Juicing

I got a kick out of this piece from my Sports Law text:

"In sports employment contracts, another unique feature is the concept of "juice." Juice is the ability to write your own ticket based on unique skills or rampant popularity. The more juice a player possesses, the greater [his or her] ability to modify [his or her] employment contract...."

I dig that the authors put that in the book. That's the kind of lingo I wish all my texts included.

But: living in the Bay Area (home to Barry Bonds, of course), I can be forgiven for thinking the authors were going to define the term a bit differently!

Going and Going and Going

I used to use this site, Going.com, but I ended up cancelling my account. They recently hooked me again, ironically using the same technique that made me quit in the first place. (Going.com is an event planning site like Yahoo!'s Upcoming.) They have these sneaky ways of creating an account for you before you realize it.

I deleted my account originally because I was offended by these tricks, and because of the inefficiency they engender. For example, I had multiple accounts with them because I'd forget which email address I used to create the account, and whenever I accidentally entered the wrong email address during login, it created a new account for me. That resulted in the inevitable multiple newsletters, email notifications, etc. (The default settings were, naturally, to receive all newsletters. When I tried to login to change these settings, I couldn't remember which email address I used, and ended up creating more accounts...you see how the cycle would get frustrating.)

So they hooked me this time because they're promoting an event that you can get into for free with an RSVP. To RSVP, you enter your name and email address - which, you guessed it, creates a Going.com account.

However I was pleased to see their privacy settings have improved since I was last a member. (Click the screen shot below). The tiered privacy levels are good, although the default settings are as broad as possible. I particularly like the ability to prevent others from tagging you in photos, and that the default is on a high tier.

For that I'll give them another chance.

 

LOLcat on Freeze Frame

 
This is in reference to a previous post concerning the forthcoming [read: nonexistent] class action suit against Sony for product liability on a model of TV remote controls. Hat-tip to a Canadian.

On an Unrelated Note...

I've been frustrated recently by a text messaging issue. I have an old phone (three years old) of which I'm fond, by virtue of its absolute simplicity (no camera, no internet) and long-lasting battery (2-3 days without a charge). It's a Samsung, and it has survived the tempting trend waves of the Razr and other pop phones.

However I receive text messages from friends with much more sophisticated equipment, PDAs and Blackberries. Uninhibited by the constraints of predictive typing, they send long text messages that surpass my phone's capabilities. As a result, I often get texts in several installments, like chapters. This week I experienced something even more offensive: I received a two-text installment, where the second text was actually the attachment of the original message!

Did I suddenly befriend a cadre of technophiles? Did my friends upgrade phones? Have I been avoiding voice conversations? I'm not sure, but for whatever reason my sent and received texts numbered 250 this month, compared to 80 last month.

I did come to the eventual solution to this problem: time to get a new cell phone.

Hot Chip

This won't come as a surprise to anyone currently in the game, but it's remarkable how hungry Silicon Valley is for patent attorneys right now. Computer Science and Engineering degrees will take you places. Almost every firm coming to our school for On Campus Interviews "prefers" students in the top ten percent, with law review and moot court. However, firms requiring technical degrees prefer students in the top third of their class, with no extracurriculars necessary.

Scan My iTunes, Please, part II

Update on the privacy policy of my new fave site, SonicLiving:

I asked: "What's your policy on the artist/album information you collect (when SL scans a user's iTunes, for example)?"

Answer: "We only track artists (not album info). For the time being when you remove an artist from your Wishlist, the info is permanently erased and no record is retained. In the near future we will begin tracking artists that have been removed so that we don't re-add artists when folks rescan their iTunes/ Pandora/last.Fm."

Hat-tip to a privacy guru who motivated me to find out, and kudos to Elle at SL for her clear and prompt response. My next feedback will ask them to post their policies!

UPDATE: Elle says they are working on getting their policies finalized and posted ASAP.