The Annual Christmas Haiku

Hello my faithful Rizznites - I hope your year has been at least as good as this one has turned out being for me. It was off to a rocky start... the middle wasn't that great, but it seems to be ending with a bang! I hope you all experience nothing but the best with your family, friends, and loved ones this year.

Long time, no see.

Howdy, folks. Been a minute since I've posted, and I've got some good reasons for that. As most of you know, I'm in East Texas still, and I've got a lot of buns in the oven, so to speak. Unfortunately, I've signed a crapload of Non-Disclosure Agreements recently (which really stink when you're a blabbermouth journalist type like myself), but are probably for the best. I'll try to outline a bit of them right here and on to the interesting news after that.

ThinClients
I've been contracted by a company named 5 Tribe, Inc. here in Tyler to work for the next four months to create what's called a Thin Client solution. I can't go into the details of my project itself, but a Thin Client, if you're unaware, is a system that has very little processing or storage power on the workstation itself, and instead relies on a server somewhere to do the bulk of the processing. The Thin Client solution I'll be putting together will be about the size of a PSP, and about the price of an off the shelf PDA.

The beauty of this contract is that it not only does it pay me well to do something I'm really interested in, but it eventually will tie back in to a lot of the technologies that I developed back at BlipMedia and AACS.

BlipMedia and AACS
Speaking of BlipMedia and AACS (and their online program), what's going on with all that there? Well, once again, I've signed a lot of NDAs and started a lot of super-secret negotiations, so again I cannot get into a whole lot of details on this one, but I can tell you that something huge is very likely going to be coming down the pike with BlipMedia that is going to shake the podcasting world down to it's core. I am not exaggerating one bit when I say that I fully expect to be interviewed on CNN and the Wall Street Journal on this one.

The best part is, it's good for the podcasting community - trust me, you guys are going to love how this one plays out.

Yes yes, I know, I'm a big tease. I'll give you a hint - imagine how cool it would be if the Blip server ran as stable as our competitor's servers ran. I've probably said too much, but hey, I'll let the speculation abound on that one and clean up the mess later.

Other Future Ventures
Speaking of new ventures and podcasting, I just got the go ahead from my pocket book to fund a new venture that's going to be headed up by Leo, Ricky, Art, and myself. Again, I'm not going too far into the details on this one, but once again, I will drop ambiguous clues and let the speculation run rampant. Art and I were talking about the Adam Curry story a couple weeks ago and decided that we needed to snap into action and stop simply complaining about the sorry, disorganized state of podcast content, promotion, and marketing.

So the plan is, as soon as we come up with a name for the company, to take Adam Curry down by showing the world who the real kings of all online media are.

Happy Holidays
I recieved the following from a faithful Rizznite this week:

You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named 'Bush', 'Dick', and 'Colon'.

John Spencer Dies
I guess we know which ticket is winning next season on West Wing - one of my favorite persons from the show has died. John Spencer, the actor who portrays Vice Presidential candidate Leo McGarry on the West Wing passed away earlier today from a heart attack.

This is upsetting, and I know many Rizznites were fans of both the show and the character (as well as the actor, who also played prominently on the old series LA Law) - we'll miss you John.

JibJab Strikes Again
Once again, JibJab makes a poke at politics both sides can enjoy (more or less). Their latest featurette called 2-0-5 was featured on CNN Headline News today.

Go check it out.

That's all I got, so you commence napping.

/rizzn

I am blessed to be surrounded by idiots, I guess.

I haven't been posting much lately. For this I apologize. I've tried to ponder the lack of inspiration for posting, but I guess it's more or less been my need to unplug for a little bit. It also could have to do with the fact I've been sick for a couple weeks off and on. It also could have to do with that I've been extraordinarily busy going back and forth between businesses here in Tyler and Dallas.

I've also been embroiled in conflict between my partners in Florida and my friend James Smith. To me, it seems stupid, but somehow it has gotten out of control. I've been subjected to eighteen individual email exchanges of escalating viciousness over the course of the last week. It started out as "please send the phone and power adapter." It ended up being "I will make your life miserable from now to the end of time." It's a bit out of hand. I would find the whole exchange a bit ludicrous and funny if I weren't forced to sign contracts exposing myself to $100,000 liability by continuing to be friends with James.

As a footnote, I suppose it should be said publicly somewhere that this hereby ends James' involvement with the BlipMedia project. This is only the first of many major announcements forthcoming around here regarding the Blip project.

Speaking of projects, we've got a few other big announcements as far as new endeavors go. There's the DBandit (no, it's not pet tags), three devices I've been contracted to engineer, a new podcasting company, and a couple of other side projects that will bear full entries of their own. Stay tuned for that stuff, it's very exciting.

... in Adam Curry is a Jerk news
Imagine my surprise, today, having been out of pocket news-wise for a few weeks at discovering that your friend and mine Adam Curry is topping the headlines at Technorati again. The first bit of research as to why revealed he was starting something called "soundvertising". I'm not sure exactly what this is since I more or less personally boycott all things Adam, but if the cludgy name is any indicator, it very likely is him trying to re-brand the concept of audio commercials and then claim to have invented them. There is no end to the man's ego. He won't be happy until there are eternal debates from now to apocalypse whether or not he or Al Gore invented the world.

As it turns out, though, the reason he's in the headlines has more to do with Mr. Curry's duplicitous nature, rather than his alleged altruism. Rather than dig through the tons of copy-cat blog posts that Technorati seems to be becoming famous for, I went to the industry source for the buzz on podcasting, Chris McIntyre's podcastalley.com. There it is, at the top of the "Podcasting in the News" section: Adam Curry Caught Trying to Inflate His Role in Podcasting?

What? Say it ain't so! According to the first post and the subsequently linked articles, "Former MTV veejay and podcasting entrepreneur Adam Curry appears to have been caught anonymously editing the podcasting entry on Wikipedia to remove credit from other people and inflate his role in its creation. When someone edits Wikipedia without logging in to a user account, the IP address is recorded to guard against abuse. Four times this year, an IP address controlled by Curry, 82.108.78.107, has made revisions involving the early history of podcasting."

I would make some drippingly sarcastic remarks about how Adam would never do that, he has way too much integrity, and could by no means be considered to ever do anything to over-extend his image as the 'father of podcasting,' but long-time Rizznites know that he has stolen just about every idea put forth by this blog, and are also aware I sell a tshirt that proclaims loudly his jerkiness, and would therefore be suspicious of my sincerity.

For the full story, see here and here.

Dawn Yang
How is it that there is no Wikipedia entry on Dawn Yang? This is like a month total that she's been in the Technorati most talked about list. I think that qualifies her for at least an entry. Hell, if Smokehouse and I have Wikipedia entries, I think that the hot chick who supposedly did or did not get plastic surgery gets at least a mention. I'm just sayin', yo.

Aeon Flux
I know you're all waiting for my Aeon Flux review here, but Darrell had a fever last night, and we didn't get to see a premiere, and as you may have heard on Leno last night, they didn't pre-release Aeon Flux for reviewers (something Ebert and Roeper claim hasn't happenned since the release of From Justin to Kelly.

The reviewers, who are all miffed they got no advance screening, taglined the film "some thought it might be "Aeon Sux," but it's more like "Aeon Lacklux." Clever, but my guess is much like those of us who saw Aeon Flux in it's original chopped up MTV format, most people just don't get it. To be honest, Charlize Theron dressed all hot for two hours in a theatre is worth the price of admission, whether or not they screw up the original spirit of AF or not.

Texas vs. Colorado
True blowout - you don't see this often. This is a qualifying game for who goes to the Rose Bowl this year. Right now there's 1:27 left in the third quarter, and the Longhorns are winning 70-3.

All I can say is, "Wow." My dad told me the score from the other room, and I had to turn it on to see what kind of game was being played. You just don't see that in football very often.

Stuff
Yeah, I've got a lot of little bits about nothing today. Get over it. That's all I got today. I'll start posting more regular. I'll start eating digi-fiber or something.

/rizzn

Sorry Buddy

I was going to head out to Ft. Worth tonight to go see MC Chris do a show, but as I was planning to leave this morning, getting all my directions down and everything, I realized that the dear MC wasn't going to be on deck till about midnight, and the show ended at 2AM. Where I am staying, and to get back there in time for some turkey goodness, would mean I was on the road until 4:30 AM best case scenario.

So sorry, MC. I'll try to catch you in Ft. Lauderdale when I make it back to Florida.

I haven't bellyached much on the blog about my hurricane plight, but let me take just a moment to say how much I hate the Florida Workforce people. They live to screw me over. First of all, their site is one of the best kept secrets in Florida bureaucracy history. Their domain isn't something with a .gov, or even a .org, but it's a .com (fluidnow.com), which makes the site look like an ordinary employment agency site.

Second, and more importantly, after a major Federally-declared disaster, they are charged, by FEMA, with the responsibility of dealing out the monies the government promises to the victims of the disaster in cases where they are prevented from working. Generally, when one is unemployed, they can expect to recieve 80% of their paycheck for usually up to six weeks or so. I'm being told that the most I can expect is around 20% of my paycheck for a couple weeks, if I show them W2s going back two years as well as paystubs going back a number of years as well.

This is ridiculous. What's even more ridiculous is that they are refusing to pay me the meager amount of money that they claim I'm owed until the 28th.

Now, I'm not some sort of entitlement freak. I've never in my life recieved a government check. But my whole life I've paid in to the government my employment tax, social security tax, and all the other sales taxes I've been subjected to my life, not to mention extraneous fines and levvys for traffic infractions and such, and I've paid them more or less without complaint.

Is it so much to ask that I get a little bit of that back? I mean I've paid into the system because the government said "Hey! We know that you, the little people, are incapable of socking money away for your own benefit. So here, give us 60% of your money, and we'll give it back to you when you need it."

I NEED IT, JACKASSES! GIVE IT BACK!

I freakin' hate bureaucracy

/rizzn

I Need a Face Lift

Apparently that's the thing I've been lacking. I haven't been paying attention to the buzz in the blogosphere lately, due mostly to the fact that I don't have my own terminal to blog from. You should see my screen sometime. I've got all these RSS and newsfeed panels up everywhere, I'm like one connected dude.

Anyways, yeah, I'm out of touch these days, piggybacking off everyone else's econnection. Apparently I've missed the rise and fall of someone named Daphne Teo or Dawn Yang or something. Somehow these half-assed bloggers, by going through rigorous cosmetic surgery, have been 'discovered' and turned into professional bloggers.

I mean, I have no problem with hot web chicks geting to be big time and stuff (I've had a secret crush on Bonnie since I was 15), but seriously, for me to get behind this web-celeb stuff, they've got to have at least some kind of talent. If you read some of these chicks' stuff, it's like bad livejournal poetry to the power of ten. For the love of John, the site loads up music when you put it in your browser.

Damned if you can find the stop button, either. Playing some stupid WB theme song or something.

Seriously. I implore you. What in the hell, Bobby?

/rizzn

A Politician Lied, Then People Died

[Rizzn's Note: This is a repost from Broward Craigslist. I have gotten in trouble in the past reposting things from that source as they are notoriously incorrect factually. I know I have some intelligenciaphiles in the RIC and in the readership. I ask someone confirm or deny the contents and facts listed here.]

It was a powerful argument for war made by a politician with long years of experience in the White House.

"(I)ntelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability and his nuclear program," said this national leader.

"(I)f left unchecked," the politician argued, "Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capability to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well, affects American security."

"This much is undisputed," declared this Democrat, as she voted to authorize the war in Iraq.

The question now is: Why did Sen. Hillary Clinton get it so wrong?

Had she -- to use the formulation Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is now using to attack President Bush -- "manufactured and manipulated intelligence"? Did Hillary lie America into war?

No, she did not.

Sen. Clinton got her bad intelligence the same place President Bush got his: the CIA. Specifically, from George Tenet, the man President Clinton appointed director of central intelligence (DCI).

The entire chain of custody on the intelligence Sen. Clinton used in her Oct. 10, 2002, Senate floor speech ran through Democratic politicians back to a Democrat-appointed DCI.

In 2002, Democrats controlled the Senate, and Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida chaired the intelligence committee. On Sept. 9, 2002, Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, a member of the intelligence committee, wrote Clinton-appointed Tenet asking for a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq's WMD programs.

NIEs, the intelligence committee later said in its unanimous bipartisan investigative report on Iraq intelligence, "are intended to provide policymakers in both the executive and legislative branches with the best, unvarnished and unbiased information."

An NIE, the committee quoted a CIA document as explaining, "is the director's estimate, and its findings are his."

DCI Tenet was no Bush crony or Republican hack. His career was largely propelled by Democrats. In the mid-1980s, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont made Tenet his intelligence committee aide. Former Intelligence Chairman David Boren, an Oklahoma Democrat, later made Tenet the committee's staff director. President Clinton named him to his National Security Council staff, then deputy DCI, then DCI.

Tenet delivered the NIE requested by Durbin at the beginning of October 2002. Its key judgments included that Iraq "is reconstituting its nuclear program," "had chemical and biological weapons" and was developing unmanned aerial vehicles "probably intended to deliver biological warfare agents," and that "all key aspects -- research and development (R&D), production and weaponization -- of Iraq's offensive biological weapons (BW) program are active and that most elements are larger and more advanced than they were before the Gulf War."

Two months later, according to Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack," Tenet sat in the Oval Office and twice emphatically told President Bush it was a "slam dunk" Iraq had WMDs.

Did Tenet and his CIA lie to Congress about Iraq to help President Bush deceive Sen. Clinton and other Democrats into voting for war? Did he lie to Bush?

On March 31, the presidential Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, chaired by former Democratic Sen. Charles Robb of Virginia and senior federal appellate court judge Laurence Silberman, published its report. It concluded the judgments about Iraq's WMD programs in the October 2002 NIE were "all wrong." However, it also concluded, after "querying in detail those analysts involved in formulating pre-war judgments about Iraq's WMD programs," that "(t)hese analysts universally assert that in no instance did political pressure cause them to change any of their analytical judgments."

The CIA ombudsman for politicization, the commission reported, "also found no evidence, based on numerous confidential interviews with the analysts involved, that political pressure had caused any analyst to change any judgments."

The intelligence committee's unanimous report likewise concluded: "The committee did not find any evidence that administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities."

Reasonable people could and did disagree on whether it was wise to invade Iraq. President Bush and Sen. Clinton, relying on the same intelligence, happened to agree.

But reasonable people can draw only one conclusion now on the argument advanced by some of Sen. Clinton's Democratic colleagues that President Bush lied America into war. It is simply preposterous.

General Ruminations

Alright...

Yeah.

Where to begin? Things are in a weird state of flux. I'm keeping myself busy out here in Texas, but not making the forward progress I had envisioned. That's not true. I mean I am making forward progress, I suppose it just doesn't feel like it. I'm not creating a lot of visible stuff lately because I'm doing a fair amount of socializing, and I'm also writing a lot in some larger works that I can't publish in partial form.

The biggest thing bothers me the most out here, believe it or not, is that it's freakin' cold! Damn, I hate winter. Every second I'm here reminds me of why I chose to live in South Florida. I hate waking up in the mornings and never quite warming up to a comfortable level. I hate that my hands are always ice-cubes. I hate sitting under the covers waiting to warm up before I go to sleep at night. A lot of this would be fixed if the heater in my dad's house was less than a century old, but it doesn't do an effective job of keeping the place warm. As I sit typing this right now, I want you to know that my normal uzi-fire-typing-rate has been slowed down to around shotgun blast rate.

Despite all that, it has been fun hanging out with Darrell and PV a lot this week. I've hooked up with quite a few old friends and made a few new ones during my stay here.

Coming up soon (at the end of the month) is decision time. I've got to decide if I'm going back to my place in South Florida or if I'm staying here. Given that it gets even colder than 50 degrees here (which is the temperature I'm currently bellyaching about), I'm not really looking forward to staying. On the other hand, there's not much left for me in SouFla. I don't really see the businesses recovering to a point where I can go back to a normal pay rate again, and I've got some unbelievable offers on the table here in Texas right now. Hopefully I'll get some joy one way or the other soon.

So, on to the things that I've been pondering lately. For one, I've been pondering unloading BlipMedia for a while now. For some reason, its becoming a thorn in my side, due to the excessive amount of work it takes to maintain it, and the partnership it entails. When I decided to take on partners with Blip, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to bring on Leo and Ricky from AACS, but honestly they've been little to no help in the entire endeavor. The VoIP, at least with the current model, doesn't have enough margin to support the podcasting end of things and still leave room for marketing. On the other hand, I do have a solid plan to make it profitable, I just would prefer to share profits with someone who would make a positive impact on the company, not be a drag on the company.

As for AACS, I've been considering divesting myself from the company, not because it's not a viable business, but mostly because I'm sick of credit repair, and I'm sick of rebuilding the business every eight months when a hurricane blows through and knocks us back to zero.

Essentially, I'm ready to move on to more creative endeavors. I've got a couple of books I'm working on, one with a publishing deal, one that I'm sure can get one. I've got my music, and I'm even dabbling in film a little bit. Hopefully, I'll get my crap together soon and sell off some of these intellectual assets, which will give me some time to contemplate my navel for a bit on my own terms, so to speak.

Also, one more thing.

DAMN I HATE WINTER!

That is all.

/rizzn