Archive: March 15, 2005

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

1. Sam Ruby's ETCON 2005 presentation made my head hurt. I did the Laura Ingraham groan a few times. What makes this all worse is that almost everything he discusses has a reasonable rationale, but it all combines into a big mess. Via Sam Ruby.

     ¶ (2) Tags: [Programming]

2. MoonEdit - Tom Dobrowolski's multi-platform collaborative text editor. Like SubEthaEdit, but cross-platform, but not as full-featured. Via Tim Bray.

     ¶ (0) Tags: [Programming]

Weird chess game!

I'm thinking of joining the ICC again. I had a membership years ago and let it lapse, though I still play the occasional game as a guest. I just checked and their fees are reasonable, so even if I don't play even every month it still may be worth it re-join. Regardless, I owe them after playing as a guest for so long.

In any case, I just played a really weird ninja game (which I won). I let myself get under time pressure fairly early, so I was under pressure for most of the game, but I performed well even given the complex position Here's the PGN:

[Event "ICC 3 6 u"]
[Site "Internet Chess Club"]
[Date "2005.03.15"]
[Round "-"]
[White "guest674"]
[Black "guest2242"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ICCResult "Black resigns"]
[Opening "Sicilian"]
[ECO "B50"]
[NIC "SI.01"]
[Time "15:44:38"]
[TimeControl "180+6"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 h6 4. Nc3 e6 5. O-O Nf6 6. Re1 Be7 7. a3 a6 8. b4
b5 9. Bb3 Qc7 10. bxc5 Qxc5 11. Bb2 e5 12. d4 Qb6 13. Bd5 Nc6 14. a4 b4 15.
a5 Qc7 16. Na4 Bb7 17. Nb6 Rb8 18. c3 bxc3 19. Bxc3 O-O 20. Rb1 exd4 21.
Nxd4 Nxd5 22. exd5 Ne5 23. Bb4 Nd7 24. Rc1 Qd8 25. Nc6 Qe8 26. Rxe7 Nxb6 27.
Rxe8 Rfxe8 28. axb6 Bxc6 29. Rxc6 Re5 30. Bxd6 {Black resigns} 1-0

One strange thing is that I never moved my queen.

Gotta give the final position:

Permalink | 3 Comments | Tags: Chess | id 6705

16:15 (utc-5)
edited: 16:27 (utc-5)

 

AOL To Modify AIM Terms of Service

Via /., AOL To Modify AIM Terms of Service:

The tweaks to the terms of service will be made in the section titled "Content You Post" and will explicitly exclude user-to-user chat sessions from the privacy rights an AIM user gives up to AOL.

"We're not making any policy changes. We're making some linguistic changes to clarify certain things and explain it a little better to our users," AOL spokesperson Andrew Weinstein told eWEEK.com.

The modifications will use similar language from the AIM privacy policy to "make it clear that AOL does not read private user-to-user communications," Weinstein said.

Good for them.

Over the last weekend, AOL representatives moved to quell public criticism of the terms of service after the issue was first flagged on Weblogs and discussion forums.

But, the company's damage-control moves did not sit will with legal experts, who argued that AOL's stance that user-to-user IM communications were exempt did not match the language in the terms of service.

Yep.

Permalink | Comments? | id 6704

15:12 (utc-5)

 

John Kerry still won't sign his 180's

Pirate's Cove: Sign the 180's, John. Kerry still won't sign form 180 releasing his military records despite his promises to do so.

Of course, PoliPundit has been on this for a while -- they have a banner on top counting the days since Kerry promised on Meet the Press to sign form 180... now 44 days ago. Liar.

Permalink | Comments? | Tags: Opinions/Politics | id 6703

13:33 (utc-5)

 

Michelle Malkin on the election mess in Washington State

Michelle Malkin has news on the election mess in Washington State. You know, the election where the Democrat finally eked out a win on the third recount after "finding" a lot of uncounted ballots in heavily Democratic King County, where more felons and dead people voted than the margin of "victory", and now, where about 5 times more votes than the margin of "victory" were made up of unverified "provisional ballots".

The sound of stealing seems like a good article about the situation as it was back in December.

Permalink | 1 Comment | Tags: Opinions/Politics | id 6702

13:15 (utc-5)

 

1. PoliPundit.com excerpts an interview with John O'Neill:

   TAE: Were you surprised when Senator Kerry focused so much on his Vietnam record at the Democratic Convention in late July? How do you account for this when he clearly knew you were out there?
   
   O’NEILL: I think he thought that he had good control over the mainline media, that they were sympathetic, that they would kill the story. And I think he was very confident that was the case with the New York Times and the three major networks and CNN, and that he could intimidate the portions of the media not already friendly to him. And so he thought the story would never come out. That had been his experience over and over again in Massachusetts.
   
   TAE: Everything changed in early August, after your first ad.
   
   O’NEILL: All of a sudden, Kerry and the media were faced with an ad that was actually showing. There was a time when they controlled the entire world of communications. That day is over.

   They tried, they really tried, but they failed. Originally via Power Line.

     ¶ (0) Tags: [Opinions/Politics]

2. More on Syria and Lebanon:

   • Syria Comment: New US Sanctions Bill Introduced
   • Publius Pundit: Human Tsunami Sweeps Slate Clean
   • Think Of That: A sea of flags (from a blogger in Lebanon)
   • George W. Bush, Arab Hero, via Glenn.
   • Roger L. Simon: Power to the People!
     ¶ (0) Tags: [Opinions/Politics]

3. WHEDONesque: Clips of Joss and Serenity cast at last month's WonderCon. Here's a link to the streaming video. Funny throughout, but Summer makes a scary face at the end. This is the first time I've seen the Serenity movie logo. Spoiler about Joss' foot fetish.

     ¶ (0) Tags: [TV/Movies]

4. Yahoo! News - Scalia Slams Juvenile Death Penalty Ruling:

   "If you think aficionados of a living Constitution want to bring you flexibility, think again," Scalia told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a Washington think tank. "You think the death penalty is a good idea? Persuade your fellow citizens to adopt it. You want a right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens and enact it. That's flexibility."
   
   "Why in the world would you have it interpreted by nine lawyers?" he said.

   Scalia said increased politics on the court will create a bitter nomination fight for the next Supreme Court appointee, since judges are now more concerned with promoting their personal policy preferences rather than interpreting the law.
   
   "If we're picking people to draw out of their own conscience and experience a 'new' Constitution, we should not look principally for good lawyers. We should look to people who agree with us," he said, explaining that's why senators increasingly probe nominees for their personal views on positions such as abortion.
   
   "When we are in that mode, you realize we have rendered the Constitution useless," Scalia said.

   Update: Full transcript available.

     ¶ (0) Tags: [Opinions/Politics]

5. James Taranto:

   Time magazine reports that Iraq-based Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been fantasizing about undertaking terrorist attacks inside the U.S., according to a captured "top aide" who's been singing. The most interesting detail:
   
   > Al-Zarqawi's aide also revealed that his boss, after pondering the absence of attacks in the U.S. in recent years, concluded that a lack of "willing martyrs" was to blame.
   
   So much for the old saw that the liberation of Iraq is a boon to al Qaeda recruitment.

   Via Lorie at PoliPundit.

     ¶ (0) Tags: [Opinions/Politics]