June 2002 Archives
I, Cringely | The Pulpit [Daypop Top 40]
You know.. ahh fuk it. If M$ wants to own everything in the world, with the exception of the stuff that the record companies and Hollywood own, let them have it. Maybe we can all go back to running WWIV BBS machines. I would like to think that the Internet is too big to control at this point. Until more people stop using Windows as a desktop OS, you can never be too sure. [ModWheel]
Maybe Kuch has hit it here... Windows is a desktop OS. Windows doesn't control the main traffic-flow points on the net. Can we use that as an advantage, or is it all about the apps. If M$ controls the apps, they control the users and hence it won't matter?
Any ideas?
From the NYT article:
"It makes it sound that every woman west of the Mississippi was a prostitute," said Grace Shore, the Republican chairwoman of the Texas State Board of Education. "The book says that there were 50,000 prostitutes west of the Mississippi. I doubt it, but even if there were, is that something that should be emphasized? Is that an important historical fact?"
Apparently she doesn't like two paragraphs out of a 1,000 page book. Since when did history become something you had to like? I thought history was supposed to be a factual representation of the past. Of course, I know, that the history books are written by the winners, but this seems a bit silly. Perhaps if she had done some fact checking of her own and came up with different figures I could understand the opposition. Ah, but that would require effort now wouldn't it. But surely she isn't trying to imply that there were only 50,000 women west of the Mississippi. It's very poor argument for getting a book tossed from the list in my opinion.
Of course coming from a state that co-opted an anti-littering campaign to mean that they will shoot you if you look at them funny, it shouldn't really suprise me.
I'm sure Bill Hicks is looking at this, shaking his head and is about to scream, "Haven't you people figured it out yet!"
From Tom Tomorrow:
But I have nonetheless managed to annoy pretty much everyone over the past fifteen years at one point or another. In short, I probably have more experience with this sort of thing than you. And I'll tell you this: there's a nastiness out there right now the likes of which I have never seen--and which I think you dismiss, in your sensible neocon centrism, at your own considerable risk.
At work the other day I was enjoying a conversation between Fred and Cory about Nixon. Fred stated that by today's standards Nixon would be a liberal democrat. Alex P. Keaton of course did a spit-take and spun in his TV grave when that was uttered. None the less, it got me thinking and I went a did a bit of digging.
First, the Supreme Court.
It breaks down like this for Presidential appointments:
- Reagan: 3 appointments
- Bush #41: 2 appointments
- Carter, Clinton, Ford, and Nixon: 1 appointment
Many of Nixon's federal justice appointments are quite liberal. Check who appointed the 9th Circuit justice who write the opinion for the recent Pledge of Alligiance decision.
Second, my own literary bias.
I read a lot of Hunter S. Thompson. He had a read love/hate relationship with Nixon. At least they both liked football. After reading about Watergate and all the other stories about Nixon, I never really thought about him as a liberal. I'm not the only one to reconsider Nixon though.
Third, what's my point?
Fred basically said that the country has undergone a massive shift to the right and it started with Reagan. Maybe Nixon wasn't a liberal at the time, but by today's standards he would be more liberal than most of the current house democrats. Fred even said that Clinton was more conservative than Nixon. This shook me up a bit.
Have the liberals been totally wiped out? Am I the only one who sees the painful irony in "small goverment" Bush making the largest political bureaucracy this nation has ever seen, or how his "no new taxes" father signed one of the largest tax increases this county has ever seen?
What is so appealing about the conservative view that would make people disregard such discretions? Is it simply selfishness? Is it greed?
What boggles my mind is that during an extreme crisis, like Sept. 11, people across the land did everything they could to help out. By either donation time, or money, or whatever, help poured out of this nation. Why does it take a horrible tragedy to show that we all do care about one another? Right after that horrible day Clinton and Dole were together raising money for the families of the victims.
Maybe I just have no real grasp of the political compass these days.
My score:
- Economic Left/Right: -5.62
- Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.87
Where is Nixon on this chart?
So I made the bad decision to watch part of Fox News Sunday. What a load of rubbish. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for opinions and debate. What I'm not for is the tactic of telling a lie enough that it becomes "fact" in the eyes of the public.
The topic was the US calling for elections and saying that Arafat can't win or we will take our peace ball and go home. One outnumbered talking head was trying to say that we had no place in telling people who they could and couldn't elect and that we would throw a hissy if somebody said the same thing to us.
The same poor talking head also pointed out that Sharon was regarded as a terrorist is many parts of the world and then it all went to hell.
Fox News: We listen to other opinions as long as they are ours.
I shouldn't complain too much, I have to option to turn it off, and I did. You are probably still amazed that I didn't know better to turn on Fox News ;-)
Israel Said to Begin Dismantling Two Illegal Settlements. Israeli security forces began to remove two settler outposts today shortly after Israel's defense minister vowed to remove 10 of rogue settlements by Monday. By Reuters. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
I have to admit I was pretty floored to hear this. I wonder how much pressure we had to exert to get something like this done? Bush has been calling for an end to things like this for quite some time now. Does Sharon really want a peace agreement?
I like to rate movies based on how much money I would be willing to pay to see it again knowing what I know now.
Opening night means that I would be willing to put up will all the fanboy goons that will be there on opening night. Of course there will be long lines for tickets and we will get crappy front row seats.
Full price. Not quite worth going on opening night but still worth going at night, when you should be going to movies.
Matinee. Not worth paying full price, so you have to manage to go in the afternoon somehow.
Rental. Don't bother with the theatre. You can wait till it comes out on video.
Only if somebody else rents it. You can watch it if it's free.
I'm sorry, this is just too classic not to post...
Banks win delay of credit card warning. Last-minute lawsuit stalls state law on minimum payments [San Francisco Chronicle]
Kat and I are done with this mess. These companies will no longer be sucking any blood out of us. As far as the law and why the oppose it at the last minute, that's an odd one.
The law basically says that they have to tell people what paying the minimum every month will do to them as they spend more and more. Honestly I don't know why they are worried, they know better than anyone that America has no fiscal sense.
For Bush Daughters, (Night) Life Isn't Fair (washingtonpost.com) [Daypop Top 40]
Where is Rush Limbaugh to hound the Bush twins and call them lushes? Oh wait, he only picks on Clinton's daughter. Oh wait, only one is a lush, or so they say. Never mind...
This must be a ploy of the Liberal Media conspiracy!
Do I think the Bush twins should be left out of the media? Yes. Am I being hypocritical by propagating this story. Probably. Does it piss me off that Chelsea Clinton took a lot more hateful attacks from the likes of Rush? You bet. Is this some thinly veiled attemt to get even? Yeah, right. I'm the one who is going to teach them all a lesson. By golly I'll show them!
Can I be hypocritical by pointing out hypocracy?
Clicks for mammograms. Meg sez: "The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on
it daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day
to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site
and click on 'Fund Free Mammograms' for free (pink window in the middle).
(There is nothing to sign up for and no cost to you.) The corporate
sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate a mammogram in
exchange for advertising."
I dug around on Snopes and the About.com Urban Legends database and it appears that these folks are on the up-and-up. I think it's a rotten idea to publicize this with a chain letter (the original note asks you to tell ten friends and ask them to do the same), but the principle is sound. I just went and did my clicks; if you like this idea, why don't you do it, too?
(Thanks, Meg!) [Boing Boing Blog]
Bush Will Be Sedated for Colonoscopy Tomorrow. President Bush said today he would undergo a colon examination on Saturday and would briefly transfer the powers of the presidency to Vice President Dick Cheney. By David Stout. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
unforbidden shadows of you formed yesterday
i ran away to a room here on the bay
interrupted life again, another new beginning
where the silence echoes you're no longer with mehere and now, i feel that i'm embracing freedom
even though i may be alone, but that's okthrough the darkness i would walk in the streets
confessions never seemed to provide me with a release
held me down and tried to cure me tried to give me reason
but nothing could separate this burdened mind from mehere and now, i feel that i'm embracing freedom
even though i may be alone, but that's ok
and looking out to a different sky will disengage me
absence is never the answer, i know, but it serves as my shadei do not seek and do not intend to find
a calmer ocean or a sun that will never rise
my world will never change and time will bring you to my thoughts
and i'll move on and then forget you all over again
moving on, i can forgive you all over againhere and now, i feel that i'm embracing freedom
even though i may be alone, but that's ok
and looking out onto a different sky it seems so easy
absence is never the answer, i know, but it serves as my shade
God stoppers. The 9th Circuit judges who struck down the Pledge may be the most unpopular people in America right now. There's just one catch: They're right.
It sucks that the decision was stayed simply because people are having a hissy fit. What if this had happened during Roe v. Wade? If you don't like it, bring another court case to challenge the decision. That is how the system works. Well, at least that's the way it used to work.
Harper's Index for fair use freedom fighters. The DMCA Index: Harper's-style index of DMCA factoids:
1. Amount Cornell University Library pays for subscription to "Journal of Applied Polymer Science": $12,495.002. Amount charged to University Libraries for subscription to "Journal of Economic Studies": $13.40/page
3. Number of people who find the $13.40 per page ironic: 3 out of 4
4. Number of Project Gutenberg Etexts converted by voluteers: 3,551
5. Current "Cost" per Etext based on 3,481 texts: $2.87 per text
6. Number of Scientists worldwide boycotting Corporate Science Journals beginning September 2001: 26,000
7. Number of college and research institutions "Declaring Independence" by publishing themselves: 200
8. Number of days DMCA arrestee Dmitry Sklyarov spent in jail: 13
9. Number of jails he spent them in: 4
10. Amount charged to taxpayers for those 13 days: $4,000
(Thanks, Fiona!) [Boing Boing Blog]
The dogs name is Timmy. How cool is that? TIMMAHY! Here is the link, but it's a popup slideshow thing it comes up a bit funky.
$5 GG Bridge toll just one step away. Final vote Friday on plan that also hikes Fastrak fee [San Francisco Chronicle]
So let me get this straight...
Revenue is down. So we are going to raise the toll by $2. Are we sure that the higher tolls wont force more people into the money loosing buses and ferries?
Kat and I both have FastTrak, so at least we will only get dinged for $4 a shot. Joy.
The Wrong Ruling on Vouchers. The Supreme Court's decision on school vouchers was a bad decision on constitutional grounds, and a bad one for American education. [New York Times: Opinion]
Bitter Java - Ugo! You can get it free in PDF form from The ServerSide from today. (some people like paper - so do I - but sometimes a PDF is just as useful) [Be Blogging] [rebelutionary]
Judge in pledge case puts brakes on ruling. 'Under God' uproar prompts 3-line order for delay pending full appeals court hearing [San Francisco Chronicle]
It's fun to note that Goodwin, who wrote the appeals court decision, was appointed by Richard M. Nixon. Who, in my mind, has always been one of the great liberal minds of the 20th century.
Did I really just write that?
How the Constitution works. Howard J Bashman explains how the Constitution works simply enough, for those who don't yet understand:
(more ...) [rc3.org]
Rafe is really lit up over the latest political shenanigans, and rightfully so.
Day 15: Defining keyboard shortcuts.
One of the least known features of HTML is the accesskey attribute for links and forms, which allows the web designer to define keyboard shortcuts for frequently-used links or form fields. On Windows, you can press ALT + an access key; on Macintosh, you can press Control + an access key. If the access key is defined on a link, your browser will follow the link; if defined on a form field, your browser will set focus on that field. Internet Explorer has supported access keys since version 4, Netscape since version 6. Older browsers simply ignore them, with no harmful effect.
No free day today. Oh well. Hopefully the Radio macros for feedback will be updated to take an accesskey parameter. Hopefully somebody at userland is putting all these tips in the templates that ship with Radio. Or is that something that somebody on the outside should do?
With a little help from Kim, I've manage to ramble out a small essay on the whole 'religious freedom fever' thing that has gripped our little country.
"Everybody Needs Freedom"
Like a lot of my work, it's a bit ranty.
'Under God': A Decision That Jolted America. `Under God': A Decision That Jolted America To the Editor:. [New York Times: Opinion]
Not too much of a shocker there. Many letters, some pro, most con...nearly all well reasoned.
growth?. Yeah, maybe this is positive development. Got the Personal Weblogger set up so that I could share my worthless ideas with you, just like all the other bored, boring, and mindless idiots out there. Misery loves company, I suppose. [Infinitely Maybe]
First things first though. Fix your rss feed so that it makes full links instead of relative one.
So this: http://www.maybe.org/?wl_start=4 instead of this: ?wl_start=4.
Cool?
Mark Staben says that the Sony laptops support Firewire, so it's lucky -- that's what my laptop is. So after trying to get my Mac cube to boot (it didn't) I'll think I'll go that route. I'm going to try using Media Four's software for Windows. Just took a look at the Vaio. There's no obvious way to connect a Firewire device. I'm sure Firewire is nice and fast, but as I've said before this product should be OS independent, and use HTTP and be done with it. 
[Scripting News]
Geez, I wonder what Dave did to the cube to make it not boot. I'll go easy, he has had a rough couple of weeks ;-)
Technically the iPod isn't OS dependent, but it is IEEE1394 and HFS dependent. So you need the right hardware to plug it in and the right software to read the filesystem and then you are, for the most part, good to go. Now the software the Apple makes for the iPod is OS dependent, but then most software is, to some degree at least.
Here I am working at the EFF trying to do good. Now all around me I see how badly the 'good fight' is actually going.
All that and the router in front of our web server seems to be fried at the moment.
Now playing: 1000 Homo DJs - Apathy
Leave "The Pledge" alone. The Ninth Circuit's official sponsorship of atheism is as repugnant to our tradition of tolerance as official sponsorship of religion. [Salon.com]
One nation under Zeus. 'Nuff said.
Sprint Says Its Accounting Is Complete and Accurate. OVERLAND PARK, (Reuters) - Sprint(FON.N) (PCS.N) said on Wednesday it is not under any Securities and Exchange Commission investigations, does not have any ``off-balance sheet'' liabilities, and that its accounting is complete and accurate. By Reuters. [New York Times: Technology]
Now companies do press releases when they don't lie. Great...
"Cartoonists feeling patriotic gag" [Daypop Top 40]
Will history look back in shame at us? We look back at the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII as sad time in our country. At least I do, and the US govt had to apologize and fork over cash to show they meant it.
How will Bush's attempts to crush real freedom be looked at in the future. I know how it looks now. It looks really bad.
I used to feel like I wasn't doing anything about it, other than voting. But at least now I feel like I'm doing some good by working at the EFF, and yet I still feel so hopeless at times.
Day 14: Adding titles to links.
What with weblogs being all about links, you would think more people would know about the title attribute, but I rarely see it. For those who don't know, all links can have a title, specified by the title attribute of the tag. This is in addition to whatever link text you specify. The title of a link generally shows up as a tooltip in visual browsers, but it can be presented in non-visual browsers as well.
[dive into mark]
Cool. Another free day. BBEdit has really nice tools that make writing HTML the right way very easy.
I think this is the first time we've released anything. This isn't the whole band mind you, just "beej" and I screwing around one night at the office after we had too much beer. I'm on "vocals" and beej is on everything else, including crack.
F.T.C. Says Kids are Gambling on Web Sites. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many gambling Web sites lack adequate safeguards and warnings to prevent children and teenagers from placing illegal bets, federal regulators said Wednesday. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Technology]
As long as they stay in the black, right? Teach them how to work the system early, right?
Foxes guarding the chicken coop. President Bush's nominees to the agency that should have regulated Enron instead helped write the rules that let the company do whatever it wanted in the first place. [Salon.com]
It's sad when we actually expect things like this from our leaders.
Public Defender Denied for Suspected American Taliban. A federal appeals court ruled today that a public defender cannot represent an American citizen who is suspected of being a Taliban fighter. By Katharine Q. Seelye. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
More from the article:
He added that he knew of no previous cases that said it was wrong to interrogate an enemy combatant who had been captured on the battlefield. "This has been done in every war that I know of," the judge said.
There has been no legal declaration of war. No, this is not a technicallity. In order to violate certain liberties we must be in a declared state of war, not just when Bush feels like it. That's why we have a constitution, laws, and courts. How can a judge not get this?
I understand the need to get information out of the detainees. So if we are at war, why aren't they P.O.W.s? The administration is wanting it both ways and don't want to have to make touch decisions on where they stand. They want to do what ever they want and not have any questions asked. Well, they are in the wrong country for that.
In what situation do you forfeit all of your rights? If they fought against America, try them for treason. You can't just sit there and not do anything because you don't have a case and don't want to let them go. That just isn't the way it works and we shouldn't be showing the rest of the world that we have a double-standard when it comes to human rights.
Everybody Just Peace Off / Not really at war, not really at peace -- how do we ever know anymore? Take right now. We are at war. Or rather, they tell us we are at war, despite how Congress never approved it and the enemy is an abstract concept and it still feels like peace and everyone is operating more or less like we're at peace and we function essentially the same on a day-to-day basis. [SFGate.com]
Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist, writes The Morning Fix, which I read every day even though at times it can be very, very depressing. Most of the time it's pretty funny though. It's like a dirtier, text-only version of The Daily Show.
While this column is some what depressing, it at least makes you think about how we can drag ourselves out of the mire.
Federal appeals court rules Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because of words `under God' "A profession that we are a nation `under God' is identical, for Establishment Clause purposes, to a profession that we are a nation `under Jesus,' a nation `under Vishnu,' a nation `under Zeus,' or a nation `under no god,' because none of these professions can be neutral with respect to religion," Judge Alfred T. Goodwin wrote for the three-judge panel. [SFGate.com]
What can one say but "wow" or "what took them so long."
It always seemed like a brain-dead decision to me. Maybe they just needed the right case.
So I'm working hard with lynx now. Looking pretty good. Man, I haven't used lynx in a long time.
So what did I miss? 'lynx' the program doesn't seem to come installed anymore. Ah, seems 'links' is where it's at now. Ascii tables...oh my.
Okay, it's seems as though the imageref macro doesn't like alt:"". Dang. I was hoping to make all the shim.gifs show up as nothing in lynx.
wtf... alt:"-" isn't good enough either?
"An opportunity and a test". The full text of President Bush's remarks on the Middle East. [Salon.com]
Like anything from Bush is heavy...
Legalizing Attacks on P2P Networks [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
This is so silly. I should laugh, but I'm a little too scared right now. To use a bit of hyperbole, just for fun, let's make it legal to steal the identity of car theives. Let's see how they like it when their credit card gets stolen and run up! Oh wait, the consumer pays for that too?
Let's make it legal to kill business executives that cook books and lie to investors? Oh wait, they contribute too much to get politicians elected. That will never pass. Let's make it legal to kick developers in the shins when we find a bug in their software!
Sigh...
Yahoo to End Broadcasting Services. Yahoo is scrapping two free broadcasting services: FinanceVision, which provided streaming video clips with business and stock news, and a radio channel that came with its acquisition of Broadcast.com. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Technology]
I never understood why they bought that crap in the first place. Don't you love being an arm-chair business person? ;-)
The one thing I didn't see in the story was anything aboutLaunch other than they ppicked it up for a cool $12 million. Broadcast.com cost them $5 billion and change.
Cuban is probably still trying to control his laughter...
Where was I? Oh yes...Launch. When I heard that Yahoo! was about to buy Launch I was stoked because I thought this would make it better. I was really into Launch at the time because it played what I wanted. I could rate every song and know that the next song would be closer to what I wanted to hear. I heard a lot of new music that I really liked while getting to hear music that I already knew that I liked.
So of course, they were sued by the "RIAA". But even before that they were having bandwidth issues. I knew Yahoo! could solve that.
Unfortunately Yahoo! didn't solve anything for Launch, well except the bandwidth issue, and the lawsuit crippled the only part of the service that made it worth using.
I miss the old Launch.
WorldCom Says It Hid Expenses, Inflating Cash Flow $3.8 Billion. The future of the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier is in doubt after it disclosed what may be one of the largest cases of false corporate bookkeeping yet. By Simon Romero and Alex Berenson. [New York Times: Technology]
It's like a sick competition now... Who can tell the biggest lies, who can cook their books the best (worst?)? Was there some corporate book BBQ that we missed? Where will it end?
"Rafe" also has some thoughts.
Cool. Free day for me!
Mark continues:
[dive into mark]
Don't even get me started on those dynamic Javascript-based menu systems. They make you look cool like smoking makes you look cool. Use real links.
Totally. The problem I had with designers, at least the ones I used to work with, was they wanted to get all the "clutter" of navigation out of the way. Of course I always fought for a simple navigation system because the simplest rule is to not make the user work to hard or they will leave. The one exception is that you have something so friggin' cool they will overlook your horrible interface. Of course, all the clients I did sites for thought they had tthat exception. Too bad they were wrong.
"Bush is rewarding terrorism" [Daypop Top 40]
This guy's opinion is pretty out there.
He should have told the Palestinians clearly and unequivocally that their 21-month campaign of violence against Israel is unacceptable and must conclude before any discussion of rewards can be started.
While Hamas and Islamic Jihad (and the Popular People's Front of Judiah) are fighting for Palestine, they are not Palestine. They don't want a peace agreement. They want it all and are willing to do anything to stop it. They want the elimination of Isreal. A peace agreement will do nohting close to what they want.
But at the end of the article we find out what is driving the author's logic:
By rewarding terrorism, the Bush speech sets back the current war effort; by misunderstanding the Palestinian-Israeli war, it is rendered unworkable as a serious effort at conflict resolution. In all, it represents a disappointment and a missed opportunity.
The war effort? The Palestinian-Israeli war? I guess with the War on Terrorism we have opened the door to undeclared wars.
He is right about one thing though. Bush's plan will likely not get to it's end goal since the bar is set so high that it can never be reached.
Judge Enters Plea of Not Guilty for Moussaoui. Zacarias Moussaoui told the federal judge today that she was using trickery to "prepare me for the gas chamber." By Neil A. Lewis. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
This guys only hope is that he gets this trial thrown out because of how stupid he is being. Too much L.A. Law and Alley McBeal for this guy...
Do we have to?
The Reality Thing. Where others might see problems, the Bush administration sees opportunities. By Paul Krugman. [New York Times: Opinion]
From the article:
It's interesting to note that the planned Department of Homeland Security, while of dubious effectiveness in its announced purpose, will be protected against future Colleen Rowleys: the new department will be exempted from both whistle-blower protection and the Freedom of Information Act.
But President Bush, you can be above the law.
I am the law!
Does Congress or the President decide what is or isn't protected by FOIA?
Thanks to Ajax for the link.
Where did it all start? Where did it come from?
From Y.B. Normal
This is, in fact, wrong. Hamas has a very clear agenda it sells. That it is possible, through a terror war of attrition, to destroy the state of Israel and take its place.
This is response to my post about Breaking Terrorist.
The recent story about the woman bomber who bailed at the last minute is what came to my mind. Hamas or Islamic Jihad had basically used the fact that her boyfriend had been killed. It wasn't just about the greater glory of Palestine or pushing Isreal into the sea.
Maybe their original message is getting harder to sell?
This cartoon came my way via Marc. 
From Mike Jones:
EFF, i love it. that is so top of the heap in the nerd
world.
Funny thing about the nerd world, you always see the other heap as being taller. Working at Yahoo used to be considered an 31337 job. Now it's google. Eventually google will be completely ruled by suits and some other place will be where all the techies dream about work at.
Not to sound like I don't love my job, EFF Webmaster, because I do! It's just the way of things...
--
Now playing: Millencolin - Man Or Mouse
PALM GOOD, OMNIWEB NOT SO. Today’s Daily Report includes a dreamy screen capture of The WaSP’s site on a Palm Pilot and a doleful one... [Buzz]
Kuch will throw a hissy over press like this...
OmniWeb is a good little browser. I'm guessing that in the pre-OS X days it didn't get a whole lot of development time and fell way behind the curve. Now all of a sudden they are staring at a pile of W3C standards ("HTML"/"CSS"/"ECMAScript"), plus another pile of current implemtations that have touched the billions of html files out there. A daunting task for any group of developers to be sure.
People want to see OmniWeb succeed. People, like those at The Buzz, just wish OmniWeb wasn't a fence sitter. “Do, or do not. There is no try.”
Day 12: Using color safely. [dive into mark]
This whole series is making me feel bad that I still haven't done my own template. Oh well...
A Box-Office Photo Finish, and Questions of Methodology. In the first major box-office duel of the year, "Minority Report" narrowly beat "Lilo and Stitch," spotlighting the box-office system's flaws. By Rick Lyman. [New York Times: Movies]
From the article:
As Disney pointed out today, though, since there were undoubtedly many more children at its film than at "Minority Report," and since children's tickets cost much less than adult tickets, this photo finish almost certainly shows that more people actually went to "Lilo and Stitch."
Get over it Eisner. They made more money. You can't pick and choose which way you want to measure depending on your situation. Take your unexpected 2nd place trophy and be happy you greedy bastard.
Smoke. Today was the day of the cigarette. Tobacco stocks plunged, the NY Times published an editorial pushing for a total... [What Do I Know]
Kinda creepy how this happens right after we all find out that "Dave" just had to quit smoking or die.
Spam vs. spam. The only way to stem the flood of unwanted e-mail may be to harness a million eyeballs and an army of open-source hackers. [Salon.com]
A great point from the article:
And even the best filtering engine in the world does nothing to address the load that spam puts on the Internet's infrastructure -- the processing and bandwidth resources that it consumes.
Bandwidth and storage are two things that aren't easy fixes. SpamAssassin will help you not see the spam, but even if you have you MTA configured to not deliver messages that it catches, it still took up bandwidth and CPU.
But I'll be happy with not seeing span in my INBOX for now.
This Modern World. Insane fundamentalist zealots unite! [Salon.com]
President Bush Calls for New Palestinian Leadership. In his speech today, President Bush said the U.S. supports the creation of a provisional Palestinian state but only if a "new and different Palestinian leadership" is found. By Reuters. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
From the article:
Although he specified some conditions on the Israelis, he set the stiffest demands on the Palestinians saying they must create democratic institutions and new security arrangements with Israel in order to qualify for provisional status over about an 18-month period.
Is this Bush's way of saying he doesn't want a Palestinian state, by making the bar so high that it could never be reached?
But wait:
Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, said Bush's call for new leadership was unacceptable. He said this was an issue for the Palestinian people to decide, that Arafat ``was elected by the Palestinian people.''
Maybe Bush should make a new statement saying that you can any elected official other than Arafat.
The pain!
Bush called his offer ``a test to show who is serious about peace, and who is not. The choice here is stark and simple.''
Everything is stark and simple to Bush. Why should this be any different. Of course, he won't get very far in politics with this stance. Heh. Yes, it was supposed to be a joke...
John Dvorak pegs me perfectly.. In his latest PC Magazine column, columnist John Dvorak calls me a "goofy looking schlub." That pretty much nails it.
Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
I worked with a guy who worked with Dvorak. Dvorak has no room to talk. But ours is not to wonder why, only to drive traffic...
I just got the following email:
To those of you who wrote to us about our linking permission policy, thanks
for your many comments. Many of you offered thoughtful insights that have
prompted us to reevaluate this
policy.The policy was originally intended to maintain NPR's commitment to
independent, noncommercial journalism. We have encountered instances where
companies and individuals constructed entire commercial Web \"radio\" sites
based on links to NPR and similar audio. We have also encountered Web sites
of issue advocacy groups that have positioned the audio link to an NPR story
such that one cannot tell that NPR is not supporting their cause. This is
not acceptable to NPR as an organization dedicated to the highest
journalistic ethics, both in fact and appearance.However, NPR also recognizes that the majority of the linking on the Web is
not infringement. We are working on a solution that community with the
interests of NPR. We will post revisions to our policy soon at
http://www.npr.org.NPR Online
Cool. I understand that they may be having problems with sites trying to leech off their contect and make a buck at our expense. Since I contribute to kqed, some of that money goes to NPR, so I'm part of npr. When npr gets ripped off, so do I. Sort of.
Anyway, it will be better for them to have a technical solution on their end which will work instead of a blanket policy that will only piss of their members.
It wouldn't be too bad to monitor referring urls on streamed files to look out for sites that are just repackaging npr content. Although, all of their streamed files mention npr at the begining and the end, so I don't understand how people would not know where the content was really coming from.
Wired News: Danish Deep-Link Decision Due. [Tomalak's Realm]
Although considering the previous rulings that have come out, I'm not that hopeful.
Israeli Forces Surround Arafat Compound; 6 Killed in Gaza Strike. Israel surrounded Yasir Araft's compound today, as President Bush's advisers said he was tentatively planning to announce a new Mideast policy this afternoon. By John Kifner with David E. Sanger. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
More from the article:
For the most part, the Israeli offensive in the West Bank — in contrast to sharp fighting in Nablue and the Jenin refugee camp in an earlier incursion in April — has been met with little resistance. Two Palestinian police officers, however, were killed on Sudday, one in the Al-Yamun village near Nablus and another when an Israeli tank shell hit a building in the Tulkarim refugee camp.
Obvious problem: You roll in and crush everything and break the will of the normal Palestinian person leaving no hope of a normal life. Hamas rolls in right behind you and shows them they have nothing to live for and sends over the line to blow up buses.
I'm convinced that governments don't want to solve problems, they just want to screw things up. Is it always up to the government to solve the problems, of course not...if that were the case rarely would anything get fixed.
This also leads me to wonder what I would do that would be different for the crap we see now, which is pig-headed idiocy on all three sides.
some guy. Why does some guy have a saved HTML calendar from my site? [TheFlangyNews News]
The crazy crap you find in referral logs...
Moby Says Techie Fans = Fewer Sales [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
From one of the /. comments:
Subsequent albums by Pearl Jam (and here, Mr. Moby, is what the real "Pearl Jam Effect" is) were exactly the same as "Ten", except not so good. They sold poorly because the public's taste had changed, the music did not change in the same way, and nobody wanted to hear Eddie Vedder's political vitriol.
Of course, no artist wants to admit that poor album sales are because the quality of the music has decreased. I know I wouldn't. But in this case I think that 18 isn't selling as well because it sounds a lot like Play, and everybody already has Play.
There was an interview with Moby in which he talked about how he used to get slammed for being too different from album to album, and now people are slamming him for being not different enough. Hey, dems da breaks in da music biz...
A Disturbing Growth Industry: Web Sites That Espouse Anorexia. Pro-ana-site Webmasters and site visitors say that, for them, anorexia is anything but a life-threatening disease. By Bonnie Rothman Morris. [New York Times: Technology]
Lifestyle?
OK, here's the deal. I did not have a heart attack, but it was close. I had bypass surgery, which I am now recovering from. It was my fault -- I had classic warning signs that I ignored. No family history of heart disease. Most important -- I wanted to keep smoking. The numbers are good if I quit smoking. If I don't the numbers are totally awful. [Scripting News]
I can't really fathom being presented with a life or death decision. I don't smoke, but I do plenty of things that aren't that good for me. I eat lots of cheese and drink lots of soda. I don't eat enough fruits and veggies. What would I do if a doctor said that if I didn't stop doing x that I would die?
Yet another question that can't be answered until it's asked.
Feinstein demands answers from FBI. Report on UC activities generates 'deep concern' [San Francisco Chronicle]
Feinstein: How many other people are you spying on illegally?
Mueller: Two.
Feinstein: Two? What do you mean? Two what?
Mueller: Uh...two, pick a unit.
So I was in Chico over the weekend and had limited net access. Hence no updates. Of course, there wasn't really a whole lot to update about. Sure there were stories about wild fires and earth quakes. But Kat and I go to Chico to relax and not do anything.
And that's exactly what we did. Nothing. It was great. No laundry, no yard work, no bay area traffic. Nothing.
It's the one thing that worries me about moving back to Chico someday. Maybe there is nothing to do there. I know this to be false, but the mind is an easy thing to trick.
Meet Steven Spielberg, hardboiled cynic. Tom Cruise battles an Ashcroftian security state in the director's dazzling sci-fi noir. [Salon.com]
I wonder if Ashcroft gets a kick out of quips like the above. Does 'Ashcroftian security state' make him think that he is doind a good job, protecting us from...I don't know exactly.
It also sucks when you job approval rating sucks, according to your boss.
So many of my friends have been swearing to not buy any RIAA music. I've bought four CDs lately and three out of the four were from RIAA labels. At least, I think...
for sure RIAA CDs:
- Korn - Untouchables on EPIC/Sony
- Rob Zombie - The Sinister Urge - Geffen
- Dirty Vegas - Dirty Vegas - Capitol
possible non-RIAA CD
- Millencolin - Home From Home - Epitaph/Burning Heart
I have a problem...I don't like the RIAA and what they are trying to do. But I really like the music that I buy. I don't want to download (read: steal) the music because then I know the artists get nothing, instead of next to nothing.
Of course, out of the 4 CDs that I just bought, I would probably only see "Millencolin" in concert. Even now, Clean Channel is buying up nearly ever major concert venue in the country. Can artists ever make a buck?
Kuch...what do I do?
Greetings sports fans. [Scripting News]
Welcome back Dave!
Dutch Judge Cracks Down on Hyperlinks [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
Just kidding...only Dutch judges it seems are morons. Either that or the people arguing these legal cases are not doing a very good job of explaining what is going on.
A great city's people forced to stop drinking swill?. Berkeley ordinance would ban all but politically correct coffee [San Francisco Chronicle]
Head firmly implanted in ass though.
It would require all cups of coffee sold in the city to be "fair trade," organic or "shade-grown." It would not apply to beans or ground coffee sold in bags, however. Violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor and could face $100 fines and six months in jail.
Only in Berkeley...or other places where not prohibited by law.
Traffic takes costly toll on Bay commuters. Study ranks S.F.-Oakland congestion as 2nd worst [San Francisco Chronicle]
The most frustrating part is that I can't predict it. Yeah, I know that sounds like a blatantly obvious problem, but let me explain a bit more. Monday traffic is usually great. Then for no reason at all, one Monday is will be backed up all to hell. WTF? Friday traffic usually sucks. Then for no reason at all one Friday nobody will be on the road. I've given up on trying to explain traffic, it's worse than predicting the weather.
At Least 3 Palestinians Are Killed as Israelis Fire on a Jenin Market. Israeli forces today killed at least three people and wounded dozens of Palestinians who thought a curfew had been lifted. By John Kifner with Terence Neilan. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
I'm sure that being a soldier in the Isreali army is very tough. Serving in the occupied territories must be ever tougher. But what would make you fire automatic weapons into a marketplace of people buying food?
The downward spiral here is just insane. Why hasn't Sharon just declared war and start rounding people up in camps and ... oh wait, that sounds familiar. Sharon isn't the only bastard at the wheel here. Arafat is mainly concerned with holding onto his own power and not really doing anything.
At least, that's how it looks from the peanut gallery, from somebody who knows even less about international politics than G.W. Bush.
Minnesota Public Radio on NPR's link-policy. Yesterday, I was interviewed for Minnesota Public Radio's Future Tense, along with NPR's ombudsman, about NPR's link policy. The piece turned out great -- Jon Gordon, the producer, did a great job of framing the story, and he was kind enough to provide an MP3 of the interview for those of us without RealPlayer support on our OS of choice: Link Discuss (Thanks, Jon!) [bOing bOing]
Indeed! Well spoken Cory.
This rocks! I found the link while peeking in my referer log and saw that Brett Morgan is reading now.
http://googlebar.mozdev.org/
Red Hat Content Management Solution. I read on a mailing list today that Red Hat has made the Java port of the Ars Digita content management system available on their site. I'll be looking at it closely over the next couple of weeks or so, I think. [rc3.org]
Cool. I bet I could even get Marc to install it if they have RPMs.
So here I am 11:40pm watching World Cup on ESPN. Am I a band wagon fan? Yeah. I didn't watch the US v. Mexico game because I was sure we were going to get tooled. Now to make it through to the US v. Germany game at 4:30am, I need to watch UK v. Brazil. I can do it...
I doubt I'll be in any shape to make it to work tomorrow though ;-)
12 minutes in the first game and no score. Neither team seem to be able to get anything going near the goal. But it's early...be patient...
Update:
UK draws first blood.
dive into mark/June 20, 2002 In Radio, the entire matter is simplified by Sjoerd Visscher's Navigation Links For Radio, a set of macros to do exactly this.
Thanks to Mark and Sjoerd I now have spiffy nav links. Very tasty in Mozilla...
Tesugen.com: Here they are, my neighbors, based on blogs that Daypop list for URL's I've linked to in my entries.
Howdy neighbor.
I go through my Network and find stuff I have no idea why it's in my neighborhood either ;-)
Purple won the M&M's contest.
I can finally sleep soundly now...
White House hints it may buy up oil leases. Letter to Simon interjects administration into governor's race [San Francisco Chronicle]
From the article:
"He called himself an 'oil and gas man from way back,' " Davis said of Simon. "Do we really want that kind of person negotiating with the Bush administration over this issue?"
At least Bush would understand what Simon is saying...
Bleah...
Perl is Internet Yiddish. Yoz Grahame, one of the excellent geeks I met in London last week, has posted a sure-to-be-classic essay, "Perl is Internet Yiddish." Like Yiddish, perl has no one canonical way to express any one idea, and like Yiddish, perl can be lyrical or it can be pidgin. [bOing bOing]
If perl is Net Yiddish, what does that make Python?
;-)