Jay's Random Thoughts

One topic that I sometimes read about but rarely partake in is cube warfare. This is a type of battle that revolves around trying to annoy those in the cubes around you. I find the whole concept quite humerous, but in general avoid participation due to the risk hositility escalation. That said, I do find the occasionaly prank enjoyable although I tend to plan them rather than implement. That said, in my web travels, I have run across a site that has some funny things for cube warfare. Check out Think Geek where you can buy things like remote USB rocket launchers. Most recently, I stumbled on a book called cubicle warfare. From the website, it looks very intriguing and includes 1000 pranks. I am not sure if I am going to run and purchase the book, but it does look funny.

Adobe has released a new service which is currently in beta called Photoshop Express. Some interesting controversy emerged when savvy computer folks reviewed the Terms of Service (ToS). (The ToS are basically the rules that you agree to abide by when using the service.) Interestingly, one of the items in the ToS indicates Adobe will take full ownership of any pictures that are uploaded and edited. The implication is that if you have some beautiful photo that could be valuable as a print that Adobe has the right to publish this and recognize revenue from this without any approval or compensation for you! That is nuts. It is their service and so they can do what they want, but it is troubling nonetheless. This article has actual snippets from the ToS.

Fortunately, when people brought this to Adobe’s attention, they indicated that it was the case of the lawyers getting too aggressive and they would re-write the ToS. It just goes to show that you have to be careful about those ToS boxes that you see. Most people blindly click agree, but you should read it and think about what you are agreeing to.

DB Cooper is that guy who hijacked a plane and then received $200,000 in cash to release the hostages. He also required that the airplane be flown to Mexico which, surprisingly, the neogiators agreed to . As the plane flew to Mexico, he opened the rear hatch and jumped out with a parachute. No one has ever found out what happened to him. Some people think he died in the jump while others think that he survived and is living off of the cash somewhere.

According to a story from the AP (via Yahoo!), a parachute was recently found in Washington state that may have been the one used.  It is unclear if it is his parachute or not and they are still analyzing, but it is interesting that some evidence from this very old case is emerging.  Perhaps it will finally put the basic question to rest about whether he survived the jump or not.

I found an interesting article on Rolling Stone talking about CD pricing and Walmart. Essentially, the record lables want to keep the price of CD’s while Walmart is trying to use its leverage to reduce the price of CD’s to end users. While not formally, threatening anyone, Walmart accounts for 20% (!) of the CD market and so any label who does not participate risks losing a massive distribution channel.   As part of the article Rolling Stone shows where the typical $15.99 price goes when an album is sold.  It is a good read to understand the record industry.

One question that comes to mind is what is the future of CD’s?  As more and more content is being purchased from the Internet, what does it mean for CD’s?  Personally, I can’t remember the last time I purchased a CD and I imagine that many other people have similar experiences.  As the popularity of the medium declines, I believe that price reductions is one of the only way to extend its relevancy.

I am in the process of migrating to a new webserver. I was running out of disk space on the old server and so needed to upgrade. If you are seeing this post then you have successfully reached the new site!
There should be no different in content or performance. So far, I have
migrated most of the web applications and now have to start working on DNS and Email.