Thursday, September 2, 2004
Charlie Demerjian has an excellent editorial over at the Inquirer about the RIAA's history with Internet filesharing networks, from Napster to the Grokster decision. He makes the interesting case that the RIAA might have been better served by continuing to work with the centralized server-based model of Napster, as this would have avoided the decentralization [...]
Thursday, September 2, 2004
Despite the obvious immorality in taking a school full of children hostage, the Chechen militants ensconced in the school have put the Russian government in a delicate situation. While it is in their best interests to solve the standoff as soon as possible, I doubt the Russian public would allow them to use the same [...]
Friday, September 3, 2004
Russian special forces stormed the building after two explosions came from the school, one of which collasped part of its roof. This Associated Press article has more information. There are supposedly still three militants with hostages in the school's basement, while others may have escaped in the confusion of the battle.
The violence began after militants [...]
Friday, September 3, 2004
George from Pathetic Earthlings suggests that George W. Bush is the intellectual heir to Wilsonian foreign policy.
Wilsonians, or those who claimed to be so, include FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan and George W. Bush. Even Nixon (according to this writer the President closest to the TR worldview) kept a portrait of Wilson in his cabinet room. [...]
Sunday, September 5, 2004
TalkLeft talks about statements by J. Cofer Black, the State Department's Coordinator for Counterterrorism, that the United States is closer to capturing Osama bin Laden. She suggests this could increase the possibility of an "October Surprise," referring to the possibility that the Bush administration might delay public announcement of bin Laden's capture in order to [...]
Sunday, September 5, 2004
To the Editor:
Re "In Western Sudan, Fear and Despair Are the Ever-Growing Enemy" (front page, Sept. 2):
The endless tragedies and decades of war in Sudan and other African states clearly illustrate the need for border changes in Africa.
Thus begins the most ridiculous letter to the Editor that I have ever read:
Africa's giants - Sudan, Nigeria [...]
Sunday, September 5, 2004
Spent entirely too much time this weekend dealing with Linux multimedia troubles. Eventually, after reinstalling xine and installing totem and mplayer, I decided on a whim to install RealPlayer 10. Not surprisingly, it refused to load. I uninstalled it and despondingly clicked on a Quicktime file. To my amazement, it worked. Since RealPlayer is unable [...]
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
I imagine that the rest of the week will be extremely busy, so do not expect any posts. I *might* be able to squeeze one or two in, but do not count on it.
Sunday, September 12, 2004
The most exciting thing that happened this weekend was thinking that I lost more than $200 in cash, only to find it in a pants pocket. Considering the amount of money, I felt surprisingly calm when I discovered its loss.
Then again, I have been surprisingly calm in general lately. Maybe it is because I have [...]
Sunday, September 12, 2004
I was looking through my stats page (sorry, no public access) when I noticed a ridiculous amount of traffic to my post about the Ryongchon explosion, along with several search queries for various permutations of "north korea explosion." "But that I happened in April," I thought, "that's really old news." Then the obvious truth hit [...]
Monday, September 13, 2004
…for posting your product manuals online in PDF format, including the one for my roommate's alarm clock [PDF, obvs.], which rings — at least, it used to ring — every night at midnight.
Incidently, I was unable to find a manual for my alarm clock, a Sony Dream Machine (model ICF-C390), online, but I did learn [...]
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Pitchfork:
For Garden State, drugs are clearly not the key to a better life; Natalie Portman is. Barring that, try music.
Everything I have heard about the film suggests that I will love it (New Jersey, Natalie Portman, The Shins, that snarky guy from Scrubs; it sounds like Paradise in film format). My only question is whether [...]
Thursday, September 16, 2004
It is neither a matter of hatred for Linux, nor of any particular affection for Windows. It is (unfortunately) simpler to use Windows. While I could spend the time figuring about how to fix external displays (which flicker on and off about three times a second under my current xorg.conf), wireless (which works, but must [...]
Saturday, September 18, 2004
When I read The Crimson on Wednesday, I noticed that the rate of petty theft had increased on campus (although you would not know from the headline, "Violent Crime Eases"). Two laptops were stolen from Margaret's room this week. This is the first time that one of my friends has had something stolen. Sure, it [...]
Thursday, September 23, 2004
The Crimson reports on a proposal by the Harvard Republican Club (HRC) to sway from the national party platform by not supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment. Could this be the beginning of a wave of moderation? It put me in mind of this Weekly Standard article, which I mentioned in July:
With undergraduates much less radically [...]