Thursday, April 22, 2004

I'm Sorry, Dave, I Can't Let You Vote That Way. Diebold president Bob Urosevich deserves, I suppose, a certain amount of props for admitting that his company's screwy e-voting software effectively disenfranchised thousands of California voters. But it's a pretty small amount. A state panel has recommended that the company's machines be decertified. Money quote from Bob: "We were caught. We apologize for that." [Hit & Run] That's big of him. 2:38:32 PM    comment () I'm currently testing Eudora 6.1 as an alternative to my current email app, Microsoft Entourage. Eudora was the first Mac emailer I used, back when it was the only Mac emailer, but I'd moved away from it to Claris Emailer long ago. Every few years I take a look at the latest version of Eudora, just to see how it compares to what I'm using now. So far it seems to still have the same problem with crashing while creating filters that it did the last time I tried it, three years ago. It's also introduced a new bug where the shared menu (from UserLand Frontier) gets disabled and can't be re-enabled sort of restarting Eudora. 2:27:53 PM    comment () In Praise of Hacks. The Baltimore City Paper has a nice cover story this week on the unlicensed cab drivers who charge less than ordinary taxis -- and are more willing to carry black passengers as well. [Hit & Run] A very interesting story! Los Angeles has had large number of "temporary hacks" appear during the two MTA strikes that have happened since I moved here, but they've disappeared as soon as the strike ended both times. 12:49:43 PM    comment () Is That a Bug or a Feature?. Radley Balko has a nice piece up at Tech Central Station observing that criticisms of capitalism seem to have degenerated from morbid predicitons of class war and eco-apocalypse to quibbles about features of modernity that aren't unambiguously problems at all. [Hit & Run] When the critics of capitalism are reduced to mining the suburbs for languor and tedium, when consumers in market economies gripe not about scarcity or pollution, but about too many ketchups and self-check grocery aisles, perhaps it's safe to say that free-marketeers may finally have the central planners on the ropes. I do still come across socialists complaining about how people are going hungry, or about how we're about to run out of oil (no, really this time!). They never seem to realize how absurd their arguements make them look. 11:49:51 AM    comment () Take a Picture, Lose Your Job. The woman who took that haunting photograph of flags draped over the coffins of U.S. soldiers has been fired by her employer, the military contractor Maytag Aircraft, for violating Pentagon and company policy in taking the picture. Maytag also fired her husband. Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Colin explained the rule: "We've made sure that all of the installations who are involved with the transfer of remains were aware that we do not allow any media coverage of any of the stops until [the casket] reaches its final destination." [Hit & Run] Maytag's Silva said the decision to terminate Silicio's and Landry's employment was made by the company. But he said the U.S. military had identified "very specific concerns" about their actions. Silva declined to detail those concerns. Just in case there's any doubt that the firings (especially her husband) are motivated by vindictiveness on the Feds' part. 10:23:58 AM    comment () A Dangerous Form of Outsourcing. Many of my fellow Austrians have shown the outsourcing of the production of goods and services in the marketplace to be beneficial to society at large.The same cannot be said, however, for subcontracting foreign policy. Indeed, the American government's propensity... [Mises Economics Blog: Austrian Economics and Libertarian Political Theory] As John Robb points out, the Feds are planning to significantly expand their use of foreign soldiers (or "Hessians") to fight their wars. 10:16:52 AM    comment ()

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