Time Changes, Yet Marches On

So. Didja reset the clocks? I’m in a sort of low-level daze, and will be in that state for a few days. I hated the time change back in the day. I was always an early guy at work and usually rolled out of bed at 0430 every morning. Moving the clock ahead effectively moved my get-out-of-bed time to 0330, and that’s waaaay too damned early for any human being to get up. That first week of daylight savings time was always very hard for me. Not so much, these days. And that’s a good thing…

More on General Ali Reza Asgari, the Iranian who defected to the West last week, from The Times (UK):

AN Iranian general who defected to the West last month had been spying on Iran since 2003 when he was recruited on an overseas business trip, according to Iranian sources.

This weekend Brigadier General Ali Reza Asgari, 63, the former deputy defence minister, is understood to be undergoing debriefing at a Nato base in Germany after he escaped from Iran, followed by his family.

[…]

According to the Iranian sources, the escape took several months to arrange. At least 10 close members of his family had to flee the country. Asgari has two sons, a daughter and several grandchildren and it is believed that all, including his daughters-in-law, are now out of Iran. Their final destination is unknown.

Wow. This reads like a John Le Carré novel. Getting someone’s entire family out of a police state is a complicated and dangerous affair for everyone involved. The man must be valuable, indeed, to risk an operation of this scope. And we (the general public) will probably never know what this really means. As for me, I’m simply glad the man defected and hope the European/American intelligence agencies use the information they obtain wisely. Read that as: to the Mullahs' GREAT detriment.

Pretty small, in the Grand Scheme of Things, yet important to some of us:

Internet radio stations are warning they could be forced off the air by a big increase in the royalties they pay to play music.

The warning comes after a decision by a US copyright body to increase royalty payments for music via the net.

Commercial webcasters in the US now face the prospect of paying more than twice as much for every track they play.

Frequent readers are aware I’m a BIG fan of Radio Paradise (see the sidebar). It pains me, considerably, to think RP might be driven out of business by such an arbitrary and ill-considered action by the frickin’ gubmint. But it ain’t just the gubmint. Oh, No…it ain’t. Enter the proverbial “special interests:”

There has been much discussion about how unfair these rates are, but our listeners find one fact particularly apalling: while Internet stations like ours are being told they must pay royalty fees that exceed their income, sometimes by several times over, FM stations - including those owned by media conglomerates like Clear Channel - pay nothing at all!

Yes, both FM stations and Internet stations pay royalties to songwriters and/or music publishers. But the royalties in question are owed to the owners of performance copyrights, which means, in most cases, record companies - and to them, FM stations pay nothing at all.

How is it possible for such a massive disparity to exist?

[…]

We are at a fork in the road. Down one path is a radio universe populated entirely by large corporations, who can either afford the legal firepower necessary to negotiate a reasonable settlement with the music industry (such as the satellite radio companies have done) or can afford to offer Internet radio as a “loss leader” (as Yahoo and AOL do).

Down the other fork we are presented with a universe of choices, freely available to all, produced by people who truly love and value what they are doing - including user-programmed channels such as those offered by lala.com, “discovery” channels such as those available at Pandora, and who knows what else in the coming years. None of those choices are viable under the new rate structure, and that would be a tremendous loss for all involved.

That’s Bill from RP, writing in an essay on Save Our Internet Radio. He speaks the truth when he says we’re “at a fork in the road.” I, for one, would simply hate to see my choices diminished, and I most certainly will not go back to commercial radio. Commercial radio lost it, years ago, to be blunt. Satellite radio is an alternative, but satellite radio isn’t nearly as eclectic or entertaining as internet radio. Although I tend to listen solely to RP, I do venture further a field on occasion. Especially when Bill goes off on a whiny sensitive singer jag….but I digress.

So. Is there anything to be done? Well, yes. Yes, there is, in a small way: Sign the online petition and open letter to the US Congress. I signed this morning and joined 14,867 other individuals who think this royalty thing is grossly unfair and a threat to our pursuit of happiness. I hope all y’all agree and sign the petition. Do it for the children!

Bedouins:

A new breed of worker, fueled by caffeine and using the tools of modern technology, is flourishing in the coffeehouses of San Francisco. Roaming from cafe to cafe and borrowing a name from the nomadic Arabs who wandered freely in the desert, they've come to be known as "bedouins."

San Francisco's modern-day bedouins are typically armed with laptops and cell phones, paying for their office space and Internet access by buying coffee and muffins.

"In 'Lawrence of Arabia,' the bedouins always felt like they were on the warpath. They had greater cause," said Niall Kennedy, a 27-year-old San Franciscan who quit his day job at Microsoft Corp. to run his own Web company, Patrick Media, out of cafes and a rented desk. "At a startup, you're always on the go, plowing ahead, with some higher cause driving you."

San Francisco's bedouins see themselves changing the nature of the workplace, if not the world at large.

Most interesting. I get the feeling that I know at least one Bedouin. The law of averages makes this possibility almost a certainty, given I worked in the IT industry (as did nearly all my friends/associates) whilst living in SFO. This wouldn’t be me, but I can relate.

From an e-mail sent by my buddy Ed in Florida:

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets.

True, that! {insert smiley face here}

Today’s Pic(s): Arguably the most exciting day ever around El Casa Móvil De Pennington. To make a long story short, I was dozing on the couch on a lazy summer’s afternoon when I (finally) hear all sorts of commotion outside. I say “finally,” because it took me a while to realize things weren’t as they should be… the AC droning away in the foreground effectively masked sounds from the outside. That, coupled with the fact the TV volume has to be set on "ear-splitting" to drown out the AC. So, anyway...I raise my shades to see the trailer next door blazing away as the good guys from the Portales Fire Department methodically dealt with it. Of course, the first thing I do is grab the camera and begin shooting. It was only later I realized I should have run, not walked to the nearest exit and got the Hell away…far away…from the fire. Propane tanks, and all that.

The Fire Department came back later that same day night and put the fire out again. It seems like they missed a hot spot the first time around…and the trailer ignited again in the middle of the night. Too much excitement…

August, 2005.