Monthly Archives: July 2009

Waiting for the shoe to drop

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 31, 2009

How much will the award be in the Tenenbaum versus RIAA case? It could go as high as $4.5 million. I wonder if the SONY management and shareholders have first night rights with Joel’s fiancee too?

Posted in Bidness, Class Warfare, Democracy | Comments closed

Corporate-people versus the people-people

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 30, 2009

The RIAA warriors are suing another kid for file sharing. Joel Tenenbaum faces a huge judgment for willful copyright infringement. Defense attorney Charlie Nesson, of Harvard Berkman Center fame, appears to have been out-gunned by the corporate lawyers. His effort to raise the level of the discussion to something more philosophical has been stymied by [...]

Posted in Bidness, Class Warfare | Tagged | Comments closed

Jeepers

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 27, 2009

A sleeping dog will always tell the truth, even when authorised or encouraged to do otherwise. In 1961, Soviet scientists claimed to have trained a sleeping dog to lie, but it was discovered that it was really a dingo that had misrepresented itself during the screening process. ∞ I lifted the above citation from Anne [...]

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments closed

tbex

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 24, 2009

Travel writers are gathering in Chicago this weekend under the aegis of #tbex (yeah, that’s a twitter hashtag), the Travel Bloggers Exchange. Not coincidentally, the BlogHer 09 conference is in Chicago this weekend too. Both events are sold out. #tbex founder Kim Mance and the tbex team will gather the travel bloggers again this fall [...]

Posted in Bloggers 'n blogs, Travel, Writing | Tagged , | Comments closed

A National Broadband Plan for Our Future, GN Docket No. 09-51

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 23, 2009

Ms. Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street SW Washington, DC 20554 Re: A National Broadband Plan for Our Future, GN Docket No. 09-51 Dear Ms. Dortch, Compared to the rest of the world, America’s broadband efforts are shameful. An open internet is a public resource that deserves scrupulous regulation and a [...]

Posted in Networks, Public Services | Tagged | Comments closed

Town and Gown

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 23, 2009

Cambridge, Massachusetts was in the news this week. A city cop busted a black professor on his own property following some verbal hassles. The professor was understandably freaked out by the cop’s behavior. The cop interpreted that as disrespect for the law or disorderly conduct or something. Basically, the effect of the arrest was to [...]

Posted in Prison Reform, Racism | Tagged , | Comments closed

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 22, 2009

This is old news, but it’s probably a meme worth propagating. Singer/song writer Dave Caroll had a grievance. United Airlines baggage handlers broke his $1500 Taylor guitar. Earlier this month the musician, with backing from his band The Sons of Maxwell, released his YouTube lament about the breakage. Three weeks later over three and a [...]

Posted in Blogging and Flogging, Creative Arts, Music, Web Publishing | Tagged | Comments closed

Writer’s crap

By Frank Paynter | Published: July 21, 2009

Writer’s crap: Derived from writer’s cramp, writer’s crap refers to a stage when one is only capable of writing utter crap. Writer’s crap is distinguished from writer’s block by the existence of a work product. Writer’s block is a paralytic condition originating deep in the amygdala and extending outward to the somatic nervous system, a [...]

Posted in Writing | Comments closed