Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Zero Hour is Tuesdays Around 5 AM EST

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

In case you were wondering, the optimal time to roll out new network software is Tuesday some time around 00:00 UTC to 02:00 UTC.

As seen on the namedroppers list:

I’ve always found it best to roll out changes on Tuesday, as it gives plenty of customer feedback time during the week. Mondays are often consumed with catching up on any operational problems over the weekend. Tuesday is better. 02:00 UTC is my favorite, although anytime after 00:00 UTC usually works OK.

(post by William Allen Simpson)

[Original draft: 8/9/2009.  In preparation for my blog redesign, I found draft blog posts that somehow never made it to publication. This is one of them.]

Posted in Software, Zombie Posts | 2 Comments

James Tobin – Herman Woulk Connection

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

In the course of an interesting article on the resurgent influence of neo-Keynsian James Tobin, Yale’s Tobin Guides Obama From Grave as Friedman Is Eclipsed , the authors give us this fact:

While training to be an officer, he served with Herman Wouk, who later wrote “The Caine Mutiny.” Tobin was Wouk’s model for a character called Tobit, a “mandarin-like midshipman” who had “a domed forehead, measured quiet speech and a mind like a sponge.”

Amazing.

[Original draft 2/27/2009. In preparation for my blog redesign, I found draft blog posts that somehow never made it to publication. This is one of them.]

2010:  It’s still an amazing fact about James Tobin, but I don’t find nearly enough Tobin in Obama’s economic policies.

Posted in Econ & Money, Zombie Posts | Comments Off on James Tobin – Herman Woulk Connection

Hierarchies of Legal Articles (and the Reproduction Thereof)

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

It seems like every law blogger is offering his or her own (although it’s usually “his”) list of the “hierarchy of legal scholarship”. I think there’s quite a lot to be said for Eric Muller’s Hierarchy of Legal Scholarship, but it’s just too darn complicated.

So here’s mine:

0 – Lousy articles which get the facts wrong

1 – Lousy articles

2 – Good articles

3 – Articles which would have been really good except they go on too long

4 – Really good articles (bonus for a snappy title)

5 – Supremely good articles (very rare)

Not only is this much simpler, but I expect it will command wide agreement.

[Original draft 9/23/2006. In preparation for my blog redesign, I found draft blog posts that somehow never made it to publication. This is one of them.]

2010: A forerunner of Jotwell? The serious posts on this subject include J.B. Ruhl’s hierarchy of legal scholarship and Larry Solum’s critique and Jim Chen’s response.

Posted in Law School, Zombie Posts | 2 Comments

Well, He Should Have Said It

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

Edmund BurkeThere is a web page devoted to tracking down the source of the quote “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing” (or words to that effect). It is pretty amazing.

[Original draft 10/30/2009.  In preparation for my blog redesign, I found draft blog posts that somehow never made it to publication. This is one of them.]

Posted in Readings, Zombie Posts | Comments Off on Well, He Should Have Said It

Immortality and the Law

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

Captain Jack / TorchwoodHere’s an unusual Property/T&E problem: what happens to the Rule Against Perpetuities in a comic-book (or future) world populated by immortals? Enter the ‘Law and the Multiverse’ blog to consider the issue in Immortality and the law.

(Spotted via Slashdot.)

Posted in Law: Everything Else | Comments Off on Immortality and the Law

Zombie Posts Alert

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Michael Froomkin

ZombieOver the years I have accumulated about a hundred and fifty draft blog posts, a discovery that startled me as I was preparing the blog for its move. Many were unfinished, even more were outdated. But a couple dozen seemed fine, and in some cases I couldn’t figure out why they had remained only a step from the scrap heap. Maybe they weren’t my best work, but it seemed in retrospect they weren’t all that bad either.

So over the next few days, I’ll be publishing some of these zombie posts for your amusement, occasionally with a comment or update appended.

Posted in Discourse.net, Zombie Posts | Comments Off on Zombie Posts Alert