- Microsoft's Stock Option Pyramid Scheme: I haven't looked into this further, but if what he's saying is true, it's bad news for Microsoft. Similarly, it could spell bad news for much of the rest of the tech sector through ripple effects. The other question is What other companies do this?
- Why the DVD Hack Was a Cinch explains what mistakes were made. The XingDVD player didn't encrypt its key, and more importantly, the encryption algorithm was surprisingly weak. Admittedly, the keys are only 40 bits long (there's the US Government again), but with a decent algorithm, it would have at least been a little tougher.
- The government we didn't want is what we've got. Consistently, a majority of Americans vote for change, but nothing changes.
- Tampa Bay Online: Noisy Cruisers get unusual sentence. Ever hear one of those "Urban Assault Vehicles" go by with the thumping sub-woofer? This judge had enough of it.
- If you're really worried about things, The Y2K 'procrastinators checklist' offers some suggestions for how to get ready.
- ABC News: "Phone Companies Brace for New Year's Tie-ups": They're expecting call volumes 11 times that of a typical Mother's Day, and say not to pick up your phone to see if it works, since that'll just make things worse.
- Washington Post: FBI Warns Of Millennial Violence Risk from religious extremists, racists, cults and other groups. Apparently the FBI thinks these folks figure if the apocalypse isn't going to happen on its own, they're going to help it along a bit.
- Washington Post: Oregon Wages a Battle Over Access to Internet which should help determine the rules for cable-modems.
- Feed: NYTimes duped by Egg Auction story. I thought one of the responsibilities of a journalist was to check the facts before going public with a story.
- Integrity, honor, and doing the right thing -- not enough people are. The idea smacks of the in my day, we walked five miles to school, uphill both directions view of the past that it's easy to have, but the fact remains that reading this column made me smile.
- Slashdot: Uncle Robin's Advice for Lovelorn Geeks is pretty typical for an article with this title. The strange thing is that while there's a lot of advice out there, people just don't seem to pay attention.
- DaveNet: Dan Gillmor's Wee Blog! If you've been looking at Dave's Picks for any length of time, you'll know I read Dan pretty regularly, and refer to him a lot. I'm not sure if I'd rather have him working on a weblog or just cranking out articles, but I'll keep watching it to see what happens.
- Jim Bell Files document what's happened to the guy who wrote Assassination Politics. Now, I'm not advocating what he done, but he definitely had the right to say what he did. Of course, if he actually tried to put those ideas into practice, that would be A Bad Thing, and it sounds like that's the official reason he got thrown in jail. I find myself wondering what the truth is, though....
- My flight with the Blue Angels and On a Wing and a Prayer tell two very different stories
of flights in high-performance Navy aircraft (One in an F/A-18 Hornet, the other in an F-14 Tomcat).
(The Blue Angels are on the web, too). It was way cool. vs.
It was like being on the roller coaster at Six Flags Over Hell.
Either way, it sounds pretty cool. I wouldn't mind flying much at all if I could travel in one
of these babies instead of an A320 or DC-10.
A Postscript: Unfortunately, between the time I spotted these articles and getting the pointers online, a crash killed two of the aviators in the Blue Angels. What is gained is loss is written by the guy who flew with them.