Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

New weblog every 5.8 seconds -- Comment()
Technorati tracks 3M blogs! "On an average weekday, we're seeing over 15,000 new weblogs created per day. That means that a new weblog is created somewhere in the world every 5.8 seconds." [via Joi Ito's Web]

This is a huge number. And the trends does not yet show any sign of leveling off. Marvelous.

-- Comment()
Kebab attack: "There's this old Monty Python sketch about this group of soldiers learning to defend themselves against being attacked with fresh fruit. I could have needed some of that knowledge today when I was attacked by an angry mob of students armed with fresh döner kebabs." [The Aardvark Speaks]

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Why Trial Lawyers Are Good: "The defining case in Edwards' legal career wrapped up that same year. In 1993, a five-year-old girl named Valerie Lakey had been playing in a Wake County, N.C., wading pool when she became caught in an uncovered drain so forcefully that the suction pulled out most of her intestines. [...] Attorneys describe his handling of the case as a virtuoso example of a trial layer bringing a negligent corporation to heel." [A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog]

Wikipedia tells more about John Edwards' background: "Before entering politics, Edwards was a successful trial attorney who represented families and children that had allegedly been wrongly injured by negligent corporate manufacturers and municipal entities." And there is a comprehensic entry on John Kerry as well.

PS. Wikipedia just celebrated the 300,000th entry in the dictionary. I recommend the current events and random page services.

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How USA stage-managed the toppling of the Saddam statue in Baghdad: "As the Iraqi regime was collapsing on April 9, 2003, Marines converged on Firdos Square in central Baghdad, site of an enormous statue of Saddam Hussein. It was a Marine colonel -- not joyous Iraqi civilians, as was widely assumed from the TV images -- who decided to topple the statue, the Army report said. And it was a quick-thinking Army psychological operations team that made it appear to be a spontaneous Iraqi undertaking." [via Atrios and A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog]

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Stop Using Internet Explorer points to Why I'm Staying Away From Internet Explorer: "In late June network security experts saw one of their worst fears realized. Attackers exploited a pair of known but unpatched flaws in Microsoft's (MSFT ) Web server and Internet Explorer browser to compromise seemingly safe Web sites. People who browsed the sites using Windows computers -- without downloading anything -- were infected with malicious code. I've been increasingly concerned about IE's endless security problems, and this episode has convinced me that the program is simply too dangerous for routine use." [via Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

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Having a Backup Career Plan: "It's odd. I don't know if it's the field of work I'm in or not, but a high percentage of folks that I know reasonably well all seem to have what I call a "backup career plan" in mind. Some of them are actively working on their plan--going back to school part or full-time, getting additional training, etc. Others haven't made any concrete moves yet but seem to talk about it more and more." [Jeremy Zawodny's blog]

Bill to kill iPod -- Comment()
Copyright bill poses threat to iPod's future: "Apple's sleek digital audio device is one of the most successful tech toys, selling more than 3 million units since November 2001. [...] But its future, with that of other new tech gadgets, could be in trouble if a controversial congressional bill passes. [It] would make it easier for entertainment companies to sue tech firms for copyright infringement."

On the other front, analysts have just found out that iPod could be used to store data, and thus iPod is a security risk: "The iPod poses such a major security risk for businesses, to the extent that businesses should consider banning the renowned digital music player altogether."