The First 100 Years Are The Hardest

Newsweek Special Election - Read their special 50,000 word report- behind the scenes campaign coverage . Newsweek had reported embedded in each campaign for the past 14 months. They had signed non-disclosure agreeements not to leak anything till the elections were over November third. This makes for some very interesting (but lenghty) reading.

2004 Election Coverage Check out USA Today's County by County Voting Results Counties voting Republican are noted in Red, Democratic in Blue. Bush won the popular vote and the electoral vote, but its interesting that he carried the majority of the counties in states that went to Kerry. Kerry had strong support in the densely populated metropolitan areas of Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and but Bush carried most (if not all) of the smaller cities and rural areas in these states.

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004 Cool website that shows the electoral vote breakdown by state for Bush and Kerry campaigns. Updated daily. Interesting visual contrasts between the American heartland and the East/West coasts.

The Popular Vote Anyone who argues that the Electoral College should be scrapped in favor of the popular vote should first understand how the electoral college works and why it was established in the first place. The Electoral College provides a system of checks and balances between the federal and state governments. It maintains the balance of power between the large and the small states. It facilitates the stable transition of power across regular elections. There's also a conservative notion that the primary purpose of government is to secure and protect the liberty and property of its citizens. Stability is a prerequisite for security. The popular vote can be as fickle and dangerous as a tyrannical mob. It was used in Ancient Greece to condemn Socrates to death. It was manipulated by the demagogues of the 20th century to elect the likes of Adolf Hitler to public office. Links: How the Electoral College Works Brief History and Evaluation of the Electoral ...

Fun with the 2004 Vote Visit these websites to help celebrate the Vote on November 4: Best in Drag Bush Brain Game New! Voting Machines

The Laws of Software Development "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it." --Murphy's Law The speed of software halves every 18 months. --Gates Law "Software bloat tends to counter the every-18-month doubling in hardware capacity per dollar, as predicted by Moore's Law." --The Harrow Technology Report (12/22/03)

Continuous Partial Attention "Linda Stone, formerly of Apple and Microsoft, has coined the term "continuous partial attention" to describe life in the era of e-mail, instant messaging, cellphones, and other distractions. This curious feature of modern life poses a problem for a someone like me. Every productive thing that I do requires ALL my attention." Neal Stephenson "Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration." Don Knuth "I don't even have an e-mail address. I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages." --- Umberto Eco, quoted in the New Yorker

Personal Firewall Reviews "The perfect personal firewall would be inexpensive and easy to install and use, would offer clearly explained configuration options, would hide all ports to make your PC invisible to scans, would protect your system from all attacks, would track all potential and actual threats, would immediately alert you to serious attacks, and would ensure nothing unauthorized entered or left your PC." This great definition is quoted from Make Your PC Hacker Proof, Jeff Sengstack, PC World, July 21, 2000.

Anit-Phishing Workging Group Resource to track scams and fraud on the internet: From the Anti-Phishing Website : Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them.

Responsible Reporting on 9/11 Snopes' Urban Legend Rebuttal for Pentagon Strike Flash Misinformation and rumors about the 9/11 attacks Wikipedia report on American Airlines Flight 77 Wikipedia Report on United Airlines Flight 93 CNN Report on United Airlines Flight 93

Alternative News Signs of the Times Pentagon Strike What Really Happened to Flight 93? What Really Happened to American Airlines Flight 11?

THE HITCHHIKER ADVENTURE GAME by Douglas Adams - 20th Anniversary Edition Wow! Has it already been 20 years? I've got great memories from my C-64. Infocom was in its Heyday. Sierra Online. OkiMate 20 Thermal Transfer color printers. $5 joysticks for "Popeye" and "Raid over Moscow".

Technology Roundup Controlling Global Weather (Funded NAIC Initiative) Optical (50nm) Technology Patented for Data Storage (100 Terabytes on 3.5" Disk) DOD Funding To Research Health Risks of Nanotechnology -from the Augutst 2004 Harrow Technology Report

Security Roundup Internet and Cell Phone "Alibi Clubs" Hacking the AMD 64 and Opteron CPU Microcode Cell-phone jammers Webcams for Secure ID Tokens Freeze your credit report to prevent identity theft -from the August 2004 CryptoGram

Earlier this year I read Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and "Quicksilver." Last month I finished "The Confusion", which is the second volume of the Baroque Cycle. The third and final volume, "The System of the World" is supposed to be published in October. Although I'm really enjoying the Baroque Cycle, "Snow Crash" remains my favorite. If you are interested in the author you can read more at Neal Stephenson- (Wikipedia).

The Riches ( Jane's Addiction ) I love standing by the water and just knowing what it's for It's alright to swim and sip it let me have a little more Like my woman, like my shower get them hot until their steaming Love to find a little spot nice and shady that's for dreamin' of the riches Oh, tell me where are you hidden? Cause ready or not man, I'm coming in, Into the life, Into the life of riches! Stretching out in the sun like a cat in the window Hillside changing colors as I'm watching shadows throw I'm laughing that is rich it puts my stomach in the stiches Early bird from a perch looking down can see all the world's riches Oh, tell me where are you hidden? Cause ready or not man, I'm coming in, Into the life, Into the life of riches! Never lookin' over my shoulder again I wanna buy my time and finally own my fate If you tell me no, then I really must insist And when the hunt is over, kiss me on my lips Kisses!...

COULD 'E-MAIL-FREE' FRIDAYS REPLACE KHAKIS AND KNIT SHIRTS? We all know that e-mail is turning into a huge time and productivity sink, but one lone crusader in Silicon Valley is trying to do something about it. Two months ago Jeremy Burton at Veritas Software decreed that Fridays in his marketing department were to be "e-mail free" -- employees who needed to communicate with each other were instructed to stop by and chat or use the phone. "E-mail is supposed to be this big productivity tool, but it's getting to the point where it is out of control," says Burton, who complains that he was regularly spending two hours a day just dealing with e-mail. The ban applies only to interdepartmental communications and violators are fined $1 per transgression, with the proceeds going toward charity (so far, almost $70 has been collected). Many workers have endorsed the ban, noting the advantages of face-to-face conversations, and Burton says he ...

Quotes Roundup (Newsscan): "Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" (Lewis Carroll) "Never retract. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl." (Benjamin Jowett) "We shall not cease from exploration. And at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time." (T.S. Eliot) Nowher so besy a man as he ther n¹ as, And yet he semed besier than he was." (Geoffrey Chaucer) "Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance." (Samuel Johnson) "If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing." (W. Edwards Deming)

Newscan Excerpt from 8/20/04: COURT ON FILE-SWAPPING: GET USED TO IT! A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the movie and recording industries can't stretch copyright law to block online piracy of songs and movies. If the decision is appealed, the U.S. Supreme Court could revisit its landmark Sony Betamax ruling that protected from copyright lawsuits products that have substantial legitimate uses. Whereas the same appeals court ruled against file-sharing service Napster in 2001 because it stored illegally copied files on its central computers, today's peer-to-peer file-sharing networks have no central computers -- and cannot even monitor users, let alone control them. The court urged the entertainment industry to adapt to file sharing the way movie studios did after losing the Betamax case: "The introduction of new technology is always disruptive to old markets, and particularly to those copyright owners whose works are sold through well-...

Sanity Returns to the DMCA Debate The FCC ruled on Wednesday that Tivo's new "To Go" feature is not a violation of the Digital Millenium Copywrite Act. From the CNET article , "TiVo users will be able to share copies of digital TV shows through the Internet with a small number of friends and family members, the Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday."