Disney’s being sued by a kids’ hospital that has the rights to the Peter Pan novels. The hospital says that the 1998 Sonny Bono term-extension (a law that Disney bought in order to ensure that its earliest cartoons didn’t enter the public domain) covers the Peter Pan stories and so Disney owes it royalties on a sequel that a publishing subsidiary put out. Disney says that the law doesn’t cover the Pan books — and that it should know, since it paid for that law! — and now they’re going to court.
Music and Math
At 28, Manjul Bhargava has already won a coveted full professorship at Princeton University. An expert in number theory, the study of the properties and relationships of numbers, Bhargava is also a master of the tabla, a small Indian hand drum used to create music with rhythmic, precise patterns.
Number theory is the type of math that describes the swirl in the head of a sunflower and the curve of a chambered nautilus. Bhargava says it’s also hidden in the rhythms of classical Indian music, which is both mathematical and improvisational. He sees close links between his two loves — both create beauty and elegance by weaving together seemingly unconnected ideas.
Small Business and the Presidential Election
Rhonda Abrams takes a look at small business issues and the upcoming Presidential election.
SBC Bundles WiFi with DSL Service
Wisconsin Telco Monopoly SBC launches an inexpensive, bundled WiFi option for their DSL subscribers:
SBC officially announces $1.99 per month unlimited hot spot services: If you subscribe to SBC’s DSL service at a rate as low as $26.95 per month for their cheapest service, you are entitled to unlimited Wi-Fi hot spot service for $1.99 a month with a one-year commitment — after receiving free service until April 2005.
This gives SBC a giant sledgehammer to wield against the cable vendors trying to encourage people to sign up for ever-slower cable service. I’ll confess that I’m biased against cable because of the pooled bandwidth/pooled network approach. Cable modem providers initially had no protection against entire neighborhoods seeing each other’s networks. Then they restricted upload speeds to 128 Kbps on most links to defeat “servers.” Because bandwidth is pooled, it means that each neighborhood on a cable head end has a finite amount of bandwidth–the more subscribers, the more frustration.
WiFi News
Keep in mind that US broadband service significantly lags systems in Asia in terms of speed and price/performance. Korea and Japan citizens have access to broadband at speeds up to 20X faster than services we can purchase.
Business School Professors “Pen” a note on the Economy to President Bush
An Open Letter to the President
These folks raise some useful points. The problem is not only with Bush. Interestingly, last week, Russ Feingold voted FOR one of the biggest tax giveaways…. (Kohl voted present).
The tax system is a complete mess and ripe for reform. Thinking of a solution, go read Mitch Kapor’s recent piece on our current political situation.
Daily Show’s Jon Stewart rips CNN’s Crossfire on the MSM’s political coverage (mp3)
Useful 5MB mp3, thanks to Russell Beattie. Transcript Jeff Jarvis says this is the “single best piece of media criticism I have seen in years“.
Windows Spyware: Every 5th Dell Call is Spyware Related
Time to moveon from Windows. Financial Express:
Spyware, code that allows outsiders to monitor computer activity, now affects about 90 percent of computers, he said.
?It?s not just an annoyance,? George said. ?Increasingly, it?s becoming more and more pernicious. It can degrade a system?s performance to the point of being unusable, it can block access to the Internet, it can prevent you from accessing e-mail (and) it can redirect your browser to some other home page.?
Fred Mohs on Property Tax Exemptions
The local papers have been full of troubling news about the budgets for the city, county and public schools. The sheriff needs more deputies, drug and alcohol treatment centers are left unfunded, park and sanitation workers are cut, West High School does not have money to put on its fall play, fourth grade strings are in jeopardy and fees for doing everything are up across the board.
At the same time, a growing number of Madisonians have managed to live in properties that are tax exempt. A report produced by the Madison Assessor’s Office indicates that the self-reported value of retirement home parcels is $25.1 million and that other tax exempt housing has a value of $64.3 million, for a total self-reported value of $89.4 million.
Power to the “Wired” People – Mitch Kapor
Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a principal in OSAF (Open Source Applications Foundation) has written a piece on our current political process:
Our nation is founded on the principle of self-government — a government “of, by, and for the people” in the words of Abraham Lincoln — but we know in our gut that this ideal is in such peril today that we have to ask whether self-government is even a meaningful concept in 2004 as it was to the Greeks who invented democracy 2,500 years ago.
Greek and Roman traditions inspired the Founding Fathers when they framed the Constitution and brought democracy into the modern world. But if you could reanimate Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Alexander Hamilton in present-day Washington, they would be horrified. They would find a system both corrupt and dysfunctional, one that has 13 lobbyists for every representative, in which money buys undue influence and the real deals are made out of sight of the American public.
Now, it’s easy to look at this process and blame the politicians. They are certainly culpable. But let’s look at the other end of the Washington purse strings. Who buys the politicians? It’s the corporations who would rather game the system than create something of value in a competitive marketplace.
Loma Prieta +15 Years
Fifteen years ago today, the “pretty big one” shook the San Francisco Bay Area. I lived just above Lake Merced then, and was at work in South San Francisco (north of the Airport) when the 6.9 temblor hit. (Fortunately, buildings in that area are built on solid rock, unlike other parts of the bay area, such as San Francisco’s Marina and the land south of SFO. Many recall the cancelled World Series game and the flattened I-880 in the East Bay (I remember some discussion of Dan Rather pulling up to the 880 scene in a limo with a fruit bucket. He stepped out in his best outdoor gear, ready to broadcast from “San Francisco” -it was actually in Oakland).
There are some lesser known events, a few of which I will share with you now:
- Patience:
The Drive home from work (Loma Prieta shook us at 5:04p.m. on 10.17.1989) was an eye opener. The traffic lights did not work as the power system was down (some areas longer than others). I remember being amazed and pleased that everyone was respectful, courteous and patient at every intersection. - Dinner I arrived at my home (rented room in a townhouse)
and found that a neighbor invited everyone over as her planned dinner guests from the East Bay would not be making the trip that night. She prepared a very large salmon dinner. We enjoyed one of the most beautiful pacific sunsets I’ve seen that night. - Phones (mostly) worked.
Give Pacific Bell (now part of the SBC conglomerate) credit. The phone system was overloaded, but after a few tries, I did get through to my folks later that night. I wonder how today’s cell and VOIP systems will perform during the next earthquake? - Humorous Circumstances
A friend from Denver was a top IBM salesperson at the time. Part of his compensation included a trip to the World Series. The game was of course cancelled, so he made his way back to a South Airport Hotel (built on fill – I’ve since stayed there a few times). The guests were allowed inside in groups for 15 minutes to retreive their personal items. Cots were setup outside, on the grass, along with a free open bar. My friend took full advantage of the free drinks and finally passed out around 2:30a.m. At 3:30a.m., the lawn sprinklers turned on (Power!) and woke everyone up!
He tried to call me throughout the night to rescue him from the cot, finally getting through around 6:00a.m. I picked him up and took him to my athletic club to get a good shower and start the recovery process. - Lights Out
That night (the 18th), we drove through the City (Hwy 1 through the Presidio) and across the Golden Gate Bridge (the Bay Bridge was closed) to Tiburon where we enjoyed a great dinner and a view of a half illuminated San Francisco. T-Shirts proclaiming “I Survived…” were of course for sale that evening.
Links: Alltheweb | Clusty | Google | Teoma | Wikipedia | Yahoo
John King discusses San Francisco’s architectural changes following Loma Prieta. One of the biggest is the dismantling of the eyesore that was the Embarcadero Freeway (photos).