(no subject)

I think I want to go to Las Vegas. I've only been there for like an hour's layover en route back from San Jose, which is pretty much not ever having been there. I am so all about the kitsch and the tacky and the shiny. Travel is not in the budget anytime soon, alas, but maybe I'll see about taking myself out there for the weekend after my birthday in late April if finances will allow by then. Who's up for some drunken debauchery? (Or, y'know, just hanging out with me in Vegas while I celebrate getting a year closer to "old".)

(no subject)

Fujitsu-Siemens to pay per-machine fee for piracy

Fujitsu-Siemens has been ordered by a German court to pay a levy every time one of its computers is sold in the country, as part of a "tax on piracy."

The judge ruled in December that because the company's PCs could be used for copying material--and denying rights holders their due royalties--Fujitsu-Siemens should make it up by way of a contribution of about $16 (12 euros) per machine.

When do we get to impose a tax on stupidity? Huh? Huh?

housekeeping FYI

I did a little bit of the ol' friends-list housekeeping, mostly removing a bunch of communities, some folks who haven't posted anything in a year or so and haven't commented here either. If you find I dropped you and you want to be added back, just ping me at my LJ address.

Yeesh, when 57 of the last 60 posts on my "Communities" filter are from 50bookchallenge, I think that's a good sign that it ought to come off the friends list for a while.