Despite the fact that the reputation of the Olympics has been ruined by doping scandals, crass commercialism, and rampant corruption, there are still a few moments that make them worthwhile. One example is the North and South Korean contingents marching under one flag in the opening ceremony.

Utter humiliation. The judge in the Wen Ho Lee trial wrapped things up with a scathing critique of Lee’s accusers, and a profound apology on behalf of the government. I’m glad to see that this pathetic episode in American history has finally concluded, but it saddens me that Wen Ho Lee had to spend almost a year in solitary confinement for reasons that will now probably never be known.

If there’s one thing I do at rc3.org, it’s catalog the departure of big name Microsoft executives. Paul Maritz has announced his resignation, although he’ll remain as a “consultant.” The article lists the other Microsoft luminaries who’ve jumped ship recently at the end, in case you’ve lost track. Any guesses on who’s next? I’m thinking Jim Allchin. (I notice that back on January 14, I predicted Jim Allchin would be the next to go, so you shouldn’t put much stock in my predictions. Allchin is supposedly wrapping up a two month vacation right now.

William Saletan analyzes the poll numbers and Bush’s campaign tactics in Slate, and comes to the conclusion that Bush is finished. He makes a good argument, and I hope he’s right.

OK, here’s the latest reality TV twist: win the contest, orbit the Earth. NBC is going to run a Survivor clone that will send the winner to space, where they’ll orbit the Earth and then make a side trip to the Mir space station. How cool is that?

Every time Micrsoft upgrades Office or Windows, there’s a big uproar about crappy license terms. Microsoft is always changing their licensing, and they always make things worse for customers. Do you ever read about businesses just throwing all of their Microsoft software out the window? It would almost lead you to believe that Microsoft has a monopoly in those markets …

Amazon.com just can’t get past the bad publicity stemming from the changes to their privacy policy. USA Today ran a story on Junkbusters and EPIC dropping out of their affiliate program today.

Salon gave Karenna Gore Schiff, Al Gore’s 27 year old daughter, a Gen X quiz. She scored a D-minus. I would have done a bit better than she did, but wouldn’t have scored 100%.

Here’s an issue people concerned about patents should know about: Rambus is trying to use its patents to basically monopolize the entire market for RAM. Even though their own technology is failure, they’ve been able to convince all of the world’s big RAM manufacturers (except Micron) that their patents apply to all of the varieties of next generation RAM and extract huge licensing fees from them. Micron is currently in court trying to get the patents invalidated. I wish them luck.

David Touretzky points out in an interview with Salon Magazine why the DeCSS ruling was a total nightmare for people who support the First Amendment. We can hope that as the case makes up the legal food chain, someone will realize that both the ruling and the DMCA are utterly unconstitutional and throw them out the window.