This week's weblog cliché: say

This week's weblog cliché:

1. say you're going to shut your site down,
   
2. see lots of people blog how much they'd miss you, and
   
3. at the last minute, say that due to the outpourings of love, you're going to stay up.

Even other Republicans are getting

Even other Republicans are getting annoyed with Bush's ignorance and lack of engagement with the details of policy.

This detailed rundown of the

This detailed rundown of the recent bust of the Bush daughters shows that Jenna Bush was charged with a lesser Class C misdemeanor, rather than the usual Class B meted out for fake ID violations. The Class B would probably have resulted in an arrest. Now, I do think that it's unfortunate that minor legal run-ins like this are made to be national stories. But I'm also imagining what would have happened if Chelsea Clinton had done the same thing and had received similar lenient treatment. Dan Burton, Bob Barr, and the rest of the usual attack dogs would have begun Congressional hearings, and the subpoenas would already be flying.

Let's say that you're a

Let's say that you're a president who wants to create a missile defense system that's based on technology that's never been successfully tested; in fact, all tests to date have been resounding failures. Many scientists claim that your system can never be made to work, because it's too easy for an opponent to devise cheap, reliable countermeasures. The rationale behind your system, that it's needed to protect from missile attack by "rogue nations" like China, Iran, and North Korea, is ludicrous, since it assumes that the leaders of those countries are so insane that they would invite certain nuclear retaliation by firing a missile or two at the U.S. And your system would do nothing to protect Americans from the most likely attack scenario: a terrorist attack with a nuke or bioweapon smuggled into the U.S. on a boat or driven in from Canada or Mexico. What do you do? If you're the Bush Administration, you speed up system deployment.

Biggest piece of horseshit I've

Biggest piece of horseshit I've seen recently: Technology and the corruption of copyright by Joshua S. Bauchner.

Do I think that the length of copyright has been extended too long? Sure, and all for the protection of Mickey Mouse. Do I think that there have been abuses of the system? Darn right.

Interestingly, with the onslaught of technology and promises of greater opportunity to share and communicate, copyright is now a hindrance to these ideals, serving only the moneyed interests of owners.

In doing so, modern-day copyright holders focus solely on financial gain to he detriment of the true purpose of copyright.

Even as legal battles are fought by corporate interests clinging to their outmoded intellectual property paradigm, determined users seek to return copyright to its original function-the promotion and dissemination of original, creative works.

Civil disobedience in the face of copyright laws promotes the democratic ideal that information is a public good thereby sustaining the Internet community's founding belief that "information wants to be free."

Real high weirdness: The May

Real high weirdness: The May Day Mystery. This "game" has been going on for at least 20 years at the University of Arizona, and no one's near to solving it. Try your luck!

Welcome, Metafilter readers!

Welcome, Metafilter readers!

Okay, I disagreed with Dave

Okay, I disagreed with Dave Winer when he wanted to throw Winerlog off his servers because he didn't like their parodies. But when they start up The Unofficial Hack Frontier Contest, I think that it's no longer a free speech issue.

Not until it's released, dear.

Not until it's released, dear. But once I have the software, I'll admit that I'm helpless in the face of my addiction. On the other hand, the Delta Tao boys have been working on Return to Dark Castle for something like four years, so I'm not holding my breath for Spaceward Ho! 5.0.

It's a simple case of

It's a simple case of cause and effect. Delta Tao begins work on Spaceward Ho! 5.0. Tom's productivity drops to rival that of the cat's.

Thanks for the links here,

Thanks for the links here, The Design Experience and ZopeNewbies!

Curiouser and curiouser... A few

Curiouser and curiouser...

A few days ago, I posted a query about the Amazon Recommends program.

Since then, I've received a few responses, all of which basically say (politely) "Hey, dummy, take a look at that Build-a-link page that you linked to!"

Here's where it gets interesting, though: when I go to that page, the option that everyone else seems to see isn't there. Here's the options that I get:

Home Page Links

Search Box Links

Subject and Genre Browse Menus

Individual Item Links

Favorite Destination Links

Amazon.com 100 Hot Books

Amazon.com 100 Hot CDs

Amazon.com 100 Hot Videos

Amazon.com 100 Hot DVDs

Top Selling Electronics

Top Selling Software

Top Selling Tools & Hardware

Top Selling Outdoor Living

Top Selling Photo

Top Selling Wireless

Top Selling Outlet Products

Build a Link to Any Page

Tom mentioned the charter school

Tom mentioned the charter school in his next post. I've linked to the info we have about it, which isn't much. If you have any info about charter schools that we should know, please pass it on--thanks!

We went to a meeting

We went to a meeting here in town tonight; a group is petitioning the local school board to allow them to create a charter school as an alternative to the district high school. So far, it sounds like the charter school folks are on to something, and they would be getting off the ground just in time for Sean to be a freshman there. This would be a cool thing for a school to have: iBook Wireless Mobile Lab.

From the Mighty Big TV

From the Mighty Big TV Forums, it's haiku and song lyrics based on The West Wing. Some people just have too much time on their hands (but are also really darned funny).

Dave says:Don't argue with Microsoft

Dave says:

Don't argue with Microsoft about the GPL. Don't bother getting outraged. It's a smoke screen for sure. Look at other stuff they're doing, study it, learn how to zig to their zag.

Yes, Ballmer sounds like a lunatic with his "Linux is the anti-christ" spiel, but there's no reason for Microsoft to be making all of this anti-Open Source noise except as a smokescreen. Pay attention to the web services issues. Pay attention to the subscription models that they're implementing. These are the real issues that they're attempting to divert attention from!

Morimoto, stick to cooking, and

Morimoto, stick to cooking, and give up web site design, please.