I was looking forward to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but I think I’ll wait for it to appear on HBO after listening to Tom Shales absolutely savage the movie on NPR this morning. It’s actually gotten a number of good reviews, but I’m willing to bet that Shales is right. I find it very difficult to believe that the original cartoon version could be improved upon.

Customer service workers at Amazon.com are looking to unionize in order to fight what they consider to be poor working conditions. I have a problem with some unions in particular, but I think that organized labor is a good thing overall. Amazon.com argues that the workers don’t need a union, which pretty much guarantees that they do.

Despite my general disappointment in Netscape 6, AOL does deserve credit for documenting the browser’s deficiencies in copious detail.

Analysts are reporting that AOL’s huge market share advantage in instant messaging is eroding. Perhaps they should support an open standard before it’s too late. For what it’s worth, I use Yahoo.

Clay Shirky explains P2P.

You know, sometimes I like to think I’m more jaded than I really am. When this whole recount thing started in Florida, I thought, “Well, they have all the ballots, just recount the votes as accurately as possible and declare a winner.” I honestly didn’t imagine that what this really comes down to is who has the most political power to bring to bear in Florida. Ultimately, this election will be won by the party that manages to best manipulate the Florida statutes to their advantage, not by the candidate that got the most votes. Yeah, our vote counts, but not if the outcome is in dispute.

The W3C has published the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Views and Formatting Specification. I can’t help but find it strangely amusing that these guys go on blithely writing and publishing these detailed specifications that the browser makers ignore at worst or bastardize at best. The gulf between the spec world and the implementation seems to be growing, too.

Common Cause on the money flowing into the recount funds for both major parties: they ask both candidates to limit the amount they’ll accept from each PAC or individual, and disclose where the money’s coming from. Neither of these steps are required by law.

I managed to download Netscape 6, finally. It seems OK so far, but I don’t see it winning market share back from Microsoft. The two features from Netscape Communicator that made it worth using for Web developers, View Page Info and View Page Source, are completely hosed in Netscape 6, too.

Greg Knauss on Jamie Zawinksi’s current hacking project — DNA Lounge.