• Biz,  Microsoft

    More Blech

    I’m working my first 100 hour plus week in quite some time.

    On the other hand Amazon is set to ship Visual Studio before the end of the year (tomorrow actually) which is a pleasant surprise.

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  • Media,  Predictions

    Prediction

    While taking a short break from coding I saw the article Leaders urge calm if Williams dies on CNN.com and was stuck by two thing:

    1. “Dies”? He is due to be executed by the state, and they use the broadest term possible. A lame and evasive headline.
    2. What calamity has been correctly predicted recently? There were warnings of mass anti-semitism after Mel Gibson’s movie, warning of 10,000 or more dead after Katrina, an economic recession due to high gas prices and so on. Here’s a question: what calamity have the pundits in the media correctly predicted beforehand? They seem to have enough problems predicting the past.
  • Atlanta,  Police State

    MARTA at it’s finest

    Subway Rider Busted for Selling a Token

    Transit police handcuffed and cited a man who sold a $1.75 subway token to another rider who was having trouble with a token vending machine. Transit authority spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said Friday that the officer “acted within the law” after he spotted Donald Pirone, 42, selling the token Nov. 30 inside the West End subway station

    Instead of giving Pirone a warning, the officer decided to handcuff him and give him the misdemeanor citation under a 1992 state law that bars passengers from selling Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority tokens, she said.

    via the Agitator.

    By all impression Marta would seem to have more employees than riders, but this is just ridiculous.

  • Adages,  Biz,  Funny

    A thought

    Whilst contemplating my working night (after a working day) I think of the adage that “Hard work never killed anybody”. Then I think, yes, it has. Millions in fact.

  • Law,  Torture

    Thoughts on torture

    According to this Instapundit post, large majorities in many modern countries support the legal use of torture in extraordinary circumstances. There is even the line that it should be “legal, safe and rare”.

    I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. I am willing to say that it is a trade-off. While we gain information we lose some degree of moral high-ground and reputation (which has other long run costs), and there will inevitably be lots and lots of mistakes as with any government endeavor.

    But what does one do in the ticking time-bomb situation, or what you reasonably think is one? You’ve got bloody hands either through action or inaction.

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  • Politics

    It’s odd

    During the Clinton 90s anger with Clinton and the status quo seemed to manifest itself as a general anti-government feeling, with the “party of limited government” Republicans being the mechanism for the anger. That and a lot of demographic changes anyway. Now it seems like all the dissatisfaction is specifically anti-Bush.

    We really need term limits more than ever

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