July 2001

• I added a review of The Epson Perfection 640U to Dave's Consumer Reports. It's a mixed bag. Good hardware (with a few quality control problems), sucky software.
• Toward a Disidentification Movement. When stopped by the police and asked for identification, do you hear the voice of a jack-booted thug thug asking you for your papers? Why not? People aren't meant to be tracked and herded like cattle, no matter how unsafe it may prove, or inconvenient for the cops.
• Was I Dancing - or Yawning - on the Grave of Carlo Giuliani last Friday? My problem is that many who attend protests assume that the state is benign, and they're not going to get assaulted. Giuliani was reportedly an anarchist, so at least intellectually, he didn't hold that assumption. Which makes charging the police wielding a fire-extinguisher either stupid or the act of someone intent on martyrdom.
• A Requiem For A Mighty MoPar. A bit of good reading for the motorhead.
• A Casino Odyssey discusses the impact of casino gambling. It's long, but an interesting enough read that I think it's worth the time.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 30, 2001     July 30 in History

• A well-meaning socialist I know pointed me to Carlo Giuliani lies bleeding at MP3.com. Don't click that link unless you want to see graphic pictures of gore. Personally, I'm with Dan at Flutterby who commented that: anyone who represents this kid's death as anything other than suicide by proxy or autodarwination loses my attention really quickly in the Flutterby on G8 violence thread. Personally, if you decide to declare war on the state (and attacking a policeman is a good way to do that), you shouldn't expect a lot of sympathy from me when the state replies by crushing you like a grape. Then there's Paul Ford's I must not think bad thoughts which is one of the more thoughtful pieces I've read. I just don't know.
• Australia may try to protect people too stupid to protect themselves. Maybe just letting them get eaten by sharks would be a better answer.
• Many are hurt by the laissez-faire family. Duh. People don't take responsibility for their own actions.
• She should have seen it coming -- Failure to deliver psychic services gets woman 4 years in prison. Good! Especially since the court decided that the only real issue is that she failed to deliver the services she promised.
• One positive thing. It's the 10th Annual Coffee-thon today.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 27, 2001     July 27 in History

• Can you be Locked up for lust? Apparently so, if you're in Pennsylvania.
• SFX dominates Cities' music business. And the radio stations they don't own are owned by The Mouse.
• Words of Freedom The plain language of the Second Amendment does not restrict the people's right to keep and bear arms. The most interesting thing for me is that the link to this came from a blog with a more left-libertarian view.
• Paul Ford's Imaginary Dog sounds like a pretty cool puppy.
• Self-promotion alert: the web-design branch of Polaschek Computing built the Cushing Lake Resort website. If you want to go fishing in Canada, they'd be happy to hear from you.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 23, 2001     July 23 in History

• According to the web, Mark Penman R.I.P. 22 Feb 1963 - 2 Jul 2001. Mark's site remains at Laissez Firearm for now. Dammit.
• Russian crypto expert arrested at Def Con for pointing out that Adobe's eBooks have crappy encryption. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is just such a bad law. And some are suggesting that you Boycott Adobe.
• Sparky the Sea Lion has retired, so there's no shows at Como Park Zoo while they're training his replacement. The new Sparky will debut next May.
• Laptop-Security Lessons Learned the Hard Way. Is it any wonder laptops are a prime theft target?
• An appeals court says Napster can go back online. A small bit of good news.
• I added Grilled Trout with herbs, Wild Rice with Mushrooms and Potato Stuffed Green Peppers to Dave's Recipes. I've also marked which recipes work well when cooked on the grill, since most of my summer cooking is done while tailgating before Saint Paul Saints games.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 20, 2001     July 20 in History

• Jamie Zawinski shipped DNA Lounge before Netscape shipped a usable Mozilla.
• Mike Jasper's ConstantCommentary is sometimes fun reading.
• We Live Like Kings - an amusing commentary.
• Nonprofitabletech Knows More Than You. Heh!
• Zero tolerance strikes again. Sheesh.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 16, 2001     July 16 in History

• Your electronic friends may not be so friendly. They'll tell people what you're up to. Gossipy friends.
• EFF Response to Barney Legal Threat: Your letter contains two legal claims, neither of which is defensible under existing law. And then they basically say that threatening nuisance suits is sanctionable, and if the Barney lawyers don't cut it out, we will both defend against your claims with all of the means at are [sic] disposal and will seek appropriate affirmative relief.
• Europe Builds Itself Up at Bush's Expense: Indeed, despite European protestations, American ecological standards are far more strict than European rules, and have been for 20 years or more. ... But the idea that Europe is ahead on environmental matters is a convenient fiction of European politics.
• Debt to Society, the Real Price of Prisons is the overview in a Mother Jones report on prisons in the U.S. Over two million behind bars, and still counting.
• The Workplace Surveillance Project has information on how many people are having their email monitored. Spooky. Remember, email is like a postcard. Encryption is your envelope.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 13, 2001     July 13 in History

• Baseball history thrown a curveball - apparently Abner Doubleday didn't invent it in Cooperstown in 1839. Baseball's Disputed Origin Is Traced Back, Back, Back. is the original article. Now why couldn't the AP wire article (that the strib published) link to it?
• The Mumford Time Machine lets you do cool things with your camera.
• Buying into trouble is a CNET special report about folks buying more software than they need. Specifically Oracle.
• Sex at college is key to happy life for college gals. For guys, it might be better to wait.
• Britain's decline of liberty a warning for U.S. But then Britain has never really been a stronghold of liberty.
• The Smart Ass Guide to San Francisco does not have a misleading title. Nor does the Smart-Ass Guide to New York City. They use flash, though. Still kinda funny. Hmm. Maybe someone I know wants to do a Smart-Ass Guide to the Twin Cities.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 9, 2001     July 9 in History

• If you read the AP Morton Downey Jr. obit or the Reuters Morton Downey Jr. obit last March, you'd think that he actually wrote Wipe Out. Yet if you check the AMG Entry for Wipe Out, you'll see that it's credited to Bob Berryhill of The Surfaris. And in spite of this, I can't find a retraction from either Reuters or The Associated Press. Just another case pointing out that you can't believe what you read on the web, or in this case, even in the newspaper.
• Thanks to Jeff Kay for asking the question that prompted me to look this up, and naturally to Google and the All Music Guide for making finding the answer as easy as it was.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 8, 2001     July 8 in History

• I've added a bunch of new recipes to Dave's Recipes, including a complete Lamb Dinner.
• Steve Gibson has concluded that Microsoft Does Not Understand Security.
• Majority of Web Users Are FBI Agents Posing as Teenage Girls. Nearly one third of pedophiles say they actually go to teen sites in hopes of meeting FBI agents.
• AOL and Microsoft are Assimilating the Web. Or at least trying to. They figure they should control all the content, too. Yeah, I suppose not too many people have Dave's Picks as their home page.
• Teachers fight Web plagiarism, and there are online tools, but the most effective tool is simply knowing one's students.
• A list of the various types of Flame Warriors. Pretty funny stuff.
• A list of low-cost Mac HTML editors has moved to Budget Web Software. You're welcome for the linkage, Dori. It's a good resource.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 6, 2001     July 6 in History

• The Declaration of Independence: Transcription
• Remembering Independence Day. What happened to the folks who signed the Declaration of Independence.
• Archives facelift to take Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights out of public view for two years.
• I Am a Bad American - Netlore Archive - It's been attributed to George Carlin, but nobody's sure who wrote it. Carlin said he didn't, though.
• Tampa uses cameras to scan for wanted faces. Cross Tampa off the list of freedom-loving vacation destinations.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 4, 2001     July 4 in History

• The Slot is A Spot For Copy Editors or anyone interested in the finer points of language.
• weblogs: a history and perspective. It's from last September, and misses a few things, but was still an interesting read.
• Larkin dusts off the memory of his Game 7 hit.
• I added Ball Park Spuds to Dave's Recipes.
• Ventura masters the art of triangulation and gets a budget without seeing a shutdown of the state government.

Weather in Minneapolis for July 2, 2001     July 2 in History