 80s/early-mid 90s, we had a mantra...

skateboarding is not a crime

If that kid was anything like me or my friends, I'd say that he's probably half rebel and half idiot - he wasn't calling the cop 'man' or 'dude' to disrespect him... he was using his own language and vernacular. If he wanted to disrespect, he would have said "pig". He should have been smart enough to shut up and act passive, and bore the cop away - that's what we all did.

Cop: Stop skateboarding here.
Us: Ok.
[ we leave ]
[ we come back 10 minutes later ]

That said, the cop entered the situation with a predetermined outcome - it is very clear that he wanted to belittle the kid and teach him a lesson. That kid was 100% clueless throughout the video, while the cop kept escalating the situation. The antagonism on behalf of the officer was egregious. The physical force exerted was obscene.

The cop owes the kid an apology... and he owes his department and his city one too. In a mere 10 seconds of his own arrogance and excessiveness, he's given his city and colleagues an incredibly bad name... and put them at odds with the people.

do you think they serve cubanos there?

it seems to me like the Saudi Government & the US Government are trying to outdo each other.

Maybe in the ultimate showing of international goodwill, we can borrow their secret police, and they can borrow our TSA.

If this goes though, how long until yahoo is utterly worthless?

The 2 companies have completely different corporate cultures, and development ones too - everyone at Yahoo engineering & development is likely getting fired as Freebsd/Linux, + php mysql and other open source apps are trashed for .NET , and then we all wonder "what cool new web-apps and web portals will be built on .NET?" Um, none.

Short-term, this would be great for Yahoo stockholders... but within 2 years, the company will nearly die, and in 5 years microsoft will start dealing with losses from the failed acquisition and try to sell it off.

This is why I love the internet. Thank you.

"In fact, most bikes in use in most of Africa today are based on a colonial British design tailored to individuals travelling short distances on smooth roads."

I've ridden around rural Kenya on those bikes. Not fun. Not comfortable. All scary.

Somethings that should be mentioned though:

a)- most of the riding is on dirt roads
b)- most bikes have 2-3 people on them. i've even seen/ridden on 4. 1-2 on the seat, 1 on the handlebars/front wheel pegs, 1 on the back wheel/peg or flatbed/seat.
c) the bikes are old, but are constantly repaired with local ingenuity. few frames don't have many welding marks on them, and gears/chains/pedals/etc are always rebuilt out of random things.

@cynics above

There is NO security threat to RFID stuff like this. No thieves, no spies, no little green/grey men to worry about.

The anti-RFID lobby uses a lot of FUD and speculation to scare people into ignoring the basic laws of physics and the universe. You also need to basically abandon all common sense in order to ignore the popular criticisms of the anti-rfid movement.

RFID tags are incredibly tempermental and sensitive to distance - you don't just wave a magic wand and say "Discover!"

Tags respond to different frequencies, and the antennae powered ones have exceedingly short ranges - millimeters to *maybe* 2 feet if you're lucky.

In order to test for a particular tag, you'll need to know what you're reading - which means knowing what to look for, and having the appropriate scanning hardware. On the bright side, that means you know what the max-range is for a response. On the downside, if you need another tag scanned... Get a new antennae and hardware assembly. 'Special' readers can read more than 1 'major' tag... there's no standard though and everyone is pushing for their own to be adopted, so they're pretty meaningless.

The tags themselves contain a VERY limited amount of information... usually just a MFG id and a serial number. The real data is in a database.

So really what you want to do is hack every car / house with a computer , find one that has an RFID tag database, find out which ones have valuable stuff, then get the right hardware to try and play 'metal detector' and find the damn things. Range will be a huge issue, so you'll likely be resorting to a flashlight and your eyes.

With all that said, this means that the old standby on thievery holds true - if you see a fancy car or house, then you'll probably steal better things out of it. RFID isn't going to make it easier, and isn't going to give people the chance to spy. The only thing it will do, it make it easier for you to identify your personally-tagged tools in a truck filled with RFID sensors.

How do I know all this? I developed RFID prototypes from '01 to '05. I helped build the first in-store RFID wall that was put in WalMart stores, a GPS enabled RFID truck for WalMart & Department of Homeland Security that basically did the Ford offering above, and a massive RFID enabled factory @ an IP paper mill. ( We covered the entire supply chain mfg->transit->instore ) One of the last RFID projects I worked on was a 'home' kit that would let people tag their own stuff ( we did boxes of electronics parts and tools), store it, then use a 'magic wand' to try and find it in the right bins. I'm 3yrs out of the industry, but I'll still say that I have a very good understanding of this.

i saw the porn industry episode on a virgin atlantic flight. it was one of the most amazing pieces of embedded/investigative journalism i've seen - also one of the most depressing shows i've watched too.

This is like Hamburger the movie, come to life

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091165/

I was speaking in reference to Hillary choosing a Celine Dion (Canadian) song as her official campaign song in mid-2007.

I think nationality in stuff like this is a big issue- the US economy is faltering, much in part to a large imbalance in international trade.

In the '04 elections, candidates touted how they would keep americans employed... while the republican party used offshore labor to build and manage websites.

In the '08 election, candidates like Clinton are using Canadian and Dutch musicians for their campaigns. The US economy isn't great, and more industries are being outsourced. To me as a voter, knowing that a royalty check is being sent overseas instead of to a US artist is a huge issue.

I'm not waving a flag in blind patriotism, or calling out any one side in partisanism - they both do it. With an economy going into recession and increased unemployment due to offshoring labor, I think candidates need to be called out on stuff like this.

I think the author was trying to use subtext to talk about buttsex.

Would this be the same Hillary Clinton that chose a campaign song for her US Presidential bid written and performed by a Canadian?

Gotta love that partriotism.

That 20k system is just a bunch of "Tabletop" model Yama brewers on a $19,800 halogen light.

You can get those *exact* same VacPots for ~$50 each.

VacPots are great.. they're very similar in taste/body to french press, but easier to clean/maintain. Yama and Bodum both make stovetop versions. The Bodum one is ok, but a little flimsy - i've broken 2 so far. Never tried the Yama.

Personally, I prefer Chemex coffee in the winter, and cold-brew in the summer. But a good vacpot or french press is a nice treat.

and much love too the coffeegeek and home-barista communities...

This sounds like an Apple problem.

QuickTime has always had a user-antagonistic DRM & Permissions system.

My favorite example is this: If you get a stock OS install , you can view/save quicktime movies off the web. If you ever upgrade QuickTime, the save functionality is taken away until you pay Apple $30. I used to work in an office where we had to reset apples non-stop because Software Update would cripple that functionality. Could we have paid $30 - sure. But paying $30 to get around crippleware from a software update - on a feature that should have been free? Its abhorrent. Shame on Apple.

The article says they chose Ms.PacMan because the ghosts were random. Wrong.

The ghosts have priority levels of their own. They're seemingly random, but have an attack order. Its generally related to reducing either the vertical or horizontal distance and taking into account the direction of pac man, then coming to the decision based on a set number of pixels before an intersection on the maze (some decide sooner, some later). The ghosts will clue the user in based on the shifting of their eyes. There are lengthy FAQs on this.

Anyways, it was a neat survey... and seemingly random... but they could have possibly reverse engineered the ghosts rules first, then plot out ways around that.

@3 - The merit of punny

- a pup tent for puppies
- houndstooth for hounds

this is just brilliant

From personal experience: you can counteract too-much caffeine with a healthy dose of Ginkgo Biloba. At higher doses it does help 'focus' and 'attention'. A lot of the overcaffeinated energy drinks are starting to use it as a key ingredient to counterbalance.

I remember in college taking "Study" pills that were a mix of Ephedra-Caffeine-Ginkgo-MutiVitamin. The Ephedra/Caffeine only mix would amp up on energy & alertness, but cause people to wander in thought & attention. The mixes with Ginkgo started to win out, as people would actually be able to focus.

"The thing that my family is asking for is for the state to move it to a route that's about 1/2 mile away. This route doesn't destroy any building that are inhabited and isn't any longer or more expensive."

Ok, you won me over with that !

That should have been the #1 selling point .

Rant:

16bars makes AWFUL espresso.

A normal or lungo should be pulled @ 9-10bars
A ristretto is @ 10-11 bars.

16bars is the spec for MFG pump rating , so you don't burn out the motor. every commercial/semi espresso machine has the overflow routinely calibrated somewhere around 10bars

I'm sick of people promoting the 'virtues' of 16 bars. someone at a department store tried to tell me how their Nespresso machine was amazing because it had 16 bars - and many commercial machines only go to 14. in response I asked her if it superheats the water to 300° to burn the coffee too.

end rant.

That shot is of a semi-automatic espresso tamper - it packs the grounds with a set weight. You can buy a Macap one in the US for ~300. Odd use of an LCD - all these things do is uniformly pack the grounds.

There is a another shot in the series of an espresso machine with 2 lcds... the closest lcd seems to be a screen of the airport hallway. i can't tell what is going on in the second lcd.

1- Does this house have landmark/historical preservation status? Why not?
2- What happens when someone 10 miles down comes up with a similar story? And if it does/doesn't hit boingboing?

I understand that the house/land has meaning - but everyone's home does to them. I'm having problems understanding why this home is valued more than others in the neighborhood. The highway is going to happen - and in someone's backyard. I don't see a good argument as to why it shouldn't happen in your backyard.

I also don't understand why relocating the home hasn't been discussed. If this is an architectural treasure - or family treasure - the proceeds from the land claim through eminent domain should more than cover having the structure trucked to a new location. (unless its not stable enough to do so. is it ?)

I'm not saying that there is no good argument to be made - I'm just saying that I don't see enough info for me to cast a vote on this in your favor. I also know nothing of how the route change would affect others - just that it doesn't hit your house.

I did read the article... but then I glanced at the lexicon online - and that did not seem like fair use to me. I wonder if Wu looked through the lexicon too.

People weren't making new stories set in her world, they were copy/pasting and indexing text verbatim.

This isn't a 'readers guide'; i saw no discourse, criticism or academic knowledge. It doesn't give a deeper understanding of the material or lead to a critical analysis of the readings. I saw little creativity in terms of it being an adaption either.

I'm all for fair use - I just don't see how this text fits in with that concept. If a rival publisher made this book, I think the world would smack down on them for being evil and trying to capitalize on someone else's work. Just because its being done by fans doesn't make it legit.

I'll get killed for saying this on BoingBoing.. but here we go:

Lets start confusing things with trademarks and characters too...

An Encyclopedia would index, annotate information in the Rowling books: fair-use.
A discussion compendium would provide dialogue & discourse: fair-use.

But what happens when discussion/discourse starts to turn into fanfiction ? When people start writing backstories about characters, events, items, places , etc ? Then we start to see the value & integrity of Rowling's characters & creations diminished. It's one thing to make that for free & gift, but when you start selling it to compete against the real thing - or put it on a site that earns revenue through advertising - you're no longer in the fair use realm, but you're co-opting her property for your own personal gain.

Also, fair use is in regards to "criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research," - looking quickly at the lexicon, I don't see where any of those criteria are met. Its not presented with any amount of critical review or academic background - it seems like its just reorganizing her characters and profiting off of her franchise.

I haven't looked through the site in detail... if its a mere index & guide to the books within the doctrine of , Rowling has little case. But if they're creating new stories & facts, or just presenting her work in their own format - thats not fair use. From what little I saw on the site, I wouldn't call that fair use in the least bit.

One page listed all of the spells, quoting the text and summarizing the characters & usage. How is that fair use?

The encyclopedia group should just change their name and avoid headaches. How about "Harry Kotter & PigHerpes' School of Magic"?

I get massive headaches if i miss coffeee by a few hours. the last time i tried to quit, i made it 8 days - the headaches never died down much.

i realized that its not just the caffeine- the best part of every morning and afternoon since i bought a machine a few years back has been the ritual of pulling & drinkng a double ristretto.

I've always thought the brilliance of the no-fly list is the simple fact that it promotes actually threatening individuals to adopt new and unknown aliases... while tying up the resources that would otherwise be used to safeguard the country with mindless harassment of the general public.

Neat... but its more like a DIY Beatmania controller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatmania

I remember seeing it at a bowling alley in LA in 2002 ( Hollywood, Silverlake, or Echo Park... I can't remember). It was guitar hero, but with turntables, and before guitar hero.

@Spikeles

I'm glad you got to interject "13th Floor" at slot #1.

When TheMatrix came out it was the most popular of the VR movies that all of the studios made that season:
The Matrix- 31 March 1999
Existenz - 13 April 1999
13th Floor - 28 May 1999

Studios like to compete with each other on the same theme.

The year before, Dark City was released ( Feb 1998 ).

There was another movie released in that timeframe too. 13th floor and Existenz were both sadly overshadowed by the matrix.

Do you have caselaw on a police being able to force you to unlock a door or open a safe?

I know they can give you a choice - do it yourself or we will do it for you - but I'm unaware of any court ruling that says you must play an active part in the role.

This sounds like a very common-sense ruling. It doesn't mean the government can't crack your key, or access the archive. it just means that you have the freedom from being forced to incriminate yourself. I'm pretty sure that consitutional right trumps any court ruling or warrant.

Egypt can copyright whatever it wants - and enforce it within Egypt. In other countries it becomes an issue of International Treaties respecting foreign copyright and allowing suits for damages.

I *seriously* doubt any other country is going to uphold/respect a retroactive copyright on landmarks. China will just laugh hysterically as always , and the US/EU will just look dumbfounded and say "um, no".

um, yeah... this really calls for a unicorn chaser

Just to add... not all labels are created alike. The labels could have some sort of validation/anti-counterfeit mechanism - like an RFID or DNA seal. ( There are a few firms that create custom DNA 'blends', along with security check markers, for counterfeit testing ). The pattern of previous leave-behind markings could also require certain placements.

I'm not saying any of those are being done, but there are options.

Other than that, I agree with everyone else -- what does a fire-extinguisher have to do with terrorism? Are the terrorists trying to steal/replace all of the fire extinguishers with blanks? Oh no!

The purpose for that seal is probably just for the fire-protection branch to easier check levels and use. Sure, someone could defeat that - but what would defeating it do?

This BB post does nothing but create FUD out of ignorance.

Or, better put:

S(*%, there was a tamper-proof seal on a bottle of Advil I bought yesterday. THE TERRORISTS could have bought an inkjet printer, planted WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION in my advil container, and put it back on the shelf just as new.

9/11

See ANYTHING WITH A SECURITY SEAL IS A PRIME TARGET FOR TERRORISTS.

The TERRORISTS HATE OUR FREEDOMS.

9/11
9/11
9/11

With every additional word you put on a sentence, the more unique the construction is.

Example: Google "I like coffee" - 400k hits; "I like coffee and tea" - 6k hits.

You don't need any sort of fuzzy-matching. If two texts have more than a few sentences overlap, you can immediately flag it as a probable clone.

In terms of character sets, its really simple to translate everything to unicode or something similar for comparison.

For people to bypass filters, they'd have to restructure text (or predict where sampling would happen) - and that starts going from copyright to plagiarism, where you have to decide what is fair use, what is inspired, and what is copied. You wouldn't need to run plagiarism software though, because the worries around about people copying term papers of news articles as their own - the worry is about redistributing copyrighted works.

Audio, Video & Illustrations are hard to detect/compare; text is dead simple. Its

If I recall correctly, there was recently a photographer who was working on her MFA @ Yale , and had a series of crime-scene photo re-enactments.

Does anyone know her name? I could not track down the right person on any search engine.

Does anyone know why he lost his job ( the exact grounds )? Was his disbarred as well?

I'm guessing that it was because he violated due process on the 46 people by holding them in contempt without reason - but I can't find out any more info.

> "Nobody should be restricted by the software they use"
> "*the freedom to share the changes you make"

Actually, the GPL states a requirement to share the changes that you make - along with many other requirements that best define GPL software as 'free software... but with strings attached'.

Its true - nobody should be restricted by the software they use, however the GPL create numerous restrictions that are often undesireable , leading to the term GPL Crippleware.

When program offers users all of those freedoms mentioned above, without any restrictions, then it actually is free software. The GPL doesn't though fit that definition in the lease bit though.

While the GPL is useful, and I'm glad its here -- the article reads like a summary of the BSD licensing variants, which actually are free and have no strings attached.