Whenever I find myself needing a dose of positive thinking I meander to John Assaraf’s Blog. His latest offering interests me in the regard that it is definitely worth passing along to those of you who are about to set your life’s course.
The collective experience of 50 people aged 95 or older and what they would do differently were they to have the opportunity to live life over. They would;
Reflect More - “These seniors said they would take the time to think about what was going on and live their lives along well-thought-out priorities. They would contemplate the meaning of life, family, work and much more.” I can’t agree more. Well thought out priorities! Mine were always in disarray. The meaning of life, family, work and much more? To me, those are the priorities I had out of whack that needed to be put in their proper place. Today, no matter what anyone tells you or provides as an example - family first! Without family life loses a great deal of its luster! I believe today that when you put family first your spiritual life will fall into place, as will all else.
Risk More - “These wonderful aged human beings said they would have taken more chances in life. If they could re-live their lives they wouldn’t be so scared to take risks. They would have developed more courage to venture out of their comfort zones.” Fear is a thief! Comfort zones are not only thieves but killers too! Politically correct is a comfort zone…
Do things that would outlast them - “They wanted to know that their lives counted for something, that long after they left this world, somehow their impact would live on.” Leaving the world a better place than you found it ought to be a requirement for all, imho. In direct contradiction to today’s lawlessness and lack of conscience.
The Angus Net Neutrality Bill
By Michael Geist NDP MP Charlie Angus introduced his private member’s net neutrality bill in the House of Commons this afternoon. The short bill seeks to add transparency, neutral network management, and open devices to the Canadian telecom law …
Jon comments at Michael Geist’s : “I’m not opposed to paying by the MB since that would force transparency upon the ISPs with regard to their pricing practices. I am opposed to data caps and steep penalties for exceeding them because these will probably interfere with and possibly even stymie creative use of the internet.”
Canadian punk rocker-turned-MP submits net neutrality bill
Ars Technica - Boston,MA,USA Much as the US debate over the net neutrality issue spawned SavetheInternet.com, Canada’s fight this week produced SaveOurNet.ca, a group designed to channel …
Which introduces AfterTheGavel.com. Dr. Ben Bishop, the founder, describes his site as
“A way for sellers to leave feedback about buyers to prevent problems. ‘Perhaps the buyer is trying to threaten the seller with negative feedback to try to extort a lower price,’ he said. ‘This is a mechanism for sellers to report that to other sellers so this buyer can’t go on doing this indefinitely, hopefully.’”
“AfterTheGavel is for sellers to be able to manage risk for their online auction businesses. As the world of online auctions changes sellers need to know who they are dealing with as buyers as much if not more than buyers need to know sellers. AfterTheGavel.com will serve as a balancing weight to keep this information available to sellers.”
“This afternoon at the SMX Seattle conference we announced the Google Website Workout contest.
The idea behind the contest is simple: we’re looking to help four businesses “pump up” their websites so they can get more sales, leads, or signups. Our consultants will work with the four winners to increase their sites’ performance by identifying and testing which combinations of page design, copy, and graphics yield the highest conversion rates.”
We’ll take a look at the third court determined legal standard, the Truncated Rule of Reason. There really isn’t much there yet its importance is just as great;
“The truncated rule of reason test is used in cases where the per se test is not applicable but where nonetheless “no elaborate industry analysis is required to demonstrate the anticompetitive character” of the restraint (NCAA v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma).”
I don’t want to neglect additional considerations or anti-competitive trade practices violators might engage in.
“There are two general categories of restraint of trade practices: vertical restraints and horizontal restraints. Vertical restraints occur when a company purchases or otherwise acquires control over another company that is either its supplier or customer. The controlling company is then in a position to impose various anticompetitive restraints on its former supplier or customer. Horizontal restraints deal with price-fixing agreements and are highly illegal. Similar to price-fixing agreements and likewise illegal are other practices such as “bid rigging,” boycotts, territorial impositions, and imposed minimum fee schedules.”
I guess I could say I wish I had seen this from its inception but that isn’t true. Since posts about Walmart’s Classifieds have part of my current interest, I saw Erick’s at TC and read through the comments, coming across one by Bob Wyman. He mentioned the “no-coincidence” thought that Walmart’s new classifieds are being publicized at about the same time the newspaper industry is attempting to “recapture” the classified ad business.
“The telecoms who are being sued for their cooperation in the government’s illegal warrantless surveillance program have received billions in government contracts. According to Washington Technology magazine, Verizon received $1.3 billion, Sprint $839 million and AT&T $505 million in federal prime contract revenue for fiscal 2007, for a total of $2.6 billion. While the companies have been government contractors for a long time, it still represents a significant increase in revenue.
Telecom apologists like to suggest that the communications companies’ motivation was not financial. As Judge Walker noted when examining EFF’s allegations of dragnet surveillance: “AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal.” Yet, the prospect of $2.6 billion per year can go a long way to explaining why an industry might cooperate with a program far outside the limitations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), despite the difficulty of believing it was legal.”
“OZtion, an online auction site based in Australia, issued a press release to announce it has seen a 50% increase in sales for the month of May compared to the month of March. The company has seen a significant increase in sales since eBay Australia announced in April that all items must be paid for using PayPal.”
Ouch - 50%??? Could statistics be misleading? It doesn’t look like it as Ina also tells us;
“It has experienced a 65% increase in Gross Merchandise Volume (the value of merchandise traded), and has 670,000 items listed for sale.”
Guarantee net neutrality
The Star-Ledger - NJ.com - Newark, NJ, USA Internet neutrality is one of those rare issues that has united unusually diverse groups, from the Gun Owners of America to the Christian Coalition. And for good reason. Congress should adopt a comprehensive net neutrality law this year.
NDP to introduce ‘net neutrality’ private member’s bill
CBC.ca - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
By Pete Nowak CBC News The federal New Democrats will introduce a private member’s bill on Wednesday that would entrench the principle of “net neutrality” …
Candidates Compete For Tech Sector’s Backing
By Amy Schatz May 27, 2008; Page A6 Few presidential candidates have had as much experience dealing with technology and telecommunications issues as Sen. McCain, who for years chaired a Senate committee that deals with them. But he rarely brings tech issues up on the campaign trail and hasn’t released many significant policy proposals about them yet.
So, in your browsers address bar you see that the secure site you’ve just signed into has an URL that contains (unencrypted?) the last four digits of your social security number. Then, being the person you are, having a concern about your neighbor’s security if they sign on to the same site, you do an experiment. You alter the last four digits to see if you somehow gain the ability to sign on as someone else.
Well, regardless of whether your experiment works or not, here is the deal;
“You’d better think twice before testing your theory. Federal and state laws that criminalize unauthorized access to computers also hobble the rights of customers and security experts to use their own browsers to test whether a computer server adequately protects their data from thieves and fraudsters. This is true even if you don’t damage, delete, alter or change anything and are acting solely with the intent to protect yourself and others. Under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, codified at 18 U.S.C. 1030, obtaining any information from a simple unauthorized access is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, while the existence of other factors (such as causing damage or taking medical information) may make such access a felony. 18 U.S.C. 1030(a)(2)(c), (c)(2)(a). California’s computer crime law (Penal Code section 502) also prohibits a number of unauthorized activities with computers and computer networks. Merely accessing a computer system without permission is an infraction under California law. (c)(7), (d)(3).”
Leave the security experiments to someone else who is legally qualified to conduct them!
“We recently launched Walmart.com Classifieds beta to provide additional opportunities for our customers to save money and live better. This free, community-based resource allows customers to buy and sell items locally, find local jobs and learn about events in their area.
Our new Classifieds beta at Walmart.com provides an expanded offering of products and services, the majority of which are not traditionally available from Wal-Mart, such as job listings, automobiles, rentals and real estate. It also further connects our community of 130 million customers who shop the Wal-Mart brand each week.”
Tell me - do you think that eBay’s executives gave this any consideration, at all??? Do you think it could put a dent in either Kijiji, Craigslist or both? Personally, I don’t think it would bother Craigslist at all but Kijiji might be another story. Wal-Mart is most certainly a power to be reckoned with and can compete with eBay on every level!
There is a lot going on in June and Google wants to remind you how to use Adwords to take advantage of it through Demographic Bidding.
What Is Demographic Bidding?
“Demographic bidding is a way to help your ad reach audiences of a certain age or gender. If you want your ads to be seen by women aged 18-24, or people over 55, demographic bidding can help.”
Can you tell me more? For instance, why would I want to use it or would it be worthwhile for me?
“Some publishers on the Google content network know certain individual details about their users. Social networking sites, for instance, often ask users to identify themselves by age and gender. On sites that provide this type of information about their users, Google can often display your AdWords ads to members of the groups that you prefer, or prevent your ads from displaying to members of groups you don’t want to reach. You can bid more for your preferred demographic groups to help make sure your ad reaches members of those groups.”
Your printer has screwed up my works in the past and was not amenable to discussion about it. Your printer cost me money and reputation by their actions when they screwed up my works with their mistakes. I don’t want to use them! This is the US of A and I have the right to choose who I want to print my books! Who the he** are you to tell me I am required to use the printer you’ve chosen?
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Through the years you and I had developed a business relationship. You provided a web site that allowed me to post my books for sale for a fee to be paid to you. Understandable. You offered me reasonable incentives to use your web site services and I agreed because it kept the relationship working responsibly. I was able to choose who I used to print my books and everything moved along merrily for both of us. I made money, you made money. A wonderful business deal. A freedom gained for both of us by others who had the insight and fortitude to stand up for the rights of human beings.
We’ll take a look at the second court determined legal standard, the Per Se Test.
In Northern Pacific Railroad Co. v. United States (1958), the U.S. Supreme Court found that illegal restraints can sometimes fall outside a rule of reason analysis. In such cases carefully defined categories of restraint are illegal per se because “their pernicious effect on competition and lack of any redeeming virtue are conclusively presumed to be unreasonable and therefore illegal without elaborate inquiry as to the precise harm they have caused.” Related is the Socony Vacuum Oil Company case (1940) in which the Court found that even though there were previous specific exceptions, tampering with price structure is nonetheless illegal, and stated “raising, depressing, fixing, pegging, or stabilizing the price of a commodity in interstate and foreign commerce is illegal per se.”
The people who wrote the Sherman Anti-Trust Act were purposefully vague because they apparently wanted to leave many decisions about this up to the courts and it worked. Since 1890, “the courts have come up with three different legal standards to be used in determining restraint of trade.” This is one;
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