SCOTUS  ProLife  BangList  Aliens  WOT  HomosexualAgenda  Corruption  Taxes  Bush  Congress  Elections  ObamaTruthFile  Rally  WalterReed  GatheringOfEagles  MAF  TalkRadio  Donate 
Contribute to FR: $10 $20 $50 $100 Other

Lets git 'er done: Make it a monthly!

2008 Q3 FReepathon. Target: $76,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $36,643
48%  
Woo hoo!! Over 48%!! Way to go FReepers and Lurkers!! Thank you all very much!!

Keyword: monopoly

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Custom texts vex students

    07/19/2008 10:58:20 AM PDT · by Graybeard58 · 43 replies · 974+ views
    Waterbury Republican-American ^ | July 19, 2008 | Editorial
    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...
  • Can Associated Press control the blogosphere?

    06/17/2008 4:57:40 PM PDT · by Anti-Bubba182 · 16 replies · 928+ views
    MSNBC ^ | June. 17, 2008 | Helen A.S. Popkin
    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...
  • Union Monopoly Violates Worker Rights and Endangers Public Safety

    05/13/2008 8:10:36 AM PDT · by vmorgs · 4 replies · 422+ views
    The Daily Grind ^ | 5/13/2008 | ALG News
    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...
  • Senate to Reimpose Cross-Ownership Ban (FCC - newspaper ownership of TV/Radio stations)

    04/25/2008 6:53:41 PM PDT · by The Spirit Of Allegiance · 21 replies · 538+ views
    AdWeek ^ | 4/25/08 | Editor & Publisher Staff
    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...
  • Israel Removed

    02/20/2008 8:49:26 AM PST · by APRPEH · 23 replies · 110+ views
    APRPEH ^ | 14 Adar 5768/20 Feb 08 | APRPEH
    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.
  • World's Cities Battle For Place on Global Monopoly Board

    01/30/2008 5:04:55 AM PST · by forkinsocket · 4 replies · 41+ views
    Spiegel Online ^ | January 23, 2008 | Staff
    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...
  • Congressman Hollywood: It's time to revisit the DMCA

    12/14/2007 11:24:12 AM PST · by antiRepublicrat · 16 replies · 49+ views
    Ars Technica ^ | December 13, 2007 | Nate Anderson
    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...
  • Medicine Needs A Research Revolution

    11/05/2007 3:08:19 PM PST · by BlazingArizona · 15 replies · 56+ views
    Newsweek ^ | 11/5/07 | Sharon Begley
    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. ...
  • Break media's election grip

    10/14/2007 9:21:57 AM PDT · by AuntB · 36 replies · 100+ views
    Beaver County Times ^ | Oct. 14, 2007 | Rod Belsky
    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...
  • Is Apple the New Microsoft?

    09/07/2007 9:54:37 PM PDT · by paudio · 52 replies · 1,167+ views
    pcworld.com ^ | 9/7/07 | Mike Elgan
    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...
  • Occupational Licensing: Ranking the States and Exploring Alternatives (Reason.com)

    08/27/2007 5:38:53 PM PDT · by traviskicks · 21 replies · 575+ views
    Reason.com ^ | 8/24/07
    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 (Dave Barry)

    08/19/2007 7:57:51 AM PDT · by nuconvert · 18 replies · 455+ views
    Miami Herald ^ | Dave Barry
    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...
  • The Secrets of the World's Richest Man [guess which country?]

    08/04/2007 5:47:20 PM PDT · by COBOL2Java · 47 replies · 2,195+ views
    Wall Street Journal (Weekend Journal) ^ | 4 August 2007 | DAVID LUHNOW
    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...
  • Will Microsoft roll out a PC soon? ~ Commentary: Xbox may just be part of a bigger strategy

    07/30/2007 10:15:40 AM PDT · by Ernest_at_the_Beach · 10 replies · 229+ views
    Marketwatch ^ | Jul 20, 2007 | John C. Dvorak
    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...
  • Competition or Monopoly

    06/12/2007 10:41:32 PM PDT · by gpapa · 2 replies · 293+ views
    Townhall.com ^ | June 13, 2007 | Walter Williams
    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 Urges Antitrust Officials To Scuttle DoubleClick Deal

    04/16/2007 6:13:06 AM PDT · by steve-b · 10 replies · 400+ views
    The New York Times ^ | 4/15/07 | Steve Lohr
    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....
  • Wal-Mart banking bullies

    03/19/2007 4:57:46 PM PDT · by rdb3 · 10 replies · 459+ views
    Los Angeles Times ^ | 19 MARCH 2007 | EDITORIAL
    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....
  • Nichols fights private roads

    03/17/2007 6:48:30 AM PDT · by Tolerance Sucks Rocks · 15 replies · 383+ views
    Jacksonville Daily Progress ^ | March 16, 2007 | Jim Goodson
    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...
  • Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You

    02/14/2007 6:27:10 PM PST · by Swordmaker · 14 replies · 653+ views
    Forbes Magazine ^ | 02/12/2007 | Bruce Scheiner
    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...
  • Want an iPhone? Beware the iHandcuffs

    01/14/2007 11:07:43 AM PST · by quidnunc · 487 replies · 6,135+ views
    The New York Times ^ | January 14, 2007 | Randall Stross
    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...
  • Scholar: Russia Has Energy Stranglehold Over Europe

    12/26/2006 4:05:06 AM PST · by baseball_fan · 6 replies · 500+ views
    Voice of America ^ | Dec 7, 2006 | Barry Wood
    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...
  • The A380 superjumbo: The white elephant

    11/22/2006 3:21:05 PM PST · by Paul Ross · 22 replies · 764+ views
    The Independent ^ | November 22, 2006 | Michael Harrison
    <p>No material from Independent Online is permitted on Free Republic.</p>
  • Who will control alcohol production?

    11/20/2006 1:55:35 AM PST · by eastern · 9 replies · 467+ views
    Russia-IC ^ | November 15, 2006 | Olga Pletneva
    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...
  • Petition to SAVE the FABRIC department at Wal-Mart

    11/13/2006 4:57:50 AM PST · by GailA · 44 replies · 4,916+ views
    Petition Online ^ | 11/13/06 | GailA
    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...
  • Breaking the Chain

    11/06/2006 12:35:02 PM PST · by A. Pole · 108 replies · 1,547+ views
    Harper's Magazine ^ | July 2006 | Barry C. Lynn
    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...
  • South Korean executive accused of bribing AAFES (Man paid $100,000 to U.S. military official)

    11/04/2006 4:24:31 PM PST · by Jet Jaguar · 3 replies · 425+ views
    Stars and Stripes ^ | November 5, 2006 | Hwang Hae-rym and Teri Weaver,
    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...
  • America Vs. Third Parties Dick Meyer Is Tired Of The Two-Party Political System

    11/01/2006 6:21:31 AM PST · by ruffedgrouse · 88 replies · 838+ views
    CBS News ^ | April 13, 2006 | Dick Meyer
    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...
  • Welcome Wal-Mart

    10/30/2006 10:53:47 PM PST · by 2ndDivisionVet · 9 replies · 601+ views
    Capitalism Magazine ^ | February 10, 2006 | Jonathan Hoenig
    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,...
  • Feds Lower Boom on Alternative Money (Liberty Dollar users prosecuted)

    09/15/2006 2:45:33 PM PDT · by BradJ · 43 replies · 1,820+ views
    USA Today (AOL) ^ | 09/15/2006 | Barbara Hagenbaugh
    <p>WASHINGTON (Sept. 15) — The government Thursday warned consumers and businesses that it is illegal to use alternative money known as "Liberty Dollar" coins, which organizers promote as a competitor to the almighty dollar.</p> <p>"We don't want consumers to be fooled," U.S. Mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey says, noting U.S. Attorneys offices across the USA have noticed a marked increase in inquiries about the coins.</p>
  • 'Google-creep' strikes again as website puts itself up for sale (Kiko Bell up)

    08/22/2006 12:44:00 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 41 replies · 1,143+ views
    The Guardian ^ | Tuesday August 22, 2006 | Richard Wray
    An American online calendar company has been forced to put itself up for sale on eBay after the internet giant Google moved into its space with a rival product. The demise of Kiko.com, which has gone up for sale with a reserve price of $49,999, has raised questions about the growing threat posed by "Google-creep". The company, based in Mountain View, California, is increasingly moving into areas only loosely connected with its core search engine product. As well as letting its engineers experiment with their own pet projects, Google has extensive financial resources that it can throw at new business...
  • Class Warrior Derrick Z. Zaps 'Wasteful Rich'

    08/05/2006 7:41:46 AM PDT · by governsleastgovernsbest · 20 replies · 491+ views
    Boston Globe/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein
    by Mark Finkelstein August 5, 2006 - 10:21 Amongst the many fulminations by Derrick Z. Jackson in his Boston Globe column of this morning, The Divide Remains, this one leapt out at me: "the great gorge between the working poor and the wasteful rich remains far from being bridged." Jackson never gets around to substantiating his 'wasteful rich' slap. Hard to see it as other than a gratuitous slur by a entrenched class warrior. Jackson is the apparent captive of a socialist mindset in which 'the rich' are straight-from-Monopoly caricatures who steal from the poor while not laying about or...
  • US firms accuse Qualcomm of unfair practices in South Korea

    07/03/2006 7:06:34 AM PDT · by TigerLikesRooster · 2 replies · 227+ views
    AFP ^ | 07/03/06
    US firms accuse Qualcomm of unfair practices in South Korea SEOUL, July 3, 2006 (AFP) - Two US technology firms have filed a complaint with South Korea's antitrust watchdog accusing US mobile phone chip developer Qualcomm of abusing its market dominance, officials have said. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC), a state organization watching for fair trade, said the complaint was lodged by Texas Instruments and Broadcom. "Qualcomm was accused of selling its handset chips bundled with other chip products by using its market dominance," an FTC official said. Qualcomm has monopoly market status in South Korea as the sole supplier...
  • BBC Bringing 'Sophisticated' News to America

    06/06/2006 8:26:45 PM PDT · by tbird5 · 110 replies · 1,675+ views
    real clear politics ^ | June 06, 2006 | Gerard Baker
    To much fanfare, and a fair amount of predictable gushing from its liberal admirers in the US, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the state-owned bureaucracy that bestrides the UK cultural and political landscape like a colossus, launched a 24 hour news channel in America last week. Billboards in Manhattan bellowed the BBC's message to passers- by, promising that the corporation would be bringing "news beyond your borders" into Americans' parochial little lives. The Beeb, as it is known back home, evidently senses an opportunity. It is steadily expanding its deals with public radio stations across the country to carry its World...
  • Cheney and Kremlin trade accusations (Cheney slams Putin)

    05/04/2006 10:00:05 AM PDT · by Wiz · 33 replies · 792+ views
    Reuters via Yahoo! News ^ | 2006 May 4 | Matt Spetalnick
    VILNIUS (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney launched one of Washington's sharpest attacks on President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, accusing Russia of backsliding on democracy and using its energy supplies to blackmail neighbors. The Kremlin rejected Cheney's charges, saying his comments were completely incomprehensible. "Russia has a choice to make," Cheney told Baltic and Black Sea leaders in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, calling on Moscow to return to democratic reforms at a time of increasingly chilly relations between the two former Cold War rivals. Cheney criticized Moscow for playing power politics with its vast energy reserves at a time of...
  • Microsoft: Don't Sell PCs Without Operating Systems

    04/05/2006 2:04:05 PM PDT · by steve-b · 51 replies · 1,803+ views
    ZDNet ^ | 4/5/06 | Graeme Wearden
    Naked PCs: Free software supporters are angry that Microsoft is putting pressure on PC vendors not to sell machines without an operating system installed Microsoft has urged UK PC vendors not to give customers the opportunity to buy a PC without a pre-installed operating system.... The FSF Europe is alarmed by the prospect that customers who request a base systems would risk a visit from Microsoft's investigators. "It looks like a private sniffing service which is supposed to spy on these who do not want to pay the Microsoft tax anymore. It is an incredible piece of impudence which any...
  • Big Easy May Face Showdown Over Internet

    04/04/2006 4:42:52 PM PDT · by steve-b · 3 replies · 220+ views
    A showdown may be looming over a free wireless internet network that New Orleans set up to boost recovery after Hurricane Katrina pummeled the city. Calling the network vital to the city's economic comeback, New Orleans technology chief Greg Meffert is vowing to keep the system running as is, even if it means breaking a state law that permits its full operation only during emergencies. He says he's ready to go to court, if necessary.... David Grabert, a spokesman for Cox Communications, a major telecommunications provider in New Orleans, said the company backs the state's Fair Competition Act, which would...
  • Big Content would like to outlaw things no one has even thought of yet

    01/22/2006 7:40:15 AM PST · by Uncle Fud · 10 replies · 509+ views
    Ars Technica ^ | 1-21-2006 | Ars Technica's "Hannibal"
    The EFF's Deeplinks section has a pretty alarming post about the RIAA and MPAA's attempts to freeze the progress of consumer electronics technology and then start turning back the clock on all of us. Fair use, meet your successor: "customary historic use." The post points to broadcast flag draft legislation sponsored by Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) that contains provisions which appear to limit digital broadcast media reception devices to "customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law and that prevents redistribution of copyrighted content over digital networks." In other words,...
  • Gazprom to Take Control of Stake in Trader

    01/17/2006 6:02:56 AM PST · by Wiz · 1 replies · 128+ views
    Associated Press via Yahoo! News ^ | 2006 Jan 17 | Alex Nicholson
    MOSCOW - OAO Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, will take direct control of a 50 percent stake in a gas trader that emerged as the sole supplier to Ukraine after a bitter price fight, company officials said. ADVERTISEMENT Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said late Monday that the 50 percent stake in RosUkrEnergo would be transferred from Gazprom's banking subsidiary directly onto the books of the Russian natural gas monopoly in a move aimed at clarifying Russia's role in the trader. Both Medvedev and Gazprom board member Boris Fyodorov said that the decision had been made to avoid confusion over...
  • Stossel: Are American Kids Stupid?

    01/07/2006 12:45:10 PM PST · by wagglebee · 343 replies · 5,687+ views
    NewsMax ^ | 1/7/06 | NewsMax
    Are kids in the United States being cheated out of a quality education? In a special report airing this Friday on ABC's "20/20", John Stossel reveals the surprising truth. American high school students fizzle in international comparisons, placing well behind other countries, even poorer countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and South Korea. American kids do pretty well when they enter public school, but as time goes on, the worse they do. Why? School officials complain that they need more money, but as Stossel reports, most of the countries that outperform us spend less per student than we do. There...
  • The Education Monopoly and Intelligent Design

    01/05/2006 2:17:52 PM PST · by MRMEAN · 6 replies · 259+ views
    Acton Commentary ^ | January 4, 2006 | D. Eric Schansberg, Adjunct Scholar
    With the recent election results in Kansas and Delaware, the debate continues to intensify over teaching evolution and “Intelligent Design” in the public schools. There is much at stake, from scientific integrity to philosophical baggage. The stakes are greater than they ought to be because of the way our country delivers educational services. Evolution refers to two different but related areas in science. On one hand, evolution is an observable mechanism by which life evolves in modest increments over time. This evolution is an indisputable scientific theory, supported on empirical grounds. On the other hand, evolution is also used to...
  • Microsoft may face daily EU fine

    12/22/2005 7:27:24 AM PST · by zeugma · 36 replies · 510+ views
    BBC ^ | 2005/12/22 14:56:33 GMT | bbc
    The European Commission has threatened to fine Microsoft up to 2m euros (Ł1.36m; $2.4m) a day until it gives rivals more access to its systems. Brussels said the software giant had failed to supply adequate information about its server programs. Microsoft has five weeks to provide improved documentation before the daily penalties are imposed. But the group pledged to contest the EU's "unjustified" demands by whatever means possible. 'Changing demands' "We will contest today's statement to the full extent permitted under EU law, including a full oral hearing on these issues," Microsoft legal chief Brad Smith said in a statement....
  • A Deficient Monopoly (Canadian health-care — nothing close to paradise.)

    12/20/2005 8:07:26 PM PST · by prairiebreeze · 26 replies · 846+ views
    National Review ^ | December 20, 2005 | Anthony Dick
    Canada’s universal-health-care system has long been a darling of the nanny-state Left. Its stated purpose, jealously touted by swooning cohorts of compassion from coast to coast, is to provide free and equal health care for all, regardless of ability to pay. In practice, sadly, this high-minded endeavor has hit a few snags. The pesky fetters of reality have imposed stingy budget constraints on the enterprise, while the promise of free service for all has increased the demand for treatment. The Canadian government has thus struggled to treat more patients while spending as sparingly as possible on each of them, causing...
  • Are Lawyers Being Overbilled for Their Test Preparation?

    12/05/2005 1:10:32 AM PST · by ccmay · 39 replies · 924+ views
    The New York Times ^ | 12/4/2005 | Jonathan D. Glater
    MANY executives dream of dominating their industries the way BAR/BRI does the business of helping law school graduates prepare for bar examinations. Every law student knows BAR/BRI. Hundreds of thousands of them have taken its courses to pass the bar, an essential step in most states before a law school graduate can practice law. . . . But now BAR/BRI could use a few lawyers itself. Some of the people who paid the fees, took the courses and passed the bar have turned on the company, which is owned by the Thomson Corporation of Stamford, Conn. Represented by an aggressive...
  • Craig$list.com ("taking millions from ... newspapers and causing layoffs")

    12/01/2005 4:24:24 PM PST · by churchillbuff · 23 replies · 9,256+ views
    SF Weekly ^ | Dec 1 05 | Ryan Blitstein
    Craig Newmark's stubby fingers tap at the keyboard in an irregular, accelerating rhythm, akin to kernels in a microwave popcorn bag approaching peak heat. Clack. Click-clack. Click-ity-click-ity-click-ca-click-clack. Newmark peers into one of three computer monitors on his home office desk. The screen displays, in plain black-and-white text, the focus of Newmark's daily life -- much of it, anyway. It's in an e-mail program called Pine, favored by geeks of all ages, partly because it renders the mouse nearly useless. Pine users are, like Newmark, the type who derive an almost perverse pleasure from deleting a message by simply pressing the...
  • Global Xbox launches at B-1 hangar

    11/22/2005 5:13:06 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 9 replies · 784+ views
    Valley Press on ^ | Tuesday, November 22, 2005. | CHRIS AMICO
    PALMDALE - In a giant hangar at Air Force Plant 42 where strategic nuclear bombers were built to win the Cold War, computer giant Microsoft has staked its future in the gaming industry, an $8 billion global market. An Internet underground marketing campaign brought 3,000 dedicated players from around the world to the Antelope Valley for Microsoft's North American launch of its newest game system. "It's basically a 30-hour party. There's never been anything like this," said Ricardo Torres, a senior editor at GameSpot.com, an online entertainment forum. In the virtual reality world of computer gaming, the giant from Seattle...
  • Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies

    11/06/2005 5:51:08 AM PST · by summer · 130 replies · 3,108+ views
    The NY Times, Technology ^ | Nov. 6, 2005 | Steve Lohr
    Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers. Makers of goods from diapers to DVD's must cater to its whims. But there is one company that even Wal-Mart eyes warily these days: Google, a seven-year-old business in a seemingly distant industry."We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart," said Jim Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart's board.In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Mr. Breyer, who is also a partner in a venture capital firm. The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell...
  • Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies

    11/06/2005 7:25:34 AM PST · by XR7 · 18 replies · 1,148+ views
    The New York Times ^ | 11/6/05 | STEVE LOHR
    Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers. Makers of goods from diapers to DVD's must cater to its whims. But there is one company that even Wal-Mart eyes warily these days: Google, a seven-year-old business in a seemingly distant industry. "We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart," said Jim Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart's board. In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Mr. Breyer...The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell Wal-Mart shoppers if better bargains are available nearby. Wal-Mart...
  • Choice & Security. What conservatives know about economic freedom.

    10/14/2005 5:57:20 AM PDT · by .cnI redruM · 7 replies · 329+ views
    NRO ^ | October 14, 2005, 8:05 a.m. | By Michael F. Cannon
    Which would you rather have, freedom or security? The Left has argued that since September 11, 2001, President Bush has curtailed civil liberties in an attempt to keep America safe from terrorism. Few people on the Left believe this bargain will pay off, and the skepticism runs deeper the farther left one moves across the political spectrum. The same cannot be said when it comes to the economic freedom. Here, acceptance of a tradeoff between freedom and security increases as we look leftward. In The New Republic, Jonathan Cohn recently asserted the existence of that tradeoff — and argued for...
  • Syria after Lebanon: Hooked on Lebanon

    10/03/2005 11:31:22 PM PDT · by Hunden · 1 replies · 353+ views
    Middle East Quarterly ^ | Fall 2005 | Gary C. Gambill
    Although Syrian troops have withdrawn from Lebanon, their departure is little more than a symbolic acknowledgment of Lebanese sovereignty, extracted under enormous pressure from the international community. They had not been directly involved in policing the country for nearly a decade, and their number had already dwindled in recent years from a peak of over 40,000 down to 14,000. The backbone of Syria's power in Lebanon — its intelligence apparatus — has merely gone underground. The assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in February and the murders of prominent dissidents Samir Kassir and George Hawi in June suggest that Syria remains as capable as ever...
  • Microsoft's nightmare inches closer to reality

    09/24/2005 8:51:48 AM PDT · by Halfmanhalfamazing · 22 replies · 514+ views
    Cnet ^ | September 23, 2005 | Jim Kerstetter and Elinor Mills
    In an extensive memo called "The Web is the Next Platform" that was introduced as evidence in Microsoft's antitrust trial five years ago, Microsoft engineer Ben Slivka described a "nightmare" scenario for the software giant. "The Web...exists today as a collection of technologies that deliver some interesting solutions today, and will grow rapidly in the coming years into a full-fledged platform (underlined for emphasis in the original memo) that will rival--and even surpass--Microsoft's Windows," Slivka wrote.