Monthly Archives: May 2004

IBM Digests Some Indigestible Customer Feedback

Posted on May 22, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

It's good to be reminded that it's not just academe where the way that things work are capable of driving you bonkers. Dave Farber, who runs a very widely read IP mailing list, had some troubles with his IBM laptop. Contacting customer support produced nothing helpful, so he wrote about his experience. That produced this reply from an anonymous IBM executive:

I thought you might enjoy knowing that the IP thread about IBM support has already climbed two levels up the IBM management chain from me, and then leapt from there into a similarly rarified level in the PC division. Since this is IBM, one of three things will happen: either it will be completely ignored, or we will start an ad campaign about how good our customer support is, or it will be the straw that breaks some particular camel's back, heads will roll, and everything will get better in a year or two.

Sounds like here, only with more layers.

Posted in Readings | 1 Comment

Patrick O’Brian at Half Mast

Posted on May 21, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

I'm a big fan of Patrick O'Brian's seafaring Aubrey-Maturin novels—great stories, great writing. And you might think having devoured the lot I'd want to hurry and read the notes and half-text of the 21st in the series, found in his papers after his death and due to be published soon. But after reading about the manuscript and his condition when he wrote it, I don't think I'm going to rush to do that.

Posted in Readings | 1 Comment

Misleading the Supreme Court

Posted on May 21, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Eric Muller has further evidence that the Solictor General's office's misleading suggestion to the Supreme Court that torture (and its ilk) could never happen in the hands of our kindly and sensitive executive was NOT an off-the-cuff error in the heat of oral argument, nor a statement born of excusable ignorance (left hand, meet right hand), but rather part of a considered strategy. Whether that's a considered strategy of deception, or a considered strategy of something else, remains to be seen.

When the rot reaches the SG's office, that's a pretty high water mark for rot. As Eric says, “Very, very troubling.”

Posted in Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Law: Ethics | Comments Off on Misleading the Supreme Court

The Horror

Posted on May 21, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

As a parent of two boys, I cannot begin to tell you how horrible and disgusting I think it is that my government could act in this way:

GI: Boy mistreated to get dad to talk. [Link updated 6/11/04] A military intelligence analyst who recently completed duty at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq said Wednesday that the 16-year-old son of a detainee there was abused by U.S. soldiers to break his father's resistance to interrogators.

The analyst said the teenager was stripped naked, thrown in the back of an open truck, driven around in the cold night air, splattered with mud and then presented to his father at Abu Ghraib, the prison at the center of the scandal over abuse of Iraqi detainees.

Upon seeing his frail and frightened son, the prisoner broke down and cried and told interrogators he would tell them whatever they wanted, the analyst said.

…

Sgt. Samuel Provance, who maintained the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion's top-secret computer system at Abu Ghraib prison, gave the account of abuse of the teenager in a telephone interview from Germany, where he is now stationed. He said he also has described the incident to Army investigators.

Buck stops … where did you say?

Posted in Iraq Atrocities | Comments Off on The Horror

Another Educational Institution Surrenders to Fear

Posted on May 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Ed Felton reports on the Educause Policy Conference in Washington,

Freedom to Tinker: Penn State: No Servers in Dorms: One of the most interesting parts of the day was a brief presentation by Russ Vaught, the Associate Vice Provost for IT at Penn State. He said that Penn State has a policy banning server software of all kinds from dormitory computers. No email servers; no web servers; no DNS servers; no chat servers; no servers of any kind. The policy is motivated by a fear that server software might be used to infringe copyrights.

Having banned things like student-served blogs and wikis, I hear that they are planning to ban typewriters and pens next. Never know what mischief they might get in to.

Posted in Law: Copyright and DMCA | 3 Comments

It Figures

Posted on May 20, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Although I did not realize it at the time I hired him, it turns out that my new research assistant has a blog.

Posted in Law School | Comments Off on It Figures