March, 2002

  1. The Pundits are Polarized, Not the Public

    FoxNews has an article quoting Michael Moore and Bernard Goldberg making the case that the United States is very divided politically. The main evidence for this is the absurdly close 2000 election and the popularity of ideological books such as the recent bestsellers by Moore and Goldberg. I suspect the reality is just the opposite.…

  2. Microsoft — King of the Animal Kingdom

    ZDNet’s coverage of a Gateway executives testimony about Microsoft’s post-settlement business practices is awe inspiring. It is simply amazing how cutthroat one company can be while still trying to fit its practices within the letter, though definitely not the spirit, of the law (Microsoft might just hold the record for having the most egocetric executives…

  3. Are Weblogs Just a Fad?

    Glenn Reynolds points to this Boston Globe article that suggests weblogging might be just a fad. Maybe, but that might not be the tragedy the Globe writer Hiawatha Bray thinks it is. Here’s Bray has to say, How long can that last? There are a number of rival blog companies to contend with. More troubling…

  4. Is There A Longevity Gene? Sort Of

    Back in February researchers with DeCode Genetics announced the discovery of what the media called a “Methuselah gene” — a gene that seems to confer on those born with it a relatively longer life span than the rest of us. Those researchers compared a group of 1,200 long-lived people in Iceland with a group that…

  5. Police Shocked — More Guns, No Increase in Violent Crime

    For the most part concealed weapons laws have tended to decrease violent crime in the states where such laws have been adopted. That did not stop gun control opponents from swearing up and down last year that Michigan’s concealed carry law would lead to Wild West-style shootouts in Michigan cities. On the one year anniversary…

  6. Time to Line Up for Single File

    I follow Duncan’s Jotter largely because Duncan Smeed often points to tools and web sites that I’ve never heard of that are, nonetheless, simply amazing — and in this latest case, indispensable. Last week, Duncan pointed to Single File, and this weekend I signed up for a year’s subscription to the service. Single File only…

  7. AOL Chokes on Its Own Dogfood

    The subhead for MSNBC’s story about the problems AOL created when it tried to make all AOL-Time Warner employees use AOL’s e-mail system says it all, CompanyÂ’s attempt to use own software brings headaches And the problem is obvious — AOL’s system is designed for very light home use (well, I’d argue it useful than…

  8. Huzzah for My Hometown for Vanquishing Orbz.Org

    Yesterday, Orbz.Org pretty much vanished off the Internet overnight after its operator claimed that he had been threatened with a lawsuit because the method that Orbz used to probe for open relays had a nasty habit of crashing Lotus Domino servers (due to a bug in the server). Little did I know that it was…