Of course, from the consumer’s end this will probably be a very pricey convenience for a long time, once it’s available at all. But from a business perspective, it just goes to prove that there are still little things right under your nose that you could improve, and likely make a bundle doing so.

Un-freakin’-believable. And just this side of actually criminal. Dodd is a former senator — he should know that the money-for-votes relationship is illegal, and must remain an unspoken truth. Now he’s confirmed what everyone knew was the case, but had no evidence for: that SOPA/PIPA were written by the entertainment industry, and that that industry considers its donations to be bribes and expects the laws they want to be passed because of them.

(Hint, Mr. Dodd: the polite fiction is that campaign donations are no-strings-attached gifts, presumably because the politician in question has views compatible with the gift-giver and the gift-giver wants to help ensure that the politician is elected. Crossing that line is illegal. I shouldn’t have to be telling you this.)

If the MPAA doesn’t fire Dodd over that comment, they’ll prove they’re just as stupid and out-of-touch as he just shown himself to be.

EDIT, 2012-01-25: Hm, maybe this was actually criminal. Some people think so, anyway. I rather hope that this probe happens, though realistically I expect Obama and other politicians won’t dare to upset the MPAA any further by investigating them… unless, of course, enough people demand it. I also expect that, if such an investigation is started, it will be a sham, and everyone will know it.

1. It’s a “limited, unscreened” school. [...] It means that any student who is interested can apply–their grades and attendence record are not taken into account in deciding whether or not to admit them, only their interest. I think this is the best thing about the school. A lot of kids are just not interested enough in other academic subjects to get good grades, but they would make great software engineers. [...]

That describes my high school career to a T.

1. It’s not a vocational school. Unlike traditional vocational schools, this new school will have a rigorous academic component and will prepare students for college. But college is not for everyone–many of the best programmers I know were just not interested enough in a general four year degree and went straight into jobs programming.

That’s certainly what I wanted to do. To me, school was completely pointless — I knew what I wanted, and I had enough history and math and English literature that I could “page in” any further information as needed, even in the pre-Internet days.

Unfortunately, software development jobs were limited to those with college degrees at that point in history, which made little sense even at the time. Such a school would still have been perfect for me though; it might have even kept me interested enough in school to continue college past the one year that I took to satisfy my parents.

It’s far too late for me, but for the current crop of computer-geek teenagers and teenagers-to-be, I hope this sort of thing catches on quickly.

I understand the economic reasons why it could never happen, but I really wish there were a way for the individual consumer to hold companies to their promises, rather than relying on large groups of us to get pissed off enough to file a class-action suit.

I’m not sure I follow their numbers, but I’ll accept them on faith for the moment. The thing that baffles me is the source: a very conservative think-tank.

Political conservatives have railed against anyone who was different practically since the ink was dry on the Declaration of Independence, if not before. Blacks, Italians, Jews, Chinese, Mexicans, Irish, or most recently, Muslims. When they get bored fearing and hating Muslims, they’ll inevitably find some other “different” group to fear and hate. Just about the only thing uniting all those groups is that they come from Somewhere Else. (The only hated home-grown groups that I know of have been hippies and gays, or when all else fails, the ever-useful generic label of “liberals” — the conservative definition literally being “anyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like us.”)

So when conservatives publicly announce that the US needs more immigrants, despite both their hundreds of years of ideology and rhetoric against the whole concept and the ascendant frothing-at-the-mouth Tea Party movement… well, either we’ve entered some kind of bizarre mirror-universe, or things have gotten so bad that reality is starting to penetrate even the well-protected innermost enclaves of willful ignorance.

Things are bad, but conservative will is strong, so I haven’t decided which it is yet.

I really couldn’t care less whether a film is 3D or not. It doesn’t give me headaches or anything, but I only notice the 3D part maybe twice per movie — once at the beginning, once in the particular scene the director put in just to highlight the 3D aspect. And I have to put up with the glasses on top of that. Forcing me to pay extra for this dubious honor just annoys me. GoddessJ and I make a point of going to 2D showings whenever we have a choice. Hollywood, call me when you’ve got real 3D, then I’ll probably reconsider.

On the other hand, I hear that it has caused a lot of beneficial changes in the film industry by forcing it to finally go digital, so I’m not going to complain too loudly.

(There are also things like this, but it looks to me like the algae route is a better long-term bet.)

In the late 1990s Robert Soloway made $20,000 a day as a spammer. He drove fancy cars. He wore Armani clothes. He was, by all accounts, one of the most successful spammers on the planet. But if he were starting out today, he’d find some other line of work. In 2011, spamming just won’t pay the bills.

It seems that spam filters have just gotten too good.

I, for one, am not going to complain.