NSFEM
Some interesting patterns developing visually and formulaicly when you arrange a number spiral with zero at the middle and perfect squares in a straight line.
Today’s reason: I won’t go calling it lies, but…
More from FactCheck.org covering “not-quite-truths” about Kerry’s positions — this time in one of Bush’s Attack ads.
A Bush Cheney ’04 ad released April 1 repeats several misleading claims that FactCheck.org has de-bunked before. It also adds something new, saying Kerry repeatedly opposed tax breaks for married couples and families — breaks that Kerry has repeatedly and consistently said he would preserve. … Whatever his past votes, Kerry now is firmly on the record promising to retain Bush’s tax breaks for couples and kids. Bush’s ad doesn’t mention that, of course.
So Wired has aggregated all of its Mac content into a new Cult of Mac blog (Woo Hoo! My productivity goes up!).
This story cracked me up. Apparently, the kid who wrote some iTunes visualation software is a submarine officer, in the service as a result of a ROTC scholarship:
Interviewed over the phone and sounding profoundly unhappy, O’Meara frequently mumbled and seemed incapable of giving coherent answers.“I can function,” said O’Meara, “but I’m definitely not jovial.” …
“It’s impossible to meet women on a submarine,” he said without irony. “And the all-guy thing gets really tiresome.”
“It’s hard,” O’Meara added. “It’s definitely a different world. It’s been a tough adjustment, but I’m getting there. It’s hard to keep optimistic in the Navy. I’m trying to make the best of it.”
I can state from firsthand experience that his life most certainly does suck, but am glad he’s out there doing it. He did take our cash to go to school, too, so I can’t feel too sorry for him.
It’s also good to know that geeks are joining jocks in the fine tradition of serving the country in exchange for Education. Hopefully, O’Meara will use fine examples such as Roger Staubuch, David Robinson, and others for inspiration while he finishes his five years.
Legislation I could support:
Congress could pass legislation requiring that software distributed in the United States come with product labels that would reveal to consumers specific functions built into the programs. Such legislation would likely have the same kind of pro-consumer results as the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906—the legislation that is responsible for today’s labels on food and drugs.
Why? New (in government time) industry, and consistient with past, low-cost across the board solutions in other industries.
So Gmail may be illegal as currently envisioned.
A California state senator said Monday that she was drafting legislation to block Google’s free e-mail service, Gmail, because it would place advertising in personal messages after searching them for key words. … European groups recently lodged a complaint with British authorities, charging that Gmail may violate Europe’s privacy laws because it stores messages where users cannot permanently delete them. Europe’s privacy protection laws give consumers the right to retain control over their communications. … The groups charged, among other things, that scanning e-mail for ad placement poses unnecessary risks of misuse and that the system sets “potentially dangerous precedents and establishes reduced expectations of privacy” in e-mail.
And this is even before the product is officially launched, and before John Ashcroft subpoenas the first Gmail deleted items archive under the PATRIOT act.
Read more!
The Post has a good article detailing the mistakes, missteps, miscalculations, etc of the US strategy in Iraq so far.
Every day the chances for a turnaround in the situation there (can we all agree that it’s bad and that there doesn’t seem to be a good clear plan to make it better?) seem less likely, and the failure of the administration to plan for any sort of contingencies more apparent. Depression sets in.