Random Musings

The RIAA is at it again. This time, they’ve gotten Lindsey Graham and Dianne Feinstein to introduce the PERFORM Act. Under the PERFORM Act, digital radio services would have to broadcast in proprietary, DRM-encumbered formats, and users would not be able to record music the way they want to, but the way the RIAA “allows” them to. This is getting ridiculous. This is not a move to protect artists, this is a move to protect the RIAA’s business model. The RIAA should not be allowed to dictate technical standards, or how we can use the phyiscal property we own.

Well, the gym caved.
They still have the coed room, but now you can't see the women's area from it.
I still don't see what they were complaining about. There was a women's area, it's just that, boo hoo, men could see it from the coed area. Who cares? It's not like they could see the changing room or anything like that.
But what really irked me is the Muslim women's attempt to portray this as an anti-Muslim decision. It was a business decision. Likewise, I see the changes as a business decision, not a pro-Muslim decision (I think it was Thomas Sowell who said that people love their prejudices, but they love themselves more). Getting CAIR involved was just uncalled for.

Great, the network neutrality amendment to the new telecom bill was shot down. This means that, for example, ISPs could just arbitrarily decide to not let their customers use Bittorrent (yes, the current bill prohibits ISPs from blocking “legal” sites, but the RIAA and its buddies will probably press Congress to get Bittorrent et al declared “illegal”). Or, they could slow traffic to sites not hosted by them down to a trickle, sort of like what would happen if AT&T decided if calls to non-AT&T customers should have more interference. “Oh, you can get a new ISP”, you say. Not where I live, I can’t. Comcast has a monopoly on broadband in my part of Monmouth County, NJ. ISPs seem to want all the perks of common carrier status but none of the responsibility.

I don’t believe this. Some Muslim women buy lifetime gym memberships. The gym in question has separate workout days for men and women. Fair enough. Now, they make a business decision to open part of the gym to both genders all days. Well, Allah wouldn’t like that! So now the Muslims are complaining. Keep in mind nothing in the contract they signed said anything about a single-sex gym. They need to realize that the US has different customs regarding the appropriate interactions between women and men than Muslim countries do. If they don’t like that, then maybe they’d be happier in, say, Iran.

I was watching the news, and this dialogue just popped into my head:

Jim: Who came to visit President Bush?

Bob: The President of China.

J: What’s his name?

B: Hu.

J: The President of China.

B: Hu.

J: What’s the man’s name?

B: Hu.

J: What’s the name of the President of China.

B: Hu!

J: The President of China!

B: Hu is the President of China!

J: That’s what I’m asking!

B: That’s what I’m trying to tell you!

J: Oh, fuck you!

B: No, Fuk Yu runs the Chinese restaurant down the street.

~Fin

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope the Easter Bunny gave you lots of candy! :-D

So UMD is a flop. I can’t say I’m surprised. There just isn’t a huge market for portable movies like there is for portable music; and those who do want to watch movies on a plane or something can do so on their laptops.

Bleak April morning-

While walking to class

I hear a bird sing

April snow falling down

A bleak cold day

Class let out early, coffee in my hand

Thinking about how my college career is ending

Could I have done it better?

So many mistakes…

April snow mixing with my tears.

I got a $4000 scholarship to Pace! This, plus subsidized loans, covers half of my tuition! So I guess I won't have to go too deep into debt. :-D

So Congress is trying to mess with the Internet again. This time, they’re trying to move content judged to be “harmful to minors” into a special domain, .xxx (Bet I fooled you with the title of this post, didn't I ;)).

First, this will do nothing about Internet pornography. If I were an Internet pornographer, there is no way in Hell I’d use a US web host.

Secondly, who decides what’s “harmful to minors”? According to the Republicans, information on birth control is “harmful to minors”.

This is just a bad idea. Congress doesn’t own the Internet!