Belatedly for the Olympics
A Mini concert … Courtesy of one of those emails…
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Blogging, SWATing, and Brett Kimberlin
This is the text of the email that I sent to the office of Lamar Smith, who is my congressman. Any reply will be posted here. I am inquiring if you are aware of how conservative and libertarian bloggers have been maliciously pranked in the last few months by the practice of “SWATing”? (A bogus… More »
Building a Better Tomorrow
Tomorrow… Found, courtesy of a comment thread on PJ Media.
Killing History
It sounds like a perfectly impractical and even risible notion – to remove the Pyramids of Giza from the view of the righteous by covering them with wax. Good heavens, what would happen on the first hot day of summer, assuming such a thing could even be accomplished? A vast puddle of melted wax, I… More »
On the Internet No One Knows You Are a Dog
Yes, it would appear that the lesbians are actually straight men, the women are women, and the tween-agers are FBI agents, and a certain NY congressman with a slightly risible last name and a penchant for tweeting suggestive pictures of his body or parts thereof – is a bit of a perv. Honestly, I thought… More »
Downhill Racer
Or what they do for fun in South America … and look out for the dog! Never mind “Got Milk?” Got testicles of steel?
News Blogging, Linky-Love and Righthaven
I find three definitions of the term ‘barratry’ when I look it up – two of them are obscure, but the third is relevant, and if stretched a bit, can apply to the current blogosphere kerfuffle-du-jour – the Righthaven violation of copyright lawsuits. Well, that’s the politer term; a quick internet search on ‘righthaven’ also… More »
Continuing Interesting Stuff at the Milblogger Conference
Yes, it was a week ago last weekend, but I have several jobs, four books to market, two more to write . . . oh, and a tax bill to pay. So, forgive me for dishing out the good bloggy ice cream in small dishes, ‘kay? One of the unexpected highlights of the conference was… More »
So Who Invited Al Gore to San Antonio
The local weather forecast for Friday is predicting a better than 50% chance of snow. In San Antonio. You know, the cold white stuff. Well, no one around here know it… they know of it, since they still talk about the last time it seriously snowed here… Twenty years ago. Seriously, I’ve seen the natives… More »
On Being a Real Arthur
That expression became something of a family joke, as I came around, by easy steps, from being a teller of tall tales, an intermittent scribbler, an unrepentant essayist, a fairly dedicated blogger … to being – as my daughter put it – a real arthur. Yes, a “real arthur” in that I have a number… More »
They Always Do These Things on Friday
Received the following yesterday afternoon, while working away on a poetry book for Watercress Press: “As you know, last September Pajamas Media began a new initiative in Internet television called Pajamas TV. When we started with our RNC coverage from Minneapolis, we noted that we would be in a Beta Phase through the first quarter… More »
Lawmaking in Haste
…and repenting at leisure, or so it would appear with a new consumer product safety law, which will go into effect in about twenty days. Yes, indeedy, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, or HR 4040 which is supposed to take effect February 10th, was supposed to strike a mighty blow against the forces… More »
Air Force Aims to ‘Rewrite Laws of Cyberspace’
Via Drudge, The Wired Blog is Reporting: The Air Force is fed up with a seemingly endless barrage of attacks on its computer networks from stealthy adversaries whose motives and even locations are unclear. So now the service is looking to restore its advantage on the virtual battlefield by doing nothing less than the rewriting… More »
Just for Fun – 101 Uses for an Antique Tractor
(courtesy of Al Past, another IAG Member, and also cross-posted at the IAG Blog)
AF Cyber Command “Delayed”
According to the front page of the Air Force Cyber Command’s Website: 8/14/2008-Barksdale AFB, La. –The Air Force remains committed to providing full-spectrum cyber capabilities to include global command and control, electronic warfare and network defense. The Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force have considered delaying currently planned actions on Air Force… More »
The Lost DaVinci
Or is it just hidden? There’s some interesting stuff going on over in Italy, related to discovering artworks that have been painted over. Technology continues to amaze me (I’m easily amazed, but even so…). Seems that once upon a time, DaVinci began a mural – a battle scene. For centuries, common wisdom was that he’d… More »
Tomorrow is FireFox 3.0 Download Day
If you’re already a Firefox user, why not download it right away and help Firefox get that world record? If you’ve never used Firefox before, the worst that will happen is that you’ll kick yourself for never using it before. Disclaimer: I get absolutely nothing out of this but the satisfaction that comes from passing… More »
Big Brother IS Watching You
I would have you know that google-maps and mapquest and all those other lately-developed methods of scoping out and locating a specific address is a god-send, especially for someone making a living marketing books, or in some kind out outdoor sales, or even just scratching a living doing temp-jobs here and there. How easy is… More »
Wanna Help Set a World Record?
On June 17th, Tuesday, go to the Firefox Site and download Firefox 3.0. Go there now and pledge to download on Download Day. They’re looking to break the record for most downloads in a single day. It’s simply a better browser than Internet Explorer. I like Safari for the Mac, but Firefox just does what… More »
Adventures in Old Lamps
I cant remember exactly when I discovered that it was not actually very hard, to re-wire table lamps, and do things like replace plugs and swap out one-way sockets for three-way, so that an ordinary lamp could be transformed into a reading lamp. At a guess, I had watched Dad take stuff apart and put… More »
Confessions of a Wireless Customer Service Rep, 080514
One thing that makes cellular users crazy is the inability of their providers to turn off text messaging. While younger folks are texting at a rate that baffles most folks over 30, many older folks don’t want it, don’t need it and get upset to the point of stroke when they’re told that their service… More »
Confessions of a Wireless Customer Service Rep, 080513
Okay, so summer is right around the corner and if you’re shopping for new cell phones, now is the time to start looking for that new phone that you’ve had your eyes on for the past few months. Prices are coming down on a LOT of phones from all of the cell phone companies. But…wait…if… More »
Guest Post – Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Amazon.com
(Although the following appears with my name on it, ths is actually a guest-post by another IAG member, who did a lot of numbers-crunching and came up with some recommendations: Michael S. Katz is an attorney, editor-in-chief of Strider Nolan Publishing, board member of the Independent Authors Guild, and author of the comedy novel Shalom… More »
Round Two of the Great Amazon Imbroglio
Well, this is getting interesting last weekend the writing world or that portion of it that doesnt have a name which frequents the New York Times best-sellers list – was all agog over Amazon.coms fiat that all books sold through Amazon must be printed by its POD subsidiary, Booksurge. (Gruesome details here in… More »
Confessions of a Wireless Customer Service Rep, 080228
B Dubya asked a good question in a comment on an earlier post: Timmer! Serious question to an industry insider Why is it that cell coverage in the US is so spotty, when Europe and even Arabia are totally covered? What would it take to get the US system on a par with even the… More »
Rachel Lucas Was Wrong…But It’s Not Her Fault
First, go read this post. I’ll wait. I need a fresh lemonade anyway. Done? Cool. First of all let me say that for someone who doesn’t work in the telecom industry that it’s very easy to think badly of T-Mobile after reading that story. Hell, if I didn’t know what was really behind what happened… More »
Confessions of a Wireless Customer Service Rep, 080128
There are times when being a Customer Service Rep for Ginormous Worldwide Telecom is downright boring. Changing rate plans, selling phones, adding and subtracting features until it not only meets the customers’ needs but also their pocketbook. Those are pretty standard calls. We also have the folks who call up screaming their heads off because… More »