Fiat Lux

Birthday edition. Yay me.

Gimi takes a drink out of the sink.

Me, I'll be going for something a bit stronger than water at dinner tonight.

No, not the Ruhlman book. Anthony Bourdain's inimitable style has extended into the web comic world. Check out yesterday's Dork Tower.

I wasn't too sanguine about our ability to find an affordable, non-jetBlue flight home for Passover, but with a little help from Fare Compare, we scored non-stop, round-trip tickets for $200 less than I thought we were going to have to pay.

The flight out is a little full, and it gets us into Newark a little later that I would prefer. We also haven't flown Continental in years, so that should be a nice change of pace.

If you like listening to music streamed via internet radio, or from websites like Pandora, you might want to click through and read the FAQ at Save Our Internet Radio.

On March 1, 2007 the US Copyright Office stunned the Internet radio industry by releasing a ruling on performance royalty fees that are based exclusively on the number of people tuned into an Internet radio station, rather than on a portion of the station’s revenue. They discarded all evidence presented by webcasters about the potentially crippling effect on the industry of such a rate structure, and rubber-stamped the rates requested by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Under this royalty structure, an Internet radio station with an average listenership of 1000 people would owe $134,000 in royalties during 2007 - plus $98,000 in back payments for 2006. In 2008 they would owe $171,000, and $220,000 in 2009.

There is no way for a station with 1000 listeners to make that kind of money. That’s over $11 per listener in 2007. No Internet radio station currently operating comes even close to that kind of income. Also keep in mind that 1000 listeners is not a large number. Popular stations like Radio Paradise, SOMA, Digitally Imported, radioio, etc have many times that many listeners.

In other words, if they are allowed to stand these rates are a death sentence for independent Internet radio stations. The only stations that would survive would be those who can afford to operate at that kind of loss, such as AOL (who would owe over $20,000,000 in 2006, far in excess of their income from radio).

Unless the Feds change their current ruling, it's looking like RIAA has been able to strike a death blow against all but the biggest and best-funded companies that stream music online.

Hat tip: Craig.

Jury finds Libby guilty.

Four of five counts of lying, perjury and obstructing justice, to be precise.

or, Dogs have masters, Cats have staff.

So as is usual in the morning, I'm standing in my bathroom, getting ready to brush my teeth. Gimi, also as usual, saunters in and lets out a little yelp as he launches his big fatt butt up onto the sink counter. I fill my drinking cup with some fresh tapwater and power up my nice electric toothbrush. Meantime, Gimi sticks his nose into the cup and starts lapping up the water like he hasn't had a drink in a week (although there's a full water bowl over by his food dish).

A minute or so later, I finish up, spit, and turn the faucet on. Gimi keeps on drinking. I cup my hands under the water running out of the tap and rinse my mouth out.

I am well trained.

One of the things I've always wondered about e-mail spam has been -- who is actually making money off this stuff, and how much? Well, an article Yahoo! News today shows that there is, in fact, serious money to be made by spamming. I'd always assumed that there had to be some profit in it, or else spammers would not keep on doing it, but this was the first time I've actually gotten a window into how much.

In one spam campaign involving Apparel Manufacturing Associates (APPM) the SEC said the company's stock closed at 6 cents on trading volume of 3,500 shares on Friday, December 15, 2006.

After a weekend spam campaign distributed e-mails proclaiming "Huge news expected out on APPM, get in before the wire, We're taking it all the way to $1.00," trading volume on Monday, December 18, 2006, soared to 484,568 shares with the price spiking to over 19 cents a share.

Two days later the APPM price climbed to 45 cents. However, by December 27, 2006, the price had slumped to 10 cents on trading volume of 65,350 shares, the agency said.

Fortunately, the SEC is starting to take some steps to try to reign this kind of stock manipulation in, but I suspect as long as spam and penny stocks are around, we won't be completely free from the practice.

Sarah Hornik is an extremely talented artist who lives in Tel Aviv. She makes some of the most beautiful glass beads I've ever seen; each one is a colorful jewel, completely unique, whimsical, fun, and loaded with color. She also has a blog, and this week she uploaded a video of how she makes her beads. I've never actually seem lampwork done before, and it was fascinating to watch how fast she worked.

So, if you've ever been curious how someone would make something as beautiful as this:

then check this link out.

She sells her work on her website, as well as on eBay, if you decide you have to own some of her stuff (although the bead show above has already been sold, sorry. And not to me.)

Tommy and Bear, startled by a noise, look up. Tommy prepares to run off to either hide or investigate.

I had a rough week, and next week probably won't be much better. Bleh.

Thinking about starting a blog? Then this article is definitely worth reading.

The one thing the author is overlooking (although perhaps he'll say something about this is a later post) is that starting a blog actually isn't the hard part. Keeping one up is. I'd be willing to bet that a significant percentage of new blogs get abandoned within the first 30 days. Just in the past six months, I know of three people who've started blogs, put a couple of posts out, and then stopped.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, as the saying goes. Like any other activity, not everyone who tries blogging is going to like it enough to want to make it a regular part of their life.

I have to get going to meet some friends for brunch, but I'm going to start thinking about pulling some tips for "how to keep on blogging" into a post.

A tip of the hat to Discourse.net for this bit of news:

Halliburton, the big energy services company, said today that it would open a corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai and move its chairman and chief executive, David J. Lesar, there.

[snip]

The announcement about the Dubai move, which Halliburton made at a regional energy conference in Bahrain, comes at a time when the company is being investigated by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegations of improper dealings in Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria. Halliburton has also paid out billions in settlements in asbestos litigation.

Halliburton officials did not elaborate today on what the shift of its top executive might mean. The move seemed to raise questions about whether Halliburton might gain tax advantages or other benefits from shifting into a foreign country with pro-business regulations.

One might also wonder what the extradition treaties with Dubai are like.....

Josh Marshall has the details. More, undoubtedly, to follow:

We now know that Gonzales, McNulty and Moschella each lied to Congress. We know that the purge was a plan that began at the White House -- and it was overseen by two of President Bush's closest lieutenants in Washington -- [former White House Counsel Harriet] Miers and Gonzales. [AG Gonzales' Chief of Staff Kyle] Sampson is the second resignation. There will certainly be more.

Yes, I really am enough of a geek to find the concept of "Pi" day (3.14) amusing.

I bought an individual-size apple pie for Scott, and I had strawberry rhubarb. Tart, yet tasty.

By the way, I have not forgotten about my promise to write a post about how to keep on blogging. I just need to find the time to do it.

I IMed a link to a friend earlier today about the news that Karl Rove was, unsurprisingly, more involved than the White House originally admitted in the current US attorney firing scandal. Her response was (more or less): "I wonder if this is what it felt like during Watergate".

I grew up with two highly politically aware parents and am old enough to remember Watergate. I don't remember the story unfolding piece by piece -- I mostly remember odd details like the "Impeach Nixon" buttons -- but I do know exactly where I was the day Nixon resigned, becasue we were on an airplane to Hawaii when it happened, and the captain got onto the intercom to announce the news.

All of which is a long way of saying, I don't know if this is like Watergate, or just another three-day scandal. Even if it is, I doubt we'll have the same outcome. If Gonzales and Rove get booted from their jobs, well, that's at least a step in the right direction. We'll know more next week, maybe, at Senator Schumer's hearings.

Tommy occasionally hangs out on top of the dry cat food bin.

Just in case you missed it:

As the Senate limits Gonzales' hiring authority, the step-by-step process of fixing this god-awful mess continues. A banal observation, but it's the best I can do right now.

I really haven't had the time to follow the Gonzales firestorm with anything near the attention necessary to offer intelligent or useful commentary. I am a bad blogger.

I posted a somewhat shorter version of these thoughts on a private web board tonight, then decided I might as well expand my thoughts into a blog post. It's in response to an ongoing discussion of when, if ever, the Congress will impeach President Bush:

I'm quite sure that even some Republicans heartily wish Bush were out of office, although probably not for the same reasons as we Democrats. Even so, that doesn't increase the likelihood of impeachment.

It feels really good to say "Impeach him!" and visualize the humiliating trial and spectacle that Bush deserves. Hell, I'd love to see it too. I'd love to see Cheney go down, and Rove led away in handcuffs, and all of these assclowns get the punishment they so richly deserve. Don't think that because I disagree with [the people waiting impatiently for impeachment] that I don't want those things too.

But this is real life, and real life is very, very rarely that neat and clean. If I've learned anything in my years on this planet, I've learned that human beings are drawn to the extremes. We love drama, we love showdowns, we love big, exciting finishes. We love vengeance and payback and bad people getting what they deserve. And in situations like this one, we want to think that that's what we're going to get. We want it so badly we convince ourselves that it's the only possible course of action.

The other side of the coin is that inertia is a powerful motivator too. People are very much in love with the status quo, and they deeply fear change. There's also that fact that despite all the crap that this administration does, we still have a country to run, and only so may hours in the day to get things done. Is payback for past offenses more important that that? Not everyone thinks so. After all, Bush is termed out, and there's less than 2 years to go until Election Day 2008. Perhaps it would be better to just get through these next two years as best we can, minimize the damage as much as possible, and then move on with some other President.

The end result of any event is hardly ever as good or as bad as people predict. Usually, what you get is something that's more nuanced, more towards the middle of the possible range of results. What does that mean for the current Gonzales / Rove / US Attorney scandal? I don't know, but I strongly suspect that what will happen will end up looking a lot more like the Libbey trial than like the Nixon impeachment.

I wonder how much they saved by not having to pay the claims for all these people whose policies were canceled?

Blue Cross of California systematically violates state law when it cancels health insurance policyholders after they get pregnant or sick, making no attempt to determine whether the consumers did anything to merit such harsh treatment, a scathing investigation by state regulators has found.

As a result of its unprecedented investigation, the Department of Managed Health Care today fined Blue Cross $1 million. The department's findings also expose the company, the state's largest health insurer, to legal liability in dozens of lawsuits filed by consumers who allege their policies were illegally canceled, subjecting them to substantial hardships.

Other major insurers face similar investigations and are targets of lawsuits over similar charges.

The investigation found that Blue Cross used computer programs and a dedicated department to systematically cancel the policies of pregnant women and the chronically ill regardless of whether they intentionally lied on their applications to cover up pre-existing medical conditions, a standard required by state law for canceling individual policies. Regulators examined 90 randomly selected cases of policy cancellations and found violations in each one.

Hat tip, Kevin.

Large cat. Small box.

Still, he's happy.

Craig pointed out a cool mashup site today: MapWii.

One of the clunkier aspects of the Wii is the multi-step process necessary to get a friend's Mii on your console. The result is that although our Mii Parade is well-populated, it's 98% random Miis and only a couple from people we actually know.

UPDATE 3/26: Hello, Digg users.

Insomnia sucks.

That is all.

Kathy Sierra writes a blog - Creating Passionate Users - that anybody who is in the business of creating technology products should read. And today she's running scared from a string of death threats and sexually-explicit online harassment.

Misogyny in the technology business is hardly new. And despite considerable advances for a lot of us women in the field, it's still an issue -- for just one fairly tame example, witness some of the comments about women in this thread posted over this past weekend on the widely-read 'Joel on Software' forums. There's plenty more where that came from; I just don't have the stomach to Google up examples right now. It sucks, and it needs to change, although sometimes I wonder if that change will come in my lifetime.

In the unlikely event that you're reading this, Kathy, all I can say is, hold onto your loved ones for support, and keep your chin up. You're right to be angry, and you're right to be afraid. But don't let that fear run your life, either. It just gives the people who do this kind of crap more power. It's like net trolls. They live and gain power by generating response. Ignore them, and they wither on the vine.

That's easy for me to say, of course; it's been more than 8 years since anyone has seriously harassed me online. Plus, I never got death threats, and I didn't have to worry about children. So perhaps her response is the right one for now, or at least for her.

UPDATE 7:11PM

Robert Scoble weighs in:

So, since she doesn’t feel safe. I’m going to stop blogging in support of Kathy, who I consider a friend and someone who’s voice would be dearly missed here. I’ll be back Monday.

The Internet culture is really disgusting. Today when I was on Justin.TV the kinds of things that people were discussing in the chat room there were just totally disgusting and over the top.

We have to fix this culture. For the next week, let’s discuss how.

And, Kathy, Maryam and I love you and are there for you. Don’t let these jerks get you down.

It’s this culture of attacking women that has especially got to stop. I really don’t care if you attack me. I take those attacks in stride. But, whenever I post a video of a female technologist there invariably are snide remarks about body parts and other things that simply wouldn’t happen if the interviewee were a man.

It makes me realize just how ascerbic this industry and culture are toward women. This just makes me ill.

Great response, and I can't say how much I appreciate some A-list recognition that this IS a big problem for women in technology. But taking a week off in support of Kathy? I'm not so sure about that. How about a 'blog against sexism in technology' week instead?

I know I said at the end of my last post that perhaps we should have a 'blog against sexism in technology' week, and strictly speaking this isn't a post about that, but I think it's relevant anyway. Check out this anecdote from Anthony Bourdain:

I will careful tell you of an equally horrifying episode. At a recent event, I was introduced to the incoming (Beard House honcho whose position I will not describe here). Suffice to say it was a high position. Very high.

When she inquired about the possibility of my involvement in some tandem Beard event with my friend Eric Ripert, I declined, saying it would be hypocritical of me--given what I've said and written--to take part. I explained that I would be an enthusiastic supporter and participant of all things Beard when and if I saw some kind of an effort to acknowledge the people who are actually doing the cooking in this country--the between 30 and 70% of restaurant employees of Mexican and Latino origin--of varying legal status. I was thinking a few bucks set aside for free para-legal advice. Maybe a widely accessible library. English lessons.

Her response? She looked at me with an expression of absolute sincerity and said, "Oh..we're very aware of the important contribution of our Lateeeno population." Then, proudly boasted about the good works Beard House has been doing on their behalf: "Why...just last week at a dinner at the House, 7 out of 10 of the waiters we hired were Lateeno!" She looked at me, guilessly, as if expecting a pat on the head.

Here, it's Latino workers in the food industry instead of women in technology, but the unthinking cluelessness is all too familiar. "The extreme carelessness of the very rich" is how F Scott Fitzgerald put it, and that sounds just about right. The real prerogative of being in a position of power is that you don't have to care. You can slide through your comfortable, privileged life without ever once having to think about how food gets on a table, or why everyone else in the boardroom looks just like you.

I was raised to believe that there's a responsibility that comes with power, though. No one person can do something about all the problems in this world, but you can have an impact if you set a goal and make a real effort to do something about it. Some people like to make fun of Hollywood stars who so earnestly champion their pet causes. I don't. There's few enough people in this world who both want to do something good and are in a position to have that kind of an impact. As far as I'm concerned, the more the merrier.

It's hardly unusual to read a news item about corporate downsizing. This one caught my eye, though: Circuit City to cut more than 3,500 jobs. Here's why: The company is downsizing by laying off their highest-paid employees. Not the ones with the worst performance ratings, not the ones who've been there the shortest amount of time. They're firing their best-paid retail employees.

I don't know the details of Circuit City's employment practices, but generally speaking, you have to either be good at what you do and/or have been with the company a longer amount of time in order to get better paid. So if that holds true here, then Circuit City is deliberately dumping the cream of their retail workforce in order to save money.

In other words, they are firing the people who actually know where stuff is in the stockroom, or how to get it if it's not there. Laying off the ones who know how to ring in a return on the register without having to ask for help and take 10 minutes doing it. Getting rid of the people who actually know something about their products and can talk intelligently about them.

That sounds like an incredibly boneheaded move to me.

But what do i know? After all, I only managed a retail store. I wouldn't know anything about how much more productive a seasoned employee is than someone who's still learning how to do their job. Nope, I must be completely wrong.

Or maybe not. Even Home Depot seems to know better:

Circuit City's cuts come at a time when other retailers are trying to put more knowledgeable workers on store floors. Home Depot Inc., whose new chief executive is struggling to re-ignite sales growth at its stores, said it has raised pay to attract skilled tradespeople, such as carpenters and electricians.

Good luck with the layoffs, Circuit City. I think you're going to need it.

75,105 and $3.27

The first, is the number of miles on my car odometer. The second, the price of unleaded gas at my regular station in San Mateo this morning.

Days like this, I start wondering whether it might be time for a new, more fuel efficient car.

But on the other hand, here's another number: 31.5.

That's the average MPG my 2000 Saturn SL2 has been getting recently. And that's not at all bad for a 7-year-old automatic transmission car.

I could certainly do better. if you look at the Top 10 Most Fuel-Efficient Cars of 2007 (as rated by Edmunds.com), it's clear that as good as I'm doing with my current car, there's room for improvement in my MPG. The fact that I don't know how to drive stick shift does limit my options, though. I'd have to go hybrid to see a significant MPG improvement.

With my student loans starting to kick in, I'm not very enthusiastic about taking on a new car payment, though. So perhaps it's just as well that my old Saturn is merrily chugging along.

My camera and lens aren't really powerful enough for good zoom / macro work (or maybe I just haven't figured out how to do it right), but this close-up of Bear's rear paw came out OK.

We're leaving for NYC tomorrow. Expect light blogging the next few days.