I never have more than a few seconds to spare on each post, but a vulnerability in Greasemonkey has broken my blogging tool of choice: deliciousToblog, so I've just been bookmarking everything to del.icio.us.
A real pain, since this totally breaks my workflow for blogging and I just don't have the time to figure out a work-around.
In New Security Move, New York Police to Search Commuters' Bags - New York Times
Intrusive, inconvenient, and it won't work. Subjecting random people to police searches is the lotto approach to anti-terrorism. It also shrinks the secure area being defended literally to the turnstiles of the subway station. The police and the feds should focus their efforts to stop these plots on points much earlier in the process.
U.S. Supreme Court on Yahoo! News Photos
I would have sworn the photo was doctored. Who dresses these people? It's like they came from the 50s: pink for mum, yellow and blue for the tots (John and Josephine, one of each gender, nice), and dark suit, red tie for dad. The boy's even in short pants and wearing saddle shoes, for God's sweet sake! He does, however, seem to be popping and locking.
John Davison's 1UP Blog: What's The Big Idea?
Interesting read about one guy's experience with ambush TV.
Do you own everything in your software portfolio? | Perspectives | CNET News.com
Can't help but feel that there's a certain amount of self-serving, Grokster-driven FUD being used to breathe life into what was once SCO-driven FUD. Nevertheless, there's some merit to the argument that the use of any third-party code creates a mishmash of liability. Some major vendors may indemnify enterprise customers from patent and copyright challenges, but not everyone does.
Greg Matter : Weblog : Innovate, Create – and Compensate!
Sun's CTO makes a generally reasonable plea for not fucking up the network economy with airtight DRM, although I can't help but feel he's soft-pedalling the argument to appease Sun's Big Content customers. Furthermore, he's going awfully easy on Grokster which, I believe, will create a self-imposed moratorium and/or tax on innovation as the standards for bad behavior get hashed out in the courts.
Guardian Unlimited | Online | Murdoch's tangled web
The Guardian Unlimited slags Murdoch's half-billion dollar buy to bulk up Fox Interactive (which looks like their second or third try at getting their online strategy going).
Bush move to share nuclear technology with India comes under fire - Yahoo! News
Bush, not much on mutlilateral treaties, seems to be pushing the NPT to the brink with this bilateral deal with India. It would seem to ahve the effect of putting a lot of pressure on the US to cut similar deals with just about every country in the world.
The Globe and Mail: Senate approves same-sex bill
A victory for civil rights in Canada.
FOXNews.com - The Big Story w/ John Gibson - Interview - Tancredo Defends Controversial Comments
Tommy Tancredo clarifies his remarks (you remember, where he suggested we bomb Mecca in retaliation for a terrorist unleashing a nuke on the US) by essentially repeating them. Much clearer now.
Justice Dept. Opposes Shield for Reporters
Not surprisingly, the DoJ reflexively rejects any attempt to curtail their powers by invoking the "t-word." This despite the fact that there are no credible instances where the power to compel journalists to reveal sources would have (or has) prevented a terrorist attack. Never a good thing when you essentially see the feds reserve for themselves the power to push around citizens, even journalists, "just in case."
Amassing a Treasury of Photography - New York Times
The bottom graf interests me the most: one of the difficulties is clearing copyrights with the holders, some of whom fear that putting their pictures on the web will deprive them of revenue. Sort of how having a picture taken steals one's soul.
A Judge Anchored in Modern Law - New York Times
The Times finds evidence of a moderate streak in this nominee.
In Pursuit of Conservative Stamp, President Nominates Roberts - New York Times
Sealth candidate or a blank slate? Given that evangelical and fundamentalist Christians in the GOP have been pushing hard for an acceptable nominee I can't imagine the White House hasn't vouched for Roberts' social conservative bona fides, which gives me pause. Then again, O'Connor has evolved during her time on the bench into a more moderate voice.
WSJ.com - China's Haier Is Said to Drop Offer for Maytag
Bad day for China, Inc. First Chevron ups their bid for Unocal, and now Haier decides the war for Maytag isn't theirs to win. I guess I'll have to wait to welcome our Red Chinese overlords.
CBC Arts: Star Trek's Scotty dies
A moment of silence please: hero to dorks, inspiration to engineers everywhere, and all-round Great Canadian James Doohan is dead. Beamed up. He canna take it (anymore).
Why Doohan and Kelley, God? It should have been Shatner.I had an assload of items cued up for posting today, each one a nugget of purest genius. Unfortunately Windows fucked me again, and all of my carefully collected tabs were wiped out in an involuntary reboot.
Remind me not to push the limits of Windows XP by asking it to do things like sleep, or wake from sleep, for that matter.
God knows it's hard to be an atheist.
The Passion of the Marketers - New York Times
The key lesson Hollywood needs to take away is not that they should be producing more Christian-themed fare, so much as that the churchgoing community is a pretty good word-of-mouth network, just like other peer groups.
The Globe and Mail: No beer at the grocery store, government says
Of course: commission a panel to study an issue, then totally ignore their ideas (in the name of "the children," of course).
WSJ.com - Northwest Could Lose Its Lucrative Pact With KLM
Airlines need these antitrust exemptions because they essentially run un-peered networks: that is, they won't trsnparently trade pricing data as a passenger's route traverses from, say, American's network to Delta's. As a consequence, each carrier manages yield (essentially pricing) based on an incomplete knowledge (and, to be fair, an incomplete share) of a traveller's costs and revenue for a given itinerary.
WSJ.com - News Corp. Agrees to Buy Intermix for $580 Million
Seems like a crazy, frothy deal to me.
WSJ.com - Apple Looks to Sell Videos -- and Maybe iPods to Play Them
Everyone's riding this WSJ story about Apple selling videos over the iTunes Music Store. Of course that's turned to further speculation on a video iPod. If Apple's smart (and they are) they won't poineer this space, so much as they will hang back while smaller companies prove the market potential, then they'll swoop in to consolidate on the strength of superior design, marketing, and user experience.
USATODAY.com - Airports gamble on fancy and costly terminals
Airport terminals are like crappy malls where the anchor tennant is a government-cossetted airline and taxpayers and fliers are the (involuntary) investors. The whole business reeks of market-distorting government involvement.
USATODAY.com - Wedding bells aren't ringing, but neither are phones of divorce lawyers
Americans aren't bothering to get married, but they're not staying together either, making families very unstable, and greeting cards nearly impossible to buy.
USATODAY.com - Congressman: Destroying sites option if U.S. attacked
The real shame is that if some idiot blows himself up over this, it'll be in New York, and not in Centennial, Colorado.
Worth noting that Tancredo recently chided the Chinese government for threatening to respond to a US attack on China with nuclear weapons saying, in part "For a senior government official to exhibit such tremendous stupidity by making such a brazen threat is hardly characteristic of a modern nation."Studies: Iraq war radicalized most foreign fighters | csmonitor.com
So the Iraq war was a catalytic event for many of the men answering the call to arms? Surely one doesn't go from "neutral" to murderer quite so suddenly. Perhaps I comfort myself in thinking that these men were jihadis-in-waiting, already twisted by anger with...whatever it is that angers them.
Wired News: Free Beer for Geeks
So (opencola) very (opencola) familiar (opencola).
Microsoft Courts Hollywood Allies
Microsoft and Big Content working together to decide what you, the paying customer, may be premitted to do with the goods you buy. It's not news, but these articles are so depressing; I can't help but feel that, rather than entering an era of unprecedented freedom and creativity, powered by affordable computing technology, we're being force-marched into a time of remarkable corporate control over ideas and innovation.
Penn Jillette on why he didn't get his movie, The Aristocrats rated by the MPAA.
Happy Type Week!
Team Chosen for Project to Develop Transit Hub - New York Times
New Moynihan/Penn Station sounds suspiciously like it'll be much less inspiring than the current vision, and Amtrak passengers will still enter and leave the city like scurrying rats. Watching big projects come together in this town is enough to make you puke.
Mining the Drama in a Rock Catalog - New York Times
Abba, Billy Joel, the Beach Boys, and...the Smiths?
» HP exchanges 15K jobs for new $15.3M CIO | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
Whoa. That's a well-compensated CIO.
Secondary Screening: Acxiom's High Tech Hacker
1337 h4><0rz tool of choice? FTP client.
Eric Umansky: Jihadists in Iraq getting selective about foreign recruits
Iraq is the jihadi's Harvard. I wonder what the "safety school" is?
Freakonomics Blog | I almost got sent to Guantanamo
I'm glad he didn't, but this doesn't change my opinion that many economists should be.
Hit and Run | Well We're at "Wits' End," Ya Corporate Welfare Whore!
A major network carrier needs to be taken out of line and shot in front of their competitors. No direct federal aid. No dumping your pensions on the taxpayers. No anticompetitive legislation (such as the Wright Amendment defending AA's position in Dallas). If you can't run your business properly, you die. Capital (human and otherwise) is better employed elsewhere.
Movable Type Works to Block Blog Spam
Two things: comment spam is a royal pain in the ass, and when eWeek covers SixApart releases, you know blogging has caught the eye of enterprise IT shops.
The Architect's Newspaper - www.archpaper.com
Very interesting site-by-site breakdown of 10 better places for a new football stadium in New York City. While having the Jets in Manhattan would have been pretty convenient, I'm not opposed to riding to the outer boroughs.
HP may lay off thousands next week, report says - Computerworld
This story appears below a promo for Computerworld's "100 Best Places to Work in IT" special report. Now that's relevant advertising.
Oracle shifts multicore licensing model | CNET News.com
Cats sleeping with dogs! Fire falling from the sky! Oracle realized that multicore != multiprocessor! Although this isn't nearly as aggressive a move as most customers would have wanted.
Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog
Carr (of "IT Doesn't Matter" fame) weighs in on Apple's ability to lead in innovation, despite their meager worldwide PC marketshare.
For Surfers, a Roving Hot Spot That Shares - New York Times
Predictably, Verizon is trying to figure out how to stamp out these EV-DO sharing boxes. This is, of course, lunacy. What these devices do is fix Verizon Wireless' broken pricing for the service, creating, in one example, six customers where their $80/mo wireless data plan would actually get them zero.
WSJ.com - Using Fiction to Sell Fiction
A good, quick look a attempts to sell books, featuring my pal Cory. Cory has been as good as his word on continuing to release the full text of his novels online under a Creative Commons license, which runs counter to conventional wisdom regarding "competing with free."
» JotSpot reorients itself | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
Seems like a natural evolution. I've observed that wide-open, developer-friendly platform plays tend to move rather quickly into more specialized (and thus higher value) territory. Thus a "you can build anything with this" set of capabilities becomes better at building specific things more quickly.
AppleInsider | Apple selling one million iPod shuffles a month?
That's a lot of flash.
Daring Fireball: Is That a Podcast in Your Pocket?
I always look forward to a new Fireball column, even if the light-type-on-a-dark-background thing makes me crazy. I too was amazed at how quickly Apple added podcast support to iTunes, the Music Store, and iPod. Amazingly nimble.
Dan Fernandez's Blog : Introducing the Shareware Starter Kit
Microsoft's all about developer love, and this Shareware Starter Kit is pretty groovy.
Hit and Run | Who Mourns For Gene Wilder?
Even as a kid, I thought Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory sucked.
IBM tacks blogs to Workplace | CNET News.com
Blogging is becoming a collaboration feature for enterprise IT, which means it is so over.
Can Islam's leaders reach its radicals? | csmonitor.com
Unfortunately, I (and I assume others like me, who speak no Arabic and live in the west) have no way of gauging the relative reach and impact of more mainstream voices versus those of the murderous fringe. It seems logical that the ideas that seed the most extreme positions find purchase in an already-fertile medium of victimization and rejectionism.
CBC Sports: The owners won: MacLean, Cherry
Two guys who know call the winners and losers in the NHL lockout.
Note to Americans: Don Cherry is rougly equivalent to the John Madden of Hockey, if Madden were completely bat-shit crazy.CBC Sports: The owners won: MacLean, Cherry
Two guys who know call the winners and losers in the NHL lockout.
Note to Americans: Don Cherry is rougly equivalent to the John Madden of Hockey, if Madden were completely bat-shit crazy.Clinton wants inquiry into Grand Theft sex | CNET News.com
Every so often I get reminded of why I don't trust Hilary Clinton: she's an opportunistic bluenose prig and an insufferable nanny-stater.
CNN.com - 'Dukes' TV star: Don't see the movie - Jul 14, 2005
Insane. He compares "Dukes of Hazzard" to "I Love Lucy." Oh yeah, I remember that episode of Lucy with the dynamite-tipped arrows. Or how about the one where Lucy was a hot pants-wearing waitress?
Abu Ghraib Tactics Were First Used at Guantanamo
So now there's a chain of events that goes Rumsfeld to Guantanamo via Gen Miller, and then to Abu Ghraib. Rumsfeld and Miller still have jobs. Enlisted personnel and National Guard Gen Karpinski are the only people to have paid a price for Abu Ghraib. Hardly seems fair.
Conservative Caucus's Choice for Top Court Is Cast in Stone
I fear that Keyes and Phillips calling for someone like Roy Moore to ascend to SCOTUS is just a Rove ploy to make whomever the administration nominates seem acceptable.
For Britain's Muslims, a Fear Realized
Can't help but think that no self-respecting Briton would ever do something like this, and in there lies the key to these kids' actions: they had no self-respect as Britons.
Why? Hard to say, but clearly something retarded their integration into British society.IPod Sales Give Apple 75% Jump in Revenue - New York Times
Despite analyst predictions, the iPod's momentum continues to increase. Tiger's momentum out of the gate was equally impressive. Those two drivers, coupled with a desktop refresh cycle, drove excellent sales volume across the core computer business. All-in-all an unexpectedly good quarter for Apple.
Unocal Bid Denounced at Hearing - New York Times
Ridiculous.
I'm no fan of communist dictatorships, but the idea that Cnooc buying Unocal somehow weakens the US while strengthening an aggressive, militaristic China is a non-starter; the transaction only serves to integrate China even further into the global trade system, reducing the chance of war over resources in south Asia. In fact, denying China the opportunity to "secure" oil and gas increases the likelihood of their using less friendly (and profitable, to Unocal's shareholders) methods to obtain them.CBC Sports: NHL, NHLPA agree to tentative deal
Our long international nightmare is over...
Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records for Sale
"Online" and "cell phone" are what they're using to sell the article, but it could just as easily be "Yellow Pages" and "home phone." All they've highlighted is that you can get cellphone records from unscrupulous outfits, like data brokers and private investigators. I bet you could find and hire a PI out of your local Yellow Pages to do the same thing for a landline phone.
Greg Reinacker's Weblog - Why subscription software?
A CEO runs the numbers on the change from a mix of one-off license fees, upgrade fees, and service subscriptions to all-subscription licensing. I'd like to see how his customers react, becasue this is a tricky one to pull off (for consumers and enterprises both). People suspect subscription fees are simply a way of maximizing revenue without delivering increased value.
Over $100BB sloshing around these large tech companies: it's the new promised land for start-ups.
The Reward for Leaving: $113 Million - New York Times
Nope. Nothing wrong with corporate governance here.
American Prospect Online - Mann Hunt
It looks like Rep Joe Barton is issuing not-so-subtle threats to scientists whose research displeases the energy industry (and, thus, his home state of Texas and the current administration).
The New Republic Online: Evolutionary War
Keep score on which thinkers on the right are willing to piss off fundamentalist and evangelical Christians (and members of the Kansas Board of Education) by saying they belive in evolution. Pinkos.
IBM to Apple: eat these chips | The Register
Tasty dual-core G5s on the way. Too bad they don't run cool enough to be crammed into a laptop.
TheOmahaChannel.com - Family - Five Women Fight Same Man For Child Support
I'm torn. This isn't news, it's just tawdry, but I couldn't tear myself away from the story, especially since the guy feels like the victim of the piece.
The Sun Online - News: Evil disciples of Osama
Related to the previous post: adjective factory The Sun says Omar Bakri Mohammed issued his warning "three months ago." That would be chilling. Unfortunately, as the AFP article's dateline shows, Bakri Mohammed's claim that the group was "on the verge" of an "operation" was 15 months premature.
Attacks 'being planned against London' - SpecialsGlobalTerrorism - www.smh.com.au
From April 2004. Note the use of "al Qaeda Europe," a variation of the name used in a web post that claims responsiblity for the bombings.
Does this mean that Omar Bakri Mohammed actually knew something, or just that someone who pays attention to Bakri Mohammed decided to use the name?Everybody In The Pool - Forbes.com
Pisses me off that I didn't think of this first: Apple "iPodding" the phone business and acting as an MVNO. I can't tell if it's brilliant or idiotic.
Security on U.S. Transit Systems Is Stepped Up - New York Times
This "there's no specific threat, but we're raising our threat level, but don't do anything different," tack seems like a waste of effort; spendthrift DHS-driven busywork.
Schneier on Security: London Transport Bombings
After reading stories about other countries putting their transit systems on higher alert, I thought much the same thing: why defend against the last attack? And why focus on the point of attack?
The aim of this type of terror is to kill people. Since people gather everywhere, we'd have to defend everything. He who defends everything, defends nothing.michael harlan turkell, "Back of the House"
A strangely fascinating set of black and white photos documenting the side of a (real) restaurant we hardly see. Interesting for anyone who's ever wondered how the food gets to your table.
Man charged with wireless network trespassing - Jul. 7, 2005
It will be interesting to see how this plays out: whether the charge of "unauthorized access" remains in the face of what appears to have been an unsecured WiFi network, or if some activity while on the network (such as tampering with other computers) becomes the basis for a criminal proceeding.
Mideast divestment movement picks up steam | csmonitor.com
Someone should tell the UCC that "divestment" actually reduces leverage by reducing one's stake to zero.
» Intel chimes in on ZDNet slam of Centrino brand | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com
Slapping "Centrino" everywhere is just CPG branding 101. Intel's claims aren't dishonest, it's just that they omit the fact that the benefits they deliver aren't really any different than any other standards-compliant laptop CPU/chipset/radio combination. Yet for a customer with limited time to take in all of the information, Centrino is a nice bit of reassurance that their choice is sound (ie, their laptop will connect to a T-Mobile hotspot).
frontline: al qaeda's new front | PBS
PBS' Frontline (or "The Happiest Hour on TV') will be rebroadcasting "Al Qaeda's New Front" over the next few days. The show examines the radicalization of Islam and young muslims worldwide, as well as offering some ideas of how al Qaeda "operates" today.
Burnham's Beat: AON: Why the IBM and Cisco Relationship Is Headed For A Break-Up
A thumbnail sketch of why these partners will go to war over message aware networking.
G-8 Meeting's Focus Shifts to Terrorism - New York Times
Between distracting the G-8 leaders, the east African embassy bombings, and their habit of using north Africans as cannon fodder, islamic terrorists would seem to have some kind of problem with Africans.
Foreign Policy: Think Again: Al Qaeda
Given the day's events, Foreign Policy revived this article. The author does rely on a few straw men to lend some oomph to his points, but the essential message, that al Qaeda is more of an ideology or movement than it is an organization, is well-taken.
MercuryNews.com | 07/06/2005 | National Guard erases data related to intelligence unit
And now that the media and the politicians have word of their local spookery, the Cal National Guard seems to have a data retention problem. Seems like the military may have trouble following order from civillians.
No worries, I'm sure there's a Silicon Valley company who can help retrieve the wayward information.MercuryNews.com | 06/26/2005 | Program raises spying concern
The California National Guard's anti-terrorism intelligence unit has taken to spying on anti-war rallies. I guess "if you're not with us..." isn't just idle chatter. At least to the CNG.
Seems like EDS Fellows (when comapnies need something besides "vice president" next to some geezer's name, they go with the academic-sounding "fellow") have been posting to a company blog since mid-June.
Rush-Hour Strike Wounds 1,000; Blair Sees Link to G-8 Talks - New York Times
Sad, misguided, and ultimately futile.
CBC Sports: Goodenow missing from hockey talks table: source
Certainly not the first report of a player's displeasure with Goodenow's leadership of the NHLPA. After all, the stated reason for enduring a lockout was to avoid a salary cap. Now not only do the players have a cap, they have one that sounds like it's at least $8MM lower than they could have had if they had accepted the NHL's proposed deal in February. Add to that loss the lost wages for the truncated season they never played, and the players took a bath for Bob.
Direct aid, when controlled by corrupt governments, does more harm than good through its market distorting effects. This economist's remarks read like a primer on the evils of socialism and the welfare state.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Software patent bill thrown out
Software and business method patents are devices only large corporations (and patent squatters) could love. The problem is that, as long as the USPTO continues to grant idiotic patents for obvious ideas, what Europe does (or doesn't) do is mostly irrelevant.
WSJ.com - The Mossberg Solution | Podcasting Is Still Not Quite Ready for the Masses
iTunes podcast support is pretty slick (there are one or two things I might change), but creating podcasts is still no picnic. Then again, Safari supports RSS, but you can't really blog using .Mac.
WSJ.com - Disney to Enter Cellphone Market, With Kids in Mind
If you have the brand and distribution, Sprint has the wireless infrastructure you need to become a wireless network operator.
USATODAY.com - Bush's plea doesn't mute criticism of Gonzales
See what I mean?
G.O.P. Asks Conservative Allies to Cool Rhetoric Over the Court - New York Times
Given the fundraising potential, I doubt the various groups competing to represent fundamentalist and evangelical social conservatives will be able to resist the temptation to talk loudly about O'Connor's replacement.
Apple Executive Calls Family of Teenager Killed for IPod - New York Times
I was wondering how Jobs would react to the idea that an iPod was the object of a tragic, senseless death.
Home Sweet Office Tower - New York Times
Ugly modernist knockoffs find a second life as condos.
Military Expands Homeland Efforts
Not words I want to see in my newspaper's headlines. This is one of those areas where a fine line isn't required, so much as a clear and broad prohibition on direct military involvement in domestic anti-terrorism and intelligence efforts.
Writeboard (write, share, revise, compare) is coming soon - it'll be better, not beta
Basecamp, Backpack, Ta-da List. I can't wait to see Writeboard.
37signals is as good a software company as exists today. They warm the cockles of my heart like the fine folks at Panic, Delicious Monster, and Omni Group. Does this mean the web is the new Mac?Shorn of subsidies, New Zealand farmers thrive - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune
If Chirac has time between jokes about British food, he might want to take a gander at this article.
Multicore CPUs Speed Shift in Software Licensing
Multicore, hyperthreading, clustering, virtualization, grid, all make a mockery of many client/server era licensing schemes.
Copyright and the law | Rip. Mix. Burn. | Economist.com
The Economist makes a good, succinct case for shorter copyright terms.
I Wrote Bush's War Words -- in 1965
An interesting perspective from Daniel "Pentagon Papers" Ellsberg on Bush's "stay the course" message. To be fair, "We'll be out by 200x" would have been magnificently stupid policy, and, short of a time machine, there's no way to change the fact that we're involved in a project to build a democratic, stable Iraq.
FT.com / Comment & analysis / Analysis - Payback time for the president
More reading of the entrails as the administration's slowed-down second term agenda comes across the O'Connor resignation. Between renewed good cop (Bush) bad cop (Rove) on Iraq/GWOT and SCOTUS, will the Bush White House regain lost momentum, or will they get stuck in a god-awful mess?
FT.com / Companies - Sony warrior prepares to start Project Nippon
On the other hand, today I'd be disappointed to get a Sony rather than an Apple.
FT.com / By industry / Consumer industries - Sanyo unveils major restructuring programme
I remember feeling disappointed any time I got a Sanyo rather than a Sony.
The Globe and Mail: NHL on verge of deal to end lockout
After a calamitous year, the NHL may limp back for the 2005-06 season. In the interim, the players seem to have gotten very little for their efforts.
Vacancy Starts a Fundraising Race
WaPo's betting on between $50 and $100 million being spent on the coming fight over who will replace Sandy O'Connor. Since appeals to fear and panic drive fundraising, somebody's selling their donors a bill of goods.
WSJ.com - In High Court Battle, First Phase Plays Out Among Conservatives
Given the administration's track record ("big" on the "government" and "brother" fronts), I'm not sure I'll be too happy with whomever is eventually nominated, but it'll be interesting to see how the GOP handles "the extra Y chromosome crowd."
Communications Engineering&Design: JULY, 2005 -CAPITAL CURRENTS-
Abstract: blah, blah, blah...Broadcast Flag is as friendly as a kitten...blah, blah, blah...Big Content propaganda...blah, blah, blah...if you don't let us jam the Broadcast Flag down your throats, the Emergency Broadcast System won't work (maybe), and you'll all die.
Mesmerizing. Would be cool to get a tag cloud-style view.
Report: Designer duds for Mickey D's staff? - Jul. 5, 2005
It's not po-mo if you actually work there, though.
Are kids po-mo or meta anymore? I don't know (and I don't care).New Scientist Breaking News - Entering a dark age of innovation
I'm not an egghead PhD, but it seems that picking an arbitrary list of 7,200 "important" innovations in history as a sample makes for a shaky case. And, of course, the idea that patent grants are an adequate measure of innovation is pretty tenuous, too.
He Says He Owns the Word 'Stealth' (Actually, He Claims 'Chutzpah,' Too) - New York Times
This jerk sues all and sundry for using the word "stealth." It's a willful abuse of the trademark system, but companies (who can afford it) prefer to throw a few thousand bucks this guy's way, rather than paying many times that in legal fees to fight. What's truly sad is that those who cannot pay must opt to back down.
WebMink | JavaOne: Sun Apologises for Bad Judgement
I thought this was something major about the JCP, but apparently it's about Dennis Miller.
The Miles Files | Spinning Off Frequent Flyer Programs: Capital Asset for the Airline Industry
More in the "everybody's making money off the airline business, except the airlines" vein, except the twist here is that the airlines all have profitable sidelines in their loyalty programs. If a major airline goes under, the piece that should fetch the most money in any selloff would be their loyalty program.
Q&A: Inaction on offshoring will hurt U.S. IT, author says - Computerworld
Perhaps the interview has been edited for controversy, but the argument that the US should do something with public policy to slow the trend towards offshore IT work seems to hinge on a naive reading of the situation.
wingedpig.com - Mark Fletcher's Blog: It's a Great Time to Be An Entrepreneur
Some more personal experiences from an entrepreneur who's built two web-based businesses. I think the whole scene gets even more interesting when you rent the whole network of services required to build and run a web application. Companies like Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, Google, eBay, and Amazon.com have already done the hard work of laying robust, capable infrastructure for web applications. Why should an entrepreneur have to reinvent the wheel?
Start-ups are fun (again)!Bnoopy: It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur
The really new thing is that all of the elements that Joe lists really serve to sweep aside barriers between the company and the customer; anything that shortens that distance stretches the entrepreneur's precious, precious dollar (time and energy being the resources they hold in abundance).
SearchViews: Answers.com New Citation Tool
Footnoting was the bane of my existence at university (even using Word 5.0 on my Mac Plus). Kids today have it so easy.
Bush administration annexes internet | The Register
Freedom is on the march on the internets.
Vicks Digital Thermometer Family - Baby Rectal
"Baby Rectal" is the worst name for a kid hip-hop act ever.
It will be funny, because it will be true.
Indian outsourcing exec moves into venture capital | CNET News.com
More detail on Paul's new gig: he'll be working with TPG Ventures, the VC arm of the ginormous buyout firm.
Surf the News.com topics | CNET News.com
Tag-surf CNET News. Interesting, but do they tag ad hoc or is there a pre-build taxonomy?
Will SAP sample hosted recipe? | CNET News.com
It seems like SAP has no choice but to grab some of the real estate in the software as a service (SaaS) market for CRM, especially since they're dealing from a position of strength.
'Right wing' footage for Lincoln Memorial video - U.S. News - MSNBC.com
So this version of political correctness is somehow better?
Rehnquist's court, but liberals gain | csmonitor.com
If liberals gaining means unfettered power for the state to sieze property, or for the feds to use the Commerce Clause as an excuse to regulate anything, then I ain't no liberal.
Happy birthday, Canada.
