SBC supposedly owns a patent for web browsing and hyperlinks, and as this letter from SBC legal to museumtour.com contends.

Among the accusations are that, "the user interface of website www.museumtour.com includes a selector section that includes selector for navigating through the website document. The selectors remail in the selector section regardless of the document portion displayed in the document frame."

So basically, SBC is claiming that by having tabs for navigation, which always remain visible while on the site, museumtour.com is in violation of its patent.

To gain complaiance, companies can pay royalties based on a revenue schedule inclued in the letter.

Now why didn't they go after the big guys, like AOL, MSN, etc. instead of some little site? Is every personal site going to get a letter from SBC?

But I guess they aren't as accustomed to the white stuff in England, as the Guardian privides"A user's guide to snow".

Favorite question: "How do I make one of those compressed-snow throwing balls?" (via kottke)

Chicago's city council passed a resolution opposing war with Iraq. And in a seperate resolution, they declared war on Green Bay.

As part of a settlement over price fixing, consumers of CDs, casettes, and albums are eligible for a possible $20 refund. Consumers of music bought between January 1, 1995 and December 22, 2000 are considered part of the class action.

But I wonder if the record companies are also going to include bills for illegally downloaded music with the checks?

After two failed attempts to bolster the White Sox starting rotation, GM Ken Williams finally seems to have made a good trade! The Sox picked up Bartolo Colon from the Expos as part of a 3 way trade also involving the Yankees.

Let's hope this one works out and they Sox can find a way to sign Colon to a long term deal. Williams has already unloaded three promising young starting pitchers (Mike Sirotka, Josh Fogg, and Kip Wells) to land veterans who haven't panned out (David Wells and Todd Ritchie), and to give up yet another young starter (Rocky Biddle) for 1 year's work by Colon would leave the Sox's rotation under-staffed in future years.

High School hoops star LeBron James recently turned 18, and to celebrate the occastion his mother, Gloria, presented him with a Hummer H2. Pretty nice b-day gift, especially considering they've relied on food stamps and currently reside in subsidized housing. Mom's boyfriend is currently serving time for bank fraud and mail fraud.

Ohio athletic association bylaws state that an athlete forfeits his amateur status by "capitalizing on athletic fame by receiving money or gifts of monetary value.''

Which begs to question whether most mothers living in government housing could just walk into a bank and be approved for a loan to buy their teenager a $50,000 truck. LeBron had better hope that is the case, but I have a feeling it probably isn't.

In their response to a lawsuit files by the Chicago Cubs, the owners of rooftop businesses overlooking Wrigley Fieldhave the audacity to say that they "contribute to the 'unique character of baseball' at the ballpark. They claim that they are part of the "charm" of Wrigley Field.

So stealing a product and selling it to others is charming? That's like downloading a CD full of songs off Napster and selling them on ebay.

There may have been something charming in days past when the rooftop spectators were the lucky residents of the buildings with a view and maybe some of their friends, sitting on lawn chairs and drinking beer out of an Igloo cooler.

But have you seen what's on the rooftops today? They make the Wrigley Field skyboxes look like port-o-lets. and as the Brixen Ivy site mentions their accomodations hold up to 100 people and, "Most games are less than $99 per person."

So they're making up to $10,000 a game, or about $800,000 a season! Wow, how quaint and charming.