Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Charts and Graphs

Rich Lee got Instalanched and he shows us a chart of his traffic: On Location With Rick Lee: I've been Instalanched.

Impressive stuff. I only get a few hundred vistors when I get linked by Doc Searls. Surber got a lot of traffic the other day thanks to links from Michelle Malkin, PoliPundit, American Thinker, Ed Driscoll and others, but he failed to reach Instalanched traffic. I guess people like to look at pretty pictures.

Ex-FBI official says he's 'Deep Throat'

Here is the MSNBC story about W. Mark Felt telling Vanity Fair he is Deep Throat.
W. Mark Felt, who retired from the FBI after rising to its second most senior position, has identified himself as the "Deep Throat" source quoted by The Washington Post to break the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation, Vanity Fair magazine said Tuesday.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told John D. O'Connor, the author of Vanity Fair's exclusive that appears in its July issue.

Felt, now 91 and living in Santa Rosa, Calif. reportedly gave O'Connor permission to disclose his identity.

Deep Throat Revealed?

W. Mark Felt, FBI deputy associate director (and known by reporters as someone willing to take their calls) has told Vanity Fair he was Deep Throat.

Slate has been on Felt's trail for a while.
When Woodward came calling, Felt had just been the subject of a flurry of stories about Chase Culeman-Beckman, a 19-year-old from Port Chester, N.Y., who'd revealed to the Hartford Courant that Bernstein's son, Jacob, 11 years earlier had blurted out at summer camp that Deep Throat was W. Mark Felt.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Another West Virginia Blogger

Jen of On the Porch Swing... is from St. Albans. Jen says, "WELCOME!!!! Sit down on the swing and stay a while. Maybe we'll talk...or just listen... I just hope that everyone has fun...and maybe learns something while they are here."

Via Skip Lineberg at Marketing Genius from Maple Creative

Fifth Column: Black Tie Optional Movie Night

Lawbot reviews the new Byrd documentary. I saw it on PBS and found it rather boring.

LifeDrive Mobile Manager

My Palm 100 died a quiet dead a few weeks ago. I've been looking for a new device to replace it with. At first I looked at the PSP, but I'm not much of a game player, then I saw the LifeDrive Mobile Manager.

I've never really liked PocketPCs and they don't talk to Macs well. Now all I have to do is figure out how to come up with $500.00.

Instalanche

Rick Lee got another link from Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit.com yesterday. Rick used his inexpensive digital cam to take some really cool shots around his yard.

Marketing Genius from Maple Creative finalist for Marketing Sherpa's 4th annual Readers' Choice Blog Awards.

Congratulations to Marketing Genius from Maple Creative for being nominated as a finalist for in Marketing Sherpa's 4th annual Readers' Choice Blog Awards.

You can vote for them here.

The History of Memorial Day

According to West Virginia Public Radio's, Inside Appalachia, "Townsfolk in Fairmont credit Julia Pierpont as the founder of Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day. As the wife of Restored Virginia Governor Francis Pierpont, Julia was upset with the condition of the graves of the Civil War's Union soldiers and resolved to change the situation. You won't find any mention of Pierpont on the Web however."

Sunday, May 29, 2005

New job

I worked my last shift a mainframe operations specialist for the second largest data services firm in the world last night. This week I'm going back to what I love: law firm IT.

Speaking of law firm IT, Alex Scoble's IT Notes - A Law Firm IT Manager Blog, is a great blog about the subject.

White House eyes Supreme Court candidates

White House eyes Supreme Court candidates - Politics - MSNBC.com

The story here isn't that Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is battling thyroid cancer, will leave by the end of June, but that once he dies we will finally know that he was 'Deep Throat'.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Man Arrested for Wearing Grinch Mask

Put away your masks. It appears it's against state law to wear masks in public if you are older than 16. An Ohio County man found out the hard way:
Man Arrested for Wearing Grinch Mask
.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Blogger Status-Update

Blogger Status

Some Bloggers blogs were unreachable last night, then they all were. It appears to work fine now.

Duck Gallery - a photoset on Flickr

Raging Red gets her ducks in a row: Duck Gallery

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Blogger Status

Blogger Status

Looks like there is another Blogger outage.

Blogger: 404 - Page not found

When I try to visit Don Surber's blog I get: Blogger: 404 - Page not found.

I wonder what's up?

Update: This is happening on more than one blog so it must be a Blogger or some other DNS related problem.

How To Steal Wi-Fi - And how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours. By Paul Boutin

Slate: How To Steal Wi-Fi - And how to keep the neighbors from stealing yours. By Paul Boutin

This story is from last year, but it's still an interesting read. You can see my previous wi-fi security rants here and here.

Finally

Chappelle's Show - Season 2 was released at midnight after months of delays. If you preordered it, Amazon is shipping it now.

Monday, May 23, 2005

One search. All jobs.

I don't know how I found indeed, but if you are in the maket for a new job, it's the one place you can find every job listings for your area on one site. Here's an example: All jobs in Charleston, WV | Indeed.com They even has an rss feed.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Personalized Google

If you already have a Gmail account you can get to your Personalized Google page by going here. Slashdot notes, "Although it is not currently in Beta, it is only available through the Google Labs site."

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Apple Powerbook and iBook Battery Recall

Slashdot | Apple Powerbook and iBook Battery Recall

Looks like I need to thank the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and other international safety authorities for a new battery.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Newsday.com: Union protests over outsourced news

In The World is Flat Tom Friedman talks about Reuters outsourcing jobs gathering financial data and low level editing for the bread and butter of their wire service, financial reporting. It saved Reuters tons of money. Now it appears Reuters staffers are fighting back: Newsday.com: Union protests over outsourced news

Google Blog: Feed me

Google has announced AdSense for feeds.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Champagne in Cans

Check out Raging Red's reviews champagne in cans. Funny stuff. I love her Male Celebrity Scale of Deliciousness.

More West Virginia Bloggers

Jim over at WabiSabi, left me a comment that I left him out of the first list. I'm sorry Jim. I had you in the list, but it got lost in editing.

He also points out another West Virginia blogger, Adventures of a Domestic Engineer.

Monday, May 16, 2005

IEBlog : IE7 Has Tabs

The Mircosoft Internet Explorer Weblog reports IEBlog : IE7 Has Tabs. This is good news. I miss tabs everytime I'm use a Windows box and have to use IE to access certain sites, like internet banking or other secure site that requires IE.

Uncle Dave's PhotoBlog

My old friend Dave Swint sends out dispatches every weekday in Uncle Dave's PhotoBlog. The blog doesn't have an rss feed, but you can send Dave an email and he will email you updates.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

A list of other West Virginians in the blogosphere

Laymans View - "I am a West Virginian by choice, a layman with no higher education. Just your average WVian who feels it is time normal people get involved and try to bring about the fundamental changes necessary to make West Virginia all it can be. I will watch the issues plaguing West Virginia’s people and try to offer a perspective that is not available anywhere else."

William Stewart - "William Stewart is Executive Assistant to the Senate Minority Leader of West Virginia as well as owner of Stewart and Company, a graphics art studio located in the Charleston, WV area."

Stephanie Heck's Blog from Huntington WV - "This is the blog of Stephanie Heck, whom is a webmaster, computer programmer, writer in Huntington West Virginia. She is a commercial webmaster who writes Poetry and is a writer on the topics of WV political writings, wireless networking, local news, West Virginia News, computer education, information technology, LAN Networking, Server Administration, Thoughts about the War in Iraq and government deficit spending in an era of fiscal austerity. She is an anomaly here in Huntington West Virginia. She writes about West Virginia Politics from a Cabell County 25701 perspective. Political commentary and opinions can sometimes incite change for the better and more professional jobs and other employment."

Rory Perry's Weblog- "A weblog about information issues in the courts, with occassional diversions, authored by the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia."

Random Meanderings - "An open journal mixed with writings, photos, links, ramblings, and plenty of sarcasm. Share the angst of a West Coast lesbian attending school in WV."

Jeff Kay's West Virginia Surf Report

Runaway Comic


Raging Red
and Don Surber have updates on Dave Chappelle and his "vacation" in South Africa.

Come back Dave. America needs you.

Don Surber: West Virginia Blogs

Don Surber has incorporated West Virginia blogs into the rest of his blogroll. He says, "It is too darned hard maintaining them separately."

My own blogrolll is a mess. I keep telling it to sort alphabetically and it keeps fighting me.

Moving Blogs

Dan Gillmor has moved his blog, Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc. to Bayosphere, the first project of Grassroots Media Inc. His new blog can be found here.

West Virginia blogger and old friend Kevin Melrose has closed his blog, Thought Balloons: Comics, horror, fantasy and the like, and has joined the group horror, fantasy, and sci-fi blog Dark, but Shining

Thursday, May 12, 2005

WV Bloggers 130th base closing round-up

Jim Blake at Sanity - The Last Frontier says: "I always have mixed thoughts about base closures. That is because of my background, I suppose. On the one hand it concentrates the military community into fewer locations and makes them easier targets. On a personal level, relocation of military personnel can often cause a financial hardship on those moving, particularly if they relocate from somewhere like Charleston to somewhere like San Diego or Washington, DC."

Hippie Killer at Fifth Column uses an "All Your Base are Belong to us" photo to make his point:
It a fair guess that most of the 3000 people who are employed in some capacity by the West Virginia Air National Guard base in Charleston voted for Bush.

I wonder how they feel now?

Don Surber says this is a case of Save Our Pork Barrel

WV Bloggers

WV sure has grown a rich tapestry of bloggers. They come from all over WV. I've just added ZeNeece's World to the blogroll.

I wish I could take credit for finding all these wonderful reads, but the credit goes to Don Surber, who has a growing collection of WV blog links blogrolled over at this blog.

Without Don's links I would have never found: Raging Red's review of Charleston's new french restaurant; fellow geek Michael Cazad blog at WV Mountain Home; the Fifth Column group blog, written by Lawbot, Hippie Killer, and offroute; Jim Blake's Sanity - The Last Frontier; Backpetal's - A Wallflower Speaks; Brian Peterson's West Virginia Legal Weblog; Charleston lawyer Bob Coffield's Health Care Blog Law, Josh Duncan's The Lazy Logician; WV Law Dog Blog; Unsoft's List; West Virginia Political Sweatbox; Donutbuzz; nor Dave Peyton.

Some of these people have added me to their blogrolls and I really need to add them to mine. So much to blog, so little time.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Meaner and leaner might mean less local jobs

Rumsfeld Seeks Leaner Army and Full Term as Defense Secretary - New York Times

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld knows his time will be up soon and is focusing more of this time on his longstanding ambitions to trim down the nation's military.
Opening up a new front of controversy, Mr. Rumsfeld is to unveil his list of recommended domestic base closings on Friday. It is sure to provoke opposition from communities that stand to lose the economic benefits of being host to the military.

One of those communities that might stand to lose is Charleston’s 130th Airlift Wing. The Charleston Gazette reports:
The 1,012-person 130th has a peacetime payroll of about $28 million. In its current partially mobilized state, it pays out more than $71 million a year in salaries. The wing’s C-130 cargo aircraft and the aircrews and support staff needed to keep them flying are now in their 10th 60-day deployment to support the nation’s military effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Local leaders say this is the wrong way to go in light of the ongoing war on terror:
“It makes zero sense to close a facility that has been so instrumental in fighting the war on terror,” said Capito. “The 130th has proven time and time again to be effective because it is made up of talented and dedicated personnel.”

Don Surber weighted in yesterday on the subject saying, "I'm all for shuttering unneeded bases."

Charleston won't be the only community facing base closings. These recommendations are just that: recommendations. I've not sure if the rest of the administration shares Rumsfeld's vision, and it will be interesting to see if President Bush wishes to use his political capital to back this issue, or attempt to distance himself to focus on Social Security reform and other issues.

In any case expect to see Rumsfeld called before Congress to answer some hard questions about what he is trying to do.

Copyright Question

Doc Searls has a question about copyright. The Huffington Post says:
Unless expressly permitted, you may not copy, reproduce, distribute, publish, enter into a database, display, perform, modify, create derivative works, transmit, or in any way exploit any part of this Service, except as permitted under the last sentence of this Section 4(a) and except that you may make one print copy that is limited to occasional articles of personal interest only. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing (but subject to the last sentence of this Section 4(a)), you may not distribute any part of this Service over any network, including, without limitation, a local area network, nor sell or offer it for sale. In addition, these files may not be used to construct any kind of database. Just as THP from time to time excerpts materials from other sources in order to support the various commentaries and writings contained herein, we respect the right of others to make "fair use" of the materials contained on THP; accordingly, you may from time to time excerpt and use materials set forth on this site, provided, that you must give the original author credit and such use must be for a non-commercial purpose only and not, for example, for re-sale.


What does these terms mean for bloggers like me who run ads on their blog? Does that make us a "commercial blog"?

Doc notes: "A while back, Larry Lessig advised me (among other bloggers with public domain dedications on their blogs) to choose another license. I forget the exact reason, but it was roughly because the current copyright environment is insane."

This leaves me questioning the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommericial 2.0 license I use for this blog. If someone is making money by running a few Google Ads on their blog violating license?

If I found someone selling my music on CD or using my blog entries to publish a book, I would be more than a little upset. I doubt if this would ever happen, but that is the sort of protection the CC license offers.

The purpose of Creative Commons is to free ideas from the restrains of copyright law. I wonder now, if they went far enough, or if I chose the wrong license.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

NYT: Internet Attack Called Broad and Long Lasting by Investigators

The New York Times: Internet Attack Called Broad and Long Lasting by Investigators

Looks like someone made off with some Cisco source code. Cisco routers and firewalls are the backbone of the Internet. If you want to be an network engineer, you have to be schooled in ways of configuring and securing Cisco equipment. There is no other way.

The NYT reports:
The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet.

Now federal officials and computer security investigators have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was only part of a more extensive operation - involving a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe - in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated.

Investigators in the United States and Europe say they have spent almost a year pursuing the case involving attacks on computer systems serving the American military, NASA and research laboratories.

The break-ins exploited security holes on those systems that the authorities say have now been plugged, and beyond the Cisco theft, it is not clear how much data was taken or destroyed. Still, the case illustrates the ease with which Internet-connected computers - even those of sophisticated corporate and government networks - can be penetrated, and also the difficulty in tracing those responsible.

Government investigators and other computer experts sometimes watched helplessly while monitoring the activity, unable to secure some systems as quickly as others were found compromised.


Maybe one vendor supplying the backbone of the Internet isn't such a great idea after all.

Mountain Blog

Dave Peyton's Mountain Blog has been redesigned and looks much better. I just send him a comment thanking him for the link in his blogroll.

Sorry everyone for the lack of blogging. I'll pick up later I'm sure.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

BuzzPhraser (tm)

Buzz words have no place in human communication. The IT industry is horrible about using phases like "data management solution" and "telecommunications device." If it's a phone, call it a phone. Humans do not talk to each other using words like these, and it violates one of the guidelines of the Cluetrain Manifesto: Speak with a human voice.

Doc Searls developed a TecnoLatin phrase generator called BuzzPhraser for those who need to develop buzz words on the fly.

Doc points out, "two MIT graduate students not only wrote their own BuzzPhraser for generating academish jargeury, but got its output accepted as a legitimate paper."

Friday, May 06, 2005

Free WiFi for All

Note: Blogger ate this post and all the commments. I looked for a cached version on Google, but no luck. It sucks because there were some good comments attached to the post that added a lot to the conversation.

Update Google Desktop to the rescue. Rick Lee found a cached version of the post and the comments on his computer. I've added the comments to the bottom of the post. Thanks Rick.

BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis: a wi-fi in every pot
: Micah Sifry, who's helping out in Andrew Rasiej's campaign for NYC's Public Advocate, sent me text of a speech Andrew gave today at City Hall criticizing a Bloomberg report on communications and drawing a line in the sand at universal and inexpensive wi-fi for all. Hell, if Philadelphia can have it, why can't we? I'll be this will become an issue in every city -- and then suburb -- in the nation. No more letting Korea lead. No more letting telecom companies keep us back. We need to be connected to this connected world. Anything less is like not having indoor plumbing.

Telecom companies are doing their best to block local governments wi-fi for getting in the wi-fi biz. After Philadelphia began a project to cover the city with free Wi-Fi Verizon and other carriers pushed a bill thought the Pennsylvania legislature that banned the further spread of free Wi-Fi, but gave Philadelphia a pass. The bill was signed into law late last year.
The bill has received much attention because Philadelphia announced plans in September to offer municipal wireless services. Despite the bill, Verizon said that it will support Philadelphia's plans but has yet to say whether it will support the public Wi-Fi plans of other Pennsylvania cities.

The West Virginia Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Unger introduced a bill (SB 740) that allowed municipalies to deploy wired and wireless broadband in WV.
The proposed bill (Electronic Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Act or ETOPIA) allows local governments to become ISPs and promotes the installation of fiber optic networks. Municipalities would be allowed to issue bonds to finance broadband infrastructure development.

As usual, Verizon is against the bill. With only 17 days left in the legislative sessions, they want more time to do an analysis. What they really want to do is have enough time to lobby the state legislature and spread their own version of FUD to stop this. In fact, the spokesperson for Verizon says (I quote from the article): "It seems crazy to me to say we need municipal government providing broadband services in an area that already has two broadband providers."

Once again Verizon lobbied against the bill, and it died in committee. Resolutions in the House and the Senate to study the broadband issue failed to pass as well.

We might live in a flat world, but it appears Verizon and other broadband providers aren't interested in helping the US compete in the world marketplace.

Dell has now gotten into the picture. Jeff Jarvis reports:
See also Smartmobs reporting that Dell is opposing bills that back by telecom dinosaurs that would prevent local governments from encouraging ubiquitous broadband. The dinos are afraid they'd be put out of business by decent competition. Dell is afraid that the telecoms will succeed only in holding back the adoption of technology that will expand everyone's business, including Dell's. Dell is right.

At least Dell gets it.

This issue is dead for now in West Virginia, but we can allows hope legislative action might be taken next year.

2 Comments:

Rick Lee said...

I don't know how I feel about this. It seems like a wonderful thing... free wi-fi. But suppose that municipal governments do roll out (nearly) ubiquitous wi-fi... and suppose this causes other broadband carriers to flee the market... then imagine what you're left with... one provider with no commercial incentive to provide great service. One thing I'll say for Verizon, my DSL hasn't been down in a couple of years.

9:00 AM
oncee said...

Hi Rick,

I belive adoption of technology will expand everyone's business. I'm most worried about small WV communities with no broadband at all. Verizon and Charter are making some real progress in bringing broadband to smaller areas, but there is much to do. Open markets are the way to go. Not every local government will want to undertake this project, buy why not let them attempt it in the first place.

Free wireless is the most cost effective route to take. You don't have to wire anything except the central access point. People will still be paying for the service either thought local taxes or fees.

The issue really is access. Broadband access lets people do things like telecommuting and collaboration that cannot be done with a simple dialup connection.

Verizon and Charter over great services. As a network admin I worked with Verizon DSL and thought it was great. I've had Charter at home for five years and love it. But some people find these broadband providers costs prohibitive.

What about the children who parents can't afford broadband, or the web designer who lives two far aways to drive two hours for a job, when he or she has the option to telecommute?

The United States is the richest nation on earth. We owe our population the same sort of broadband access one finds in a lesser developed country such as Korea. If we don't I fear we will be left economically left behind, as countries like Korea, India, and China continue to make great gains.

9:32 AM

Creative Commons separates with BzzAgent

Lawrence Lessig and the people who run Creative Commons have left the BzzAgent program. BzzAgent approached Creative Commons with the campaign, based on the positive response a BzzAgent campaign for the Red Cross. Many members of the Creative Commons objected to the idea of being partnering with a marketing organization, and called it a "betrayal of the work done by grassroots activists..."

Lessig writes:
Forth, and for all the extremely powerful reasons these discussions have mustered, we were wrong to use this tool to spread our message. This is not, again, because BzzAgent is evil. It is not because it shouldn't be used to spread any message. It is not because understanding achieved through networks of humans is worse than the understanding produced through a survey. It is instead because this way of spreading our message weakens the power of our message.


I've looked at BzzAgent program. It offers rewards for spreading word-of-mouth buzz about a product or service. Once an agent creates buzz, the agent receives points that can be redeemed for products. In the case of the Creative Commons campaign agents could win Creative Commons tee-shirts.

I understand, but don't agree with Creative Commons decision to separate from BzzAgent. Most of the buzz around Creative Commons is generated online, they really need more word-of-mouth buzz off line. Not everyone is going to seek them out. People who create works under current copyright law will still go without hearing their cry for copyright reform.

On the flip side, maybe they should have never entered into an agreement with BzzAgent without consulting their rank-and-file members. This is what seems to have stirred up the controversy in the first place.

For the record, I support Creative Commons. I use a Creative Commons license for this blog and for music I have released on the Internet. I have no problem using it for my own work. After reading Lessig's books, I agree that the corporate abuse of the copyright system is locking down creativity and innovation. This move will be a loss for Creative Commons, I hope their members see their loss, but I don't think they every will. They will instead talk of their win over the "evil marketing people."

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Loose Wire: Find Anything About Anyone

Jeremy Wagstaff points out a new way of finding people. I did a search on myself, and it found me. The search engine makes use public sources from the web. It's scary how much personal information you can spread around on the web without even knowing it.

Don't believe me? Take it for a spin yourself.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Casting "Blog" the Movie - Josh Hallett

hyku | blog - Casting "Blog" the Movie - Josh Hallett

Josh Hallett writes:
I no longer receive Entertainment Weekly magazine, but one feature they would have was the "Who would play" column. Every so often they would 'create' a movie based on current trends and ask, "what actors would play the major parts" Here is my stab at 'Blog' the movie. Like many big Hollywood productions we have some actors attached and a concept, but no script.

Of course the 'Blog' would be played by the original 'Blob' who has been out of work since 1958.


Casting includes:
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman as Robert Scoble
  • Brian Cox as Doc Searls
  • Jonathan Katz as Steve Rubel
  • A 'young' Harrison Ford as Glenn Reynolds
  • Rob Reiner as Dave Winer
  • James Cromwell as Jeff Jarvis
  • McCauley Culkin as Jason Calacanis
  • Wonkette as herself
  • Kevin Spacey as Dan Gillmor
  • Tom Sizemore as Nick Denton


Who would play you in "Blog" the movie?

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

NC taxes ramps

Charleston Daily Mail: Federal officials smell trouble with ramp over-harvesting

By The Associated Press
Tuesday May 03, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. — Demand for ramps — a wild leek prized for its strong flavor — is expanding far from the mountains, propelled by a craze for regional and seasonal food. So great is the appeal that officials here are trying to limit the annual harvest.

Beginning next year, civic groups that pick wild ramps in the Nantahala National Forest for use in spring festivals will have to abide by new Forest Service rules that dictate where and how to pick the plants as well as levy a 50-cent-a-pound fee. The forest is in far southwestern North Carolina.

This isn't the first attempt to regulate the ramp. Thanks to Jim Comstock's stunt of putting the wonderful smell of ramps in the ink of The Hillbilly, it is illegal under U.S. Postal rules to mail anything that smells of ramps.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Imus Attacks Contessa Brewer

mediabistro: TVNewser
On Friday morning Imus called Contessa Brewer a pig and a skank. "That skank has to spend three hours with makeup in the morning...That's why they have those big double-doors there at MSNBC, you know, so they can get her fat ass in makeup." Imus also said Contessa is "dumber than dirt." An MSNBC spokesman tells Page Six that "Contessa Brewer is a valued and respected employee. While Don Imus' humor is often brilliant and provocative, we believe that this morning's comments about Contessa went over the line. We have expressed our displeasure to Don."

I'm an Imus fan, more than I'm a Stern fan. Some people don't know when Imus is kidding. Much of the drama is scripted. Sometimes Imus doesn't tell people when they are the butt of his private practice jokes. He was high as a kite Friday morning. He just had a tube removed from his back after kidney stone surgery and was still visibly the influence of painkillers. He has been silent on the issue so far this morning.

NYT: Growth of Wi-Fi Opens New Path for Thieves

Slashdot: Growth of Wi-Fi Opens New Path for Thieves

Slashdot has posted a story that makes good follow-up reading to my WiFi security rant:
Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday March 19, @01:35PM
from the high-tech-breakins dept.
E. Harley writes "Wi-Fi connections are popping up all over the place from retails locations, schools, municipalities, and homes. Unintentionally or not, most of these wi-fi hot spots never change the system's default settings, hide the connection from others, or encrypt the data sent over it. This NY Times article [Free registration required] talks about the size and extent of the problem, and what has happened with law enforcement investigating criminals using these public connections. Also, the article updates us on an earlier Slashdot story about wardriving. That case is still pending."

A birthday request

Scripting News: 5/1/2005

Yesterday was Dave Winer's birthday. All he wanted was a link. Here's your link Dave. Sorry I'm a day late.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

MSNBC to change name

Matt Drudge is reporting MSNBC will become The NBC News Channel.
**EXCLUSIVE** MSNBC TO CHANGE ITS NAME, THE DRUDGE REPORT HAS LEARNED. THE ALL-NEWS CABLE NETWORK, WHICH WAS FOUNDED AS JOINT EFFORT BETWEEN MICROSOFT AND NBC, WILL SIMPLY BECOME 'THE NBC NEWS CHANNEL'... TOP SOURCE EXPLAINS: 'THE NEW NAME IS CLEANER, LESS CONFUSING... REPRESENTS THE PROGRAMMING'... DEVELOPING...

Microsoft has lost money in the project and has been doing everything it can to get out of it. The announcement follows a report last month that NBC Universal were in talks with Microsoft to buy the software giant's stake in the cable news channel.