According to this article Universal music may be looking for royalties on each iPod sale. Let's rewind a bit and see how funny this request really is. Two weeks ago Universal said that iPod owners were thieves. This came at the time when they were announcing their support of the Zune which seems to be under performing the weakest of expectations.

Going back further one sees that Universal, and their traditional music label comrades, didn't have much use for the iPod. When it came to be five years ago they seemed to think it was just another crappy MP3 player and who would care. Since then Apple Computer has managed to set the music distribution business on it's ear. Not only is it not a crappy player but with increasing ease we, the consumers, don't need the labels, or want the labels, to filter music for us. Instead we can go directly to the source and get music. Best of all our dollars go to supporting the artists not the same executives who think we're all a bunch of thieves.

In five days the big show opens once more in Las Vegas. On November 30, 2006 we will once again play host to the National Finals Rodeo and Cowboy Christmas. With the success of Cowboy Christmas have come some new shows at the same time. Two years ago the Cowboy Marketplace at the Mandalay Bay was very disappointing. The annual Country Christmas Western Gift Expo at the Sands Convention Center is one of the best in town and definitely deserves a visit. Both Cowboy Christmas and Country Christmas are open during the day from November 30-December 9.

A commenter had suggested that Cowboy Marketplace improved last year. The neighbors who visited didn't see the improvement but it might be worth checking out if you've got extra time to kill. The website (warning annoying noisy video content plays automatically) suggests they might soon have a list of exhibitors but the site's links don't work so it's tough to tell if the "western lifestyle" exhibitors are the as seen on western TV variety or high quality products. Cowboy Marketplace is scheduled to run daily December 1-December 9.

SEOMoz points to an interesting study on form design. The study suggests that the convention of labels on the left with the entry box on the right is not as effective as a non-bolded label on the line above the input field. Many Drupal themes already do this pretty well but it is good to keep in mind. Many hours have gone into trying to get it "right" when we were chasing the wrong answer.

The Nevada Supreme Court published their opinion in Bacher v. State Engineer on Wednesday. The case speaks to several critical areas of Nevada water law and incorporates the "anti-speculation doctrine" in interpretation of Nevada water law.

The court also gave indications of a number of items around beneficial use like the following footnote:

Some projects, including the theme park, had contingencies attached to them. In other words, the projects may be speculative in nature. Although we do not reach whether contingent projects may be considered in evaluating a need for water under NRS 533.370(6) because we conclude that the State Engineer abused his discretion on other grounds, we note that speculative evidence of development projects is not sufficient to survive a substantial evidence inquiry on review.