Danny Yee >> Pathologically Polymathic (blog)

January 2003

<< December 2002 | February 2003 >>

drivers: one way Microsoft pushes people to upgrade - Register [via Link]
at least the Dell model involved supports RH Linux 7.3
must if you haven't seen it yet spoof: Bush tries Nigerian scam - Register [via email]
lots of interesting war on Iraq links - LiberalArtsMafia [via RW]
anti-war ads rejected; Norman Schwarzkopf; bioterror alarmism; and more
how computers change our perception of beauty in chess - WorldChessRating [via RW]
devIS: a small company using free software in US government contracts - NewsForge [via /.]
fascinating Alaska, Canada, Mexico, US travelogue - Phil Greenspun [huge - Megabyte+]
with witty and intelligent commentary on Iraq, the US economy, information technology
no surprise: decades of war leave Afghanistan an environmental disaster - BBC [via RW]
What It Is, How It Works, and What To Make of It - The Market System [review]
"you will not gain any insight into market-system scope by postulating something called the economy, which then defines its scope. Think society, not economy"
finding oil could be a disaster for São Tomé - Economist
"Decades of oil revenues have corrupted Gabonese society and eroded the work ethic"
article on American Oulipist Harry Mathews - Bookforum [via CR] - Tlooth [old review]
Timothy Garton Ash on anti-Europeanism in America - NYROB [via ALD]
Le Carré reviews book by ethnologist who survived the Khmer Rouge - Guardian [via ALD]
forced labour camps run by Irish nuns... till 1996? - ABCnews [via Rotten]
entertaining analysis of first Kasparov-Deep Junior game - ChessBase [via RW]
"Opening preparation, tactical control, resignation, reboot"
(it's 15 years since I played a serious game of chess - 1987 Australian Junior Championship)
decent introduction to "the Google Dance" - Kuro5hin
US pressuring Australia to sign up to tighter copyright regime - AustralianIT [via EFA]
the possibilities of Internet fridges... - Link humour
remembering the last big war - just two and a half years ago - CounterPunch [via RW]
delaying military supply vessels leaving UK port of Southamptom - Greenpeace [via K5]
call to arms against women shaving - SMH/Guardian
"Our foremothers were happily hairy, but depilation is the battle feminism lost"
a comedy about a woman working in Japan - Fear and Trembling [review]
50th anniversary of "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" - Boston Globe [via Google]
"Kinsey was a zoologist studying gall moths when he was asked to teach a course on marriage"
a new book on Aussie English - SMH
"Four-hundred Australian words were borrowed from 70 different indigenous languages"
dustbowl threatens East Asia with environmental catastrophe - Independent/CD [via RW]
WWII letters from an Australian nurse working in London - Cassy's family history
11 June 1940: "Did you hear Mr Churchill's speech to the House last week? It was super - but grim"
getting gf's computer to dual-boot XP + Linux - ntfsresize worked - next the winmodem
John Reilly has now been blogging for a year - With Perspective - Spengler's Future [review]
politically he's at the other end of the spectrum to me...
is "cunt" still taboo in Australia? - news.com.au
curiously, the man fined in this case was called Bowdler
extreme sexual dimorphism: the blanket octopus - The Age
"the hapless male [is] about 100 times smaller than the female [and] dies after having sex with her"
the civil war between Sony's electronics and media divisions - Wired [via /.]
"Sony shipped a Celine Dion CD with a copy-protection mechanism that kept it from being played on Sony PCs"
Who Needs Classical Music? - Economist review
If You're Happy And You Know It Bomb Iraq - CommonDreams [via email]
"If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq. If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq."
letters on Microsoft localisation for Nynorsk and Catalan - Register
"we will keep releasing Catalan versions of free software, just to prevent [Microsoft's] very strong moral fibre being tested by the absence of competition"
CRT monitors are on the way out - ExtremeTech [via /.]
"by the fourth quarter of this year, LCD monitors should represent roughly 46 percent of all monitors sold"
study of financial conflicts in biomedical research - NewsDay - JAMA summary [via K5]
you have to pay for access to the full article...
Hekmatyar still a force in Afghanistan's Konar province - CSM [via OneWorld]
government troops "earn just $1 a month and they haven't been paid in six months"
British survey: PR executives now less-trusted than real estate agents - Guardian
"Amnesty International, the World Wildlife Fund and Oxfam beat the most trusted corporations, including Microsoft and Bayer, by more than 10%"
an Australian visiting Peshawar finds it convenient to say he's from New Zealand - SMH
"nothing to do with Australia's involvement in the Afghan war and everything to do with its refugee policies"
heterodox economists with alternatives to the mainstream - ChronicleHigherEd [via ALD]
"The reformers include prominent scholars who made their names as top-notch neoclassical economists."
four-winged dinosaur sheds light on origin of birds - New Scientist [via RW] - Taking Wing [review]
another anti-war poem, this one from Harold Pinter - Guardian [via CR]
"Here they go again, The Yanks in their armoured parade"
World Bank pressure damaging Indian education system? - InfoChange [via OneWorld]
"forced the government to reduce the tenure of elementary education from eight to five years"
repeal the Microsoft tax - Brain Terminal [via K5]
nice overview of different historical Jesus theories - EarlyChristianWritings [via RW]
another high-profile article on Linux and free software - Financial Times [via /.]
Joe's writeup of his near-death trip in New Zealand - the Copland Pass
a history of Cambodia to 1431 - The Civilization of Angkor [review]
skeptic pitied - the Onion [via RW]
Deja Vu in Afghanistan - Ariana
a dramatic firsthand account of the Canberra fires - Bernard Robertson-Dunn [via Link]
"all our fences had gone, electricity cables were sparking in the wind, gas mains were exploding"
ongoing economic warfare in the West Bank - BBC
the pill changes women's tastes in men - BBC
"women who are taking the pill tend to fancy macho types with strong jaw lines"
South Africa's government the latest to go open source - BusinessDay [via /.]
academics scornful of "Chinese explored Americas" book - Salina Journal [via AWW]
"'Junk' is right"
"google" comes second, behind "weapons of mass destruction" - American Dialect Society
Mickey Mouse speaks out on the Eldred decision - Reason Daily [via RW]
neighbours still interfering in Afghanistan - Ahmed Rashid
Indians mourn death of great Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan - BBC
debate over authenticity of inscription attributed to 9th century BC Judean king - Ha'aretz [via AWW]
"either I hit the nail on the head... or the forger read my theory and decided to confirm it"
even among conservatives, almost all Australians oppose war on Iraq without the UN - SMH
but prime minister John Howard wants to be the flea on Tony Blair's puppy
Dell's selective amnesia when it comes to Linux - Register [via LinuxToday]
"Dell's new found affection for Linux had not gone unnoticed at Redmond"
pharmaceutical spin-doctors try to obscure adverse study - BMJ [via RW]
pharma sales VP: "Great data. Very solid. Didn't surprise anybody ... but nobody's promoting diuretics" (better, cheaper, and safer alternative to ACE inhibitors for treating hypertension)
Israeli right-wing secular party pushing anti-orthodox line - SMH
Philip Pullman an anti-Lewis, out to destroy Narnia? - Spectator [via CR]
I was a Narnia fan until I read Tolkien at 8 - then it just seemed tepid and fake
victory for consumer rights in NY: licenses can't prohibit reviews - CNN [via /.]
violations of baby milk marketing codes in West Africa - Guardian - BMJ editorial - BMJ paper
the 5th Harry Potter book is a third longer than the 4th - LA Times - my review of the 1st
at this rate, the 7th will be longer than In Search of Lost Time!
US delegation scotches "support" from Asian open-source statement - InfoWorld [via LWN]
US corporations claiming the right to deceive - Common Dreams
Roman Polanski's The Pianist and other movies about the Holocaust - Guardian
a radical Israeli historian despairs of peace - Guardian [via email]
M, F, or X? there are more than two sexes - West Australian
new model for raindrop formation - Physical Review [via RW]
Iraq has nukes? Saddam is evil but not irrational, so deterrence is possible - ForeignPolicy [via ALD]
problems measuring global inequality and poverty - Boston Globe [vi ALD]
the United States of America has gone mad - John Le Carré in UK Times [via RW]
"I cringe when I hear my Prime Minister lend his head prefect's sophistries to this colonialist adventure"
Australians take fewer sickies than Europeans, Americans - SMH
I'm off sick today, down with the flu
US Supremes rule 7-2 against Eldred - Yahoo [via /.] - majority - dissent1 - dissent2 [PDFs]
are free software licences revocable? - Advogato discussion
Kevin Mitnick's autobiography - Register [via LWN]
Jakob Nielsen keyword stuffing for search engines? - exhibit A [scroll to bottom] - WMW debate
some problems facing Google - Business Week [via WMW]
the differences between Iraq, North Korea, and Iran - SMH
Australian state of NSW changes defamation law - AllensArthurRobinson [via EFA]
"Most corporations may no longer sue for defamation."
Australian ISPs in legal firing-line over users' copyright infringments - ZDnet [via /.]
"MediaForce would have to go through regulatory channels if Pacific Internet was to comply with its requests"
food industry infiltrating World Health Organisation - Guardian [via OneWorld]
too rapid democracy and free markets can bring ethnic hate and genocide - Salon review
nice writeup of a Maine school's move to Linux - Linux Journal
neat low-level tech: filtering drinking water against cholera with silk saris - New Scientist [via RW]
a powerful novel of a war photographer in Vietnam + Cambodia - Highways to a War [review]
British poet laureate against Iraq war - Guardian article includes full 30-word poem [via CR]
family keeps pet eel in bath for 33 years - CNN [via K5]
update on Argentinian economy - Economist
Cosma reminds me I should read Ken MacLeod (sf) - Salon interview
"the greatest living Trotskyist libertarian cyberpunk science-fiction humorist"
Norman Mailer: "I Am Not for World Empire" - American Conservative [via email]
Bangladesh, where a modem costs more than a cow - BytesForAll [via OneWorld]
"less than 15% of the population has access to electricity"
Motte on reading Georges Perec - CONTEXT [via CR] - A Void [review] - Oulipo [review]
"a literary experimentalist ... intrigued by the question of form"
visual, accessible development economics - 100 Ways of Seeing an Unequal World [review]
reissue of (unknown to me) spy-thriller from 1973 - Boston Globe
is Apple finally taking on Microsoft? - Cringely [via RW]
Lexmark uses DMCA against third party toner vendors - News.com - Ed Felten [via LWN]
Greenpeace delivers Bhopal waste to Dow Chemical - OneWorld.net [via RW]
analysis of Google response to lawsuit over rankings - LawMeme [via WMW]
television ads in US will link gas-guzzling SUVs to terrorism - SFGate
seems a bit bizarre, but it will be interesting to see what the public reaction is
critique of Lomborg (The Skeptical Environmentalist) on biodiversity - Jeff Harvey
a film on the militarisation of India and Pakistan: Patwardhan's War and Peace - censorship - IMDB
text of US radio propaganda being broadcast into Iraq - US Central Command [via MemoryHole]
reads like PR for the world - it's hardly going to influence Iraqis!
the New Lass: beer-swilling Australian women on the prowl - SMH
yet anther reason to avoid pubs
an advance in digital camera sensor technology - Discover [via /.]
Sharon mired in "a spate of allegations about vote-buying and organised crime" - Guardian
an Australian open source advocate - Con Zymaris
comic stories about books and writing - Scenes from the Life of a Best-selling Author [review]
Lord of the Rings as written by Milton, Hemingway, Dr Seuss, etc - bulletin board [via /.]
a Register employee switches his desktop to Linux - Register
Israel ensnared in Palestine's state of siege - SMH/Telegraph
Christopher Hitchens as informal "Devil's Advocate" in Mother Theresa canonisation - Mirror [via WhereThreadsComeLoose]
building a new "food pyramid" - SciAm
the Russian army is now using "the Israeli method" to eliminate rebels - SMH
Joe Sacco's comic book on life in Palestine - Guardian [via RW]
the Pentagon is trying to make sleep unnecessary - SMH/Telegraph
40% of US nuns have been sexually abused? - SMH
brief writeup with photos - a three-day Snowy bushwalk
Amenhotep I's tomb found - may be oldest in Valley of the Kings - Discovery [via AWW]
the 50th anniversary of Waiting for Godot's premiere - Guardian [via RW]
Pat Buchanan on US aid to Israel - American Conservative [via RW]
ok Linux on the desktop survey - ZDnet [via LWN]
I predicted in mid-2000 it would pass MacOS at ~3% in mid-2003... I was too optimistic
new Tolkien translation of Beowulf found? - news.com.au
censorship of Italian novel about Palestinian intifada - Alex Good
2003: the year of Asian Linux - Newsforge/Register [via /.]
on the Palestinian suicide bombers - NYROB
English academics face reduction in book publication - NYO [via RW]
the Sydney Anglican diocese is among the world's most hide-bound - SMH
so much that some extreme British parishes want its oversight!
Sailor Lives in the Royal Navy 1900-1945 - LRB review
... and from 1780 to 1840 - From the Lower Deck [old review]
Misidentification of Clerambault's and Kandinsky-Clerambault's Syndromes - Canadian Journ. Psych.
(I'm reading Ian McEwan's novel Enduring Love, about a de Clerambault's case.)
UN weapons inspections are not finding banned weapons - WP
blue-ringed octopuses fumble around in dark while mating - SMH
males are "as likely to copulate with other males as with females"
some photos from my recent trip - the Kosciuszko Lakes Walk
China through its written characters - China, Empire of the Written Symbol [review]
overview of "out of Africa" timing debates - National Geographic [vi AWW]
photo-essay on home demolitions in the Gaza strip - EI
parenthesis-prone Complete Review does triple-nesting - comment on translation of translations
Tikopia devasted by cyclone - Independent - no more songs?
nice overview of the total incoherence of Bush foreign policy - LA times [via RW]
"Washington's foreign policy is now less logical than Pyongyang's."
boycott threat needed to get Nynorsk version of Microsoft Office - BBC [via /.]
your language has less political clout? you can localise free software yourself!
Dow Chemical suing survivors of Bhopal disaster - Greenpeace [via /.]
Scott Turow on the death penalty in Illinois - New Yorker [via RW] - CR review of Reversible Errors
adaptations for breathing at high altitude still mysterious - SMH/WP - CWRU media release
"These findings suggest there are three patterns of adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia among indigenous populations."
The Art of Fiction: 1997 Le Carre interview - Paris Review [via RW]
Their Liberties, Our Security - civil liberties after 9/11 - Boston Review [via CR]
"Peace" theme for New Year's fireworks over Sydney Harbour - SMH
and they moved one of the launch points so we had a perfect view five metres from our front door!

<< December 2002 | February 2003 >>

Pathologically Polymathic (blog) << Danny Yee