Very Local News

• Briton is in recession too. Unemployment is rising in the U. S. and the U. K.. That sucks. I don't like it here. I'm sure they don't like it there either.
  
• Money doesn't exist any more. It is all just blips in a computer somewhere. Some is paper or bits of worthless metal in our pockets. The only real currency is held in objects that are worth something. This is why intellectual property makes absolutely no sense to me. it is reward for creating and implementing something. It is punishment for not gaming the rules.
• China is now forcing internet cafes to switch from Windows XP to Red Flag Linux. Red Flag is a Chinese home grown linux. Red Flag is built on Asianux, which Oracle has a hand in. it is all complex. I wonder if China will respect intellectual property rights now that the government is in the software business?
  
• Solar panels are a hot theft item. Many solar panels on eBay are stolen. Some insurance doesn't cover solar panels.
  
• That tool bag the astronaut dropped during the space walk was worth $100,000. Amateur astronomers are tracking its orbit just for fun. There is a video on YouTube that shows a dot floating across a black background.
  
• Hearsay, Most men die within 24 months of retiring. I would like to know the real statistic.
• One of the podcasts had interviews with survivors of the India attacks. That famous cafe opened up. People are getting back to their lives. they are complaining that the government should have done more to prevent the attacks. Done what? Once you read how the attacks happened, the only thing that would have helped is better anti-terrorist training for the beat cops. Even that would be reactionary.
  
• Bill Clinton made ten million dollars last year for speeches alone.
• New Jersey is the most paved state.
• I would like to be the first researcher who wins both the Nobel Prize and the Ignoble Prize with the same discovery/invention.
• Jimmy Carter was recently denied entry to Zimbabwe. They went up a notch in my book. That puts them at notch (-432).
• I rummaged through an old desk at work today. there wa a bunch of old candy, old software, crappy old video cards for slots that are not used any more, blank paper, a drawer full of crumpled paper towels. Interesting story behind that one, and some other strange crap. No pens. Not one.
• Teatime conversation:
• Shirt with drum pads and a speaker mentioned. Now, banned from the office.
• Sound equipment is highly suspect in consistent quality. Guitar Hero drums sets are inconsistent within the same drum set. Stevy Ray Vaughn had a guy buy 100 guitar pedels and test them all to find the one that didn't suck. In video games as it is in reality.
  
• Music is possibly saved in memory with a massively loss compression. The regeneration (decompression) is a bit like watching a crappy video stream online with key frames and pixel based changes making little green boxes, called squirrel, between them.
• Smart Music kind of works except there are foibles.I walked off durring this conversation to go back to work.