Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

It Was New to Me

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Rumpole retells “the old joke”:

How many Miami Beach police officers does it take to throw a defendant down a flight of stairs? None. He fell on his own. Repeatedly.

(In reference to this horrible story.)

Posted in Miami | Comments Off on It Was New to Me

Almost the Ultimate Keyboard

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Jeff Atwood designed the CODE Keyboard, which he says is the keyboard designed to satisfy the most discerning members of the keyboard cult.

Looks good. Love the layout (it’s a lot like the aging Logitech I’m typing on now). Not as sure I need the backlighting, could be good, though.

But, just one thing.

It’s not wireless.

Not being a gamer, and thus not worried about whatever little delay I might be adding to the keystrokes, I like having one less source of clutter on my keyboard. For $150, why couldn’t I have wireless?

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | Comments Off on Almost the Ultimate Keyboard

The Regularity of Evil

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Read Jennifer Granick’s account of My Dinner With NSA Director Keith Alexander.

The two most striking things were, first, that General Alexander — the head of one of our biggest intelligence agencies — can’t even conceive that a member of the establishment might be to the left of Senator Wyden. Any world view that puts Senator Wyden as the leftmost pole of legitimate domestic politics is seriously impoverished, maybe dangerous.

Second, there’s the clash of cultures: “trust us” (from a body proven again and again and again to grossly mislead) verses the lawyer’s view of ‘if men were Angels‘.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Law: Privacy | 15 Comments

I Talk Funny?

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Apparently I do, at least according to these maps of American dialect and pronunciation.

My pronunciations are most likely to be like New York City (where I was born, but moved away to DC at age six) but several of them are not. Although I spent five years in the UK, and hang around a Brit a great deal, I don’t think I have (m)any English pronunciations, although I may have the odd bit of British slang.

Posted in Science/Medicine | 1 Comment

Nepotism and the 1%

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

Shorter Alex Pareene (Salon): Nepotism, it’s worse than you think. (Spotted via John Quiggin, Cronyism and the global city (again).)

Posted in 99%, Econ & Money | Comments Off on Nepotism and the 1%

GCal Sends Unwanted Invites

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Michael Froomkin

When I create a new entry on my Gcal and include an email address, it asks me if I want to send an invite to the person I’m meeting. I say “don’t send”. It often sends one anyway, especially if the person has a gmail address. There doesn’t appear to be any way to stop it. 1

  1. Yes, I know this is a pathetic topic for a blog post. But it’s the first day of classes, I’ve been busy, and if I don’t post anything for too long my mom worries.[↩]
Posted in Software | Comments Off on GCal Sends Unwanted Invites