Slate has an article on the degree of dissent tolerated in the Bush White House. They keep getting love letters from favorable reporters on staying “on message” and containing leaks, but does this come at the cost of genuine internal debate? Over the past few weeks, Dubya has managed to hang Colin Powell [...]
Entries from March 2001
March 23rd, 2001 · Comments Off
March 22nd, 2001 · Comments Off
Instructions on how to customize your Linux desktop for Java and Perl programming. This article was written for me! I should be able to adapt quite a bit of it to work on my Windows 2000 desktop where I run Cygwin and NT Emacs as my development environment.
March 22nd, 2001 · Comments Off
The record companies are taking an obvious step to crack down on file sharing — logging which files are shared and the IP addresses of the people sharing them. It surprises me that they aren’t also sharing bunches of files that look just like MP3s people want but are actually just recordings of either promos [...]
March 22nd, 2001 · Comments Off
Anyone know of any real (modest to high traffic) sites that have deployed Tomcat as their servlet engine? If so, please drop me a note.
March 22nd, 2001 · Comments Off
I’m fascinated by Boeing’s decision to move its corporate headquarters from Seattle, not because I really care about Boeing or Seattle, but because of what it says about business. Will this move really save Boeing money in the long run? It seems like typical stupid corporate bullcrap to me, a decision made for the [...]
March 22nd, 2001 · Comments Off
More bad law is coming down the pike in the form of a treaty — the Convention on Cybercrime. All you need to know about this treaty is that it’s the brainchild of the FBI, and that it’s supported by the MPA, RIAA, and Business Software Alliance. The ramifications of the treaty are not [...]
March 22nd, 2001 · Comments Off
Slate has a good rundown of the issues working against the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform package. Current campaign finance laws seem very byzantine to me, and it looks like the McCain-Feingold legislation will only make them more byzantine. It seems like we could come up with some simple, transparent rules for campaign finance that [...]
March 21st, 2001 · Comments Off
I know everyone is linking to this story about a customer service rep from AOL, but I can’t fight the impulse. I’ve always found the notion of people online acting out their pitiful (often hateful) fantasies as some kind of tonic for their meaningless existences to be more than a bit disturbing, and this [...]
March 21st, 2001 · Comments Off
IP.com is working on a partial solution to the software patent problem. They’re allowing open source programmers to record their innovations (for $20) in a database that’s actually consulted by the PTO before they issue patents. Rather than waiting for someone to file a patent and then clubbing them with prior art, you can record [...]
March 21st, 2001 · Comments Off
I can’t imagine many things more gratifying than the XFL game broadcast on Saturday night achieving the lowest prime time rating ever recorded. As a sports fan, I delight in seeing this garbage go down in flames.