Thursday October 28
From Cursed to First
Even I was cheering for this feel-good story at the end of the World Series last night. Sox Wrap a Season for the Ages [MLB.com].
Posted by glenn at Wednesday October 27
iPod Photo
I don't know precisely what this means, but Apple's annnouncement yesterday of a new iPod Photo, with 60GB and the ability to store, sync and display 25,000 photos, surely means yet another revolution in personal digital multimedia. If the iPod changed music listening from albums to playlists -- which it most definitely has -- what will this new device do to snapshots, photography and slide shows? Wait and see, but I believe it will be significant and perhaps unexpected.
Thursday October 21
Munch Munch
That's the sound of this blogger eating his words. The Boston Red Sox just completed the most amazing comeback in professional sports history. Down 3-0 and only an inning away from a sweep, this team of self-proclaimed "idiots" won four in a row against the Yankees and made the fearsome pinstripe closer, Mariano Rivera, look almost human. As Boston first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz said, "We've been playing Game 7 since Game 4." Are the ghosts of 1946, 1967, 1975, 1986 and 2003 (not to mention 1978) -- all seventh or deciding game collapses -- gone? Is the Curse of the Bambino finally broken after 80+ years? Stay tuned......
Wednesday October 20
All the Marbles
With even desultory baseball fans, like yours truly, captivated by the Yankees-Red Sox ALCS series -- and being sleep-deprived at work as a result -- the stage is set for an historic game 7 tonight. Problem is, the Yankees juggernaut is looking anemic. As Harvey Araton writes in the Times:
Finishing Off the Red Sox Becomes the Yankees' Achilles' Heel [NYTimes.com]. So it's off to the Bronx and let's win there!
Long Live the Digital Divide
This has been a long-standing pet peeve of mine about telecom regulation. Home Tech Study Reveals "Digital Divide," But Not Necessarily The One You'd Think It Is [MediaDailyNews].
The report, released by Knowledge Networks/SRI, does find a surprisingly wide gap in the penetration of seemingly ubiquitous digital media technologies such as personal computers and broadband access, but it also reveals that some newer media, including digital TV and cell phone services are accelerating more rapidly among lower or niche socio-economic groups.
So, we know that the government does not subsidize VCRs, yet in 20 years they have penetrated to 95% of the marketplace. Every welfare mom (and this I know from persoal experience representing formerly homeless families) has one. On the other hand, America has subsidized POTS (regular telephone service) to low-income and rural users for 70 years and we're still at 94% penetration -- and falling. Now we find that the poor are actually earlier adopters of some communications technologies, like cell phones, without any subsidies. So I say it's time to abandon the "universal service" shibboleth and let the market work. If it's good enough for VCRs, it's good enough for telephones and computers, too.
VoIP Urgency, Not
FCC Chairman Michael Powell vows to declare that Internet telephony services, known as Voice Over IP (or VoIP), are exempt from state regulation. "We cannot avoid this question any longer," Powell said yesterday.
Well, they can and likely will. See, the FCC has been sitting on this hot potato, the third rail of American telecommunications regulation, for eight years now. In that time the legal doctrine and politics of VoIP have become so convoluted that conservatives are openly fighting among themselves and the special interests -- in this case state regulators, consumer advocates and ostensible protectors of "universal service" -- are essentially able to block VoIP with a simple veto threat of taxes.
Powell says he wants a regulatory revolution. Stirring rhetoric and logically correct. Mike is a very smart guy. But that's not the same as action, for which the FCC's lack thereof is hardly unpexpected, just disappointing. The FCC is the black hole of American public policy and its steady mission-creep into high-tech issues has been remarkable. But even more disapppointing is that the Internet and IT industries have let this happen. It may be too late to save them because to make a revolution, the rebels have to attack before the empire becomes organized. (Yes, those aren't the droids you want.) I fear we are at that point already.
Update: Still, I am very glad to be an American. In Belarus, they are arresting business people for providing VoIP services.
Tuesday October 19
They've Got Better Hair
One of the really distinguishing differences between the Republican and Democratic tickets in this year's presidential election is hair. The Ds have it; the President and Veep Cheney don't. Indeed, John Kerry boasted in July in Dayton, Ohio that "This is the dream team. We have better ideas, better vision, a better sense of the difficulties in the lives of average Americans. . . . And we have better hair.''
Of course, as JFK quipped on that fateful morning in Dallas 40 years ago, it takes a long time for girls to get ready for public appearances, but when they do, they're stunning. This video of John Edwards working on his hair at this Slate link is hilarious. The Silence of the Domes [Slate.msn.com]. A makeup technician approaches with a comb, but the Edwards likes it just so and does the combing himself. He signals he's ready for hair spray by closing his eyes expectantly, like a child. Please don't tell me that thing in his hand is a compact. Oh, dear, it is.
Laura Bush thinks Edwards is "pretty cute," but I bet she hasn't seen his behind-the-scenes preparations on video!
Monday October 18
Screwing With Your Sleep
"Sleep medicine experts have successfully treated a rare case of a woman having sex with strangers while sleepwalking." [NewScientist.com]. Now why would they want to "cure" something like that?
Red Sox Nation
Eric Wilbur of the Boston Globe and all of Beantown are in a collective state of disbelief -- or is it belief? -- this morning after an improbable Red Sox comeback in the wee hours. A 12th inning walk-off home run, coming after five hours of baseball at 1:30 a.m., lifted the "Sawx" to a victory over the Yankees and avoided a sweep in the American League Championship series. Aces Wild as Momentum Shifts [Boston.com].
But now the Red Sox nation is taking hope just a little too far. Wilbur writes this morning:
Sorry, Charlie. No one has ever done it before in baseball, and these "idiot" Sox are not going to be the first ones. They're just playing out the string.
Friday October 15
Pablum Politics
I generally detest George Will, politically and for his obsession with baseball, but he can be surprising. A Lethal Idea Still Lives [MSNBC].
So here we are, in the final stretch of the campign, post-debates, and prominent Reagan-era conservatives have had it both with George Bush and with the pablum dished out in American politics today. Will says that more forces were and are needed in Iraq if the task can hope to be accomplished. "How do the administration's nation-builders think elections are going to be held in this maelstrom." Yet he correctly observes that:
Who believes there are now fewer terrorists in the world than there were three years ago? The administration should be judged as it wants to be judged, by its performance regarding the issue it says should decide the election -- national security. However, the opposition party is presenting an appallingly flaccid opposition.
According to WIll, Kerry "seems incapable of mounting what the nation needs -- a root-and-branch critique of the stunningly anticonservative idea animating the administration's policy." This is scary. Not just because there are so many people in our politically polarized country who like Stepford citizens are hypnotized by the caricatures of policy presented by the candidates, but also that Will and I agree -- a pox on both their houses.
Neither the Democrats nor Republicans have any integrity on the most fundamental issues facing the country, So we're stuck either with a second Bush term in which arrogant idealogs run amok with our foreign policy, making the United States more hated in the world than at any time since "The Ugly American," or a Kerry administration that has over-promised and lacks the courage to execute the dramatic policy reversals necessary to extricate America from the quagmire of Iraq and smash terrorism, rather than catalyze it. This is not a choice, it's a tragedy.
Thursday October 14
Shock Jocks and Free Speech
"When Howard Stern is the nation's leading defender of the First Amendment, you know something has gone horribly wrong." That's what Brian Chin says about the FCC's indecency rules in arguing that the agency has outlived his usefulness. Buzzworthy: Fadeout for FCC? [seattlepi.com].
Well, he's right and he's wrong. What is horribly wrong is that the FCC's indecency campaign is a transparently political effort to legislate morality on a steadily declining segment -- broadcasting -- of the media market. Hence Stern's move to the satellite-radio provider Sirius to escape government censorhip. But what is perfectly right is that it has always been folks like Stern -- and Lenny Bruce and many others before him -- who pushed the envelope of political speech.
Civil liberties in America exist to protect everyone, but it is only a few bold people among us, sometimes vulgar, who actually have the nerve to test the limits of the First Amendment. America has relied on the Howard Sterns of this world for more than two centuries to maintain the principles of free speech. Like him or not, his battle with the FCC is a classic paradigm of civil liberties. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's precisely what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Wednesday October 13
Who's Your Daddy?
Gotta love it. New Yorkers serenaded Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez with chants of "Who's Your Daddy?" as the former phenom posted another loss at Yankee Stadium. Red Sox Are Yet Again Barking Up Wrong Tree [NYTimes.com]. The guy's a basket case, with an ERA of about 6.0 against the Bombers and a history of explosive outbursts -- exactly one year ago today -- against 72-year old opposing coaches. The Yankees are in his head, and the Sawx are going down once again. 1918!!
Tuesday October 12
Disrespect This
So Michael Jackson is "irked" by a new Eminem music video, "Just Lose It," calling for it to be banned from MTV and such. The stinging Eminem clip shows the mischievous rapper, dressed as Jackson, sitting on a large bed as young boys play behind him. The Gloved One was furious when he got wind of the offending video, calling Eminem's latest work "outrageous and disrespectful."
Hey, if you want respect stop molesting young boys, Michael. Neverland is a fantasy, not a place to live out one's repressed sexual fantasies. Who gives a shit what this warped (and formerly talented) soul thinks anyway. Go get him, Em!
Friday October 8
Microsoft and DRM
In a move to prevent Microsoft from using its dominance in PC operating systems to control the burgeoning field of digital rights management (DRM), European regulators are considering blocking the company's acquisition of an influential DRM patent holder. EU Wants Windows Cleaned of DRM [Wired News]. The European Commission has launched an in-depth investigation into Microsoft's and Time Warner's acquisition of the digital rights management company ContentGuard.
The issue here in reality is not DRM, but rather the anticompetitive use of patents. Proprietary technologies and standards are OK, indeed beneficial -- witness VHS v. Beta, etc. -- and even firms with market power are permitted to benefit from the protections accorded by patent law. On the other hand, where a monopolist uses patent acquisition to foreclose entry, especially in "innovation" markets, antitrusters are naturally and properly worried.
Having said that, this is no different from Microsoft's historic patterns. The company has never invented anything, rather buys up technologies (like DOS, Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, etc.) and excels -- no pun intended -- at commercializing new ideas and integrating them into its dominant Windows operating system. Microsoft's Windows Media Player and proprietary A/V format are still losing in the battle with Real, QuickTIme and the protected AAC format used by Apple's iTunes Music Store. So instead of building a better mousetrap, Redmond buys one. (Whether it's better or not of course remains to be seen.) Par for the course.
Thursday October 7
We Don't Need No WMDs
Well this just proves not only that the Bush Administration never accepts responsibility for its mistakes, but refuses even to acknowledge when it screws up. Bush, Cheney Concede Saddam Had No WMDs [YahooNews.com]. As I've blogged previously, without weapons of mass destruction, the only reason to go to war in Iraq was to topple Saddam Hussein because he was a tyrant -- to protect the human rights of Iraquis. That's the most liberal rationale for war imaginable, even if the whole notion of "nation building" (which is what the United States is indeed engaged in in Iraq these days) had not been so firmly rejected by George W. before the 2000 elections.
The President likes to say that "9/11 shanged everything." Yes, it did. But one thing it did not change is that using American military power to build democracy in the Third World is both quixotic and short-sighted. Liberty is only gained by revolution. Revolution has to come from within, not abroad. If the American Revolution were to have been imposed by the French -- George Washington's ally during the Reolutionary War -- there would be no America today. One only says "give me liberty or give me death" if one is fighting for one's own liberty. Foreigners cannot create liberty at the point of a gun.
Wednesday October 6
Politics is a Dirty Game
You know you're either getting old, or just have worked too long "inside the Beltway," when your friends are forced to resign in a political scandal. Phone Group Head Resigns After Uproar [washingtonpost.com]. This is a first for me. Maybe time to reconsider priorities.
Disclosure: I have represented ALTS, the trade group in question, in the past but had nothing to do with this fiasco.
Sunday October 3
Silverstone No More at 54
Bernie Ecclestone, impresario of Formula One, has had the audacity to drop the British Grand Prix at venerable Silverstone from the Grand Prix calendar for the 2005 season. Weep for the British Grand Prix [GrandPrix.com]. Nigel Mansell called this move "an absolute disgrace."
I agree wholeheartedly. Silverstone was the home of the very first F1 world championship race in 1950 and has been the scene of some of the most famous races of all time. Ecclestone says that the race could still be restored to the schedule if the British Racing Drivers Club, owner of the circuit. can come up with an extra £1.5m. Just another slick, money-grabbing move by Bernie with complete disregard for the history and traditions of the sport.
Friday October 1
Legal Morons
This is my kind of law. Calling Lawyer a "Moron" Not Defamatory, Pa. Judge Rules [Law.com]. Judge Gene Cohen of a court of common pleas -- the lowest state trial court in Phildelphia -- said that when one party "blew his stack and called [the defendant] names . . . this conduct alone is legally undifferentiated from any common outburst of anger directed by one person at another person." Amen. It's one of my favorite phrases and now I know I can call any of the lawyers I oppose morons without slandering them. Not that the idiots (TFIs, which smart readers can decipher) would have the cohones to sue me, anyway!
The Great Debate
I am not going to wade into the raging debate over the first Presidential Debate of 2004 last night, but it is illuminating that even my 13-year old son thought President Bush sounded "lame" when protesting that John Kerry forgot about Poland as part of the "coalition" fighting in Iraq. This is going to make some great late-night TV fodder.
Non-Area Area Codes
An interesting article in the "metro" section of the New York Times observes that "Cellular phones, changing governmental regulations and new Internet technology have torn area codes from geography, allowing people to have phone numbers with area codes distant from where they live. Though not new, the trend has kicked up a pitched debate among a colorful collection of technological pundits, telephone historians and Web preachers who specialize in the topic."
All of this started in a case I handled in 1995, in which New York and the FCC authorized the 917 area code -- known formally as a Numberiing Plan Area or "NPA" -- to be assigned on a non-geographic basis, so as to include cell phones and pay phones. That of course was before the days of ubiquitous wireless phones and unlimited roaming, which as the Times points out have made even geographic area codes non-geographic.
Now, get this. Some sociologists call this "a deeply confusing development." Come on! When the Bell System moved from geographic exchange or central office codes (the first three numerals of a 7-digit telephone numer), like "Murray Hill 5-0154," to direct dialing like "679-0154" in the early 1950s, many folks saw that as an unsettling change. Poignant and nostalgic, perhaps, but disturbing, no. Telephone numbers and geography have not been synonymous for years. Harkening back to the old days is nice in sepia-toned movies and memoirs, but not in today's fast-paced, interconnected world.