Chris Scott writes about his recent problems buying a Macintosh (short version — Apple decided to use a proprietary interface for their Apple Studio Displays that is incompatible with older G4 computers). Reading his story, however, this isn’t an Apple problem per se but from my experience is standard operating procedure among most hardware companies.…
December, 2000
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A few years ago, conservative students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison sued the university on the grounds that it was unconstitutional to force them to pay student fees which went to groups who espoused views they disagreed with. Essentially the students argued they were being forced by the state to subsidize certain viewpoints. The U.S.…
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The other day I wrote about a city banning fire fighters from erecting Christmas trees in city-owned fire stations on the separation of church and state grounds. Now Accuracy in Academia’s Sara Russo reports that Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania has banned the school’s bell tower from playing Christmas carols that have religious overtones. Apparently non-Christian…
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On September 29, 1999, Mexican immigrant Ismael Mena was shot and killed in a no-knock drug raid on his house. The only problem was police had the wrong house; the target of the raid lived in the house next door, but police officer Joseph Bini wrote the wrong address on the search warrant. A couple…
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Slashdot today was talking about this interview with Linux evangelist Eric Raymond. In the interview, Raymond’s comments come across as almost being a parody of Linux true believers. Raymond is apparently seriuos about the following claims, I think Linux will become dominant before it is really ready technically for the end users. And the reason…
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The issue of school vouchers is likely headed for a Supreme Court showdown after the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Cleveland’s school voucher program as unconstitutional. The logic of the appeals court was so inconsistent with previous Supreme Court rulings that it could once and for all settle any lingering Constitutional questions.…
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Slashdot has the latest in a long line of threads on the issue of why software still sucks, this time feeding of off comments made by Jaron Lanier. To me the people who don’t understand why software will always be buggy are a lot like the people who can’t understand why a more “rational” universal…
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Jeff Boen managed to create a very realistic looking Beretta 9mm out of Legos and some Technic parts. The Technic parts and some rubber bands allow for a rackable slide.
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Space Empires IV, the ultimate 4X space game, is out and getting very good reviews. GamesDomain.Com’s reviewer notes that there is a pretty steep learning curve — this is definitely not a game for Civlization and Masters of Orion veterans, not 4X newbies. For fans of the genre, however, otherwise, there simply isn’t a deeper…
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In a few months the XFL — the WWF/NBC football league — will kick off what Vince McMahon calls a return to “smashmouth football.” If you believe McMahon, the National Football League is populated by whimps who are scared to death to get hit. I don’t know which channel McMahon is watching, but I see…