Patriot Act Recursion

This is really Orwellian: Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act. The ACLU filed a constitutional challenge to a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the FBI to subpoena information from Internet providers without a warrant or any judicial approval, and without notice to the targets of the investigation. But the group was forbidden to let the public know about its action because of secrecy rules contained in the Act. It took weeks of negotiation for the government to allow release of a redacted version of the lawsuit. Just another reason for the Act to be repealed, and for Bush (who wants it extended) to lose this fall.

More about human rights

A follow-up to my post below. Thanks to Phil Ringnalda in the comments, who pointed me to this terrific piece from The Village Voice by Laura Conaway: I'd Leave the Country, but My Wife Won't Let Me. It's amazing. Read it.

Local Idiots

We live in Sonoma County, CA, which is a pretty liberal place. Unfortunately, our representative on the County Board of Supervisors, Paul Kelley, is a conservative dimwit. In this article from our local paper, Kelley was the only Supervisor voting against a non-binding resolution that supports gay marriage and opposes Bush's gay bashing Constitutional amendment. His bigoted argument: "If we expect civilization to continue, we need to support marriage as it exists between a man and a woman." What a maroon. We tried to get rid of him last time, but he survived. Maybe next time he's up for re-election.

And while I'm ranting about the ignorant, what is with these anti-gay people? Why can't they understand that two men or two women who want to have sex together does not mean that they're raring to have sex outside of their own species? Another idiot at the meeting came up with this prime example of stupidity: "If a man and a man, what about a man and his dog?" asked Baptist pastor David Carson. Now, I suppose that if a US Senator can't understand the difference between two men doing it and, say, Bubba getting way too chummy with his Golden Retriever, you can hardly expect that some local yokel preacher could. But is it really that hard of a concept? Here's the deal, fools: Sex between consenting adults, OK; sex with another species, not so much. Any questions?

Click a link, help us all

There's been lots of hoohah lately about how the Republicans and Bush have raised tons of money over the last year and spent a ridiculous percentage of it, considering how early it still is in the race. And some are wondering about where all this money is going to.

Later note: part of this post was removed at Google's request. And the RNC ad that was being run isn't any longer, so it doesn't matter.

Where are the women in IT?

Derek Miller pointed me towards this article on the Guardian, Second sight:

Where are the women in IT? The percentage in this male-dominated industry was already low, but has fallen from 30% eight years ago to less than 20%.

When Graham Nugent, a European manager with UPS, started his IT career, he was the only man in a team of four. He now works at a Feltham site where there are two women out of 15 IT staff.

My current hypothesis is that women, by nature, are looking for more long-term jobs. The tech field, sadly, ain't it. This industry thrives on keeping people around for a few years and then replacing them with fresh-outta-school (read: cheap) college grads. My opinion is that if you want more women to go into tech, start featuring how you're employing not just women, but anyone, who's been employed by your company for > 20 years.

Nader Watch #3

NaderWatch, #3 in a continuing series, this time from a CBS News poll:

Kerry 46%
Bush 44%
Undecided 10%

Bush 43%
Kerry 41%
Nader 5%
Undecided 11%

Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop

Thanks to Anne Mitchell, I'm now at the Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop for the next few days. Blogging from me will be light, so bug Tom to take up the slack.

Step right up! It's amazing!

Thanks to The Gadflyer, you can now see The Amazing Dick Cheney and his talking Georgie Boy!

Outsourcing to India? Think twice.

This article, Companies Finding Some Computer Jobs Best Done in U.S., details companies that have tried outsourcing programming jobs to India, but discovered that it wasn't a good solution for their business. The reason was that they were working in rapidly changing technological areas, or instances that needed constant customer feedback, and the Indian subcontractors could not keep up. It's an interesting story that shows the limitations of a purported panacea.

MacMove.com

MacMove.com is a new site:

We are a group of Macintosh and Apple enthusiasts who have come together to share our collective insight, info and inspiration about the Mac for the new user, the person who routinely moves between different platforms, those who take their Macs on the road and those who believe that operating a computer and all the devices that come with it should be fun.

Thanks for linking to us, guys!

AirPort Update 3.4.1

Apple has released AirPort Update 3.4.1... but I think I'll wait a few days.

NetFlix competitors

We're thinking about quitting NetFlix after their recent price hike. Jerry Kindall has a blog post on NetFlix competitors, which gives us some ideas on who we could switch to.

Get Me The Unified Device Or Get Me To The Chiropractor

Another reference for the same talk (see below): Get Me The Unified Device Or Get Me To The Chiropractor. Keep 'em coming, please!

Is it OK to switch off from work?

Because I didn't blog this article when I first read it and just spent almost an hour trying to find it again: Is it OK to switch off from work? from CNN.com. I'm working on a talk now that's titled "Portable Technology: The good thing is, everything's always with you. The bad thing is, everything's always with you." and this was one of the sources I wanted to use. Got any others you'd recommend? Tell me in the comments.

Btw, I told the conference organizer, "The talk's going to be about [see above title], but I haven't come up with anything shorter and pithier yet," and she said that it was fine as is. So don't tell me that the title's too long—I know!

Computer Book Publishing update

If you're at all interested in the computer book biz, read All I know about Computer Book Publishing I learned in a small, dark room... by Whil Hentzen, from the Studio B Computer Book Publishing list. While I didn't go to this year's Waterside conference (too many bad experiences when I've attended previously + too expensive), I think that I got most of the value out of reading this one show report.

If abortions are not banned, the terrorists will have won?

Hey, if you're pro-choice, you're now no better than the 9/11 terrorists. That's acccording to Karen Hughes, one of Bush's closest advisers. You'll find her odious quote in this NYT story about today's March for Women's Lives in DC. Typical Bush and GOP crap: Defining political opponents as equivalent to terrorists. Despicable. These slimy opportunists can't be thrown out of office too quickly. UPDATE: The NYT has now removed the Hughes quote from the story. Dori has posted the quote in the comments to this post.