Monthly Archives: April 2004

More on Digital Public Goods

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

In a comment to an item below, John Quiggen gently and correctly points out that the insight for which I credited Brad is at least as much his:

If the Internet continues to grow in economic importance, the central role of public goods in its formation will pose big problems for capitalism, though not necessarily to the benefit of traditional forms of socialism.

What's more, he's already working on an article about it. So that's one less project I have to worry about — I can wait for him. The provision of public goods is already one of the major challenges for modern society, one that the US at least responds to fairly badly (see, e.g. the lack public transport in Miami and the really clogged roads) and it's really interesting to speculate about what we should do if the increase in importance of digitized information and tools to play with it makes this problem worse.

Brad and I have written one article which cataloged some of the issues, but it doesn't offer very much in the way of solutions. Much remains to be done here.

Posted in Econ & Money | 1 Comment

Apache Was Resting

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The site was down for several hours this evening as the apache server decided to go on strike. Dreamhost Support reports it “had a bad user” and fixed it. I hope that's not a moral judgement.

Meanwhile I had a tour through my http logs, always a fun way to spend time, and noticed many entries of the form

junk after document element at line 2, column 0

I have no idea what that means.

Plus I found substantial evidence that a machine hosted at Brown has been trying to hack in here. And failing. But I sent a note with a log extract to the tech contact for the IP number on the off chance it might do some good.

Posted in Discourse.net | Comments Off on Apache Was Resting

There’s an Article Here

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

In an otherwise normal science look at Valuing Google, Brad writes a sentence that deserves an article:

Social value is drifting away from potential profitability, and this threatens to become a huge problem in our collective social resource allocation mechanisms.

Hey Brad, maybe that should be our next collaborative project (after the one I already suggested we do this summer…)? I have ideas floating around about how you organize efficient state ownership of (some) things.

Posted in Econ & Money | 1 Comment

Florida Has A Cement Shortage

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

First we put half our stuff in storage. Then we moved into the front half of the house, about the size of a NY two-bedroom apartment, putting the kids into a bunk bed. The idea was to start the project in the fall, and finish by about, well, May or June. Then we had permit delays. Then, finally, in January we knocked down the empty half of our house — including a piece of the kitchen — so we could rebuild it better and bigger. Then they started to build, poured a foundation, built some walls, and almost a month ago got ready to pour the beam and install the trusses.

But wait! We failed inspection! The city of Coral Gables has tougher requirements than the County and even though these were noted on the plans, the engineer just did the routine calculations. Three week delay to recalculate, get twice as many trusses, re-inspect. Ok, that takes us to last week. Good to go to pour some beams, right?

Oops. Seems there's a cement shortage. As the contractor tells it, there were three local plants that supplied about 60% of south Florida's needs with the rest coming from abroad. Most of the imported stuff is being diverted to other places, like China, that are willing to pay higher prices than Florida (!). And all three of the local plants are having mechanical problems. The biggest plant has problems so severe that the owners have decided not to repair it, but just to wait for the new plant to come on stream in about a month.

So after a few days extra delay we managed to get a truck to come and bring some of this precious commodity, and we poured yesterday. Except we ran out.

Question: Is it more reasonable to imagine we'll finish in August (contractor's current estimate), December (my guess), or some time after next March….

Posted in Adventures in Remodeling, Florida | 6 Comments

Chilling Effect (Chill Them Young Dept.)

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

One of the marks of a free country is that you can criticize the Maximum Leader without fear of investigations or reprisals.

Not in Seattle Prosser, Washington State, USA, where a boy was Investigated by the Secret Service, then disciplined by his School, for drawing Bush as the devil in an art class assignment on the Iraq war.

Art students at Prosser High School were told to keep a notebook of drawings depicting the war in Iraq.

One 15-year-old turned in a sketch showing President Bush, dressed as a devil, launching a missile.

Another of his drawings was of a Middle Eastern-looking guy holding a rifle in one hand, while in the other hand was a pole with an oversized head of President Bush stuck on it.

The art teacher found the drawings troubling.

Maybe it was the caption that said: “End the War.”

Anyway, the drawings were turned over to school administrators.

School administrators took a look and tossed this political hot potato to police, who took one look at the “Vote For Ralph Nader” slogan and called in the Secret Service.

Last week, Secret Service agents trekked out to Prosser and grilled the 15-year-old artist.

They left without charging him with anything, but that didn't stop the school district from punishing the kid anyway.

(emphasis added) AP version of the story. And this hyperactive tendency to investigate people is not a fluke but is now shared by many law enforcement bodies: Recall this previous incident? Or this one? All of which leads to self-censorship

Teach the children well, indeed.

[Corrected to remove slur on Seattle, per comment by froz]

Posted in Civil Liberties | 5 Comments

New Traction for Bush Records Story

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Finally. The Bush records story is getting new traction, probably because Kerry himself is making an issue of it. Helpfully, Salon has published a child's guide (suitable for busy reporters) to some (only some) of the major gaps in the record. And the thoughtful and much-read Joshua Micah Marshall has endorsed this as an issue, going so far as to say that, aw shucks, he doesn't quite follow all the complicated details, but, it sounds important:

I just don't know the details of all this well enough any more to make a judgment about these various claims and accusations.

But why exactly can't the president just release his records the way McCain did?

And, is that story about [Maj. Gen. Danny] James[, commander of the Air National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Va.] getting a chance to go over these files true? If it is, I'd say some scribblers in town got suckered.

Big time, as the vice president would say.

So maybe the issue is not dead yet. When will a reporter stand up the press gaggle with a release from and ask if the President will sign it? Or, how about at a press conference if there ever is another one?

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on New Traction for Bush Records Story