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 Monday, April 8, 2002
go go gadget open-source! After downloading the huge file a couple
of days ago, I've now made Mozilla 0.9.9
my default broswer (in fact, I'm now creating my Radio entries in Composer's
WYSIWYG editor -- it's faster than coding them by hand and it doesn't seem
to be adding too many icky extra tags). Mozilla seems fast, stable, and,
frankly, I was getting tired of Omniweb
's crashes (about once every day or two, for no explicable reason, but usually
right when I had about a dozen windows open -- in other words, at the worst
possible time). The only complaint I have about Mozilla is that it still
seems a bit slow creating/opening new windows, but even that has improved
a great deal since 0.9.8. Anyway, since I've been using Mozilla I've been
watching links that mention it and stumbled on
this Salon article about AOL's decision to use Mozilla as it's browser.
Andrew Leonard asks a great question, with an equally great answer:
Could AOL, as part of its strategic positioning against Microsoft, also
tap the people power of free software? The prospect, given the ancient antagonism
between the Net's geeky elite and AOL's mainstream middle-of-the-road mandate,
might once have seemed absurd. But as I installed Mozilla with ease Monday
morning, and then gaped with delighted surprise at how well it worked, I
began to wonder.
9:32:42 PM 
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it wasn't a refund: As we all fight to find time to pay our taxes
for 2001,
diveintomark helpfully reminds us that last year we didn't really get
a refund on taxes we'd already paid, we got an advance on the refund we deserve
this year. It's still confusing to me, but this story
kind of clears it up:
Bear with us for the math
on how your check is calculated: The rate on the first $6,000 of income for
singles and $12,000 for married taxpayers filing jointly is being cut from
15 percent to 10 percent. That's why the refund checks range from $300 for
singles ($900 in taxes reduced to $600) and $600 for marrieds ($1,800 in taxes
reduced to $1,200).
But if you were to fill out the tax form next April using
the new rates, you'd get the tax-cut benefits a second time. That's why the
tax tables that will accompany next year's 1040 will charge you the old 15
percent tax rate, not the new 10 percent rate.
got that?
9:24:00 AM
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toady blair: The U.K.'s Prime Minister, Tony Blair, was in Texas
w/pResident Bush this weekend where he gave a speech threatening
Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, pundits are saying the most positive
aspect of the current crisis between Israel and Palestine is that Bush has
had to stop his aggressive rhetoric against the supposed "axis of evil."
You do the math.
8:26:15 AM
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be careful what you wish for: Today the NY Times
reports that Penthousemagazine is all but bankrupt, basically
because of the web.
the explosion of pornography on the Internet in ever more customized ways
may accomplish what the Meese commission on pornography, the Rev. Jerry Falwell
and Andrea Dworkin, the antipornography activist, failed to do: the shuttering
of Penthouse.
The story gives other reasons for the financial trouble as well, including
the fact that publisher Bob Guccione
spent millions on an unsuccessful attempt to develop
small nuclear fusion reactors, financing a team led by Robert W. Bussard,
a nuclear scientist.
What the heck was up with that? Did Guccione have some utopian dreams of
free, limitless power for all? Or was it just a greedy scheme to corner the
market on a potentially limitless new commodity[~]clean electricity?
Whatever Guccione's goals were w/the nuclear fusion biz, this is the real
kicker:
"I'm delighted that Mr. Guccione may be going out of business," Ms. Dworkin
said. "The problem is that he is being replaced, quite possibly, by something
that is much worse."
Which is really a problem that raises another question:
How often do we work for positive social change only to end up winning a few
battles but losing the war? It seems like it happens far too often. And it's
not that I really agree with Dworkin[~]I'm not convinced that porn is as evil
as she thinks it is. But I do empathize with her in despairing that all her
work might only have made things worse (from her perspective). 8:08:59 AM
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| Mar May |
  
Top 10 hits for conspiracy on..
 | 5/7/02; 7:38:05 PM. |
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