Month: December 2005

Infinite dictatorial power. Since I pointed yesterday to Bruce Schneier's piece on Bush's use of the NSA for domestic spying, I'd be remiss if I didn't also send you his way to read today's piece on what the spying means for privacy rights, and for the idea of Presidential power. It feels to me like… Continue reading Infinite dictatorial power

Our dictatorial President. Add my voice to the chorus recommending that everyone read Bruce Schneier's essay about the Bush Administration's illegal use of the National Security Agency for domestic wiretapping. If you haven't been keeping up to speed on this story in the past week, Schneier's piece will catch you up, and help you understand… Continue reading Our dictatorial President

Dennis Kennedy's Legal Technology Predictions for 2006: Small Steps for Most Firms, Giant Leaps for a Few Firms [LLRX.com]

Review of 12 Weeks with Geeks. So Joel finally got his DVD out to me and I had a chance to watch Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks last weekend. I don't have much to report. As a “film” it was well done. (aka: production quality was good). It was interesting watching the 12 weeks progress.… Continue reading Review of 12 Weeks with Geeks

Bruce Eckel: Ruby is bad Python, but good Perl. Bruce Eckel charges Bruce Tate with quick dismissals and selecting a winner without a race in Beyond Java: In many places he plays fast and loose, and almost at the end of the book he declares that he doesn't have time to learn these other languages… Continue reading Bruce Eckel: Ruby is bad Python, but good Perl

The Patriot Act as a sign of failure It's interesting to see how the inability of our security bureaucracy to defend us from a threat is being blamed on a legal structure that protects our citizens. Legal rules and rights were never the problem. The inability of the bureaucracy to do anything meaningful with the… Continue reading The Patriot Act as a sign of failure

Google Taunts Skype, Releases GTalk API. Google has just released a set of components called Libjingle that allow third party applications to interact with Google Talk. The components, which include some source code, are being released under a very liberal license allowing for free incorporation into commercial and non-commercial software. We are releasing this source… Continue reading Google Taunts Skype, Releases GTalk API

Rice on MTP Based on the non-response of Rice to Tim Russert on the question of what authority the US President based his decision to wire tap Americans, it seems to me that the President violated the law. Expediency is not an excuse or a basis for authority to violate the constitution. [John Robb's Weblog]

Massachusetts Governor Won't Seek Second Term. The announcement from Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, is widely interpreted to mean that he will run for president in 2008. By PAM BELLUCK. [NYT > Home Page]

Squib becomes real. I've started quite a lot of development projects in my time and many (most?) of them never made it very far. When I set out to replace Radio as my blogging tool I knew, at the back of my mind, there was a chance this would be one of those projects. So… Continue reading release of Squib 0.3.0