Monthly Archives: May 2009

What He Said (NPR Deadweight Dept.)

Jack Shafer in Slate, Behold how little substance NPR's Cokie Roberts can pack into four minutes of airtime suggests it's time for NPR to replace Cokie Roberts with actual content.

Actually he's too kind: Roberts isn't bad just because she's vacuous and boring, but also because she so frequently recites GOP talking points without editing or contextualizing. (This is not surprising if you know her maiden name and family history.)

I've vowed not to give to NPR again until they replace Roberts and the almost as useless Juan Williams. I don't require an unbiased commentator — heck, bias can be more fun some time — and certainly don't require one I agree with (that can be boring). But I'd like one who shows some sign of having done some thinking or some investigation. Almost any major political blogger would be better.

Posted in The Media | 10 Comments

Microsoft Office SP2 Interoperability With ODF (Not)

Did Microsoft sabotage its much-vaunted ODF compatibility in its latest patch release to Microsoft Office so that it could claim to be compatible with other vendors' products (and OpenOffice) but in fact be utterly unable to share documents with them?

That's the thoroughly documented implication of An Antic Disposition: Update on ODF Spreadsheet Interoperability.

Of course, it's hard to believe that an ethical company would do anything of the sort, damaging its own customers in order to inflict pain on its rivals. No, no ethical company would do that on purpose. Must be an accident ….

Posted in Software | 3 Comments

Really Useful and Obscure Computer CPU Info

I'd say this is one of the most useful posts ever for people thinking of buying a PC: How many Intel CPUs will fail the XP Mode test in Windows 7?.

What Ed Bott has done is go through the somewhat obscure Intel info and identify which chips will run XP in virtual mode under Windows 7. There is no method to the Intel madness: more expensive doesn't inevitably mean that your CPU will have the needed virtualization extensions (Intel VT), nor does more cores. You just have to know. And now you can.

By blind dumb luck, the computer I'm writing this on, a Dell Precision T3400 — a sort of stopgap refurbished machine I bought in a hurry when my old one croaked a few months ago — has a E6850 on it, so I'm OK in the unlikely event I upgrade from XT.

That said, my plan if and when I get a RoundTuit, is to test out the really nifty-looking new release of Ubuntu, with a Virtual Box, and see how that box handles Wordperfect. If it's fast and smooth, that's where I'm headed if the guest can share the clipboard with the host.

Clipboard sharing works great with XP as host and Ubuntu as guest. Only complaint is that sharing a directory doesn't work out of the box, and sharing a USB drive runs into hardware issues. (I gather you lose 3D in the guest, but I am not a gamer, so I can live with that.)

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 2 Comments

Google Is Hiring … Goats

This apparently isn't a joke. Here is a photo of Google's latest employees:

Goats.JPG

More details at Tom's Hardware.

[Update: While we're on the subject of goats, see Nate Oman Dismembered Goats as a Key to Understanding Contract Law.]

Posted in Internet | 3 Comments

Draft Letter to Vanity Fair (Ari Rides Again Dept.)

I was disappointed in the lax editorial standards that allowed former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer to use your pages (George in Real Life) to lie to the public, unrebutted, yet again.

Mr. Fleischer is quoted as saying, “When Bill Clinton left office, he was a pariah.”

In fact, President Clinton left office with the highest approval ratings of any post-WW II President, something on the order of 66%. Any simple web search would have revealed this.

I think you owed your readers this fact — especially as it supports the suggestion, made later regarding a different assertion, that die-hard Bush fans are “delusional”.

Please invest in fact-checkers.

A. Michael Froomkin
Professor of Law
University of Miami
Coral Gables, FL

Any point in sending it?

[4:50pm – light editing]

Posted in The Media | 13 Comments

Ricardo Bascuas Guest-Blogging at SDFLA Blog

My colleague Ricardo Bascuas makes a guest appearance at the Southern District of Florida Blog to write about Souter succession speculation.

Posted in Law: The Supremes | Comments Off on Ricardo Bascuas Guest-Blogging at SDFLA Blog