Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Is Academic Advantage a Scam?

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Is Academic Advantage a Scam? Opinions may differ. You be the judge (assisted by Boing Boing and Google).

If correctly reported, their lawyers’ actions certainly appear to leave much to be desired.

Boing Boing has been on the receiving end of one or two stupid legal threats in our day but this one from the firm of Lazar, Akiva & Yagoubzadeh takes the cake, the little cake topper, the frosting and all the candles, as well as the box and the cake-stand and the ornamental forks.

Note too this comment about that by Jonathan Zittrain, not to mention other fine comments over at Boing Boing.

Update (1/21): Seems Academic Advantage fired their lawyers. See Company Fires Law Firm Because of Firm’s Unfounded Legal Threat on Company’s Behalf.

Posted in Internet, Law: Ethics | 3 Comments

Does Page Loading Time Matter?

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Today’s Zits hit home in a way the cartoonist probably didn’t intend.

You see, Google Webmaster tools says it takes from 5 to 7.5 seconds to load this blog. Having run a bunch of tools to analyze what’s going on, most of the slowness is all the stuff going on in the right margin, although a degree of the variability may turn on how many graphics I’m showing on any given day. I’ve played some games with optimizing the code, thrown up some cache (although I think the googlebot gets the uncached version) and there is no doubt some more I can do to speed up the javascript a little, although trying to optimize javascript takes me out of my comfort zone.

But basically, either I accept that things will be slow here — slower than 70-85% of the pages google visits — or I start cutting the clock, the casualty count, the weather, and then some of the continually updated stuff like recent comments.

Given that most people read the site via RSS (hey, you’re missing out! come joint in on the comments!), does the stuff in the right margin even serve any purpose? Other than of course, I sort of like it that way?

I long ago stopped doing any of the promotional activities that help blogs get noticed. Traffic duly dropped, although it remains high enough to make both puzzled and happy. Page speed is said to be a factor that Google considers in ranking pages. Maybe I should bow to the search engine gods and drop the things that slow pages down the most?

Posted in Discourse.net | 4 Comments

Hopeless

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Spurred by my asymptotic approach to grading, I resolved to see if I could get a copy of Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now from the Miami-Dade public library.

Unfortunately, it seems there is only one copy in the collection and it is checked out. Given the sort of person this work likely appeals to, I am not hopeful that it will be returned any time soon.

Posted in Completely Different | 3 Comments

For Academic Internet Law Geeks Only

Posted on January 16, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

This is really very funny — but only if you are an academic internet law geek: Info/Law » Easterbrook was wrong.

Posted in Law: Internet Law | Comments Off on For Academic Internet Law Geeks Only

Alumnus in the News: Reince Priebus ’98

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

Reince Priebus UM Law '98It seems that newly elected GOP chief Reince Priebus graduated from the University of Miami School of Law in 1998. For a write up of his activities as a law student see University of Miami | School of Law – Reince Priebus, JD’98: UM Degree Sets Him Apart. He was a student leader, and was here around the same time as our other recent political star, Senator Marco Rubio ’96.

Not everyone is a fan, however, of what Mr. Priebus has been up to since he graduated. See for example this Wisconsin blogger’s take, New GOP National Chair Is Voter Obstruction Operative from Wisconsin. (And, more about the voter suppression in Wisconsin.)

And finally, consider this little thought experiment from Steve Benen: how would certain elements of the partisan press be reacting if Reince Priebus had just been elected to chair the Democratic Party?

Posted in Politics: US, U.Miami | 1 Comment

Mandatory Gun Insurance?

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Michael Froomkin

The free-market approach to gun control over at Crooks and Liars seems pretty clever: A Modest Proposal: What If We Required Mandatory Gun Insurance?

Combine this with strict liability for misuse of a weapon — liability which resides with the manufacturer and/or distributor if they fail to make sure that the purchaser is insured, on the insurance company if they allow a policy to lapse without evidence that someone else has provided the insurance or the gun has been sold or destroyed, and on the purchaser if the next in chain of title is not insured, and pretty soon we might be getting somewhere.

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law, Law: Criminal Law | 36 Comments