in lieu of radio ...

a somewhat random collection of pages and thoughts started sept 16 2001. now that i'm not on the radio 6 hours every day, blogger allows all of us to harangue...

Sunday, December 30, 2001

An interesting looking project. "The goal of the Netscan project is to collect base-line measures of the Usenet, its structure and dynamics so as to map of the kinds and qualities of the groups and institutions that form when people use the net to interact with one another." Link: Netscan

I have a fairly large monitor, but I've never worked on a screen the size of a building before. Wanna play "Pong" on the side of a building? Using your mobile phone? Link: Blinkenlights

Appropriately shrill site about the current plans for "policeware" being pushed by RIAA and others. Link: StopPoliceWare.com

Friday, December 28, 2001

Blogger was down for a little while. And i took some time off.

"Salgaa, a muddy little truck stop on the main Kenya- Uganda highway, exists for one reason alone: sex. ... helping to turn Kenya's Aids epidemic into a holocaust." Remarkable piece from The Guardian. Link: Killer on the road

Friday, December 21, 2001

How many speeches like this have had this effect, how many have not been made. And what's worse, it was on a college campus. Thanks to L for the Link: In Sacramento, a Publisher's Questions Draw the Wrath of the Crowd (free registration required)

Thursday, December 20, 2001

Do you run Win 98, 98SE, XP or Me? Link:MS warns of severe universal plug & play security hole

Can YOU say "schadenfreude" (hell, can I spell it?). Salon has a good piece by Eric Boehlert on the current troubles in your favourite scumbag filled industry. Link: Music industry in the pits! (Couldn't happen to a nicer buch of guys)

Tuesday, December 18, 2001

Vote for The Smoking Gun's "Doccys" Awards - the best/worst public and not so public documents of 2001. Link: TSG Document of the Year Awards

Saturday, December 15, 2001

After all that security blather --- my Privacy Security and Speed page has been updated and is better looking and more useful than before. Still a little work to be done. Suggestions invited.

Speaking of MS security (see earlier today), The Reg also has a pointed and principled defense of the full disclosure method of security alerts and an attack on MSs "hush and cover" method Link: Microsoft, terrorism, and computer security (Opinion piece is by Oxblood Ruffian from Cult of the Dead Cow)

"In the end I believe that faith in reason will prevail. But it will not happen automatically. Freedom under law is hard work. If rulers cannot be trusted with arbitrary power, it is up to citizens to raise their voices at injustice. The most important office in a democracy, Justice Louis Brandeis said, is the office of citizen."

The last paragraph of Anthony Lewis's last column for NYT. A great shock that he is leaving. His column taught us alot about liberties here and abroad. His spirited defense of the constitution is essential. There is no mention of what is next or what the reason for leaving is. I wonder... Link: Hail and Farewell (Free registration required)

If you use M$s IE 5.5 or 6, you'l want to have a look at thiscritical cumulative security patch they have issued. The Register has a good overview of the issues addressed in the patch. Link: MS releases mother of all IE security patches

Thursday, December 13, 2001

Amazing! You've just got to admire the gall of M$. They have announced details of the "Silence is Golden When It Comes to M$ Security: program. The Reg has details: MS rolls out security obscurity bribe program

Wednesday, December 12, 2001

Not-too-mawkish, touching note to UK readers from Harold Evans in NYC. Re. NYT obits. Link: 'Here in the democracy of the dead is a marvellous mosaic of a great city'

A reader rants:
"Watching the news this morning, trying to figure out if it's going to rain or snow or even get cold and catch a report about a shipment going to Afghanistan.

Now, this shipment is part of a 9-year-old program that gives "shoebox presents" to needy children worldwide. In other words, the gifts are packed into a shoebox. So far, fine. But these are CHRISTMAS gifts (and wrapping) going to a MUSLIM country! HELLO!

Then there's the propriety of sending starving children Play-doh and stickers and hairclips instead of food. But we'll move on from that to the piece de resistance - one firefighter, who worked as part of the rescue/recovery effort at the WTC, has been contributing for over five years. This year, in memory of the "fallen", he's placed a sticker on every box with the name of a deceased AND the date "9-11-01".

Words fail me. Is it stupidity? Hubris? Insanity? or am I wrong to get this nonplussed??????? "

- thanks to L for the Rant.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
one of our correspondents replied to that Rant:

"No, that's pretty silly. Not very culturally sensitive at all, and very reminiscent of Vietnam silliness. Sending Christmas presents to Muslims . . . with the names of fallen Americans appended. Would be hard to improve on that. Why not Christmas gift baskets full of Turkeys stuffed with bacon dressing, and set off with plum pudding and a couple of bottles of vino? "

- thanks to B for the reply

Monday, December 10, 2001

Do you remember what you wrote on usenet in 1996? Link: Emails from a traitor Headline courtesy of the Weekly Standard

Saturday, December 08, 2001

I listened to Ashcroft's opening statement on Thursday, and shouted at the radio that it was his goddam job to defend dissent. Seems that I'm not the only one. Link: The Ashcroft Smear

In their demmands on Microsoft, the Attorneys General are interested in exploring the same thing that 98lite does already.

Acidic close-reading by Vidal on the NY TImes reports on final outcome of Florida Presidential vote investigation. Link: Times Cries Eke! Buries Al Gore Thanks to L for the link.

In addition to the under reporting of this in the US media, isn't it true that as one of the original founders ("High Conracting Parties") of the Geneva Convention, the US is obliged to participate? Link: Israel condemned by 114 countries (UK Telegraph Dec. 6 2001)

Friday, December 07, 2001

Tired of doing Windows? Well, there might be no better time than now to consider a pure Linux environment. Slightly geeky CRN test center look at non-MS environments. Link:Building a Windows-less offiice

And on a related note, the Reg has a spot-on call to arms for Linux "sub-geeks" (as opposed to "Uber-geeks). Links: Making Linux look harder than it is

And on another related note, here's an uncomfortable interview between Bill Gates and a 15-year old, where he admits that his computer "definitely" crashes. Link: Children's BBC Exclusive Bill Gates interview

Even sharper than ever Krugman on tax cut idiocies. Link: Hitting the Trifecta

Lucid Hentoff on fourth-Ammendment busting black bag jobs. Link: Burglars With Badges (and how come he's not on "Nightline" more often?)

Thursday, December 06, 2001

Now do i have enough evidence for a citizen's arrest of Henry Kissinger? Link: US OK'd Indonesian '75 E.Timor Invasion - Documents

Fun piece about broadband failings. Who knoew there were that many suppliers available. The are non in my nabe... Link: I am the broadband Bermuda Triangle

Wednesday, December 05, 2001

Double barrel look at Israel / Palestinian relations in the wake of recent Hamas/Islamic Jihad suicide atrocities and Sharon's attempt to topple Arafat: Links I Used To Be A Terrorist (Can't find the excellent David Grossman companion piece, Guardian search sucks)

Hitchens: "...though America can have my body, it can't have my habeas corpus". Link: The Night Of the Weak Knees

The dream of replacing Arafat with compliant local warlords is gaining ground in Israel - but it will fail. Jonathan Freedland (Guardian UK) Sharon's fantasy (last coupla Guardian's have had interesting coment)

Tom's Hardware has a long and interesting, not-overly-geeky-but-almost, piece on the history of game consoles. Pegged to the XBox / Game Cube releases. Link: The Battle of the Consoles: From Atari 2600 to Microsoft's Xbox

Tuesday, December 04, 2001

Maine is starting to talk about real helth care for all. The Capital Times of Wisconsin published this editorial 11/2701. Picked up by TomPaine.com Link: OPEN HEALTH CARE DEBATE

You might be a red-neck geek if...

Monday, December 03, 2001

The peerless Future of Music Coalition has analysis and (constructive) critique of the proposed deal between the major labels and SoundExchange over the issue of artists share of online music revenues. Link: FMC Critique of SoundExchange Agreement

You do have your original MS Office CD handy, don't you? Wired News has something that all Outlook / Outlook Express users should read...Link: The Great MS Patch Nobody Uses

What does the Westen public really know about the people now being called "our allies" in Afghanistan? Link:The Afghan King and the Nazis (Tariq Ali, Counterpunc, Nov 30 2001

Bob Herbert draws parallels with Argentinas 'the disappeared' Link: The Witch Hunt

Note to CNN: Beware the knee-jerk protection of your right flank. It never helps Murdoch's competitors in the long run. And it will make the US-haters' case stronger. this is why we should search for the truth always. (Thanks to L for the link)

Saturday, December 01, 2001

Interesting Salon review of new book about Napster, P2P and music. Link:How the music industry blew it