The Gilmore v. Gonzales is in, and I can’t say I’m happy with the results.

I also can’t say I’m surprised at the results.

You can follow the link to get all of the particulars, but in a nutshell I glean these things:

1. There are “secret laws” in the United States.
2. No, you can’t see them.
3. You are free to travel in the United States.
4. However, if you wish you use any kind of transportation you will be showing your ID.
5. But… you’re free to walk. So, if you are traveling from New York to Los Angeles make sure you’ve got some free time.

Now, the upside is that the ruling has proved that there is a way to not show your ID; you can “elect” to be heavily searched. That’s for airports; I wonder if that applies to bus & train stations.

I fully understand and appreciate the need to make sure any aircraft is safe. However, the surest way to do that is to be certain that no one brings anything onboard that allows the takeover or destruction of the vessel. Keep in mind that the killers on Sept 11th had valid IDs with them.

But, I’m most disturbed about the “secret law” aspect of this. Is this a slippery slope? If so, how far down are we on that slope?

Google Reader (intro) is an interesting and useful beast; it allows you to import OPML files (lists of XML feeds that you wish to monitor). Of course it is all AJAXy and uses Javascript.

It’s tied to your Google Mail (“gmail”) login, so you’ll need one of those. That used to be hard to do, but they give them away like candy now.

Normally I use NetNewsWire (sorry, Mac OS X only) for my feed list management, but sometimes I’m away from my laptop and this serves quite nicely. It’s also a free and easy way to see if a feed manager will work for you; it has a nice search feature that allows you to locate feeds that might be of interest to you.

... that I have put a link to Pam’s other weblog, “Write, Pam, Write!” in the weblogs section to the right.

I should thank Pamela for saving me from a high blood pressure event today.

I went to the post office (the US Post Office, for those of you not familiar, is a monopoly that carries the mail in the United States) and I was hoping for a minimum of wait and fuss in order to send two letters. Hah.

Normally you can just drop letters in the mailbox, but these two required special handling – I wanted them “Certified” (proof that I did mail them on a certain date and time) and “Return receipt requested” (the recipient has to sign for the package; proof of signature and delivery is then sent to me).

The line was all the way out the door to the post office.

There was one person at the counter. For every five people that went into the post office, one person came out.

As a result I discovered something today; I don’t think I could go back to college. I recall standing in line for the Bursar’s office at BSU for hours, hoping that I would get the class I wanted. Often you didn’t and you had to go to the back of the line and try again. There is no way I could do that now. I simply do not have the patience neccessary for that. I think I would start cursing on the spot, vowing to get their funding cut for being so inefficient. (Yes, I’m aware that would probably make the lines LONGER, but it would feel good. By the time I’m yelling while standing in line logic has long ago left the equation.)

So, my thanks to Pam for saving me from the frustration of the post office. Sometimes love isn’t a grand heroic gesture; at times it is simply doing some bit of drudgery because your loved one simply is too miserable to do it themselves.

Here is a small list of some of the computing resources that I’ve stumbled across; hopefully some of them are of use to you.

CSS Reference Sites | Cascading Style Sheets Standards and Reference

I want to – a page of utilities that help you do stuff you want to Web 2.0 applications

Hacking 101 (becoming good at UNIX systems)

24 ways to do Web 2.0 applications

MySQL Via PHP Cheat Sheet

1. AK-47
2. AR-15/M-16
3. Mosin-Nagant center fire rifle, 7.62×54mm

As the owner of 2 of the 3 weapons compared here (one of which must live in Nevada I’m sorry to say), I can speak to the truth of the following list:

1. It works though you have never cleaned it. Ever.
2. You have $9 per ounce special non-detergent oil for cleaning
3. It was last cleaned in Berlin in 1945

1. You are able to hit the broad side of a barn from inside
2. You are able to hit the broad side of a barn from 600m
3. You can hit the farm from two counties over

1. Cheap mags are fun to buy
2. Cheap mags melt
3. What’s a mag?

1. Your safety can be heard 300m away
2. You can flip off the safety with your finger on the trigger
3. What’s a safety?

1. Your rifle comes with a cheap nylon sling
2. Your rifle has a 9 point stealth tactical suspension system
3. Your rifle has dog collars

1. Your bayonet makes a good wire cutter
2. Your bayonet is actually a pretty good steak knife
3. Your bayonet is longer than your leg.

1. You can put a .30” hole through 12” of oak, if you can hit it
2. You can put one .22” hole in a paper target at 100m with 30 rounds
3. You can knock down everyone else’s target just from the shock wave of your bullet going downrange

1. When out of ammo, your rifle will nominally pass as a club
2. When out of ammo, your rifle makes a great whiffle bat
3. When out of ammo, your rifle makes a supreme war club, pike, boat oar, tent pole, or firewood.

1. Recoil is manageable, even fun
2. What’s recoil?
3. Recoil often used to relocate shoulders thrown out by the previous shot.

1. Your sight adjustment goes to 10, and you’ve never bothered moving it
2. Your sight adjustment is incremented in minute of angle
3. Your sight adjustment goes to 12 miles and you’ve actually tried it

1. Your rifle can be used by any two bit nation’s most illiterate conscripts to fight elite forces worldwide
2. Your rifle is used by elite forces worldwide to fight two bit nation’s most illiterate conscripts
3. Your rifle has fought against itself and won every time

1. Your rifle won some revolutions
2. Your rifle won the cold war
3. Your rifle won a pole vault event

1. You paid $350
2. You paid $900
3. You paid $59.95

1. You buy cheap ammo by the case
2. You lovingly reload precision crafted rounds one by one.
3. You dig your ammo out of a farmer’s field in Ukraine and it works just fine.

1. You can intimidate your foe with the bayonet mounted
2. Your foes laugh when you mount your bayonet
3. You can bayonet your foe on the other side of the river without leaving the comfort of your hole.

1. Service life, 50 years
2. Service life, 40 years
3. Service life, 100 years

1. Its easier to buy a new rifle when you want to change cartridge sizes
2. You can change cartridge sizes with the push of a couple of pins and an upper
3. You believe no real man would dare risk the ridicule of his friends if he suggests anything but 7.62×54r

1. You can repair your rifle with a big hammer and a swift kick
2. You can repair your rifle at a certified gunsmith, it’s under warranty!
3. If your rifle breaks, you buy a new one

1. You consider it a badge of honor when you set your handguards on fire
2. You consider it a badge of honor when you shoot a sub-MOA 5 shot group
3. You consider it a badge of honor when you cycle 5 rounds without the aid of a 2×4

1. After a long day at the range you relax by watching “Red Dawn”
2. After a long day at the range you relax by watching “Blackhawk Down”
3. After a long day at the range you relax by visiting the chiropractor

1. After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for a stiff shot of Vodka
2. After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for hotdogs and Apple Pie
3. After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for shish kabob

1. You can accessorize your rifle with a new muzzle brake or a nice stock set
2. Your rifle’s accessories are eight times more valuable than your rifle
3. Your rifle’s accessory is a small tin can with funny lids, but its buried under an apartment building somewhere in Budapest

1. Your rifle’s finish is varnish and paint
2. Your rifle’s finish is Teflon and high tech polymers
3. Your rifle’s finish is low grade shellac, cosmoline and Olga’s toe nail.

1. Your wife tolerates your autographed, framed picture of Mikhail Kalashnikov
2. Your wife tolerates your autographed, framed picture of Eugene Stoner
3. You’re not sure there WERE cameras to photograph Sergei Mosin

1. Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to hold your rifle over your head and shout “Wolverines!”
2. Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to clear your house, slicing the pie room to room.
3. Late at night, you sometimes have to fight the urge to dig a fighting trench in the yard.

(this list found at The Site That Must Not Be Named)

Update: Apparently there were cameras in the day of Sergei Mosin; he looks like a real party animal:

I’ll admit that I tend to pay more attention to this sort of thing than the average Joe, but I’m surprised when I run into those that are not aware of the coming play for control of the ‘net by the telco companies.

Witness the attempts by Verizon and BellSouth to create a two tiered internet – if they get extra money or it is their service then it gets priority treatment. This means, essentially, that the level playing field for the “better idea” will be dead; if you have more money, you can make your crap much faster even if it isn’t as good. And one wonders about the inverse – can I pay to have other services slow down?

SBC is also making the claim that Google (and others) are “parasites” on their broadband lines and that Google should pay for the bandwidth they are using. Mind you, I was always under the impression that my DSL fees paid for the bandwidth that I am using, but apparently I was wrong. Lucky for us Google refuses to pay for this extortion – and I suspect that Jeff Pulver is right in saying that BellSouth might come to regret this as Google is the one that actually has content people want.

You’re a dumb pipe, BellSouth. Be a dumb pipe.

For more background on this you can read the article by Doc Searls entitled Saving the Net. It details in a nice fashion the battle that is about to begin. While you’re at it you might want to consider joining the IOIC. I say “consider” as I have not fully investigated this group, so caveat emptor. However, on the surface they look good and they have some good people involved so I am encouraged.

1/1,000,000,000 of a second exposure of an atomic bomb detonation – found here.