Well my constant nagging of my friend and co-worker Ed Hackney seems to be paying off.

Oh wait, maybe not! Doh!

However, perhaps I need to teach Ed how to click the post button once :-)

BTW, I’m now a huge fan of Home Star Runner (flash required). My favorites so far are “Teenage Girls Squad” and “System Down”.

Very funny!

Who needs Saturday morning cartoons anymore?

Based on the recent comments by Senator Orrin Hatch (no relation) and the ongoing reactions, I remembered a quote of his I posted back in February of 2001, which implied that Senator Hatch (no relation) was coming to the defense of the fledgling granddaddy of MP3 swapping … Napster.

Here’s the interesting quote:

“The Napster community represents a huge consumer demand for the kind of online music services Napster, rightly or wrongly, has offered and, to date, the major record labels have been unable to satisfy,” (Feb 2001)

However, I suppose no one should be surprised by the flip-flopping of a politician, the irony or fallout, but I suspect or hope Senator Orrin Hatch (no relation) has an ulterior motive.

Perhaps he’s exposing the “marketing problem“.

Steven Vore pulls out a great quote from George Gilder’s book Telecosm, which I think seems so relevant to the music industry — namely the RIAA. (link via McGee’s Musings)

“When your product is stolen by thieves, you have a police problem. When it is stolen by millions of honest customers, you have a marketing problem.”

Oh how I hope the music industry is listening. Unfortunately I highly doubt they would see the relevance.

Catherine rants about Spike Lee’s suit against SpikeTV. I’ll have to add to Cat’s “Spike” list with Elvis Costello’s album Spike from 1989.

And what about all those dogs named Spike? What will we do?

<wink>I stopped answering these after the first page because I overloaded the check-box buffer of my browser.</wink> (link via Doc)

Catherine just sent me a link to this
article in the NY Post about TRACKS, which is the name of a
new music magazine that will hit this fall from the Good Music Media…

“This magazine is the antidote to the hype and gloss of the
youth music marketing machine,” … “Tracks will deliberately pursue the
30-to-45 year old audience.”

Perhaps it’s a sign that I’m getting older in that the announcement of a
magazine targeted at the 30-to-45 year old audience appeals to me, but what
else is out there for a retro-punk with a revived interest in jazz? I
suppose a Jazz magazine, but that’s to niche for me.

Hopefully the mag will live up to the hype, or perhaps the anti-hype.

However, in an effort to put hype into reality they should have a web site
right now to foster interest in the zine and brand (like some other
up-and-coming magazine I know of
;-)

I think the Star Trek Enterprise Regeneration episode last night was one of the best in the series thus far. However, I have to agree with Jeremey Zawodny in that I was at first confused about the timeline, but I do think they pulled it together nicely.

As a few people have already mentioned on Jeremey’s blog, when the Borg contacted the Enterprise, they didn’t say, “We are Borg…”, which coincides with the storyline in ST:NG whereby they didn’t know of the Borg.

Also in the episode last night, the number of years mentioned for the sub-space message to reach the Borg home world was 200 years. That’s roughly correct, base on the fact that ST:NG met up with the Borg in 2365.

Here’s an awesome Star Trek Chronology Search Engine.

Note to self: You’re not fooling anyone about being a geek :-) Get back to work!

A quote in the href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/02/national/02STUD.html?ex=1052539200&e
n=62f647db4d1433df&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND">NY Times from Howard Ende
of DB&R about the suit:

“This suit is about the industry’s attempt to intimidate
Internet users and instill fear of lawsuits against users of the Internet,
particularly students,” said Howard Ende, a lawyer from Drinker, Biddle &
Reath who is representing Mr. Peng. “They need to find some other way to
protect their economic interests than bringing suits against bright creative
young people.”

Well said.

Mark Eckenwiler
details his experience suing a telemarketer (link via Doc)
I love this stuff!
Good summary of Mark’s work:

“The Small Claims process in D.C. - at least what I saw of it - was so
painless as to be dangerously addictive. While the decor in the clerk’s
office leaves a lot to be desired, the staff were consistently helpful and
professional during my phone calls and in-person visits, and you can’t beat
the results if your case has merit. (While sharing news of my success, I
learned from a work colleague that she had used Small Claims previously to
recover $5,000 from a crooked used-car dealer.)”

“Total costs: Approximately $20.79 out of pocket, including *69 charge and
filing & service fees, plus 2 trips to the courthouse and the occasional
phone call (and keep in mind I could have gotten my out-of-pocket costs down
to 75 cents with a little obstinacy)”

“Return on investment: $500 cash; a heaping serving of Revenge, The Dish Best
Served Cold(tm); and one telemarketer who I am certain will never call me
again…”