Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Blog Enhancements

Posted on October 4, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

I've made a few blog enhancements by tweaking the Movable Type template. The most significant controls the way that the extended text is handled. I didn't like the way that long posts take up too much space, but nor did I like it when clicking on the extension took you to another document. Now I have one of those cute pop-in pop-out Javascript extensions. You can test it on the following line.

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Posted in Discourse.net | 15 Comments

Slashdot Says “Avoid U. Florida”

Posted on October 3, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Ok, it's schadenfreude but what good, or even indifferent, U.Miami booster would not have at least a tinge of joy at opening up Slashdot and finding an item entitled Schools to Avoid: University of Florida. Seems that UF has adopted a fairly Draconian and quite silly policy to prevent P2P filesharing violations. Step One: intrusive scans of every student's PC in the dorms using a program called ICARUS. Wired has an article saying it's all just dandy, but that's not what the students say. The student paper called it evil

And, no, the “michael” who submitted that item to Slashdot is a different Michael from this one.

Posted in Completely Different | 1 Comment

Open Office Releases Version 1.1

Posted on October 3, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

Open Office, the free open source office suite that looks and feels like Microsoft Office™ just announced the release of version 1.1 of its suite.

I'm primarily a WordPerfect™ user myself, going back to version 4.0 for DOS, but Open Office Writer is my other wordprocessor for when file conversion is a Bad Idea. Just wish I could get a better grasp of templates in the Powerpoint substitute…

Posted in Software | Comments Off on Open Office Releases Version 1.1

VeriSign SiteFinder Latest

Posted on October 3, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

VeriSign has just announced they will pull the SiteFinder 'service'—for now at least. See VeriSign Caves, For Now for the full text of the press release.

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on VeriSign SiteFinder Latest

Deconstructing the Cabinet

Posted on October 3, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

So I'm thinking about the Republican Veepstakes, and trying to see how many members of the Bush cabinet I can name without a cheat sheet, and I remember this old line of President Nixon's, “every Cabinet should include a future president”. Which thorough the magic of google brought me to this paragraph from a (rather too complimentary?) Nixon obituary reprinted from the Washington Post

The man who said that “every Cabinet should include a future president” deserves large credit for the sumptuousness of so many of his appointments. This was not a leader unnerved to have commanding personalities working for him. Like perhaps none since the New Deal, the Nixon administration brought to prominence dozens of figures who became national fixtures. Mentioning Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, William Simon, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Bob Dole (as Republican national chairman), William Safire, Pat Buchanan and Alexander Haig only scratches the surface.

Nobody is ever going to say that about George W. Bush. How many members of the Bush cabinet can you even name without help? And, now that you've peeked, how many of them (or other top Bush people) look like a future President? I make it about one—Colin Powell, and, while he certainly hasn't trashed it fatally, he hasn't done his reputation much good by his service in this Administration. As for the rest of them, …

On the whole it's a pretty sad lot.

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Posted in Politics: International | Comments Off on Deconstructing the Cabinet

The Senate Starts To Grow A Spine

Posted on October 3, 2003 by Michael Froomkin

“Up to now, it's been like Dodge City before the marshals showed up.”

— Senator Ron Wyden (D-Or.) speaking of the Administration's contracting practices in Iraq as the Senate voted to require open bidding on Iraq-related contracts.

Of course it's just a small growth of spine, as Iraq is just a small part of the picture. What worries me is that the entire approach to the Treasury, the budget, the tax code, has been too much like barbarians sacking a wealthy city…

Posted in Econ & Money | Comments Off on The Senate Starts To Grow A Spine