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Amy Wohl: "So far, Sun has never been a smart and persistent seller of software. Scott has, in fact, been their own worst enemy, telling me on many occasions that software exists for the purpose of selling hardware. Maybe he's now changed his mind. That would be a good first step."  Via Radio Free Blogistan via David Watson via David Copeland, a reporter in Texas has been told to shut down his personal weblog by his employer, the Houston Chronicle. Wait, threre's more. The top item on Romenesko names the reporter: Steve Olafson, and links to a Houston Press article that says that he was fired for running the weblog. Rob Fahrni: "Microsoft has always been known as a combative workplace. It's one of the things that bothered me about the buyout of Visio almost three years ago." Nowadays when a mosquito bites, you gotta wonder, "Did I just get a deadly virus??" A list of things that annoy Bob Frankston. Confirmed, I'm doing a concert with Woz next Weds.  Eric Kidd: "SpamAssassin is a highly accurate open source spam filter." The Age: "American movie, recording and software executives could be prohibited from entering Australia or extradited to face criminal charges if a copyright protection bill before the US Congress passes into law." Question: Did you think on Sept 18 that we'd make it to Aug 7 without any more huge terrorism hits on US soil? US citizens can send a message to Congress about the Berman Bill via the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Real-time writing  People like to give me a hard time for writing in real time on Scripting News. I can do this because I use a different kind of tool to write. Someday this tool will be more popular and lots of people will do what I do, and it will drive certain people (you know who you are) out of their minds. See, sometimes when writing in this mode, something that's not politically correct, or inadvertently not politically correct, sneaks out. Shit happens. Before I can correct it, some blogger somewhere has launched a holy jihad and is experiencing the rush of body chemistry that comes from it. And then I spot the bit of vulnerability (sometimes it's just a spelling or grammatical mistake or an awkward wording) and make the change and save it, and oops, the flamer has nothing to flame about. There's a bit of a fallacy in their ire, because they don't have to give back the endorphins, but maybe they're hoping for a double-dip. I have many new assholes cut in this manner. Yet I still persist in real-time writing, when the spirit strikes me, as it does today. Warbloggers and linearity The human mind is a wonderful thing. It's capable of doing math, writing poetry and love letters, and can save your life when called on. It's great to have a mind, but sometimes it lies to you. The mind can't handle not knowing something. It strings assumptions across voids of knowledge. You can see Nick Denton do this a couple of days ago, when he assumed that a comment I made on SN was about Muslims becoming perpetrators of the next holocaust. It could happen, but I think it's more likely we're headed there in the US. That our country would consider attacking Iraq for the reason Denton outlines, to induce humiliation in the Muslim world, and that intelligent people like Reynolds think this is a good idea, makes me worry more about our country than any other. We're so poorly defended here, before we attack so mindlessly, give some thought to how many Americans would die at home for this kind of bluster overseas. Like so many armchair strategists, Denton and Reynolds want to fight the last war we won (WW II) but it ain't going to work that way. Anyway, I think this is why we don't get too much support from our allies in Europe. They're scared of the US, rightfully, and so am I. Anyway, I still admire Glenn and Nick, for having the guts to expose their thinking in public on the Internet for me and others to trash. That's the beautiful thing about the First Amendment, and one of the primary reasons I love this country so much. We have the freedom to express ourselves, guaranteed by the Constitution, and that guaratees that we will hear ideas that sound wrong, that we disagree with, that stimulate writing and hopefully thinking (maybe not in that order). As long as that's all that happens, it makes us safer. I've seen people say that Denton's comments are dangerous. So far, only to my belief system, and that's a danger I welcome with open arms. But we have to watch for the messengers of "It can't happen here," because a lot of the first steps down the road to erasing our freedoms start there. That's the truly dangerous stuff. I missed my hot tub I'm a nicotine addict. My name is Dave. I am also a hot tub addict. When I can't use my hot tub I get grouchy. It's how I warm up, it's how I relax. I think every house should have one. To me, it's as essential a device as a kitchen sink. Anyway, I haven't been allowed to use my hot tub since mid-June because of the surgery. The doctors wanted me to give the wound a chance to heal. Well, that changed, and yesterday I was able to use it, with somewhat surprising results. It made my body feel sore this morning. I suspect the soreness comes from storing tension in muscles around the wound. I had tightness in the lower back, shoulders and neck, and even arms, and the upper part of the legs. That's how the body compensates for a wound in the center of the chest. But because I wasn't soaking, I couldn't feel the full pain. So I feel it this morning. Lots of pain everywhere but the wound, which feels more healed this morning than it ever has. Probably after a few weeks of this, it'll all work a lot better. I'm optimistic. I am deeply programmed  I still dream of smoking, but even in my dreams I have become an ex-smoker.Wandering through the streets of NY, last night, in a half-nightmare (I had forgotten to book my return flight and was trying to find a phone that I could access the Internet through), I lit a cigarette from a full pack. I took one puff, and then remembered -- sheez I'm not a smoker, and I threw it down and rubbed it out. I was bummed. It was a bad dream all around. Later I remembered, hey it was just a dream, it was all happening in the subconscious, no lungs were harmed, and even better, I remembered even in an unconscious and unhappy state, that it's not okay to smoke. |
 
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