Yeah, oops. :)

I meant, Astrolabe can claim it doesn't apply.

So, it appears that ACS is trying to claim copyright on the timezone historical data that they've compiled - and that's used in the TZ database.

Under Feist v Rural, information which has no "creative expression" is not copyright-able - but in this case, Olson can easily claim it doesn't apply.

This will be interesting.

I've pulled the complaint from PACER and uploaded it to docstoc:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/98231225/ACS-Atlas

I completely agree that number of cops initially deployed was unreasonable compared to number of protesters. However, cops had to work with 20-50k estimate that was provided by organizers - in which case, number of cops would have been right.

Police presence was reduced the next day, but it is still, in my opinion, excessive - there is no need to have a cop every 20 feet, however, it was reduced from 'ridiculous' to 'excessive'. I'll grant the NYPD the benefit of the doubt - the only harm from having too many cops is paying for their overtime.

Just to clarify, I I only wrote down things that I personally observed - that's the "eyewitness evidence" that was requested. If you notice, other /. posters who live/work in the area have generally agreed with me.

From the publicly available videos of pepper-spray use during Union Sq protest, it is very clear that a cop used excessive force against a protester - which is unprofessional at best and assault at worst. Cops aren't perfect - but neither are protesters.

1) Sorry, I did see claim of 20k as an actual number in at least one [clearly misinformed] report. The "projection" was 20-50k. Actual number on Sep 17 was ~2k, including all tourists in the area.

2) I think that having organized video team would be helpful - and educating them on how to stay out of the way of cops being taped.

3) Absolutely, I said so myself. Most protesters are calm and want no trouble.

4) Sorry - thanks for clarification. I wasn't listing the actual rules, I was just pointing out that there *are* rules, cops enforce them, and protesters are not always aware of them.

5) Actually, its not Midtown, its Downtown. And, 150-1000 people protesting here are not *that* unusual - unions routinely bring more, Wall St is their favorite place to protest.

Here's the gist:

*) There are no "Wall St" firms on Wall St anymore (nor anywhere close). NYSE trading floor is not that important in grand scheme of things. The neighbourhood became residential about 15 years ago, and now there's 20,000 residents like me.

*) When the protest started (two weeks ago), there were minimal number of protesters (1000) despite the protesters claims to have 20k people.

*) There's "OVER 9000" cops downtown, and it makes getting around quite annoying since I have to navigate police barriers (not a big deal, but just annoying). There's definitely more cops than protesters at any given area. At the beginning of protest, they had a 2-cop shoulder-to-shoulder line blocking Wall St. The only protesters were 6 people dressed in white robes (could pass for either Star Wars freaks or priests), cops were quite bored.

*) Cops are polite and keep to their business (that is, stand there and look serious). I can't say same about the protesters.

*) Protesters themselves...oy. Whatever it is they are protesting, they are an embarassment to their cause. I've chatted to a few, and had a few come over for drinks, and uh...Well, it's exactly what you'd expect, well-meaning but clueless younger people who are looking for attention and "feeling of doing something".

*) They protest evil corporations. Nevertheless, most of them have latest iphone4 (just look at the videos - they are ones taping). It doesn't bother them that Apple is largest corporation in the world who isn't very nice to its users.

*) There's a huge number of DSLRs at the protest - combined with iphone4, means nobody there is really starving.

*) I started speaking to one of protesters about bitcoin. He was very interested in it and buying some if they are likely to appreciate. He was *shocked* when I pointed out that's exactly what "evil bankers" do.

*) Cops don't really give a damn about protesters. They are charged with enforcing certain rules - such as, no "permanent structures". So, every so often, a cop walks through the protest site checking things out. Each time a cop does so, there's 10 people with cameras surrounding said cop to make sure any "brutality" gets videotaped. It gets quite silly since these kids don't really understand they need to move away for a cop to walk through (and since they are looking into their viewfinder, they don't realize that the cop is a foot away, resulting in a cop having to push the photographer out of the way - "omg brutality").

*) Protesters are completely disorganized - there's nobody who is "in charge", which leads to interactions with cops that could go much smoother, if a single person was designated to be liaison to cops. Protesters also can't/won't police their own - so if someone does something illegal, its becomes up to cops to enforce (vs, protesters saying "this is not cool, please do not do it" and avoiding police involvement).

*) When cops walk by, most protesters just ignore them, continuing with conversations etc. However, there are a few who get "in your face" to cops and start shouting/etc - and yes, I'd say that the protesters are trying to provoke conflict, whether they intend to or not.

*) As far as professionalism goes, I'd say cops are generally acting professional, if bored and annoyed at having to deal with hippies who hate their guts.

*) There is serious "victim mentality" among protesters - such as "media is suppressing coverage" (no, its just not important enough - the protest is much smaller than an average union rally).

Oracle needs to take their anti-google stance up a notch - change their motto to "BE EVIL".

What you are looking for is generally called 'treasury accounts' - it is expected for bank in that case to provide some kind of electronic access with full details (in/out wires, etc). Most big banks do offer that.

Try Chase - it's not cheap but not unreasonable either (something like 100$ per month plus some per-user fees etc). I have that and it's fine. Plus you get SecurID token to authenticate outgoing wires, etc.

Unfortunately, you kind of have to write a screen scraper to get to the CSV reports, but the data is there.