January, 2002 full listing

31. January, 2002 - Freedom, Crypto, Media permalink

• This Is Your Bill of Rights... The Drug War, And Its Erosion of the Bill of Rights
• The Bill of Rights: Hostage in the War on Drugs
• I feel I need to point out Suppose You Were Fond of Books, by L. Neil Smith to those folks who might still have any doubts about where they (or I) stand on victim disarmament (aka gun control). It's one of the essays that was collected in Lever Action which is one of the five or six books I'm currently reading.
• L. Neil Smith's Bill of Rights Enforcement
• No Such Agency seems to be Losing the Code War. Or at least that's what they'd have you think. [daypop]
• The Media and G.I. Joe. 1. Reporters have trouble covering the military because so few have actually served. 2. The military has trouble changing because basic training tries to stamp out original thought. 3. The thing that drives military change is defeat. I think this was an interesting read, but the fact that I can't summarize it to a single topic bugs me. [instapundit]
• Fewer facts in media coverage of news. Just after September 11, three of four of news stories were strictly factual. Now it's down to five of eight. Apparently that's really low (and three of four, or six of eight, is really high). Y'know, this'd be a lot more interesting if there were more historical data available. [fark!]
• Read All About It! Newspapers Lose Web War [scripting]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 31, 2002     January 31 in History

30. January, 2002 - fun and games - spot the reader suggestions permalink

• The Brennan Gyro-Monorail Another great page from the "Museum of RetroTech", it's the strangest thing on rail you're ever likely to see.
• Speedpool2 looks like a fun game, but it definitely would need some tweaking to make it work better on bar tables (where you can't pull balls back out of the pockets). [cam]
• Saturday morning toon time is gone. The networks have given up and the few who want to watch Saturday morning toons are going to have to watch cable. [fark!]
• Justice Department hangs drapes in front of semi-undressed statues. I first spotted this on ABC News, but couldn't link to their story, since the link would've been bad next week. Anyway, Ashcroft seems to have decided that we shouldn't be ogling justice's boobies. [google news]
• Steph wanted to find a picture of Packit Jeans, but couldn't be bothered to wade through leecooper.com's endless Flash site. As for me, I'm pretty sure that's not my style. [steph]
• The RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus looks pretty cool. I haven't pounded on it enough to say for sure that it's cool, though. [opine bovine]
• Beershots High-resolution images of (frozen) beers from around the world, each photomicrograph displaying the beverages unique properties. Mmmm, birefringence. [Reed, via Denver Mad Scientists]
• War on the Web: the University of Minnesota's collection of war posters is being collected online at War Posters . A cool bit of history, eh? [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 30, 2002     January 30 in History

29. January, 2002 - A TiVo gripe, spam and privacy issues permalink

• Last night my TiVo decided to dump the channel lineup I had. I came home to discover that all of my season passes, etc., were just gone. Sigh. Three hours wasted rebooting and reprogramming the thing, and I'm sure I've forgotten something. But since it was already screwed up, I did get to Erase Everything, which I think means the hard drive is defragmented now.
• National 'Do Not Call' Registry Proposed. That'd put an awful lot of telemarketers out of business. And probably just result in them sending spam. [fark!]
• I got a fun little story via email the other day and had to share. I think you'll like it.
• How I Managed To Can the Spam is another fine example of how to deal with a nuisance. [daypop]
• Qwest and MSN fumble handoff of DSL customers. Well, it's not so much a fumble, as holding onto customers who want to leave. But Qwest DSL was never that much fun to deal with. I was calling in for Tech Support (because my connection was down) at least once a month until I switched to getting my service through Professional Network Services who have been great. [strib]
• Qwest changes plan to share customer information unless customers opt out. It's only a temporary victory, though. They're waiting on an FCC ruling, and unless that mandates that they only release customer information for customers who've opted in, they'll probably try again. The thing that bugs me here is the complete lack of choice any of us have about local phone service. As long as I need my DSL line, I'm stuck with getting a land-line from Qwest. I think I'd rather be wireless, but I haven't gotten around to setting up an airport hub and directional antenna over at PNS. [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 29, 2002     January 29 in History

28. January, 2002 - News updates, here and abroad permalink

• In Argentine Default and the IMF, Congressman Ron Paul takes on the IMF.
• The Anti-Christ of the green religion made the mistake of suggesting that things aren't as bad as some say and that we should look at conservation based on a rational assessment of the costs and benefits. Pretty radical stuff, I tell ya. [fark!]
• Here's a followup: Woman on 10,000-mile taxi ride held for psychiatric tests. D'ohh! Who'd a thought she was nuts?
• The Pre-Date Confidence Builder is aimed at women, but it's pretty darned funny, nonetheless. [caterina]
• Groom Killed By Stripper's Boobs - Who could have known that when he was waving his hands around, he was signaling for help?

Weather in Minneapolis for January 28, 2002     January 28 in History

27. January, 2002 - Browser changes - Online News - Spiffy web apps permalink

• Images, Tables, and Mysterious Gaps explains how claiming strict HTML 4.01 compliance might not be a good thing for documents using tables and single-pixel gifs for layout. [zeldman]
• Does Netscape 6 Break Your Table Layouts? That doctype declaration is pretty important. [zeldman]
• Once-Trustworthy Newspaper Databases Have Become Unreliable and Frustrating. I guess I'm not too disturbed, since I never figured the newspapers' online databases were that reliable. Heck, I've got over four years of links here, and most of the broken ones are links to old (you know, from like more than a month ago) articles in newspapers. [daypop]
• There are Niches of Trust on the net. Websites which report things honestly, unlike more traditional media. Not a real surprise, but I sometimes check the Online Journalism Review because they cover (among other things) just this kind of useful site.
• A Picture to HTML converter. No new technology here, but it's still cool. [daypop]
• Barter, Baby! is a place to swap some of your old junk for someone else's old junk. Maybe that's the solution to the stuff I want to sell. [caterina]
• Microsoft breaks MIME specification, perhaps in an effort to get more people to migrate to their software? [cam]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 27, 2002     January 27 in History

26. January, 2002 - Alcoholic fun in the warm weather permalink

• Whiskeys or Whisky if its Irish its here. Warning, it'll play music at you via either Flash or QuickTime, but there's useful information there.
• Which drink are you? What alcoholic beverage matches your personality? [Reed (an Imperial) (via blogdex)]
• Alcohol may ward off Alzheimer's, and to quote a friend: and I was drinking to forget!
• Powered Monowheels Madcap inventors inspired by the idea that one wheel is sufficient and that you should be riding inside the wheel. Perhaps call it the recumbent unicycle? I also saw a link recently to some human powered monowheels like this, but I haven't been able to find it again. Drat. [Reed]
• Penis-Multilating Tampon Puts Rapists Out Of Business - Forever [fark!]
• Shades of spring in the dead of winter. Yesterday I was driving around in a t-shirt with my arm hanging out the open car window. It's amazing how warm the high 40s feel, even though we haven't had any bitter cold yet this year. Oh well, looks like we'll have our cold next week. [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 26, 2002     January 26 in History

25. January, 2002 - Freedom of various sorts - or the lack thereof permalink

• Flying in the Face of Countless Indignities. Or not flying, but rather waiting. I really don't look forward to having to go through an airport anytime soon. If you consider the time spent waiting in airports and such, the breakeven distance for driving is up over 500 miles. For me it's probably even farther, since unless I get to fly up front in the plane, I'm really uncomfortable back in cattle class (something about being too tall for the available amount of legroom). I think I'd rather spend three days driving to CA than flying. Or perhaps this is the year I'll start using Amtrak. [instapundit]
• As a side note on airport security, I wonder if they ever put back the couple miles of fence that were missing on the west side of MSP last October. Nothing between me on my trike and the runways but a nicely packed gravel road that the construction equipment used when they were working. Yeah, the National Guard in the terminal sure enhanced security when anyone with a car could've taken out a jet.
• The Myth of the Rule of Law. Three points: 1) there is no such thing as a government of law and not people, 2) the belief that there is serves to maintain public support for society's power structure, and 3) the establishment of a truly free society requires the abandonment of the myth of the rule of law. Warning: this is a long one. [flutterby]
• Not that anyone will be surprised, but the US isn't the only place using the threat of terrorism to squash civil rights. See Amnesty International's, United Kingdom: Briefing on the Terrorism Bill. The bill would make permanent many of the provisions that have been used in Northern Ireland for years. An extra special example is the charge of inciting terrorism overseas - say, for example, a bookstore that brings in a third world freedom fighter for a talk, or an angry weblogger who runs his fingers in criticism of the government. Note too that it will allow police officers to arrest any susptected terrorist without a warrant. See also this quote by James Madison. [Jim]
• Muzzling Moore tells the story of how a bunch of librarians kept Michael Moore's upcoming book Stupid White Men ISBN:0060392452 from being censored by the publisher. Library Juice 4:44 has the original letter that stirred up the librarians, and Library Juice 4:46 has a followup.
• Righting Copywrongs - since 1960, copyrights have been extended eleven times. Does that benefit the public? Well, it sure benefits someone....
• Saudi Dress Code for Female Troops Revised. Col. McSally has won part of her suit. [google news]
• Eased dress code for U.S. women sparks Saudi anger is the other side of the story. Yeah, they can be as angry as they want, but it's female soldiers they'll be messing with. Also, the article makes no mention of the female diplomatic staff who have never had restrictions placed on what they could wear. [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 25, 2002     January 25 in History

24. January, 2002 - Minnesota Connections permalink

• James Lileks doesn't think much of Kathleen Sara Jane Soliah Olsen, probably for good reason. The only explanation I can think of for her reportedly bizarre courtroom antics is hoping to make enough of a mess of the trial that the whole thing gets tossed and she can try again. Or maybe she's just nuts.
• The Strib: Sara Jane Olson portrayed as SLA leader and the SLA would've fallen apart without her. Huh. Guess we'll see how it all sorts out. [strib]
• Twins celebrate court loss which requires them to play ball in the Metrodome in 2002. [strib]
• Warm weather could chill St. Paul Winter Carnival - Hopefully it'll be cold enough that the ice-sculptures will hold together. [strib]
• I've also updated Dave's Recommended Reading based on some prompting from others.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 24, 2002     January 24 in History

23. January, 2002 - Cool things permalink

• Drug promises lovers a whiff of instant passion. A competitor to Viagra . [instapundit]
• Speaking of instant passion... Porn, Of Course. Particularly the girl and her cucumber links! (not safe for work) [steph]
• Valentine's Candy for the Rest of Us. Sigh. [fark!]
• Bad beds and wrist strain top brothel dangers - and you though carpal tunnel syndrome was just for geeks at keyboards. Or perhaps not. [fark!]
• How the Wayback Machine Works - they've got a huge amount of data (five times as much as the Library of Congress), and some of it's pretty cool. And all for under half a million dollars. Hell, I bet WAM!BASE spent more than that on just the electricity to spin up their hard drives a couple years back, but then they just had a little shake-up there. [evhead]
• Peace Activist Has To Admit Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Is Pretty Cool. Yes. Yes it is. [endwar]
• How much is cab fare to Alaska? From Florida? An awful lot.
• [kottke]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 23, 2002     January 23 in History

22. January, 2002 - software, hardware, music permalink

• I wrote an essay about The Problem with Standards recently. I've been feeling grumpy about standards that weren't very standard for something like the past ten years, and finally got around to venting. As JeffP used to quote: The great thing about standards is there are so many to choose from!
• Dave Winer says Userland is finally getting rid of the font tags in their script-generated pages. I was grumping about that over a year ago , but it's still nice to see it finally get fixed. And Sunday Dave said he owed Derek Powazek an apology. Will wonders never cease? [scripting]
• The BEER-WARE License - Could it possibly be the best open source license ever? The license says that you're free to use the code. Should you happen to meet the author, you're morally obligated to buy him a beer. (You'll need to scroll down a bit) [some guy]
• 555 Timer IC Tutorial - a relatively complete tutorial of what makes the 555 work, including some sample circuits. It's a pretty cool chip, even today. But then I still think vacuum tubes are cool. [some guy]
• Spin's Greatest 25 Bands of All Time. I don't have a lot to argue with them about. I'd have liked to see the Who on the list. Or the Grateful Dead. Or Skynyrd. But Spin's a little too hip for that sort of thing. Or maybe they were in the next 25. [some guy]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 22, 2002     January 22 in History

21. January, 2002 - Webby bits, MN bits permalink

• I'm still on the daily schedule. Good thing I got the search working. I think the new Suggest a Pick link has made linking too easy for me. If other people start suggesting more links, I'll have to start spending more time cutting things out. Of course there are probably some who think I should be doing that already.
• Nokia to Take on Palm in Market War. Cool. The bad news? Need a GSM cellular network to use it. And it looks like it'll set you back about $700. [google news]
• Where Did All the Online Bargains Go? The way of huge quantities of VC money for e-commerce companies. Also, since it's pretty easy to price-compare the competition, there's not a lot of point in undercutting them by any more than you have to. And unlike a few years ago, it's now often possible to find things cheaper by going and shopping in person. [flutterby]
• Adobe's Foray into CMS sounds pretty neat. Just a bit pricey, though. [cam]
• Modern Day Muckrakers talks about the Independant Media Centers. In spite of the title, it seems like a pretty fair piece.
• Minnesota's weather -- the good, the bad and the really, really ugly -- a new exhibit at the Minnesota History Center. Sounds fun, eh? [strib]
• Twin Cities lose cost edge as location for tech firms because the cost of living has crept up here. [strib]
• Twin Cities' growth - How to handle a million more people? One of the things the Strib doesn't mention in this or in their Affordable Housing article is that one of the major obstacles to small-scale affordable housing in Minneapolis is the current zoning law. The way things are set up, most houses in Minneapolis couldn't be built today on the lots they sit on, since the lot-sizes would be too small. That means that the only new development happening is huge apartment buildings which have a small affordable-housing component and lots of market-rate units. But no chance for people to get a house of their own. [strib]
• Minnesota looks into switch of Qwest DSL users to MSN. Seems you're a lot better off going to another ISP than MSN, but nobody ever bothers to mention that. [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 21, 2002     January 21 in History

20. January, 2002 - Weekend fun permalink

• I mentioned flying cars the other day...
• Heh! Neighbour returned Witnesses' cold call. There's a tactic I hadn't thought of. [hindsight]
• Study Suggests Booze Boosts Allergic Reactions. So there's more than one reason for that red nose, eh? [fark!]
• The Breast Test II asks you to decide whether the breasts are real or fake. Not safe for work. (I got 17 out of 20 correct, and the ones I missed were fakes that I gave the benefit of the doubt) [fark!]
• Driverless taxi goes for test run in Wales. I'm not sure whether this is a better or worse plan for getting home from the bar.... [fark!]
• Pub-detecting watch set to change the world - it's got a GPS and will lead you to the nearest four pubs. Spiffy! [fark!]
• Philips moves to put 'poison' label on protected audio CDs. Y'see, they aren't actually valid CDs, so they can't use the trademarked compact disc symbol that Philips owns. [daypop]
• Heard about Nicotine Water? [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 20, 2002     January 20 in History

19. January, 2002 - Enron, Baseball, Collections permalink

• Woo! I got the search working again. The output is pretty gunky looking, but I can put off that cleanup for quite a while, I think.
• Legislators Rush to Dump Enron Money, as if Judas giving back his thirty pieces of silver would make everything right. There are a few who are keeping the money, saying that giving it away would be an admission of guilt and they've done nothing wrong. Y'know, I think I mind crooked but consistent politicians (at least you can figure out who's buying 'em) a lot less than the hypocrites. [instapundit]
• Enron is hardly another Whitewater, since there are so many people involved. 71 of the 100 senators have taken Enron money. And it looks like the Clinton administration gave Enron a whole lot more favors than Bush has (which isn't surprising, since they had more time to do it). [instapundit]
• Twins face an uphill battle for 2002. They're going to have a tough time signing the players they need with this contraction crap over their heads. And it's all because Carl Pohlad wants an extra $50 million for the team, and figures he can get it by doing favors for Bud Selig. [strib]
• Young Pohlad offers some answers about what the family's plans are for the team. [strib]
• Zeldman has a good rant on Getting Paid. Sadly, no solutions, except moving into the client's office until they pay you. Hmm. Maybe that's the answer.... [zeldman]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 19, 2002     January 19 in History

18. January, 2002 - Saudi, Freedom, Microsoft Security? permalink

• Just a quick note for folks who were used to my regular Monday and Friday updates: since the first of the year, I've been updating Dave's Picks every day. I'm not sure how long I'm going to continue at this pace, but you might've missed some stuff along the way if you weren't looking at the dates.
• Saudis Feel Unfairly Tarred With a Terrorist Brush because an awful lot of the terrorists we know about come from there. And Saudis May Seek U.S. Exit. Y'know, maybe they're not such close allies after all. [instapundit]
• Ye Know Not What Ye Do as we sit and watch the bill of rights be slowly turned into a List of Permissible Actions which is not the same thing at all. [endwar]
• Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2001 (Introduced in the House) looks to reinstate the draft. Huh! [some guy]
• Compare Minnesota gun-check system is faulted and States Lax in Background Checks for Gun Buyers to Officials dispute that felons buy guns. Note how only the last story mentions that someone might be critical of Americans for Gun Safety, who are an anti-gun group. The others take the study by AGS as gospel, while I somehow doubt they'd do the same with an NRA study. [instapundit]
• Microsoft shifts its focus to security. It's about time Microsoft did this, but I'm still fairly surprised by it. They seem to really be taking this seriously. Experts Say 'About Time' on Microsoft Security Plan [google news]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 18, 2002     January 18 in History

17. January, 2002 - fun and games - good news bad news permalink

• One-Person Air Scooter Gets Off Ground. Now this is something cool enough to deserve the hype the segway or the new iMac got. I want my flying car! [google news]
• GPS Drawing - in case geocaching isn't geeky enough for you. [opine bovine]
• Pajamas Get Out of Bed. Perhaps this is the solution to the six-year-old demise of Zubaz? [opine bovine]
• The Comfy-Chair Revolution in retail. Places that make it nice to be in their store might sell more stuff. Who'd 'a' thunk? [note: you may not be able to get to it at the moment. Their server seems a mite confused.] [instapundit]
• Intellectual Improprieties lists the four worst patents of all time (that they could find). These are pretty good examples of bad patents, but I'd be surprised if there aren't thousands more that are just as bad. [daypop]
• Jello Biafra warns of bait-and-switch tactics in fake Dead Kenneys tour. Ugly. [daypop]
• The Price of Freedom - Libertarians don't get dates.
• Reading anxiety. There's a lot to read. And not enough time. Some people worry about it. I just try and keep plowing through a couple magazines, a couple books, and a slew of websites every week.
• I think I may be part of the The Thin Book Movement without having realized it. I just looked at the technical books that have been languishing in my "to-read" pile. They're all massive tomes. The thinner ones get read quickly. Perhaps some subjects require the heft of a phone-book, but not as many as publishers seem to think. [flutterby]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 17, 2002     January 17 in History

16. January, 2002 - web goo and privacy permalink

• The End of Free a blog that chronicles the end of an era. You bloody freeloaders can go back to using Gopher. [Reed] (via PhotoDude.com)
• The tyranny of 1024 x 768 - people who don't want you to look at their websites.
• United States: State Policies Relating to Web Accessibility and the list keeps growing.
• No More Popup Ads lists links to opt out from some ads. No idea if it works or not, but it looks interesting. [flutterby]
• All 50 states agree to upgrade driver's licenses, bringing us one step closer to a national ID. [fark!]
• Heh! USA PATRIOT REGISTRATION - WHITEHOUSE.ORG. Make sure to check out the various pop-ups. And make sure to submit the form and get your "official tattoo". Someone's got far too much time on their hands.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 16, 2002     January 16 in History

15. January, 2002 - War - Foot and Mouth update - Enron permalink

• The Air Force Flier In the Ointment is suing Donald Rumsfeld because the USAF made her wear an abaya and burqa while she was stationed in Saudi Arabia, which she says is unconstitutional. I guess that's up to the court to decide, but it's definitely un-American. [inflatable sheep]
• Michael New tried to fight the DOD over having to wear a UN uniform. Turns out he lost his last appeal back in October when the Supreme Court decided not to hear his case. Hope McSally does better in her fight.
• Praetorians, Pilots and Professionalism has more on the Arab SS agent who wasn't let on a plane because he was acting like a jerk. Apparently it's a common attitude. [instapundit]
• Britain officially free of foot-and-mouth disease. [google news]
• Enron: Who's Accountable? I've pointed to a few other things about the Enron mess. But in my experience, the only notable thing about Enron is the size of the collapse, not the nature of it. I've worked at a of company or two who have hired outside accountancy firms to cook the books while the executives got their money out, followed by a sharp decline in the value of the company. Why burden your own accountants with the moral problems of trying to make things look good when there are firms who will do it for you for a fee? And they're probably better at it than anyone in-house, since they make a business out of making companies' books look good. [daypop]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 15, 2002     January 15 in History

14. January, 2002 - the return of winter permalink

• Winter's back in Minnesota. I had to shovel my sidewalk for the first time since Christmas. At least it was fluffy snow, rather than wet and heavy glop. And it seems odd to have the lawns around me covered in white, rather than green like they were yesterday. [strib]
• Bad times spawn great start-ups. Not sure what more to say about it. It'd be spiffy if Better Nerds turns into a great start-up, I guess.
• Andersen back in hot seat for allegedly destroying records during their audit of Enron. And it looks like Enron paid off both Republicans and Democrats, Clinton and Bush. I find myself wondering just how broad the scandal is going to be. [instapundit]
• Enron chief touted stock plan before collapse. Looks like there's plenty of blame to go around in this one. [google news]
• Perhaps someone should point Anderson and Enron at AccountingMalpractice.com - the accounting malpractice and auditing liability resource. [instapundit]
• Why the New iMacs Will Be Successful No Matter What They Look Like: because they'll make Steve Jobs happy. [daypop]
• Personal video recorder firms locked in digital death match. TiVo and ReplayTV are slugging it out in court over patents. The patent suit distracts both companies from the real problem, which is Microsoft's UltimateTV. So maybe my lifetime subscription to the TiVo service isn't looking like such a smart idea. [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 14, 2002     January 14 in History

13. January, 2002 - software, blogging, googling permalink

• Visit to Google's HQ provides blast from Silicon Valley past [fark!]
• UsableNet - LIFT Onsite is a mac accessibility checker for web-pages [cam]
• Richard Stallman says We can put an end to Word attachments. I sure hope so. [cam]
• The Psychology of Weblogs. [ntk]
• Finally, I got an email last night about some winners from a 2001 contest at the Washington Post Style Invitational. When I couldn't find them in the archives, I started googling, and came up with The Stale Invitational: The Dopeler Effect and Other New Words. 1998 winners. Sigh. I wish people would check their facts before emailing me things like this so I didn't have to spend almost an hour tracking down the real story. There's also more about the folks who participate in this sort of thing at GopherDrool.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 13, 2002     January 13 in History

12. January, 2002 - the freedom to be silly permalink

• On the Public's Right to Know - The day Ashcroft censored Freedom of Information. Funny, it didn't make a lot of news. [Inflatable Sheep]
• WorldNetDaily: Know your rights at airport checkpoints. A list of what's actually allowed and not allowed. [endwar]
• The Register says Face recognition technology a proven farce. Maybe Visionics is trying to ship before its ready? To exploit people's fears about airport security? Naww, they wouldn't do that, would they? Oh wait, they're basically a software company. Of course they would!
• Gun Shy by Wendy Kaminer. - It's long past time for liberals to stop demonizing gun owners... Amen, sister. [instapundit]
• Philips: Copy protection for CD's do not have a future. On top of the legal issues I pointed to on the 11th, here's another blow in the music industries attempt to control all content.
• Convivial pursuit: Bar-trivia games spark friendships. Yep. Geeks meet via trivia. [strib]
• Fox Kicks Tick! Dangit. I wasn't getting enough Tick in my life.
• Jet-Powered Recumbent Bike Recumbent bike not fast enough? [reede]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 12, 2002     January 12 in History

11. January, 2002 - blogging and other fun permalink

• davezilla.com - pick your convention for 2002. The icons in the chart represent: Condom * Underwear * Toilet Paper * Mr. Spock * Film * Diskette * Coffee, which Davezilla says means: Good chance you'll get some * See your friends half-nekkid * Decent Facilities * Geeks * Kodak Moments * You may learn something * Drug of choice freely available. I'm just not sure which to pick, but I'm leaning toward either BlogCon or SXSW (or both).
• Glenn Reynolds (the Instapundit) talks about A Technological Reformation in the works. Something about weblogs and them bugging journalists. Seems there are journalists who don't like the way bloggers can fact check your ass and point out the problems. But it's really the death of Big Media. I'm not so sure. Big Media has Big Money, and that often wins out, regardless of the merits. [instapundit]
• Mail volume drops sharply after Sept. 11; rates to rise. Why does this always happen just after I've bought a roll of stamps? [fark!]
• Will Ringling Bros. beat animal-rights clowns at their own game? The circus is finally standing up to PETA (and I mean the terroristic, save-bambi ones, rather than the good, top of the food-chain People Eating Tasty Animals version) rather than paying them money to shut them up. Did you know that at one point PETA bought ringlingbrothers.com and used it to publicize their take on circus cruelty to animals? Yet they screamed bloody murder when someone bought peta.org for a carnivore-happy website. Well, here's hoping the circus will kick some bunny-hugging butt. [instapundit]
• How to be an American. Heh! [fark!]
• Y'know how sometimes something that should be funny isn't, because it hits too close to home? Dilbert on Dating.
• Jason Kottke points to a kinda cool impromptu art exhibit. Huh!
• Lawmaker: Is CD copy-protection illegal? Funny how the RIAA and its members have shot themselves in the foot. [daypop]
• Rock and Roll Confidential - To The Web What Corey Hart Is To Rock And Roll.. Make sure to check the gallery.
• 

  Which David Bowie are you?

• Tonio K is one of my friend Jim's favorite artists. This is his list of Ten Most Significant Contributors to the History of Recorded Music. You've heard of some of them and not some of the others. Most of them were even recording artists. Pick #1 is the most interesting.
• Finally, Ohio Ban on Concealed Weapons Ruled Unconstitutional. Wow. A big step forward for the Second Amendment. [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 11, 2002     January 11 in History

10. January, 2002 - Twins, Minnesota, other news permalink

• Pat Reusse: Pohlad-Selig loan stinks. Yes it does. [strib]
• Selig loan hotly debated among baseball figures. But since the commissioner is the one who decides what should happen in this sort of case, and Selig's the commissioner... [strib]
• The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices is donating its collection to the Science Museum.
• Lileks on downtown Minneapolis (and other things). Some great old buildings are gone. But there have been a few worthwhile new ones put up, too. [weblogs]
• Cacher Portal - Minnesota is another Minnesota Geocaching site I found via the one I linked to Tuesday.
• An American Airlines Captain on Secret Service Agent. You remember the one who was denied boarding. Turns out it was because he was an abusive ass, not because he was of middle-eastern descent. Isn't interfering with a flight crew a skyjacking offense? At a minimum this guy should be walking the streets, rather than flying around on my dime. Yes, the airlines are a pain in the posterior (when things are going well), but blowing up in the airport isn't an acceptable solution. [some guy]
• FAA Request for Comments: Arming Pilots. Here's your chance to comment. [fark!]
• New virus first to infect Macromedia Flash. Yet another reason to turn disable flash. There are some cool things in it, but I generally run with flash off, just because it's the only way to stop the blinking and such of ads now that advertisers have quit using animated gifs. Sigh. [google news]
• Remember Slobodan Milosevic? The previous bad-guy? Milosevic at war crimes tribunal. [google news]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 10, 2002     January 10 in History

9. January, 2002 - MacWorld followup - cool software stuff permalink

• I've also gone and cleaned up all the archives. Each day now has its own web-page (though when you click a month, you still see all the entries). And everything's got permalinks (or should - drop me a note if you spot something missing) now. I also tweaked the CSS a bit to add some whitespace between days in the month-view.
• I've added some more links to my Thoughts on Steve's Keynote, but the links are here, too.
  • Gates Unveils New Digital Home Devices that sound a lot like what I wanted out of my Newton. Wireless net access and some software so I could write Tape Simpsons, click Do It and have it squirt some IR at my VCR. Let's see, that was 1994 or 1995? And it only took seven years to have something similar actually ship. [google news]
  • LILEKS Bleat 1/8/02 starts by talking about appliances and ends with a pretty glowing review of the new iMac. I found both parts interesting.
  • TidBITS: Macworld Expo SF 2002 Keynote: Hip or Hype? They were disappointed after all the hype, too.
  • The Latest in Desk-Lamp Chic, Lump, Stick, Rectangle and Lotsa Sizzle, Not Much Steak are all from As The Apple Turns.
  • USS Clueless - Moto can't deliver explains why Apple's shipping hardware that isn't really all that new - because the software isn't as special as Apple had hoped. [some guy]
  • David Coursey gives us Time for truth: Why Apple's new iMac ISN'T 'flat-out cool'. He's not very impressed, either.
• The Physics of the Jiggle of video-game characters. Might be offensive to someone who doesn't catch the jokes. [fark!]
• Vaporware 2001: Empty Promises lists the top ten bits of vaporware from 2001. [daypop]
• The Geeks who saved Usenet is the Salon story about the people who made the Google archives possible by saving everything they could from Usenet. [daypop]
• Knight of the Living Data / Google Gives Usenet a Second Life - Pretty much the same story as the one from Salon, but from the SF Chronicle. [flutterby]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 9, 2002     January 9 in History

8. January, 2002 - Minnesota, Baseball, the Twins permalink

• I hate how the strib doesn't keep stories around forever. Probably ninety percent of the broken links on Dave's Picks are due to newspapers that expire old content. There would be another link in here, along with commentary if they didn't do that.
• Canadian cities a bargain for a night out, but Minneapolis is even cheaper. [fark!]
• Geocaching In Minnesota. Huh. I knew it was happening. I didn't know there was a Minnesota-specific website. [weblogs]
• Pat Reusse gives us Baseball history repeating itself. He's talking about the 1994 strike as well, and how it killed baseball in Montreal. But the last time contraction happened (in the 1890s) it was due to stadiums. Seems teams couldn't afford the new-fangled concrete stadiums, and those municipalities who wouldn't replace the wooden stadiums lost their major league teams.[strib]
• Selig got loan from Pohlad family firm. And Carl got MLB's offer to close out the Twins for 50% above fair-market value. Quid-pro-quo? [strib]
• Molitor won't be part of Twins coaching staff because he's been told by Pohlad and Selig that the Twins are probably still going to be eliminated, if not this year, then next winter. [strib]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 8, 2002     January 8 in History

7. January, 2002 - Steve Jobs scooped - Hell in a Handbasket permalink

• I've moved the links about the MacWorld SF keynote and product announcements into my Thoughts on Steve's Keynote. I'm not completely underwhelmed, but I don't feel any great techno-lust today.
• Back on Christmas Day, I was given two and a half pounds of cashews. They're almost gone now. Ugh! Is it any wonder I spend the entire month of January trying to lose the weight I put on over the holidays?
• Another software update.
• Geeks With Books by Rick Klaw talks about the abrogation of parts of the Bill of Rights, specifically as it relates to books and information. [endwar]
• I've been working on updating The state of the Bill of Rights, but the USA PATRIOT law changed so much for the worse that it's going to be a while before I'm caught up.
• Judge OKs FBI Keyboard Sniffing - another nibble at the fourth amendment. [instapundit]
• The McDonaldization of ye old public house. There's thoughts that globalization and the increasing size of corporations are killing off a lot of economic niches. And in this case, he blames the customers. I don't think that's entirely the case, since there are still customers for niche products (or more traditional beers), but you have to work to sell into a niche. Good value and good service will go a long way toward keeping you alive in a niche. [instapundit]
• How Islam Lost Its Way. It's all the fault of a 12th century cleric named Imam Al-Ghazali. [cam]
• Corporations Behaving Badly - The ten worst corporations of 2001. [daypop]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 7, 2002     January 7 in History

6. January, 2002 - Fun! permalink

• The Jan 6 UserFriendly Strip hit my funny-bone.
• LSSU's Banished Words 2002 - overused phrases that have to go. [instapundit]
• Quite a while back I linked to some bourbons and thought about putting together a whisky page. Straightbourbon.com's gone and done it for me.
• Want a one bedroom apartment plus boyfriend? You'll have to move to San Franciso, but maybe it's worth it. [cam]
• Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers shows in a couple weeks. My TiVo's already set to capture it. [brianl]
• Belgian 1 Euro coin unbalanced. Pick heads. [fark!]
• The Yankee Guide to the South. Useful if you're going to be travelling that way, perhaps. Funny even if you're not. [fark!]
• The Nude Suit. I'm speechless. [fark!]
• If you've seen Peter Kuran's utterly-fascinating 1995 Documentary Trinity and Beyond detailing the early development and testing of nuclear weapons in the US, you may be keen to visit some of the sites where-it-all-happened to absorb the history and a few residual roentgens. Some are accessible any time and others are open-to-the-public only at scheduled times [reede]
• Speaking of our nuclear arsenal, Fresh Start 2002: Nonstop Flight for the B-52. For the past fifty years. And quite possibly for another forty. Cool old adaptable technology (with a good dose of new tech tossed in). [instapundit]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 6, 2002     January 6 in History

5. January, 2002 - Patents, spam, google, privacy permalink

• I've written some more notes about the software that's running my site in my software update 5. January, 2002 page.
• Dan Lyke says the current intellectual property situation is Patently Offensive. I'd have to agree. [flutterby]
• Brent Simmons says that email is no longer reliable. He's got a good point. And a couple feature requests for those who write email clients. [scripting]
• CamWorld Essays: Fighting Spam has pointers to most of the same old resources. But it's been updated more recently than other lists of resources I've pointed to. [cam]
• Appeals court upholds California's anit-spam law. Hey, this is good news if you live in CA.
• When Larry met Sergey is an interview with Google's founders. They're smart guys with a great product. It's an interesting interview.
• Qwest Plan Stirs Protest Over Privacy
• Phone Companies Preparing to "Share" Personal Information. I saw the little insert in my Qwest bill last month. I called in to opt-out. We'll see if it does any good, but I'm not expecting much. [daypop]
• Say goodbye to pesky telemarketers, at least if you live in Texas. [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 5, 2002     January 5 in History

4. January, 2002 - Is it the weekend yet? permalink

• More fun today. I stopped by JCPenney to get a minor repair made on my glasses. After making the repair, the counter gal went to clean the glasses and snapped 'em. Grumble. Drove about 5 miles looking through one lens to Rose Fashion Optical where they have an optician who solders frames. Took him about ten minutes and they're very nearly good as new. Highly recommend them if you're in the Twin Cities and need a pair of glasses fixed in a hurry.
• Software Update 3. January, 2002 talks about the recent changes I've made in the software that's driving Dave's Picks.
• Y'know how Apple was saying "Way beyond the rumors sites" on Wednesday? They didn't count on Crazy Apple Rumors Site. [backupbrain]
• Davezilla has Winter Driving Tips for Southern Drivers. Remember that SUVs tend to adopt a "tires-up" position in winter.
• Poland's small farms stunt EU aspirations and are causing many Poles to wonder if membership in the EU is the best idea. [instapundit]
• Economist.com - The triumph of English as a lingua franca is due to its flexibility and the fact that there's no Ministry of Language trying to nail it down. The Internet probably doesn't hurt, either. Of the world's 6,000 or 7,000 languages, a couple go out of business each week. That's a shame from a cultural point of view, but perhaps the increased ability to communicate with outsiders is worth it.
• Days of our Globe compares the relationship of the US, USSR and the EU to a cowboy, his gal, and a bisexual who can't decide which of them she wants more. National Review's getting a bit racier, in spite of their grumping about porn last month. [instapundit]
• Hail, Switzerland! a quiet, peaceful place that still practices isolationism and a very decentralized federalism. Don't hear much about 'em. They're just living their lives in an orderly and peaceful fashion. [endwar]
• The Threat of National ID is that it can (and probably will) bring together too much data about you under one handy number. [daypop]
• The Declaration of Independence in American by H. L. Mencken. Good reading. [metafilter]
• Are we really less free? This article argues that we've got more freedom, in spite of a larger, more intrusive government. I remain dubious, but I'm a white male, so I think I have to be. Except when I'm busy oppressing people.

Weather in Minneapolis for January 4, 2002     January 4 in History

3. January, 2002 - Three goals today: some news, clear up some more backlog (I spent a lot of time surfing over the holidays), and test some new code. More on the new code over the weekend, but I continue to try to make doing these links easier. permalink

• First, Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution. Ugh. If there were any justice, they'd be paying to clean up this mess for the next 65 years (that's about how long they were knowingly polluting). Or maybe the officers of the company would get a nice swim in the PCB-laden creeks they created. A good book to read if this sort of thing interests you is Neal Stephenson's Zodiac ISBN:0553573861. [daypop]
• Weblogs.Com's Recently Changed Weblogs list is handy for checking to see if someone's updated their blog, especially since sites hosted by Manila don't give a valid "Modified on" time in the HTTP headers (blogspot-hosted sites didn't either, but Ev was going to fix that), and sites like Macintouch won't even let you check without loading the whole page. My big complaint about weblogs.com is that it only goes back 3 hours. Maybe I'll just have to write a script that will snarf its data every hour or two and make my own page that lets me track the blogs I care about.
• Zannah (/usr/bin/girl/) got a new look sometime when I wasn't looking. I think I like it. And she still has a lot of linkage some days. Like I should talk.
• Want a lot of traffic? Just score a Boobies link on Fark! [fark!]
• Weblog Accessibility is another thing I'm working on with Better Nerds. If nothing else, I want to make sure Dave's Picks is as accessible as possible. [cam]
• A MetaFilter Proposal discusses a solution to the problems that caused me to quit reading MetaFilter regularly. [cam]
• put the keyboard down and back away from the weblog explains the difference between a couple types of blogs. [doc]
• muslimpundit.com offers another (Muslim) view of the world since the attack on the WTC and Pentagon. It's some interesting blogging if you want to read some views on the situation you might not otherwise be exposed to. His tagline? Going after starry pan-Islamic futurists with a rubber glove and a sharp stick. [instapundit]
• I suppose I should link to BlogCon2002 sometime, too. No time like the present, I guess. [scripting]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 3, 2002     January 3 in History

2. January, 2002 - It's another virtual Monday, and here are some stories looking back at the year that was. permalink

• Morons.org - Top 10 Moronic Stories of 2001. [fark!]
• The year in tech: the highs and lows as seen by Dan Gillmor. He follows up with some predictions for 2002 in Take your best guess at what will unfold this year. [daypop]
• Quotes of the Year for 2001. Lots of fodder for the quotes file in here.
• The Best Notable Quotables of 2001 is more fodder for the quotes file.
• Year End Google Zeitgeist. It will almost certainly move at the end of the month, and I'll try and update this to have the permalink.
• ACLU Exec Voices Concerns for civil liberties in 2002. [daypop]
• Yesterday also brought the Euro into official existence (even though the European currencies have been tied to it for a couple years). Here's one reason to use the Euro, at least in Italy. [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 2, 2002     January 2 in History

1 January, 2002 - Happy New Year permalink

• The Evolving Look of Dave's Picks covers the changes I've made to the look of Dave's Picks over the years. It's missing some early experiments, but I'll try to keep it up to date from now on.
• In the Den is a piece on self-employment that rings very true to me. That's the beauty of being self-employed. You know that when you get barked at, it's only your pet. Well, except for the dog part. I think I need a dog.
• The late bird gets the worm suggests why the past six months aren't the worst time to start a new company doing internet things, even as a lot of the big pioneers are going broke. [scripting]
• The Trouble with Blogger and SourceForge is that they might not have sustainable business models, yet lots of people depend on them. [instapundit]
• The Big Ten media companies. It's spooky how much of the information we receive comes through these companies. [cam]
• Take This Media...Please! are commentaries on the Big Ten media companies. [cam]
• Top UK firms have poor websites, study says. And yet I hear through the grapevine that it's very tough to find web development work in the UK. [google news]

Weather in Minneapolis for January 1, 2002     January 1 in History