I am looking for an MP3 player. I would love to get the iPod nano, but much of my collection is in WMA format, which Apple doesn’t do. I want something small and sleek to bike with but with at least 2GB of space.
Ideas?
Oh, and I have some photos up from this weekend -my family came to visit for my birthday.
New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is at it again — this time, forcing Yahoo Chat to close their chat rooms (used by millions of people) to anyone under 18, and give a few hundred thousand in extort.. err, “donations” to placate a few interest groups.
Time for an economics quiz. The likely outcome of closing the chat rooms will be (a) : millions of teens will immediately abandon Internet chat (b): millions of teens will start lying about their age, and give child molesters an “I didn’t know” excuse, (c) millions of teens will switch to seedier and unmonitored chat room sites, where the identity or age of the participants cannot be tracked, or (d): (b) and (c )will make the internet a more dangerous place, creating new opportunities for Eliot Spitzer & Co to get in on the action.
I doubt any drastic consequences will come of this. The real story here is how politicians use regulations and wealth transfers to gain favor with interest groups and voters without any concern for the actual effect on the public they are supposed to be “protecting.”
More on New York state’s resident fascist.
Love Field, that is. For the DWF residents:
Have you seen the “Set Love Free” ads? After decades of lawsuits and legislative battles, the city of Ft. Worth and Southwestern Airlines are running PR campaigns over a decades old measure isolating the DFW airport from competition.
Pro: http://setlovefree.com/
Con: http://www.keepdfwstrong.com/
I wrote a letter about it:
Please support the Right to Fly Act (HR 2646) introduced in the House by
Congressmen Jeb Hensarling and Sam Johnson and the American Right to Fly
Act (S. 1424) introduced in the Senate by Senator John Ensign.It’s time to bring 26 years of protectionist policy to an end. Airlines
have a right to fly to and from any airport they choose, free from
restrictions imposed by short-sighted protectionists who are afraid to
compete in a free and open market. If DFW Airport is afraid of losing
airlines, they should lower their costs, not try to legislate other, more
efficient, airports out of business.Even if the absurd argument that a free Love Field would hurt DFW business
were true, it would only mean that Love Field is better able to serve
customers than their competition. As a frequent flier, I support lower
costs (and thus cheaper tickets) and reject the destructive mercantilist
mentality that views the success of one business is a threat to others.
The New York Times reports that FEMA wasted over $100 million of ice that was intended to help to hurricane victims.
One frustrated truck driver had to drive 2,000 pounds of ice around for 4,100 miles, being redirected half a dozen times, and waiting up to a week (with the engine running) for FEMA to make up their mind. 59% of the purchased ice was never used, and much of it ended up thousands of miles from the affected areas because not enough storage space had been arranged. A homeland security report stated that the problem was that there is “no automated way to coordinate quantities of commodities with the people available to accept and distribute them.” But not to worry, because “there are programs in the works that will help us better track commodities.”
Hmm, an automated way to coordinate quantities of commodities with the people available to distribute and consume them. I think I’ve read about something like that.
My apologies for the lack of updates, but I haven’t felt like blogging lately.
So here’s a personal update: I just moved from Austin to Grand Prairie (Dallas) for a new job. I’ve been busy learning .Net web services. I also got a road bike and have been checking out the parks around Arlington. I’ve gotten involved in the North Texas Objectivist Society
I’ll probably feel like blogging again soon, but till then I’m active at my forum.
For you computer programmers, I’ve published So you’d like to… Become a master .Net programmer on Amazon.
Robert Tracinski on Katrina:
The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.
The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.
Next time you hear some ignorant fool blathering about the evils of “price gouging,” be sure to send him this link: Price Gouging Saves Lives. (more)
Here is what you won’t hear in the news: Tim sent me this first-hand account of the looting going on in New Orleans. Live video feed..