Atomictumor

“Put me down! I don’t want to be manhandled!”

Which then got MastaG attacking me for reasons that I still don’t understand.

So, apparently the big encryption code for the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs hit the internet the other day, as is the internets code distributing wont.

It showed up on digg.com, which (if you’re not hip) is a site aggregator which has users submit good websites, blog posts, whatever, and then vote on the best one.  If its good, you give it a vote. The one with the most votes gets on the front page, and somewhere, somebody gets a Ferrari.

So, anyway, this thing popped up, made the front page.  And why not, folks like me, who like to promote trouble at the expense of large recording cartels, were just waiting for the thing to show up, and true to form, the code to crack the stuff is available before the bandwidth to move 50 GB of data is.

Anyway, the Advanced Access Content System Licensing Administrato, the legal arm of the encrypting arm of the hd-dvd business, threw up a DCMA cease and desist order to get the page pulled off Digg.  Digg did it.

Which pissed off the users, and created a fervor.  The fervor created publicity, and all the sudden everybody knows the code’s been cracked, and what the code is. 

Like this.  This collection of photochopped pictures had me rolling over on the floor a few minutes ago.

So, anyway, Digg rolled over to the users, who were by now inunduating the interwebs with the code, and it made MSM news, major blogs, CNN, Wired, it was all over the place.  And I’m laughing, ha ha ha.

Yes.  I love being geeky.

Tom Burns cited moral principles today in a letter to the Oak Ridger regarding the whole Target up on the hill thing. Now, moral principles is something that I get behind.

He tells me that the city is gambling its future on a for-profit entity that can pay for itself. He tells me that local businesses are getting screwed by this deal, which would be repugnant. He tells me, additionally, that “…the moral policy is to raise the property tax as necessary to pay for the public education we want to provide our children.”

I don’t know if any of these things are moral imperatives.

Now, this happened to hit me as I was pondering a few things after dropping the kids off at school.  Lets say that Tom’s right, we blow off the city bond and raise property taxes.  We can raise it what, 7 cents on the dollar to squeeze by this year with that extra half mil the schools need?  This still leaves nothing in the school board’s reserve fund, mind.  Next year, problem starts all over.  So what then?

Will there be a white horse on the horizon offering the promise of sales tax revenue?  Will Tom and the rest of Oak Ridge start shopping here?  Or will they suggest, once again, that the property taxes go up?  OK, thats fine.  I can take a hit there.  Oak Ridge, in 2006, had one of the top 10 property tax rates.  Higher than Nashville, and Chattanooga.  Higher than damn near all the rest of the state.

For a town of 20 odd thousand?  For the “smart” people?  Still tho, its mine and Tom’s moral imperative to support a property tax increase, so we bump it up again for 2008, and we’re still out on the line trying to draw business into town.

How much can the property tax sustain?  Can we just keep bumping it up, or will 2008 see Oak Ridge’s door getting knocked down by all the businesses wanting to move to town, madly impressed by the way we attract business opportunities, and realizing that THIS is the market they want to be in.  I’m dubious about that.

Now, one thing I do agree on with Tom is the fact that Oak Ridge doesn’t give two shits about local business, which is damn near criminal.  Oak Ridge is the kind of town that should be bending over backwards trying to help small business, without the rather high membership fees to the Chamber of Commerce.

Oak Ridge should be doing what it can to attract more Razzelberry’s, Time Out Delis, antique stores, food co-ops, thrift stores, and botiques.  Oak Ridge should be doing what it can to point people to these businesses, understanding that the sales tax generated from these places not only support local families, but are the bread and butter of the town.

Hell, that’d solve the Target issue right there, wouldn’t it?  Wouldn’t it be bitching to be able to spend a buck or two more and know the folks that own the shop you spent the money at are buying their kids school supplies with it?

Tom, I’ll tell you one thing.  Since I moved to this town, and since I started doing the ‘tumor, I can count the number of times that I liked what the city officials are doing on one hand.  They’re (mostly) good people, but I disagree with their methods and motives 99% of the time.  That simple fact is the biggest reason I don’t put up FOR yard signs all over town.

However, Tom, I think the greatest moral imperitive today is making sure that the town’s healthy, and a multi year sole dependance on raising property taxes to deal with a cost increases isn’t the way to do that.  I believe that the best action for the town is to take a 10 year chance, put the money down, and let GBT do its thing.

We both know the failsafes involved in the exchange do a huge job of protecting the city from the mistakes made with the golf course, and the mall.

Why is it tho, Tom, that I’m the only one of the two of us willing to admit that?