Tuesday, April 05, 2005

AND It looks as though the schools proposition passed here in Webster Groves. FInal, inofficial results from the county elections site: ** WEBSTER GROVES SCHOOL DISTRICT (22 POLLING PLACES) ** Precincts Counted -   .  .  .  .  .  .  .          22  100.00 Registered Voters -   .  .  .  .  .  .  .      24,755 Ballots Cast -  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       7,610   30.74 PROP S -SALARIES/REDUCED OPERATING EXPENSES- SIMPLE    YES .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       4,338   57.24    NO  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       3,241   42.76 Good news! 10:21:15 PM    comment []

Update: Former Professor Pleads Guilty in Fraud Case. A former medical school professor accused of fabricating research data pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a $542,000 federal grant. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. [NYT > Education] Excerpt: The defendant, Eric T. Poehlman, 49, could get up to five years in prison and be fined $250,000.  . . . In a paper on the metabolic effects of menopause that was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 1995, Dr. Poehlman fabricated test results for 32 of 35 women, prosecutors said. He also made up results for a 1999-2000 study on hormone replacement therapy, they said. Earlier coverage here at A blog doesn't need a clever name (with more details, including a  link to a list of implicated papers). He plead to (just) one, according to the AP report. 10:21:10 PM    comment []

Pew Admits They Falsely Pumped Up Podcasting Just For Fun. Like many people, when the headlines started flying around this morning saying that six million American adults listened to podcasts, it seemed like a questionable number. The folks at the Pew Internet and American Life Project tend to come out with pretty interesting studies that don't often seem overhyped -- but this appears to be an exception that really calls into question what the Pew people were thinking. It didn't take long for many to question the findings, noting that it's quite an extrapolation to go from 60 people answering yes to six million in the US. Amazingly, even the folks at Pew admit they don't believe the 6 million number. They only put out the press release about it -- why should they have to believe it, or even support it with the facts in their survey? In fact, the research director behind the study clarifies (after the fact, of course) that the study actually asked people: "if they had ever downloaded a podcast or radio Internet program." So, out of 200 people, they got 60 to admit that they had maybe at some point downloaded an internet radio program (which is not necessarily the same thing as podcasting) -- and from that they put out a report with the headline that "6 million American adults have listened to podcasts." Why bother doing actual research any more when all the attention is in made up numbers? Via Techdirt [unmediated] 10:14:32 PM    comment []

Another thoughtful post from Mark Cuban on the impact of digital media and the future of entertainment and tech: The countdown for the extinction of CDs is about to begin.  . . . MP3 players are changing peoples listening habits. We dont carry folders filled with CDs anymore. We carry our library in our MP3 players. We dont listen to CDs. We listen to playlists that we adjust all the time. We dont burn CDs anymore, its too time consuming. We copy all our music to our MP3 players so its all available at our fingertips. All of our music in a single device. Available to us where ever we are, for whenever we want it. Music how we want it, when we want it. Easy and breezy. Thats how we want to consume music. Thats not how we are being sold music. To buy music these days, I have to make all kinds of choices.If i want to buy downloads from the net, its like trying to figure out which mortgate to take out on a house. Now because of the cost, but because of all the rules and regulations. Do I want to limit myself to 5 computers. Do i want to always keep my subscription live. Do I want to store the music in a proprietary format that only a couple devices can use. Those are all tough decisions to make when the only thing I know with certainty is that the device Im using as an MP3 player today, is NOT going to be the device Im going to be using 18 months from now. There will be players that have more features, or i will consolidate multiple products into a single device. I may be using my phone, my PSP or PDA or something other device for my music. Which brings me back to CDs. . . . .  . . . For less than 10k dollars, it would be EASY to put together a multi-terrabyte hard drive based multi-user system that pretty much holds every song ever published. A screen to enter credit card information, swipe a debit card, enter a member number or call for assistance to handle a cash transaction, a couple USB ports, and wireless connection support to transfer the music, and you are in business. Loss leaders like Walmart and Best Buy can cut their music square footage by 90 pct and sell more music at lower prices. Their inventory carrying costs will go to zero. If someone wants the CD, they can go home and burn it after docking their MP3 player to their PC. Believe or not, the labels will make more money this way because they will make these big boys committ to minimum guarantees at levels they are at now, and all that money after the artist cut, will go to the bottomline.  . . . Until then, if im a band selling on my own, im carrying a laptop to every show , and charging 5 bucks to drop a show on an IPod. Call it concertpodding.  . . . [Blog Maverick] 10:10:42 PM    comment []

Privacy concerns as Google unveils satellite map feature. On CNN [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 8:48:05 PM    comment []

San Francisco Hotel Workers' Union Thanks Philosophers for Honoring Strike. The letter is here:  thank_you_philosophers.doc [Leiter Reports] 8:47:59 PM    comment []

Hunter S. Thompson's ashes to be shot from cannon. On CNN [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 8:45:28 PM    comment []

Pew Podcasting Numbers Were High. So says Engadget in a post that sums up: Not that podcasting as a phenomenon isn't growing rapidly or anything, but there's no reason to overinflate its importance, you know? Yup. [Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.] 5:27:28 PM    comment []

EULA/Anti-EULA (Donna Wentworth). Michael Madison, clearly on roll, points to a recent Seventh Circuit ruling[PDF] that gives those victimized by End User License Agreements (EULAs) new hope: "If a software user merely 'licenses' the software, then (allegedly) the rights of 'owners' don't apply. Judge Leval decisively and rightly rejects the idea that Section 117 can be bypassed by the software developer’s unilateral characterization of the transaction as a 'license.'" [Copyfight] 5:25:38 PM    comment []

Letters. Passionate hoo-ha about intellectual property: Readers respond to Andrew Leonard's "Music Rules." [Salon.com] 6:36:05 AM    comment []

Websites hawk computer viruses. The Wall Street Journal reports that American Eagle Publications is selling a CD called "Outlaws of the Wild West" that it claims contains the source code for 14,000 types of viruses. There are some interesting First Amendment issues at play here; I'm pretty torn myself. American Eagle's advertising ("A fantastic virus collection consisting of 804 major families and 10,000 individual and different viruses for PC's Macs, Unix boxes, Amigas and others!") makes it hard to believe that these products don't actively encourage black hat hackers.... which makes you wonder: if the Supreme Court rules against Grokster, will it make American Eagle liable for any damages its customers cause? [Stay Free! Daily] 6:30:57 AM    comment []

Mark, over at bOingbOing, links to Abbie Hoffman MP3s and reminisces Steal this LP: here's Abbie Hoffman's 1969 record album, Wake Up America! in MP3 format. This reminded me of the time I met Hoffman. It was around 1985 or 1986, when Carla and I went to a 1960s conference in San Francisco. (Tom Robbins, Timothy Leary, Paul Krassner, and so on, were there. We went mainly to see Leary.) Some reporter from a paper up in Marin or Sonoma spotted us and decided to write an article about us -- still not sure why. Anyway, he insisted on introducing us to Abbie Hoffman, who was there. I think he had recently come out of hiding. I hate meeting famous people in situations like this, and I wasn't looking forward to meeting but Carla and I meekly went along at the reporter's insistence. Hoffman was standing in the lobby, looking very grumpy. We were introduced, and he gruffly shook our hands, but avoided eye contact. He then announced to us, without looking at any of us, that he needed to find a payphone to get the score to a ball game, because he had money riding on the outcome. He walked away without saying anything else. I don't blame him for not wanting to be bothered, but I learned something. To this day, when I have the opportunity to meet a famous person, I almost always decline. I usually don't have anything to say to them and they don't have anything to say to me. Link (via WFMU's Beware of the Blog) [bOing bOing] 6:30:50 AM    comment []

Concessions by Microsoft on Its Code. Microsoft said that it would meet most demands by European Union regulators on making software blueprints available to competitors, but that it was seeking further talks on some issues. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. [NYT > Technology] 6:30:30 AM    comment []