April 2002 Archives
Chilling Effects Clearinghouse. "Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum?" 
[Scripting News]
Kinda. Beej got the email, but the server is being hosted off my DSL line.
thexmlfiles. There is a (third party) script for Radio called thexmlfiles that will grab a Manila site and break it into XML files. It seems that this tool doesn't run under Radio 8, which is moot for me since my Radio 8 trial has expired. [TheFlangyNews News]
It kinda chokes in Radio 7 as well. It errors out, but it did get my message files created before it bombed out. Now I have a big folder full of xml files, how can I shove them into Radio 8?
Ê
'Humble Sinner' Bush Testifies to Power of Faith "Now, I don't want government to be the church and I don't want the church to be the government, but the government should not fear faith and faith-based programs," he said to murmured affirmations of "Amen" and "Yes." [ Reuters ]
The trouble is that he is setting up a system where he, or his buddies, get to pick what counts as "faith-based" and what doesn't. As with Free Speech, you have to take the good with the bad. What happens when Satanists want to run a soup kitchen? They are gonna be turned down. That isn't fair, and the government has guidelines to help them be fair about things like this. This is one reason why we have a separation of Church and State.
It's big country with lots of faith. I'm pretty sure under the Bush system that some people aren't going to get a fair shake.
"XP Updates Start to P.O. Users" [Daypop Top 40]
As many as three times a week, on average, XP users see a little window pop-up at the bottom of their computer screens announcing the availability of another new update for their system.
I know someone who uses 2000 that gets pissed off by this very problem.
It also reminds me of a great rant, by John Gruden, that NFL Films got during a game. It went something like this:
John yelling at some poor 3rd string player: These offensive penalties are killing us! That's four so far! Three on the line and one on the running back...
John gets an evil grin on his face: ...and it's starting to piss me off.
I tried finding the clip on the NFL Films site, but couldn't. Sorry.
"The What Blogging Archetype Are You? Personality Test! " [Daypop Top 40]
For all two of you:
You are an Evan Williams.
You deserve much praise for empowering millions to annoy others in a way previously only imagined.
Take the What Blogging Archetype Are You test at GAZM.org
Much like Adam @ "Flangy" I can't really justify, or afford to upgrade to the latest Titanium Powerbook. But man do those specs make me drool.
But then I thought about how much time I've put into make my Powerbook fit what I do and taking that much time to setup a new one and didn't think that was very cool. I've only had my current Powerbook for a little over a year now. Man, time flies when you are having fun.
No biggie, it just means that when I finally do get a new Powerbook it will be even better than the one that just came out. The life of a gadget geek...
Adam Curry's mom: "Yikes! I don't even know what RSS feed is. All I know is: I'm up and running - and it's fun. Yes, Adam, you're allowed a smile and an 'I told you so.'" [Scripting News]
Is it okay to make "your mom" jokes about Adam's mom?
Once again, "Apple" dominates the weblog world. Love 'em, hate 'em, once thing most people don't do is ignore 'em.
Linux "is not piracy" Says Microsoft Lawyer [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
Thanks Microsoft, good safety tip...
"So You've Decided To Be Evil" [Daypop Top 40]
Ha! This totally needs to be a web service. [ModWheel]
My plan:
Congratulations on being the creator of a new Evil Plan ™!
Your objective is simple: World Domination.
Your motive is a little bit more complex: Money
Stage One
To begin your plan, you must first expose a rich and powerful ceo. This will cause the world to sit up and take notice, stunned by your arrival. Who is this evil genius? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good in a corporate suit?
Stage Two
Next, you will seize control of the White House. This will cause countless hordes of computer programmers to flock to you, begging to do your every bidding. Your name will become synonymous with evil, as lesser men whisper your name in terror.
Stage Three
Finally, you will demonstrate your great supernatural forces, bringing about something that's really metal. This will all be done from a Island of Mu, an excellent choice if we might say.
These three deeds will herald the end, and the citizens of this planet will have no choice but to elect you their new god.
Trust us, it'll all come together in the end.
"Nothing pays quite like evil." --beej
Compensation Is Down in Technology Land. Shrinking bonuses and underwater stock options have contributed to the first drop in technology workers' pay in at least five years. By Chris Gaither. [New York Times: Technology]
I can only imagine the kinds of conversations that are going on between employees that have been working for cash strapped companies and their managers. Good thing those C-level folks don't have to ask anybody for their raises.
What!?!? Don't look at me with that 'your just bitter' face. Never bitter. Only Better!
Why Gates Won't Apologize. Whatever the outcome of the Microsoft trial, don't expect Bill Gates to say he's sorry. By Amy Harmon. [New York Times: Technology]
Since Bill Gates and Microsoft are going to act like a four year olds, the judge has decided to treat them like one. The judge has brought in daycare workers to finish up the penalty portion of the trial.
The first action of the daycare workers has been to give Gates 30 minutes of quiet time, and to put Microsoft in a five year time-out. Sources close to the workers say they are considering suspending chocolate milk privileges as well.
Microsoft was not available for comment.
New 17" eMac from Apple! [MacSlash: A daily dose of Macintosh News and Discussion]
When Apple got out of the CRT business I figured that the fabled 17" iMac was never going to see the light of day. Well, I was wrong. Shows you what I know. Maybe I should stop pontificating about technology.
So I just spent about an hour getting a docbook toolchain going on my laptop. I decided to go the XSLT route instead of the DSSSL route, just because. I've got to get a handle on this XSL stuff or I'm going to be dead in the water one of these days.
If you are considering this, check out this page at "Apple" first. It has pretty much everything you need to get going.
The only real gotcha is that there is no sax.jar anymore. It is bundled inside of the xt.jar. If none of this makes sense to you, don't worry. All it really means is that I can take one special file and generate as many formats as I have drivers for.
I write one xml file, and from that I can go to html, pdf, rtf...you get the picture. Of course, it isn't good enough for "beej", since he wants to publish his own book. Picky bastard...
The Bears on This Message Board Had Enron Pegged. An academic study to be published this fall in The Journal of Investing indicates that chat rooms can contain valuable morsels for investors. By Gretchen Morgenson. [New York Times: Technology]
As they say, hindsight is 20/20. A person would be hard pressed to find the right information on a message board considering the very low signal to noise ratio that most have. Sure somebody may be tripping great inside information, but how is one to distinguish a gem from the cruft? Who would have time to track down the information or opinion in every post? This guy was going back looking for very specific information. That stuff is easy to find. The hard part is finding it when you need it.
I just saw Antoine Walker, of the Boston Celtics, make 7/7 from three point range in the first half of their game with the Philadelphia 76ers. That is just plain nuts.
Hey alternative, goth babe porn! Whhhhh...chicks with tattoos.now that's my kinda smut. [ModWheel]
Warning: they want to charge you money ;-)
Well, it's not a crock. There, I said it. HTML is not a crock, and anyone who tells you that it is either doesn't understand it or is trying to sell you something, or both. It's a structural markup language, and if you're trying to make it into something else, it's no wonder you hate it, because it really sucks at being anything else. And if you insist on treating it with no respect, then it will continue to give you grief, and you deserve it.
Hello, my name is Mark, and I'm an HTML purist.
[diveintomark]I've been trying to explain this to our design department since they day they were all hired. My side of the story goes something like this:
You see, HTML was designed as a structural markup language. It was designed to be a subset of SGML, so that it would be easy for people to use. It was always assumed that the user agent would render it however it needed to. There was never a spec for universal, pixel-perfect rendering. Stop thinking like this is Pagemaker, because you aren't working at a magazine anymore. There is no four color separation and you have to work at 72 dpi.
It still hasn't sunk in because they don't care what I have to do as long as it looks like their Photoshop comp. Which is something else that really chaps my hide, but that is a whole different post.
"The Life Cycle of Your Weblog" [Daypop Top 40]
This pretty much sums up my weblog. Oh well. Time to move on to more political wanking...
CNN.com - Nevada license tags depict atomic blast [Daypop Top 40]
We don't want your stinking spent nuclear fuel...but hey, come on...mushroom clouds look pretty darn cool.
Comforts of Home Yield to Tyranny of Digital Gizmos. Relatively simple devices that were once controlled by twisting a knob or pushing a button are now endowed with digital commands that can take hours to master. By Katie Hafner. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Digital Cable Remote...let me people go!
Bush Seeking to Squeeze School Loan Program. WASHINGTON, April 27 The Bush administration is seeking to ease its budget shortfalls by squeezing $1.3 billion from a huge federal student loan program, administration and Congressional officials said today. By Philip Shenon. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
The President most known for education is dipping into education money. What a shocker.
*sniff* *sniff* Smell that? That's sarcasm.
U.S. Blueprint to Topple Hussein Envisions Big Invasion Next Year. The administration is contemplating a major air campaign and ground invasion against Iraq, with initial estimates requiring 70,000 to 250,000 troops. By Thom Shanker and David E. Sanger. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Obviously you don't go announcing your military strategy a year in advance unless you are doing it to scare the crap out of someone. This is clearly one of those times. The only problem is that you generally can't scare insane people. Needless to say, I'm a bit confused.
Why would Bush try and scare somebody that has been thumbing his nose at us since the early 90s? But I'm sure that since Saddam made his dad look bad, something will happen in Iraq before Bush looses in 2004.
Yes, I'm calling my shot. Bush will loose in 2004. I don't know to who, but he will loose.
Arabs in Disguise Kill Four Jewish Settlers in the West Bank. Two Palestinian gunmen dressed as Israeli soldiers attacked while residents were relaxing on the Sabbath, killing four, including a 5-year-old girl. By James Bennet. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
"Obviously none of you can be trusted with guns, so I'm going to take them away from you."
I don't know exactly where this quote comes from, but it is sampled in the Consolidated song 'Tool and Die' which is about gun control. I'm not a huge backer of the idea to get rid of all the guns, because it isn't realistic. I'm not a huge backer of people being able to have rocket launchers because, well, that isn't realistic either.
Even if we took away all the guns, tanks, rockets, bombs, and grenades that were in Israel and Palestine...they would start killing each other with rocks and broken beer bottles.
The root problems must be addressed because we can't get rid of all the rocks in the Holy Land. I stole the last half of that line. I hope you like it.
The Hollings Bill isn't dead. More evidence that the ....
Fuck all these acronyms. It's simple. Hollywood just wants you to sit down and shut up and enjoy Dude Where's My Car Part 14. [ModWheel]
I snipped the big long rant that Kuch was referring to, mostly because his synopsis is dead on.
<% myCategories() %>
How angry are the Saudis?. After leaked threats to "use the oil weapon" and blunt talk at a Texas summit, a Mideast expert helps untangle diplomatic appearance and reality. [Salon.com]
William Quandt wrote a couple of books on the whole US/Saudi "thing" and seems to know the situation and the players very well. The "oil weapon" leak was to point out that even if in the talks they don't sound upset and demanding, they are. They are just too polite to state what they really feel or want. This was to get that message through and that things aren't as bad as what the leak might be hinting at.
I hope this guy is right.
Reuters | Breaking News from Around the Globe LAUGHLIN, Nev. (Reuters) - Members of rival motorcycle gangs opened fire on each other in a casino early on Saturday, leaving at least four dead and 11 wounded amid a gathering of tens of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts in a Nevada gambling town, authorities said. [ Reuters ]
Whoa. This is nuts. I guess if you cram enough whackos into a small enough area something is bound to break.
AP Corrects Overture Yahoo Story. SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) -- A Dow Jones/AP story on April 25 erroneously reported that Overture Services Inc. had lost $6.7 billion in the first quarter of last year. The correct figure was $6.7 million. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Technology]
Some typos hurt more than others.
Future Proof. 
D-Link also wants to be Future Proof! [TheFlangyNews News]
This sounds tasty! A wireless base station that supports 802.11b and 802.11a. So go buy this and then don't worry about which protocol "wins" and you are all good. It's probably cheaper than an Airport too.
Squirrels Invade Stanford University [Daypop Top 40]
In a sneak attack launched early this week, an elite group of commando squirrels has taken over the Stanford campus. We have not been able to establish the squirrel's motivation for this invasion. Some international squirrel analysts think that it may be related to invertebrate studies performed on squirrels at Stanford or as a retaliatory attack for the "Squirrel Fishing" incident at Harvard.
The squirrels took the campus fairly quickly and encountered little resistance. A Cal Berkeley representative quipped, "What a bunch of wussies." Casualty numbers are not known at this time.
Philips loses "all confidence" in BPDG consensus. A new Philips press release says Philips has "lost all confidence" in the BPDG consensus. In essence, through their... [Consensus at Lawyerpoint]
Philips is our best hope. They have already come out against technology that violates the Red Book standard. Which is easy for them since they are the ones you pay when you want to stamp that little CD Audio logo on your CD.
Will one company be enough to break the alliance of greed? Or is Philips simply the first company with the guts to come out against the BPDG? We shall soon see.
Here's how it works. In /css/print.css, I added this definition:
a:after { content: " (" attr(href) ")"; }
This is an example of CSS-generated content, and as I mentioned before, it is bleeding-edge (but harmlessly backward-compatible) CSS. The definition tells your browser that every time it sees an "A" tag (which is a link), put the following content after the end "A" tag:
- a space
- a left parenthesis
- the contents of the "A" tag's HREF attribute (this is the address the link points to)
- a right parenthesis
Well, I was impressed. Learn something new every day on WebDesign-L.
[diveintomark]Egypt ready to wage war on Israel ... for $US100 billion - smh.com.au [Daypop Top 40]
I hope this is just Egypt's way of pointing out that everyone wants to talk a good game, but nobody wants to front the cash for what would be a very, very bad military mistake. Bush has come out and said that we will not allow Israel to be crushed. I hope that Egypt doesn't want to go to war. They are still the only Arab country that still has a thin diplomatic tie to Israel.
Good to see that Bush's hands-off approach did a lot of good. Ari Fleisher sure does look like a moron for trying to pin this mess on Clinton "dragging" the parties to the negotiating table.
Bush Says U.S. Won't Let Israel Be Crushed. Urged by Saudi Arabia to temper support for Israel, President Bush said today that "we will not allow Israel to be crushed." By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
For some reason he still thinks he has some amount of control over what Sharon does. I think it has been made perfectly clear that Sharon doesn't give a damn what Bush says. The only thing that will get Sharon's attention is the withdrawal of aid. Bush cannot and will not do that. Sharon will continue to do whatever the hell he wants to do, all the while taking our money.
A heads-up to Radio users who are interested in the technology of root updates. We're getting ready to deploy a new updates system, one that's based on statically served files, not XML-RPC. [Scripting News]
Sign me up.
Hi, my name is Pat and I'm an upgrade junkie.
The Future of Ogg Vorbis [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
Reading at +5 brought up at least one good comment. Seems as if WinAMP snuck in Ogg support into the standard and full installs. Cool.
Camera Flashes Kill Nanotubes [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
The slaughter of innocent nanotubes must stop. There is no place in this world for the killing of nanotubes. We will rise to meet this challenge as we have with every previous challenge that we decided to meet at the last minute to try and gain political capital.
By the way...what is a nanotube?
Sony Defies Downturn, Thanks to PlayStation 2. Sony turned a profit in its last fiscal year, largely because of strong sales of its PlayStation 2 game console. By Ken Belson. [New York Times: Technology]
Interesting. Sony should keep its guard up though. This isn't the first time that Microsoft has come into a new venture with a poor showing. They will not die easily. Think Netscape vs. IE and WinCE vs Palm. Both Netscape and Palm were lax and allowed Microsoft to start whooping their asses.
Hopefully Sony will not make that same mistake.
"RIAA wants tax dollars to combat piracy" [Daypop Top 40] [ModWheel]
The RIAA wants tax money eh? Oh boy is this a great big steaming pile of shhhhhhhhhhh-aving cream! Hopefully Ford will follow suit and get tax money to stop VW Beetles from being made. Beetles are obviously cutting into Tarus sales, and Ford needs to be protected, preferably using public funds.
Kuch: Here's a list of far more beneficial peace negotiations and opportunities to give away $30 billion I can think of;
- Venezuala. They even have oil. We could help em fix thier economy.
- Columbia. Get the FARK guerillas and the government to the table.
- Take care of Abu Saayaf militants in The Phillipines.
- $30 billion for the poorest towns on the Mexican/American border. It would bring illegal immigration to a halt.
No money for Europe, no money for Israel, no money for the Middle East, no money for Japan. They don't need it.
House Panel Backs Bush Plan for Nevada Nuclear Waste Site. The House Energy and Commerce Committee endorsed a proposal today to put a nuclear waste site under Yucca Mountain. By David Stout. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Hey, at least Las Vegas is upwind from Yucca Mountain. What are they complaining about?
Is Programming a Dead End Job? [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
From one of the comments:
Real money always has been, and probably always will be, in starting a business and skimming off the top of other workers. Once you can pay other people less than you can get for their work, you have escaped the limit, and your "job" is no longer a dead-end.
sigh...
No comment.
Hewlett Chief Returns to the Witness Stand. Carly Fiorina answered charges that she strong-armed a big investor to vote in favor of the company's merger with Compaq. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Technology]
This is obviously false. There is no way Carly could strong-arm anyone. I bet she can't even bench anything over 200lbs!
Microsoft Executive Warns Court of Computer Frustration. Christopher Jones, in charge of Windows development, said Thursday that using a personal computer be frustrating under antitrust sanctions sought against Microsoft. By Reuters. [New York Times: Technology]
I find it amusing to think that Windows could be even more frustrating to use. Imagine, people having to install actual programs to do things. The pain!
The whole argument about hacking out IE seems silly to me. Both sides are using completely idiotic arguments.
Oh well...it's on the future of the PC at stake. Why worry?
House G.O.P. Moves to Abolish Immigration Agency. The House is poised to approve a bill today, endorsed by the White House and the attorney general, to abolish the I.N.S. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
The G.O.P. bill also proposes putting a sign on the Statue of Liberty to show the maximum occupancy of the United States as laid down by the U.S. Fire Marshall.
For Larvae Lovers, a Field Guide Online. Caterpillars changes shape up to 12 times between the pupal stage and butterflyhood. It cannot be preserved well, as it loses all of its colorful glamour if dried, and it doesn't fare much better if boiled and stored in alcohol. By Tina Kelley. [New York Times: Technology]
In other news, scientists have found a whole bunch of other things that sound completely obvious, but we couldn't think of any of them.
Gates Ends Testimony, Again Invoking Sanctity of Windows. Bill Gates acknowledged that the modular version of his company's Windows operating system that he has said would be impossible to produce is already being sold to some customers. By Amy Harmon. [New York Times: Technology]
Just because you sell something, doesn't mean it's real! Maybe he really meant to say that it is impossible to make a functional version of Windows but they sell a non-function one anyway because people keep buying the damn thing.
Goliath, Your Prints Are Ready. New inkjet printers offer the ability to make glossy, poster-size pictures at home. Is it time to rush out and buy a high-resolution digital camera? By David Pogue. [New York Times: Technology]
Thousands of would-be porno publishers will now have the power to print out their own skin mags.
I always thought that market needed more competition.
"find out if your pet is gay" [Daypop Top 40]
British researches have devised a new test to determine if your pet is gay. A similar test for members of the Royal family is also in the works.
CNN.com - Mr. Elmo goes to Washington - April 23, 2002 [Daypop Top 40]
In what can only be described as art imitating life, a puppet testified on Capitol Hill before the Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Mr. Elmo, or just Elmo as he prefers to be called, was urging that more money be spent on music research and musical instruments for school programs.
I knew those filthy Muppets™®© were behind it all!
So, I've decided to try and start moving the smaller posts, where I'm trying to be funny, off to their own category. I've called it "But first...Headlines!" It's just like The Daily Show, only not as funny.
How Green Is The White House? - April 29, 2001 At his confirmation hearings, Attorney General John Ashcroft pledged to enforce another Clinton-era policy--the "roadless rule," which protected 58.5 million acres of national forest land from development. At the very end of his term, Clinton passed the rule, leaving it for the Bush Administration to put into action. And Bush has kept it on the books. But when logging companies challenged the measure in court, the defense put up by Ashcroft's Justice Department was so ineffectual that the judge cited the Administration's arguments as supporting evidence when he put the roadless rule on hold. Environmentalists are appealing the decision, but so far, the Justice Department has offered them no help. [ CNN.com ]
Taxing Sci-Fi Products to Fund NASA? [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
It's funny all by itself.
G.O.P. Bill on Auditing Clears House. The House passed legislation Wednesday in an effort to address the accounting and financial-disclosure deceptions at Enron, but Democrats attacked it as a toothless measure. By Richard A. Oppel Jr.. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Democrats and Republicans don't agree on something? Say it ain't so!
Spyware Fights Back [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
Click here to have us erase all of our competitors software from your computer.
Tough Line on Serial Offenders. At the end of two days of meetings with Pope John Paul II, American cardinals tonight issued a set of proposals intended to help remove priests who abuse minors. By Melinda Henneberger. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
It looks like PJP has been watching too much WWF Smackdown! recently. Here is a brief snippet of his recent talks with US Cardinals.
PJP: So what do all you Cardinals think about this?
Caridnal #1: Well, we thi--
PHP: It doesn't matter what you think! Get your candy asses back to the states and stop being a bunch sissy marries!
Wow. The Pope really is taking a hard line on this one.
Sharon Suggests Arafat Could Go to the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday that he would consider letting Yasir Arafat slip out of the Israeli siege in Ramallah and move to the Gaza Strip. By James Bennet. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Something tells me that isn't the first place Sharon suggested that Arafat could go to.
Gates Says Windows Can Not Be Taken Apart. Microsoft's chairman said removing elements of Windows would be impossible as he finished being cross-examined by attorneys for nine states looking for harsher penalties for the company. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Technology]
Au contraire! I break Windows everyday, and I'm not just talking about the glass ones.
Going nuclear. A cornerstone of President Bush's welfare plan -- funding programs that push marriage -- is already getting heavy hype. [Salon.com]
Great. More people getting pushed into marriage before they are ready will probably spell even higher divroce rates in the future. As long as we have more married people while Bush is in office, when the divorce rate goes up on a Democrat's watch it will be great fodder for the GOP.
Who pays the highest price for this social policy?
How to build a successful web site.
I've tried to keep my HTML templates as small as possible. I just made a change to show an abbreviated version of my sidebar on archive pages (just internal links, no blogroll). And another change to move content off my home page more quickly (it now shows the full text of the 20 most recent posts, then just titles of the next 20). My home page is usually around 40K, daily archive pages around 15K. Including graphics.
[diveintomark]Mark is the web developer that I aspire to be. Well, I mean, I aspire to be as good as he is. I don't know if I really want to be Mark.
The Jakarta Site - JSPA Agreement Sun has pledged to use licenses that enable open source independent implementations for all its Java specifications and Test Compatibility Kits. Sun has pledged this for all future Sun-led Java specifications as well as key specifications already released. [ The Jakarta Site ]
How did I miss this?
AOL Time Warner Reports $54 Billion Loss. AOL Time Warner reported a net loss of $54.24 billion for its first quarter today, due to a massive balance sheet writedown mandated by new accounting rules. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
How do you lose $54.24 billion? Where does that go? Into the accounting ether, so to speak? Of course, if it is a matter of doing this for one quarter and not facing an Enron situation later that would shut the company down, I guess I can understand that. But why were they cooking their books like this to being with?
It's a two part answer. The first part is show a profit at all costs. The second part is the classic excuse that everyone else was doing it.
Forget HTML, CSS, RSS, XML, OPML, Google boxes, and auto-linkbacks.
Want a better weblog? Read Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.
Don't worry Mark, I'm just joking. Mostly. 8-)
I probably fall somewhere in between Dogma 2000 and at least attempting to have coherent and somewhat correct writing. Yes, correct writing is a highly relative term. You all know what I mean.
LM Orchard: "When subscribed to 100+ RSS feeds, it's like I'm floating in this N-dimensional space where I can overhear voices from hundreds of rooms without being overwhelmed. When something triggers some of my mental filters and watchwords, I click the link and delve deeper." [Scripting News]
This guy is way ahead of me. I can barely keep up with the small number of feeds that I have.
The Register: IE-6 privacy solution backfires.
"The privacy features added in IE6 to help protect a user's privacy by giving them direct control over cookie management allows any site to read any other site's cookies, in effect removing all privacy. Further, this hole extends to other protocols, allowing you to execute arbitrary commands on the user's machine as well as take over MSN Messenger," Larholm told us.
More details on this "universal cross-site scripting" bug.
[diveintomark]Okay, this is really, really bad. But fear not, for Microsoft is going to make security priority #1 in the future...which future I don't know.
"REUTERS: Italy Doctor Says Three Cloned Pregnancies Exist " [Daypop Top 40]
This is really too bad that people are going ahead with this. There have been so many problems with the animal tests that I really don't know if it's right to do this with human beings.
My cousin Cindy Daley worked on a calf cloning project at CSU Chico. There are all kinds of problems and many more that we don't even know about yet.
I'm all for progress, but this seems like jumping the gun a bit.
Political Ratings Trends Show Bush, Powell, Rumsfeld Still Rate High Attorney General John Ashcroft's marks went up from March's 57% positive to the current 61% positive. [ Boston.com ]
It looks like we still have a lot of work to do.
Karen Hughes Finds Her Ruby Slippers by James Ridgeway These are promising days in general for the Christian crusaders in Washington. Religious zealots prey on fear and anxiety, while war stirs up religious fervor and patriotism. In this case all the more so since the foe is identified by religion. It is increasingly clear that the Bush administration wants to erode the separation of church and state.
At the forefront of the attack is Attorney General John Ashcroft?now also the point man for anti-terrorism. This gives him all the more power to attack Muslims, whom the Christian right already has bluntly identified as needing to be stamped out, and to weaken the Constitution, a secular document for which he has scant respect.
The first goal of the administration is to pass legislation that allows the government to fund church-based institutions as the vehicle for social welfare programs now carried out by the government. As a senator, Ashcroft backed legislation to permit limited use of federal funds by faith-based institutions, an idea he supported again as attorney general. [ The Village Voice ]
Robert Scoble: "I'd probably side with Microsoft on this one." [via 99% of Gargoyles]
Any OS that doesn't include HTML rendering technologies today would be pretty lame. Hence, if they [Microsoft] are forced to remove those from the OS, my experience would be lessened. I -- as a consumer -- would be harmed.
Why? Cause I'd need to go and download an AOL browser.
Which monopoly would I rather deal with? Bill Gates or Steve Case's?
See also: Stephen's Guide to Logical Fallacies: False Dilemma. "A limited number of options (usually two) is given, while in reality there are more options. A false dilemma is an illegitimate use of the 'or' operator."
[diveintomark]Scott Mace: "How many of you reading this have experienced Launch.Com?" [Scripting News]
Before the RIAA lawsuit, Launch was very smart about giving me what I wanted to hear. You could even set moods of music to listen to. It was great. Now I've ditched that and gone to some crazy jukebox software sitting on top of my personal collection taken from CDs that I own.
Links
Mike Deem: "The people who run Microsoft could decide to delete all the source code and go home. Microsoft is a private enterprise run for fun and profit. If you take the fun and profit out of it, why bother?" [Scripting News]
Of course they could! But they won't. There is too much money involved, and Microsoft is a public company that has to answer to shareholders and the SEC, not just the whims of geeks who want to write code. If Mr. Gates decided to shut the doors and delete all the code his wealth would quickly go down the toilet of shareholder class action lawsuits. Shareholders are a fickle bunch, they expect a return on their investment. They tend to not give a crap whether you are having "fun" or not. This is one price of becoming a public company.
Now to the other topic: Is it only fun when you break the law and then bitch and moan about how the penalty is going to hurt? Microsoft should zip it, take it on the chin and show everyone how they will overcome this penalty using "innovation" and providing what customers want. Or can't they do that?
Gates Says Court Ruling Could Doom Windows System. Bill Gates said Microsoft would have to remove Windows from the market if the court adopted one of the crucial proposals of the states seeking tougher sanctions against it. By Amy Harmon. [New York Times: Technology]
Didn't anyone tell Mr. Gates that they lost? Go ahead, I'll call your bluff Mr Gates. Take windows off the market and then try and sell your cash cow Office which gasp will need a new version of Windows to run. Go on Bill. I double dog dare you.
Valenti redoubles rhetoric. Jack Valenti of the MPAA has delivered some very impressive testimony with a tremendous amount of Valenti's trademark (or should... [Consensus at Lawyerpoint]
The EFF is about to post Valenti's 1982 testimony on VCRs. They said is sounds like a complete re-run of his current testimony.
Go EFF!
XFree86 10 Years Old [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
What? And they are only one major version 4!?!? Slackers!
I've got 4.2.0-5 installed on my TiBook thanks to fink.
Flash News Flash: It's Accessible [Daypop Top 40]
Flash can do a little better at being accessible, as long as you use the new version MX. Great. Neat.
Printing is still a pain. How about bookmarks? Do I have to have an ActionScript solution just to give the user the ability to bookmark a section of a movie?
Moving an entire site to Flash seems like a bad idea to me. But that must be because I'm not looking forward. I'm too "old school" to really accept anything new. I mean, boo.com did great, right?
Joe Gregorio: Details on my CSS based Radio theme. "I have uploaded a zip of all my files that make up my site ... Note that this is not as easy as installing other themes for Radio."
[diveintomark]Cool. I need to get on this. I'm starting to see the Woodlands Radio theme everywhere. I gotta stake my own claim already!
Gates Says Windows Updates Threatened. Antitrust penalties would keep Microsoft from releasing timely security updates to Windows, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Nothing like a thinly veiled threat to really stress the fact that Microsoft is a monopoly, was convicted, and will use it's monopoly power to try and not get bitch-slapped by the government.
Nat Friedman talks of Ximian, Gnome, and Red Carpet [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
This is a really good interview. The comments even go in an interesting direction. Of course the #1 topic when Evolution is mentioned is hooking it up to Exchange, or making a Free Exchange.
The issue with making an Exchange is a complicated one. It would have to be approached like the Samba project, and provide a service that to the normal user looked exactly like a real Exchange server. This would be hard. It is not impossible, just very hard.
Microsoft would be sure to continually release "security upgrades" that somehow managed to break the way Outlook would hook up to a Free Exchange server, just as they have done with Samba.
The other problem is that most of the IT guys who run the Exchange servers wouldn't even bother installing a Free Exchange server. I know a ton who think it's a great product. Why would they want to go with one that is going to be continually broken by Microsoft and getting them yelled at even more than they are now? The answer is that they aren't. With file and print serving, it was a bit simpler. This isn't to knock the Samba project at all, who are going full tilt in supporting Primary Domain Controllers and Active Directory. I can't even imagine how hard that is. But you could put up a Samba print/file server and it pretty much just worked.
Exchange is a different beast entirely. I know because I have to run one. I'm still using 5.5 because we don't want to spend the money to upgrade, and I have no clue how to transition the server really. I'm not certified in any way, shape or form. I just got handed a box with Exchange one day and was told to install it.
Anyway, back to making a Free Exchange. Bad idea. Ximian has the right idea for the time being, make Evolution hook up to Exchange. It is easier to deal with hooking up to one server, than to deal with writing a server that will have hundreds of fubar'ed Outlook clients trying to connect to. It's hard enough using the real Exchange and real Outlook clients, from my point of view.
rc3.org Daily John Brewer: Some Useful Free Software for Java Developers. I use most of the tools on his list, except for the testing stuff, which I really ought to be using.
I've used a few of these. Back when I was able to use java that is. But I have never, ever been able to figure out Emacs. I just can't wrap my head around it. If it weren't for people like "beej" I would start to think that you can't be a real developer unless you grok Emacs.
;-)
They just release more greatest hits and live compilations. The latest is Ministry with Sphinctour. Oh the word play they use!
Now I have to ask myself, do I really need another live version of Just 1 Fix?
Yeah...probably not.
Key commands for the Dock. Apple: Key commands for the Dock [TheFlangyNews News]
Ah, now this is a tasty doc!
You can learn a lot about your HTML coding by running your page source through HTML Tidy. HTML Tidy can insert end tags, add missing DOCTYPEs, convert legacy or proprietary tags, clean up the mess that Word outputs when "saving as HTML", warn of common accessibility problems (like missing ALT tags), auto-indent like the example above... even migrate your entire web page to XHTML. It's an amazing little utility, and it's open source.
[diveintomark]Indeed. Tidy is also great for reformatting html output from openjade. The output from openjade is less than readable. Of course, I know that you aren't supposed to need to tweek the output, but it sure is a lot easier when you are looking to see how the output is changing when you make tweeks to your DSSSL stylesheets.
Bush Faces Sustained Dissension on the Right Democrats hoping to run for president in 2004 have rushed in, with Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) telling Florida Democrats last weekend, "We've beaten a George Bush with 80 percent approval ratings before. Just ask Bill Clinton." [ Washington Post ]
Wow. A democrat dropping the name of Bill Clinton. Amazing!
Whatever. Lieberman better not run or the dems are going to get crushed in 2004. Lieberman could barely beat Dan Quayle. I think it's Gore or nothing. I don't really see anyone else who people would give a damn about. Plus, Gore knows how to loose an election already...maybe he can learn from his mistakes. Plus, but then it won't be a mortal sin to utter the words, "Bill Clinton." Maybe...
John Ashcroft's Holy War More important, the right-to-die case goes far beyond a simple state statute. It's an attempt by Ashcroft to use the power of the Justice Dept. -- the nation's highest law enforcement agency -- to impose his own religious values on well-meaning people who do not share them. [ Business Week Online ]
Looks like even Business Week is onto what Ashcroft is trying to do. It's good to see more mainstream media, especially a publication like Business Week, take Ashcroft to task for being the man who continually tried to blur the line between church and state.
This Modern World. A scientific explanation of the Mideast crisis. [Salon.com]
NYT Random Login Generator. Paste the address of a New York Times article, then click "Register and Go!" This is why I love the Internet. We all know everybody lies on registration forms anyway; this just automates the process. (And by "everyone", I mean 26.2% of Internet users in 1996, 51.4% in 1998, and you can extrapolate from there. And even if you didn't lie the first time, you sure as heck did after you got that new laptop, or changed jobs, or had a major hard drive crash, or whatever.)
[diveintomark]Maybe now I can convince people to stop trying to squeeze information out of people on the websites we build. Yeah, I didn't think so either...
Bush and Gore Use Earth Day to Show Commitment to Environment. President Bush and his political rival, former Vice President Al Gore, used Earth Day to declare their commitment to the environment today, but they were many miles apart ideologically. By David Stout. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
Anyone who thinks that after the Earth Day pressure is gone that Bush will still be a friend to the environment clearly has been exposed to paint fumes in an enclosed space without sufficient ventilation.