Thursday, March 28, 2002

Faster Pentium 4 desktop chips on tap. Chipmaker Intel will bring out a new, faster version of the Pentium 4 for desktops next week, and other PC performance improvements are on the horizon. [CNET News.com: Personal Technology] Bigger, faster, blah, blah, blah... Cheers, Dusty 11:10:06 PM

Bush Vows to Seek Conservative Judges. President Bush said that he would continue to push for "good, conservative judges" on the nation's highest courts. By Elisabeth Bumiller. [New York Times: National] So, apparently when Shrub said, during the debates, “I don’t believe in a litmus test for judicial candidates,” what he really meant was he didn’t believe in litmus tests, providing the candidate was a good, staunch, KKKristian conservative.   Cheers,   Dusty 11:09:05 PM

Undermining the New Campaign Law. While everyone has been focused on the campaign finance legislation that President Bush reluctantly signed into law, he is working to make sure that the Federal Election Commission the agency that will be responsible for enforcing the new law remains ineffective. By Lawrence Noble and Paul Sanford. [New York Times: Opinion] From the "More Right Wing Toadies" file: Resident Bush has appointed a former high level Republican National Committee leader and GOP attorney to head the theoretically unbiased Federal Election Commission. Oh yeah, THAT will give us fair elections and no more of the thievery that took place in Florida. Michael Moore is right. The Marines ought to drag that appointed toadie out the White House by force. Cheers, Dusty 7:39:36 PM

The Smoke Machine. In a way, it's a shame that so much of David Brock's "Blinded by the Right: The conscience of an ex-conservative" is about the private lives of our self-appointed moral guardians. Those tales will sell books, but they may obscure the important message: that the "vast right-wing conspiracy" is not an overheated metaphor but a straightforward reality, and that it works a lot like a special-interest lobby. By Paul Krugman. [New York Times: Opinion] The vast right wing conspiracy tries on the emperor’s new clothes. This op-ed piece by Paul Krugman discusses the truths behind David Brock's "Blinded by the Right," along with some personal experiences with organized conservadolt lie mongers. Cheers, Dusty 7:35:02 PM

Mozilla 1.0 nears release. The long-awaited open-source version of the Netscape Web browser reaches a major development milestone as it nears a first official release. [CNET News.com] From the "Vaporware In The News" file: Can it be? Is the long awaited Mozilla 1.0 *really* coming soon? What's next, the imminent release of Duke Nukem Forever? Cheers, Dusty 7:30:39 PM

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-015: 28 March 2002 Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer [ActiveWin] From the giant “MS Security Holes” file, here’s yet another patch, this time an “all-in-one” security patch for OE 5x & 6. Be the first geek on your block to make like the little Dutch kid.   Cheers,   Dusty 7:28:06 PM

Kazaa Is Legal, Dutch Appeals Court Rules [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters] It's going to be interesting to see how this ruling plays out in light of the recursive copyright agreements shared by most countries. When France abolished copyrights after the revolution, they suffered a massive brain drain, as talented content creators left in droves to publish elsewhere. A few years later they restored, and even strengthened copyright provisions. This is far from the last word on the matter, but it's the first positive legal word file sharing has gotten. Watch for more developments. Cheers, Dusty 5:43:45 PM

Spammers Slam Anti-Spam Proposals. Direct marketers' spin on spam is that Congress should make no law because it would set a bad example for other countries. Declan McCullagh and Robert Zarate report from Washington. [Wired News] Spammer logic os an obvious oxymoron, but it's still astounding to see such ridiculous arguments presented with a straight face. Read this article, then let your Congress critters know how you feel about spammers. Cheers, Dusty 5:39:17 PM

Morons in the News: 'In God We Trust' is Not Religious. A 4-3 vote by an Arizona House Committee moves forward a bill that would require all Arizona schools to post motto... [Morons Dot Org] Nah, there's nothing religious about, "In God We Trust," right? Cheers, Dusty 5:37:31 PM

Next Virus Exploit: Media Player?. New security measures on Outlook e-mail may turn the attention of virus writers to attack breeches in another popular Microsoft product, Media Player. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News] Just when you thought it was safe to open your e-mail…   Cheers,   Dusty 12:22:22 AM

The Most Seductive Equation in Science: Beauty Equals Truth. Mathematicians often say that they feel as if their theorems and laws have an objective reality which they do not create but merely discover. By Dennis Overbye. [New York Times: Science] The more we discover about our world, the harder it is to find patterns, much less beauty. Maybe it’s time to put away the intellectual vanity of looking for beauty.   Cheers,   Dusty 12:18:46 AM

4 Secular Questions. Here are four secular questions that could be asked and answered after the Passover ceremony concludes. By William Safire. [New York Times: Opinion] How nice of gentile Safire to share his omniscience with the Jewish community on the eve of Passover. WTF does this guy think he is? Words, he knows. Why doesn’t he stick to what he knows?   Cheers,   Dusty 12:16:03 AM

Bush Diplomacy Yields Few Promising Signs. After months of caution, the Bush administration suffered a string of setbacks to its newly active Middle East peace efforts this week. By Todd S. Purdum. [New York Times: Politics] Poor guy, how many times will he have to 180 to get it right? Maybe he should try a 90 and exit stage right, instead.   Cheers,   Dusty 12:13:43 AM

Energy Industry's Recommendations to Bush Became National Policy. A review of Department of Energy documents showed recommendations from energy industry representatives written into the White House's national energy report. By Don Van Natta Jr. and Neela Banerjee. [New York Times: Politics] How big a surprise can this be? Did anyone really think moron George created policy? Why should he when his big buck contributors will write it word for word for him?   Here’s another disgusting example of the lies spewing out of Washington these days. My only question is does Bush, who, directly contrary to his past statements, worked for Ken Lay at Enron in 1988, still work for Lay or does he now answer to Lay’s boss, whoever that might be?   Cheers,   Dusty 12:12:28 AM

MapPoint .NET Evaluation Signup [ActiveWin] If you've thought of adding mapping capabilities to your applications or Web pages, this might be worth checking out. Cheers, Dusty 12:07:46 AM

Lyle Lovett Trampled by Bull. Country singer Lyle Lovett was trampled by a bull and hospitalized with a broken leg Wednesday, a hospital spokeswoman said. [AP World News] You supposed to shoot the bull, Lyle, not wrestle it. Get well soon. Cheers, Dusty 12:02:20 AM

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