Category: News

Here in NC, the state has finally started a lottery. I tried to look online to see what states don’t have a [tag]lottery[/tag], but got sidetracked, and never actually figured it out. I think there’s like 8 or 9 states that still don’t have a lottery. (If you do know, post a comment saying so.)

I guess it was only a matter of time before we finally got a lottery here. Whenever one of the big lotteries (Powerball or Mega Millions) was pretty high, it made news around here. They would show people (and their money) from NC going to VA or SC to get the tickets. So why not just keep the money in state? And at least give the impression that a lot of the proceeds will be going to education. They have even gone to the extent of calling it the “North Carolina Education Lottery.” Scratch off tickets start today, then the other parts like Powerball starts later.

I have a feeling that Sharon will buy a ticket every once in a while. But I don’t think I’ll be buying that many tickets.

[tags]North Carolina, News[/tags]

Apparently the [tag]FBI[/tag] doesn’t have enough money to give all of their field agents e-mail accounts.

Now I’ve got about 99 GMail invites left. I’m sure if we can get together, we can get GMail for all the GMen that are without.

[tags]e-mail[/tags]

There is a good opinion piece in the NY Times discussing the need for patent reform.

Patents are a good thing when used properly. They are needed to encourage innovation, and protect people from having their work copied. But when you can patent a relationship between homocysteine levels and a vitamin B-12 deficiency, something feels out of whack. According to the piece, bodily processes are not patentable, yet that’s exactly what we see here.

Hopefully, this article will serve as another wake up call that we need serious [tag]patent reform[/tag] here. Recently, RIM ended a long court battle with NTP over RIM’s BlackBerry service. NTP is a patent holding company. Needless to say, RIM is pushing for some patent reform now.

When I think of a patent holding company, I think of a company that holds many patents on ideas. They wait for another person or company to develop the product, then sue them.

It would be easy to blame the USPTO for all these problems. But I’m guessing they are doing the best job they can do. I’ve tried to look a few patents, and as with anything related to the government, they are pretty damn hard to read.

Let’s hope that something is done to reform the patent system, or we’ll all be facing problems down the road.

[tags]News, Patents, BlackBerry, RIM, NTP[/tags]

The Bush administraton has unleashed their budget. Running a deficit seems to be the norm these days, but $423 billion? Is there no sense of financial responsbility these days?

Who is going to pay off this deficit? I guess for those in power now, that’s not really their problem.

But what of Bush’s pledge to cut the deficit in half by 2009? Does he mean the yearly deficit? Of course he would, he couldn’t cut the total deficit by then, that would be decreasing it by $4 trillion. So he doesn’t actually plan on paying down the debt, just not increase it as much.

We need to have someone in Washington that has the courage to actually balance the budget instead of spending more and cutting taxes.

So what did you think of the State of the Union address last night?

The first portion of the speech was more of the same old stuff that pretty much everyone agrees with. Democracy is good, terror is bad. He just didn’t need to state it over and over. I get it.

What was a bit interesting was his talk about reducing our “addiction” to oil, and wanting to look at alternative sources of energy. That, and increasing funding for Math and Science.

However, I’ll believe it when I see it. Bush didn’t have a good record last year with what he set out to do. So I guess time will tell if anything actually happens.

It figures that after my latest rant on what I don’t like about TV, Stewie from Family Guy (one of my favorite shows) will be hosting his own show. Now Stewie isn’t the first animated character to get a talk show; I know Space Ghost had his own show, Space Ghost Coast to Coast. I had the chance to watch that quite a few times while in school and just loved it. The interviews were pretty funny, and it was just off the wall. I had never seen the original, so I’m sure I’m missing a lot of the inside jokes.

Of course, Stewie’s show won’t be on TV, but online. I guess it will make a nice podcast.

The RIAA and MPAA are at it again. The Senate has introduced legislation to basically control all digital media. Any digital media will have a “broadcast flag,” and the FCC will have to certify all new digital devices, like TVs, iPods, PSPs, DVD recorders, etc… Boing Boing has an excellent synopsis of the whole situation. Please contact your Senator and let them what you think.

If this is passed, we will suffer. It will more difficult (if not impossible) to use the content we purchase fairly. Technology companies will suffer, because they will have to go through the FCC to make new products.

Who won’t suffer? The RIAA and MPAA, of course. But will the artists they represent be better off? I’m not so sure. Some CDs have gotten so restrictive that they don’t allow you to rip them to your iPod. If these industies are going to treat me like this, I’ll take my business elsewhere. Other industries learn to innovate with new technologies; they can too.

Even if this law is passed, piracy won’t just disappear. If someone is determined to break copy protection, they are going to. The rest of us will just have more headaches and restrictions to deal with.

BellSouth is in negotiations with content providers to charge them to “preferential” routing to their customers. Basically, it’s extortion. You pay me, I’ll make sure your content gets where it needs to go. You don’t pay me, well, your content will get where it needs to go. Eventually. As the CEO of Verizon says, “We need to pay for the pipe.” Excuse me, the customers pay for the pipe. You advertise I can download movies and music and pictures at lightning speed, but don’t want to hold up your end of the bargain and actually provide content you don’t own.

In a nutshell, BellSouth (and other telco and cable companies) want to charge their customers for Internet access and charge companies for providing the content. I pay to go online, and I also pay for hosting this website. If you ask me, this feels like some unfair competition. I can only hope that the government will see this for what it is and not allow it to happen.

(On a side note, I use Lunarpages, and get 400 GB transfer for $7.95/month. If I were to pay similar rates for Roadrunner ($45/month, I would get over 2 TB transfer. Lunarpages has been fantastic these last couple years. I’ll be more than happy to refer you if you’re interested in hosting your own site.)

But wait! Our government is run by special interests. Those who have the money get to decide what happens around here. Who cares about the little guy?

So what do you think about Samuel Alito?

The only thing I could gather is that Judge Alito was pretty evasive in answering questions. Example from a NYT article asking for his opinion regarding the case regarding a government’s ability to take property for economic development under eminent domain:

“It touches some very sensitive nerves. When someone’s home is being taken away using the power of eminent domain, that is, that is a blow to a lot of people, even if they’re going to get compensated at fair market values for their home.”

What kind of answer is that? It’s a typical response I would expect from a politician. It’s not the type of response I would expect from someone up for the Supreme Court. But I’m not surprised. This kind of dog and pony show has been around for a long time. Just look at the Clarence Thomas hearings. No one remembers the actual questions; they remember the pubic hair in the Coke.

At least these hearings haven’t sunk to that level. I guess that’s a positive thing…