Date: 11/28/2004 10:08 PM
From: Bernard Socher (akadog001@msn.com)
Subject: Rough Reception for DNA Law
I see no difference between taking a finger print and a DNA sample ("Rough Reception for DNA Law," Nov. 27, 2004). It just brings fighting and solving crimes into the 21st century. Ignored completely is the possibility that it may release an innocent person from jail, someone who was convicted of a crime he did not commit.
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Date: 11/28/2004 11:43 AM
From: Todd Ouzts (ToddOuzts@msn.com)
Subject: TiVo Their Way: Ads, Copy Brakes
I am glad to see articles critical of TiVo's idiotic self-destruction ("TiVo Their Way: Ads, Copy Brakes," Nov. 27, 2004). I used to love TiVo, but it lost me as a customer after it ignored a year's worth of complaints from me about the ads it kept pushing onto the hardware I owned, and over my phone line. For example, I watch TV late at night. And every night at 2:30 a.m., the TiVo would interrupt my show to try to download "enhanced content." And if I was asleep, the TiVo's hard disk would become so loud that it would wake me up and keep me awake. All to download a bunch of crap video I couldn't care less about.
TiVo offers no way to turn this off or to even reschedule it, so I got fed up and am now blissfully TiVo-free. It's hard to imagine a company thinking that the wheel is just too perfect -- let's make it square! So have fun not getting my $13 a month, TiVo! You deserve your own demise.
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Date: 11/27/2004 08:17 PM
From: Brad K (brad.kruse@pobox.com)
Subject: Internet Porn: Worse Than Crack?
There are several aspects of the "conservative Christian" members of Congress and other U.S. government offices that concern me ("Internet Porn: Worse Than Crack?" Nov. 19, 2004). The first is free speech, the second is religious tolerance. And there is a problem with legislating morality, a practice that has a very long history of failing.
With respect to pornography, I submit that all forms have to be evaluated, from erotic conversations between significant others to obscene phone calls, phone sex and paid phone sex. Do explicitly erotic portions of a story make the entire book/TV presentation/movie/tape/disc/computer program or image/catalog/magazine/song a pornographic publication? There are certain explicit passages in that Christian fundamental resource, the Bible. Can a private conversation or public speech be pornography? What about reading a book aloud in public with erotic passages, or non-erotic but detailed descriptions of genitals and breasts?
I ask Congress to look at the track record of the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, and ask that they stop waging holy wars that don't work. You cannot legislate morality. Instead, please attend to the business of government, managing domestic and international affairs. Or we will have every phone line and cell-phone tower tapped to detect phone sex. Pay off the national debt. Deal with illegal immigration. Stimulate new job growth to employ those interested in working. Deal with illegal obstruction of trade and justice by union labor, through their political activism and sabotage of free trade and business innovation. Don't worry about whether I keep a spare vibrator in the bedroom for the occasional "guest."
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Date: 11/27/2004 05:56 PM
From: Joe Buhler (jeb@buhlerworks.com)
Subject: Travel Upstarts Take on Top Sites
To claim that these new travel search engines represent Travel 2.0 sounds like so much hype -- maybe Travel 1.5 at best. Of course, as long as online travel is pure price-based comparison shopping, these companies enable easy comparison of travel components ("Travel Upstarts Take on Top Sites," Nov. 26, 2004).
The fastest growth in online travel, however, is in the sale of travel packages with components bundled into a total price. This will make it practically impossible for the comparison engines to do their job. In addition, this package will increasingly be priced and packaged dynamically, making comparison even less of a possibility. This development into true Travel 2.0 will also bring more focus on added value and branding.
The winners will likely be those travel providers that are able to offer an effective one-stop shopping travel-purchasing experience combined with competitive pricing. These winners might well be travel suppliers offering dynamic packaging capabilities on their own websites, or even destination sites.
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