If you haven’t noticed, our government hasn’t been regulating things in this country for about eight years. It cuts across almost every agency in the bureaucracy. Mostly they just unfunded the regulators or told them to stop doing their jobs. See recent headlines on airplanes being grounded because they hadn’t been inspected in timely fashion for an example.
You need only listen to the news any given day to be reminded. We haven’t been keeping our government accountable. Neither has our corporate media. So, we can blame only ourselves. Or only our media, if we are cowards. (Yes, I consider ignoring our own failing an act of cowardice. Blaming others is the height of it.)
It was interesting to hear of another regulatory failing on Marketplace on Monday night. This one not of Executive Branch malfeasance, but one of political will-bending in the Legislature in December of 2000.
I’m sure everyone remembers Enron. They went south in a very large way about a year later. But before that they got this legislation passed. Basically, deregulating (and effectively hiding) the trading of about 30% of the energy market.
Recently, we’ve had out-of-control rises in the price of crude oil. All the analysts say we’ve got plenty of supply. So, whatever could be the cause of the price rises?
Well the Legislature has finally fixed their part in this non-regulation snafu. Soon it is of course passing back into the Executive’s hands. What will happen there, only time will tell.
Michael Greenburger, previous Head of Trading and Markets for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission says “many observers believe that because those markets are not being policed, malpractices are being committed and traders are able to boost the price virtually at their will… From my own experience as a commodity regulator, I believe that if the Bush Administration were serious about its regulation, we could begin seeing prices drop within a month.”
If things don’t start moving in a positive direction, let’s make sure we tell our elected employees we aren’t happy about it.
June 18th, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
corporations, government, inthenews, media |
no comments
I may push the iPods a bit more than most, but I find all kinds of bugs in them. I could consistently crash my nano when I first got it. After one software update, that was fixed. After a few more, most of the non-crash bugs were gone. I was left only with interface annoyances - that’s how it was designed and they ain’t gonna fix it.
Now with my new iPod Touch, I’ve noticed one whopper! I thought it was only a “not updating the smart list on the iPod” problem, which plagued the Nanos when they first arrived as well. But, it’s worse. (5900584)
Any podcast that I listen to entirely doesn’t get its play count updated! How am I supposed to keep track of the hundreds of podcasts I have and listen to when they don’t get marked as being played? Podcast support - ever stepping backward. I have many smart playlists with “playcount = 0″ as one of the filters, and now they’re all screwed - or it’s back to the Nano.
They really should fix it before the June release, and do it for free. But I’d bet that doesn’t happen. Alternately, when the iPhone/iPod becomes an open platform, someone should develop an application that actually supports podcast management!
I could provide you with a lengthy list of the many ways I want to handle my podcasts, if someone out there needs some specs to build to.
(Another pet peeve of mine: Apple doesn’t maintain a publicly accessible database of known bugs.)
April 30th, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
corporations, tech |
no comments
Houston has been promoting the draconian measure of red light cameras in the city “to increase safety”.
While many of us may be annoyed at that last person squeezing through a red light at 20 miles per hour during rush hour, there have not been any rashes of deadly accidents caused by red light runners.
There are lots of accidents in the city every day. But in a world where we allow people to take a test once at 15 years of age, and to drive with cell phones, hamburgers, make-up, and video displays (not to mentioned unmuzzled children) we are to expect some distracted and incapable drivers.
There was a recent study showing a slight rise in accidents due to red-light running, with a shift from side-on to rear-end.
Also, extending the yellow light duration has a much greater safety effect.
Now, the National Motorist Association (via sivacracy.net) shows that in 6 cities (two in Texas), the yellow light duration was shorter than the minimum suggested by state traffic safety organizations. Not really surprising. The only goal of red-light cameras is revenue generation.
Municipalities are given a hard sell by the companies who make them (and administer, for a cut of the profit) shaming or forcing our pliable “leaders” to decide to buy them “for the safety of the people”. Houston has even talked about expanding it to people “rolling the red light to turn right”. This is not a major problem!
Traffic lights, signals, and signs have 2 goals: to facilitate traffic flow, and to do so safely. They are not there to punish us, they are not installed to provide revenue. Any camera to surveil the populace is one too many!
April 2nd, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
corporations, government, inthenews |
4 comments
I’ve been watching the daily politics podcast from CNN for a while. I loved CNN in the 80’s but their worthiness has been drifting for over a decade. I tend to vary my sources of news just to know what they’re all saying.
But something about this podcast, which is easily solvable has been annoying me for quite some time. So, I chased the links till I found a page to send feedback. I’m not sure if it will get to those it needs to, but I sure hope so. An easy fix to an annoying situation.
(Wolf Blitzer’s annoying, but they’re not going to solve that.)
CNN,
The only podcast I watch regularly is the CNN Politics podcast, a video daily release.
You really, really, really really need to mention WHAT DAY it is at the beginning of each podcast. On either the audio portion or displayed on the video, preferably both!
Otherwise enjoying it, thanks.
-bill shirley, houston
The trick is, these things download daily to my iPod/iTunes and if I haven’t watched them in a while, there’s a bunch of them. There is NO way to tell if it’s the most recent one when you’re watching. And, of course, the introductions are all identical.
Note: I should have said, it’s the only video podcast I watch regularly from CNN.
April 1st, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
corporations, media, politics |
2 comments
A few of you may have been watching TV yesterday and may know otherwise.
February 4th, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
corporations, literature, television, web |
no comments
Yes, you should not let those with sensitive ears read this blog.
Once again my phone is not working. The DSL’s been sucking for hours - about 5pm on Saturday evening. I finally tried the phone and it’s dead. So, I go outside and unplug the house, and plug an analog phone into the line. It still doesn’t work. The line is totally dead. That the DSL will load a web page in 10-20 minutes is a technological miracle.
Of course, I call them, press a hundred buttons answering a hundred automated questions, before the test the line, leave out the information that “yes our line is fucked up”, and say, i kid you not, “your line will be fixed on Monday, between 8am and 7pm”.
My favorite combo:
“If the reason you’re calling is that you have no dial tone, press 1.”
1
“Are you currently calling from the effected number? If yes, press 1, if no press 2.”
2
“Is this effecting all of your hand sets? If yes, press 1,…”
1
Thank you for assuming I’m a dumb ass AT&T, because I certainly assumed the same of you.
So, no paying my bills this weekend. No doing my taxes this weekend. At least I got in most of the blog updating I was doing today.
This is the third time my phone and/or DSL has gone down in the last two months. Once out four days BECAUSE THEY DISCONNECTED IT!
Homicide is in my heart.
February 3rd, 2008
Posted by
bshirley |
725, corporations, weekend |
one comment
Next Page »
