Tuesday, March 25, 2003

From Martin Schwimmer: Halo v. Blue Halo Halo Management describes itself as a "Strategic Intellectual Asset Management" company, run by a patent lawyer.  Its services are described here.  It owns a federal registration for HALO for, among other services, web hosting services.  Interland is a hosting company that offers BLUE HALO ARCHITECTURE hosting services.  Here is a copy of Halo Management's trademark infringement complaint against Interland. I love collecting copies of complaints and other court filings.  Call me odd. 7:22:36 PM

Images from the war via the Wall Street Journal.  I love Clive Custler. Images of War Specialist Dustin Blanchard of Pekin, Ill., got caught up on Clive Custler's "Pacific Vortex!" during a break in southern Iraq on Tuesday. Spc. Blanchard's 101st Airborne Division was slowed by a sandstorm about 50 miles south of Baghdad. 7:22:35 PM

>From News.com is this article entitled Hollywood's new cyberenemy.  [via Claire Stewart] 7:22:34 PM

Man I love reading stories like this (WSJ subscription required).  This private has a bright future ahead of him. Soldier Helps 101st Stay Wired to Home By DAN MORSE and JESSE DRUCKER Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL <snip> Up to 300 soldiers have one colleague to thank for this service: Dustin Price, a 21-year-old private from northern Michigan. Since arriving here at Camp New York three weeks ago, he has spliced together nearly two miles of abandoned wires and modems left behind by a U.S. tank division. A crucial piece of the project: A hub-switching box -- hooked into a government network -- that he and his tent-mates originally brought so they could duel in computer games such as "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" and "Warcraft III." Pvt. Price has wired 11 tents, providing e-mail and limited Internet access, as well as follow-up service. He takes no fees, save for a supply of anti-inflammatory pills the medics gave him to curb swelling in his right knee. The tents he has wired are crammed with as many as two dozen soldiers, many sleeping on the floor. The tents, usually equipped with one or two laptops, host constant visitors, who call them "Internet cafes." Other tech-savvy soldiers have linked into Pvt. Price's lines, creating more connections. </snip> 7:22:32 PM

Andrew Sullivan provides some perspective on the war (quoting David Warren): You wouldn't know it from reading most of the papers, but the war in Iraq is going fabulously well. After just five days the U.S. Third Infantry Division and supporting units are approaching Baghdad. The immense steel column continues to drive reinforcements across the Iraqi desert, while its leading edge rumbles through the fields, villages, and waterways of Mesopotamia. To its rear, the "sleeper cells" of Ba'athist and terrorist hitmen waiting in ambush are being eliminated one by one. Special forces have seized bridges, dams, airstrips, oil and gas fields, and weapons sites all over the country. The U.S. Air Force has devastated leadership targets, military infrastructure, and the physical symbols of the Saddam regime, across Baghdad and elsewhere. Allied troops have Basra, Nasiriyah, now Karbala, and other Iraqi cities surrounded, and are tightening each noose. Snipers in the towns are being patiently deleted. The "Scud box" of western Iraq is in allied hands, daily more secure, and allied forces are building with endless air deployments to the northern front. In all, the allies have taken only a few dozen killed, and a couple hundred lesser casualties -- many of these from small accidents within the most amazing and vast logistical exercise since our troops landed in Normandy (when we lost men at the rate of up to 500 a minute, liberating France). In just five days all this has been achieved! And while the most grisly parts of the campaign still lie ahead, all the worst fears have gone unrealized, so far. Emphasis mine. 7:22:30 PM

According to Nielson//NetRatings, "more than one-third of all Internet users visited a government site last month. In total, traffic to federal government Web sites jumped 26 percent from December 2002 to February 2003 to nearly 44.9 million surfers. Garnering more than 9 million additional unique visitors from home and work over this three-month period, government organizations are harnessing the power of the Internet to communicate with Americans.."  [View report (pdf) here] 7:22:28 PM

According to Nielson//NetRatings, "the top 100 traditional advertisers increased their share of online advertising and are leading the way for bolstering the online medium."  [View report (pdf) here] 7:22:27 PM

Ed McMahon on Howard Stern this morning:  What Michael Moore did on the Oscars was a discrace.  ... We should send him to Paris Island for 6 months with the Marines. 7:22:22 PM