Monthly Archives: October 2006

Slides From My ‘Security & Privacy’ Talk to Miami Wireless Focus Group

Posted on October 24, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Here are my slides from last week’s talk on Security & Privacy that I gave to the focus group which was part of the Miami-Dade Wireless initiative.

There’s going to be a full meeting of the Steering Committee this Friday at 1pm in the County Commission chambers. It’s open to the public. Unfortunately, I’m going to miss it because I have a very long-standing commitment to be in Washington DC that day for the unveiling of the official portrait of Judge Stephen F. Williams for whom I clerked.

A student of mine has very kindly offered to go and take notes for me, so at least I’ll know what I missed without having to wait for the official minutes.

Posted in Miami: Wireless | 1 Comment

Clever

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Doug Berman and Paul Caron are starting the Law School Innovation Blog.

Posted in Blogs | Comments Off on Clever

Firefox 2.0

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Firefox 2.0 is now available for download from this Index of page. Starting tomorrow firefox users should get automated downloads or reminders.

Personally, I’m going to hold off for a few days until I know that my favorite plugins have compatibility updates.

UPDATE: In her comment below, Cathy Gellis points out that the Mozilla folks are asking people not to download this version this way for good and interesting reasons.

Posted in Software | 1 Comment

But of Course!

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Bush caught on tape denying saying what he says all the time.

Posted in Iraq | 3 Comments

Geek Humor

Posted on October 23, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

Via Slashdot | How Practical are 20-inch Laptops?:

“A 20-inch laptop might sound perfect for a game of Grand Theft Auto on the way to work, or navigating a mammoth spreadsheet. But are they really usable as laptops, or are they just luggable desktops? This week CNET attempted to work on the super-sized 20-inch Dell XPS M2010 laptop while travelling across London on the subway. The resulting video review is hilarious. This is not your typical tech video review — it's actually funny, and, refreshingly, completely advertising-free. The reviewer is in constant fear that anti-terrorism police are about to swarm him.

Could easily have been a parody. But in fact the laptop seems to exist, for just under $4,000.

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 1 Comment

Another Tasteless National GOP Ad

Posted on October 22, 2006 by Michael Froomkin

How’s this for nasty negative advertising:

Aide may have misdialed phone sex line A Democratic congressional candidate accused in a political ad of billing taxpayers for a call to a phone-sex line said an associate may have misdialed the number while trying to reach a state agency.

The ad that began airing Friday shows Democrat Michael Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, “Hi, sexy. You’ve reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line.”

But Arcuri’s campaign released records showing the call two years ago from his New York City hotel room to the 800-number sex line was followed the next minute by a call to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services. The last seven digits of the two numbers are the same

On the one hand you have to be kind of amazed at the attention to detail in opposition research that was capable of ferreting out this call from phone records.

On the other hand, you have to be appalled at the sleaze of running with it.

The ad’s sponsor, the National Republican Congressional Committee, stood by the 30-second message. Spokesman Ed Patru insisted it was “totally true”…

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze, Politics: US: 2006 Election | 1 Comment