December 2005

• I probably won’t be Drinkin’ in the new year–and then some in Wisconsin. I wasn’t aware that bars there are open from 6am today until 2am Monday morning, and that’s been the case on New Year’s Eve for nearly twenty years. Might have tried that when I was younger if I’d known. [press-patch]
• A new Critical Flaw Detected in Windows Metafile images. And since they’re loaded up automagically when you view a page in your browser, if you’re running windows, you should pretty much stay off the interweb until a security patch is available. Or use this fix VoWe points out. [fark!]
• In the case of the woman arrested for having flour in condoms in her luggage, Dan asks, what about the 4th amendment? Good question. As the first commenter said, these searches can only be done to assure the safety of the plane, which doesn’t cover suspected drugs. [flutterby]
• Are Bush and Patriot Act repeating history? This letter to the editor compares Bush to Hitler. [endwar]
• I needed to write a little bit about today’s lunch to get it out of my system before the new year. Best to let that sort of thing go as quickly as possible.

Weather in Minneapolis for December 31, 2005     December 31 in History

• Looking at 2005, it’s time to think about wrapping it up.
• If you think the NSA’s spying on Americans is new, Bruce Schneier will tell you about Project Shamrock. It’s not the spying. It’s the illegality. [schneier]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 30, 2005     December 30 in History

Weather in Minneapolis for December 29, 2005     December 29 in History

• Is E-tracking coming to a DMV near you? Some seem to think so. I’m thinking that if the proposals to put trackers in every car, bill by usage, and disable the vehicle if the tracker is shut off ever come into play, I won’t be the only one trying to tuck a brilliant red barchetta away at my uncle’s farm, if only to go for A Nice Morning Drive every once in a while. [endwar]
• Hmm. I’m pretty sure the web applications I’ve written are secure against SQL Injection Attacks like these, but I’m not positive. Guess that’s another thing to add to the to-do list. [holy schmoly]
• Here’s an analysis of Blogging styles and traffic stats that I didn’t link to until I had time to read it more carefully. Looking at it, I suspect the category that fits me most closely is the “long-tail blogger”. I don’t play the trackback game, or indulge in carnivals. I have a small, but respectable readership (5k page-views per day), and it was interesting to read this article and think about things a little. I noticed, for example, that the ratio is now 3-1 for the RSS feed over people looking at the front page. I need to keep that in mind as I transition the blogging software. I also noticed someone using one of my images in a post on myspace, so I changed it to point to this one instead, which changes the meaning of their post completely. And it saves about 40k of bandwidth for each of the roughly 500 times that image is getting loaded each day. [instapundit]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 27, 2005     December 27 in History

• No real surprise here: NY Attorney General Threatens Op-Ed Writer. Give the cops (and AGs) more power, and at least a few of them are going to abuse it. That’s the problem with government power, especially since once given, it can never be taken back without resorting to revolution. [police state]
• Speaking government not relinquishing power, Senate Passes Patriot Act Extension. Only for six-months, but they did it on a voice-vote late on Wednesday, perhaps hoping nobody would notice. [fark!]
• How about all the people who pick a Political Party as Fashion Statement? Warren points out many of the inconsistancies I’m sometimes too polite to mention. [coyote blog]
• The student who ordered Mao’s Little Red Book and reported Federal agents’ visit was a hoax, as many suspected. [tcf]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 24, 2005     December 24 in History

Weather in Minneapolis for December 22, 2005     December 22 in History

• D’Ohh! I completely forgot that Serenity came out yesterday. Might be part of a shopping trip today when I need to go out for stamps for the Christmas cards that still haven’t gone out.
• I also almost forgot about the Kari Tauring Yuletide 2005 Celebration tomorrow evening. Thanks to How Was The Show for reminding me.
• Not getting enough saccharine in your life? Go get your Cute Overload! [shelley]
• A Ramsey County District Judge throws out cigarette fee, saying it violates terms of a multibillion-dollar court settlement the state and three tobacco companies struck in 1998. The Pawlenty administration is appealing the decision, and the price of cigarettes won’t be changing anytime soon. [press-patch]
• Claire recommends getting BUSTED: The Citizen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encounters and watching it regularly. [claire]
• Schneier has columns on the NSA and Bush’s Illegal Eavesdropping, and a followup on The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power. Both are long, and both are worth reading, especially if you think, like some do, that everything’s hunky-dory with having the NSA spy on us. [schneier]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 21, 2005     December 21 in History

• Homeland Security Agents’ visit chills UMass Dartmouth senior who was just trying to get a copy of Mao’s Little Red Book for class. Thoughtcrime! But over at Boing Boing, there’s a debate going on whether this is a hoax or not. Update: It’s a hoax. [jwz]
• In Today In Treason News, jwz takes a look at recent behavior of President Bush (authorizing the NSA to spy on Americans), decides it’s probably an impeachable offense, and then ponders whether we’d be better off keeping him. Sounds like time for a quote: Hanging one scoundrel, it appears, does not deter the next. Well, what of it? The first one is at least disposed of.–H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) [jwz]
• They lobbied very hard until Cogress gave them exactly what they wanted, but now the new Bankruptcy law backfires on credit card issuers. The word “Schadenfreude” comes to mind. [fark!]
• A UCLA Political Scientist Finds Media Bias Is Real. Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left. That’s about what I’ve figured for a while. Yes, they’re biased, but a lot less so than many Congress-Critters. [instapundit]
• As I figured it would, the Tide shifts in meth fight. See the state passed a law banning meth (and making cold medicine harder to get), but Does that mean we are dealing with less methamphetamine? No, the methamphetamine is up. And even while they’re declaring victory, they’re talking about passing more laws, which I’m sure will help even more. [press-patch]
• An encouraging note: Democrats recast gun control image. It’ll be nice if they really mean it, but I’m gonna wait a bit before breaking out the champagne. [claire]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 20, 2005     December 20 in History

• Wish this had been around a couple years back: GramoFile automates recording LPs to separate ready-to-burn tracks, removing clicks and pops as it goes. [flutterby]
• The story of InSoc vs. TV is pretty interesting. I figured the producers of reality TV shows were scummy, but this gives you a good idea of the special sort of scum they are. [jwz]
• David Dodd has spent A [long] strange trip, annotating Grateful Dead lyrics. Ten years, but he finished the book and has published it. His website has more, and the book has even more. [fark!]
• How very odd. The Fender® Hello Kitty® guitar comes in pink or black. The Badtz-Maru bass in just black. This literally made me scratch my head wondering wtf Fender is thinking, and then pondering whether it might be a good idea. [steveo]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 19, 2005     December 19 in History

• Pajamas Media has the Senate Roll Call to end filibuster against Patriot Act reauthorization. 52-47 for ending the filibuster, which wasn’t the sixty votes needed to end it. Minnesota’s senators split along party lines, as I expected. And the vote won’t change my support (or lack thereof) for either. Dayton voted for the Patriot Act before he voted against it, and I haven’t especially liked Norm Coleman since I met him when he was running (as a big-government democrat, before he “switched” to being a big-government republican) for Mayor of St. Paul and couldn’t shut up and watch the Saints game, choosing instead to gab through the first few innings and then leave early, as though he was a Dodgers fan. A pox on both their houses. [instapundit]
• And a pox on Hugh Hewitt and Orin Kerr, too. There’s more than just 3% of USA PATRIOT that’s offensive. Nearly the whole damned thing is, whether you look at it as actual legislation or a symbol of the Bush Administration and the War on Terror. Doesn’t matter. It’s bad and wrong, and of the 10% that I might concede is Constitutional, maybe 3% is worthwhile, but I’d be prefectly happy throwing out this misbegotten baby with the murky Potomac bathwater. [instapundit]
• And the ACLU Opposes Patriot Act Provision that gives the Secret Service (who are fast morphing into a more sinister SS) power to charge protesters. Doesn’t it say somewhere that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances? Sounds to me like Congress is trying to prevent prople from peaceably assembling and petitioning the Government for a redress of grievances, and I find myself wondering who voted for these treasonous bastards (okay, that’s probably over the line — I’m sure at least one or two of them know who their fathers are). [police state]
• But then I don’t find someone saying that Martial Law Is Already Here surprising. I thought Article IV of the Constitution guaranteed a freedom of movement, and the Fourth Amendment prohibited unreasonable searches, so obviously I’m completely confused. [police state]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 17, 2005     December 17 in History

• Claire’s Christmas (and other holiday) message is O Little Town of Hardyville. Nice writing. [claire]
• Last night I put together the recipe for the Jambalaya I’m serving at the company pot-luck today. I’ll tell you how it came out later.
• How many of these ten Outrageous Firsts in Television History did you see live? Only a couple for me. [WVSR]
• Can’t remember the words to your favorite Cthulhu Carols? That’s okay. The lyrics are online. [fark!]
• Here’s how to Make Your Own Copy-Protected CD with Passive Protection. Unlike Sony’s active protection, this is just annoying, not damaging. Just yesterday a friend on a mailing list made a comment about malware-laden CDs that prompted me to respond Is that like going to a prostitute? You’re paying to get screwed, and maybe catch something icky? I’m kind of proud of that one. So anyway, I guess it’s a good thing the feds are now fighting a War on Prostitution, right? When do they go after Sony? [boing boing and claire]
• Oh, and don’t forget that tomorrow is the MOB (Minnesota Organization of Bloggers) thing at Keegan’s. Don’t know if I’ll make it or not, since there are a lot of other things to do tomorrow, but I’m gonna try. [mitch]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 16, 2005     December 16 in History

• Stephen Green has A Short Rant on the war on meth. He’s pissed because they’ve ruined Nyquil, too. And while Minnesota’s law may have shut down meth manufacturing here, that just means more is coming in from Mexico. Another example of government intervention costing Americans good-paying jobs and moving those jobs to a country where labor is cheaper and the laws laxer. Or am I confusing the point? [vodkapundit]
• Is it paranoid to ask Is the Pentagon spying on Americans? Apparently not so much if you’re a Quaker. You know they’re such threats to society that they simply must be watched. What’s next? Blackmailing the Amish? Oh wait. That’s happened, too. [boing boing and flutterby]
• Because the Susan B. and Sacajawea dollars were so popular, the US Mint has decided New dollar coins to feature dead presidents might spur people into using dollar coins. [fark!]
• Here’s a story saying Females have advanced sexual software superior to males basic version. No idea of the source of that one, but maybe it explains why women are arounsed by animal sex, but men only by human-on-human action. [fark! and kottke]
• Looking for some campus humor? Or just a very cool web-design? The Minnesota Daily Finals Edition is out. And the presentation is something special this year. Very disturbing, but cool web design. Check it out before they get the take-down order. [daily]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 15, 2005     December 15 in History

Weather in Minneapolis for December 14, 2005     December 14 in History

• Asking the imoportant questions, Engadget wonders Is it “iPod shuffles” or “iPods shuffle”? Good question. [kottke]
• Over in St. Paul, Bars may fight more limits on smoking, saying that if the ban is expanded, they’re preparing to launch a referendum on the issue. And the Hennepin County Board voted today to amend the smoking ban so places that sell more booze than food can allow smoking. No help in Minneapolis, but there’s a bar in St. Anthony going up where the Stone House used to be… [press-patch]
• Here’s a list of Surprising Expiration Dates Dan pointed to. I am surprised. Mostly by how short many of them are. Bar of soap, only three years? Heck, I still have some of mom’s Avon samples that I’m pretty sure I got from her in the 80s. They still lather up just fine, and the scents I didn’t like have mostly gone away. For white rice, they say it’s only good for two years. Pshaw. Still cooks up fine after more than five. [flutterby]
• Bob Barr Says Totalitarian Regime a Danger if USA-PATRIOT is renewed. He’s been wrong about plenty of things, but I sure do like his views in this case. [police state]
• And finally, there’s more updates in the Cory Maye case. Check ’em out over at The Agitator, where among other things, Balko has a good summary, and quotes Churchill (One of the most important signs of the existence of a democracy is that when there is a knock at the door at 5 in the morning, one is completely certain that it is the milkman.) and Strummer and Jones. I like both of the quotations.

Weather in Minneapolis for December 13, 2005     December 13 in History

• Claire takes a look at the latest uses of the Social Security Number (not to be used for identification, it said on my card), and points out that this is How A Resistance Movement Grows. She doesn’t give very good odds for any resistance actually improving things, though. Sigh. [claire]
• In the Cory Maye case, Balko has More from Prosecutor Buddy McDonald, description and some comments On Announcement of warrants like the one served on Maye, and The Search Warrants. Maye is never listed, but is there was a warrant for persons unknown at his part of the duplex.
• Meanwhile, Glenn says Haley Barbour, call your office. [instapundit]
• And Kim says Don’t Bother to Knock and proposes some penalties for police who abuse their powers with no-knock raids.
• Researchers are Fighting Beer’s Fouler Flavors and continuing to tease out the chemistry behind unpleasant flavors. Recent work has provided more details about light-induced flavor and revealed an additional age-related flavor. Such work may someday lead to a brew that’s more chemically stable and thus has a stabler flavor, too. [boing boing]

• In an experiment this morning, I wrote a quick essay on why I don’t especially like Living in a Valley and how it cuts into the precious hours of daylight. I’ve been playing with TextPattern a bit, but this is the first article published using it. And it’s got comments. Check it out.

Weather in Minneapolis for December 12, 2005     December 12 in History

• Update: Cory Maye’s Prosecutor Responds, saying Balko didn’t have all the facts in the case. Well, he’s digging into the records, and we’ll see what happens. He also has some follow-up Questions for Prosecutor McDonald, Prosecutor McDonald’s Answers to My Questions, some comments on Maye’s Representation and some observations on Maye, Self-Defense, and Paramilitary Drug Raids. One thing that’s abundantly clear is that the police will not be sanctioned for taking part in one of these high-risk raids, and are granted every bit of leeway possible, while the homeowner who’s raided is supposed to remain calm through the disorienting explosions of flash-bang grenades, the screaming of ninja-clad maniacs storming into his castle, and somehow discern that these are police officers and not some barbarian horde. [instapundit]
• There’s also an update on John Gilmore’s Appeals Court hearing on airline ID requirement. The good news is that the judges seemed inclined to rule on this case (probably in couple months). But

  The bad news is that it seems that the judges just don’t get it on two points that are key to the case: First, the judges seemed to have no recognition of air travel or travel in general as an act of assembly, an activity protected under the First Amendment, or a right protected by Federal law… Second, none of the judges seemed to recognize the distinction between ‘asking for ID’ and ‘requiring the showing of ID’

  And a bit I wasn’t aware of:

  The issue in this case is specifically about the legality of the search embodied in the demand for tangible evidence of identity, and the lack of due process embodied in the secrecy of the ‘rule’ requiring production of ID credentials (whose existence, even today, government counsel would ‘neither confirm nor deny’) and the lack of any publicly-disclosed criteria as to what evidence of identity is sufficient, or how its sufficiency is to be determined.

  So Gilmore v. Gonzales actually turns on an illegal search, rather than any sort of privacy right. I did not know that, and I think it makes Gilmore’s case stronger than I had thought before. Cool. [kirsten]
• Dan has a fine Windows rant. At my new job, I find myself using Windows on a daily basis, and it’s not much fun. Not as many problems as Dan sees, but I’d much rather I didn’t have to deal with Windows. [flutterby]
• Growing demand for biodiesel, fostered in part by misguided people who think it helps the environment, and in part by government policies in the EU is encouraging the most destructive crop on earth. [flutterby]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 11, 2005     December 11 in History

• Heard of Cory Maye? Neither had I. Maye is a black man in Mississippi, who was sleeping soundly in his half of a duplex when the police served a no-knock warrant on the next-door neighbor. When the police chief’s son bashed in Maye’s door and charged in, Maye shot and killed him. In spite of no criminal record, and a pretty damned good excuse for fearing for his life, Maye was convicted of murder by a white jury and is sitting on death row. Maye’s name was nowhere on the original warrant, and the police pretty obviously screwed the pooch on this one. There’s more information, including excerpts from the Mississippi State Constitution. Maye’s lawyers seem to have pretty well botched their case, too. It just gets more and more depressing the more I read about it. Welcome to Police State USA. [instapundit]
• Meanwhile, even though Congress is not in Washington, and we should be safe from new, bad laws for a little while, apparently a deal has been reached to extend Patriot Act. Ugh. [kirsten]
• But it’s not all bad news. Deborah Davis goes free: No Charges For Woman Refusing To Show ID To Feds. Woot! The rally this morning will go on as planned. Meanwhile, the hearing in Gilmore v. Gonzales was yesterday. No news yet, and it’ll probably be a while before there is. [endwar]
• And an outspoken Palestinian activist, Ex-Professor Acquitted in Patriot Act Test Case. It’s a setback for the government, who failed to actually prove that he did anytying to support terrorism. [claire]
• In Saints news, long-time second baseman Justin Hall retires. He’ll be missed.
• Hey, here’s a good theory. The Other I.D., where the I stands for incompetent. [kottke]
• Finally, today’s Day By Day has me in lust with a cartoon woman. But she bought her guy an assault rifle for Christmas! How cool is that?

Weather in Minneapolis for December 9, 2005     December 9 in History

• Forbes offers the top Ten reasons to drink during the holidays. Works for me! [fark!]
• In the continuing saga of Sony screwing customers: MediaMax Bug Found; Patch Issued; Patch Suffers from Same Bug. So not only can you not really uninstall their rootkit, the uninstaller actually makes things worse. [boing boing]
• Dan says trackback is dead. Huh. Never even implemented it here in the first case. Is this one of those cases where being behind the curve has put me ahead of the game? [flutterby]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 8, 2005     December 8 in History

• Ooh! Just in time for Christmas, you can Target your co-workers with USB air darts. Under $40 before shipping. Cool toy! [some guy]
• Here’s another one of those lists. But MAKE’s Mostly Under $100 Gift Guide for 2005 has a couple things I’d like to get, especially the High-speed flash photography kit. [instapundit]
• Hey. Sony finally got around to releasing a rootkit uninstaller. Still won’t buy any music from them, but… [boing boing]
• VoWe says Nikon is calling back more EN-EL3 batteries and has the numbers so you don’t have to wade through the gunk on Nikon’s site. [vowe]
• Claire starts by looking at the Montgomery bus boycott, and wonders if she’s going to give in to the ID goons so she can ride in humiliation or start walking in dignity. Interesting question. This is one of the reasons that Gilmore v. Gonzales is important. [claire]
• Had lunch today at Cheng Hang Restaurant 448 University Ave Saint Paul. They’ve got curry chicken that’s nearly identical to what used to be served at the Bayon, except it’s got mushrooms instead of potatoes. Yummarific! And the mid-afternoon curry burps were just as exciting as ever. They also have cheesy foofoos, but I didn’t think to order them. D’Ohh!

Weather in Minneapolis for December 6, 2005     December 6 in History

• The Grateful Dead Resurrect Free Downloads after taped live shows were yoinked from archive.org last week. Apparently Bobby and the drummers were behind the takedown. Initially I’d heard it was one of Jerry’s wives. Either way, the band is once again officially okay with having fan-taped music online. So there it is, then. [fark!]
• The Boston Red Sox are suing Doug Mientkiewicz over the ownership rights to the baseball he caught to end the 2004 world series. Sheesh. Yeah, I know the ball’s worth a lot, but that just makes me shake my head over the amount of money some fans have to throw around. Stick the thing in the Hall of Fame and be done with it. [scottk]
• Remember Gator? The spyware company that everyone hated a few years back? They’re now Claria, and Don’t Call It Spyware or they’ll sue you. Now they’re hawking adware and making a on of money at it. Sunday’s UserFriendly has a pretty good summary. [fark!]
• Way back on Tuesday last week, I stopped by Lightworks to pick up my now-repaired lamps. Turns out one of ’em is a Miller Library Lamp, and might actually be worth the money I’m putting into it. Or more. That’s kinda cool. Saturday, I picked up the new glass for the shade, and very soon the third shop involved should be done repairing the metalwork of the shade, and I’ll be able to actually set it up.
• The Pulse has a longish article on Chris Shillock: An Anarchist in Action. Pretty good profile of Tim’s pop. Chris’ website is shillock.com.
• Davezilla has a handy tutorial on How to photograph a cat. I know a couple folks who might find it useful. Or you can just take the Cats in Sinks approach. [davezilla and papascott]
• USA Today says the Dating game changes after 40: women over 40 aren’t necessarily secure in the dating realm and might not even be sure what they want. I find it interesting that women not being sure what they want is news. [fark!]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 5, 2005     December 5 in History

• A Ruling limits police searches of cars. Last Thursday’s decision says that if you’re pulled over, and a cop smells alcohol on the breath of someone in the car, that’s not cause for a search of the vehicle. So basically, it’s safe to try and be a designated driver again. [press-patch]
• I’m not the only one pissed about sudafed bans. John Varley’s got a good rant about the whole war on drugs. [jwz]
• Dean Barkley is in Search for a sequel in Texas, where he’s working on Kinky Friedman’s 2006 campaign for governor. Interesting politics down there this year, perhaps. [press-patch]
• This Thursday, there will finally be a hearing in the Gilmore v. Gonzales case. At stake is nothing less than the right for all Americans to travel freely in their own country without ‘papers’. [boing boing]
• Vin asks If a black man is armed, is he a criminal? in the wake of several shootings of off-duty black police officers by fellow officers. …the problem is not that Providence cops had trouble recognizing an off-duty fellow officer. The problem is that their first instinct when they saw a black man with a gun who was not obviously a police officer, was to shoot him. [endwar]
• A Federal Judge OKs bag searches on NYC subway, saying the imposition is minimal. But the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits searches without probable cause. It doesn’t say anything about how much of an imposition the searches are. It prohibits them. Seems to me that U.S. District Judge Richard Berman committed an impeachable offense. [police state]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 4, 2005     December 4 in History

Excellent Birds

3008x2000(458k)

640x425(19k)

Yesterday (thursday) morning on the way to work, I saw a nice photo opportunity from Tony Schmidt Park, on Lake Johanna, so I stopped at the parking lot, trudged through the snow, and you see the result there to the right. I’m reasonably happy with it, though it too a few tries to get the exposure right (this was the best of seven attempts).

It was a pretty good day, too. One of the things I like about having a job out of the house is the fact that I now have a reason to get out around (or before) sunrise. It’s one of my favorite times of the day, even when I have to shovel snow, like I have too many times this week.

On the other hand, heading to work before sunrise, then working a full day (plus a bit to make up for leaving early on Tuesday), driving in the dark to go shopping for an air-cleaner for mom’s bedroom, eating dinner, and then writing this used up pretty much all of my Thursday. It would have been nice to have a little time to watch TV or read a book or just relax. I’m starting to think I might want to switch back to the monday and friday blogging schedule I kept last time I had a job away from home.

• Sometimes Warren gets on a roll. His newest: Statism Not So Fun When You Aren’t In Control. He continues to point out that a bigger government that regulates more may be pretty spiffy while it’s regulating things your way but when the other side takes control, it’s a lot less fun. Remember that any government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away. [coyote blog]
• Did you know Congress Nixed Costly Terror Training of a whole new crop of federal Air Marshalls? I didn’t. But hey, it makes me feel much safer! Oh wait. Is that what they intended? [instapundit]
• Jim tells me that there’s unionizing going on in some Starbucks Organizing Campaigns. Yeah, it’s mostly in faraway lands so far, and they are a pretty shitty coffee chain, but it’s interesting that the workers are actually gaining some traction. [jim]
• Glenn wonders if there’s a DVD Second Season for Firefly in the works. Hey Joss, I’d drop $40 to buy a set of DVDs of a second season. [instapundit]
• Some in the media are talking about The Danger of Wikipedia, when people are allowed to post anything they want anonymously. I just wonder why the guy who was libelled didn’t create an account and fix the page himself. That’s how wikipedia works, dumbass. [fark!]
• This Microsoft Security Advisory basically says that if you’re using IE on Windows, you shouldn’t click any links. Useful! [vowe]
• Do you ever worry about Google’s Empire, Privacy, and Government Access to Personal Data? You know, google keeps track of all the searches that are made. And if you’ve got a static IP address, or a google cookie, they know who you are and can link those searches to you. [schneier]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 2, 2005     December 2 in History

• A Wisconsin law stops holiday deals . Remember this story whenever some legislator talks about enacting a new law to prevent “anti-competitive pricing”. And also note that it goes both ways. Here in MN, gas stations aren’t allowed to sell gas for less than eight cents (IIRC) per-gallon more than they paid for it. [some guy]
• My friend Eric has a collection of Silly Road Signs that you can buy on postcards or mouse-pads. Neat pictures. Of course I wish he had more of them, but I’m kind of a dick that way. [some guy]
• Wow. The FCC does about-face on à la carte cable, and maybe now the cable companies (and DirecTV and Dish network?) will let me get just the channels I want. Hell, I’d pay an extra $5/month just so I wouldn’t have to skip past the 23 shopping networks that come as part of the package they’re thrusting upon me. [jr]
• I’m not hip to the whole podcasting thing (since it would require connecting my iPod to the computer on a regular basis which seems to require more organization than I can usually muster), but Reed says: Trucker Tom’s Podcast is a strangely appealing audio diary of an over-the-road trucker, produced while driving in the cab of his 2003 Freightliner. Tom will talk on tech with a depth that may surprise you, but the best parts are when he relates his experiences on the road. Be warned that he’ll occasionally ramble. Sounds like it might be worth checking out if you’re into that sort of thing. [reed]
• I don’t know how new it is, but I wish I’d known about roadtrips.com back when I was trying to take a fall vacation. They put together weekend packages to visit sporting events, and seem to have pretty darned good packages for NASCAR races. Maybe next spring… [press-patch]

Weather in Minneapolis for December 1, 2005     December 1 in History