.. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house.
The public policy world lost one of its most colorful personalities yesterday with the death of super-lobbyist Jack Valenti. For 38 years, Valenti was the motion picture industry’s man in Washington, bridging the yawning gap between the worlds of Capitol Hill and the Hollywood hills. He was perhaps the most recognized lobbyist in the country – in no small part due to his long-running annual appearances at the Academy Awards.
His Washington credentials were extensive, having served as a staffer for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. But Valenti was no typical blue-suited, Code of Federal Regulations-quoting D.C. rep. Like a seasoned actor playing a role, he brought Hollywood-like style and drama to Washington in a way that few others could ever match.
With a voice like that of a Roman senator, the silver-haired Valenti – dressed nattily, often with a trademark red handkerchief in his pocket – could make even the most mundane debate sound like a Shakespearean drama. Among his more quotable and provocative lines, from the 1980s copyright battle over the video cassette recorder: “I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston stranger is to the woman home alone.” There’s a reason he is the only D.C. lobbyist with a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.
Valenti was by no means always right on the issues. The VCR, for instance, wasn’t much of a Boston strangler. He wasn’t consistently pro-free market, nor consistently anti-free market. But then again, that wasn’t his job. His job was to represent the interests of the motion picture industry, as the industry understood them. And that he did exceptionally well. Both Washington and Hollywood will miss him.
I’m excited to report that, as you can see here, I’ve been named an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. I’m not moving back to DC, but once my replacement here at the Show-Me Institute starts on May 1, I’m going to be spending about half my time at home doing tech policy research for Cato. The remainder of my time will be spent on a variety of freelance work. Initially I’ll be doing some freelance work for Show-Me to ensure a smooth transition, but longer-term, I’m hoping to be able to focus full-time on tech policy work.
That means I should be moderately more prolific here at TLF. Also, keep an eye out for my contributions to Cato @ Liberty and the sadly-neglected-of-late TechKnowledge, two great publications you ought to be reading whether I’m contributing to them or not.
As a parent of two kids under the age of 6, I can very much relate to the questions going through Clive Thompson’s head. The Wired columnist’s latest essay is entitled “You Grew Up Playing Shoot’em-Up Games. Why Can’t Your Kids?” Like Thompson, I’m a first generation (Atari & Intellivision-era) gaming fanatic who is now raising third generation (PS & XBOX-era) gamer kids. (In case you are wondering, I define second generation gamers as the Nintendo NES & Sega-era.)
But also like Thompson, even though I’ve played just about every type of video game imaginable, I now find myself wondering how and when to introduce my kids to the world of gaming, including games with violent themes or action. Thompson begins his own introspection with the following funny story:
I was playing a round of Gears of War, trying to redo a level on “insane” mode, and the walls were painted with guts. I slaughtered my way to the boss, revved up my chainsaw, and sliced into his chest — releasing a fractal fountain of gore. Woo! At that instant, I heard the front door to my apartment open, and in walked my nanny… with my 15-month-old son, his eyes agog. Daddy, I could see him thinking, what are you doing?
Oh, nothing, son. Just kicking back with a mass-murder simulator. That’s all! So I hastily clicked off my Xbox 360, and avoided the nanny’s eyes. But it got me thinking: Eventually he’s going to want to play video games. And then I’ll have to face the traditional child-rearing quandaries that games present. When will I hand him his first controller? Will I let him play the gory combat games I love so much — and, if so, when?
Host: David Robinson
Location: Panache Restaurant
1725 Desales St. NW, Washington, DC View Map
When: Thursday, April 5, 6:00pm
Phone: 202 657 9892
Please join us to celebrate the launch of the new, improved American.com. Those in attendance will include David Robinson, managing editor; Marianne Wasson, associate editor; Ben Newell, editorial assistant; members of the web design team; and most importantly, a bunch of our contributors.
Panache has agreed to extend its happy hour until 8 PM — featuring $5 martinis and house wines. Come raise a glass…
About the site:
American.com is the web site of The American—AEI’s magazine of business and economics. We have a new look and a great mix of stories, from an expert take on the Blackstone IPO to reflections on Islamic banking to a review of a new book on the economics of wikis. We offer original content—and links to the best business coverage from around the web—every day.
During our TLF happy hour last week (you can listen to the “live-from-the-bar” podcast here!), I got into a debate with some of my TLF colleagues about the future of physical versus non-physical media. I was making the argument that the impending death of physical media at the hands of intangible, digital storage has been greatly exaggerated. One of the points I made was that some people just love to “kick the tires” of their media and have something to look at and store on a shelf, whether it be a CD, a DVD, photo albums, a book or anything else. Even though I’m increasingly an all-digital storage guy like most of my TLF colleagues, there are still a lot of people out there who think different than us and prefer the old way of doing things. (I wrote about all this at greater length here).
But there’s another reason that physical media has a future: A lot of people just don’t give a damn about digital technology and the Internet at all. Really, it’s true! Just check out the results from this recent survey by Park Associates:
A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released on Friday. Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, said 29 percent of U.S. households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months.
The second annual National Technology Scan conducted by Park found the main reason potential customers say they do not subscribe to the Internet is because of the low value to their daily lives they perceive rather than concerns over cost. Forty-four percent of these households say they are not interested in anything on the Internet, versus just 22 percent who say they cannot afford a computer or the cost of Internet service, the survey showed. [emphasis added]
As more and more of our consumption comes in the form of bits, how to keep all that data safe becomes a big problem. Obviously, data security is a big issue. But the bigger one, I think, is keeping good backups.
It used to be that only geeks and businesses could keep good backups. To copy everything, you had to buy a second hard drive or a stack of CDs or DVDs (or floppies or cartridges) and spend too much time setting things up and flipping disks. The really hardcore bought tape drives, and those with deep pockets signed up for network-based solutions like Retrospect.
But all at once, the market for the rest of us is heating up. The home user now has some excellent options.
Don’t forget that tonight we’ll be holding the third installment of our wildly successful Alcohol Liberation Front events. We’ll be meeting from 5:30-7 PM at Science Club. We’ll also be recording our contributors pontificating for our new podcast, Tech Policy Weekly. So drop on by and have a drink with your favorite TLF bloggers.
We’ll be holding the third installment of our wildly successful Alcohol Liberation Front events on Monday, March 19. We’ll be meeting from 5:30-7 PM at Science Club. If you’d like to join us, please drop me an email so we know to look for you.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology. Learn more about TLF →
Don’t forget that tonight we’ll be holding the third installment of our 
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
