Yesterday, our buddy David Chartier at Ars and Sam Oliver at AppleInsider both publicized an issue that's been burning up the support boards for a while now: iTunes video rentals and purchases in HD are flagged for HDCP control, and in cooperation with the new Mini DisplayPort connector on the MacBook and MacBook Pro unibody models, those movies and TV shows are refusing to play back on non-compliant external displays.

In this case, 'compliant' means HDMI or recent-vintage DVI, but even monitors or TVs that support HDCP may not properly negotiate with the DisplayPort connector to give iTunes and QuickTime the all-clear signal (if so, quitting and relaunching iTunes once the display is hooked up may clear the playback hold).

Equally annoying: HDCP is only supposed to apply to 'high-value' digital streams, meaning standard-def purchases and rentals on the iTunes store should be out of scope... but some reports indicate that both the HD and SD instances are flagged, blocking playback on anything but the laptop's internal display or a straight-thru HDMI connection. Argh!

MacBook Pro users getting bitten by HDCP (Thanks, Denver Jewelry Guy!)

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I've heard it said that the financial crisis and looming recession will reduce income inequality, but there still seems to be plenty around:

Four guests at the Omni Shoreham Hotel will be living large this January. The hotel's 44th Commander-in-Chief Package, priced at a whopping $440,000, includes lots of bells and whistles to make its four-night stay for the inauguration as deluxe as possible.

Guests will stay in the two-bedroom, 1,700-square-foot Shoreham Presidential suite. It includes living and dining rooms, a library, a full kitchen, and a balcony. They'll be treated to private breakfasts and an in-room dinner with entertainment by political satirist Mark Russell. Because tickets for four to the swearing-in ceremony are included, the hotel will make sure that its VIP guests are well coiffed and outfitted for the event: They'll enjoy a preinauguration makeover by Elizabeth Arden's Red Door Salon & Spa, a $44,000 shopping spree from the Lambros Jewelry Inauguration Collection, and personalized president and first lady cologne and perfume.

Getting to and from Washington won't be a problem either: The hotel will arrange a private jet for the guests' arrival and departure. And when they leave, they'll walk out the door with a puppy of their choiceyes, a puppy.

I've gotta say, in-room dinner with entertainment by political satirist Mark Russell is way down the list of things I would want to buy with my $400,000. 1

UPDATE: Between Waxman, David Axelrod, and Eric Holder mustachioed men are taking control of American politics. Perhaps this, rather than a team of rivals is the real 19th century throwback element of the Obama Era.

I don't really care much about the overall point being made, but as a professional poker player, i have to say that "Reader David Loewenberg" is completely misusing his poker metaphor. In fact, his metaphor works entirely against the point he is trying to make. When someone is shortstacked (the phrase is not "small stacked" , you take any chance that is +ev to eliminate him. you DON'T want any player to stick around ever if you eliminate them in a tournament. (it's pretty similar in a cash game). As to calling a shortstack's bluffing, in that situation the caller is rarely more than a 60% favorite to win that particular hand.

That's a hugely big deal on any number of levels -- not least of which is the two men's very different positions on energy policy. We'll have more soon.

Late Update: Here's the reaction from a Republican Hill staffer friend of mine -- very sane good guy, but, you know, still a Republican ...

Dude:

The day Henry got into this race, this result was ordained.

The differences between the 2 are, as you mentioned, HUGE.

But, honestly, the real story here is Nancy Pelosi whacked John Dingell. She put a hit on him, and it was executed.

The rest of the story takes a back seat to that FACT.

For the moment, I'm still going with 'Holy Crap'.

The three people in charge of Technology, Innovation & Government Reform the catch-all tech category are listed below. We've mentioned Sonal Shah and Julius Genachowski as possible candidates for Obama's planned Chief Technology Officer position, a job that would apparently be charged with implementing the plans these three come up with. Note, for what it's worth: The other six working groups have either one or two people in them.

From the site:

Blair Levin is a Managing Director of Stifel Nicolaus and serves as the firm's principal telecom, media and tech regulatory and strategy analyst. Prior to his work as an analyst, Mr. Levin served as Chief of Staff to Chairman Reed Hundt at the Federal Communications Commission from 1993 through 1997. Before joining the FCC, Levin was a partner in the North Carolina law firm of Parker Poe, Poe, Adams and Bernstein.

Sonal Shah heads Google.org's global development efforts. Prior to joining Google, she was Vice President at Goldman, Sachs and Co. developing and implementing the firm's environmental policy. She is also the co-founder ofIndicorps , a U.S.-based non-profit organization offering one-year fellowships Indian-Americans to work on development projects in India. Sonal also worked at the Center for American Progress on trade, outsourcing and post conflict issues and the Center for Global Development on development policy issues. Sonal worked at the Department of Treasury from 1995-2002 on various economic issues and regions of the world, including Bosnia, Kosovo, the Asian crisis and sub-Saharan Africa. During that time she also worked at the National Security Council from 1998-1999. Sonal received her BA in economics from the University of Chicago and her MA in economics from Duke University. She is on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board.

Julius Genachowski is co-founder of Rock Creek Ventures and LaunchBox Digital, a special advisor at General Atlantic, and a member of various boards of directors and advisors. From 1997 to 2005, he was a senior executive at IAC/InterActiveCorp, where his roles included Chief of Business Operations, General Counsel, and a member of the Office of the Chairman. Genachowski served at the Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 1997, including as Chief Counsel to the Chairman. From 1991 to 1994 he served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (ret.), and to Chief Judge Abner J. Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He worked in Congress from 1985 to 1988, for Sen. Charles E. Schumer (then a U.S. Representative), and for the joint select committe on the Iran-Contra Affair. He is a on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board.

"Shifting costs onto others, while striving to internalize benefits. Detroit chose lobbying, marketing wars, and low-cost hardball - to always and everywhere try to socialize costs and privatize benefits. Never was this truer than Detroit's lobbying against public transport throughout the 20th century. Why does public transport in the States suck? Because Detroit's lobbying machine doesn't."

Okay, it wasn't that bad even though I noticed the Christmas rush seems to have begun a few weeks early. I had to drive the West Loop last night to make a screening of Twilight last night (I'm still working on the maximally hilarious way to incorporate "sucking" into my review). From 290 to 59S took 25 minutes.

But that wasn't the case when She Who Shall Not Be Named and I headed over to kill a few hours while The Wife got some cold-induced couch time. We navigated through mercifully traffic-free streets and snaked one of those elusive first parking garage level spots less than two hundred feet from Neiman Marcus. Granted, we didn't actually buy anything but we did come up with some amusing mall activities.

1. Go to the Apple Store and see if an employee ever gives an answer to a question that doesn't start with, "Well, if you go to our web page." Didn't matter if it was financing or the relative fragility of the MacBook Air. Why the hell do you guys have a store in the first place?

2. Ask the girl at the Hollister store if they have any clothes that don't say "Hollister" on them. Shake your head at her response and say, "No, really."

3. Allow your four year old to run into the Versace store with a large, slobbery lollipop. Pause briefly to enjoy the horrorstruck expressions before corralling her.

4. Laugh at the hair on the guy working in the Michael Kors store. Your hair says Good Charlotte, but your crows' feet say Charlotte Rae.

5. Count the number of kids and adults-who-should-know-better wearing South Pole and Aerospatiale clothes. Stop when you reach 10,000.

I have had the privilege of being on this campus for each of the past 5 years. I enjoyed the company of President Duane Larson where we compared notes on the critical importance of strategic planning and of making hard, but essential, leadership decisions. We have both received much affirmation and a bit of grief for hard decisions that we've recently made and announced. So, it was good to compare notes. It was wonderful to hear the enthusiasm in his voice as he talked about the future of Wartburg Seminary and the educational opportunities they provide for future pastors, youth ministers, CE directors, etc.

AF author, Norma Cook-Everist, was the catalyst for my visit to Wartburg Seminary. But, my visits always expand off of her hospitality! I enjoyed speaking to the students in her Christian Education class. Not only was I able to share information about some of the innovative and successful resources that we have published over the past several years, but I was also able to give them a sneak preview of some of our forthcoming resources, including those related to the Book of Faith Initiative and our spring 2009 Sunday School curricula, Spark! They reacted to the slides just as I expected they would. With energy, enthusiasm and excellent questions.

After class, Norma had invited anyone from the Wartburg community to join us for lunch and Q&A about publishing. There was quite a turnout! People came and went, so I didn't have an exact count, but there must have been 20 people who stopped by at some point during the lunch hour. Students, faculty, staff, spouses of students. They had excellent questions for me related to their interests as writers of curricula, music composers and arrangers, copyeditors, book authors, etc. There is obviously a lot of talent in this community!

Last, but far from least, I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time during the day with Barb, Jill & Jean, all staff members in our Augsburg Fortress bookstore on campus. It was bittersweet to be with them. We announced on November 7 that we will be closing 9 bookstores, including this one, by no later than April 30, 2009 so that we can focus our time, talents, and financial resources on the creation of new resources for the church. So, these good, hardworking people will be laid off. But, they were incredibly gracious, warm and welcoming to me. Class acts! They noted that they are sad and a bit nervous about the future. But, they also commented on how much they appreciated the 6 months' notice that we have given them along with the safety net of severance, outplacement assistance, etc. We are blessed by such loyal and gracious staff members. I encourage anyone who reads this blog to say a prayer for these good people and the others from AF and so many other companies, who are being laid off. These are challenging times, to be sure.

I always enjoy my time on our ELCA Seminary campuses. Interacting with the students who are our future pastors and other church leaders gives me such optimism for the future! These are nurturing, challenging, inspiring communities!

Blessings,
Beth

My friends, this election is about much more than who gets what. It is about who we are. It is about what we believe. It is about what we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself. And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton & Clinton are on the other side, and George Bush is on our side. And so, we have to come home, and stand beside him.

Erick recently wrote:

We all know how tagging makes the Web a richer place (by tapping into people's desire to categorize things and share those categories, ad-hoc though they may be, with everyone else). Tagging brings a bottoms-up order to the Web by making information more searchable and thus easier to find. Now it is time to start tagging the world. The real world.

Enter Tweetag, a brand new way to search Twitter, or browse the Twittosphere' as they put it. The app, like most Twitter-related applications, is fairly simple: you enter a tag, and Tweetag will show public Twitter messages that contain that particular keyword, but more interestingly also a list of other tags that are related to it.

This allows you to filter down Twitter's constant stream of 140-or-less-character messages intuitively. Take for instance a query for obama: you'll see all tweets contain the President-elect's first name, and you can simply filter it down by adding other keywords to the URL or clicking an associated tag, e.g. obama/youtube. In addition, Tweetag features tabs which allow you to filter down Twitter messages containing links, questions and @replies.

The Tweetag homepage also displays the 40 most frequent tags, so you can easily get an idea of what's hot on Twitter in a way similar to what Twitscoop, TwitBuzz, TweetWire and other services are all about. It's also a great way to track conversations around a given topic, say the earthquake in Indonesia from last weekend.

Twitter recently acquired Summize, whose technology currently powers Twitter Search, and it wouldn't take them all that much time and effort to build something similar on top of it. Until they do, you can use Tweetag to monitor specific keywords and find out what's hot on the popular micro-sharing tool in just a few seconds. Tweetag even boasts their own API which allows you to integrate their results into a blog widget or third-party applications.

At first glance, Tweetag is merely a feature, not a business. The creators insist however that have a way to monetize the service as a B2B tool, and that they are currently raising funding to make that happen.

By the way, if you're not into Twitter, check out this WordPress plugin the guys behind Tweetag have created for tag-based filtering of comments: Commentag.

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