Voters in California tell Walmart to get screwed

Grok Headline matches for Voters in California tell Walmart to get screwed

Poll: California voters opposing war in
Iraq

Poll: California voters opposing war in
Iraq 05/25/2004 02:44 PM

In California, Voters Stay in Kerry's
Corner (Los Angeles Times)

In California, Voters Stay in Kerry's
Corner (Los Angeles Times) 09/23/2004 04:51 AM
Los Angeles Times - California voters remain strongly in favor of ousting President Bush and replacing him with Sen. John F. Kerry despite Bush's recent gains in popularity nationwide, a new Los Angeles Times poll has found.

Walmart.com - How Walmart Is Destroying
America And The World: And What You Can
Do About It

Walmart.com - How Walmart Is Destroying
America And The World: And What You Can
Do About It 12/28/2004 06:54 PM
"How Walmart Is Destroying America And The World: And What You Can Do About It"

walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3416494
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State police officers have gone into the
homes of elderly black voters in Orlando
and interrogated them as part of an odd
"investigation" that has frightened many
voters

State police officers have gone into the
homes of elderly black voters in Orlando
and interrogated them as part of an odd
"investigation" that has frightened many
voters 08/18/2004 12:43 AM
column

nytimes.com/2004/08/16/opinion/16herbert.html
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Why Computers Are Screwed Up

Why Computers Are Screwed Up 11/16/2003 08:31 PM
CBS News Nov 16 2003 7:52PM ET

Gerrymandering for ALL! And we are
screwed!

Gerrymandering for ALL! And we are
screwed! 04/28/2004 02:29 PM
Veith v. Jubelirer affirmed by the US Supreme Court
In a 5-4 opinion, the US Supreme Court upheld that gerrymandered Congressional districts are legal and overruled Davis v. Bandemer. Full opinions available. For a background on why this is a structural constitutional problem and why we should be worried about it, read Gerrymandering - "The Great Contradiction".

McDonald's Screwed Up Giveaway

McDonald's Screwed Up Giveaway 03/06/2004 01:48 AM
McDdonald's gives away $15,000,000 after previous giveaways found fixed. Better get 'em while they're hot!

Why Computers Are Screwed Up - Video

Why Computers Are Screwed Up - Video 11/16/2003 11:47 PM
From 60 Minutes: "One day about 10 years ago, the door to my office opened and in walked Bill Gates. I knew his name but really didn't know much about him. He seemed like a nice guy, and he's done more good things with his money than most billionaires, but that's as far as I want to go being kind to Bill Gates. "

Franken as "Enforcer? Dems are screwed!

Franken as "Enforcer? Dems are screwed! 01/27/2004 05:16 PM
AL FRANKEN KNOCKS DOWN DEAN HECKLER Defending free speech by tackling a heckler? "I got down low and took his legs out," said Franken afterwards. "I'm neutral in this race but I'm for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down." Wacky. [via the delightful and always dependable NY Post!]

Screwed by search marketing firms?

Screwed by search marketing firms? 09/16/2004 07:21 PM
Source: netimperative - There is no doubt that, with the current euphoria surrounding search because of the predicted billions that go with it, everybody in the marketplace is an expert and everybody has the best deal. Rarely has the term...

Adult magazines screwed by the Internet?

Adult magazines screwed by the Internet? 11/10/2003 11:24 PM
Interesting AP story about the web's impact on the economics of adult print magazines:

After 35 years in the business of titillating and offending, pornographer Al Goldstein says his magazine can't compete anymore. The audience is just as large, he says, but the Internet has transformed the product and its delivery. Just over a month ago, Goldstein stopped publishing Screw magazine and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, giving him a chance to cut costs, relaunch the magazine and refocus attention on his Web site.

Goldstein said circulation woes throughout the field show "we are an anachronism; we are dinosaurs; we are elephants going to the bone cemetery to die. ... The delivery system has changed, and we have to change with it if we want to survive."

Link (Thanks, JP!)

Child's play screwed over by media.

Child's play screwed over by media. 01/05/2004 03:39 AM
Wil Wheaton sums it up best -- Penny Arcade's Child's Play, as posted previously, has been completely ignored by the media, despite donating over US$200,000 worth or toys and cash to a local children's hospital. 11,100 news items on violence in video games, 3 news items on video gamers opening their hearts and wallets.

Dear Atari: your DRM screwed me, so now
I hate you

Dear Atari: your DRM screwed me, so now
I hate you 12/19/2003 11:45 AM
Good letter from an Atari fan to Atari, describing the way that their anti-copying technology has screwed the innocent in order to get at the guilty. Link (Thanks, Marie!)

I'm an open source virgin, but Microsoft
has screwed me (again)

I'm an open source virgin, but Microsoft
has screwed me (again) 04/26/2004 11:53 AM
Too many open source advocates complain about Microsoft writing terrible buggy software and think that open source developers do it better. The truth is Microsoft is innovative, has vision, and executes well. If open source developers can do as well as Microsoft, it's a big compliment. Smart people like Miguel de Icaza and Brendan Eich have known this for a long time. Miguel has a reality check for these innocent virgins.

Brendan (one of the Mozilla leads) has a frank assessment of Mozilla too. I talked about this last year.

An introduction to Avalon by Charles Petzold.

Documentary filmmakers get screwed by
copyright clearance

Documentary filmmakers get screwed by
copyright clearance 12/30/2004 04:48 PM
Cory Doctorow: Thomas sez, "Untold Stories: Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary Filmmakers: A pair of researchers documented increasing barriers to documentary film production caused by the high cost of obtaining rights clearances from IP holders."

The study explores the implications of the current terms of rights acquisition on the creative process of documentary filmmaking in today's marketplace, and from them makes recommendations to lower costs and promote creativity. It focuses on the lived experience of independent documentary filmmakers who work primarily within a broadcast environment (sometimes with a theatrical "window"), in coping with the creative challenges created by acquiring and granting rights. Click here to read Untold Stories.

Independent documentary filmmakers were selected because their work regularly requires them to interact with a wide variety of rights holders, from archives for photographs and stock footage to musical performers to other filmmakers. This is especially clear when it is a historical documentary or one that comments on commercial popular culture, but it is an issue for most documentary filmmakers, no matter what the subject matter. When a trademark appears on a baseball cap, or a subject happens to be watching television, or a radio in the background plays a popular song, or a subject sings "Happy Birthday," rights clearance becomes a professional and creative challenge.

Link (Thanks, Thomas!)

CBS News | Gen. Zinni: 'They've Screwed
Up' | May 21, 2004 16:24:19

CBS News | Gen. Zinni: 'They've Screwed
Up' | May 21, 2004 16:24:19 05/23/2004 09:20 PM

CBS News | Gen. Zinni: 'They've Screwed
Up' | May 21, 2004 16:24:19

CBS News | Gen. Zinni: 'They've Screwed
Up' | May 21, 2004 16:24:19 05/23/2004 01:50 PM
General Zinni: They've screwed up

cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/21/60minutes/main618896.shtml
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Time For CEOs To Realize How Screwed Up
The Patent System Is

Time For CEOs To Realize How Screwed Up
The Patent System Is 09/27/2004 03:20 AM
We wrote about the book Innovation and Its Discontents : How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to Do About It earlier this year noting that it sounded quite good, as it not only showed what was wrong, but also suggested a solution. The book still isn't out, but the New York Times has some more information about it, including a discussion on how the patent system got to be so bad, as well as what the book's authors think it will take to change. They say that most companies don't realize how much damage the patent system is doing, and that a very small group of lawyers in the D.C. patent bar have the incentive to keep the patent system screwed up. Thus, the only real change will come when CEOs of companies realize just how the patent system is harming their prospects by turning the whole process into an arms race rather than a system for encouraging innovation. Hopefully, this book will help get the point across.

WiMax From WalMart?

WiMax From WalMart? 08/10/2004 03:53 AM
Over at the Institute for the Future, they're wondering if WalMart might end up getting into the broadband business by hooking up WiMax base stations (once such equipment is actually available) on all their stores, covering much of the US in broadband. It's an interesting theory, and gets the attention of those who think that telecoms are a dying breed. Of course, it's really not that easy. Over at TheFeature, I've written up a longer piece looking at some of the challenges a company like WalMart might face in offering broadband services. However, it's certainly not impossible to count them out. After all, who thought Starbucks would be in the internet access business in the first place? If you take that to a larger scale, perhaps Walmart could get into the WiMax business as well. A more interesting question, however, may be how the world is going to look when there are plenty of "virtual" network operators, where one company offers up their brand for others to put on a network. Virgin has built up quite a set of businesses doing this, and in the mobile space, MVNOs are a hot topic. However, could companies do this for just about any kind of telecom/broadband offering... and more to the point, is there a real benefit in doing so? It's cool for a big brand name company to think they can suddenly get into a technology services business just by licensing out their brand name, but won't there be some risks (a la AT&T' s annoyance with AT&T Wireless' trampling of the brand) and some questions about just why you want to buy your internet service from Coca-Cola?

Placeshifting Walmart

Placeshifting Walmart 03/14/2005 06:25 PM
One of the buzzwords of late is Placeshifting.  Seems natural, as we have been bound by space and time, then we have Tivo and now we want that concept everywhere.  Timeshifting lets us turn flows into stocks, the ultimate...

The Walmart Laptop

The Walmart Laptop 08/17/2004 09:00 PM

Just in time for back-to-school shopping, Walmart puts out an ultra-cheap laptop for under $600. It's an ECS A535, and comes with an Athlon 1.6GHz processor, 14" screen, wireless networking, and XP Home Edition.

As expected, Walmart continues its push of cheap imports with little regard for anything but its own bottom line.

I guess it's good for the US economy in one respect; cheap hardware like this will undoubtedly keep support guys plenty busy. And at that price you might as well buy two; one for a backup or for spare parts.

Click here to comment on this entry

How HDTV killed firefighters, birthed
the Broadcast Flag, and screwed America

How HDTV killed firefighters, birthed
the Broadcast Flag, and screwed America 03/29/2005 11:56 AM
Cory Doctorow: This long, excellent article on the history of broadcast spectrum allocation in America is the single best explanation of the mess that we're in today. In short: greedy broadcasters tricked Congress into giving them free spectrum for a second set of digital channels, so that Americans who bought digital TVs would have something to watch. Then they did nothing with them. Meantime, cops and firefighters and EMTs are (literally) dying for some of that squat-upon spectrum so that they can coordinate their rescue efforts. Remember how everyone rhapsodized about how postmodern it was that the World Trade Center rescuers used cellphones and Blackberries to stay in touch? It wasn't because the private sector's phones are designed by smarter people than the emergency-squads'. It's because there's no spectrum available to emergency workers because the broadcasters (now largely owned by or affiliated with movie studios and cable companies) have stolen it all from the American public.

This stuff was used as the justification for the Broadcast Flag, too -- spectrum allocation is practically the root of all evil in America, when you get right down to it.

From the beginning, the key combatant has been the National Association of Broadcasters, which organized itself into a lobby in the 1920s, even before the Federal Communications Commission was formed in 1934. For more than 75 years, the NAB has been fighting to help the broadcasting industry hold on to its slice of the spectrum -- the frequencies TV and radio stations use for their broadcasts -- in the face of demands from competing technologies and rival industries, and even public safety concerns.

In the 1980s, when the FCC appeared ready to reallocate some of the spectrum for public safety, the NAB persuaded Congress to block the commission and hold off the change because, the broadcasters said, they needed the spectrum to develop high-definition television. Yet soon thereafter, the broadcasters abandoned HDTV, and it nearly died

Link (via Dan Gillmor)

"Walmart.com - Music Downloads"

"Walmart.com - Music Downloads" 12/21/2003 03:43 AM

iPod Mini at Walmart

iPod Mini at Walmart 02/05/2005 09:16 PM

Oh great. Walmart is selling iPods.

Just think... Now you can — in one easy stop — get your oil changed, pick up groceries, the latest DVD release, a low-cost Lindows laptop, a fresh pack of underwear, a 100lb bag of dog food, a Schwinn Stingray bike for your kid's birthday, and buy an iPod. And oh so much more.

Good Lord Almighty, what's next? Mac Mini's at BestBuy? Oh wait; that's already happened!

Actually, I think getting Apple products into more non-Apple stores will do wonders to broaden the user base and help people better understand the Mac. What I don't get is Walmart selling iPods — which are portable little iTunes Music Service billboards — when they have their own online music service. And given all the reasons to hate Walmart, why would Apple want to deal with them in the first place?

Walmart.com Targets Pet Market

Walmart.com Targets Pet Market 04/01/2005 03:38 AM
Information Week Apr 1 2005 8:06AM GMT

Another reason to hate Walmart

Another reason to hate Walmart 09/27/2004 08:56 AM
WalMart ends anti-Semitic book sale Bowing to a barrage of complaints from Jewish groups, retail leader Wal-Mart Inc. has stopped selling "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," an infamous anti-Semitic tract long exposed as fake.

Walmart Music Store

Walmart Music Store 11/05/2003 09:25 PM
The New York Post reports that Walmart is finalizing deals with the five major labels and plans to launch its own music download service as early as N...

Apparel rides again on WalMart.com

Apparel rides again on WalMart.com 09/01/2004 06:16 AM
InternetRetailer.com Sep 1 2004 10:45AM GMT

368 Small Businesses Sold in Northern &
Southern California Last Week, According
to California Businesses For Sale's
www.bizben.com - Business Opportunities,
Commercial Real Estate, & Franchises
Sales

368 Small Businesses Sold in Northern &
Southern California Last Week, According
to California Businesses For Sale's
www.bizben.com - Business Opportunities,
Commercial Real Estate, & Franchises
Sales 07/21/2004 02:45 AM
368 Small Businesses Sold in Northern & Southern California Last Week, According To California Businesses For Sale's www.bizben.com - Business Opportunities, Commercial Real Estate, & Franchises Sales. These businesses were sold by business owners, business brokers, & real estate agents for the week of July 12, 2004 thru July 18, 2004. [PRWEB Jul 21, 2004]

Walmart and RFID tags some conclusions

Walmart and RFID tags some conclusions 11/14/2003 04:38 AM
If you have been reading here for a while you will remember my rant on these RFID tags that companies...

WalMart tried to confiscate journo's
camera

WalMart tried to confiscate journo's
camera 01/06/2005 04:49 AM
Cory Doctorow: A naked man streaked a Wal-Mart in Maryland, and a freelance news photographer snapped some pics. Wal-Mart sent out a goon who demanded that he turn over his camera and not take or publish photos of Wal-Mart without permission.

"He said if I didn't turn the camera over to him, he would have me arrested" and ban him from the store, Roy said.

Attorney Mary R. Craig, who represents The Herald-Mail, said Roy "certainly was well within his rights" to take pictures.

The store can set limits, such as on taking pictures inside, but the expectation of privacy probably is less outside, she said.

She said Roy probably didn't violate anyone's privacy, especially the naked man's.

Alice Neff Lucan, an attorney who represents the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association, said Wal-Mart "emphatically" had no right to demand Roy's camera.

"He didn't violate any of Wal-Mart's rights and he didn't violate the streaker's rights," she said. "He just took a picture of what was in the public's view."

Link (via Dan Gillmor)

WalMart To Sell iPod Shuffle?

WalMart To Sell iPod Shuffle? 02/05/2005 09:54 PM
According to Apple Insider, Apple has entered into a partnership with WalMart to distribute the iPod Shuffle in possible all of their nearly 5000 reta...

Ex-Walmart.com exec returns to become
its president

Ex-Walmart.com exec returns to become
its president 06/17/2005 04:55 PM
A former Walmart.com executive is returning to the company after a four-month stint at eBay.

Walmart sale of $30 DVD players causes
stampede

Walmart sale of $30 DVD players causes
stampede 12/02/2003 01:24 AM
Ok, so $30 is a really good price for a DVD/VCR combination player, but is it worth nearly crushing another human being to death just to get one? Apparently so:A stampede of shoppers left a woman seriously hurt this morning. She was trampled by a crowd of bargain hunters at a Central Florida Walmart. 41-year-old Patricia Vanlester is at Halifax Medical Center tonight. Family members say she came to Walmart to buy an advertised DVD, but what she got was a trip to the hospital...When the store finally opened, shoppers grabbed for the item. People started fighting for the DVD player and pushed Vanlester to the ground. "I screamed and said stop don't step on her," Ellzey says. "My sister is on the ground but no one would listen." Walmart employees rushed to Vanlester. She was knocked unconscious. She was airlifted to Halifax Medical Center.Read...

Walmart Offers Sub-$500 laptop With
Linspire

Walmart Offers Sub-$500 laptop With
Linspire 12/22/2004 01:40 AM
Slashdot Dec 21 2004 12:33AM GMT

Walmart Shopping cards Hacked

Walmart Shopping cards Hacked 09/04/2004 05:11 PM

I think the wife has a few of these laying around from returns. I wonder if Walmart is going to be honoring them now with the report that the cards have been hacked and hackers are cashing out other peoples balances. [Engadget]

How Walmart Is Destroying America And
The World: And What You Can Do About It

How Walmart Is Destroying America And
The World: And What You Can Do About It 12/27/2004 11:17 PM
" How Walmart Is Destroying America And The World: And What You Can Do About It" Available for pre-purchase, online, from Walmart.com. List price: $10.95. Wal*Mart price: $7.55. You saved $3.40.

Walmart Stored Value Cards Compromised

Walmart Stored Value Cards Compromised 09/05/2004 04:42 PM

Walmart.com sees incremental sales with
e-checks

Walmart.com sees incremental sales with
e-checks 04/20/2004 04:52 PM
InternetRetailer.com Apr 20 2004 9:51PM GMT
Grok Description matches for Voters in California tell Walmart to get screwed
GrokA matches for Voters in California tell Walmart to get screwed

Voters in California tell Walmart to get screwed

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