Posts by perlcat

The way it works for small artists

You join ASCAP or BMI. The radio stations may or may not ever play your songs -- but the way the ratings are calculated, if they did, you'll never know.

At the end of the year, you'll get a letter to the effect of: "We worked very hard for you to ensure that you got your fair share. Your share of performance royalties is $30. Your membership dues are $100. You now owe us $70. Please remit."

[sarc]However, they *do* have to pay for some very nice offices, so I suppose the gouging is entirely necessary. [/sarc]

In the meantime, if some restaurant will be nice to you and play your music in hopes of selling your CD's, ASCAP or BMI lawyers will extort $700/month in royalties out of them. Of which you'll see the aforementioned -$70, even though EVERY SINGLE SONG PLAYED is yours.

I agree with Mr. Townshend. Some balls need to be cut off -- however, he and I differ on the choice between a dead man and some overpriced lawyers who've stumbled on a scheme to make extortion legal. Until then, Non-ASCAP/BMI and damned proud of it. If they try to hassle my friends, we prosecute for theft.

I dunno

Sounds to me like another gamer playing another game of "Donkey Schlong".

Lovely logic

I will remember that, next time I talk to the matchgirl living next door. Oh, wait. They all died of whatever in the intervening years.

Just because unions did some good over 100 years ago does not justify what they are doing these days. What they are doing these days is pretty damned thuggish and ugly, and calling it OK because their long-dead co-workers did something decent once-upon-a-time is ludicrous. Going by that logic, since at one time the American Democrtatic Party openly supported Jim Crow and idiots in sheets, all current Democrats belong in jail.

Also, blaming corporate greed is also a tad bizarre, given that the economic troubles we're in is caused by a mix of governmental incompetence, crony capitalism and power schemes executed by the people that are supposed to serve us in government. As the old saying goes, "They went to Washington to do good, and stayed to do well."

Put the blame where it belongs. There's no shortage of greed in corporations, but without a witches' brew of sweetheart deals, special legislation and political handouts/favors, it would all have been held in check. "Too big to fail" just means "We've found that the best solution is to use someone else's money", where the checque may have been written to corporate cretins, but it was drawn on the taxpayers account, and the signature was from the people with a trust to not do stuff like that.

...actually, not such a bad idea.

I have a whole list of untalented loudmouthed and ignorant celebrities that should be drafted for a one-way mission to save the earth.

They kill the comet and don't come back, we win.

They don't kill the comet and don't come back, we win.

They miss the comet entirely and don't come back, WE STILL WIN!

There seems to be a pattern here...

Why on Saturday?

Pick one:

a) Mom was home from work and told them to get out of the basement.

b) Studies have shown that Tier 5 Product placement for iCr@p a la BOFH are more effective on Saturday.

I personally am trying to get past the line "media blackout" of this anyway -- seems like they've been part of a NYT love-in since day one -- but maybe nobody reads the NYT anymore?

I believe that...

they cannibalized one of the bamboo bikes to make a generator at one point.

@Pete 2

Already happened:

(Sound: Church bells, lots of them, ringing.)

Man: I wish those bloody bells would stop.

Wife: Oh, it's quite nice dear, it's Sunday, it's the church.

M: What about us atheists? Why should we 'ave to listen to that sectarian turmoil?

W: You're a lapsed atheist, dear.

M: The principle's the same. The Mohmedans don't come 'round here wavin' bells at us! We don't get Buddhists playing bagpipes in our bathroom! Or Hindus harmonizing in the hall! The Shintus don't come here shattering sheet glass in the shithouse, shouting slogans-

W: All right, don't practice your alliteration on me.

M: Anyway, when I membership card and blazer badge back from the League of Agnostics, I shall urge the executive to lodge a protest against that religious racket! Pass the butter knife!

W: WHAT??

M: PASS THE BUTTER KNIFE!! (pause) THANK YOU! IF ONLY WE HAD SOME KIND OF MISSILE!

W: 'OLD ON, I'LL CLOSE THE WINDOW.

M: WHAT?!

W: I SAID, I'LL CLOSE THE WINDOW!

(Sound: Window closing, bells get faint, but are still there)

M: If only we had some kind of missile, we could take the steam out of those bells.

W: Well, you could always use the number 14-St. Joseph-the-somewhat- divine-on-the-hill ballistic missile. It's in the attic.

M: What ballistic missile would this be, then?

(Sound: Bells begin to get increasingly louder)

W: I made it for you, it's your birthday present!

M: Just what I wanted, 'ow nice of you to remember, my pet. 'ERE!

W: WHAT?

M: THOSE BELLS ARE GETTING LOUDER!

W: WHAT?

M: THOSE BELLS ARE GETTING LOUDER!!

W: THE BELLS ARE GETTING LOUDER! OOOH, LOOK!

M: WHAT?

W: THE CHURCH, IT.. ITS COMING CLOSER! ITS COMING DOWN THE 'ILL!

M: WHAT A LIBERTY!

W: ITS TURNING INTO OUR LANE! WELL, YOU BETTER GO PUT IT OUT OF IT'S MISERY.

M: WHERE'S THIS MISSILE, THEN?

W: IT'S IN THE ATTIC. PRESS THE BUTTON MARKED CHURCH!

M: 'OW DO I AIM IT?

W: IT AUTOMATICALLY HOMES IN ON THE NEAREST PLACE OF WORSHIP!

M: BUT THAT'S ST. MARKS!

W: IT ISN'T NOW, LOOK!! OH, ITS OP'NING THE GATE.

M: WHAT? USE THE MEGAPHONE!

W: IT'S OP'NING THE GATE!! 'HURRY UP, ITS TRAMPLING OVER THE AZALIAS!

(Sound: Missle launch, explosion, bells diminish)

M: Did I 'it it?

W: Yes, right up the aisle.

M: Well I've always said, There's nothing an agnostic can't do if he really doesn't know whether he believes in anything or not.

@ "tech common sense"

More common sense: Applications written by pigs will run like pigs.

I am dealing with an application written by a software design pig such as yourself, which floods my server with unreclaimed zombies as if they were the only person on the server, and not even init ought to be able to fork a process. It just wouldn't *do* to know what you need and hold your crapware to that, would it?

If I ever find out where you live, in very short order, your doorbell will be ringing and there will be a flaming sack of dog crap on your doorstep for you to stomp out. Schmuck.

Gampa's old peacemaker is getting upgraded?

I suppose he'll go with a Beretta then.

However, to address what you *meant* -- NASA is a lousy agency, so full of bureacracy and internal politics that they could not make a ham sandwich for less than a million dollars. Knock it in the head and bring in talent, not bureaucrats. Throwing more money at NASA just rewards the same level of crap we have become accustomed to. We on the right actually salute Obama for cutting it off. If NASA ever thought they were in a fight for survival, they might actually resort to doing what they were created for.

The problem with sacred cows is that some bureaucrat will figure out how to milk it.

Oh, good grief.

If you can't come up with a valid critique of the Tea Party, just imply that they would be upset about it, run with that. No need for facts here at all, is there?

No TPM that I've talked to is surprised at all, or even incensed about it. The problem they have isn't with liberals or the Clintons -- it is crony capitalism and politics in general. While finding this in Clinton's papers is snarkworthy, it clearly isn't Sandy Berger style kleptomania -- just an oversight. In all probability, some staffer had absolutely no idea that it had any significance, and just threw it in the box on the way out. If Slick Willy had kept this for himself, you wouldn't have found it where they found it. (They never *did* find the 'W' keys, and I thought it was funny, even though I am sort of on the right end of the spectrum -- I can just hear Clinton saying 'U mad, bro?') He's way too smart to hang onto something as identifiable as that.

Dream on, junior.

M$ has sabotaged every boot manager I have ever had -- from OS/2 on -- this will be no different.

They'll just use the old "you have nothing to hide, do you' defense, blame it on the manufacturers, and there you go. Every PC will be in any OS you want as long as M$ gets their cut.

On a lighter note, now that world+dog sees this for what it is, they'll back off and look for another port to slip the ol' wazoo into, as people will be looking for the antitrust angle on this now.

Too bad they can't just compete on the merits of their product, rather than resort to dirty tricks -- oh, wait. There *are* no merits. I guess they *do* have to resort to underhanded tactics to move their shite.

The only reason...

people get irritated with domain squatters is that they are not actually *using* the domain for anything resembling its intended purpose. The Harrod's example falls down in that respect. Everybody can *see* that it is in use. This is frustration, but it is misguided.

I think that a squatter is a form of economic troll, and can get around them with a thesaurus and decent advertising -- the bread and butter of any business. Most of the squatted domains are too generic to be useful to any business -- the reason only 4% are bought is that no business owner in his right mind would buy (as an example) www.facialtissue.com when they could get www.kleenex.com and leverage the brand name they'd spent all their time and money adding value to. If a squatter had taken that, it'd take about fifteen minutes and a C&D order to take care of it. If I truly had to have that kind of generic domain, and had the cash to pay for it, I still wouldn't. How can I differentiate my product from the flood of knockoff's that are legally entitled to use that name in meatspace?

I wouldn't give a dime for the legal troubles that squatters bring on their own heads. They took advantage of too-cheap domains, and deserve all the headaches they have, if not more.

Going back to my example of www.facialtissue.com -- that would only refer to an entire industry -- while you might fantasize about cornering that entire market via the domain -- in reality you're a day late and a dollar short on owning something that won't stand up in court anyway. Eventually, the powers that be will pull their heads out of their asses, stop talking about 'tubes' and realize that corporate names and generic names should share the same namespace on the web as IRL. At that point, you'd lose your generic domain and the bundles of domains they've registered are worthless. It wouldn't happen to nicer people. If you want to know who the true suckers are, it is the squatters, and I, for one, will be having a nice glass of chianti while I savor the schadenfreude.

Any business name that I register would begin with a DNS name search, and after that, an inquiry to the naming authorities (Secretary of State of the particular state where I reside, as an example) to make sure I can own *both*. If I do, then it's worth investing in -- not before.

Yes, I do own several domains -- all related to various projects I am working on. I'm not ashamed to admit that if someone makes me an offer of the right amount, I'd sell -- it just has to be for more than the value of that particular project. All of them are also registered with the secretary of state as business entities.

Look at Facebook -- do you really think that name was their first effort? It's kind of fun to speculate on the domains that they may have thought of that didn't work. Who knew that "castyourprivacytothewinds.com" and 'waytoomuchpersonalinformation.com', and 'suckasslamegames.com' were taken? I feel sorry for those squatters, as well as the people whose muse fails them when it comes time to name their domain.

@David 12

Whaddya mean 'for no obvious reason'?

It is simple crony capitalism rearing its ugly head. Happens every time that the Mouse is about to fall out of copyright. Insert money *here*, get laws twisted out of recognition *there*.

on public stupidity

You can call it an awakening, or you can just call it a smelling of rats.

You can only get so much conflicting information from a source like the lamestream media before you start to discount everything. I feel the education of modern journos has missed a

vital text -- "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".

It isn't that people have suddenly become intelligent -- just that they are no longer believing everything one particular source tells them. People as a whole remain as stupid and gullible as ever, and have moved on to other sources.

As to the 'Man Vs. Woman" angle? Women have (statistically) been more able to deal with "soft facts", and aren't as quickly disillusioned by a source feeding them obvious bullshit. After all, they have to put up with a lot of stories from us men about where we were last night until 2 in the AM...

Black heli so I can get out before the flames.

Bah.

Of course they profit from inefficiency. Bureaucracy like anything else. The more people in jails for minor offenses, the busier they look, the bigger next years' budget is.

Same goes for traffic enforcement -- there are better ways to get people to wear seat belts, drive the speed limit & park in the right places, but as long as they can keep themselves employed, they will do things the way they always have.

You're falling behind.

The answer is to drink more beer.

You guys work too hard.

Just route to /dev/null from the start.

Remember the gov't motto -- "When people appear to need help, appear to help them."

insert gratuitous joke about

DADT.

They lost mine quite handily

Seems like government and stupid is saying the same thing twice.

Gadafi

"Gadaffi hasn't remained the despotic ruler of a nation and sponsored terrorism on and off for 40 years by being slack"

Here and I thought he got there by virtue of his good looks and his Michael Jackson-inspired fashion sense.

Anybody that ugly has to be mean. I'd like to use him to make gargoyle biscuits. Spread out the batter on a marble counter, place your hand on the back of his head, and slam firmly into the batter repeatedly. Batter is entirely optional.

Grenade's for Gadafi to use as a suppository.

Easily explained.

It's all those hermaphroditic alien overlords.

If they can just find the invisible flying saucer, and figure out which key starts it, the invasion will get underway.

Nope, that won't do.

He read it in a book somewhere.

That concept comes from Frank Herbert. I like his idea of a BuSab to shake up and clear the garbage that bureaucracies accumulate, but only if a bureaucracy is an inevitable form that government evolves towards. As usual with Herbert, it's food for thought, but as you imply, just because someone *says* it is so doesn't mean that it *is* so.

The fact that Herbert wrote science fiction only increases the need for empirical evidence before assuming that the passage is useful to anyone anywhere. Most people, including the op, miss out on the irony of the concept of formally establishing a bureau to keep bureaucracy in check.

Welcome mat for the dosadi.

Well,

I think it is a very good idea.

Much better than Klingon.

These Scandinavian boobs of which you are speaking;

Their standards have fallen over the years to the point that a disinterested observer can make a very good case that their approval is a political payout for having the "right" attitude, rather than recognition of any accomplishments of a meaningful nature. While they do get it right occasionally, blowing their credibility on political meddling (that incidentally, has *nothing* to do with bringing peace to anybody anywhere) brings them to the utility level of a broken digital clock.

I'd take the money, but leave the prize on the podium. Got enough door stops as it is.

Krugman's just more proof of their tarnished image. If he'd grow himself a pair and declare that he's not an economist, but a social engineering advocate thinly disguised as an opinion columnist, then I'll give what he says all credence due a somewhat bombastic but malinformed opinion columnist.

leading to much merriment.

Honestly. Sub in 'dumbshit' every place Nimrod appears, and try to read the article without laughing.

...and yes, I knew all along that it is a serious name in other parts of the world.

Ballmer

Well, *that's* news you can throw a chair at.

No, that was not an eye-opener.

It *was* bleeding obvious. Even if you hadn't heard the rumblings about it before, the "everybody hates everybody else" mentality of the region should have made that perfectly clear.

years ago

when I worked in soul crushing retail, a shoplifter was caught at the local gas station -- the woman had slipped an entire case of beer under her skirt and tried to walk out the door with it.

She'd have gotten away with it, too if they didn't have the coldest beer in town, causing her to drop it.

She was a big girl.

A month or so later, she was caught at the local grocery, trying to steal a 20 lb frozen turkey, same method, similar results.

Oh, good grief

Did you not realize who/what the robot geeks would use to test the robots that come back on? Once the first augmented robot came back, you can rest assured that we robot geeks would use the nearest source of red shirted robot fodder, whose demise/medical absence would not be a problem for the company.

Parrots?

What? The Norwegian Blues?

They're busy pining for the fjords, and cannot be bothered at the moment.

Not to mention...

She may have been drunk at the moment, but eventually she would sober up and realize that either she had to "pay" for the "ride" OR scream rape/kidnap.

aral sea

The Aral Sea is where it is because almost all of the water that used to go to it has been diverted to the irrigation of cotton. Another fine socialist engineering project you can see from space. Not likely to go back anytime soon, as the majority of people in Uzbekistan decided they like making money from cotton. It pays for their air conditioners, keeps the doors open, lights on and all that.

What you are implying is a nuclear blast pattern is a dramatically receding coastline. The two don't look anything alike.

Paradoxically, if there is no climate change, about the only way to save the Aral would be to make people wear clothing made of synthetic materials, and ban clothing that uses too much cotton plunging the region back into abject poverty. In another paradox, the increased rainfall from global warming may be the only way to realistically return the Aral to its old proportions.

Most of our laments about the state of the environment can be summed up in two phrases:

1) "There are too many people"

2) "We don't like change"

Sorry -- neither looks likely to me to be going to do what seems to be desired, and so the best thing we can do is put our teeth back in our mouths and adapt.

yeah. not so good.

Will the gentleman in the snoopy helmet and the trench coat get in that line marked 'cavity search -- no lube', please?

not everything is as neat as you'd like.

I love all this insistence on evidence masquerading as thoughtful discourse, implying everything else is by definition 'waffle and spin'.. You force a dichotomy on an argument that isn't there.

Sorry -- I do not know the names of the people as released. Further, if I did, I would not be irresponsible and do so to satisfy a juvenile urge to prove myself and impress someone that either a) knows that doing so endangers people and so an ethical person would not, or b) wouldn't care even if I were to prove them. What next after their names to satisfy you? addresses, next of kin? What if you decided that their getting murdered on satellite TV while the murderer screamed that this is what happens to informers wasn't enough 'evidence', since he wasn't convicted in a court of law in a country recognized by you? Am I supposed to supply more names? You're asking me to compound the moron Assange's murder by foolhardiness with murder by incitement. Do your local police know about your pushing me to commit murder by incitement?

Surely you are aware that information has value. In a desert, if you know where to find water, you live. In al-qaeda, if you know where an informant is, make him dead, then nobody else wants to inform on you, you live (long enough to whack a few more unbelievers or people that just happen to be in the way).

What a reasonable person would know, and in this any prosecuting attorney would refer to the standard of reasonableness and prudence -- is that sensitive information, especially informant information, can be used if known to identify the informant via triangulation. It is the same knowledge that tells you that if you lay down in the middle of a busy street at rush hour, you may get ran over and you may die, so don't do it.

The particular people in this case have motive to kill, have done so in the past, and make it perfectly clear that that's their intention if they find said informants. These are not nice people. Therefore, if the information is released, the reasonable and prudent test pretty much says that people will die because of it.

You want numbers? Good luck with that. I estimate at several hundred judging by the volume of information, and the fact that life is apparently cheap in that neck of the woods -- al-qaeda et al has not had a problem with collateral damage in the past, and blowing away an entire family just enhances their desired deterrent value. The number could be higher, could be lower. If it was "just" 199 and I could prove it, admit it -- you'd still say I was spreading "waffle and spin".

You want me to hold your hand and tell you what you want to hear? Not coming from me.

I know that I will not convince you or anybody else that truly wants to believe the fairy tale that information just wants to run free. But if anybody else sees this and sees any logic in it, I've done my part.

I got a cool idea. Since you're so damned smart about what happens with actionable intelligence in a war zone, go to Iraq. I'll pass a rumor to wikileaks that you gave information to the US about al-qaida. Wait a week, see what happens. I call cowardice on you if you don't. It's only a week, it'd be a blast of a holiday!