Internet meets Video on Demand: Cable Loses

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Ok, I know I said I was sick, but I ran across this, and as the implications of the price point seeped in, I went, “Holy packet loss, Batman!” and tripped out. I’ve known about “Video on Demand” (VOD) for some time, and it’s seeped into my awareness in the last few days (while I had nothing better to do than surf) that it was even available over the internet. I figured, yes, if you have a huge hard drive, a broadband connection, are geeky enough to hook your TV to your computer, and are willing to blow $20 for 30 minutes of programming, sure.

Boy was I wrong. Way wrong. The following excerpted news article (after the break) was posted over at the Anime News Network today:

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Apologies…

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… but I have remained under the weather for over a week now. I’m working a bit on two articles for posting sometime soon, but I’m at the “ideas on paper” stage rather than the actual writing point, and I feel too poorly to make everything gel just yet. It may be the weekend before you see much here.

Although if you want some food for thought, I’ll point to an international matter. Should we really be laughing at Chirac for saying France would use nukes if provoked by nuclear terror? I mean, this is the nation that sunk the Rainbow Warrior to protect their aboveground nuclear tests in the Pacific. Their actions in the Ivory Coast can’t be considered the epitomè of transnational progressivism either — unless you define TP as “everyone but the U.S. gets to act like a colonial power.”

If I had control of the nuclear clock, it would be worth kicking it a few seconds towards midnight, but don’t expect that bunch of leftist fellow travelers to say anything, despite Chirac’s pronouncement being the most open nuclear threat to be delivered since, oh, ’73 or so.

I Have a Question Too…

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Kevin, over at BlogHouston points us to Greg Whythe’s questions regarding Mayor White’s decision to back down on using taxpayer funds to pay dues in an organization that lobbies against limiting tax increases. The mayor has chosen to ask private sources to raise the $68,000 fee.

Doesn’t that private funding for public services put things at the whim of the mayor just a bit too much? And if it’s deemed that there’s nothing improper about this funding mechanism, then where’s the fundraising group for putting more cops on the street?

Those are good questions, but I think I raised a better one as far back as the pension mess: Just who is it that’s funding these little efforts of the Mayor, and why? Maybe Hizzoner will tap Jack to run the fundraising effort again?

You know, it’s just a thought, but if private citizens donate money to pay for a public entity’s fees, can their identities be requested through the Texas Public Information Act? What might we discover through such a tactic? And wouldn’t it be interesting indeed if the city refused to give out the information, even to the point of requesting an A.G. ruling?

Someone call the Harris County GOP and whisper in their ear. . .

In The Mail

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Last week, I got a one page flyer frome the Service Employees International Union bragging that “We are the Majority!” It even points out that the next step is to schedule an election for city employees to vote on their choice of union. They even mention AFSCME as one of the possible choices — “the union that’s failed us for decades.” Nice tip of the hat. Of course, that fails to mention that they weren’t allowed to represent the employees, by law.

Not that anyone, even AFSCME, made a big deal out of it publicly.

SEIU makes a big deal out of winning raises of 4.5 to 12 percent in San Antonio, something that would break the budget here (as badly as we need it). They also give themselves kudos for electing a pro-union candidate (though interestingly, they don’t name Sue Lovall, in the flyer at least) and for defeating a pro-privitazation candidate. (One and the same?) They also ask that we employees keep signing the petitions they circulate. One wonders why that is necessary if we’re already in the majority?

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I Feel Ugh.

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Still under the weather and at home. Promised articles will be delayed.

Could be worse I suppose. Oh, and she’s declined the chemo/rad treatment due to her age and lack of success chance. But she’s having second thoughts . . . needless to say it’s a hard, hard choice.

Never Rob a Cartoonist

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The problem with robbing someone who draws for a living, is that they don’t have to find time to get with the police sketch artist. A mugger in Australia picked on the wrong party when he robbed Bill “Weg” Green of Victoria, according to this story. The artist drew a picture of his assailant for the police, who compared it to someone they’d just caught for robbery nearby — and it “was the spitting image.”

Which is really funny when you look at the picture, here. Weg, you see, is a cariacture artist.

h/t to Howard Tayler, of SchlockMercenary.

Eroding Support for DeLay?

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Over at BlogHouston, this thread got a response from the Chronicle to questions raised by Kevin and Evan over the poll data behind the headline I posted the other day.

This “certain and likely Republican primary voters” tab is the source of the 39 percent figure on DeLay GOP primary support; we’ve posted it to the site.

Crosstab Info

So if I’m reading that correctly, DeLay’s support among:

Voters certain to vote in the Republican primary = 54.4% Very or Somewhat Favorable.
Voters certain or likely to vote in the Rep. primary = 50.2% Very or Somewhat Favorable

But the figure that the Chronicle chose to stress was the answer to:
“Four candidates are running in the Republican Primary being held in the 22nd Congressional district. If the election were held today, which of these candidates would you most likely vote for?”
Tom Delay = 38.5%
Despite the fact that:
Don’t know or refused to answer = 52.1%

A rather high %, I agree, especialy in comparison with the 58.2% of respondents that voted for Tom Delay last time.

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Anime Review: Sister Princess

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Well, my head’s stuffed full of cotton from a head cold, so I’m taking the easier of the two articles: an animè review. I’d accidently bought the 3rd DVD of this series a month ago, so I ordered the first two and waited on them to come in before viewing all three (of six). Summary: If harem comedies are your thing to the point that you have to have every one ever made, get it. Otherwise, don’t bother. This is another example of the writers’ ambition getting ahead of their ability.

Take a top-of-his-class guy who weirdly, fails to graduate from Jr. High. Dump him on a mysterious island with a soon to open amusement park and a special invitation-only school. Then give him 12 girls, all of whom claim to be his younger sisters . . . and are totally devoted to him. The older ones are often a bit non-sisterly in their attention to him (though nothing ecchi goes on). Oddly, not all the girls know each other either. Drop a few hints in here and there about there being a larger backstory, but never resolve it. That’s Sister Princess.

I was going to do the usual first-episode synopsis, but the more I think about it, the less I think this series is worth it, especially given how I feel today. So here’s a few pictures and some more commentary, after the fold.

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A Name Change That Isn’t

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Vistors to the site may note that the title up top has changed. In reality, the blog name hasn’t changed, because I always considered it to be Houblog. It’s just that the techie side of me kept trying to be precisionist, acknowledging it as Houblog.com. So when I typed the title in, that’s what I typed; everyone else picked up on it, and I soon noticed that other blogs linking to the site would often include the .com also.

Well, I’m a .com because thats kind of the default URL people expect (and ICANN hasn’t approved .yadayadayada yet). But it was never really meant to be part of the blog’s name, and I’ve now fixed that.

In less happy news, I’m feeling very under the weather; either a head cold or the flu is setting in. Blogging may be slow. I’ve got two articles percolating through my fuzzy brain; one’s an anime review and the other is about privitizing city services (inspired by a commenter over at the Lone Star Times). If they can make it out of my stuffed up head in any kind of coherent fashion you may see them anywhere from tomorrow to Wednesday.

Banned in Texas! (Updated)

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Metro has been running notices on their flashing traffic signs to keep people advised of the fire danger due to the drought. Mainly they’ve said “BURN BAN IN EFFECT.” Last night, I saw a new message had been put on them:

ARSON / BURN BAN IN EFFECT

You know they’re serious when they ban arson . . .

Updates appearing below the fold as the whim takes me….

Update 1-16-06: Apparently appeared in Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area also.

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Parking Tags and Innovation

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KHOU has an online video clip talking about a plan to use the Harris County Toll Road’s E-Z Tags to pay for parking in city garages at the airport. Sounds innovative. So of course Dallas has been doing that with the TollTag for how long now? Maybe Houston should work harder on actually getting out in front than on claiming it is out in front.

Then again, the last time Houston decided to be really innovative, the city decided to put electronic transmitters on all their water meters. Including the ones in the ground–and Houston’s Public Works was the first department in the nation to do so. Electronic devices in mud, that’s great idea. Of course, then they let their meter reader force attrit until there were too few people to maintain them, since automation meant they weren’t needed anymore. So scofflaws who cut the lines can go months without a fix. And becasue people are tied up with that, there’s no one to do the regular meter maintenance. Of course there’s also the minor consideration that the four-year program to install them is now halfway through its sixth year and third contractor. And meter replacements are running so far ahead of normal that city is now emplacing used meters for some classes.

Maybe Houston should just let someone else do the innovation, after all.

The “A-List” of The Right

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Josh Hawkins of Right Wing News has posted a list of what he considers to be the “A-List” of the right wing online. Of course, I’m not on that list. I’m fairly confident in saying I wasn’t even considered when he made up the list; in fact, Josh probably isn’t aware Houblog exists. So naturally, the first thing that occurs to me is “well I guess I’m on the D-List,’ ha ha ha.”

Too late. Iowa Voice was waaaaaaay ahead of me.

Damn. Sucks to be me.

In other news, I think it’s fairly funny that as I gain in readers, I am sliding down TTLB’s rankings; from a high of “Flappy Bird” during the Pajamas Media / OSM storm, I’m now down to “Multi-celluar Micro-organism.” None of those readers (I seem to have about 20 visits a day now) have their own blogs, you see, so they just show up directly here. my links from November are “aging off.” I’m ok with that; I prefer the readers to the ranking.

And in yet more “other news” blogging will be light this weekend; I’m heading to Dallas to hook up with Dr. Heinous again. Assuming I’m not forced to stay due to my mother being ill. No, it’s a stomach virus, not the cancer or the treatment for it. That hasn’t started thanks to the never sufficiently-be-damned Medicare insurance. (Thanks a lot, Congress. If I never hear the word “pod” again, it will be too soon.)

Must . . Stop. . . Laughing!

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Steven Den Beste makes some observations on the Wachowski brothers over on Chizumatic. Because his server will be going down soon (he’s moving to Portland), I have taken the liberty of posting it in full below.

20050111: Remember The Matrix? Remember the Wachowski brothers, who were responsible for it and co-directed it? They’re involved in a new film called V for Vendetta. And…

But I’m told that execs at Warner Bros. — a studio very hot right now — are concerned that this time out, Larry Wachowski’s personal life is going to get big time exposure. The reclusive Ws, who hail from Chicago, do not give interviews. One reason is that Larry, according to some reports, is rumored to have changed genders in recent years.

Even if he hasn’t gone the complete “Transamerica” route — I hope he’s caught Felicity Huffman’s amazing performance — Larry has lots of other issues. One reason he may not be walking the red carpet at a premiere any time soon is that he traded his wife in for a famous dominatrix named Ilsa Stix, aka Karin Winslow. Larry apparently isn’t satisfied with just the abuse Hollywood can heap on him.

Um… There must be something funny I can say about this. (He’s a shoo-in to direct the “Brokeback Mountain” sequel. SHUT UP! Or maybe to write it. SHUT UP, I said!)