Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Sports Tipsters (and Future Cabinet Members) Use the Internet Pseudonymously

Posted on July 16, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Many hands dept: Internet tipsters are much better at discovering college sports violations than the myopic NCAA.

It was well past midnight in January 2006 when a user named aggiegrant06 dashed off a thread on TexAgs.com that detailed how his girlfriend handed out payroll checks for a car dealer in Norman, Okla. “She didn’t recognize several of the names,” aggiegrant06 wrote. “She thought it was fishy and asked me.”

The boyfriend knew the names in the blink of an instant message: They were football players at Oklahoma. Gotcha

Plus, in same story, we learn that SecDef Gates used to post anonymously on a sports blog,

Before Robert Gates took office as the nation’s secretary of defense in 2006, he was the president at Texas A&M. People knew exactly who he was — or did they? On TexAgs.com, he blended into the fan forum with a secret identity: ranger65, according to The Dallas Morning News. Gates often began his posts with “I’m told” as he went into different issues with Aggies devotees.

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Bush Plans to Attack Iran, Guardian Says

Posted on July 15, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

UK's Guardian newspaper says, Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran:

The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.

The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.”

The Guardian isn't 100% reliable on US news, but this fits with a lot of what is going on, including the apparent deployment of a third carrier group to the Persian Gulf and despite opposition from high-ranking officers. Note, however, that the deployment of the third carrier group may be escalation, or it may be mere rotation.

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Air Rage, Flight Attendant Dept.

Posted on July 15, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

A woman refused a flight attendant's demand that she drug her toddler to stop him saying “Bye, bye plane” over and over again. So the Continental Express attendant kicked them off the flight.

I'll bet many travelers have fantasized about making a noisy kid near by disappear, not to mention the ones who kick your seat. But few would want it carried out in practice. And to demand the parent injure the child's health? That's appalling.

Posted in Etc | 4 Comments

ICANN NomCom Group Photo

Posted on July 12, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

NomComm2007-1.jpg

Photo credit: Russ Mundy

Posted in Internet | 4 Comments

Internet User Counter

Posted on July 12, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

AMD has a cute page at its 50×15 project, which has counters with estimated counts of the world population and the estimated number of Internet users. The user number grows a lot faster than the population number.

50×15's purpose is to draw attention to the hope that half the planet will be connected by 2015 — a status that AMD says on current trends won't happen until 2030 unless someone ramps things up.

As of this posting, world population is about 6,607,372,000; internet usage about 1,140,247,000; and penetration at 17.25%. [corrected]

Posted in Internet | 2 Comments

Wonderful Question

Posted on July 11, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Bret Fausett has a great question at Lextext.com,

Someone came up with a new list of the seven man-made wonders of the world. Now, really, what's more wondrous? Some old buildings and statutes...or the Internet? The Internet wasn't even a finalist.

Posted in Internet | 6 Comments