All the president's businessmen details

All the president's businessmen details how the Bush administration was purchased by large business interests -- and how that debt is being repaid by the Bushies. Just one example: the tobacco industry donated $7 million to Republicans in the last election cycle. In return, Bush is killing the Justice Department's lawsuit against Big Tobacco (sneakily, they're doing it by starving the prosecutor's budget). As a result, the industry will save up to $100 billion in damages and compensation. That's a heck of a rate of return on their investment in Bush, Inc.

According to Amazon, this item

According to Amazon, this item will be published on April 26, 2001. That sounds about right, because we got two copies in today's mail.

As of right now, my

As of right now, my Canon S300 is less than 80 miles away, but I still won't get it for another three days. Sigh... unrequited geek lust.

This is more of a

This is more of a Flutterby link than a Backup Brain link, but I couldn't resist. What happens when you cross a robotic dog with a sex toy? In Japan, you get the Robot Vibe-inu.

One Final "Bite Me" For

One Final "Bite Me" For the Road from a (now ex-) employee of TechTV.

Princeton professor bows to recording

Princeton professor bows to recording industry describes the chilling effect that the RIAA legal threats have had on a legitimate academic paper. As a writer, I'm in favor of copyright protection. But muzzling people in order to protect a copy protection scheme crosses way over the line.

A bill passed the House

A bill passed the House today declaring that a fetus is a person. In honor of that vote, I joined NARAL. You should, too.

Robert X. Cringely on Cargo

Robert X. Cringely on Cargo Cult: Ask Not for Whom the Internet Bubble Bursts, It Bursts for Thee.

From Salon: In bad faith.

From Salon: In bad faith. A researcher offers evidence that religion is good for your health. Too bad so much of it is bunk.

A perfect fit for the

A perfect fit for the times: the Titanic Deck Chair Rearrangement Corporation. Several years ago, someone was selling off all the props from the movie Titanic. Tom and I came this close to buying a few of the deck chairs, just so that we could, from time to time, actually rearrange them ourselves.

JSP For Macs (using OS

JSP For Macs (using OS X, Apache, and Tomcat, of course).

Quote of the day: "In

Quote of the day: "In the future all your base belong to us for fifteen minutes."

Via Macintouch, The Top X

Via Macintouch, The Top X Reasons to Move to OSX Today! Nice to see that I'm not the only one with doubts about the new system (although Tom seems to love it).

The Los Angeles Times visited

The Los Angeles Times visited Healdsburg recently, and turned the visit into last Sunday's Weekend Escape: A Sip of the Good Life in Healdsburg. The inn that they stayed at is where we're getting married.

Tom and I were talking

Tom and I were talking tonight, trying to figure out when we started blogging. Our conclusion: 1995, which is when Tom contributed to Yahoo Unplugged!, shown at left. It was a compendium of sites listed on Yahoo at the time, with URL's and snarky comments. And isn't that what a weblog is, after all?

So that makes Tom one of the first bloggers, except that he did it on dead trees. One thing hasn't changed, though: the pay is still lousy.

File this under "It's still

File this under "It's still darn amazing what you can find on the web." The Routine Autopsy: The Procedure Related in Narrative Form,
A Guide for Screenwriters and Novelists.

Ernie doesn't like my sense

Ernie doesn't like my sense of humor. OTOH, it's well known that geeks find things funny that non-geeks don't.


And on the other, other hand, Duncan Arbour writes in a higher ideal of behaviour about the consequences of geek humor on non-geeks. Actually, that's a little flippant; it's actually an excellent piece on how the Internet biz space got to be as screwed up as it is. Hat tips (respectively): Tara and ToeGristle.

From Robert X. Cringley's Data,

From Robert X. Cringley's Data, Know Thyself Part 2 (Four Reasons Why XML Will Probably Not Meet Our Expectations):

XML has terrific potential, most of which is unlikely to be realized because of complexity, awkwardness, and the inherent unreliability of the institutions upon which XML will be applied.