Year: 2007

SoundExchange Realizes that Congress Is Going Cut Them a New One

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I used to work at Jarvis Products corporation, and I worked on meat packing tools including the Bung Dropper.

It looks like this: , And it does this:

Here is the Youtube:

Yep, it literally cuts the animal a new asshole.

Sound Exchange decided to rape online radio stations, and now those stations have the US Congress’s ear. This means that it’s likely that they will get the deal that over the air radio has, which will lose them money relative to the status quo, so congress is poised to cut them a new asshole.

SoundExchange offers royalty compromise
By Austin Modine in Mountain View
Published Monday 2nd July 2007 23:15 GMT

Music industry taxman SoundExchange is offering a new deal to internet radio broadcasters who say upcoming royalty hikes will kill online broadcasting.

The proposed compromise puts a ceiling on the new set of hefty royalty rate hikes that takes effect July 15. Previously, the fee increase called for webcasters to be charged $500 per station per month in royalties. That would spell certain doom for stations such as Pandora and Live364 which offer thousands of streams over the internet.

Under SoundExchange’s latest olive branch, royalties would be capped at $2,500 per service, regardless of the overall number of stations or channels they are streaming.

“The idea that the per-channel minimum might have a disproportionate impact on certain internet radio stations was never presented to the Copyright Royalty Judges,” SoundExchange general counsel Michael Huppe said in a statement. “Nevertheless, at the request of Congress, we are trying to work with the small subset of affected webcasters, and are offering this proposal in the hopes of addressing those concerns.”

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Other Countries Now Throwing Economic Weight Around

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US unilateralism will be increasingly untenable as time goes on. This is one such example.

Free trade is generally sold as a series of restrictions on other governments, but the requirements of the current regime require compromises that strike at the heart of law enforcement, consumer safety, and worker protections.

The “soft economic power” (blaackmail) that the US uses to influence domestic policies of other nations, up to and including elections, will increasingly be directed back toward the US.

Banks want data pulled from US

By Mark Ballard
Published Tuesday 3rd July 2007 09:53 GMT

The central banks of China and Russia have joined private companies in calling on Swift, the international financial intermediary, to pull all non-US data from America, The Register has learned.

SWIFT has found itself caught between a rock and a hard place. The organisation secretly handed over personal data to comply with demands from the US to aid the country’s investigation into terrorist finances after the September 11 attacks. By doing so, it broke the data protection laws of many EU countries.

The move raises questions about the perceived security of commercial data held in the US. Swift conducts its own privacy audits of US counter-terrorism subpoenas on financial transactions it manages for the banking industry.

The EU also struck an agreement with the US last week to establish its own oversight of the US operation. SWIFT has also applied for Safe Harbor protection of its data in the US, yet is still taking pressure to withdraw from the US seriously.

“There are other countries that would like to see data situated in the EU rather than the US,” said a well-placed source.

China and Russia were “notable” among countries whose central banks had expressed their concerns to Swift. The European Central Bank, which also used Swift’s services, has been criticised by EU authorities for letting the EU look at European financial data in secret.

Swift is trying to break into the domestic banking markets in China and Russia and is keen to get off on the right foot with local authorities. In India, where Swift is also trying to make a splash, the banks are said to be investigating alternatives.

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It’s the Gameplay, Stupid

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The article mentions price, and lack of titles for the PS3, but it’s the Wiimote (what an in-bloody-credibly stupid name).

Having to do “rocker switch, left, left, a, b, a” to swing a golf club is simply inferior game play.

Six Wiis sold for every PS3 purchased in Japan
By James Sherwood
Published Tuesday 3rd July 2007 12:24 GMT

Nintendo’s Wii continued to reign supreme in Japan last month, with sales outstripping Sony’s PlayStation 3 by a staggering six to one. The Wii outsold Microsoft’s Xbox 360 by an even greater margin.

According to figures from Japanese market watcher and publisher Enterbrain, some 270,974 Wii consoles were sold in the four weeks to 24 June. This compares to just 41,628 PS3s and a measly 17,616 Xbox 360s, during the same period.

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The RIAA Has Me Rooting for the Russians

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Heck, if the choice was between the RIAA and Dick Cheney, I’m not sure how I’d choose.

Russian copyright wars to continue despite AllofMP3 shutdown
By Chris Williams
Published Tuesday 3rd July 2007 10:47 GMT

AllofMP3.com, the UK’s second most popular source for music downloads after iTunes, has been shut down after diplomatic pressure was piled on Russian authorities.

MediaServices, the combative firm behind the site, is still selling cut-price music however, meaning the international legal posturing is set to continue.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which had won the right to sue AllofMP3 in the UK, told The Reg this morning it was unsure how the shutdown would affect its legal attack.

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These are Called “Death Throws”

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Basically, all that the private equity firm was interested in was the dealer network. Chrysler will not be manufacturing cars in 5-10 years. It will simply be rebadging them.

Chrysler reportedly near import deal with Chinese automaker
greement to import Chinese subcompacts reportedly close to final approval; news comes as concerns linger over the safety of Chinese-made goods.
July 3 2007: 8:21 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Chrysler Group is set to give final approval to a deal that would have a Chinese automaker build small cars for it to sell in the United States and Western Europe, according to a newspaper report Tuesday.

The deal between Chrysler and China’s Chery Motor Co., which comes in the wake of growing concern among U.S. consumers over the safety of Chinese-made goods, was in question after DaimlerChrysler agreed to sell a majority stake in Chrysler to private-equity firm Cerberus Management.

But the Detroit News reports that Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda is in China finalizing the agreement.

The paper said the deal will be announced in Beijing on Wednesday, which, given the difference in times zones, is just before the Independence Day holiday here.

Chrysler had first confirmed that it was holding talks with Chery on the Friday before the New Year’s holiday here, another time that minimized news coverage.

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Under Achiever, and Proud of It

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I just want to say that Matt Groening is a bloody genius.

7-Elevens turn into ‘Simpsons’ Kwik-E-Marts
DALLAS, Texas (AP)– Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of “The Simpsons” fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art.

Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO’s cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees.

It’s all part of a campaign to hype the July 27 opening of “The Simpsons Movie,” the big-screen debut for the long-running television cartoon, which loves to lampoon 7-Eleven as a store that sells all kinds of unhealthy snacks and is run by a man with a thick Indian accent.

For 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Homer’s creators at Gracie Films, the stunt is a cheap way to call attention to their movie, since 7-Eleven is bearing all the costs, which executives of the retail chain put at somewhere in the single millions.

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Bambi, Don’t Bogart that Joint!

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In related news, 12 deer have been arrested on suspicion of breaking into a Quik-E-Mart and stealing 3200 ice cream sammiches. Authorities followed the path of discarded wrappers to catch the alleged thieves.

‘Unusually frisky’ deer blow lid on marijuana plantation

By Lester Haines
Published Monday 2nd July 2007 13:35 GMT

Italian police busted two would-be marijuana cultivators after “unusually frisky” deer alerted the authorities as to the presence of their mountaintop dope plantation, UPI reports.

Locals in Trento began telling tales of the abnormally high-spirited animals, while forest rangers began to wonder why the normally shy and straight-laced cervine population was letting it all hang out by day and “making great leaps on the mountainside”.

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Death Rays Due in a Few Years

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Unlike the chemical lasers used in the Boeing 747 demonstrator, solid state lasers are much more likely to be tactically usable.

Cooling could be a real bear though.

Northrop Grumman demonstrates high-power laser building block
By Graham Warwick

High-power solid-state lasers could be fielded within four years if the US military funds its growing interest in directed-energy weapons, believes Northrop Grumman. The company says it is on track to demonstrate a lethal 100kW-class solid-state laser late next year.

“With funding, we could put a 25kW laser out there in less than two years and 100kW in three to four years,” says Mike McVey, vice-president for directed-energy systems for Northrop Grumman Space Technology. A 10-20kW laser could blind sensors while a 100kW weapon would allow an airborne platform to take out radar sites and destroy vehicles, he says

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US Air Force General Guarantees Sweet Retirement Deal with Lockheed

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There are alternatives that work in Europe today. They should just cancel this, but some General is planning his retirement years at Lockheed..

US Air Force proposes reliability plan for Lockheed missile
By Stephen Trimble

The US Air Force has proposed a reliability improvement plan for Lockheed Martin’s AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, but has not yet followed through on a threat to cancel the troubled programme.

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The Joys of Family Communications

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When one has children, it is not uncommon for one to find one’s self saying unexpected things.

You have those things you swore you would never say, like “I’m the Daddy, that’s why“, and “Because I said so.“

You then have those things you never, ever, imagined you would say, like, “It’s not buffet time at the Wildebeest“.

Finally, occasionally, and you get that rare chance to say something that you’ve always wanted to say.

This happened today. I was driving with the family in the mini-van (I can’t believe I own a f$%#ing mini-van), and I was whistling to myself (the 1812 Overture, I think), and Natalie asked me how to whistle.

I, replied, “You know how to whistle, don’t you? You just put your lips together and blow.“

Made my day.

So does any opportunity to say, “I’m an engineer, not a doctor, dammit!”

Liberals Don’t Get It, Women are Property

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This is a repulsive thing. It is about the idea that wives are property.

Stealing another’s man’s wife costs $4,802
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) — Stealing someone’s heart can cost you: Just ask German Blinov.

A Cook County jury ordered Blinov to shell out $4,802 last week after he was sued by a husband from a Chicago suburb for stealing the affections of the man’s wife.

Arthur Friedman used a little-known state law to mount the legal attack against Blinov. The alienation of affection law, one of eight across the country, lets spouses seek damages for the loss of love.

But Natalie Friedman, the woman at the center of it all, claims her husband asked her to have sex with other men and women — including Blinov — to spice up their relationship.

She supposedly began having feelings for Blinov, prompting her husband to file the lawsuit.

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Aire Force Jumps on Next Gravy Train

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The problem here is that the USAF has never done well supporting troops on the ground, and this is best folded unto US Army operations.

This is really about the USAF trying to make sure that it’s on the gravy train as the US military is redefined for likely conflicts, counter-insurgency (COINS), where the latest USAF whiz bang gets you no advantage.

The F-22, F-35, new tankers, bombers, etc. have NO additional utility relative to legacy systems in COINS.

US Air Force planners want irreguar warfare wing
By Stephen Trimble

US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) planners have called for the stand-up of a new “irregular warfare” wing dedicated to fighting insurgents and terrorists with an aircraft fleet numbering 44 airlifters, 20 helicopters and 20 turboprop strike fighters.

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The irregular warfare wing concept seeks to introduce the first dedicated strike aircraft for fighting insurgent forces since the Douglas A-1 Skyraider in the Vietnam war.

“One possible candidate for the light strike role is the air-to-ground modified [Beechcraft] AT-6B. Other candidate aircraft include the [Embraer] Tucano or Super Tucano,” the AFSOC paper states. The authors add that a Cessna Caravan “might be useful as a light mobility, strike, or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft depending on its configuration”.

Perhaps more important than the light strike component, the new wing should operate four Lockheed Martin C-130s in a “heavy mobility” role, as well as 20 medium lift and 20 light mobility aircraft. The latter can be comprised of Cessnas or EADS Casa C-212s, while the former might be the Alenia Aeronautica C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft.

I Used to Work On This

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When I was at Lockheed in Grand Prairie, I worked on VT-1. the missile in the what was then called the Crotale NG (it’s apparrently now called the Crotale III).

Thales Unveils New-Generation Surface Radar (Subscription Required)

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•A longer range version of the Crotale very-short-range missile system. Designated the Mk. 3, the system will have a range of 15 km. and 9,000 meters altitude—a 50% increase over the existing missile. Combined with Shikra in a ground-based air defense network, the Mk. 3 can detect targets at a range of 108 km., including UAVs and cruise missiles 30-40 km. away—twice the performance of competing radars—Thales engineers say. Its VT1 hypervelocity missile will enable the Mk. 3 to reach targets at 15-km. maximum range within 30 sec.—up to half the time needed for weapons like the Amraam, MICA or Derby converted from air-launched weapons, they say.


The Crotale Mk. 3 will afford a 50% improvement in range and ceiling compared with existing versions of the very-short-range air defense system.

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Yep….that’s VT-1. I recognize my old friend.

FWIW, I started work on VT1 in 1996, regarding some issues of contention between the prime contractor (then Thomson CSF, now Thales) and Loral Vought (Became Lockheed Martin Vought Systems, then Lockheed Martin Missiles and fire control).

I would have figured that it would have been finished well before this.

Nefarious WIPO Plot Defeated

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Basically, the question is about rebroadcast of over the air and cable signals on the Internet across international boundaries.

The broadcasters were trying to use this as a way to generate additional, and undeserved, profits, by creating a new “right”.

WIPO broadcast treaty defeated by web activists
By OUT-LAW.COM
Published Monday 2nd July 2007 09:57 GMT

A controversial new intellectual property right due to be created by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has been successfully opposed by a coalition of web activists and the technology industry.

WIPO has spent nearly 10 years gathering international agreement over a new deal for broadcasters which would give them intellectual property rights over broadcasts which would exist in addition to existing copyright laws.

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At the end of the meeting, though, there was not enough agreement between member nations about the proposal and the committee recommended that the proposal not be forwarded to a diplomatic conference for adoption.

Gwen Hinze is the international affairs director for the EFF. She told weekly technology law podcast OUT-LAW Radio about the opposition to the plans.

“If you create a new layer of rights that sit on top of copyright from a consumer’s point of view that raises questions about access to information, so information that might otherwise be in the public domain as a matter of copyright law, the exceptions and limitations wouldn’t apply and that raises some concerns about access to knowledge,” said Hinze.

Podcasters were worried that the new right would affect material they produced and their ability to disseminate it on their own terms. One and a half thousand of them signed an EFF open letter to WIPO protesting against the move.

Consumer electronics companies also protested because the plan contained technological protection measures which they feared could give broadcasters control over television recording equipment, such as TiVO boxes.

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Opponents agree that television signal piracy is a problem that must be solved, but say that it can be solved with a ‘signals based approach’ rather than by creating an entire new intellectual property right.

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As always, I do not agree to the term intellectual property. It does not exists. There is simply a limited exclusive license in order to promote the useful arts and sciences.

This is Where We Are in Real Estate

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5 Paragraphs, and the entire picture of the sick man that is US housing is laid bare.

Salton City: A land of dreams and dead fish

New homes and old optimism continue to sprout in a desert community that hasn’t really jelled in 50 years.
By David Streitfeld
Times Staff Writer

July 1, 2007

SALTON CITY, CALIF. — This lakeside hamlet is about as remote as you can get in Southern California and still have plumbing and pavement.

Nestled on the western shore of the Salton Sea, the town doesn’t have a supermarket or movie theater or drugstore. But it has as many as 250 homes for sale, most of them newly built — a huge supply for a place with just 1,440 people.

When real estate values began soaring a few years ago, builders flocked here. Summer temperatures might hit 115 or even 120 degrees and the sea may be too sickly for swimming or sailing, but land was cheap. Builders figured that people priced out of Los Angeles and San Diego would discover Salton City and the other towns in Imperial County.

Now, with home values sliding, mortgage rates edging up and gasoline prices on an upward trend, that assumption appears premature at best. Imperial County, at least for the moment, seems a subdivision too far.

“Builders are like lemmings. They saw a few of their peers going to Imperial County and they all joined in,” housing consultant Patrick Duffy said. “They didn’t do market studies. They just crossed their fingers.”

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Emphasis mine.

What Atrios Said

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Here:

Inevitably, the subject of Marc Rich comes up every time presidential pardons come up. Without going into all of the issues, can we just remind the world that… Marc Rich’s lawyer was Scooter Libby.

As I’ve said before, and will say again, this is why Duncan Black is an A-list blogger, and I am a Z-list blogger.

Universal Attempts to Screw )tunes, Two Great Retister Headlines Edition

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No mistake about this. The labels are doing this for control, and once they have control, they will make the music experience total hell for listeners.

I wonder who writes the headlines for The Register. They are the best heds on the net.

World’s biggest label kneecaps iTunes store
By Andrew Orlowski
Published Monday 2nd July 2007 10:34 GMT

Universal Music Group (UMG) has dealt a serious blow to Apple’s music ambitions by refusing to renew its contract with the iTunes Store.

The New York Times reports that the decision not to continue the annual contract was made by UMG executives last week.

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Update today

Universal downgrades kneecapping to kick in nuts
By Andrew Orlowski (andrew.orlowski@theregister.co.uk)
Published Tuesday 3rd July 2007 14:02 GMT

Universal Music Group (UMG) has responded to yesterday’s report in the New York Times by declaring that it will continue to supply its catalog to Apple’s iTunes store. It’ll just do so on new terms, far more flexible than it previously enjoyed.

The Times reported that UMG had refused to renew its new annual contract with Apple. Apple therefore faced the prospect of seeing the world’s biggest record label withdraw its repertory from the iTunes store. But Business Week reports today that UMG is keeping this nuclear option dry.

It cites anonymous sources who explain that UMG has made an “at will” arrangement, that “enables [UMG] to strike exclusive distribution deals with other digital music providers for individual artists or tracks, though it will continue to sell music through iTunes. Under the new arrangement, for example, Universal could charge another music e-tailer (or Apple, for that matter) a premium to sell Jay-Z’s latest single exclusively for a limited time”.

With Apple facing competition from ad-supported download services, it’s hardly surprising UMG wants to retain flexibility with its pricing. But what UMG wants even more than Apple is to maintain a higher unit price for music, as competition from service providers drives the per-unit cost down, reducing the value of its assets.

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Senior execs targeted in ‘precision’ malware attacks

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Evil techno geeks vs. evil MBAs. Hopefully, there is a way for BOTH of them to lose.

This is very smart on the part of the scammers. Most exploits are found because they are millions of copies floating around the web. In this case, they might not be found until well after the criminals have put a few million bucks in Zurich.

Senior execs targeted in ‘precision’ malware attacks
By John Leyden
Published Monday 2nd July 2007 12:36 GMT

Hackers are targeting senior managers of large firms – along with members of their families – in a new wave of highly-focused email attacks.

On 26 June, net security services firm MessageLabs intercepted more than 500 individual email attacks targeted against individuals in senior management positions. The attack email often featured the name and job title of the intended victim in their subject lines. Chief investment officers accounted for 30 per cent of the attacks, 11 per cent were directed against chief executives.

Other job titles among the top 10 targets included chief information officers, chief financial officers, directors of research, directors of development, and company presidents.

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