Archive for the ‘us’ Category
Spotify reaches US in July #music
I remember first using Spotify and needing to create an account using an UK based proxy and setting the proxy in the configuration settings. Since then the service has changed some. Ironically I only got back into Spotify when my father asked me about it – we has set up for him and he wondered why it didn’t work any more. I too had forgotten about the proxy settings. After I ran the update and set it up for him to work I went on to install it on my own laptop.
Spotify Adoption Europe
A couple of weeks earlier a colleague, who is a paid up subscriber, asked a group of colleagues to name artists we thought would not be in Spotify. Naturally having a hipster as a friend paid off and I was able to name a number of artists which Spotify did not have in its collection, a hipster colleague was also able to name a couple. In good hipster/geek fashion we ridiculed him. 
Between you and me I like Spotify, and lament the start up issues they have had in the US. Based on the service offered – and from the articles I’ve read in Wired and some other sources – I am positive about the possibilities it has to offer with its Freemium model.
Spotify will launch in the US sometime in July.
Image source: SimplyZesty (logo), International Federation of the Phonographic Industry & Wired (graph)
Michael Moore in Slacker Uprising #movie #p2008
I just finished watching Slacker Uprising by Michael Moore. I can’t say I really liked it, it’s as always a propaganda film. It is an interesting view on how the election of 2004 was lost, and features some big names, it just didn’t touch me. US politics had gone to hell in a handbasket in 2004.
Tom Morello said it right, when he said that the fight starts on the day after the election. The problems don’t end, just because a president has been chosen.
Vote!
technorati tags: p2008, p2004, michaelmoore, moore, slackeruprising, movie, film, propaganda
CNN iReport’s on Little Green Men
I was watching CNN and saw Little Green Army Men Project:
They are collecting one little green plastic army man figure for each of the fallen troops in the Iraqi War. It [...] started after reading about a class doing something similar for holocaust survivors in Tennessee.
Although it does have something ironic some of the comment left suggest that the teacher has a political agenda, which is refuted in other comments. In my opinion war is always political and any memorial is political.
Read the rest of this entry »
Louisiana untouched by noodle appendage
By way of /. I received New legal threat to teaching evolution in the US. I don’t believe in God, so I found the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster more believable than God. (Besides from being touched by his noodle appendage.)
I really am speechless, again…
technorati tags: louisiana, intelligent, design, teaching
Telecom Filibuster
After the House approves overhaul of wiretap laws I was pointed to this article Obama Camp Says It: He’ll Support Filibuster Of Any Bill Containing Telecom Immunity. Apparently Obama (his campaign) had already said in October of 2007 that they would.
Sadly as I read in the NYT Senate Approves Bill to Broaden Wiretap Powers In fact “…on Wednesday, he [Obama] ended up voting for what he called ‘an improved but imperfect bill’ after backing a failed attempt earlier in the day to strip the immunity provision from the bill through an amendment.” Clinton voted against the bill.
And don’t forget to use tag your election posts too. (Tagging 2008)
Canada getting rich on US oil consumption
I got the link Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries from a friend, I never realized that Canada exported close to 2,000,000 barrels of crude and over 2,500,000 barrels of petroleum a day.
Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela export between 1,500,000 and 1,000,000 barrels of crude and about the same of petroleum daily.
GPS Wiretapping Lawsuit
On BetaNews I just saw that:
“The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation are suing the Justice Dept. for “documents, memos, and guides” about procedures used to track individuals through cell phones.
“The [ACLU] and the [EFF] aren’t looking for money … Instead, the two civil liberty advocacy groups want information about whether and how the government might be using the location capabilities in cell phones to find out where people are.”1
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had already upheld the ruling that the FBI was not allow to spy on in-car computers, which was made possible by the OnStar system, “… a 2003 lawsuit revealed that systems such as OnStar can be used for eavesdropping on passenger conversations”
- US Justice Dept. sued for info on cellular tracking practices
- Court to FBI: No spying on in-car computers
- FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool
technorati tags: wiretapping, fbi, lawsuit, eff, aclu, freedom, onstar, geolocation, gps, mobile
