Firefox 0.9.1RC Builds Available

Posted on June 28, 2004

That was fast — Ben Goodger has announced the availability of a release candidate for Firefox 0.9.1. Since 0.9 had a few bugs that didn’t get wrung out properly before release (like the DDE/registration error, which bit me), it’s good to see them turning out a point revision like this so quickly!

Public Opinion (Finally) Catching Up To Reality

Posted on June 24, 2004

According to a new Gallup poll out today, Most Americans now say that sending U.S. troops to Iraq was a mistake.

I’ve been saying that on this blog at least since September 2002! It breaks my heart that it’s taken hundreds of dead American soldiers (and who knows how many thousands of dead Iraqi soldiers and civilians) to clue in fifty percent of my fellow citizens…

And Now, For the Weirdness

Posted on June 22, 2004

So I’m on my way into the Metro station this morning when I notice that a gaggle of scruffy-looking people are out in front with bullhorns, shouting about something or other. It turns out that they were there in support of Lyndon LaRouche, perennial presidential candidate and serious nut bar.

Thankfully, they were handing out literature! I say “thankfully” because LaRouche literature is true high comedy — a kind of paranoid conspiracy tale in which the British secretly run the world, and leaders of all nations tremble at the mighty pronouncements of Lyndon LaRouche. It’s a hoot.

Plus, there’s valuable lessons to be learned — consider, for instance, the first headline from the pamphlet they were handing out today:

How ‘The Sexual Congress of Cultural Fascism’ Ruined the U.S.A. and Gave Us ‘Beast-Man’ Cheney

It’s brilliant! The Congress of what now? “Beast-Man” Cheney? It’s the most incoherent thing I’ve read in a long time. Kudos to LaRouche!

Their site is full of this kind of stuff. There’s even a 30-minute video titled “LaRouche Turns Tide of Democratic Primaries“. From April, people. APRIL!!! Long after Kerry had wrapped up the nomination. You have to admire that kind of brave willingness to completely disconnect from reality.

Thanks to the LaRouchies, I got to have a good giggle on my way to work this morning. Why can’t more crazy fringe groups follow their example and hand out literature at the Metro? I want more conspiracy theories with my coffee, dammit!

Finally, Some Good News In the War on Terror

Posted on June 20, 2004

There appears to have been a pretty significant victory in the battle against al Qaeda this weekend: Saudi security forces managed to kill four leaders of the “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” cell in a firefight Friday night, including the cell’s leader, Abdulaziz al Muqrin. al Muqrin was the terrorist credited with masterminding the kidnapping and beheading of Paul Johnson.

Now, typically leadership strikes like this aren’t terribly crippling for groups like al Qaeda cells, because their loosely-organized, market-like structure allows new leaders to fill the void relatively quickly. But al Muqrin appears to have been a special case, a charismatic leader with no local peers to step into his shoes:

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi intelligence and now the country’s ambassador to Britain, said security forces have eliminated four of five known al Qaeda cells in the country in the past year. He also expressed confidence that Muqrin’s group would be rounded up soon as well.
“Only one al Qaeda cell remains operational in Saudi Arabia,” Turki said in an interview this month with Jane’s Intelligence Review, a London-based publication. “Even now, it’s in the process of being dismantled.”
Nawaf Obaid, a security consultant to the Saudi government, said the al Qaeda branch would likely collapse if Muqrin is caught. “He’s been able to keep his group mostly intact, until recently,” he said. “If you catch him, the whole cell gets destroyed. He’s the only leader of his caliber left.”

So hopefully this could be a crippling blow to the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula cell.

Of course, not all leadership strikes are so successful — for proof, just look at Saturday’s Israeli-style effort by the U.S. to bump off al Qaeda leader Abu al Zarqawi by launching an air strike on an apartment building in Fallujah where he was thought to be holed up. The result: at least 18 dead Iraqi civilians, and no luck getting al Zarqawi (turns out he wasn’t in the building after all).

But even in the face of this terrible mistake, it’s heartening to see Johnson’s killer run to ground so quickly — especially given the stakes involved should Saudi Arabia slide into anarchy. If that ever happened, it would be an entirely new ball game — and one we would be playing at an even more substantial disadvantage.

Prime Minister Forever

Posted on June 20, 2004

The latest offering from Eighty Dimensional Software, the people who created the insanely addictive political game President Forever, has just been released — Prime Minister Forever moves the action to Canada, letting you lead the Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic, and Bloc Quebecois Parties as they fight to win a Parliamentary majority in this year’s elections.

This is a very clever direction to take the game in — Canadian politics might not sound interesting, but the elections up there are turning out to be quite the nail-biter as what was supposed to be an easy coast for current PM Paul Martin’s Liberal Party has instead turned into a desperate fight by the LP to avoid having their majority pulled away by a newly lively Conservative Party. This makes for good gameplay regardless of whether you play as the LP or the Tories (and I’ve even had fun playing the spoiler role as the New Democratic Party, picking off seats from the ailing Liberals to keep anyone from getting a majority).

And since Canada has a parliamentary system, the game has had some major modifications from its US-focused edition. Most significant of these is the new focus on fighting local elections. To be PM, you need to get your party to win a majority, so unlike American Presidential campaigns you’re not really running about yourself — you’re running to convince people to vote for your party’s local candidate. The developers have accommodated this by allowing you to pick a small batch of “ridings” (local elections) for special focus from all the individual contests being fought across Canada. Your party will then pour additional resources into these contests, increasing fundraising, recruitment of volunteers, and so forth. The question then becomes: which ridings will you concentrate on? Will you defend your incumbents, or try to identify strong challengers who can pick off seats from the other party? It’s a completely different dynamic from American presidential politics, and a fascinating one.

Best of all, Eighty Dimensional continues their tradition of great value for money by offering a free demo for download, and selling the full version of PM Forever for a very, very low price — $11.99. And if that’s not enough, purchasers of the registered version will receive free upgrades adding support for Australian and British elections to the game as these become available over the next few months. That’s a steal, folks. (And President Forever is still available for $12, if you haven’t bought that one already.)

Hostage Paul Johnson Beheaded

Posted on June 18, 2004

CNN is reporting that Paul Johnson, the American held hostage in Saudi Arabia by the group calling itself “al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula”, has been beheaded by his captors.

Fun With Spam: Did I Sleep Through My 9:55??? Edition

Posted on June 17, 2004

Another actual spam found while I was cleaning out my spam filter:

I include this one only as a shout-out for all four or so of my readers who will understand why it is so funny 🙂

Shipping Radioactive Material INTO Iraq?

Posted on June 16, 2004

John Robb caught two articles in the English-language editions of the Arab press reporting that a convoy of American trucks including one truck containing radioactive materials was stopped by Kuwaiti customs officials at the Iraq-Kuwait border. Apparently the convoy’s intent was to move the radioactive materials into Iraq, and they eventually got the authority to do so, over the protests of the Kuwaiti officials.

Here’s the links:

• Al Jazeera: U.S. truck carrying radioactive material caught in Kuwait
• Tehran Times: U.S. Trucks Carrying Radioactive Materials Intercepted In Iraq-Kuwait Border

(I can’t find anything in the American media about this yet… hey CNN, where’s that international presence you’re always telling us about?)

John speculates on the odds of an October WMD surprise. Heck, nothing would surprise me anymore from this crowd.

And Here Comes The New Thunderbird, Too

Posted on June 16, 2004

Hot on the heels of Firefox 0.9, today sees the release of Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7, Firefox’s excellent e-mail counterpart.

The Slow Death of the Windows API

Posted on June 16, 2004

Joel Spolsky has written an important document:

Joel on Software – How Microsoft Lost the API War

Microsoft’s crown strategic jewel, the Windows API, is lost. The cornerstone of Microsoft’s monopoly power and incredibly profitable Windows and Office franchises, which account for virtually all of Microsoft’s income and covers up a huge array of unprofitable or marginally profitable product lines, the Windows API is no longer of much interest to developers. The goose that lays the golden eggs is not quite dead, but it does have a terminal disease, one that nobody noticed yet.

It’s long, but you should read the whole thing. Joel is hardly anti-Microsoft, and he knows whereof he speaks when it comes to building apps for Windows, so when he says that MS’s strategy for developers is fundamentally borked, you should listen.

Look Who’s Digging “Fahrenheit 9/11”

Posted on June 15, 2004

Check out this rave review of Michael Moore’s new film, “Fahrenheit 9/11“:

[O]nce “F9/11” gets to audiences beyond screenings, it won’t be dependent on celebrities for approbation. It turns out to be a really brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.
As much as some might try to marginalize this film as a screed against President George Bush, “F9/11” — as we saw last night — is a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty — and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice…
Before anyone’s even seen it, there have been partisan debates over which way Moore may have spun this or that to get a desired effect.
But, really, in the end, not seeing “F9/11” would be like allowing your First Amendment rights to be abrogated, no matter whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat.

The surprising part is — guess where that review is from? Fox News! Maybe it’s a mea culpa for inflicting Bill “I Flunked Macroeconomics 101” O’Reilly on us.

… And It’s Here

Posted on June 15, 2004

Firefox 0.9 is officially out. Start downloading 🙂

An Early Tour of Firefox 0.9

Posted on June 15, 2004

Neil Turner has a great walkthrough of the soon-to-be released Firefox 0.9, with screenshots, up on his blog. It gives a really good view of how much polishing Ben and the rest of the Firefox team have done since 0.8 rolled out, and the screenshots are your chance to see the controversial new Winstripe theme (assuming you haven’t been downloading the nightly builds) before it hits.

The Doctor is In (Your Newspaper)

Posted on June 14, 2004

Speaking of Howard Dean, he’s just started a syndicated newspaper column.

“AP Interview: Howard Dean Looks Back”

Posted on June 11, 2004

It’s hard to read this long interview with Howard Dean, looking back on his own campaign, and not feel sad about what might have been.

One of Howard Dean’s most poignant memories of his presidential campaign is of a woman in a wheelchair who gave him $50 in quarters at a breakfast meeting in Iowa last summer. The money came from her federal supplemental income check.

“Even now I can hardly tell that story,” says Dean, his voice choking in a rare display of emotion.

“She said she had been saving the quarters for two years, when she could, for something that was really important – and this was really important to her.”…

“I am pretty overwhelmed,” he says and pauses as his eyes brim with tears.

“I don’t really feel I let them down, I must say, but I am pretty shocked by not just how supportive they were, but what they were willing to do.”

It was an amazing ride and Dean is the first to admit it. “Since the campaign ended I have just looked back and scratched my head and said, `What could you have been thinking of? You started out in a room over a chiropractor’s office and you thought you were going to be president of the United States?'”

Fun With Spam: I Laughed Out Loud Edition

Posted on June 10, 2004

Another actual spam found while I was cleaning out my spam filter:

I have to admit, this one made me laugh out loud. “Nowadays, he just flops it out at clubs/bars and gets all the ladies.” Oh yeah, I bet they just love it when he “just flops it out”!

Moran Wins Primary

Posted on June 9, 2004

Well, Jim Moran won yesterday’s Democratic primary in Virginia’s 8th District, earning 61% of the vote to challenger Andy Rosenberg’s 39%.

Too bad.

Firefox 0.9RC Out

Posted on June 9, 2004

Mozilla Firefox 0.9 Release Candidate just hit the street — it’s your chance to give feedback and help test all the stuff they’re planning on rolling into 0.9 before it becomes final (including the controversial new default theme for Win32 builds, Winstripe). Assuming everything goes well with the RC, they’re looking to release the final version of 0.9 next week.

Verified Voting — They Deserve Your Support

Posted on June 8, 2004

While I was at Planetwork last weekend, I met a lot of interesting people. One of them was David Dill, a computer science professor at Stanford University and an activist with Verified Voting, an organization that’s working nationwide to ensure that all votes are counted using secure, auditable systems. After talking with him for a while I came away pretty enthusiastic — if you’re as concerned about the e-voting crisis as I am, Verified Voting deserves your support. (Read the resolution they’ve adopted as their statement of purpose and you’ll see that they’ve thought this stuff through.)

If you’d like to get involved with Verified Voting, they’ve got several ways you can do so. One of the most interesting is the “adopt a Member of Congress” approach, where you and your friends go see your Congressperson personally, explain the dangers of poorly designed e-voting systems, and recommend alternatives. Verified Voting will help you prepare for your meeting with facts and publications, so you’re not going in unarmed. They’ve also got an e-activism program if you’d prefer to help from your PC, and they can accept your donations as well if giving money’s more your thing (your contribution is tax-deductible, too).

Verified Voting is doing important work on a critical subject. If you’re concerned at all about the future of our democracy, you should check them out.

WTF is This?

Posted on June 8, 2004

Can anyone tell me if this should creep me out? Because it kind of does.

My Weekend At Planetwork

Posted on June 7, 2004

I spent the weekend in San Francisco as a presenter at the Planetwork 2004 conference. If you’re into online organizing, netroots, etc., I’ll be writing up all the stuff I learned over on Ant’s Eye View over the next few days.

Moran Accused of (Another) Anti-Semitic Remark

Posted on June 4, 2004

A truly weird story is running in today’s Washington Post, in which political consultant Alan Secrest accuses incumbent Rep. Jim Moran (D), who’s fighting to win a primary battle to keep his seat, of making an anti-Semitic remark in a private campaign meeting. Moran has made at least one such remark in public before, which is one of the reasons why what should be a walk-away primary for him is proving so competitive.

Here’s the thing. I’m no fan of Jim Moran — he’s my Congressman, and I think he’s an embarassment to my district and to the Democratic Party. (The local GOP has a Web site, Morantics, that recaps all his gaffes and ethical issues, if you want the gory details.) I support his Democratic primary challenger, Andy Rosenberg, and I’ve done a little phone banking for Rosenberg over the last couple of weeks to help him out. (And this in spite of the fact that Moran has been endorsed by Howard Dean. Hey, everyone makes mistakes.)

But even I have trouble buying this story. There were four people in the room when Secrest alleges Moran made his remark — including former Howard Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi — and the Post article cites all of them as denying that Moran said any such thing. Moreover, Moran’s explanation — that what happened in the meeting was that he essentially fired Secrest from the campaign over differences of opinion in how to proceed, and that these charges are Secrest’s attempt to get revenge — aren’t implausible. The timing of the charges (the primary election is next Tuesday) certainly makes one wonder if Secrest wasn’t looking to hit Moran a fatal blow at the last moment before voters went to the polls.

Of course, Secrest could be telling the truth; it’s not like those other three people wouldn’t have reasons for lying about such a remark by Moran, if it did happen — they’re all working hard to get him re-elected. But when things like this happen I usually err on the side of assuming that nothing happened until I hear a convincing argument otherwise. And this Post story just isn’t that convincing.

Of course, even if he didn’t do this one thing, he’s done so many other things in the past that I still think it’s time for Jim Moran to go. The Democratic primary on June 8 is an open primary (you don’t have to be a Democrat to vote), so if you live in the 8th District (find out), take a few minutes and consider casting a ballot for Andy Rosenberg. It’d be nice to have a congressman who made headlines for the right reasons once in a while.

Why XM Doesn’t Carry NPR

Posted on June 1, 2004

Doc Searls has the answer today to a question I’ve wondered about for a long time — why Sirius Satellite Radio carries NPR, but XM doesn’t:

This morning, while going through old email, I found a response I had missed from a reader who had asked XM satellite radio the same question, one year earlier, and received a response that gave two reasons: 1) NPR is available pretty much everywhere in the U.S. on terrestrial radio; and 2) NPR doesnt let Sirius carry its “A-list” programs, like Fresh Air (weekdays), All Things Considered and Morning Edition. (It does provide Car Talk, Fresh Air Weekend, Tavis Smiley and various “B-list” programs.) The XM correspondent added that this was perhaps a bit misleading by Sirius.

And it is.

Makes sense to me.

Sony Withdrawing Clie PDA Line

Posted on June 1, 2004

Gizmodo reports that Sony are pulling their Clie PDAs from the US market. (Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg has provided an analysis of the move.)

Ouch. The Clies are the best PalmOS devices available, besides those from PalmOne itself. Gizmodo speculates that this has more to do with Sony than with PalmOS (they see it as a tactical move to clear the decks for the upcoming launch of the PlayStation Portable), but either way it’s a big loss for the PalmOS market.

Too True

Posted on May 28, 2004

Chris Bowers (at MyDD): You Don’t Know Shit About Iraq.

It’s about time that I sat down and told you this. I was hoping it wouldn’t have to be me, but someone needed to finally do it. For quite some time now, you have been going off about what we “need” to do in Iraq. You have been telling us “how things are going over there”, and making suggestions and proclamations about “what we need to do” based on what you seem to believe is a wealth of knowledge about the situation.

Well, I’m here to finally tell you what you what no one else seems willing to say: you don’t know shit about Iraq. In fact, you don’t even know how much shit there is about Iraq that you don’t know.