Hooray! It's opening day of the 2003 baseball season. It's really too bad that I live in a city where the two teams are likely going to have another miserable year. Who do you think is going to have a good season and why? And for you Chicagoans: What's up with these losing teams? They're almost as bad as my beloved Red Sox.
My last post about this attracted some interesting discussion. So, I'll fan the flames a little more.
Darrell Issa, U.S. Representative from the 49th District of California, is not happy [via Gizmodo] that government agencies are planning on building a GSM network in Iraq.
“It is outrageous that these agencies are planning to spend taxpayer dollars on a competitive foreign technology, when we have a superior U.S. technology (CDMA) available to us,” writes Issa. “This news is especially offensive given the French opposition to U.S. diplomatic and military initiatives related to Iraq.”
Thanks to Gabe for the link.
In a previous post, I wrote about legislation being proposed in some states that would outlaw firewalls using Network Address Translation. Well, it turns out that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the bills are much more troublesome. In fact, a bill in Colorado “would restrict distributing software or hardware 'capable of defeating or circumventing' copy protection technology.” Doesn't that describe most computers?
Those of you who are into the whole wireless thing should find Clay Shirky's latest essay; Permanet, Nearlynet, and Wireless Data; interesting. I totally agree with Clay on this one. It just doesn't make sense for companies to invest in these monolithic networks when they could be helping to build out the one that everyone already uses.
Ugh. I need to write more. My post about Clay's previous essay hasn't even rolled off my front page yet.
Yes, you read that correctly. Several states are considering bills that would effectively outlaw the use of firewalls in the name of protecting copyright. Sheer madness.
The Mexican Congress will soon be considering legislation that will put an end to the public domain in Mexico. Of course, the U.S. Congress will have to follow suit so that our laws will be in harmony with the rest of the world's. So much for sovereignty.
I swear, we're getting to the point where every creative work will have to be cleared by the copyright industry before being published. That gives me a great idea. I'm going to create an organization akin to the Business Software Alliance that will enforce all kinds of copyright. Its agents will raid businesses and homes to make sure that people haven't copied copyrighted material on post-it notes, grocery lists, vacation photos, and the like. I'm sure the market will be huge. I'll be rich!
Last week, Glenn Fleishman made one of his books available as a free download. He estimates that he racked up a $15,000 hosting bill in 36 hours. Of course, he's taking donations to help cover the bill. Please help him out if you can.
UPS has replaced its great Paul Rand logo with a generic brown and gold shield. I guess I was wrong for thinking that a logo should communicate something about the business. It kind of looks like an acorn to me. What's that supposed to mean?
This site now pings blogrolling.com when I post. Exciting, eh? I'm having problems pinging blo.gs, though. I'm hoping Mr. Winstead will help me figure out where the problem is.
Update @ 3/29/2003 12:45 PM: The site is pinging blo.gs now. Thank you for being so patient, Jim.
CNN has an interesting story about soldiers with weblogs. I'm actually kind of surprised that the military hasn't clamped down on them.
