Auto-Tune has been prettying up vocal tracks for more than a decade now, but applying it to news is simply brilliant. The Gregory Brothers‘ autotunethenews.com is worth a look. » about 100 words
A NH House Judiciary Committee hearing recently made New Hampshire famous in BoingBoing and The Huffington Post. Watch the hearing where the speaker describes sex acts, and take special note of the amazing poker face of the others during the talk.
It’s doubtful that anybody reading this blog missed the news that Apple finally took the wraps off their much rumored tablet: the iPad. Trouble is, a bunch of folks seem to be upset about the features and specs, or something that made the buzz machine go meh. It’s just a bigger iPhone, complain the privileged […] » about 400 words
As more and more organizations become aware of the need to track their online reputation, more people in those organizations are following Google alerts for their organization’s name. That creates a perfect opportunity for scammers to play on that organizational vanity to infect computers used by officers of the organization with malware that can reveal […] » about 300 words
David Weinberger kicked off the latest installment in the ongoing debate about the future of electronic books versus paper books in his Will books survive? A scorecard… post. He’s got some good points, but like many of the smart folks I admire, he approaches this question assuming that books, in any form, are important. Ursula […] » about 300 words
Ethan Zuckerman’s recent post, What if they stop clicking? points out the difficulty of building a business on ad revenue. He points to statistics that show fewer readers are clicking banner and arguments from the web advertising industry about how un-clicked ads still build brand awareness. It’s not really central to Zuckerman’s point, but I […] » about 300 words
A few years ago I found an article pointing out how spammers had figured out how to abuse some code I wrote back in 2001 or so. I’d put it on the list to fix and even started a blog post so that I could take my lumps publicly.
Now I’ve rediscovered that draft post…and that I never fixed the bad code it had fingered. Worse, I’m no longer in a position to change the code.
Along similar lines, I’ve been told that a database driven DHCP config file generator that I wrote back in the late 1990s is still in use, and still suffers bugs due to my failure to sanitize MAC addresses that, being entered by humans, sometimes have errors.
I’ve written bad code since then and will write more bad code still, but as my participation in open source projects has increased, I’ve enjoyed the benefit of community examples and criticism. My work now is better for it.
In March of this year Apple applied for a patent on technology that enables or disables features of a phone via a config file. The tech is already in use: it’s the carrier profiles we’ve been downloading recently. On the one hand this is just an extension of the parental controls that Apple has included […] » about 300 words
The following was my email response to a thread on the web4lib mail list: Okay, it must be said: you’re all wrong[1]. I can understand that news of a librarian being fired/furloughed will raise our defenses, but that’s no excuse for giving up the considered and critical thinking that this occasion demands. Consider this: the […] » about 400 words
Howard Weaver wants newspapers to play offense against Google and others, but Chris Tolles, CEO of news aggregator Topix.com says he’s been trying Weaver’s plan for a while, and there’s no bucket of gold to be found in it. The problem, it would appear, is that newspapers don’t sell news. They sell advertising space and […] » about 300 words
Anything that can help stop this kind of madness is worth a good long look (yes, I don’t like the DiggBar any more than John Gruber, despite Digg’s assurances it’s safe), so I’ve had rev=“canonical” on my mind (yes, that’s rev, not rel). Chris Shiflett thinks it will save the internet, but Matt Cutts suggests […] » about 300 words
Andrew Tobias asks if we can finally put the tax argument to bed: Is the reason you’re not investing in stocks these days (a) the prospect of having to pay 15% capital gains tax? Or (b) the fear of further losses? (Well, or – c – that you don’t have any money?) Is the reason […] » about 300 words
FORTUNE Magazine, March 7, 1994: Like alligators in a swamp, financial derivatives lurk in the global economy. Deriving their value from the worth of some underlying asset, like currencies or equities, these potentially lucrative contracts are measured in trillions of dollars. But they also lie in convoluted layers in a tightly wound market of global […] » about 300 words
Stefan Savage, speaking in a segment on March 13’s On The Media, asked: The question I like to ask people is, what are you going to do to the highway system to reduce crime. And when you put it that way, it sounds absolutely ridiculous, because while criminals do use the highway, no rational person […] » about 400 words
A 2004 commentary by Doug Bandow of The Future of Freedom Foundation points out how much we love war, well at least politicians love war:
War has become a centerpiece of American politics. The war on terrorism is the focus of U.S. foreign policy. A real war is being fought in Iraq. Jimmy Carter proclaimed the “moral equivalent of war” over energy. Some analysts are advocating a war on obesity.
But, says Bandow, “the longest-running ongoing ‘war’ is the war on drugs.” And since then, our attitudes have changed a bit. A 2008 Washington Post story by Alfonso Cuéllar reminds us:
Two decades ago, illicit imports of cocaine, heroin and marijuana and their use by Americans topped the list of public concerns in nationwide surveys at 22 percent. In January, a Pew Research Center poll found that only 1 percent of the population considered drugs and alcohol the most important problem facing the country.
Nixon Declared the war in June 1971, but the content of the Wikipedia article probably reflects public sentiment in its outsized section on criticisms.
This is an old one, but because I’m in the air again today it’s worth digging up this up. Defense Tech long ago pointed out The Identity Project‘s position on showing ID for air travel:
If a 19 year-old college student can get a fake ID to drink, why couldn’t a bad person get one, too? And no matter how sophisticated the security embedded into the ID, wouldn’t a well-financed terrorist be able to falsify that, too? The answer to both questions is obviously ‘yes’.
Honest people, on the other hand, go to Pro-Life rallies. Honest people go to Pro-Choice rallies, too. Honest people attend gun shows. Honest people protest the actions of the President of the United States. Honest people fly to political conventions. What if those with the power to put people on a ‘no fly’ list decided that they didn’t like the reason for which you wanted to travel? The honest people wouldn’t be going anywhere.
You’d think the top search results on the matter would be newer than 1999, but that’s where you’ll find this NYT article and PubLaw item story, both from precambrian times. Worse, both of those articles suggest that my links to them may not be entirely kosher.
The problem is probably that US courts have not spoken clearly on such a case. A Danish court in 2006 did, but I think that no case in the US has gone far enough to actually set a precedent. Another chance at settling this issue was lost earlier this month when BlockShopper settled, rather than continue a costly defense of such a case. The EFF is confident BlockShopper could have won, but that means little when the legal bills come in.
Related at EFF: Kelly v. Arriba Soft and Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
NH State Representative Delmar Burridge recently introduced HB 0037 proscribing death by firing squad: When the penalty of death is imposed, the punishment for a defendant convicted under RSA 630:1, I(g) shall be execution by firing squad. Burridge would likely describe himself as “principled,” like when he reported one of his constituents to the cops […] » about 100 words
It’s called Gigapan, a robotic panorama-maker. David Bergman used one to take the picture above (though his view was much larger) (you can buy your own for about $300 if you get in on the beta). The point, however, is that if you zoom in real close, you can see W’s pursed lipped scowl. » about 100 words
Finding a 2007 blog post about a condom and a cheeseburger made a friend ask if student blogs should be moved off-domain. My flippant answer was “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” His retort was simple and quick: “Tell that to the catholic church.” It stung. He had me, I was sure. It’s hard […] » about 300 words
This dispute is going on now, tonight. There are obviously at least two sides to this story (Viacom &Time Warner Cable). You’d think a media giant like Viacom would know how to handle this one, but it seems that all they’ve got is that splash screen in front of a bunch of their websites and […] » about 200 words
Former 2008 Presidential Candidate Lee Mercer shares your concern for circumstances and issues. He wants to crack down on treason and recognizes Democratic concerns about expansion of executive power. » about 100 words
One sunny day in January, 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.” The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, […] » about 300 words
Nobody but the studios seem happy about Apple’s implementation of HDCP on its recent laptops. The situation leaves people who legally purchased movies unable to play them on external displays (yeah, that means you can’t watch movies on the video projector you borrowed from the office). A related story may reveal the extent of the […] » about 300 words
enrguerrero‘s photo of a Lincoln/Obama paste up mashup on the corner of Larkin and Myrtle streets in San Francisco. » about 100 words