March, 7, 2002 archives
an executive at radio one, the largest broadcaster of “black music” (including the beat in los angeles), claims that payola still exists. everyone's favorite industry mouthpiece, hilary rosen, says “these are false, trumped-up charges.” i'm reminded of a scene from casablanca.
the people at 37signals are very smart. their contingency design white paper is ample proof of that. it's just a little bit sad that so many websites could learn so much from it. the design not found section is a cornucopia of examples that drive home their point.
there's now an official php mirror in iran.
the non-religious are on the rise in america. lots of interesting stats in this article, such as the growth in christians that identify themselves as non-denominational. unfortunately, the article doesn't really talk about any of the non-christian faiths. perhaps the original study will reveal more. (via mefi.)
“why napster is right” is an amazing piece by two economists (one from the university of minnesota, one from ucla) that lays out an economic argument for extending copyright to explicitly allow someone who has legally obtained music to copy and resell it. (it's an old piece, with an unfortunate layout, but the argument is interesting. don't miss the counterpoint.)
there's been some interesting pushback on the weblogs-as-rss idea. i tend to agree—i prefer to read weblogs in place, and not mixed together. i do prefer my “mainstream” news as a mixed feed. that's why my news page has a mixed newsfeed, along with a list of updated weblogs. an embarrassing amount of the reading i do on the web starts from that page.
what's wrong with this picture? look very closely. i guarantee it will take you a while to figure it out. (you'll notice it is a flash file. it has a subtle audio cue that pops up infrequently.)
qwest is selling $1.5 billion in unguaranteed debt. salomon smith barney downgraded them from “buy” to “neutral”. sell, sell, sell! (but get ready to bail out this fiasco with your tax dollars.)
salon has an article about animal hoarders (you know, crazy cat ladies and their ilk). i'm inclined to believe that the psychosis sets in with the first animal.
i'm a little disappointed to find that the minimum annual tax for a corporation in california is $850. i guess that's probably worth it, when you factor in the liability-protection benefits. but it's still a daunting commitment for a cheeseparer like myself. and of course, incorporating carries its own fees and other headaches, too.
(why the interest in incorporation? for my tutorial at the o'reilly open-source conference in july, i'd love to have a fully-functioning example of some of the things i'm going to talk about. which includes things like payment processing. and hey, making some money wouldn't be a bad thing.)