Madison and Halloween. For decades the two have been synonymous. Each year, students and spectators descend on State Street for the immense party dedicated to costumes and alcohol. This year was no different, as the attendance was estimated at 34,000. Last year became the first year the city charged admission to the gathering, while this year marked the rise of corporate sponsorship of the event.

A ticket provided by a friend informed me that the now-named “Feakfest” was brought to me by Mountain Dew. Since it was free, I decided to made my way to State Street late Saturday to check out the remaining costumes and have a beer. Memories of tear gas at such late hours in recent years permeated my mind. Was last year the exception to the rule, or would it be a night without incident?

As the evening ended, the party proceeded without trouble. The Wisconsin State Journal says that 120 arrests were made, down from 148 last year and 334 during the last riot year of 2005. Since this was my first year checking out the corporate “Freakfest,” I decided to discuss my observations of the event.

The bands serve as a deterrent for the rowdy behavior of years past. They provide spectators an alternative to drinking, and they provide an unofficial “end” to the evening, as many leave once the music stops.

The tension has dissipated. During the riot years you could feel the mood shift, and we left before the problems started. That never happened this year. Patrons were laughing and joking with police on their way out, thanking them for their assistance.

Lack of originality. Maybe it is just because I am a man that I notice what women are wearing most often. Maybe it’s because they are not usually wearing much. The “slutty” insert-random-profession-here is by far the most popular costume women wear. While the male part of me enjoys it a bit, the creative part of me screams in horror. You’re college students, spend five minutes and come up with something creative, and possibly warmer.

Read more about Madison’s Halloween celebration via WSJ

This Venn Diagram shows:

a: that higer priced PS3’s offer more features
b: that newer models of the PS3 have limited or no backwards compatibility with PS2 games
c: multiple reasons to choose a Wii over a PS3

From BB Gadgets via Gizmodo

The website Valleywag has an editorial piece on why magazines should stop covering gadgets.  They state that magazines will always be behind the curve because they need to produce articles months before the magazine is published.  By the time articles run, gadgets have been thoroughly dissected and reviewed on the web.  They use the example of Entrepreneur Magazine, which ran a review of the Palm Foleo.  The problem was the device that was discontinued by the time the review was published.

While Valleywag makes a strong argument, there are two reasons why gadgets need to be covered by magazines.
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For years I have stated computers of the future will based on “dumb terminals.”   Each of us will own a portable device (like a cell phone) that carries our basic information on it.  When we approach the terminal, all our preferences and subscriptions will be accessible via synchronization between our phone and the terminal.  For this to work, programs that we use everyday will be available online and we will subscribe to them rather then “own” a copy.

Apparently Adobe sees the future the same way I do.

Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen announced last week that the company plans to move all of their desktop applications online.  Chizen says this is several years out, but it the future of the company.

It will be a while before this comes to fruition.  The United States needs to increase its broadband infrastructure, which will take at least a decade.   However, I continue to stand by my prediction, and enjoy when I see large corporations moving towards this model.

Ars Technica has an article about Adobe’s future plans.

The Detroit Free Press has an article on how the Big Ten Network is failing by limiting exposure to games. This explains how teams such as Indiana and Purdue have evaded national rankings despite only losing one game each.

It’s primarily because voters don’t have as much access to those games as previously under the conference’s old cable arrangement with ESPN. The Big Ten had the exclusive national window noon-3 p.m. Eastern on ESPN or ESPN2. … That’s valuable exposure that the Big Ten willingly — and foolishly — sacrificed for the sake of exerting more control over product distribution.

I’ve been opposed to the Big ten network from the beginning, as it limits the number of available to those without cable. Many Big Ten games were available on network television before the advent of the network. This will be even more obvious when the college basketball season starts. During the season last year, it was easy to find about five games during the Big 10 regular season. Most of these will now only be aired on cable. Anything that reduces my choice and limits my options, I strongly appose.

The Big 10 made its choice, and now it needs to live with the consequences.

Read the Article via Detroit Free Press

There are two possible recourses when you hire someone that does not perform the duties they were hired to do. The first and most obvious is to fire them. If you have an employee (or employees) that are a cancer, the top goal should be elimination of that cancer.

The second recourse involves hitting the employee where it hurts most – in the wallet. If they were hired to do a specific job, refuse payment until the job is completed. Suspend pay, and they will respond.

Over 100 days have passed since the Wisconsin State Legislature should have passed a two-year budget. During that time, the members of the Senate and Assembly collectively made over $1.2 million. That seems like quite a bit of money to waste on people that are not doing their job. Personally, I believe each member of the legislature should donate their income to the new budget, as the addition of $1.2 million would solve the current deadlock, and allow Wisconsin to move forward.

Since it would be near impossible to make legislators accountable for their actions by fining them, I vote we recall them all.

For the past decade, the battle between consumers and the RIAA raged. Consumers wanted the right to use music they purchased however or on whatever they desired. The RIAA rejected this notion, and sued customers that digitally traded copies of albums. The RIAA shunned its consumers, and polluted their product with digital rights management (DRM), preventing customers from using their music how they wanted. While this battle raged, most bands sat quietly on the sidelines or cheered on the RIAA (see Metallica).

Those days may be over.

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