Pearl Jam - Life Wasted

SkypeOut now FREE for US & Canada!

Yes. It is really very, very free. There�s no prepayment, no minimum use, no subscription, no monthly fee, no nothing. You just download and install Skype and then you start calling. Both the caller and the number called must be in either the US or Canada. There are no strings attached.

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Why Qwest Hung Up On NSA

If Qwest was availible in my area, I would sign up in a instant. But unfortunately, that is not the case. Glad to see at least one CEO is looking a the fine print before rollingo over any playing dead.

"When he learned that no such authority had been granted and that there was a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process, including the Special Court which had been established to handle such matters, Mr. Nacchio concluded that these requests violated the privacy requirements of the Telecommications Act..."

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NSA now immune to the Department of Justice

The NSA has denied clearance to the DOJ, in an effort to investigate the Bush administrations illegal use of wiretaps. It appears that the NSA now has a sort of pocket veto power when it comes to any investigation involving domestic(or otherwise) spying albeit legal or not.

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Darwin's "abominable mystery" Solved?

Researchers have proposed an answer to Charles Darwin's "abominable mystery": the inexplicably rapid evolution of flowering plants immediately after their first appearance some 140 million years ago.

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Congratulations Andrew

Andrew, my brother-in-law just recieved his degree in Chemical Engineering this past weekend from Washington State Univeristy. Mel had the chance to go out and celebrate the accomplishment, I'll have my chance in two weeks when we all are going down to the Bahamas, but for now, congrats Andrew!

  

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Some pictures of what I've been up to

 
 
 
  

This is why I ski...

These people are nuts!!
But this video will catch up by surprise... fair warning... its going to shock you.




btw - 172 kmh = roughly 110 mph

RIAA - Suing people isn't a buisness model

Hey folks, just going to ask for a quick favor and head over to the fine folks at EFF to take a gander at what they are working on for us all. Sign the petition

Take a Stand Against the Madness; Stop the RIAA!

Join EFF!

More about P2P
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is on a rampage, launching legal attacks against average Americans from coast to coast. After over 18,000 lawsuits and counting against P2P users, file sharing has continued to increase rapidly. Meanwhile, music fans, like 12 year-old Brianna LaHara, college student Cassi Hunt, and parent of five Cecilia Gonzalez, are being forced to pay thousands of dollars they do not have to settle RIAA-member lawsuits, and many other innocent individuals are being caught in the crossfire.

This irrational crusade is not generating a single penny for the artists that the RIAA claims to protect. The RIAA should be working to create a rational, legal means by which its customers can take advantage of file sharing technology and pay a fair price for the music they love. With artists increasingly turning against the lawsuits, momentum may be shifting in favor of a better way forward.

Copyright law shouldn't make criminals out of more than 60 million Americans — tell Congress that it's time to stop the madness!

We have over 75,000 signatures so far - this is amazing! If we can get 100,000 signatures, we will deliver the petition to the Senate and House Commerce and Judiciary Commitees.

The worst senator you'd never want..

That is if you enjoy technology. Orin Hatch, what a guy, when faced with P2P systems he asked if hackers could "blow up" computers that were using file sharing, he went on to say
"If we can find some way to do this without destroying their machines, we'd be interested in hearing about that ... [But] if that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines."

And if your kid was caught sharing pre-release movies or music, how's a five year prison sentence sound? First offence, does it really matter, not to Hatch it doesn't.

I'm not advocating stealing music or movies, but for me the piracy has always come down to microeconomics. Looking at price points via a demand curve, as you lower the price of an object, more and more people will be willing to purchase that item. But if you go too low, the company might not be around for long. On the counter side less people will be able to afford the item if it is priced high, but the company makes more money per item. You instill supply and demand to make this more dynamic. The movie and music industry has never really been strapped for supply. Once the product is out, reproduction is fairly easy. Its developing the product that slows them down. On the other hand, demand for the product is high due to the dynamic range of appeal. Both industries can cater to the very young all the way to the very old. This keeps demand fairly high for the product. With higher demand, customers have slowly moved up the price point scale, because while supply was never low, the technology started to gain a premium. It used to be that if you wanted the best quality, you had to buy a CD (on the generic scale, things like DATs, SACD, DVD-A can have better quality, but the market is small). These companies grew used the profits made off these sales. But as I said earlier, as you push the price higher you create two groups. Those whom feel the item's value to them is not worth the price, and those who value the item, but can't pay the price. When the population of people who wanted to see more movies, or listen to more music grew large enough, a new market emerged. In the absence of the music and movie industries presence, the only thing that could support this need developed, the black market.

My biggest point in all of the boring stuff is that both the music and movie industry ignored that market and kept pushing for the hard sell. When people were faced with paying $15 -$19 dollars for one or two songs or they could get the same songs for free online, it really was a no brainer. The vast majority of folks using P2P networks, did want to pay for but it was either not practical or the couldn't afford it. Hey, I would love a BMW M3, with my current finances I can't afford it, but if I did change a few things, yes I could afford it, but it would be horribly impractical. Any if you really need any more proof of what I am saying, look no further than the 1 billion+ songs sold on iTunes. $1 a song meets the market demands, plain and simple.

Orin Hatch is of the same bread of dinosaurs that gazed upon the VHS and cried "It will be the death of the movie industry!". And we all know how that turned out for Hollywood. These same tactics are being laid out for our newest and brightest technologies, how would you feel if you couldn't watch a recording on your new HDtv? Or if you iPod could only play certain songs. Its about time we clean out the closet of these dust bunnies and moth balls. Fire Hatch!

Blue Hippo Scam Alert! The $2000+ low end desktop computer.

RAW DEAL! Worst computer deal in the history of scams. They are selling a $300 desktop computer for $2200. They are scamming the public by making it look like an easy payment plan. If the overall price wasn't bad enough, they don't even take on any risk, as they won't ship the computer until you've spent more than $600! Help expose this scam!

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Evolution follows few of the possible paths to antibiotic resistance

"Darwinian evolution follows very few of the available mutational pathways to attain fitter proteins, researchers at Harvard University have found in a study of a gene whose mutant form increases bacterial resistance to a widely prescribed antibiotic by a factor of roughly 100,000."

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Well, had a few interesting thing occur. Melanie scored us some general admission tickets to the NIN show that is coming our way. Before you go calling us crazy, they do an amazing live show. We are also looking at a Ben Harper show in September. Things have been crazy as usual. Chapel Hill continues to be a perfect fit for Mel. I'm excited about our vacations coming up this summer. The first one is in May, where we will be celebrating Andrew's graduation by heading down to the Bahamas. I'm also looking into a Colorado trip to be with Melanie on our Five year anniversary. Wow, 5 years, scary LOL. The big trip will come in August, where we will be heading out to Montana to celebrate our birthdays, a 10 year reunion, and a get-together with my best friends. All in all, its going to be a lot of fun.

Busy? kind of.. and you?

Man this past month has been kicking my ass. Not really in sense of hard to handle, its been more of a task seeing just how many balls I can juggle at once. My schedule at work has been adjusting weekly, ranging anywhere from starting at 6 AM to starting at 2PM. I'm in the final strech now, so I should have more time to keep things updated.. should.

Still here, just have been to busy to post. Please forgive me -.-;

Bah..

Sorry about the delay on some of my posts, I've been extremely busy the past few weeks. I'm currently on 7 day of the twelve days in a row that I am working. Its the end of the quarter and the company is pushing to meet demad. I'll have a chance to catch up in a few more weeks, probably at the end of the month when the quarter is over. In the mean time, lets see if I can get this video to work for everyone.

Boycott the RIAA! Skip these Record Labels.

Here is a complete list of record companies to avoid in order to fully boycott the RIAA.

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Better late than never

So I forgot to post my weekly list of recommended tunes last week. Well, not as much forgot as I got sidetracked, and never finished my post. In order to make up for it, I'm doubling the recommendations and choosing two bands. They fit well together, due to the international influence they draw upon. The first band Enon, hails from the US, but draws upon Asian influences that are intertwined into the beats. A wide range of musical styles causes this band to be hard to pin into any one category. Ranging from J-pop beats, to drawn out trip-hop, and a few anthems throw in for good measure as well.

The second band is easier to categorize, but is also unique to the US airwaves. NY city based Nous Non Plus is a French band, whose album is just that, French. But what make this album special, is the ability to not know French and still enjoy it. Either one of these bands, allow for a trip through the back alleys of the current music scene. Give them a try, I think you will walk away pleasantly amused.