Dept. of In-No-Way-Good Developments

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Approximately a jillion people have passed this TinyRevolution post our way in the last day or so. Precis: Sy Hersh spoke in Berkeley last week, and had a very disturbing story to relate passed to him by a soldier in Iraq. Hersh, for those with short memories, also wrote the more authoritative pieces on the Abu Grahib scandal.

Shining City on a Hill? Who, us?

Dept. of PowerGrabs

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CNet is reporting that the DOJ has requested sweeping new powers to prosecute piracy. Not the “Arrr!” kind, but the kind where you copy a CD or a movie. Heretofore, these pursuits have been the responsibility of the rightsholder; now, that powerful lobby is trying to get the government to stack the deck in their favor even more.

This is a profoundly bad idea, but so was copyright extension, and Congress bent over for the RIAA/MPAA cabal then, too — this time, it’s even more attractive to the Feds, since it means more power for them. Remember, once governments get power, they’re loathe to give it up — which is why laws like RICO, PATRIOT, and provisions like these are such bad ideas.

Yet More Data On Why Microsoft Sucks

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I noticed my machine was slowing down, so I checked the activity monitor tool. I’d loaded a large (2.5MB) document into Word, but wasn’t using it at the moment — nevertheless, Word was chewing up TWENTY PERCENT of the CPU despite being a background task.

What the hell is wrong with those people in Redmond?

Coolest Feature EVAR

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MobileWhack points out that you can now use Google vis SMS.

You can use Google via SMS now, thanks to Google SMS. Use Google to get listings or query things for you in a variety of ways: Simply sending “pizza 02906” to 46645 will get you the pizza joints in my neighborhood. And yes, 46645 is GOOGL. Cooler still are the tipsheets and Froogle price lookups all available via SMS. I think Google just became the killer app for mobile phones.

Dept. of Technological Tomfoolery

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So now I’m en route back to Houston. The DC Metro is a lovely thing, but you can never account for train delays, so in planning for a slow trip I of course generated a quick one (two trains, no waiting). I figured I’d call Nogators Ground Transportation Coordinator Willis to confirm that the flight was on time, but discovered that my provider of choice does not in fact, um, provide at Washington National. I can’t make a call for love or money. I have, as folks say, “no bars” (and never mind that I’m typing this in a bar of sorts).

No problem, I thought. I’ll just use the Prez Club’s Wifi and send my esteemed colleague and DC host an email asking him to call Erin to confirm on-time departure, etc. Once in the club, though, I counted myself clever for realizing I could text-message Erin from the T-Mobile site (of course, I only realized this after sending the aforementioned mail; I’m thinking of it as a belt-and-suspenders sort of thing).

About this time, the bartender — a charming woman of middle age who used to live in our fair city — asked what I was doing, so I told her. Her response was “I have free weekends and no long distance; do you want to use my phone?”

I did.

Moral: Bartenders can solve all problems, even some whose solutions are not found in the consumption of certain potent potables. Tip accordingly.

Apology.

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We are deeply sorry for what we did last night. We know that many people — some of them our dear, dear friends — enjoy a dram or two of Bushmill’s from time to time, but as a result of our actions in a Washington, D.C., Irish pub last night, we regret to inform you that there is no more Bushmill’s to be had, as we have drunk it all.

We’re really sorry. I blame Tony.

In which we blog on the road

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What we thought when we ate at the IAH Wendy’s, again
“They sure could use a taqueria up in this bitch.”
What we thought when we opened the Powerbook to write that
“Holy crap, Continental’s Prez Club finally got off the suck-stick and put in Wifi.”
What we did in celebration
Had a pint of pseudoShiner. What the fuck is wrong with just having Shiner? What is the Ziegenbock crap?
What we’ll do after that
Have another.
And then?
Stop being a smartass, would you? They’re free.
What’s weird about the President’s Club
In addition to the presence of children, the excessively bright lights, and the widespread patronage of people who haven’t seen the inside of a proper bar since sometime in the Clinton administration, the bartender has a cube-style nameplate propped up in front of the Courvoisier.
Notwithstanding that, how we’re pretty sure we could get into a fight just about now
“Are those Braves the best damn team in baseball, or what?”
Why we won’t do it
Not enough time to get that drunk before flight. Also, baiting Astros fans in that way would suggest a greater attachment to or investment in professional sports, by a couple orders of magnitude, than we actually have.
Remember that thing about the bartender’s nameplate being the weirdest thing here? Never mind.
The dorky looking guy in Dockers and plastic hair next to me at the bar has an MP3 ringer of “Back in Black.” The bartender just laughed at him.
Where we are in that beer progression
Number two is on the way
How long we have until the flight
Looks like an hour. This post could get an awful lot longer.

Three Good Things, and One Bad One

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All from the good folks over at BoingBoing:

  1. Sony ditches DRM CDs. After being stupidly lax on the whole MP3 front, this is sort of shocking. More shocking is their spin, which I’ll leave to BB.
  2. MSFT’s FAT shakedown ended by Patent Office. Redmond was trying to patent a file system format; USPO says no.
  3. EFF kicks Diebold’s Ass
    Diebold, the slimeballs whose faulty voting machines threaten the basis of US democracy, tried to silence its critics, a group of activists who were publishing leaked memos detailing the company’s malfeasance, by falsely claiming that they were violating Diebold’s copyright. Now a court has ruled that Diebold knowingly abused copyright and the DMCA when it sent nastygrams to the activists’ ISPs, and has awarded the activists damages and court costs.

And now one bad one: A St. Louis court has ruled in Blizzard’s favor and against the EFF in the “BNETD” case concerning open source game servers. Fair use? What’s that?

Widely blogged, but still damned good news

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A significant portion of the PATRIOT Act has been declared unconstitutional:

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero, in the first decision against a surveillance portion of the act, ruled for the American Civil Liberties Union in its challenge against what it called “unchecked power” by the FBI to demand confidential customer records from communication companies, such as Internet service providers or telephone companies. Marrero, stating that “democracy abhors undue secrecy,” found that the law violates constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches. He said it also violated free speech rights by barring those who received FBI demands from disclosing they had to turn over records. Because of this gag order, the ACLU initially had to file its suit against the Department of Justice under seal to avoid penalties for violation of the surveillance laws.

So much for the right to disagree

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An Army Reservist who wrote an essay for a conservative antiwar site called “Why We Cannot Win” now faces official charges of disloyalty which may carry up to a 20 year sentence. While it’s true that members of the military are bound by some rules that do not apply to the public at large, it also seems likely that simply expressing an opinion contrary to official US doctrine should remain protected speech. Even if he’s acquitted, it’s a sure bet they’ve ruined his career.

Nice. Way to encourage democracy and freedom!

Further evidence of societal collapse

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A goddamn HDTV in a FRIDGE, for the love of Mike On Saturday, I saw this in a suburban Best Buy whilst I waited for the rain to lighten enough to make I-45 something other than a deathtrap.

Yes, it’s a bad camphone shot (the T610 is many things, but “good camera” is not one of them). However, you should be able to see that:

  • It’s a nice, stainless steel fridge; and
  • it’s got a fucking TELEVISION in it.

What you probably cannot see is that it’s actually an HDTV. Who buys this shit? Are they reproducing? Christ.

Dept. of Who’s Smarter

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Jon Stewart appeared on Bill O’Reilly’s show last month, and during the show O’Reilly repeatedly referred to Stewart’s Daily Show audience as “stoned slackers.” The folks at Comedy Central took exception, so they had a bit of research done.

As it happens — according to Neilsen Media Research — Stewart’s audience is more educated than O’Reilly’s, which presumably surprises no one other than O’Reilly. Heh.

September Resolution

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I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night. I will not drink with Australians until 4 in the morning on a Monday night.

At least, not until the next time that bastard comes to town. Nice to see ya, Andy.

As it turns out, that’s not illegal in San Francisco

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That fair city’s forces of prudishness (both of them) were dealt a setback last week in their efforts to stop the “Naked Yoga Guy” from doing, well, yoga in the buff at Fisherman’s Wharf:

“Simply being naked on the street is not a crime in San Francisco,” said Debbie Mesloh, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

This reminds us of a particularly apt Venn diagram, reproduced below:

<

p style=”text-align: center;”> Sjoberg Venn diagram about pants.

(Diagram from this piece by Lore Sjoberg at the now-defunct Brunching Shuttlecocks humor site.)

More on the RNC’s difficult relationship with “truth”

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Atrios has an image of the wildly inflammatory and downright untruthful mass mailing the RNC sent out in two battleground states.

The Republican Party acknowledged yesterday sending mass mailings to residents of two states warning that “liberals” seek to ban the Bible. It said the mailings were part of its effort to mobilize religious voters for President Bush. The mailings include images of the Bible labeled “banned” and of a gay marriage proposal labeled “allowed.” A mailing to Arkansas residents warns: “This will be Arkansas if you don’t vote.” A similar mailing was sent to West Virginians.

A vote for GWB is an endorsement of tactics like these.