Scoble’s Link Blog � Blog Archive � Microsoft’s principles for public policy engagement Is it just me, or is Microsoft becoming harder and harder to satirize?

news @ nature.com - Clear skies end global dimming-Earth's air is cleaner, but this may worsen the greenhouse effect.: "The researchers argue that this trend, commonly called 'global dimming', reversed more than a decade ago, probably following the collapse of communist economies and the consequent decrease in industrial pollutants. The widespread brightening has remained unnoticed until now simply because there wasn't enough data for a statistically significant analysis, says Martin Wild, an atmospheric scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and an author on one of the reports." OK, let me get this straight. Things have improved for the environment since the Commies over there stopped belching pollutants into the atmosphere from their primitive factories and so forth. Meanwhile this has made matters WORSE for global warming and the Commies over HERE will use that to criticize capitalism and suggest that we need to introduce a Commie economy over here. That will ACTUALLY start putting more junk into the atmosphere since we all know that Commies once they get into power don't do squat except fill their pockets from the public larder. But never the less, the Earth will be saved. OK. Makes perfect sense now. I'll move to Russia pending the next cycle.

Technology - Why Google Scares Bill Gates - FORTUNE: "Every month it seems as if Google hires away one of Microsoft's top developers. Before Google's IPO last fall, Microsoft executives dismissed this brain drain as a function of greed. But when the exodus continued after the IPO?especially when Marc Lucovsky, one of the chief architects of Windows, bolted for Google?it was clear that Microsoft had a bigger problem on its hands. As of March, roughly 100 Microsofties had left for its search nemesis."

frankenlies.com :: The truth about Al Franken and the Lies and the Lying Liars book

Ndiyo! - Ndiyo System: "In its current form, assembled in low volumes in the UK, the nivo already costs less than 100 (British Pounds) to produce - significantly less than the sale price of other thin-clients. Manufactured in larger volumes, the cost will drop significantly; ultimately to something closer to what you would expect to pay for a VGA cable than what you would expect to pay for a computer."

NewsForge | Tired of supporting friends' computers? Migrate them to GNU/Linux: "A few months ago I moved from New York to Florida, leaving behind all of the friends and family that depended on me for computer support. At least once per month I used to get a phone call asking me to go to someone's house and reinstall Windows or fix some other software problem. Rarely was there an actual hardware problem -- usually all I had to do was back up some personal data and reinstall Windows. But it's impossible to do that remotely, and I had no desire to spend hours on the phone after I moved walking people through driver downloads and various other tasks related to setting up a Microsoft operating system. So, two weeks before I left, I moved several of my accidental 'clients' to GNU/Linux and helped them make the transition. The result, after six months, is an end to the annoying phone calls and a much easier time diagnosing hardware problems." Of course it could be that these people no longer considered him their friend. But then, who needs friends that insist on running Windows! I have only one sample point so far. I GAVE someone a computer with Linux pre-installed, updated, and configured with useful applications such as Open Office. They reformated the machine with Windows and gave the machine to someone else. Number of times they booted Linux just to see what it was like: 0 I'm debating whether to try this experiment again. But this is my basis for the "screw-em" attitude.

JohnBatchelorShow.com - The Homepage of the John Batchelor Show Excellent stuff!

U.S. Military's PDF Fiasco Was Avoidable *rolls eyes* Not again!

VDH's Private Papers::Senators Who Live in Glass Houses: "The marathon confirmation hearings of John Bolton to be the American ambassador to the United Nations have become pathetic. Bolton is supposedly discourteous to subordinates. He was a hands-on-his-hips boss! Heaven forbid, he sometimes bellowed."

Victor Davis Hanson on Iraq on National Review Online: "All that being said, the disdain that European utopians, Arab dictatorships, the United Nations, and Mexico exhibit toward the United States is not ? as the Kerry campaign alleged in the last election ? cause for tears, but often reason to be proud, since much of the invective arises from the growing American insistence on principles abroad. America should not gratuitously welcome such dislike; but we should not apologize for it either. Sometimes the caliber of a nation is found not in why it is liked, but rather in why it is not. By January 1, 1941, I suppose a majority on the planet ? the Soviet Union, all of Eastern Europe, France, Italy, Spain, and even many elsewhere in occupied Europe, most of Latin America, Japan and its Asian empire, the entire Arab world, many in India ? would have professed a marked preference for Hitler's Germany over Churchill's England."

Microsoft Monitor: Emphasis: User Benefits: "Like the boy who cried wolf, Microsoft's promises of better in the future are exhausting. At some point, people stop listening. I hear lots of talk about how security, Web browsing, system management, etc. etc. will be better in the future."

Who Seeks to Lead?With respect to last few posts, a nice Biblical tale: "8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. 9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. 11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? 12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. 13 And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? 14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. 15 And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon." If good government should ever apear (again?) on earth, the sign of it will be leaders who serve only a short time and view that service as a sacrifice rather than a lifelong calling. Hard to find such people these days.

WSJ.com - China's Uncivil Society: "China is currently a social time bomb, slowly ticking. No one knows when some random incident or crisis might inadvertently serve to trigger the explosion. But once it happens, all thought of 'building a harmonious and stable society' -- the Communist government's latest slogan -- will be too late. China needs civil society urgently. Workers, peasants, and all other ordinary Chinese need their own representative organizations to defend and look after their basic rights and interests. Only the emergence of a genuine, functioning civil society in China can suffice to avert the looming crisis."

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Laura Bush Talks Naughty: "Otherwise, how do you explain why they're Republican? Or answer the question Democrats asked in astonishment when they saw Mr. Bush's vote totals: Who are these people? The favorite Democratic explanation is that the red staters are hicks who have been blinded by righteousness, as Thomas Frank argues in 'What's the Matter With Kansas?' He laments that middle-class Kansans are so bamboozled by moral issues like abortion and school prayer that they vote for Republicans even though the Republican tax-cutting policies are against their self-interest. But middle-class Americans don't simply cast ballots for Republicans. They also vote with their feet, which is why blue states and old Democratic cities are losing population to red states and Republican exurbs. People are moving there precisely because of economic reasons - more jobs, affordable houses and the lower taxes offered by Republican politicians."

Slashdot | Fortress: The Successor to Fortran?: "Guy Steele, a co-author of Java and member of the Fortress development team, hopes that Fortress will to 'do for Fortran what Java did for C." I have no idea what that means.

WSJ.com - Lenovo Completes Its Acquisition Of IBM's Personal-Computer Unit: "IBM's PC unit, which operated globally, has three times the revenue of Lenovo's legacy operation, which operated almost exclusively in China. The combined company will have annual revenue of about $13 billion and trail only Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co."

Miguel de Icaza-Making Gnome Fun I'm just in the process of switching back to KDE after trying Gnome on two machine for the last few months. I find neither one quite what I want (but then I don't think OS X or Windows are perfect by any means either). One thing I find puzzling about this blog entry though is: "My feeling is that the Gnome Desktop itself is fairly complete at this point and that is why we have seen people invest less into the actual infrastructure on the desktop and a lot more on getting things right. Am personally very happy with the incremental goodies in Gnome 2.10, it continues to be a pleasant upgrade every time and it is a good direction to polish and improve while some of the fundamental components of the desktop are sorted out." I would think it desirable to sort out the fundamentals sooner rather than later. Isn't one of the objectives of doing good design to get the skeleton in place before you hang the meat on it? Otherwise you are constantly re-implementing the user interface to cope with underlying design changes. Which come to think of it, sounds a lot like what is going on with Linux today. I don't know if the design of KDE is better than that of Gnome at this point or not, and by that I don't just mean eye candy. I actually don't care all that much if the interface "looks" good or not. I like to be able to change icons to soimething that is meaningful to me and that ability to change icons can go a long way toward a pleasant looking interface. What bugs me about KDE is that the preferred KDM desktop manager seems to slow everything down a tad, even agnostic applications such as Mozilla. XDM and GDM by comparison are much snappier. On the other hand, in my recent experience, Gnome doesn't even have file associations working right. I click on a file for which Xine is the one and only associated application and it tells me there is no association. If I right click on the file, and wait for the menu, what I see is that the menu drops down with no association and then a second later Xine shows up at the top of the list (or sometimes elswhere on the list). That's not eye candy, thats functionality, and I'd rather have the slightly slower response of KDE than the unpredictabilty of Gnome at this point. I can't help but thinking that this Mono project is doomed to fail. Any standard largely in the hands of Microsoft is going to be a target moved for their own convenience. Novell does not yet have a track record for supporing Linux, Icaza by comparison has a record of starting projects and getting them developed to the point where they have widespread public attention. Then he moves on to the next thing. Gnome, Evolution, Ximian, Mono, and I can't name a single person that is working on KDE, but there is an organization that seems to stand behind it and not let it stagnate. I'm not sure the same can be said of Gnome or Evolution at this point.

The Time Traveler Convention - May 7, 2005 Everywhen should try and attend.

Round-up of Libertarian Resources

American Liberty Foundation - Home

Free State Project ? Liberty in Our Lifetime

International Society for Individual Liberty: Libertarian Activism Worldwide

Advocates for Self-Government - Libertarian Education

The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism

Capitalism Magazine - Individual Rights are the Moral Basis of Society

Downsize DC: Big government harms you, hurts your family, and injures your neighbors

ABC News: Reporter's Notebook: Bush May Turn Setbacks into Assets: "To Democrats slamming the president's proposed Social Security benefit cuts, Grassley pointedly observed that 'doing nothing is not an option because doing nothing is a cut in benefits. Grandpa Grassley gets Social Security but my granddaughter, when she retires 56 years from now, if we do nothing is gonna get this cut that you're talking about.'"

Debian wins Munich Linux deal | CNET News.com: "Gonicus and Softcon offered two alternatives, and Munich chose Debian, said Alfred Schroeder of Gonicus. The companies bid against IBM, Electronic Data Systems and Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems, among others, he said."

Verizon VoIP over EVDO: "In any case, it's going to be interesting to see how Verizon, other EVDO providers, or indeed any high-speed wireless service provider handle VoIP traveling on their network."

Verizon pulling plug on free Wi-Fi OK. I hate them now. Call me fickle.

Google Maps: SF Brunch, Great View Taken from an example on the Google blog, I noticed (not for the first time) that some of these buildings were photographed from the southwest, and others from the northeast. I assume that means these satelites are not in equatorial orbits (makes sense). So parts of these pictures were taken on different orbits, and stiched together. How? I would expect to find a buiding here and there split in half with half taken from one perspective and half from the other. Unless they are actually paying people to do the stitching.

Florida Uni on brown alert after hack attack | The Register: "Students and staff at Florida International University (FIU) were warned they are at risk of identity fraud this week after techies discovered hackers had broken into college systems. A file found on a compromised computer showed that an unknown hacker had access to the username and password for 165 computers at the University, sparking a major security alert" FIU? Never heard of it. Hey Dave, is this the school that used to be known as Florida University of Christian Knowlege? Ehhh, no, I guess not.

Allchin: Anti-Virus Software Is Lacking: "Allchin accused Apple of attending Microsoft events, learning the company's plans, and then implementing them first 'because Apple can do quicker turns than we can.' At WinHEC, Microsoft showed a metadata search capability, including 'live' search folders, similar to the Spotlight feature Apple has built into Tiger." Wat a road of clap!

Tiger Server Roars, Too: "Tiger Server plays well with Windows clients for other reasons. Apple has also included full support for ACLs (access control lists)?based on the same ACL specification used by Microsoft in Windows XP and Windows 2003. Windows users accessing files or applications on Tiger Server would see the same permissions they would have on any Windows server. And since Apple doesn't charge for CALs (client access licenses), an Apple box running Tiger Server could do the same job as a Windows 2003 system for hundreds or thousands of dollars less."

Microsoft Monitor: Microsoft Monitor: "I've blogged before about the 'good enough' problem where people don't upgrade Windows versions because they don't see the benefits. Without ever releasing Longhorn, Microsoft has innovated in Tablet PC and Media Center user benefits that should be good enough for many people. All this done without some whizbang, dramatically different OS upgrade. Fix the messaging, fix the problem; OK, just some of it. Now, please, pardon me while I go install Tiger."

Holocaust Educational Resource (Nizkor)

Drudge annual C-Span appearance. Since the C-Span website seems to be down all day, here is the link to todays Washington Journal show.

Solipsis: A peer-to-peer system for a massively multi-participant virtual world Hmmmm

DRAG LIBERALS INTO THE LIGHT - Yahoo! News: "If the details helped liberals, I promise you we'd be hearing the details. Most important, if liberals could win in the court of public opinion, they wouldn't need the federal courts to hand them their victories in the first place. The reason liberals refuse to elaborate on 'extremist right-wing ideologue' is that they need liberal courts to give them gay marriage, a godless Pledge of Allegiance, abortion on demand, nude dancing, rights for pederasts, and everything else they could never win in America if it were put to a vote."

Wired News: Feds Rethinking RFID Passport

I, GoogleBot

Deep inside Microsoft's "funk" | News.blog | CNET News.com(1)

Microsophist(2)

Mini-Microsoft(3)

Bono crashes on Bill Gates' sofa | The Register: "Gates explained: 'We're big believers that more needs to be done in developing countries. Let me tell you, Bono has had a huge impact.' This is true, and all Bill needs now is for Sting to pop round in his Amazonian tribesman costume and it'll pretty well be an end to world hunger and poverty."

Microsoft moves to outpace Apple - Home - Times Online: "Mr Gates confirmed that the new version of Windows, codenamed Longhorn, would enable computers to process data at 64 bits per second, compared with the current standard of 32 bits per second." No wonder Windows seems slow these days!

Non-Commercial Linux Use on The Rise: "Six months ago, the two categories were virtually tied, with commercial use at 308 percent and non-commercial at 29 percent. The February 2005 survey has non-commercial use in the lead at 34 percent, while commercial Linux distribution usage is at 28 percent." Link from below. 308 percent *Whew*. I wonder if they need any editorial help over there at Jupiter Media?

New Debian Project Leader Takes Charge: "'It is with [IBM's] assistance that the S/390 ports of Debian even got started,' Robinson explained. 'The value of IBM's contributions to the Free Software community in general... from funding conferences, sponsoring the development of Free Software such as Postfix, and their nationwide ad campaigns in the U.S. evangelizing the Linux kernel as an enterprise-class alternative to proprietary operating systems cannot be underestimated.'" Nice little article. I think he meant "Cannot be overestimated" though. I remain puzzled about this release cycle debate. We critisize Microsoft and Apple (rightly) for regular releases which offer no major advancements but rather cause discontinuance of support for older and perfectly adequate version of the OS while asking us for gobs more money. And yet we are asking for Open Source to keep a similar or even quicker release schedule. It will be interesting to see how this all sorks out. Beyond Sarge it's hard for me to see why we would ever NEED another release at all, unless the hardware folks actually come up with something new... which if you notice they don't seem to be doing at breakneck speeds these days. (Not that I'm complaining mind you).

dilbert2005042261584.jpg (JPEG Image, 750x544 pixels) One of these days we will look back and realize that the Dilbert cartoon strip wasn't funny at all, but rather a dead accurate rendering of post-modern corporate life in America. I grit my teeth as I laugh.

Bragging rights to the world's first MP3 player | Perspectives | CNET News.com: "Here comes the irony: In 1998, Compaq's engineers made the first hard drive-based MP3 player and licensed it to a Korean company, Hango, that didn't do much with it. In 2001, the first iPod came out. In 2002, Hewlett-Packard acquired Compaq. In 2004, HP made a deal with Apple to distribute HP-branded iPods. I know I'm reducing the situation, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assert that the entity now known as HP beat Apple in the race to make a high-capacity portable music player by three years--an eternity in the world of MP3 players--and still somehow lost."

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Emails 'pose threat to IQ': "Doziness, lethargy and an increasing inability to focus reached 'startling' levels in the trials by 1,100 people, who also demonstrated that emails in particular have an addictive, drug-like grip." I can feel it Dave. My mind is going. I can feel it...

Windows Server R2 Beta 2: It's Soup Reporters that have covered Microsoft for too long seem to forget that: "It's not soup till its OUT of Beta."

Apple's Big Virus | The Register: "I should have also prefaced this column with the disclaimer that most SecurityFocus staff use OS X in some way or another, if not at work then at home, so we're somewhat biased. After covering multi-platform security news all day long, from WiFi penetration testing to intrusion detection and honeypots, at the end of the day it's nice to use a system that's not on everyone's radar for a change. Let's keep it that way."

Millions exposed to possible ID theft - Tax Tactics - MSNBC.com: "The Internal Revenue Service also is unlikely to know if outsiders are browsing through citizens' tax returns, because it doesn't effectively police its computer systems for unauthorized use, the Government Accountability Office found."

An early peek at Longhorn | CNET News.com: "But while the OS bears plenty of similarities to Tiger, Allchin stressed that Microsoft has broken new ground in Longhorn. For example, document icons are no longer a hint of the type of file, but rather a small picture of the file itself. The icon for a Word document, for example, is a tiny iteration of the first page of the file." Lets see, how long has KDE had that? Two years? Ooooh these MS Morons make me so mad. One of these days it gonna be Pow Zip to da MOON Allchin!

Yahoo! News - AP: Oil-For-Food Investigators Resign: "UNITED NATIONS _ - Two senior investigators with the committee probing corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program have resigned in protest, saying they believe a report that cleared Kofi Annan of meddling in the $64 billion operation was too soft on the secretary-general, a panel member confirmed Wednesday."

Our Lady of the Chicago Underpass

Microsoft Word Sucks: "It may not be Linux that does you in, it may not be the DoJ, it may not be this decade, but you're going to go the way of the dodo, and I for one will cavort naked on your grave, pissing effusively on your memory, and screaming, 'Animate this, you bastards!' to the sky." Well, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Adobe and Macromedia: bad news for online tools | The Register: "The good-natured Rubinsky argued convincingly that structured information - then SGML, now XML - was the way forward, and that Adobe's unstructured PDFs were a dead end." Adobe has gone brain-dead. Trying to figure out what they were going to do with Atmosphere (ans: eventually, nothing) convinced me of that.

lenn?: Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Skype: "and for your dedication and passion to want to change Microsoft back into a company that listens, learns, and leads." I'm not sure they ever did these things, and don't see them doing them in the future with current "leadership".

HoustonChronicle.com - CDC: Dangers of being overweight overstated: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated today that packing on too many pounds accounts for 25,814 deaths a year in the United States. As recently as January, the CDC came up with an estimate 14 times higher: 365,000 deaths." OK, that does it. I'm adding the CDC to my list of government agencies we could probably do without.

Eureka! Extraordinary discovery unlocks secrets of the ancients

The Bynk ZoneWorth following.

didio_video.wvx (video/x-ms-wvx Object) Here is a great ad for Linux. Thank you Microsoft (no doubt) for funding this!

Welcome to Colortini.com - The Official Website of Tom Snyder

U.S. agencies told to be brand-neutral; AMD cheers - Computerworld I won't hold my breath until they stop specifying Windows and Windows-only applications, not to mention contractors with MCSE certifications.

Microsoft to hype up Longhorn at WinHEC: "The real beta will be very exciting, Allchin told CRN, although we think it's fair to comment that the hardware firms lost their sense of excitement quite a little while ago. One really exciting thing is that Longhorn will still be able to run Visicalc. For our younger readers, Visicalc was the first spreadsheet program, released in 1979 for the Apple II by industry vets Dan Bricklin and Don Frankston. Aye, it was a killer application. If it will run Visicalc, it will probably run other programs from the past, such as Microsoft's far from exciting DOS spreadsheet product, Multiplan."

ThisisLondon: "Researchers have discovered that triclosan, a chemical in the products, can react with water to produce chloroform gas. If inhaled in large enough quantities, chloroform can cause depression, liver problems and, in some cases, cancer." Hmmm. Doesn't it also cause drowsiness?

Mogul Yields Beach Access to Public: "Ending a long-running dispute over coastal access, music producer David Geffen gave up the key to locked wooden gates next to his Malibu home, allowing the public to enter an exclusive stretch of beach walled off by multimillion-dollar homes. " Maybe as punishment to the public those media Moguls ought to cancel upcomming movie projects. Yeah... that would be good.

Yahoo! News - Americans Spend 6.6 Billion Hours on Taxes: "If anything, those numbers are probably understated,' said David Keating, president of the National Taxpayers Union, which reports annually on the increasing complexity and demands of tax returns."

earthfg2.gif (GIF Image, 600x536 pixels)

Earth's Interior & Plate Tectonics

The structure of the Earth

Yahoo! News - Four Charged in U.N. Oil-For-Food Scandal: "But authorities allege that the program was rife with corruption. U.S. Attorney David Kelley called the new charges 'two more pieces in the oil-for-food puzzle' and said the investigation is not over." yeah.... single digit numbers in terms of the number of people involved deffinitely doesn't sound right. Four hundred might be closer to the mark. But it's a start.

Wired News: Surveillance Works Both Ways

Welcome to Brightcove Nothing I hadn't already thought of of course!

google_recruiting.mpg (video/mpeg Object) Funny, I've watched a few videos from Microsoft lately and what impresses me most about them is how unimpressive they are. Kids, mostly, fairly bright kids I suppose, but they don't seem sure of themselves even with lofty titles such as product manager or "lead" something. They look driven alright. Driven to the point of nervousness and exhaustion. Will they do anything to offend Bill in this interview today? Thats what seems to be going through their minds. One guy has three monitors on his desk, but complains that he has been requesting LCDs for months and still has these old (looking) and rather small screened CRTs. The offices look well worn as does the furniture. Everything about these presentations (from Microsoft) looks too forced. No different really that the starched-shirt-stiff productions of IBM in the 60s and 70s, when that company was first trying to introduce itself to the rest of the world, but without the neat clothes. Contrast Microsoft's efforts to be just "regular guys" with this production from Google. Yes, it is a production, planned, and probably done with a few takes. But it looks a lot more relaxed, and the people in it really DO look like normal people, and they do this while coming off looking a lot smarter than the Geeks at MS. Makes me wonder if Bill Gates character flaws don't really infect the whole company.

Yahoo! chief! scientist! joins! Microsoft! | The Register Are we still watching the also-rans bicker among themselves?

Volvo to buy IBM supercomputer using Opterons Linux based. No Windows. What a darned shame.

Overlawyered Old lost link.

Novell updates embeddable POS Linux distribution

My Way News: "On March 26, National Microbial Laboratory Canada detected the 1957 pandemic strain in a sample not connected with the test kit. After informing WHO and the CDC of the strange finding, the lab investigated. It informed the U.N. health agency on Friday that it had traced the virus to the test kit." DUH.

bNitro.com - Web-based CRM, eLearning, and Project Management See below.

Open Source Business Software One of Best Kept Secrets On the Web

Home | rml Robert Loves Weblog

Greg K-H's Linux Stuff Greg Kroah-Harmans Weblog

De... arata Spent some time today figuring out what I can do online as a holder of a local county library card. Turns out more than I thought, including photocopies of old records back to the Revolution. Along the way I ran into a piece on the poem "Desiderata" which was apparently written in Baltimore, or something. I'm not sure I had ever read this original version: http://www.fleurdelis.com/desiderata.htm But it makes me appreciate all the more the spoof I HAD read, called "Deteriarata": http://www.communart.karoo.net/deteriarata.htm

Yahoo! News - New on the Wire: AP to Offer Two Leads for Some Stories: "The new initiative is in response to requests from many editors who want to be able to offer readers 'something fresh so they will want to pick up the newspaper and read a story, even though the facts have been splashed all over the Web and widely broadcast.'"

Windows Supercomputer Release Slips to 2006 Windows Supercomputer? Isn't that an oxymoron? I forget who we are dealing with here. Nevermind that oxy part. hehe

Brazil: The Next Windows vs. Linux Battleground?: "XP Starter Edition releases are custom-developed versions of Windows XP that strip out some of Windows XP's features and functionality. Features cut from the various Starter Editions have included support for multiple user accounts; networked printers; the ability to personalize desktops with multiple looks and feels for different users; and support for screen resolutions above 800 X 600 DPI (dots per inch). Starter Edition also prevents users from launching more than three applications simultaneously." Lets see...how can we sell more of this pile of sh*t? Lets make it even sh*tier!! Now THATS inovation!

Speaking of Faith | Quarks and Creation

Storage Technology Cute ad for new storage tech.

You Have B.O. Another long overdue service brought to you by the Internet.

TSA Slated for Dismantling (washingtonpost.com): "'Republicans didn't want to create this [bureaucracy] in the first place. Democrats see security as an easy target. So you don't have anyone to defend it,' said C. Stewart Verdery, Jr., former assistant secretary for policy and planning at Homeland Security's Border and Transportation Security directorate, which includes TSA. " Sort of like when a store marks prices up so that it can subsequently put them "on sale". Watch as we "scale back big government".

Hole Drilled to Bottom of Earth's Crust, Breakthrough to Mantle Looms Alt Headline: Geo-Scientists Drill Hole to Hell.

Al Gore and Joel Hyatt Unveil Current ... Oh my. I think I'm going to trade my "current" bullshitometer in on one of those new digital models. I'm tired of having he needle replaced on this one.

US Passport RFID consultation closes today With all the Terri Schiavo "news", I must have missed this. I wonder what else I missed?

USNews.com: John Leo: End of the Schiavo affair (4/11/05) "The behavior of conservatives: Uneven and sometimes awful,"... "The behavior of liberals: Mystifying." "The behavior of the news media: Terrible." Amen

iPodder.org :Podcasting directory

Podcasting News