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When you buy an Apple device, you're often locked in to buying other Apple products that are compatible with it. Here are five examples, and some advice on what to do. Oh, wait--there's nothing you can do.Once you enter the Big Tent of Apple, it's exceedingly hard to find the exit. Over its 33-year history, Apple has consistently elected to limit consumer choice, creating a situation known as "lock in." As soon as you start buying stuff from Apple, you'll find it difficult to move to products made by someone else without losing everything you've already paid for. Of course,...

"Let’s Play Monopoly"Jim Longworth October 30th / November 1st, 2009 If you want proof that Congress is collegially corrupted and gratuitously gridlocked, look no further than Sen. Harry Reid’s recent power play in which he used the McCarran-Ferguson Act as his weapon of mass distraction. McCarran-Ferguson (which I will affectionately refer to as “MF”) was passed in 1945, ostensibly to protect the “business of insurance”. In effect, the Act established that Federal anti trust laws would not necessarily apply to companies like our modern day Blue Cross Blue Shield. But MF included a loophole. It also empowered Congress to pass...

The Federal Communications Commission has unveiled the topics it is looking to discuss as it considers revising its media ownership rules, and one area it is looking to explore could have ramifications for future mergers between broadcast and cable companies and newspaper companies. Specifically, the FCC said it will probe whether it could continue to enforce regulations regarding media concentration by industry or should it find an "alternative structure to determine an ownership limit for all media within a relevant market." Cutting through the bureaucratic speak, what the FCC is saying is that currently it regulates broadcast, radio and cable...

It promises to be the biggest game of Monopoly the world has ever seen. In a 21st century twist on the popular board game, toymaker Hasbro and tech giant Google have made the game available online, allowing players to compete in a worldwide, real-time version of the game. Launched today, Monopoly City Streets uses the Google Maps platform to let users "buy" any street in the world. Once players create an online profile, they receive a handsome -- albeit make-believe -- $3 million to purchase, build and trade in neighborhoods close to home or the farthest-flung cities. The site went...

Everybody needs a break from time to time from our daily lives filled with the stress of the economy, politics and an onslaught of negative news. As a result and as an effort to rebuild brand loyalty, Hasbro has teamed up with Google maps to launch the worlds largest online monopoly game. Monopoly City Streets will incorporate google map technology to allow you to compete against your friends and a worldwide community in order to become the richest property owner in the world. Although the companies have released limited information about the game, what little has leaked out is creating...

TOP SECRET ADVANCE COPY. Someone we know from Chicago, who works in the White House now, just leaked us this advance copy of the upcoming address Dr. Utopia’s going to make to school children on September 8th. Personally, we’re surprised it’s so subtle and understated, considering the egomaniac, cult-of-personality, Kim Il Jong-wannabe who’s delivering it: ****** Transcript of President Barack Obama’s Indoctrination Day Address to the nation’s youth, September 8th 2009 ****** President Obama addresses the nation's children, September 8th 2009 President Obama: Good morning children, my youngest, most precious, and most devoted followers. You can see me here in...

By Edward Hudgins President Obama stumbled onto the analogy which perfectly points out the dangers of the very government-run health care system that he advocates. In a recent public appearance Obama tried to assure concerned citizens that a government-option health insurer would not drive private insurers out of business. He said, “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the post office that’s always having problems.” Indeed, today the U.S. Postal Service faces a $6 billion deficit and possibly will need to cut services as well as secure a taxpayer bailout. Monopoly Mail Let’s run with Obama’s postal example. To...

A game of Monopoly has landed a Michigan man in jail. WDIV-TV reported a 54-year-old man was playing the board game Saturday night with a female friend when he tried to buy Park Place and Boardwalk from her.

A Detroit man, Kenneth Repke, has been charged with assault after a friendly game of Monopoly he was involved in turned violent. 54 year old Repke and his neighbor were at his house playing Monopoly, as they often did, when they got into an argument over the sale of some property on the board. The argument heated up and when the neighbor flatly refused to sell Repke Park Place and Broadwalk, he hit her in the face, knocking her glasses off and breaking them. The neighbor called police upon returning home and reported the assault, tearfully telling them that this...

In my June 8 article on the grand opening of the Intelligentsia Coffee location in Venice, I mentioned the fact that they use not one, but two Clover machines. This alone is a remarkable feat. The Clover machine is and has been one of the ways boutique coffeehouses differentiated themselves from the big chains. However, last year, Starbucks bought the company that manufactures Clovers. As a result, all future Clovers will be found only at Starbucks locations. Any coffeehouse that already owns a Clover will essentially have to rely on Starbucks for parts and service. Doug Cadmus described this situation...

Music fans who buy concert tickets during Live Nation's "No Service Fee Wednesday" may be surprised when they check their receipt and see some service fees were charged. Live Nation's announcement for the promotion -- and stories based on their news release -- did not mention the concert promoter's narrow definition of a "service fee." "Fans will still be asked to pay parking fees (usually $6) as well as in some cases facility fees and/or charity fees," Live Nation spokesman John Vlautin wrote in a reply to CNN's request for clarification. Still, the promotion will save consumers several dollars on...

Windows release sparks complaints By Richard Waters in San Francisco and Nikki Tait in Brussels Published: May 6 2009 19:49 | Last updated: May 6 2009 23:29 Microsoft has stirred up fresh complaints of anti-competitive behaviour with its release this week of a late-stage trial version of the next Windows PC operating system. The complaints, from some of the leading makers of web browsers, look set to intensify the software company’s regulatory headaches just as it is seeking to head off swingeing anti-trust action from the European Commission over a related issue.

APRIL 15, 2009 The Union War on Charter Schools As New York shows, they want to kill any education choice. By JAY P. GREENE On education policy, appeasement is about as ineffective as it is in foreign affairs. Many proponents of school choice, especially Democrats, have tried to appease teachers unions by limiting their support to charter schools while opposing private school vouchers. They hope that by sacrificing vouchers, the unions will spare charter schools from political destruction. But these reformers are starting to learn that appeasement on vouchers only whets unions appetites for eliminating all meaningful types of choice....

<p>News Analysis. If you're one of those people who insist Macs are comparably priced to Windows PCs, read no further. This post will make you really angry.</p> <p>Last week, Microsoft started airing the newest "I'm a PC" ad, featuring Lauren—Ms. "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person." Lauren is clear on what she wants in her laptop: "Speed, comfortable keyboard and 17-inch screen," and within her budget of $1,000.</p>

HR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor.  One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it.  As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying.  Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation.  Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a...

Back when I was a young media reporter fueled by indignation and suspicion, I often pictured the dark overlords of the newspaper industry gathering at a secret location to collude over cigars and Cognac, deciding how to set prices and the news agenda at the same time. It probably never happened, but now that I fear for the future of the world that they made, I’m hoping that meeting takes place. I’ll even buy the cigars. snip My fantasy meeting goes something like this: a rump caucus could form where the newspaper industry would decide to hold hands and jump...

Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals' personal data. The Google Drive, or "GDrive", could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet......

The celebrated openness of the Internet -- network providers are not supposed to give preferential treatment to any traffic -- is quietly losing powerful defenders. Google Inc. has approached major cable and phone companies that carry Internet traffic with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Google has traditionally been one of the loudest advocates of equal network access for all content providers. At risk is a principle known as network neutrality: Cable and phone companies that operate the data pipelines are supposed to treat all traffic...

Google effectively lost its first formal debate over whether "Google violates its own 'Don't Be Evil' motto" at the Rosenkranz Foundation's Oxford-style debate in New York City, November 18. (Transcript here) Before the debate the audience was polled and voted 21% against Google and 48% for Google; after gathering additional insight from the debate, 47% voted against Google and 47% voted for Google. Apparently, most all of the undecideds voted against Google -- that Google violated their own 'don't be evil' motto. What does this mean? First, it's a big red flag when there is a formal, high-profile and public...

One such intention is found in Federalist 56 where Madison says, "it seems to give the fullest assurance, that a representative for every 30,000 inhabitants will render the [House of Representatives] both a safe and competent guardian of the interests which will be confided to it." Excellent research, found at http://www.thirty-thousand.org/index.htm, shows that in 1804 each representative represented about 40,000 people. Today, each representative represents close to 700,000. If we lived up to the vision of our Founders, given today's population, we would have about 7,500 members of the House of Representatives. We might ask what's so sacrosanct about 435...

Ten angry beer drinkers are trying to derail the largest brewery takeover in history. The group filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday claiming Belgium-based InBev’s $52 billion purchase of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. would violate U.S. antitrust law if completed as planned in the coming months. The suit, filed in Anheuser-Busch’s hometown of St. Louis, does not seek financial damages but asks a judge to block the deal. The Department of Justice often reviews large acquisitions to determine if they are legal under U.S. law. But attorneys behind the lawsuit said they want to halt the deal regardless of the verdict in...

Behind the attempt to regulate the Internet is an attempt at destroying our God given constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and an attempt to suppress the spread of opinions, news, and ideas. For the Multi-national corporations and it's leftist CEOs there is a need for greed and to limit our choices they way they do with Television. The chance to monopolize the Internet and the video games industry is met with the support of none other than RINOS as well as the far left. Hillary Clinton, John Mccain and to some extent even Obama have expressed support for regulating...

After two decades of unconscionable increases in tuition and fees, colleges and universities increasingly are employing a new scam to swindle students and their parents out of whatever pennies they have left: the custom textbook. As reported in The Wall Street Journal, publishers make a few minor tweaks to a standard textbook, jack up the price and sell the special edition to the captive thousands who are required to buy it for required courses. For example, the University of Alabama requires all 4,000 of its freshmen to pay $59.35 for a spiral-bound special edition of "A Writer's Reference." The university's...

The Associated Press took a grandiose Facebook-style faceplant last week when it attempted to impose strict guidelines on the blogosphere. Now, just like Facebook’s initial unapologetic enthusiasm for its privacy-violating Beacon program followed by Facebook’s effusive apology for its privacy-violating Beacon program, the AP is bowing to the will of the angry Internet masses and backing off. Sort of. [snip] [snip]To citizen journalists out in cyberspace, AP’s proclamation against one little aggregate site (much smaller in comparison to, say, Digg, etc.) rang like a shot across the bow of fair use, especially after an AP spokesperson announced that, from here...

Under current law, the power to govern public employees and unions is left to the states, including rules for collective bargaining, Right to Work protections, etc. In 23 states, workers have the right to work even if they do not wish to join a union, which is, of course, as it should be. That could all change, however, if the so-called, “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act of 2007,” is enacted into law. The bill – which does anything but promote “employer-employee cooperation,” and actually would endanger “public safety” – has already passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 314-97...

WASHINGTON The Commerce Committee sent to the U.S. Senate floor a resolution to nullify changes to the longtime ban on same-market common ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations. The resolution targets last December's Federal Communications Commission vote, along party lines, that permits daily newspapers in the nation's 20 largest markets to own either one lower-rated TV station or radio station. Cross-ownership would continue to be prohibited in smaller markets. But the many critics of the rule change say it includes exemption provisions that could permit cross-ownership elsewhere. Speaking to reporters after the vote, the resolution's chief sponsor, Sen. Byron Dorgan...

Having previously urged readers to vote in Hasbro's Monopoly Here and Now World Edition competition to select cities around the world for the World Edition game board, I must now follow up with that post to report that Hasbro has gone the way of political correctness or kowtowing to the arab lobby/boycott by removing "Israel" as the country in which Jerusalem is found.

The manufacturers of Monopoly have launched a competition between 68 world cities in a bid to find 22 cities for a new global version of the board game. Cities across the world are urging residents to vote early and vote often to make sure their home towns get on the board. Forget a seat on the United Nations Security Council. The place where the citizens of the world can really play with the big boys is actually within reach: a place on the new global Monopoly board. The makers of Monopoly, Parker Brothers, are hoping to stir up world voting...

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), also known as Congressman Hollywood, is one of the most powerful members of the House when it comes to intellectual property issues, so when he muses aloud about "revisiting" the DMCA, people listen. Unfortunately, Berman wants to reform the DMCA because it doesn't go far enough, and his ideas sound like they're ripped right from the pages of the Big Content playbook. Berman chairs the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, and this morning oversaw a hearing on the PRO-IP Act, a bill that could boost statutory damages for copyright infringement and create...

Former Intel CEO Andrew S. Grove says the pharmaceutical industry could learn a lot from the computer and chip businesses. ...On Sunday afternoon, Grove is unleashing a scathing critique of the nation's biomedical establishment. In a speech at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, he challenges big pharma companies, many of which haven't had an important new compound approved in ages, and academic researchers who are content with getting NIH grants and publishing research papers with little regard to whether their work leads to something that can alleviate disease, to change their ways. ...

Duncan Hunter, Chris Dodd, Tom Tancredo, Bill Richardson, Ron Paul. Are you familiar with these names and their respective platforms? If the answer is no, I am not surprised. These are five of the 17 major party candidates running for president. Unless you are paying close attention, watching the presidential debates or taking a serious interest in the presidential election, you probably never heard of these gentlemen. Why? Because the major media rarely, if ever, cover these candidates. Only the media's chosen few, the big six or seven, are thoroughly and consistently covered. As time moves forward, this short list...

Ten years ago, Microsoft was the company everyone loved to hate. The most vociferous Microsoft haters slammed the company for being a greedy industry bully that used its monopolistic, clunky, copycat operating system to force software on users and coerce partners into unfair licensing deals. Don't look now, but the role of the industry's biggest bully is increasingly played by Apple, not Microsoft. Here's a look at how Apple has shoved Microsoft aside as the company with the worst reputation as a monopolist, copycat and a bully. -snip- Apple fully understands the power of monopoly pricing. The company has sold...

News Release California, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire Restrict the Most Jobs Hair braider, fortune teller, florist and interior designer are some of the jobs for which states require licenses Los Angeles (August 24, 2007) – Do you want to be a fortune teller in Maryland? Your future better include a license from the state. How about being a hair braider in Mississippi? You'll need 300 to 1,500 hours of training and government permission. Want to sell flowers in Louisiana? Only licensed florists can do that. And almost every state requires certification if you want to move furniture and hang art...

Bored games BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published Jan. 26, 1997.) OK, here's a nostalgia question: What childhood game does this remind you of? ''Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick.'' If you answered, ''Spin the Bottle,'' then I frankly do not want to know any more about your childhood. What I'm referring to is, of course, the classic board game ''Clue,'' in which you try to solve a murder by using a logical process of deduction to narrow down the various possibilities until your sister has to go to the bathroom, at which...

Carlos Slim is Mexico's Mr. Monopoly. It's hard to spend a day in Mexico and not put money in his pocket. The 67-year-old tycoon controls more than 200 companies -- he says he's "lost count" -- in telecommunications, cigarettes, construction, mining, bicycles, soft-drinks, airlines, hotels, railways, banking and printing. In all, his companies account for more than a third of the total value of Mexico's leading stock market index, while his fortune represents 7% of the country's annual economic output. (At his height, John D. Rockefeller's wealth was equal to 2.5% of U.S. gross domestic product.) As one Mexico...

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Will Microsoft Corp. design, produce and ship a branded computer in the United States? It's already doing this in India without fanfare. Nobody has considered the possibility that the Microsoft PC in India is a market test for a bigger rollout. As of this writing the company isn't saying. Reports out of India are sketchy. Over the years, Microsoft has been accused of copying what Apple Inc. does, as far as user interface is concerned. Why not copy the idea of an entire branded computer, too? After all, with the Zune player, Microsoft has played follow-the-leader...

Are consumers better off with a competitive or monopolistic provision of goods and services? Let's apply that question to a few areas of our lives. Prior to deregulation, when there was a monopoly and restricted entry in the provision of telephone services, were consumers better off or worse off than they are with today's ruthless competition to get our business? Anyone over 40 will recognize the differences. Competition has provided consumers with a vast array of choices, lower and lower prices and more courteous customer care than when government had its heavy hand on the provision of telephone services.

Microsoft, a veteran defendant of epic antitrust battles in the United States and Europe, is urging antitrust officials to consider scuttling Google’s plan to buy DoubleClick, an online advertising company. Microsoft contends that the $3.1 billion deal, announced last Friday, would hurt competition in the fast-growing market for advertising on the Web and raise questions about how much personal information would be collected by Google, which is already a dominant player in online advertising....

EDITORIAL Wal-Mart banking bullies The retail giant has been foiled yet again by its enemies, this time in trying to open a bank. March 19, 2007 THE ANTI-WAL-MART lynch mob has prevailed again, forcing the retailer to forgo plans to establish a bank. The mob has become a powerful force, bringing together the company's usual big-labor antagonists, mom-and-pop Main Street merchants and the formidable American Bankers Assn. Recognizing that the company's bid to create a so-called industrial loan company faced a hostile regulatory environment, Wal-Mart on Friday withdrew its 2-year-old application before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. That's a shame....

AUSTIN – A groundswell seems to be developing in Texas against the privatization of toll roads. And State Senator Robert Nichols is a key leader of the fight. Nichols has filed SB 1267, which would place a two-year moratorium on the privatization of toll roads. Companion SB 1268 prohibits converting existing roads to toll roads – a fight many voters thought they’d already won. Under current law an existing road can still be converted to a toll road even though many have regional or statewide use. “These roads were built with public money for public use,” Nichols said March 6...

Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry. And you don't get to refuse them. The details are pretty geeky, but basically Microsoft has reworked a lot...

Steve Jobs, Apple’s showman nonpareil, provided the first public glimpse of the iPhone last week — gorgeous, feature-laden and pricey. While following the master magician’s gestures, it was easy to overlook a most disappointing aspect: like its slimmer iPod siblings, the iPhone’s music-playing function will be limited by factory-installed “crippleware.” If “crippleware” seems an unduly harsh description, it balances the euphemistic names that the industry uses for copy protection. Apple officially calls its own standard “FairPlay,” but fair it is not. The term “crippleware” comes from the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit, Melanie Tucker v. Apple Computer Inc., that is...

Marshall Goldman, a long-time student of Russia, says energy wealth and control over export pipelines have made Russia more powerful than at any time in its history. VOA's Barry Wood reports the Harvard University professor spoke at a forum Thursday in Washington. Professor Goldman told the Jamestown Foundation that Russia's post-cold war power is built on its oil and gas resources. He said both eastern and western Europe have become dependent on Russia for oil and gas and that alternative supplies are not available. The recent boom in oil and gas prices, said Professor Goldman, has greatly boosted Russia's economic...

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Alcohol manufacturers being afraid of the government to introduce public monopoly suggested creation of a single unified agency – the Alcohol Safety Council of Russia. Although entrepreneurs may be late: the State Duma is working out the bill regulating not only monopoly in the industrial sector but in retail field, either. The problem of alcohol market (of both foreign and home production) has been discussed for a long time. Actually, there doesn’t exist a unified agency able to turn the market into a centrally controlled one. The market is observed by several ministries and departments: the Ministry of Finance, Russian...

Help save our fabric source!click here for petitionI make lap quilts for the VA Hospital spinal cord unit. in Memphis and Wal-Mart is the only source of fabric in Millington, TN...as a widow my income is very limited I can't afford to drive 20-30 minutes to the next 2 sources and pay $2.00 more per yard for fabric. Quilting is my only hobby. I've made 10 lap quilts so far this year for the VA Hospital spinal cord unit.For many rural women Wal-Mart is the ONLY source available for fabric. Better yet call 800 Wal Mart and talk to a...

There is an undeniable beauty to laissez-faire theory, with its promise that by struggling against one another, by grasping and elbowing and shouting and shoving, we create efficiency and satisfaction and progress for all. This concept has shaped, at the most fundamental levels, how we understand and engineer our basic freedoms -economic, political, and moral. Until recently, however, most politicians and economists accepted that freedom within the marketplace had to be limited, at least to some degree, by rules designed to ensure general economic and social outcomes. From Adam Smith onward, almost all the great preachers of laissez-faire were tempered...

SEOUL — A South Korean telecommunications executive accused of bribing U.S. military officials in exchange for a multimillion-dollar Internet service contract is awaiting documents from the Army and Air Force Exchange Service to help build his defense, his lawyers said. As Jeong Gi-hwnan, 40, stood in a green prison uniform in a South Korean court Friday, his lawyers sought more time to defend him against an accusation that he gave AAFES officials cash and entertainment in exchange for a multiyear Internet service contract for U.S. servicemembers in South Korea, according to court proceedings and Korean National Police. As an SSRT...

No young person who has ever followed politics with the ferocity of a sports fan, no citizen who has been an idealist for at least a few hours, hasn't daydreamed about a third party or independent candidate – a third party winner, actually. At some point everyone with a civic soul, no matter what their ideological flavor, has yearned for an independent spirit to break through the homogenized, cuisinarted horse manure that is modern American politics. Yet we are stuck with the same two parties, ad nauseam. It's like a world where there are two baseball teams, the Yankees and...

Listen to many elected officials or union bosses, and you’d think Wal-Mart was a malicious criminal, exploiting workers and pillaging towns for the benefit of greedy shareholders. But if that’s the case, how has Wal-Mart grown from a single shop in a small Arkansas town into a world-wide colossus with 4,000 stores, 1.3 million employees, $245 billion in annual sales and 100 million customers each week? The company’s success isn’t built on exploiting. It’s built on providing. Wal-Mart can’t force anybody to work at its stores, nor can it force anybody to shop there. Through relentless cost-cutting and technological innovation,...