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Politics, open government, and safe streets. And the constant incursion of cycling.

Month: March 2007

How Musicians Make Money From DRM-free Music, Part VIIDCCCXCI

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On March 9, 2007

In DC, Distribution

Looking through Salon.com, I see that their (free) Song of the Day is now available as a podcast. I subscribe. The most recent 9 songs download onto my computer. I let them start playing as I work. I start digging a song. I look to see who the artist is – huh, something called Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Sounds very familiar – oh, they’re a local band. In fact, haven’t I seen something about a concert, lately? Indeed I have. Concert on the 29th? Tickets $15? Cool, I’ll take two.

That’s how a musician makes money. DRM-free music gives me a chance to see how I like an artist, and if it’s my thing, I’ll pay for something more.

DC Gun Ban Overturned

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On March 9, 2007

In DC, Law

This should make for some interesting posturing in the near future:

A federal appeals court overturned the District of Columbia’s long-standing handgun ban Friday, rejecting the city’s argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applied only to militias.

[ . . . ]

The court also ruled the D.C. requirement that registered firearms be kept unloaded, disassembled and under trigger lock was unconstitutional.

The Bush administration has endorsed individual gun-ownership rights, but the Supreme Court has never settled the issue.

If the dispute makes it to the high court, it would be the first case in nearly 70 years to address the Second Amendment’s scope.

There will be a whole lot of noise before anything useful or important gets said, I suspect.

Explaining Big Brother

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On March 9, 2007

In EU, Policy, Society, UK

I’m always on the lookout for works that do a good job of explaining why Big Brother is a problem. A surveillance society doesn’t spring up overnight, but we’ve been moving by leaps and bounds, lately.

In the US and UK, the vast majority of the public seems to be utterly complacent about the ubiquitous gathering and storing of information about our private lives by people who have absolutely no accountability to them. I don’t think it’s necessarily because they don’t care, it’s because they don’t understand what it means. And it’s not always the easiest thing to distill in a few minutes. So I was happy to come across this video.


Updated to link the video. The wordpress visual editor strikes again . . .

Bush (Re)Discovers the Western Hemisphere!

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On March 8, 2007

In Policy, Society

You know, in those pre-9/11 days, one of the few hopes I held out for a Bush Administration was that we’d see some serious efforts at integrating the economies of North, Central, and South America.  Vicente Fox was obviously a Bush kind of guy, and folks like me (or, admittedly, perhaps just me) hadn’t entirely written off NAFTA as something that could actually bring some good to everyone.  But then comes 9/11, and that agenda disappears completely.  US policy towards Central/South America from 2001-present consists largely of shipping buckets of money to Columbia and getting into pissing matches with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (and the mess that is CAFTA).

So, Bush is heading down to Central and South America to say, “Oh, sorry we ignored you for the past six years.”  As usual, we can count on our media to do a bang-up job of covering the issues.  Here, the WaPo reporter heading along with him promises all the juicy details – starting with how *hard* it is to have to wait for your flight at Andrews Air Force Base.  I suspect we’ll get better news in the comments than the reports.

DCist Exposed

By

On March 8, 2007

In DC, Virginia

DCist.com is sponsoring a show of local photographers’ work, and it opens tomorrow.

DCist benefits handsomely from the work of some extremely talented locals, and it’s good to see some of them recognized. See the pool of winners and other contributors here. Hopefully, this will be an annual event. Go check it out.

Opens: March 9th at 6:30 p.m. at Warehouse Arts Complex. Beer and whatnot.

Runs through March 16th.

Photo by Hoffmann.

Faggot

By

On March 6, 2007

In Politics, Society

Andrew Sullivan says all that needs to be said.  Now let’s make sure we never give her another ounce of attention.

Making it Right: Apple & BMW

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On March 6, 2007

In Personal, Tech

As alluded to in my last post, I’ve been experiencing a cascade of technology failures. They’ve stopped now, if for no other reason than that there’s nothing left to break (I wonder if I’ll regret typing that . . .). A number of these items were in warranty, and some were not (sadly, my primary camera is included in that group). For certain items under warranty, it was simply easier to buy a replacement than try and make a claim (e.g., my desktop power supply). I really dislike disposible consumer goods, though. As a general rule, I pay a premium for quality goods/services and expect the manufacturers/providers to stand behind them if there’s a problem. Unfortunately, that’s not an expectation that is always met (especially by tech companies, and I’m looking at you, Verizon FIOS). In any event, rather than getting myself working up by going on about what went wrong with my recent warranty claim efforts, I thought I’d share a couple of cases where it went right.

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Catching up

By

On March 4, 2007

In Cycling, Personal


I won’t bore you with the details, but I’ve been suffering from the Great Tech Meltdown of ’07. Back up soon. I think.

(Shot from a Quicksilver Winter Solstice Series criterium)

VA Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi

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On March 1, 2007

In DC, Politics, Virginia

As I’ve noted before, I’m a huge fan of Kojo Nnamdi.  He hosts a daily show on American University’s 88.5 (WAMU(FM)), and is one of the best interviewers I’ve ever come across.  Every Friday, his show turns into the DC Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta,(as in Jonetta Rose-Barras, perhaps the only non-loon who ever had a column at the Washington Times) and I rarely miss it.  Even if I can’t tune in during the lunch hour, I can pick it up as a podcast.  If you’ve not heard it before, check it out.

A couple of Thursdays a month, he brings us the Virginia Politics Hour, which those of you outside of NoVA can listen to live online.  Today, for example, he has on Gov. Kaine to talk about the transportation bill, Sen. Russ Potts to talk about his career, and Rep. David Albo (probably just to hear himself talk).   Unfortunately, this show isn’t available as a podcast.  But if enough people drop them an email . . .

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