] U.S. authorities charged four people in Detroit on
] Wednesday with e-mailing fraudulent sales pitches for
] weight-loss products, the first criminal prosecutions
] under the government's new "can spam" legislation.

Turns out this is an FTC investigation for fraud and the Spam charges are just an add on. This probably doesn't mean they've actually started enforcing these laws in general.

CNN.com - First four charged under 'can spam' law - Apr 28, 2004

Check out the Interz0ne III presentations. Pretty good quality for a con video.

Interz0ne Presentation Video

(U:) This matter has been resolved. I filed a complaint with the management of my apartment complex, they complained to Infinite Energy, and then I finally got someone who was actually willing to get things fixed up. In the final analysis I have not been charged any fees. However, they were geared up to disconnect me AGAIN 2 weeks after the initial disconnection. I received another final notice the day before I spoke to the manager who finally resolved the issue. A major pain in the ass this all was....

Infinite Energy sells natural gas in apartment complexes in Georgia. As they have lock in exclusive contracts with complexes their customers don't have any choice but to do business with them. As a result they have piss poor customer service because they just don't care.

Unfortunately, the only way to avoid them is to rent from a complex that doesn't use them, or not to rent. Do you rent in Georiga? Do you know of a property management company that doesn't deal with these people?

I sent them a check, which they cashed but failed to post to my account. Then they disconnected my service. They did send me a final disconnection notice, but it was a non descript envelope that ended up on my bill pile because it looks like a bill. Georgia law requires this notification to occur by phone or certified mail.

I haven't had a shower since Monday. I didn't realize the gas had been disconnected till yesterday. I spent the entire day yesterday dealing with their lazy customer service reps, who had my cashed check 30 seconds away from them on their terminals, but still insisted on making me jump through multiple hoops and broken fax machines to prove to them that I paid them before they'd bother to look there. (And when they DID get my fax they did nothing with it at all. I had to call back in 5 hours later and prod them, and at that time they couldn't find the fax.)

They're supposed to turn my gas back on today. I have to be home between the hours of 8 AM and 5PM. As I can't cook in my apartment I suppose that also means I'm not supposed to eat.

Thank you, infinite energy, for fucking up my life for several days because you are too lazy to double check your data entry. No company in a competitive marketplace would ever disconnect a paying customer.

(U:) Insult to injury. Infinite Engery is claiming that it is my fault that they misfiled my check because they mis-interpreted my handwriting of the account number on the check. This, of course, ignores the fact that the check came with their bill stub, which includes the account number. So, they are billing me for the disconnection and reconnection. Which, of course, gives me the motivation to file a complaint with the Georgia PSC over both their misleading disconnection notice and their failure to take responsibility for the mistake. I can't imagine that the PSC will be as disingenuous about this as they are being unless they've been thoroughly bribed. We shall see...

Fuck Infinite Energy

] Rumsfeld told reporters at a briefing yesterday that he
] may have used the phrase "take that to the bank" but that
] no final decision had been made to go to war.
]
] "To my knowledge, a decision had not been taken by the
] president to go to war at that meeting," Rumsfeld said.
] "There was certainly nothing I said that should have
] suggested that, and any suggestion to the contrary would
] not be accurate."

Thats fucking classic. Congradulations dumbass, you are no longer credible.

Pentagon Deleted Rumsfeld Comment (washingtonpost.com)

Stools that look like big escape keys.

escape button

] One can conservatively conclude that affecting the
] balance of power in the House of Representatives is worth
] at least $100M to the party who would otherwise be
] losing. So when designing the security behind the
] software, one must assume an attacker with a $100M
] budget.

Schneier.com: economics of voter fraud

] It is the most foolish and selfish thing to say "pull the
] troops out", or "replace them with the UN or NATO".
] Someone has to see us through this mess to the end. Only
] a deluded utopian (or an idiot peace activist) would
] believe that Iraqis would all cosily sit down and settle
] down their endless disputes without AK-47's, RPG's, or
] mortars in the event of coalition troops abandoning Iraq.
] Please please don't get me wrong, I am not in the least
] saying that I enjoy being occupied by a foreign force, I
] am not a dreamer who believes that the USA is here for
] altruistic reasons, I am not saying that I am happy with
] what my bleeding country is going through, believe me
] when I say it tears my heart every day to witness all the
] bloodshed, it pains me immensely to see that we have no
] leaders whomsoever with the interest and well-being of
] Iraq as their primary goal, it kills me to see how blind
] and ignorant we have all become.

Interesting pro-coallition Iraqi Blogger

Iraqi Blogger

The United States is good at two things. Being rich, and being rebellious.

The first is the product of two geographic accidents and one extremely intelligent decision.

We were close enough to Europe to provide an exciting, temperate, and vast destination for the bored and downtrodden of the 19th century, and yet far enough away to keep us from taking much more then a few bruises when the place collapsed on itself in the 20th.

The extremely intelligent decision was to keep the church out of government affairs. Thomas Jefferson accurately predicted that our southern, "priest ridden," neighbors would succumb to corrupt ineptitude for centuries.

We peaked about 1955. The space program, adjusted for inflation, made our present fiscally unilateral adventures in the middle east look like a minor expense.

We're still quite accustomed to being the richest people on the planet and few seem to be aware that we're in decline. If our military expenditures don't suck us dry the coming implosion of Social Security and Medicare certainly will.

In 40 years we're not going to be the richest anymore.

Neither cost should be underestimated. The domestic concern is now quite well documented. On the other hand, Islamic fundamentalism is an ancient, intractable hate that flourishes because it gives meaning to lives that have none.

Can we really replace that meaning with economic purpose? We can't even create economic purpose here at home.

The other thing, besides being rich, that Americans are good at is rebellion. Our culture is the space that exists between the dress codes of protestant piety and the cloud of pot smoke emanating from the local motorcycle bar. You are taught how to be, and they you are taught not to be it.

Our heros aren't the ones who worked together to solve the problem. They're the ones who stepped outside and succeeded. We don't care about the team. Only the star quarterback matters to us.

Americans are good at going off in a garage somewhere and doing something innovative on one's own. Rebellion is at the heart of that. Thats why the hacker scene was so edgy.

Thats the one hope we have that we can really build a future on once our geographic blessings are spent and everyone else gets an education.

And we're killing it. Between the outsourcing, and the attack on options, and the skittish contraction of meaningful technology investment, we're eliminating the dream that you can go out and work on the edges and be successful.

Sure, Steven Levy found people doing innovative things in Silicon Valley after the crash. There are those among us who don't care about taking risks because they could loose almost all of their net worth without having to change their lifestyles. They are bored and have nothing better to do then tinker. Are we really hanging the future of our economy on a few guys who are rich enough to create their own space programs for fun?

One in one hundred are successful and the more we scale this back the more good opportunities will slip through our fingers.

Today technology innovation consists of screwing up the DNS system. And its not just there. We've even forgotten how to make good music. Our endless co-option of the rebels has been too efficient. The rebels don't have anything more to say.

Taxes and Terrorism. Thats all I can see for years to come. And I'm sick of it already. We heading into a Japanese style socio-economic malaise.

] May 15th to 16th -- Ferrari days at Road Atlanta
]
]
] The Ferrari Challenge, Ferrari's own racing series,
] was created to allow Ferrari customers to enjoy their
] cars in a structured competitive environment, racing
] against other Ferrari owners on some of the great race
] tracks of North America. Spectators get to enjoy a heard
] of these rare and exciting Italian race cars at a track
] near their home.

[ Sweet! This could be pretty fricking rad. -k]

Road Atlanta

inignoct wrote:
] What are the visible traits a particular political party
] imprints on a county -- school arts funding levels, number of
] trees and parks, wealth, distance from nightlife?
] Fascinating.

I wrote this a few days ago:

Left/right politics in the United States seem to me to have a rather stark urban/rural split. This is fairly clear in the electoral results. (Dennis Miller once remarked that Democrats seem to be attracted to water, missing the obvious connection between big cities and old sea transportation routes.)

People in the city tend to be concerned with things like homelessness, poverty, etc because they are constantly confronted with it. They see guns as things that kill people. They are tolerant of diversity because they are surrounded by it. Furthermore, in general they are quite interdependent with others around them because of the way they live. Thus they tend, statistically, to support welfare, gun control, and the separation of church and state.

People in the country don’t really interact with homeless/poor on a daily basis, so they are less inclined to spent moned on social programs. They see guns as a hobby. They don’t see the problem with teaching their religious values in school because they don’t know anyone who doesn’t practice their religion. In general, people in the country tend to be more independent of others because of they way they live. Thus they tend, statistically, to support lower taxes, oppose gun control, and oppose the separation of church and state.

RE: Mister Landslide's Neighborhood - Red versus blue states isn't the half of it. By Timothy Noah