http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en joe@deltatao.com Public Domain Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:58:23 -0700 Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:58:36 -0700 iBlog 1.4.6 Joe Williams Joedelta -- Delta Joe Joe Williams rambles on random and irrelevant subjects sometimes involving Macintosh, games, stocks, politics, and movies. Whee. Joe Williams joe@deltatao.com Joedelta -- Delta Joe Arts & Entertainment http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070919185808/index.html Dogs usually recover from coonhound paralysis, but perhaps not if they're already scrawny eleven-year-olds. The girls were heartbroken.

She was a good dog. She's got a nice grave on our island. ]]> Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:58:08 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070919185808/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070829180448/index.html Yet another senator gets busted in a sex scandal .

First off: Who cares? Did it affect his job performance? We can mostly agree that it doesn't. It's not like he was trading highway funding for sex.

Second: Are we really spending taxpayer dollars cracking down on gay cruising? I find that more disturbing than the cruising itself.

Third: Despite the guilty plea, are we sure he even did the (relatively harmless) act in question? The cop said that bumping feet in a toilet stall is a well-known signal that you want anonymous gay sex. Well, _I_ didn't know, and if I had been arrested after bumping feet in a toilet I'd be pretty confused. I don't think I've ever bumped somebody's feet in a toilet, but hey, I could imagine it happening. I know if I was in a jury, I'd let the guy off pretty fast. Reasonable doubt, anyone?

Why would he plead guilty? He hoped to keep it secret, of course. And it almost worked -- this happened months ago.

The relevance of this to the nation is of comparable significance to Paris Hilton's hemline. Shouldn't a democracy focus on more relevant things, like wars, and the Bill of Rights? ]]> Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:04:48 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070829180448/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070829081020/index.html The mission of copyright, as stated in the Constitution, is to "promote the progress of science and useful arts" by giving creators a temporary monopoly on reproduction of their works. The theory is that this monopoly acts as an incentive to creators to create, and the public gets more creativity than it would without government intervention.

This makes sense, but is it true?

We can look at a couple of arts that rather inexplicably have never been copyrightable to see how this lack of protection has prevented innovation. Like fashion: the artistic design of clothing, handbags, belts, and eyeglass frames.

If I invent a new look for clothing, once I put it in the public, everyone in the world is free to duplicate that look. What's more, they can mix different looks together, extrapolate, and create any derivative fashion they want.

This appalling lack of protection explains why fashion has not had a significant change in almost a century. With no monopoly protection, our fashion industries have lacked incentive to change, so we're stuck with the same apparel our great-grandparents wore. If only copyright applied to this art , we'd see a vast profusion of creativity. Perhaps an entire industry of fashion could be born, giving a vast public benefit, instead of today's complete stagnation.

Oh, except it hasn't worked that way. Fashion changes constantly. Designers are famous and well-paid. It's difficult to imagine the fashion industry, with its vast array of magazines, television shows, and pundits, getting any more vibrant with greater monopoly power.

Would the public benefit from fashion copyright? Portions, for sure would benefit. In particular, the fashion lawyer part of the public. ]]> Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:10:20 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070829081020/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C762129689/E20070828115532/index.html Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:55:32 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C762129689/E20070828115532/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1186645580/E20070824081744/index.html I recently bought Sharper Image (SHRP) at $4.04 per share, mostly because it looked like the panic selling (rumors of a $900 million lawsuit and bankruptcy) was overdone.

Now, a week later, it's up 40%. Why? Near as I can tell, the only news is that they took out a $20 million loan.

For me, taking out loans is not generally good news. I guess it's better news than needing money and not being able to take out a loan, but wouldn't it be better to make a profit? I rarely sell a stock so quickly after buying it, but this may be one of those times. ]]> Fri, 24 Aug 2007 08:17:44 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1186645580/E20070824081744/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070824045455/index.html Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:54:55 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070824045455/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070823102910/index.html W. made a speech yesterday in which he warned us not to repeat the big mistake we made in Vietnam: Backing out. While getting out of the Iraq quagmire is definitely a problem, let's not forget that some, before the war, thought there were other lessons to be learned from Vietnam.


"A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear and the victory must be overwhelming."

-- George W. Bush, August 4, 2000

"Our nation should be slow to engage troops. But when we do so, we must do so with ferocity. We must not go into a conflict unless we go in committed to win. We can never again ask the military to fight a political war."

-- George W. Bush, November 15, 1999

Those are true lessons of Vietnam.

]]> Thu, 23 Aug 2007 10:29:10 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070823102910/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070816111218/index.html Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:12:18 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070816111218/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070816102836/index.html I'm personally a strong believer in legal abortion, but it's easy to see how it can be viewed as a conflict between the mother and child.

There are some philosophical things that are tough to reconcile between lifers and choicers, but I think we'd do well to focus on common ground on which most everyone can agree:

Abortion is a dumb method of birth control.

Reducing the number of abortions is a worthy goal. Whatever one's stance is on the morality of it, we can agree that it's wasteful.

Around the world, there are lots of different tactics taken toward abortion. In some places it's completely legal under all circumstances, and in other places it's never legal, and everything in between. Statistically, it seems that legalization (or criminalization) of abortion has little effect on the number of abortions.

That's not the same as saying it's the same all around the world. Western Europe has a much lower abortion rate than we do in the US, for example. Why? The correlating factors seem to be:

excellent sex education
easy availability of more practical birth control

I believe that anti-abortion folks are shooting themselves in the leg by also being opposed to sex education. Ignorance is a breeding ground (literally) for unwanted pregnancy. And if they think outlawing premarital sex will eliminate it, they need to buy a ticket out of dreamland before they can discuss politics.

The seven percent of women who do not use contraception account for 53% of unwanted pregnancies.

Instead of talking about whether abortion is right or wrong, we should just agree that we want to reduce it, and do what works.

Preaching doesn't work. Education does. ]]> Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:28:36 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070816102836/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070812151514/index.html Sun, 12 Aug 2007 15:15:14 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070812151514/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1696870512/E20070808112109/index.html I wrote a game!

OK, it ain't much. The girls were gone this weekend, so I decided to (finally) sit down and play with Xcode. (That's Apple's programming environment.) For a first project, I cranked out a cheesy little game.

Download GasStation . Yeah, it's the kind of thing we could have written in HyperCard in just a few minutes, but that doesn't keep it from being a little bit fun. What's the fewest days you can take to pile up $30,000 cash? (You start with $20,000, so you don't have far to go.)

It's officially in the public domain, so give it to all your friends. Drop me an email if you like it. ]]> Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:21:09 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1696870512/E20070808112109/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C762129689/E20070719123634/index.html I took my iPhone on vacation, and used it constantly.

I always tell people that only a fool would pay $500 for a phone. That said, it's amazingly great.

I've probably gotten easily a hundred bucks of value just out of showing it to envious people.

Being able to google map while you're driving around (well, Mary was driving, and I was navigating) is awesome. It'd be better if there was a GPS, but it doesn't take long to find oneself.

Being able to look up obscure movies on the IMDB while you're in the video store is handy.

Going onto whitepages.com to look up old college friends as you're passing through their town is handy.

The camera's not bad, and more pleasant than any other phone camera I've used. I took over 200 pictures over two weeks. It's nice to never run out of film. And a flash would be cool, though I know it would be hard on batteries.

The earphone jack doesn't seem to fit non-Apple plugs quite right.

It's stupid that you can't order songs direct from the phone -- but I refuse to give money to the RIAA anyway. It would be nice to download mp3s from the web, though.

The battery would no doubt last a long time if one used it like a normal phone, but since I use it constantly, two days is about as much as you can hope for. And it recharges slowly -- overnight is good, but an hour doesn't do a heck of a lot.

It got a bit crashy after a couple of weeks, but after I turned it off (for the first time since I bought it) and restarted it, it got better.

The single biggest flaw: No games! How dare they not realize what an awesome toy this is. ]]> Fri, 20 Jul 2007 08:36:34 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C762129689/E20070719123634/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070718110739/index.html My niece, Zoë, was crying after leaving a tourist-trap store. Mary's brother asked, "Why are you crying? We bought you the toys you wanted."

Zoë, sobbing, explained: "I got everything I wanted, but I'm still not happy, because I wanted more."

Her sentiment pretty much explains the entire life of the average American. ]]> Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:07:39 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C322755863/E20070718110739/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070718071927/index.html A little late. Our flight from Charlotte was canceled, the airline (Delta) put us up in a hotel.

A tip: If this happens to you, don't ask them to give you your luggage for the night. They're going to lose it anyway, so save yourself a couple of hours.

Airport security has begun to feel like an experiment in humiliation. I can't wait for the mandatory anal probes. I'm pretty sure a terrorist could easily hide four ounces of deadly, deadly toothpaste up there.

Here's a hint to Homeland "Security:" Skyjackings are a thing of the past. We know that trick, and we, the passengers and crew, will bring a plane down before it can be used as a weapon. It would be easier to defend the plane if we had toenail clippers, but we'll make do. ]]> Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:19:27 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070718071927/index.html http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070704093958/index.html I'll be away from Three Meadows for the next two weeks, visiting my in-laws. (Joy!) I'll have my computer with me, so I'll be able to keep up with email and some work, but I won't be posting to this blog. If I have anything relevant to say, I'll post it to my joedeltalist yahoogroups list.

Wish me luck! ]]> Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:39:58 -0700 http://www.deltatao.com/joedelta/iblog/B1331004611/C1036734900/E20070704093958/index.html