Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Search in Textbox Extension for Firefox

Posted on July 25, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

A while ago I posted this software wish:

… if only there were a tool that would let me search inside the text that I am posting to input boxes on web forms before I actually post it.

Well, my wish has been almost answered by the Firefox textareatools extension.

I say “almost answered” because this extension still has rough edges, e.g. “find” doesn’t actually work for me — I have to use the “find (regexp)” option for it to do anything. It could use better shortcuts, especially one to repeat a search. But oh am I happy to have it.

Posted in Software | Comments Off on Search in Textbox Extension for Firefox

It Starts to Come Around At Last

Posted on July 24, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

After the basic underlying ugliness of tampering with national security for political revenge (against a spouse, at that), one of the aspects of the Plame scandal that has always most amazed and disgusted me is the role of then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales. Forgotten amidst all the current finger pointing as to who said what to whom when and with which mental state was that when Gonzales learned that the Justice Dept. had started an official investigation into the leak, Gonzales waited twelve hours before putting the White House staff on notice that they had to preserve documents and electronic files. Which seemed than and seems now like an open invitation to obstruction of justice (AKA “shredding and deleting”).

Well, it’s forgotten no longer; what’s more it seems that Gonzales did tell White House Chief of Staff Andy Card right away. And who did Card tell and when? And what did they do?

Posted in Politics: The Party of Sleaze | Comments Off on It Starts to Come Around At Last

Thank You Jon!

Posted on July 22, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

Jon Weinberg has done a terrific job as a guest blogger (he even fought the spam, which decided to try to flood the blog while I wasn't looking). But I'm home, so the data/ink (or is that data/electron?) ratio will now go down to its usual level.

I hope to write a bit about my trip soon, but my first priority is to get some sleep. Then shop for food…

Posted in Personal | Comments Off on Thank You Jon!

A Note From London

Posted on July 21, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

As it happens I am in London, spending an evening between planes on my journey homewards. I am watching coverage of the mostly failed bombing attempt today in London on the TV in an airport hotel. That was not the plan.

I had a very much better plan. I had a ticket to see the great Michael Gambon as Falstaff in Henry IV, part II this evening, at the National Theater. And I wasn't inclined to let a bomb threat campaign stop I think that the terrorists win if you cower at home. Seeing the TV news presenter read a government statement asking people to go on with their daily lives clinched it. Michael Gambon here I come, I thought, as I set out to brave what I imagined were the London crowds. But first I had to get to London from Heathrow.

The problem was that London transport is basically shut down. For a while there, I thought I had a Plan B – I figured out a route from the airport with the help of the excellent London Transport Real-Time Map. The Piccadilly line that takes you from Heathrow to central London was (and is) shut. There is an express train from LHR to Paddington – but given my late start, no obvious way to get from Paddington to the show in time. Surface transport would, I imagine be at a standstill, queues for taxis very long, and it's a bit far to walk in the time I had available.

So the plan was to eschew the express, take the local train about half way to Ealing, and switch to the central line, which seemed to be working. I went back to the airport, bought a ticket from the vending machine for the London Connection to Ealing Broadway, and descended to the platform. No trains showing on the departures board. A small hand-lettered sign revealed the reason: no trains today beyond Hayes due to “technical issues”. The nice but harassed lady at the station duly refunded my ticket.

It seems even when you don't want to let yourself be defeated by terrorists, you can still be defeated by British Rail. Then again, it's probably a mercy. By the time I got back to my hotel, the Central line seemed to have been stopped too.

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment

My Brother’s Really Brilliant Plamegate Idea

Posted on July 15, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

I break my vacation silence (soon to be enforced by a lack of web access when I decamp to a different hotel, in Chania) to cheer my brother's brilliant idea on how reporters could advance the ball in the Plamegate inquiry, offered in his web column, Getting Worried at the White House:

But here's what that makes me think: if reporters want to help get New York Times reporter Judith Miller out of jail, let's contact every conceivable person who might have been her source, and ask them (or their lawyers): if for some reason Judy Miller were in jail thinking that she's protecting you, would that be a mistake? Would you tell that to her lawyer?

Let's start with Rove, Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, deputy national security adviser Elliot Abrams, Cheney national security adviser John Hannah, counselor Dan Bartlett, press secretary Scott McClellan, former press secretary Ari Fleischer — and every other person's name who has ever even remotely been attached to this story in the past.

What have we got to lose? Is anyone with me, or shall I get going myself.

I think Dan is going to be quite busy…

Posted in Dan Froomkin, Politics: The Party of Sleaze | 3 Comments

Internet Balkanization

Posted on July 12, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

While I am in Crete attending a fascinating seminar, and Jon is doing such a wonderful job of blogging here, ICANN is having what promises to be a more-substantive-than-usual meeting in Luxembourg. At the heart of the debate are critical issues of DNS policy. (For the latest word on the politics of it all, see Kieren McCarthy’s ICANN Blog and his US Govt Interference Is a Big Deal, Says Europe.) One line you can expect to hear often is that it’s important to keep the Internet from being Balkanized.

The trouble is, the Internet is already being Balkanized. One the one had you have the Great Firewall of China and other national censorship efforts. And then there’s the roadblock I encountered today: Google. If you try to reach google.com from here, you are redirected to google.gr and all the prompts are in Greek. Go to google.us and you are redirected to google.gr. Run your search in English and you will get English language results (but the prompts are all in Greek). Amend the URL for that search, which used google.gr to one with google.com….and it’s still too smart and redirects to google.gr.

Are we Balkanized already?

Posted in Internet | 7 Comments