The End of the Cold Streak?

You know it's been a couple of cold weeks when you wake up in the morning thinking 19F is actually pretty warm...

A farewell to the era of anonymous drinking? - Not in Nebraska

So I was brought attention to the following article. In which they describe how some bars are using machines to scan the bar codes on drivers licenses, and then the information is stored and later sold to filthy marketing types who like to send out extremely targeted advertising to the unsuspecting patrons. ("Any big plans for your birthday next week!?" etc)

Anyways, I was interested in what the laws of Nebraska said on the issue (and more importantly whether I would get in trouble if I were to take a sharpie to the back of mine..) and am proud to report that we Nebraskans have nothing to worry about. The website www.privacyprotectionlevel.org got a response from Noelie Sherdon, Legal Counsel NE DMV on the issue and it is as follows:

Just a clarification of NE law on information on a driver license - While there is no way to restrict anyone writing down or photo copying the information that appears on the front of our driver's license if a person allows someone to do that to their license or ID card, that is also not very convenient in an electronic age. NE does have a statute that makes it a felony criminal offense to record and store the information that is electronically encoded in the machine readable zone on the license. I have pasted a copy of that statute below. You may also want to review our DMV privacy law which is found at Neb.Rev.Stat. 60-2901 and following. The statutes are available free on the Nebraska Legislature website. Our privacy law restricts release of data contained in our DMV records, but does not specifically apply to information on the actual driver license or id card.

Section 60-4,111.01 Storage or compilation of information; violation; penalty.

• (1) The Department of Motor Vehicles, the courts, or law enforcement agencies may store or compile information acquired from an operator's


• (2) No person having use of or access to machine-readable information encoded on an operator's license or a state identification card shall compile, store, preserve, trade, or sell such information. Violation of this subsection shall be a Class IV felony.

Source: Laws 2001, LB 574, § 30
Noelie Sherdon Legal Counsel DMV, State of Nebraska (402) 471-9593

So there you have it, you are safe to allow them to scan your ID and anonymously drink in Nebraska, which is all great and awesome for 80% of the state. However as a resident of Omaha I'll just have to be careful if I ever decide to cross the river into Iowa...

Captain Joe's Open Letter to America

Joe, a 26 year old from Colorado has a very inspirational letter that I think everyone should read.

My name is Joe. I am currently serving in my second deployment to Iraq as an Army officer. The biggest differences between this deployment and my last one are:

-The location (within Iraq)
-The Job (much busier : less free time/sleep)
-The duration (last deployment was 12 months, this one is 15)

I am sure you are wondering why some random soldier in Iraq would write you a letter… there are several reasons, but the primary one will be obvious by the end. First I’ll tell you a little about myself.

I’m 26 years old, I’ve been married for almost 7 years, and I have a son and a daughter in elementary school. I grew up in Georgia, but I live in Colorado Springs now. I come from a long line of military officers, so I was sort of “destined” to serve. Although I only have 3 ½ years in the Army, I’ve been wearing the uniform for 12 years (JROTC & ROTC). I have a degree in computer science and I’m a music & movie enthusiast.

Now that you know a little about me, I’d like to inform you on what Iraq is really like.
...

Check out Joe's Open Letter To Americans to read it all.

On The Issues

I just came across an awesome resource to help figure out where you and your candidate of choice compare on various issues. The site is www.ontheissues.org. They have a quiz (Look for the link "Click for our new PresidentMatch 2008 quiz" on their mainpage) that compares your choices against a wide area of candidates both for senate and for the presidency. They take the various actions that the person has done (voting for/against issues, statements, news reports) and compile where each one stands and compares it to your own set of answers. What ended up being my closest match wasn't quite what I expected and now I have someone new to look into.

I definitely recommend taking 5-10 minutes to go through, answer the questions and see if who you are supporting adds up to all you thought they would.

Trent Reznor Gets It Right

Ok, so here's an interview with Trent Reznor & Saul Williams about talking about their new album, but what most caught my eye was the following:

What do you think about OiNK being shut down?
Trent: I'll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world's greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn't the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don't feel cool when I go there. I'm tired of seeing John Mayer's face pop up. I feel like I'm being hustled when I visit there, and I don't think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that's what's such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they're grateful for the person that uploaded it — they're the hero. They're not stealing it because they're going to make money off of it; they're stealing it because they love the band. I'm not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.

I think this is the best explanation I've ever read about a file sharing site/program and the motivation of people behind it..

RIAA - 1, Single Mother - 0

Well, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has successfully won in court against a single mother for file sharing. For those who don't know the RIAA is, they are comprised of many companies, the big four of which are EMI, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, & Warner Music Group. These companies hide behind the RIAA so they won't be associated with all the bad PR that surrounds suing their customers.

I personally have only bought a few CD's in the last 7-8 years (the few I have were after/before a concert, and I'm 98% certain unassociated with the RIAA). The companies in the RIAA have alienated me as a customer. I refuse to support them. I encourage as many other to quit supporting them as well.

Here are a few sites that I've found to be quite useful:
http://riaaradar.com/

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

Full List of RIAA Members

Two major bands have shown they are fed up with the recording industry's antics. Trent Reznor , aka. Nine Inch Nails - has recently split from his contract with his label, probably because of all the bad press he's generated for them recently, they were probably glad to let him go..

Also Radiohead's latest album will be released tomorrow and they will allow the customer to set the price at what the customer thought the album is worth to download. They also will offer a boxed set for a set price, but the key here is they are doing it without the record companies.

These two examples are just the beginning of what I think will be a massive exodus of bands from being tied to the useless labels trying to promote them.

Huskers, Boo!!

What. The. Hell.

Did we even show up to the game on Saturday? Because I didn't see any football players from Nebraska on TV. There were some college kids dressed up in pads and jersey's, but they certainly didn't act like football players.

The offense seemed like it was going to get going a few times only to sputter and eek out a few field goals. The Blackshirts were no where to be found. Turn those shirts in boys, because you don't deserve them. Why were we only blitzing three men all the way up until the point where it no longer mattered?! (Hey, i know, lets give them a 35 pt lead, THEN put some pressue on their QB). And then when the announcers said that Cosgrove said they were going to make some "USC like" changes to the defense, uhhh Hello? did those changes seem to work then? I didn't think so...

I sincerely hope that Cosgrove is fired, then tar and feathered and ran out of town. That's all I have to say about him. Calahan seems to be doing a good job with the offense and if only the defense could keep the games close enough that the offense doesn't start loosing heart, we will begin winning football games again.

That game was painful to watch, is painful to think and talk about, and hopefully will be the last painful thing we have to endure this year.

On a lighter note, I will actually be making it to two of the next three games, Oklahoma St for homecoming this Saturday, Oct 13th, and then will be making a road trip down to enemy territory for the Texas game on Oct 27th. Tickets are in hand for the Texas game, and still on the lookout for a few more tickets to ensure there is enough for the entire family. I can't wait...