I knew Jacob Two Two wasn't the only reason why I love you Canucks.

Let's take a step back and imagine what a reasonable solution looks like, one that balances IP and fair use. When CDs were the primary media format, it was lawful (under the Copyright Act of 1983, if I'm remembering correctly) to make a tape from a CD, so long as the tapes were distributed for free, or a nominal fee not more than the cost of the tape transfer process ($1?). Why can't we do that now?

Establish a bit rate threshhold for music (resolution/fps for video) and allow people to share files in those "less than perfect" formats, just as we once could with cassette tapes. Anything above that threshold would require a purchase/license. Heck, I'd be fine if a minimal fee (fractional pennies to pennies) were imposed on each and every media-capable player or storage device (much as blank CDs had such fees built in).

Just realize that it is entirely natural (and, as shown repeatedly, good for business) to let people share. That's how I got introduced to most of the music I learned to love over the years. Stop trying to fight the concept of sharing, and establish some reasonable parameters that regulate sharing.

Regarding eBooks and similar formats, I love their convenience, but hate their limitations. I believe the First Sale Doctrine (the idea that rights holder get paid their share only on the first transaction--not with each subsequent change of ownership) is one of the greatest concepts in the legal sphere. Since eBook publications are typically licensed to a single user, the provisions of the First Sale Doctrine don't apply. I can understand more objection to its applicability with eBooks, because, unlike books, electronic editions should never deteriorate (that will remain to be seen). Once a physical book is worn enough, you need to buy another copy if you want to read it again. If the First Sale Doctrine applied universally to digital media files, then the need to ever replace a copy of a work is greatly reduced (perhaps only when dealing with physical loss, or system malfunction).

Okay, I'll get off my soap box now before I bore all of you to death.

For a number of years, I lived in a city. The neighborhood was good overall, but it had its problems. One was a house down the street. The occupants were known to be a good source for just about any stree drug, and they had loud parties regularly, with people spilling out on the street. We first tried talking to them--it didn't work. As soon as we started calling the police, we started seeing a pattern.

Within moments of the call (no matter who made it, no matter whether or not the occupants were told we were calling), all the young men would leave the house, through the back alley, and a number of women and children would come out onto the front step and front porch. When officers arrived, the women played dumb, claiming there was no party and that no one else was in the house (presumably true by the time they arrived).

I watched this happed repeatedly over a series of months before I finally got to talk to one of the officers about it. He told me that, from all the reports they had received, it was pretty clear that things were going on there, but that the occupants always "put on their show" whenever an officer was dispatched. He surmised, as had I, that they were using police scanners to monitor when officers were dispatched to their address. When the call came over the radio, their show started.

Yes, I know many of you may have concerns about secret police conversation, but I, for one, am tired of the bad guys getting away because they know the cops are coming.

[We left the neighborhood about 18 months later. We're still in touch wtih neighbors who report that they still see the little show, but not as often, and that they have seen them get busted once--they apparently had plainclothes officers in the neighborhood after hearing a tip about the party. That time, they snagged people in the alley after the call went in.]

I believe he meant to say "'a great value' for shareholders."

The Federal Reserve Banks are not government, and are owned by member banks in their respective reserve bank districts.

The Federal Reserve Board is a governmental agency with certain powers delegated by Congress. It, in turn, delegates some of its regulatory authority to the member Reserve Banks.

Many newer access points (APs) will automatically set up two SSIDs when you run through the initial setup. The primary one is one you can use for your everyday office use. You assign it a key that will only be used on computers owned or authorized by the church. The secondary SSID is for a guest account. The guest account is configured with no security (for the initial connection--no AP security), but it presents you with a splash screen where a guest password must be entered when you initially connect (if you assign a password during setup). That guest password is one you can had out to your Sunday School teachers or other authorized users.

Traffic on the guest network is fully segmented from that on the primary network, thereby keeping your church office network free from curious eyes while facilitating Internet access for anyone else who may need it.

The Cisco E3000 ($100) is one device that provides for such guest networks. It handles current and legacy protocols (802.11b/g/n). I've been using one for about six months and it has been great. My home PCs have access to the primary connection, and we give out the guest password to our kids' friends when they are over.

Obviously, someone from our time travelled back in time to plant the device...

No software is released 100% bug free (though I'll acknowledge that some players can do a better job). Once in the hands of the consumers, many of them don't update their products regularly, so even a system that was soundly coded and fully patched at the time of its initial deployment may well end up being a security risk down the line as new exploits are uncovered.

Redbox is doing things that I believe hurt its own model, though, too. Inventories have been split between Blue Ray and standard DVD (meaning fewer titles for either format). Now, with the addiiton of game titles, that further erodes the space available for a variety of titles. Of the last half-dozen times my wife and I have stopped at a Redbox location, we only rented once (though we intended to rent each time). We just couldn't find any titles that interested us in stock (the ones we wanted were already checked out).

Some inexpensive small office firewall appliances support multiple external network connections, and can automatically move traffic to the secondary connection if the primary goes bye-bye. I believe one such device was a Multi-Tech SOHO firewall. There are like a lot of them out there.