Well, hi, everybody. Welcome to no agenda, the show that has no
jingles, no theme song, no commercials. And well, actually
no talent and no agenda. Exactly. It's Adam curry in the
curry condo in San Francisco and John C. Dvorak is in the Dvorak
mansion. South of here, north of here, south of here, John, where
are you?
It's actually a kind of a cross. I mean, is in the Sunni
community of Albany, which is the San Carlos of the East Bay,
the San Carlos of the East Bay. Nice. So as we're getting this
show, the show together and in the format. So we actually just
before I hit record, we're going through the topics. So I think
we have what was your first one, John?
Well, the writer strike is interesting to me, which is the
Writers Guild of America, you know, the guys who do all the TV
stuff.
Now remember, I said a couple of weeks ago, this was going to be
a big deal. We had a conversation in the hallway
about this.
I think, yeah, what's a big deal on one hand, but I think it's a
huge blunder. Okay, I think, I think it's a strategic blunder.
And I'll explain why. And it doesn't surprise me that they
make this mistake, because this is like the people that didn't
get the, you know, the distribution over Napster. And I
mean, it's just one of these things where new media impinges
old media, and all the people that are involved in old media
just don't understand, you know, how to deal with it.
Okay, on the on the side of the writers on the side of the, of
the television companies, or both?
No, I think it was both obviously mean, but I think in
this case, the writers are wrong. And here's why. What I'm
what I'm thinking is that if they had if they wait, right
now, there's no metrics. I mean, essentially, what they're doing
is they're shooting themselves in the foot. Because one of the
non by the way, this has nothing to do with the fact that maybe
they're getting screwed, or probably they're getting screwed
on DVD sales,
right? Because that seems to be one major point of contention,
but all the no brainer,
that's, that's, that's what they should be going out on. But when
they start talking about new media, and the internet, I think
this is where they're making a mistake.
I think you're right. And, you know, in some of the more in
depth reporting that I've been looking at, you know, the
discrepancy on the DVD stuff seems to be much, much larger
than this, indeed, is unknown. You know, like, like anyone's
fucking monetizing properly on this stuff yet, you know, you
want 0.3% of what zero?
Exactly, and what they should be doing is just going after the
DVD thing, and then focusing in on it, but now they're, they're
focused on something that nobody even knows that they're making
anybody's making any money, they may actually be losing money, in
a big way. A lot of these, you know, like NBC and some of these
other guys who are going off and doing their own thing, and they
don't know what they're doing. I mean, it's almost it's
laughable. And yeah, the stuffs being there, the works are being
redistributed, but it's not like they're, it's not like the DVD
thing, where there's actual sales. It's just, in many ways,
it's kind of a joke. And what the what the writer should have
done is they should have just focused on the DVD and then
waited until there was something going on on the other side,
where they could bring something to the table and say, hey, look,
what's going on here. Here's how we're getting screwed. Right
now. They got nothing. It's all vague. And so it's weakening
their whole position. I think it's a complete blunder. And
here's what the worst part about it. By doing this, now, they may
actually be making the network's pull back on their on their
internet approach and on the new media stuff, which is going to
benefit everybody in the long haul. But if they have to pull
back and rethink how they're going to do it, so they can find
some other way to screw the writers because they really
haven't been screwing him on that yet. It's gonna it's just a
bad idea. And what what you're going to end up with is a lot of
stuff's going to be written into contracts now in such a way that
the writers are going to probably not do as well as they
would have if they just waited to see where this whole new
media thing was headed.
So I think there's there's two things one is the studio's and
or the TV companies. The only real way they're making lots of
money is still on DVD. You know, that's kind of like the after
you've got if you're not lucky enough to get syndication? You
know, after three seasons, something go into syndication,
that's where you really start making some money.
Five season you went five seasons now five seasons. Wow.
Because that gives you five days a week for one. Yeah, you're
right, you're right, five
seasons. But that, of course, is also dwindling, because or at
least I think everyone can see the light at the end of the
tunnel. Okay, so clearly online is the it has huge potential.
That's where the money will be shifting. We know that the
eyeballs are shifting towards online. But it's interesting
this timing, although it was you know, planned with their
negotiation shedule we're on the verge of the launch of Hulu,
which I think when you know when you can't go there and get last
night's episode or whatever it was, because there was no
episode last night. I think it's gonna be a lot less interesting
than what the network's Probably overvalue their back catalogue,
I guess is what I'm saying.
Yeah, well, they could. Yeah, that's a possibility. And we
don't even know me people were the reviews are coming in. I
haven't gotten an account on Hulu.
Yeah, me neither I applied. But you know, it's like applied.
They're tiny. It's I'm on the TSA list, man. How can I expect
to get on the Hulu list?
I, you know, I should be able to get on this list, as you know,
just from my fact that I have all these outlets, street cred,
man. But I don't even know who to talk to.
What didn't you sign up,
I just signed up on the on the website and I got the letter or
you're on, you're on a waiting list. And you'll be on one day
it's like joining bohemian club or something. It'd be 14 years
later, I'll get in. So it's, you know, so I'm a little
disappointed there. So but but other people have gotten on, I
actually could probably call these guys and say, Hey, can you
let me borrow your password? Let me go check it out. Right. I
haven't bothered. But the, you know, the reviews are coming in.
They're kind of mixed. But there was an article that ran in the
New York Times discussing this. And the cool thing about this
article was in bits, or whatever that thing is, the cool thing
about the article was they had a lot of interesting comments from
the commenters. You know, the normal readers, and many of them
were very critical of the whole concept. And the way NBC was
approaching this, and you know, and their pals, and,
interestingly enough, not you you just said something there,
John, you don't have a beta account. I don't have a beta
account. Who are these people that have seen this? And why did
they get on the list?
I don't know. It's worth asking. Yeah. I mean, somebody to ask,
who
was who was actually who do you know, that's gotten on the list
that has written about it, that someone of influence?
No, I think there's a couple of people that seen it, if I
remember, you know, and if you go to Google and look it up,
you'll find people who are reviewing it. And they tend to
be the early rah rah boys, you know, guys, they'd like they
never seen anything in their life. This is the greatest thing
ever, you know, and that usually fades after you know, some more
realistic people come into the scene. So maybe they're just
slipping into the shields that are going to give them a high
PR. I don't know. i All I know is that the whole thing is
messed up. And it's it, I can't believe it. Most people don't
think it's going to be successful, just out of the gun.
So just back to the Writers Guild of America. And so
actually, I've been out all day, have they gone on strike? This
is the strike on now, if they started that,
from what I understand from the last news report, I saw it's a
done deal. And it's going to going to happen on Monday.
Okay. And since down, pencils down mean pencils down.
But whether it really does I mean, things ended the last
minute could be a threat than idle threat.
So do you think it'll, it'll affect our world?
No, I think it's actually beneficial to, you know, in the
new media, right,
so it affects us in a positive way.
Yeah, I think it's because people are going to be looking
around at other things, you know, it's not gonna really make
much of a difference right off the bat. Because, I mean, the
only people that are gonna be immediately affected are the
late night shows and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Jon
Stewart, half the time he's on vacation anyway, let's face
reality, he
but he actually has to, I mean, he's in WGA, Letterman's and
WGA. You know, they actually have
to go on strike. Yeah, man, I'll be out the lateral Leno will be
gone and The Daily Show be gone. It's called bear but you know,
those guys call Baron and daily show those guys are half the
time they're gone. Anyway,
it's yeah, I will say I'm all for unions. And it you know, I
I'm not maybe not agreeing with the leadership and what their
decisions are. But unions are a good idea. And I think people
should be able to organise and share their shows power. Well,
just
one up. Yes. I actually used to be a union organiser. So I
affect that or teamster, I wish I wish I helped organise a union
and we got it under, you know, underway in the whole thing. So
I went through the whole process and a lot of training. I know,
the whole, you know, all the Litany on both sides of the
thing. And I'm pro union. I was in a number of unions when I was
younger, when I you know, when I was working when I was going
through college, and I worked during the summers, I joined
different unions. And even when I was in high school, I was in
very soon.
Well, you know, I joined after and I got a SAG card. And really
it was it was it was all about the insurance. Just having good
health insurance. That's really what I cared about.
Well, you know, that's, that's important. But anyway, the point
is, and so I'm not, you know, an anti Union by any means. I think
there are good things I think they're a little passe. I think
they need to be rethought the way they're the way they work.
But yeah, union 2.0 The Social Network
now now you're talking but it's just it just seems to me that
the leadership of a lot of unions is flaky. Yeah. And, and
they and in this case, I think there's there weren't you know,
there that's not leadership. It's just kind of a knee jerk
kind of thing. This this whole attacking new media before they
even know how it's gonna you know, kind of unroll or roll
out, you're unsure. So that was weird.
Perfect timing. 10 minutes in. That's what we should keep the
topics to. Let's try that.
I like it. So let's see what's next like water? Well, you'd
like you got the black water topic you're coming from the
Europeans perspective. What are they thinking over there when
they see all this? Blackwater stuff? First
of all, I don't think the Europeans are aware of
Blackwater at all. I really Oh, yeah. Not at all. You know, it's
we did a round of press releases and in our, in our PR agency in
the UK, went to all of the highbrow broadsheets with my Ron
Paul interview. And it just as an example of the the lack of
knowledge, and 40% did not know who the man was. And these were
the political editors of, you know, like, well, I don't know,
I don't want to say which publication? Which ones? Yeah,
typically, but all the big ones like, you know, the times the
Guardian Daily Mail, you know, the real the real broadsheets.
40% didn't even know who he was. And then they said, Well, you
know, he's just an isolationist, and he's not making any noise.
So, you know, has no traction. They were unaware of the amount
of money don't really understand the significance of it, I'd have
to say that knowledge level of how our political system works
is very, very low. And the story about Blackwater, it just gets
drowned out that the by the way, the United Kingdom has some crap
of their own. That also was in the news. It's not just about
what's going on over here. But no, they have no knowledge of
Blackwater. However,
what the reason we have an interrupt here, because the
reason that's that's interesting to me is because one of my
bloggers on the vorak uncensored, the word.org/blog
for anyone who doesn't know who posted the Blackwater story went
on to a kind of a tirade, which I actually edited out because I
thought it was over the top. But he before I edited it went on
about No wonder, you know, talking about Blackwater, no
wonder the Europeans and all these countries hate us because
we're doing stuff like this. And now you're telling me they don't
even know we're doing stuff like this, which makes the commentary
ludicrous.
No, no, no, it's also here's, here's my issue. And there's
actually there's a great I think it's the only interview that
I've been able to find of Eric Prince. This is the guy who the
CEO and founder of blood head
guy. Oh, by the way, he was on a lot of tea while you were in
London. He was on a lot of TV.
Yeah, but this is a one hour Charlie Rose interview.
Did you see that? Okay. No, I didn't see it.
So you know, when Charlie Rose really, and he rose was fucking
great. As always, you know, he just like really calmly, just
can sticks the knife. And, and I gotta say, first of all, you
know, the guy is from Dutch descent, which is kind of
interesting. Just, to me, personally, uh, huh. He was
spotless, the way he went through this, a couple of things
that are, are, are interesting. First of all, what he's claiming
at least, is that what Blackwater really does is they
train so they also train, Army and Navy and Air Force and
Marines, you know, they just a training facility and outsource
essentially, they train people, and then they hand them over,
they are actually under military command. That's the way he made
it sound. And I watched, I watched the back a couple times,
like, okay, so they don't, they're not operating completely
in a vacuum there. But it's, it's, you know, okay. Besides
the fact that he's part of the war industrial complex, you
know, there's really no difference between a service
that he's providing, or, you know, companies that are making
jet fighter jets and ships and, you know, and, and catering. I
mean, there are more commercial companies I've come to
understand. And I got to believe there are more commercial
companies in Iraq, personnel, headcount wise, that are
military personnel. You just don't think of it that way. But
all of the infrastructure, all of the support that's coming
from commercial companies, which of course, pumping money into
the economy.
There is a generally speaking, they at least have word here is,
is that half the soldiers over there are contractors, exact for
military. Yeah. And there's some of that people are complaining
about the fact that for example, this is kind of weird. For
example, the Army's not even especially in the green zone,
supposedly, and I have friends in the green zone. I'd have to
verify this, but I'm hearing that they have catering
companies that are independent contractors doing the food for
the Army dudes, Burger
King is in the Burger King and fucking, what's not Domino's
Pizza Hut, are on the bus. I was in Bosnia on the base, and
there's a fucking Burger King and a Pizza Hut. Did I just blow
you away? Did you not come back on me there, John?
No, I'm here. Okay. So the point is, is what happened to the
case? You know, the KP the army cook. I mean, why aren't they do
cooking for themselves? It just doesn't make any sense to me.
Well, even
worse, the guys who are there on 35, you know, $40,000 a year.
They're looking at these other guys and saying, fuck, you know,
this guy is making 100 200 G's. Maybe these guys are highly
paid, you know, highly paid. And so they're like, No, that's what
I should be worth. And isn't that completely de moralising?
Well, I think that's a reason they're having trouble
recruiting people, because people are saying, Why should I
work go into the army? If I can get a job with Blackwater? I can
make 10 times more money.
Exactly. Well, and so I guess the revelation here is I don't
think the American public even is aware of exactly this, you
know, the amount the fact that would that that we have more
contractors over there than enlisted servicemen and women
about these discrepancies in pay. I mean, that I think that's
really the big eye opener, and people are gonna start saying,
wait a minute, this isn't right.
Yeah, no, it's it's ridiculous. And I think I'm the guy I know
that's over there. Who I email with every so often he says
they're making more money than God. And he's like, you know,
driving a truck.
So every single time you write off one of those checks to the
IRS, you know, that's literally what's being done with it.
Actually, I was set the I paid my IRS bill on October 15.
Because I've you know, one of those guys, but I'm in line at
the post office with about 10 other guys all my age, you know,
same kind of thing. And they're all standing there to get to
postmark on the cheque or on the on the envelope. And, and we
started chatting with each other you know, as fellow comrades.
And I guess I wonder how many Yeah, I got his big cheque. I
wonder how many bullets it's gonna buy?
Exactly. Yeah, I think I think I bought a jet or two.
No, I probably only bought it Humvee. But it was more than I
wanted to spend.
As long as you got a Hummer out of the deal. Yeah, I
wish I could have been nice to have like a, you know, they
should have made I would have rather bought a used Humvee. But
anyway, I guess my hope from all of this is that there's some
kind of way I what I don't think is constructive. And this is
what I'm seeing a lot of online, is people are attacking this
guy, you know, he's evil. And you know, and here's his evil
castle. And that's, that's the wrong way and put place to focus
the energy, you know, look at the structure of this, how this
is working, you know, literally, it's an
opportunist. Yeah. Smart guy. I mean, I, you know, I was I was
telling people that, you know, you know, instead of complaining
of I said, Gee, I'm how do we get in on this deal?
Well, there's, there's really only two kinds of businesses
I've never been interested in. And this is one of them than the
other one is pussy. You know, there's lots of money I can make
in sex, sex business. I mean, that's easy. I just am not
interested in being in that business. But you
mean selling your body? Oh, I see what you mean. You mean
being a pimp?
Would you know that the the best online porn guys, you know,
there, it's all in Amsterdam?
Yeah, there's a lot of it there. I have to say, if I ran it would
years and years ago I was in. I went through Holland. I was at
some event in this one. It was a, it was a early boardwalk
magazine thing. It was in Germany. And I ran it a bunch of
these guys. And so you want to just take a run over to
Rotterdam. And we'll go through Belgium and we'll take some beer
and whatever. We got in the car and went over there. And this
guy, we stopped and visited a friend of a friend and he ran.
And this is like in the night, early 90s. In the early 90s.
Before the you know, the net was even going it was the old
bulletin board scene. Yeah. And he had his nice little house and
it was just fine.
Oh, yeah. Sex farm with. That's what we call him. We're like,
and then
back. He said he in the back room. He had a bunch of servers.
And they were cranking out porn, like there's no tomorrow.
Yeah, yeah, regulation was real easy. And it's socially
acceptable just to set up a business like that.
Yeah. And he was, you know, cranking away and then I thought
it was like, wow, that's interesting. He was nonchalant
about the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah, that's the
way we roll with it, man. I spent elixirs
been elixirs, so but anyway, yeah, those businesses you know
you don't have to go to those businesses unless you have to
but you you know it does look like easy money if you wanted to
get caught up in it. But you know, the funny thing is about
because I when I was doing the Tech TV show silicon spin, we
used to have different people on it used to have a Danny ash on a
lot and all kinds of who's Danny ash Yanni. Yeah, she was Danny
she was the one that she she makes like we figure $4 million
a year do it just softcore Okay, she's a soft core girl and she
has a bunch She has her sights Danny's hard drive. Oh, Daddy's
hard drive. Okay, I've heard of that. Sure. And she would
sweetest thing you ever wanted to me. She's gorgeous too. And
she'd be honest. But she's a business woman. She's actually a
hard core business woman. And she would have some real
interesting insights into all this stuff. And her husband was
like, like a lawyer. She was like the business woman. He's a
lawyer. She's a stripper or not a stripper. But whatever she
was, she showed, you know, she, she did, like an exhibitionist,
that's, you know,
high end, sexy shots, hot shots, right?
That's about it. But she would make it. We did some
calculations at the time. And this was in the late 90s 98,
maybe 99, something like that, that we finished was made about
2.5 Based on our numbers and the rest of what we knew, but I have
other people would come through this show and they were porn
people. And they were you could tell that they were being
corrupted by Danny less so because she was, you know, I
think she was pretty. Just a normal exhibition, this type of
woman. But other people you could see especially men, you
could see them just slowly creeping toward that. Let's
we're let's I think I'd look pretty good with that big gold
necklace. Yeah, exactly. Maybe I should open my shirt up a little
bit more. You know, I've been growing some hair here with a
gold necklace. I think it's gonna look pretty good look.
Yeah, that's really well, you can just see him falling into
it. I you know, I could grease my hair a little more. I think
maybe that will look good. What about a moustache takeaway
from this? When we're standing in line at the post office, to
put in our big ass IRS checks? We'd much rather they go to porn
that we that we at least can get enjoy the fruits of our labour
that way then through bullets and shooting hot leaded other
people in deserts.
What are you advocating the government invest in porn? Yeah,
right
on. I'm running on that ticket. You wait, my work. All right.
What do we have next your turn? Well, a lot of
people in Europe don't realise that we have this weird drought
effect. I think a lot of people the United States unless they're
local to to Georgia and Tennessee and places like that.
don't realise there's been a drought going on there for about
a year. And it just turned out that today. Apparently, some
town in Tennessee went bone dry. So if everybody in this whole
city, you open the taps nothing, nothing came out. Wow, what a
nightmare, huh, was not only a nightmare, but it would it
causes all kinds of other issues. Because when you dry
when you take the water out of the system, you know, the pipes
now don't have anything holding them up in some places and they
start to corrode, roots start corroding real fast, because
oxygen is now hitting them. And you end up with a long term
problem that's hard to resolve. But nothing is going to get
resolved unless it starts raining and it won't probably
rain in that area for another month.
So has a female moved in yet?
Oh, well, that would help.
Isn't that what they're there for? That's the Emergency
Management Agency. They're supposed to step in and save
everyone.
Well, I don't know what the they got the truck and water I guess.
But it's interesting that we're having a drought well, like, you
know, over the last couple years, they've been having these
floods, especially in England. In those nice coastal areas
around Cornwall, not even the
coastal areas, man. It was from Wales on up. And it it started
to hit London that that's when all of a sudden the emergency
relief came in is when Gordon Brown's hush puppies start to
get wet.
So what would happen if those tubes all flooded?
Yeah, wait, yeah, for real for real? Well, I don't know. It
would certainly fuck up my commute. That's for sure.
You fly in.
But I didn't know that. So and but is this like a big town? Is
it 100,000 People
I just found out about it's probably small town, but it's
the beginning of many towns, they are going to start drying
up it looks like in Georgia is the next state to get hit hard.
They're like down in, you know, just I think they're down to 60
days where the water and then they're done. Wow. All right.
That's interesting. And then meanwhile, the the glaciers are
all melting, why can't they use some of that water?
You know, and that's what I wanted to hit on. I think I read
it on your blog. And then you know, you talk to it first. I
heard it on tech five. And then I went to your to your weblog.
And
there was I haven't actually I haven't actually fully blogged
this yet. I know what you're gonna say, Yeah, this
is about this. Well, you called it a like a mountain of plastic
in the middle of the ocean, which it isn't. But I did find
this fascinating. It's called a I think it was a gyre Is that
what it's called Gyr
II, or a gear? I'm not sure how you pronounce it. Yeah. Well,
there was a link one of the your your readers had posted a
comment to a Google video that was his little mini documentary
about this. This team of volunteers that went to go check
it out. And so this is like 3000 miles off the coast in the
middle of the ocean.
Yeah, once you explain to listeners out there, what we're
talking about, okay,
so a jet Higher is it's a natural phenomenon. And there's
a couple of them. Basically, the way the currents flow in this
kind of like this big toilet bowl kind of motion, although,
you know, of course, there's no hole at the bottom that the
water drains down into, but you do have an epicentre of this
swirling water and it just collect stuff and what does it
collect? Well, stuff that's floating,
like plastic, glass, like kick in bottles. And,
and, you know, and I couldn't really understand how large this
area was. But you know, I'm thinking like 10,000 miles, you
know, just some an unbelievable area of water. And they went
through it and literally now it's not like, what you almost
automatically imagine is this huge, like all these plastic
bottles floating Of course, that's not really true. Because
plastic does break down. In fact, it gets really brittle
because of the salt water and the sun. And it breaks up and,
and it breaks into very microscopic bits, that of
course, the plankton feeding organisms are now feeding on.
And so that, you know, there's a whole sub story there of new
deformed sea creatures, like these monsters that are gonna
grow out of this shit. But you know, there's 10 times as much
plastic in the water, as there is plankton. And it's just
unbelievable. You think, you know? You see stuff that just
gets discarded and it goes out to sea. But where does it go? It
goes into this big fucking, you know, this cesspool in the
middle of
the ocean, supposedly the size of Texas.
Right, that's more than 10,000 square miles. No, no,
no. And well, I don't know how many square miles it is, but
it's probably, I don't know, when I finally get this big
look. It's big. It's a big piece of Gob goo out there and
apparently birds land on it, and often get trapped. Because you
know, as well, this
plastic rope, there's buoys, there's all kinds of, you know,
stuff that you'd kind of expect to be there. But there's
fluorescent tubes.
The idea of a big buoy with a belt on it. Dang.
Yeah, but it's just like, that's where all the trash goes. It's
just Yeah, it was. It was pretty wicked. Oh, this here's it. If
we're done with this one, I got a story that just blew me away.
Well, wait, let's not get get fit. I think they should nuke
it.
Nuke nuke the gyre.
Would you next story.
Okay, thanks. Now, this is like a music business story. Do you
know who Seymour Stein is?
The name rings a bell but no.
Okay. Seymour Stein is the guy who first he legend in the music
business started Sire Records. And Sire Records, you know, had
many famous artists. But Seymour Stein is really known for
Madonna. He really took Madonna into mainstream did the first
big album were there and he was her. Syrah was her record label
in the in the very beginning of her career. And Seymour Stein is
really, I've hung up, I hung out with him, you know, back in the,
I don't know, like mid 80s in London. And just one of these
really weird guys. Typical music industry guys, like he had a
fish tank in his office with 100 pound a 50 No 50 pound notes at
the bottom of this aquarium and they were Parana swimming in the
aquarium like you're welcome to go grab the 50 pound note if you
don't mind your hand getting eaten by a Purana Yeah, this is
really one of these guys. Right? Hilarious. And, and his ex wife,
Linda Stein was also a legend in the music business. She was a
manager, famously of the Ramones. And she was the most
abrasive woman you can imagine. I mean, she would, she just
would she would yell she would scream at people. She told Joey
Ramone shut the fuck up. You know? When they were touring in
England here he was complaining about everything. He didn't like
the food and she just said then get the fuck back to America you
fucking these legendary. And it's funny because as far as I
know, Seymour Stein was gay if not at least by but you know, it
was really weird these two and of course, they did break up
eventually so she was x for a reason so legendary woman legend
fact as she had cancer and she as she was had been operated on
cancer and she's this is a no just one of those famous stories
about her so take it with a grain of salt. Four hours after
the operation she was already on the phone yelling at someone who
would have fucked something up yeah just just crazy. They He
found her bludgeoned to death in her apartment yesterday in New
York on Fifth Avenue. Oh, really? Yeah.
So it wasn't in the news out here. Well,
well, there you go. But it's just it's one of those you
watch, the stories will come out, I'm sure because, you know,
lots of artists dealt with her. So I'm sure people are going to
be talking about this. You watch. It's going to be an
interesting story. I'm sure that it'll,
yeah, it sounds like something that's going to develop. That's
interesting. And
you know, who I mean? She is like, you know, who, who really
were her enemies? Who would have wanted to do this? Well, the
answer is fucking everybody. Everybody could have gone off on
this woman at any time and bludgeoned to death. Of course,
you know, she's kind of been out of the business for many years.
So for this to happen now, it's just crazy.
The sounds at your store. What's that? Well, it sounds like
everybody was trying to kill her. So I don't know. That
sounds like a crime that's unsolvable.
Yeah, maybe we should get Grisham on the scene. He'll take
care of it. While we're
talking about that kind of industry. We should mention the
last story I think should be this one, which is the Rick
cotton saga, which is another story that's developing if you
think that other one's going to like get legs. I think this one
may get legs in the blogosphere, because it's just starting to
come out now. And it's it started with a posting in kind
of a private newsletter then went to Ars Technica. Now, one
of my bloggers picked it up. And I have it on the blog, which is
the Rick cotton the the council, the general counsel for NBC
Universal, apparently representing the company made
the suggestion that the society I'm gonna quote from the article
society wastes entirely too much money policing crimes, like
burglary fraud and bank robbing, when it should be doing
something about piracy instead. And here's the great quote, our
law in quote, Our allow law enforcement resources are
seriously misaligned, cut and said, if you add up all the
various kinds of property crimes in this country, everything from
theft, to fraud to burglary, bank robber, robbing all of it,
it costs the country 16 billion a year, but intellectual
property crime runs to hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Go figure this guy like clinically insane Go figure. Now
I'm thinking well, here's a guy who's just you know, a
mouthpiece for the company. But in April, I did some more
research and in April, he was making noise about getting the
White House to instal a cabinet level position for anti piracy.
What are what shows what shows that this NBC produced well,
what is this this incredibly important stuff? That is so
important to society?
Heroes, I think is some and then there's a couple others show
a fucking clue, dude.
You know, it's unbelievable to me. Unbelievable. Yeah, well, I
mean, the fact that NBC would let this guy say that on their
behalf that that burglary, you know, essentially what we're
talking about his burglary, robbery bank robbing all this
kind of things meaningless compared to their crappy
business. What was in the junk they put on television,
what was what was the context of this? Where did he say this?
If he was at some, I guess it was in some meeting or an
interview or something like that. I'm going to have
to, we got we got to source that. I got to know more about
that.
It's, it's actually right now it's a little hard to find you
can go if you go to Ars Technica, the first people that
actually started running with it, and they sourced it back to
a kind of a newsletter that's online, and they in there
probably have the original source of it.
Dodgy, dodgy dodgy.
That sounds it sounded dodgy to me at first. And then when I
found out that this guy was already working on his cabinet
level, he wanted a secretary of anti piracy in the White House.
I figured it makes nothing but sense that he would say this.
Unreal. To think Well, I hope everyone rips this off and
copies of this wide. Please, and feel free. Feel free to try. You
know, if you can sell some advertising against it. Go
ahead, insert some ads around it. Knock yourself out. We got
no agenda.
Zack, we got no agenda. All right.
So all right, John. Well, next week, working on Friday as well
actually then. Did you do cranky geeks today or is that not fun?
No. What does that
tell us on Wednesday, did it and you know if you're around next
week, maybe can get you over there. Meanwhile, you know,
we've got no agenda and next week, we're going to have more
No, no agenda.
Exactly. All right. I'm Adam curry at the curry condo.
And I'm John C. Dvorak. Okay,
we'll talk to you next week.
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