Dr. Ike and the Funk King

What's this? It looks to be a new member of the jh2media family. Oh yes. Click and have a look, a listen, and post on their guestbook.  ¶ 3:44 AM

  Slashdot | RIAA Going After a 10-Year-Old Girl

It's never too young to be sued by the RIAA.

"The latest target of the RIAA's ire is a 10-year-old girl in Oregon, who was 7 when the alleged infringement occurred, and whose disabled mother lives on Social Security. In Atlantic v. Andersen, an Oregon case that was widely reported in 2005 when the defendant counterclaimed against the RIAA under Oregon's RICO statute and other laws, the defendant's mother sought to limit the RIAA's deposition of the child to telephone or video-conference. The RIAA has refused, insisting on being able to grill the little girl in person."

  ¶ 5:45 AM

  Joe Hill (writer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Guess who this is? Joe Hill is the son of Richard Bachman.  ¶ 1:41 AM

  MacUser: Podcast novels: let your ears join the fun

This isn't just for Mac users. Though, it feels good to pretend to use a Mac. Anyhoo, this is basically book-on-tape reborn, which is a very good thing. I have some Tolkien and King stuff mp3s, which are always very cool to listen to.  ¶ 1:40 AM

  RIAA Sues Stroke Victim in Michigan.

RIAA lawsuit hits family with no computer or Internet access.

Pandora no more?

Why is the RIAA out to harm people? I predict that in five years they won't exist. Bands will either go outside the US or do it themselves. I believe a lot of the RIAA's "activities" is due to fear that bands will do it themselves. If I were in a band, I certainly wouldn't have anything to do with the RIAA just so that I could sleep at night.  ¶ 2:41 AM

  Have you noticed that analog is dead? No, seriously. Looking online, it's hard for me to find an analog TV or monitor. TVs are LCD or Plasma. Monitors are LCD. By the way, stay away from Plasma. And, did you know that HD CRTs look better than LCD and Plasma? But guess how HD CRTs weigh compared to LCD and Plasma? Weight is why HD CRTs are dead.

The analog/digital thing comes up twice in my life recently. I've been looking at monitors lately, the first come up. I prefer flat screens and largish sizes. The only ones I can find in my prices range are LCD monitors. In fact, almost all the monitors that I can find are LCD. I have nothing against LCD. When I first saw them over ten years ago, I liked the way they looked. They've only gotten better. I'm just a little stunned at how hard it is to find a CRT monitor.

As for TVs, they are getting hard to find themselves. In a way, this is a good thing. We all need to move toward digital. When more people do move that way, HD content will become cheaper and so will the TVs. It just saddens me a little to see CRTs go away. I have loved, loved, loved my NEC CRT monitor all the years. In fact, I've had two. If I am to get a new monitor in the future, it'll probably be LCD. NEC, interestingly, makes LCD monitors. I was just thinking. All I've ever had were NEC, Sony, and that one monitor that came with my first computer, a 386 Pac Bell. The Pac Bell had the speakers mounted on the sides. When I upgraded to the Sony, I had to put the speakers next to the monitor, and they, the speakers, were wobbly. I have noticed that a few LCD monitors have built in speakers. If I can help it, I'll never go back to monitor/speaker combo. Not even with a Mac (sorry Apple).

Anyhoo, I would also like to point out that I ate at a local Chinese restaurant and my fortune cookie said, "Digital circuits are made from analog parts." True. That's the second analog/digital come up in my life. The fortune also said, "Lucky Numbers: 34, 38, 18, 45, 26, 1" and, "Peng-you means Friend." You can read more here about how important fortune cookies are to the Chinese. I really wanted some dumplings but they didn't have any on the buffet when I was there. Why? I saw some being made in Three Extremes.

Oh, one last thing. I have some Joost invites if anybody wants them. Just email me. Joost is going to be something really cool when it gets out of beta.  ¶ 1:33 AM

 

The history of daylight-saving time.

1784 - Benjamin Franklin is thought to have come up with the idea for daylight-saving time. In a whimsical letter to a French journal, he said that Parisians could save thousands of francs a years by waking up earlier during the summer because it would prevent them from having to buy so many candles to light the evening hours.

1918 - The U.S. first adopts daylight-saving time, in the same act that created standard time zones, in an effort to save energy during World War I. It didn't prove popular, and, as a result, it was repealed the following year.

1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted "war-time," a year-round daylight-saving time to save energy during World War II. After the year-round shift ended in 1945, many states adopted their own summer time changes.

1966 - Congress established a national pattern for summer time changes with the Uniform Time Act. The act came in response from the transportation industry, which demanded consistency across time zones. The U.S. Department of Transportation now oversees time changes in the United States.

1973 - An oil embargo by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries led Congress to enact a test period of year-round daylight-saving time in 1974 and 1975. The test period was controversial; it ended after complaints that the dark winter mornings endangered children traveling to school. The U.S. returned to summer daylight-saving time in 1975.

1986 - The Federal law is amended to start daylight-saving time on the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987. The ending date of daylight-saving time was never changed, and remained the last Sunday in October through 2006.

2005 - On August 8, President Bush signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005 into law. Part of the act will extend daylight-saving time starting in 2007, from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.

2007 - Daylight-saving time begins on Sunday, March 11 and ends on Sunday, November 4.

(Sources: CNN.com and CNN Library)

November 4th is my birthday. I am not a fan of daylight savings time. And your computer won't be either.  ¶ 1:23 AM