Monthly Archives: February 2004

Wonkette Tries Out New Edwards Campaign Theme

Posted on February 18, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Not safe for (some) work: Wonkette has a very funny, but not very clean, suggestion for a new Edwards campaign slogan. I think this would have to be done via independent non-campaign expenditures….

Posted in Completely Different | Comments Off on Wonkette Tries Out New Edwards Campaign Theme

Super Tuesday Comes Early

Posted on February 18, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I love the idea of an Edwards-Kerry race, although the final results suggest it wasn't quite as close as some of the earlier partial results made it sound. Will everyone else drop out now, please?

Meanwhile, the Chandler result is even more exciting, because the defeated Republican, in a Republican seat, started out her campaign proclaiming she'd be a Bush robot. Then she got a bit scared and asked him not to come on down after all. The House Republican leadership came down instead and offered the district a bribe—serious pork if you elect the Republican, nada if you don't (this was a remarkably honest description of a national policy adopted in the last two years). And that failed too. Big time.

Given the advantages of incumbency and the way districts are drawn, it's hard to seriously believe the House will change hands in the next election, especially given the Texas redistricting. But I imagine that Bush will be visiting somewhat fewer Republican marginals.

Posted in Politics: US | Comments Off on Super Tuesday Comes Early

Mysteries of Google Dept.

Posted on February 17, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

In the past two days or so, more than a thousand people who have Googled for search strings including the words “Kerry” and “Fonda” got sent to an empty trackback page for NYT Falls for Hoax Kerry-Fonda Photo instead of to the article itself. I have no idea why. (If search string weirdness appeals to you, check out the Discourse.net Zeitgeist.)

Posted in Discourse.net | 3 Comments

10th Circuit Blesses ‘Do Not Call’ Program

Posted on February 17, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Longtime (in internet years) readers will recall my interest in the validity of the 'do-not-call' registry. The 10th Circuit, having vacated the lower court's injunction, has now issued its ruling on the merits, and it upholds the registry. A quick look suggests this case doesn't break new ground. It doesn't try to untangle the confused Supreme Court jurisprudence on content discrimination. Rather, it just says that what the government did here is reasonable (and more likely to be effective than the rule struck down in Hudson Valley, the newsracks case) and that the action is permitted by the statute.

Continue reading →

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law | Comments Off on 10th Circuit Blesses ‘Do Not Call’ Program

The Day the Print Server Died

Posted on February 17, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

For a long time the home network was fine. Then yesterday nothing would print. The problem seems to be the print server. I've proved that the printer cable from the print server to the printer works. The printer self-tests fine. I've tried two different cables from the Netgear PS111W print server to the Linksys BEFW11S4. The print server also has a wireless card in it (free if you mail in the coupon, but it took six months to turn up), so even if the cable were bad, it should work.

None of the computers on the network see the printer any more. After I reset the print server to the factory defaults, the administration software was able to tell it was there…sort of. Although it comes up as the sole item on the list of print servers when I do a survey, and I was even able to rename the print server from the default name to 'P2', the configuration software was initially unable to do any other sort of configuration, or even to read the settings. Yet the config settings are there: I can get the print server to print them out to the server.

In desperation, I read the manual and downloaded the binary file to re-flash the firmware. The manual does not list the error message I get from the administration software. But it does have instructions on how to configure the print server via FTP. I try that (I know the IP number because that's on the printout when you dump the config file). The print server will not respond to FTP—I get a 10060 (timeout) error. I can force my win98se computer to “find” the printer on the network if I give it the name, but I can't get it to install a new printer to that name (or take existing printers back online) because the printer installation system thinks the printer is not found or offline. I bet Linux users don't have these problems.

Having downloaded the firmware flash binary, I look for instructions on how to apply it. There are none in the manual, and none in any evident place on the support page .

Basically, the print server is not responding to tcp/ip requests. Maybe flashing the firmware would help, maybe it's hardware. I think it's just out of warranty, so it may be planned obsolescence. I've spent about three hours debugging this, and I didn't fix it. I've emailed my story to tech support, and if they don't have useful ideas, then I suppose I give up and buy a new print server.

I think I know a fair amount about computers, and usually feel proud that I can debug most of the domestic problems that come up on MS products, PC hardware issues, and the home network. But this experience makes me wonder: was this knowledge helpful here? If the right answer is, buy a new print server, a complete tech ignoramus could have reached that conclusion much more quickly….

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 3 Comments

Stories Like This Are Why the US Seems So Odd to Europeans

Posted on February 17, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Lost driver shuts down border: American takes wrong turn, hits Canadian border carrying hand grenade.

No, not just any border crossing — the Peace Arch Crossing.

Why, you might ask, was this lady carrying a hand grenade in her glove compartment? Is this the latest in fashion? Or is this what they carry in Houston these days for self-defense against carjackers?

Or is it just that anyone who could take a 400km wrong turn, following signs to Vancouver, B.C. instead of Vancouver, Washington is just a bit, well, nuts?

Shields said the woman's husband apparently is a member of the U.S. military posted at the army base at Fort Lewis, Wash., just south of Olympia, Wash.

RCMP were determining if the grenade was a dummy or contained explosives but said it was likely live.

The woman, originally from Houston, Tex., was turned over to Canadian immigration authorities.

“It's quite likely this woman did not know that the grenade was inside her vehicle and she is apparently quite shaken up by the whole ordeal, so charges are quite unlikely,” said Shields.

“Likely the woman will be returned back to the U.S.”

Lucky us.

Posted in Completely Different | 1 Comment