Tuesday, June 18, 2002

Salon: Every dial you take. "What most concerns civil liberties watchdogs is dialed-digit extraction. Once activated, this handy feature enables police to detect what numbers are dialed during a call. Critics worry that police could use this capability to get bank information, voice-mail passwords, and the like with nothing more than a rubber-stamped order for a trap and trace or pen register." 16:58'10    comment []

Cory Doctorow: NPR's brutally stupid linking policy. "Gosh, I hope they don't take away my tote bag. Really, it beggars the imagination to think that anyone in this day and age could be this fatally stupid." 16:45'07    comment []

SportsNetwork: Giants hope to sink Devil Rays. "Kennedy was seven years old when San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds hit his first home run in June of 1986. The hurler has stated openly that he will not resort to walking Bonds as a way of avoiding the long ball. 'I'm going to pitch to him like I've pitched to every lefty this year: tough, hard, and whatever happens, happens,' Kennedy told the St. Petersburg Times." Looks like we might see some home runs tonight... 16:42'29    comment []

Mac Net Journal: Can ThinkFree woo OS X users?. "ThinkFree will appeal to people like me, who tend not to trust or want much to do with Microsoft products but who need to be able to work with the rest of the world that has bought into the Microsoft product line." 16:38'30    comment []

John Robb: "Here's an update on Dave. He just gave me a call.  He sounds great.  Very upbeat.  He was overwhelmed by the wonderful outpouring of support for his recovery.  I expect that he will be back online this weekend." 13:35'07    comment []

Microsoft to reinstate Java in Windows

News.com: Microsoft to reinstate Java in Windows. "In an about-face triggered by Sun's recent antitrust lawsuit, Microsoft says it will reinstate the ability to run Java programs in Windows XP." "Microsoft decided in April 2001 not to ship a Java virtual machine, instead adding a 'download-on-demand' feature that Sun said in its antitrust suit violated settlement terms of an earlier Java legal dispute between the two companies. "Microsoft plans to remove the download-on-demand option 'to take an issue off the table with the current legal action by Sun,' Cullinan said, and therefore is including its JVM as the "best way to minimize any disruption" to customers." Update: Rogers Cadenhead writes, "I don't know that this does Sun Microsystems, Java programmers, or users any favors. Microsoft's virtual machine is now three versions out of date." 13:33'26    comment []

NYT (AP): Jesse Ventura Will Not Seek 2nd Term. "Gov. Jesse Ventura announced today he will not seek a second term, saying his heart is no longer in the job." 13:17'07    comment []

Just fixed a small bug in Radio Community Server. On the referers page, links which contain quote characters now work. There's an example on my referers page right now -- a Google search for "Jake Savin". 11:58'42    comment []

John Robb: Telecommunications Implosion
John Robb: Telecommunications Implosion. "Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a mechanism to motivate the last mile providers to deploy the fiber. Nor is there one to force them to pass on price improvements and improved bandwidth that the current doubling rate in price/performance of fiber is able to provide." 11:15'12    comment []

Brian McWilliams : EarthLink's Passwords Are Naked . "In a break from industry practice, EarthLink, the nation's fourth-largest Internet service, is allowing its support employees to have full access to the passwords of its 4.9 million subscribers... experts said EarthLink could be exposing its subscribers to a range of security threats, including attacks from disgruntled or unethical employees." 11:09'55    comment []