WABC7 loses negotiating power with existing cable companies. The big barrier to entry in the cable industry is distribution. You either need cables - usually most neighborhoods are wired for a single cable, or you needs satellites/dishes. This lowers the barrier to entry to just about anyone - not just Aerero. Currently if WABC7 disagrees with Comcast over some negotiation, and it withholds distribution to ABC, or ESPN, Comcast will end up with a lot of very angry customers - which gives WABC7 tremendous power during negotiations.

Conversely - competition will drive down prices across the board, reducing Comcast's ability to pay WABC7's rates.

Ultimately there will be room for both, since the cable companies own the pipes, and there are advantages to having TV be independent of internet, but this will level the playing field significantly - Think of what the low cost airline industry did to aviation.

The Comcast - NBC - TWC merger is a strategic play to get ahead of precisely this scenario.

Manhattan real estate is crazy. While a doorman does have a premium, in general the neighborhood and address matters much more to the price/wealth of the residents than amenities like a doorman. A an apartment in a crappy 5th floor walk-up building in the west village will be worth far more than a doorman building on the far upper east side. On the flip side, since doormen buildings in the West Village are scarce, they do have a huge premium over non doorman buildings in the same neighborhood.

Also being a doorman building is usually the result of decisions usually made 30-50-100 years ago, and these are not easily reversible regardless how rich/poor the current residents are.

Lernstift looks interesting. No mention of audio though. I wonder if the motion sensor would be as precise as Livescribe's.

Livescribe. It's amazing. (http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/)

It is Pen + Paper, but everything written down is also digitized, searchable, synced to evernote etc. The pen is also a time synced voice recorder. When you go back to your notes (if you recorded the audio), you can tap on any word, and the audio corresponding to that point in time will start playing. You can now even start taking additional notes as the audio is playing. This can simplify your note taking to mostly just marking bookmarks, and noting your own thoughts, instead of transcribing what is being said.

While the paper is proprietary, the cost is quite reasonable, and it is possible (fully supported by Livescribe) to print your own. They are not operating on a Razor/Cartridge business model.

If you do not need wifi sync, you can get the Echo pen for really cheap, Look for the refurbished 4GB or 8GB Echo pens on the Livescribe site.

Would mod you up if I had points..

If a gesture to produce a result can be patented "Pinch to Zoom", maybe I should then patent the following.
* Swallow pill to cure: Every orally delivered medicine, past and future now owes me big time
* Push button to Switch on: Every device in existence will now have to invent a new gesture to switch itself on.
* Click button to Submit: Most websites and applications..
* Pull handle to open: All doors.

This isn't about prior art, it is about what is patentable: The implementation (invention) or the gesture to interact with the implementation.

Sony Rootkit anyone?

Easiest way to get started is to build web apps in Javascript built on Google spreadsheets (Google Script). All you need is a web browser, and access to Google Drive.
Go to Google Drive, create a spreadsheet. In your spreadsheet, go to Tools/Script Editor. This will open a web based editor in your browser, and you can start programming. Click on Publish/Deploy as a web app, and now you're set. Build anything from simple functions used within your spreadsheet to full fledged web apps with a user interface. Easy as pie.

The pretty good book on Google Script will get you started in no time.

Maybe the person was really lynching the guy wearing flip flops, who just happened to be black! Would his crime be any less if he had lynched a white guy wearing flip flops?

Should a completely secular serial killer be let off easy, simply because "hey, at least he/she didn't target a specific group"?

Do the police not protect black people? Do the courts refuse to take on cases against black people?

If black people do feel more insecure, maybe we should be fixing these issues first, instead of making examples out of others.

Understanding the law, and whether an action violates it, should not require a history lesson. Assaulting someone, (or any other action) should either be an offence or not. Whether the victims (or perpetrators) ancestors suffered some injustice shouldn't affect the criminality of the action or it's punishment.

Hate crimes are essentially "thought crimes" + some "action".

Thought crimes on their own are specifically protected and considered an essential part of liberty and freedom, and this country has enshrined that in our freedom of speech laws. It follows that the criminality (and punishment) of the "action", should not be affected by the thought behind it.

In some countries (India) committing suicide is a crime in itself. (I guess you can only be prosecuted if the attempt fails). But it does reinforce the idea that suicide is the problem not a solution.

He did?

Microsoft Office

It also means variable salary, which is also a useful tool to LOWER someones effective salary, when either they (or the firm) does not do well. You see, if your salary cannot be lowered, then you will only work so hard as to not get fired. Working any harder is a complete waste of effort.

Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

Wish I had mod points.. but very true.. Language tricks and knowledge can be learnt. Solving brain teasers can be hit or miss. Being able to objectively evaluate multiple options and see the trade off's of each and apply them to find the optimal approach for the given situation is an invaluable skill and something that is not easily acquired. I have seen too many cases where people get through the interviews based on their knowledge of the platform or programming language, but are absolutely horrible in reality, since their code always has "issues" even if it solves the task at hand, because they never put it in context of the larger picture/system. Another critical skill is being able to write clean, structured code. I've seen too many "bad hires" because the code they do write once hired is a complete unmaintainable mess.