tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33322332024-03-13T03:34:13.885-07:00Hoffmang.compolitics, civil rights, intellectual property, science, capitalism, and fooGene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852453212002-07-13T04:11:00.000-07:002002-07-13T04:11:17.200-07:00I've MovedAfter watching blogspot fall over plenty of times, I have installed MovableType on my own machine and have moved the blog back to http://www.hoffmang.com/. Please update your links. This page should auto-redirect you anyway.Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852402292002-07-11T11:52:00.000-07:002002-07-13T03:24:18.000-07:00Boxer Supports Armed PilotsIn a rare twist of irony, Barbara Boxer is supporting an armed pilots bill in the Senate.
Can I say that I am pleasantly surprised. Maybe the rumors of her concealed carry permit are true and now that the political climate has shifted toward gun ownership she may be moving back to center? Nah - she probably just flies a lot.Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852327032002-07-09T08:48:00.000-07:002002-07-09T08:55:19.000-07:00EMusic Adds UMG MusicEMusic has become the first company to make legal MP3 files available from a major label. Somewhat vindicating. Here is one of the first articles out. Hits Magazine has a bit better article, but you may have to register.Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852283092002-07-08T00:21:00.000-07:002002-07-09T07:42:29.000-07:00Stepping Back From IdeologyThere is a car that parks down the street from my house. I see it when I walk my dogs. It is clearly owned by a person who is classically liberal as the person is wearing her ideology on her bumper. I notice it because as I step back from the positions and the ingrained liberal/conservative meme it points out a very funny correlation.
The bumper stickers are:
"Love Animals, don't eat them" and
"Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852256812002-07-06T13:30:00.000-07:002002-07-06T13:51:10.000-07:00The Two Great Pyramids of the Late 1990'sAn excellent article pair on Beyondvalueinvesting.com talks about the telecom and digital media pyramid schemes that came into being. I would even argue that some of the VCs actually recognized this factor and tacitly kept it moving.
This is one set of retrospective criticisms that I fully agree with. I used to argue with a lot of folks who said that B2B was the only place to be. My argument wasGene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852162032002-07-02T12:49:00.000-07:002002-07-02T12:50:41.000-07:00The International Criminal CourtSteven Den Beste has said it far better than I could have. Anyone who questions why the US is unwilling to join the criminal court and would be willing to boycott UN Peacekeeping is willing to suspend both the constitution and the bill of rights.
They kicked us off the human rights council and put Syria on for gosh sakes. We want to trust that entity to mete out justice to American statesmen, Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852159442002-07-02T11:21:00.000-07:002002-07-08T10:56:04.000-07:00The Ecological RestorationRecently in the news are reports of a study by Mathis Wackernagel that states that humanity has exceeded the carrying capacity of the biosphere. Reason has a rebuttal showing the impact of technology over time on the efficiency of the use of natural resources. The rebuttal points out both that in the fully industrialized nations, forest are re-growing as moderate to poor farm land is phased out (Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852107572002-06-30T13:37:00.000-07:002002-06-30T13:43:36.000-07:00Productivity To Keep Rates LowEven Greenspan believes that the increase in productivity may allow the economy to grow at a 3 to 4% rate without touching off inflation. Reuters has a good summary of the situation and some pertinent quotes from Greenspan.
What this means is that we may be able to keep the cost of money cheap, while we grow the economy quickly. A significant change in the historical cost of money really could Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-852107422002-06-30T13:26:00.000-07:002002-06-30T13:27:13.000-07:00Gay Pride and Pink PistolsDid I mention that I think the Pink Pistols are one of the best things to happen to America recently. The New York Post has an article about their participation in Gay Pride activities.
I hadn't been aware of the local significance of Pink Pistols, however.Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851936412002-06-24T00:13:00.000-07:002002-06-24T00:13:58.573-07:00Freedom in CanadaI have noticed an interesting comparison. In the United States, we banned alcohol and learned the hard way what a dumb move that was. In point of fact now, progressive states like California allow you to buy "hard" alcohol 24/7 at grocery and drug stores while "soft" alcohol is available in 7-11s. However, Nevada is the only state in the Union where prostitution is legal.
In Canada prostitution Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851902602002-06-21T22:58:00.000-07:002002-06-25T20:39:40.000-07:00Bad Boating and Bad DrivingI finally knuckled under to an itch I've had since I was 14 and bought a power boat. In so doing, I've become a regular haunt at Boatered which is an excellent message board for powerboaters to swap stories, ask and answer questions, and generally become (or brush off) less newbie skills.
Lately there was a rant about Personal Watercraft (PWCs in the lingo) and the absolute morons who drive themGene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-3851902442002-06-21T22:43:00.000-07:002002-06-21T22:43:35.086-07:00Ding Dong, The Witch is DeadSo, EMusic has finally been transferred over to the Vivendi Net USA technology team - who used to be the MP3.com tech team. Its a strange final chapter in a strange ride.
One of the funniest stories to follow up on Brett's posting above is about our first security incident. Not 12 hours after we turned the system on, the underlying machine got hacked. Luck and happenstance saved us as we plannedGene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851712012002-06-14T13:51:00.000-07:002002-06-14T13:52:01.000-07:00Quick Space TravelGlenn Reynolds at Instapundit has a post about warp drive. I don't think that warp drive is all that practical. However, I am excited about combining the research into creating gravitational fields from electromagnetic fields combined with the theoretical possibility of and more recent research into time travel.
Gravitational research is interesting as being able to create a gravity field allowsGene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851556892002-06-09T13:56:00.000-07:002002-06-09T21:34:49.000-07:00Bowie on CopyrightAfter receiving an email from Steel69 that stated he agreed with Bowie and included the link I gave it a quick read.
Bowie has a nicely nihilistic outlook His deal with Sony is a short-term one while he gets his label started and watches the Internet's effect on careers. "I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years, because I don't think it's going to work by labels and byGene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851540082002-06-08T15:42:00.000-07:002002-06-08T22:54:27.000-07:00What To Build at Ground ZeroAnn Coulter says that the conventional wisdom that the WTC should not be rebuilt was shattered at a recent public meeting.Not surprisingly, Mohamed Atta loathed skyscrapers. Newsweek reported that he viewed the emergence of tall buildings in Egypt as an odious surrender to Western values. The most fitting memorial to the victims of the World Trade Center attack is to build the most breathtaking Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851539662002-06-08T15:10:00.000-07:002002-06-08T15:30:40.000-07:00On Being an Armed LiberalThere is a good summary of why one might call oneself an armed liberal on a blog of the same name.
Not being a conservative and spending most of my time with New Democrats, I generally fall into this camp too. I agree with him pretty much across the board. However, there are two subtle differences for me. Having not hunted much because it hurt me so to have killed an animal before (a Blue Jay Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851529322002-06-08T01:03:00.000-07:002002-06-08T01:05:30.000-07:00Infectious EtiologyEtiology, for those non med types (including myself) is the cause of a condition or disease. Eric Raymond of Armed and Dangerous links to a fascinating story in The Atlantic about one scientist's theory that most all of the current major killers will turn out to be caused by bacteria or virii.
The basic theory is that since evolutionary pressure is still on the human animal, any truly genetic Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851502972002-06-07T02:15:00.000-07:002002-06-07T02:28:49.000-07:00The New New EconomyThere are two axioms I hear being bandied about in the vast wasteland of post .com boom America.
1. Being first and spending big was a massive failure.
2.The only real impact the Internet has on the enterprise is to shrink profits by removing channel friction and thus has little reward for investors.
Business 2.0 runs through Point 1 and Point 2 is laid out here.
The problem with both of Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851493062002-06-06T16:08:00.000-07:002002-06-08T22:55:28.000-07:00ReplayTV Users Sue for Declaratory JudgementReplayTV Users lead by Craig of Craig's List fame have sued "Hollywood" with the help of EFF for a declaratory judgement that use of ReplayTV is not an infringement of copyright law.
This follows along a theory that I had that one could sue as a class for illegal restraint of trade and anti-trust violation in regards to the DVD CSS scheme.Customers are having DVD player prices artificially Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851436662002-06-04T23:09:00.000-07:002002-06-04T23:44:12.000-07:00The Tahoe Land Supreme Court CaseSteven Landsburg of Slate has a very simple economic analysis of the Supreme's ruling. Put simply, he states that the logic that allowing land owners to sue for the value they are deprived of would be too expensive to local government and would thus stop them from regulating is exactly what should be going on. If a regulation is too costly for government, then it is too costly period - since the Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851225872002-05-28T00:39:00.000-07:002002-05-28T00:39:31.000-07:00On the 9th and 14thThe Cato Institute has an analysis of current conservative judicial thinking about those rights not enumerated in the constitution. Using Charles Schumer's questioning of a current 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals candidate over his legal basis and interpretation of Griswold that found a right of privacy in marriage and thus struck down a ban on the purchase of contraception, Roger Pilon proves an Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851221412002-05-27T19:08:00.000-07:002002-05-27T19:08:31.870-07:00On Memorial DayI've been thinking a lot about guns recently. Its likely the outcome of worrying about my new daughter and a more secure solution to home defense than my old loaded shotgun. Its lead me down in depth looks at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights - The American Tradition. Its made me hurt that folks like Bellesiles can belittle the courage of a bunch of armed farmers in the Revolution, or the Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-851047902002-05-20T22:02:00.000-07:002002-05-22T23:47:10.000-07:00The Speech Slippery SlopeDr. Eugene Volokh (nice name!) has a very well put piece regarding a case of French speech restrictions applied to a prominent historian who, in the words of the French judge, didn't present a balanced statement regarding the massacre of Armenians in Turkey while being interviewed for a short news piece. Dr. Volokh makes his case clearly on the reasons that we Americans should avoid the desire ofGene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-850918242002-05-15T19:26:00.000-07:002002-05-16T13:56:08.000-07:00Squashing Saddam Like A BugI think Lileks has said everything there is to say about why we must depose Hussien at the other end a an explosive. A favorite passageAnd the Belgian organization Frown is already drafting plans to mount an international campaign of scowling, which will force his regime to divert precious resources to rubber chickens, joy-buzzers and Singing Telegram Gorillas to improve their standing abroad. Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3332233.post-850891782002-05-14T23:56:00.000-07:002002-05-14T23:56:03.910-07:00Napster Body BlowsAs if things weren't bad enough, greed kept the Senior Fanning from dealing with the fact that they had signed a financing with a liquidity preference to the venture capitalists. Both Konrad Hilbers and Shawn Fanning resigned today.
Karma. Also a poster child for the statement, "Sell early, sell often."Gene Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01196106879131316742noreply@blogger.com