I believe it not is completely dead, either. I was told it went back to committee for reconsideration. I have not heard a peep about it since and wonder if they are really going to make some changes and then try to push it through again? I hope not.

I am a lifelong registered Republican. I am conservative, retired and hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Please understand that my sentiments below on your authorship of the SOPA legislation is meant to show no disrespect for the Office you hold. I do not question your intentions or goal; what I do question is the shallow and obvious non-existent thought that went into the crafting of this legislation. If our Founding Fathers had put as little thought into drafting our Constitution, I doubt the Republic would have survived 50 years.

Because the Law, including the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence have their roots in Western philosophy, I have long had as much passion for the law as I do for philosophy. I have spent many decades embedded in the U.S. Constitution. I would suggest that you at least read or re-read the Constitution and The Federalist Papers before again embarking on such an ill-conceived piece of legislation without considering its Constitutional and global ramifications. The 13 Original Sovereign States, in their wisdom, granted only 17 enumerated powers to what was supposed to be a small, general or federal government. Yet, over the decades, a power-hungry Federal Government, with the grasping collusion of SCOTUS and its linguistically and historically unsupportable interpretations of many of the intentions of our Framers, has become “the tail wagging the dog.” Without diminishing the importance of intellectual property rights, our Republic right now is on life support and fighting for its very existence. Unfortunately, never in our history, has there been a more pressing time for Americans to retake many of the pilfered gifts our Founders gave us in the Constitution. If necessary, the States might need to reassert the concept of “Jeffersonian Nullification” when dealing with overreaching Federal legislation. Yet you spend your time crafting Constitutionally questionable confections for your political contributors.

I would suggest that you consider rewriting your own words on the public’s reaction to the provisions of SOPA, i.e., that you plan to “revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

A more critically pressing and timely alternative to your words might be that you plan to “revisit how best to address the problem of domestic thieves, i.e., members of the U.S. Congress and of SCOTUS, who steal and sell the People’s rights, stealing from them the liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and indeed, stealing from the People for whom you all work, the very Republic Itself.” Add to the above concerns, the dictatorial provisions for suspending habeas corpus in the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the power to strip citizenship contained in the upcoming Enemy Expatriation Act (HR 3166), the economy-killing provisions of ObamaCare (that no one bothered to read), and maybe that would help you to prioritize your efforts, and to understand the great angst that has paralyzed the Country. Barak Obama once said, “elections have consequences.” I would submit that sponsoring unconstitutional, un-vetted legislation also has consequences.

Respectfully,

Alan J. Pratt, Ph.D.

As a fellow Texan, you are a disgrace. As an American, you are a traitor.

Kissing the foot of the entertainment industry by taking the kickbacks their
lobbyists are giving you shows your true colors. You, Lamar Smith, are a
a textbook example of a sellout.

You would make people of all ages feel just like Jammie Thomas-Rasset,
the single mother who was sued by RIAA. By pushing a law that violates their
rights for not even HAVING any pirated material, and is as blatantly wrong
as the RIAA lawsuits themselves, you have made yourself look like a greedy
and inept fool. If we, the people, have the right to vote for you, we, the people,
have the right to oust you.

You hoped to stir up people to impeach Obama, but now YOU are the one
to FACE IMPEACHMENT. And the people will do so.

I’ve spent plenty of time in Silicon Valley. Highly over-rated. SF and NYC too.

That said, seriously, one of the things I’ve observed among Austin startups is that for most of them, marketing is an afterthought, whereas that’s not the case in other startup hotbeds. And as a result, I think (my impression) that we have in Austin a much higher percentage of products that make it to market (and maybe shouldn’t) and then flop.

Marketing has to be a factor from the beginning — integral to the product design. It’s great to start a company based on a developer’s itch, but if you want to actually make money and build a sustainable company, include marketing at a senior level from the very beginning.

http://developer.bazaarvoice.com/tools-we-use-innovate-bazaarvoice-labs-part-1

Seems to work really well for them, I’m sure there’s someone out there looking to emulate that approach.

That aside out of the way, I’m with Keith, but from a different perspective. I’m so involved in some many sub-communities within Austin because there’s so much going on. Same would go if I was in Portland, SF, SV, or any other place.

As for Austinites treating it like a bubble that exists completely unto itself — I guess we’re talking to different people.

None of them – technologies, regions, etc – are “right” but all of them have strengths to take advantage of and build upon and weaknesses to mitigate and work around.

I with you!

Editor: Link removed. You can pay me to advertise on my blog

Granted, we weren’t pitching companies really, so there was less harm, and we were all having so much fun that the “social” in social media was more important than the “media”…

But still, I feel folk let us get our feet wet, learn and screw up. So while it sometimes annoys me tremendously, I ask myself what I’d do in their shoes and have a hard time coming up with a list of things that isn’t pedantic (ie: don’t hand out business cards everywhere, have a beer with someone instead of pitching them, etc).

Maybe I’m just old and weird though ;-)

J

Holding down the fort in Baltimore as the shaved head WordPress guru with a first name beginning with “A.”