Marco's blog

Posted 1:38 PM by Marco (0) comments

All you need to know about Enron: "Enron was not brought down by fraud; while the company committed fraud, its fraud was primarily an attempt to cover up tens of billions of dollars already lost--not embezzled--in irrational business decisions. Most of its executives believed that Enron was a basically productive company that could be righted. This is why Chairman Ken Lay did not flee to the Caymans with riches, but stayed through the end."

Posted 2:08 PM by Marco (0) comments

This runner is a very cool tessellation, but it hurts my eyes.

Posted 6:51 AM by Marco (0) comments

What's the catch? Free backup up to 2GB.

Posted 7:39 AM by Marco (0) comments

For a funny definition of 'net neutrality, try Rian's blog, Virtual Karma.

Posted 7:24 AM by Marco (0) comments

Who is surprised at success without central planning? The New York Times.

Posted 4:18 PM by Marco (0) comments

At Johns Hopkins 25% of freshman families getting need-based aid earned more than $120,000 per year.

Posted 1:03 PM by Marco (0) comments

Understatement of the year, "...it is not likely that any consumer of Microsoft's Windows or Office software purchases these products for their product activation functionality."

Posted 9:13 AM by Marco (0) comments

Is Classic Car Seats spamming your Blog? I have deleted six of their posts this week. And I found them on other blogs, not just mine. Don't buy from spammers.

Posted 6:34 AM by Marco (0) comments

Delta Takes Steps to Avert Mass Retirement of Pilots. You can't win. You can't break even. You can't quit.

Posted 9:33 PM by Marco (0) comments

Better than my old Zone Alarm? Comodo Personal Firewall 2.0.

Posted 5:21 PM by Marco (0) comments

Asymmetrical Information: Can one oppose polygamy without opposing gay marriage? Sure, if one is icky and the other is not.

Posted 2:51 PM by Marco (0) comments

This comment to How Soccer Explains The World explains soccer.

Posted 2:45 PM by Marco (0) comments

Looks like a feature to me, not a bug. PDF Security Compromised in Gmail.

Posted 7:15 AM by Marco (0) comments

My hotel offers High-Speed Internet, rated by the CNET Bandwidth Meter Speed Test at 583.7 Kbps. UPDATE: But, I am very glad to be home, and not just because I get 1301.4 Kbps.

Posted 3:01 PM by Marco (0) comments

No comment necessary: Images: Demotivators strike again.

Posted 12:23 PM by Marco (0) comments

A Duke Law Professor of whom the lacrosse team can be proud.

Posted 11:14 AM by Marco (0) comments

Two great posts from ScrappleFace: U.S. Generals Call for Resignation of Media Leaders and Immigration Counterprotest Draws Millions to Job Sites.

Posted 10:30 AM by Marco (0) comments

The New York Times channels Adam Smith in Fries With That?

Posted 4:17 PM by Marco (0) comments

Dateline NBC, which faked a pickup explosion, is targeting NASCAR.

Posted 2:41 PM by Marco (0) comments

A classic: Phila. no-flush standoff unclogged, with a catch.

Posted 4:36 PM by Marco (0) comments

I will try to be Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File. UPDATE: Day 1, and nothing is broken, and some ads are not displayed.

Posted 8:11 AM by Marco (0) comments

Technology to the rescue? Has anybody tried the AeroPress Coffee & Espresso Maker?

Posted 12:12 PM by Marco (0) comments

Quiet Killers: If only one life is saved...

Posted 3:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

I always hated taking meeting minutes.

Posted 1:45 PM by Marco (0) comments

After a million miles, I was stunned to have to follow a blog link to learn that my US Airways dividend miles are expiring. Hat tip: View from the Wing.

Posted 8:05 AM by Marco (0) comments

Who says America is losing its manufacturing base?

Posted 10:35 AM by Marco (0) comments

A doctor buddy of mine recommends The Fix-It Myth for a succinct description of our health care "crisis".

Posted 10:49 AM by Marco (0) comments

Who benefits from M&A work? KPMG among others.

Posted 4:49 PM by Marco (0) comments

Ends and Means: A Nasty Business. It is never as simple as we wish it were.

Posted 11:00 AM by Marco (0) comments

The free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows.

Posted 12:40 PM by Marco (0) comments

All in an animated GIF: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Posted 11:50 AM by Marco (0) comments

Who is the best expert on slippery slopes? The Volokh Conspiracy.

Posted 1:43 PM by Marco (0) comments

At least in Britain they can call it a Christmas party.

Posted 1:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

Gimme some of that Global Warming!

Posted 10:40 AM by Marco (0) comments

Good thing he was the IT Director.

Posted 7:58 PM by Marco (0) comments

If you let in only the brilliant, then you produced bookworms and bench scientists: you ended up as socially irrelevant as the University of Chicago (an institution Harvard officials looked upon and shuddered).

Posted 5:57 PM by Marco (0) comments

Whew. Pandemic Panic over the Avian Flu may be overwrought.

Posted 8:17 AM by Marco (0) comments

Good guide to Apache License and GPL, called Academic v. Reciprocal licenses.

Posted 7:43 AM by Marco (0) comments

This just in. Pharmaceutical sales reps are cute.

Posted 6:08 AM by Marco (0) comments

Has anybody actually done real work using a Web-based Office Suite? UPDATE: A pretty good review of Writely.

Posted 9:41 AM by Marco (0) comments

Question 4: The Justice Department intervened in a court case on behalf of Research In Motion because?

Posted 11:51 AM by Marco (0) comments

Meet the Flinstone's. Where? Pennsylvania.

Posted 3:07 PM by Marco (0) comments

Bottom line - if you are buying music CDs - check if they have Sony on the label, and if they do, don't buy them.

Posted 1:10 PM by Marco (0) comments

So exactly who is representing Frank Chavez?

Posted 1:14 PM by Marco (0) comments

Great investigative reporting on Sony's Rootkit malware. And MS makes you edit your registry to disable CD Autorun.

Posted 12:18 PM by Marco (0) comments

Central Economic Planning is really Central Political Planning.

Posted 11:42 AM by Marco (0) comments

Want efficient Rationing? Try gouging.

Posted 10:47 AM by Marco (0) comments

Are senators really that smart?

Posted 8:30 AM by Marco (0) comments

I oppose the Miers nomination. Conservatives deserve better; Americans deserve better.

Posted 5:03 PM by Marco (0) comments

Good movie, maybe. But is 'Good Night' good history?

Posted 7:20 AM by Marco (0) comments

On a much-delayed flight, I was able to really read my Johns Hopkins Magazine, where I learned "Unknown to most of the record crowd of 44,920 in Philadelphia, seven of Hopkins' top nine scorers, including Harrison, had suffered significant injuries during the two weeks leading up to the finals". We wondered why there were so many unsung heroes.

Posted 4:54 PM by Marco (0) comments

Can you too be Avoiding Tolls On The Massachusetts Turnpike?

Posted 3:49 PM by Marco (0) comments

CNET News: FBI to get veto power over PC software? Link included.

Posted 1:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

Adding to the Irish Legend, Weis grants little boy's dying wish.

Posted 5:33 PM by Marco (0) comments

One statistic from The Bell Curve, made easy by Arnold Kling, who must be a great teacher.

Posted 7:56 AM by Marco (0) comments

Would I get caught? Probably by an Ego-Hack.

Posted 4:02 PM by Marco (0) comments

Common sense revolts at the idea that creating a virtual card catalog is not fair use.

Posted 12:55 PM by Marco (0) comments

Two Hundred Billion Dollars divided by One Million People equals $200,000. PER PERSON, FEDERAL SPENDING ALONE. Steven E. Landsburg says take the money and run.

Posted 1:23 PM by Marco (0) comments

It seems that even Cato is resigned to Katrina spending. And I would add half a billion for CPB to Cato's list.

Posted 12:17 PM by Marco (0) comments

Pretty Funny: Please Don't Upgrade Me!

Posted 4:28 PM by Marco (0) comments

Reason: You Don't Save What You Don't Own: Disaster amplifies the private-public incentive divide. Greyhound, after all, did not leave hundreds of its buses to be destroyed. And, of course, this very fact caused Nagin to scream for "every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country" to come to the aid of his city.

Posted 11:43 AM by Marco (0) comments

Soporific sues sophomore.

Posted 7:56 AM by Marco (0) comments

I couldda been a Senadah. Mary Landrieu Bobs, Weaves, Implodes.

Posted 10:28 AM by Marco (0) comments

My memory of almost 25 years on Opportunity Cost is better than 78 percent of the economists questioned.

Posted 4:26 PM by Marco (0) comments

John Roberts: Judging [his] Faith and Following the Money. But I thought profits were good?

Posted 10:38 AM by Marco (0) comments

Microsoft Names Former Wal-Mart Exec As Chief Operating Officer. And where did he start? As an hourly sales associate.

Posted 9:07 AM by Marco (0) comments

Hopkins Lacrosse Team Honored at White House, without flip-flops.

Posted 9:44 AM by Marco (0) comments

Courage is sometimes little more than stating the obvious.

Posted 4:02 PM by Marco (0) comments

National Champions Gallery: Photos courtesy of Homewood Imaging and Photographic Services.

Posted 2:12 PM by Marco (0) comments

Not much about Harry Potter, but a gem about Half-Wit Prigs.

Posted 2:09 PM by Marco (0) comments

What's all this I hear about endangered feces? ... Never mind.

Posted 4:01 PM by Marco (0) comments

How would you answer these Confirmation Questions?

Posted 1:36 PM by Marco (0) comments

Who is on the Plame trail? Power Line and the WSJ. But not the Today Show.

Posted 6:54 PM by Marco (0) comments

I like these Terrorism Lessons From 1870, especially since I think Arnold Kling strays from his area of expertise quite nicely.

Posted 11:32 AM by Marco (0) comments

Orin Kerr writes The Only Supreme Court Editorial You Need to Read.

Posted 11:46 AM by Marco (0) comments

ScrappleFace: Kennedy Slams Unnamed Supreme Court Nominee. Tactic: Nominate Ann Coulter, and then anybody will seem moderate. UPDATE: Life, OK, Chuck Schumer imitates ScrappleFace.

Posted 7:20 PM by Marco (0) comments

If "Gary Becker is the grand old freak", then Freaky Research is some of the most important.

Posted 12:55 PM by Marco (0) comments

Robert J. Samuelson explains why 1990 is the Kyoto baseline year.

Posted 7:17 PM by Marco (0) comments

ScrappleFace: Court Allows 10 Commandments on Seized Land.

Posted 4:22 PM by Marco (0) comments

PC at Ground Zero? No way, says Jeff Jarvis.

Posted 6:53 PM by Marco (0) comments

How common is your name? The Baby Name Wizard answers not only that, but answers it over time.

Posted 7:20 PM by Marco (0) comments

How We're Heading Back to the Future is worth reading even without the aside, "What, you think people invented agriculture for bread?"

Posted 2:51 PM by Marco (0) comments

Why read him, when you can just read the Fact Checking?

Posted 3:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

Thomas for Chief, not Scalia.

Posted 11:17 AM by Marco (0) comments

John Podheretz: Why Gitmo's no gulag. And the final word from Charles Krauthammer.

Posted 7:05 AM by Marco (0) comments

What a great weekend. JHU wins twice. And HickokSports had the list updated by Monday. And even the West Islip boys win 'A' title.

Posted 12:25 PM by Marco (0) comments

At Hopkins, the Nagging Cold Spell is the subject, while the GPA spike is in the fourth-from-last paragraph. I will be looking to break the bad luck streak of playoff games I watch in person.

Posted 4:28 PM by Marco (0) comments

Whoo-Hoo! Supreme Court strikes down discriminatory bans on interstate wine shipment. Now where was that free shipping?

Posted 1:05 PM by Marco (0) comments

Yet another example of our technological superiority. Hubris: Islamic World Outraged By Alleged Flushing Of Koran. Even the Aussies are far behind us.

Posted 7:02 AM by Marco (0) comments

Asserting that Cardinal Ratzinger should have questioned the orthodox Catholic position that though individual Catholics can err morally, the church and the pope cannot is about as sensitive as asking a Rabbi whether he has accepted Jesus as his Lord and savior.

Posted 7:19 AM by Marco (0) comments

Had the Afrikaners boycotted this election, would that have made Mandela's government illegitimate?

Posted 12:50 PM by Marco (0) comments

Here is a scary PowerPoint Presentation.

Posted 8:09 AM by Marco (0) comments

T-Rock is wrong again as a second-half burst lifts No. 1 Hopkins past Towson.

Posted 11:25 AM by Marco (0) comments

Assuming they honor our balances, Airlines' Merger Could Benefit Frequent Fliers.

Posted 9:28 AM by Marco (0) comments

Monday could have been another BearingPoint.

Posted 11:35 AM by Marco (0) comments

Gotta love this story about vendor claims.

Posted 10:48 AM by Marco (0) comments

FEE Books without a fee. How cool is that?

Posted 11:59 AM by Marco (0) comments

If Craigslist for-rent ads scraped and placed on Google Maps is not transformative, I do not know what is.

Posted 10:08 AM by Marco (0) comments

I agree. I want wireless everything.

Posted 1:00 PM by Marco (0) comments

Bryan Caplan illustrates How Everyone Can Get Richer as Per-Capita Income Falls. Shocking even though we know intellectually that you cannot average averages.

Posted 2:38 PM by Marco (0) comments

The Rock downgrades the Blue Jays the week before they beat Virginia.

Posted 3:27 PM by Marco (0) comments

I took a Nerd Quiz, and

I am nerdier than 70% of all people. Are you nerdier? Click here to find out!

Posted 8:24 AM by Marco (0) comments

Syracuse should have been worried, but so was I. My inamorata knew better, as we listened to a great comeback.

Posted 12:27 PM by Marco (0) comments

Like good Trekkies, we have become Original Law & Order junkies, rejecting spin-offs. So we appreciate this Requiem for a Cop - Jerry Orbach.

Posted 4:17 PM by Marco (0) comments

John Derbyshire gives I am Charlotte Simmons a favorable review, and I agree, having received the book as a Christmas present, and enjoyed it also.

Posted 12:33 PM by Marco (0) comments

These Tips for Mastering E-mail Overload are good, but only really work if adopted by entire organizations, as internal e-mail is much more of an issue for me than external.

Posted 9:54 AM by Marco (0) comments

We were part of the largest crowd ever at Class of 1952 Stadium as we watched No. 1 JHU beat the third-ranked Princeton Tigers in their opener, 9-6.

Posted 2:05 PM by Marco (0) comments

JHU Men's Fencing Wins MACFA Championship. Bishe's 13-0 record in foil leads the Blue Jays to another first-place finish at Haverford.

Posted 3:32 PM by Marco (0) comments

My sis, who once lived there, sends me The Somerville Gates.

Posted 3:54 PM by Marco (0) comments

Strong password policies are actually weak, when implemented by humans with limited memories.

Posted 1:22 PM by Marco (0) comments

Power Line makes fun of a NYT correction, but my sis adds another correction, "The actual formula is a^2 + b^2 + 2ab(cos c) = c^2 and in the case of a right triangle cos c is zero, so it simplifies, but the formula can be used on any triangle [not just right triangles]. Geeky enough?"

Posted 4:59 PM by Marco (0) comments

If you want to know what a Fisking looks like, take a peek at this offering from Tim Blair.

Posted 4:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

I got to Danbury CT no problem. If you have never used the Hertz GPS, you are really missing something. They gave it to me free, but I would gladly pay for it out of my own pocket next time I traveled somewhere unfamiliar. The hardest part was learning to ignore my own directions and instead trust the device. Alas, they will have to come down in price before they gain mass appeal. And the hotel has big rooms and free high-speed Internet Access. Of course, I forgot how CT dirts their roads in the winter.

Posted 10:33 AM by Marco (0) comments

Under Fiorina, Tech Innovation And Growth Weren't HP's Strong Suits. Some analysts blame the cost-cutting, which prompted too many veteran HP employees to take their skills to other companies, notably Intel and IBM. HP will shell out $21 million in severance and fund her retirement. But somebody will defend her.

Posted 7:50 PM by Marco (0) comments

I was watching, and it is about time Rummy got a chance to clear the record.

Posted 10:40 AM by Marco (0) comments

Here is a good way to meet your contractual SLAs.

Posted 9:37 AM by Marco (0) comments

Breaf, and great short story. The Chaser: John Collier.

Posted 3:05 PM by Marco (0) comments

The Onion: 98 Percent Of U.S. Commuters Favor Public Transportation For Others.

Posted 7:56 PM by Marco (0) comments

ScrappleFace: Gonzales Won't Answer, Cites Geneva Conventions. And now Bin Laden seeks Geneva Ruling.

Posted 2:26 PM by Marco (0) comments

IBM's PC Business Has Been Losing Money, but they provide great support.

Posted 2:12 PM by Marco (1) comments

Come January, Boston fans noticing a distant rumble and a funny smell will have to wonder: Is that just the subway, or is it payback time again?

Posted 9:43 AM by Marco (0) comments

Fisking is easier to pronounce than Herberting.

Posted 3:46 PM by Marco (0) comments

Markets for everything! Except if my inamorata notices this.

Posted 7:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

It takes the NYT thirteen paragraphs to get around to noting that Carlos M. Gutierrez, the commerce secretary nominee, "has a compelling personal story, having been forced to leave Cuba in 1960 at the age of 7 after his father was threatened by Fidel Castro. He never completed college and got his start with Kellogg in the 1970's in Mexico City driving a cereal delivery truck." Wonder other compelling personal stories, say about a patrician senator who by the way served in Viet Nam, get similar treatment.

Posted 3:30 PM by Marco (0) comments

Geeks might lose again as Lobbyists Try to Kill Philly Wireless Plan.

Posted 2:55 PM by Marco (0) comments

With this survey Daniel B. Klein can kiss his tenure goodbye.

Posted 4:22 PM by Marco (0) comments

ScrappleFace: NBC Reporter Declines Al-Jazeera 'Best Video' Award. If the story of Fallujah isn't on that NBC videotape, should you just take it out on Tom Brokaw? And maybe these Kerry-like heroics were justified?

Posted 2:18 PM by Marco (0) comments

After I became a PMP, IBM honored with the 2004 PMI Professional Development Provider of the Year.

Posted 11:27 AM by Marco (0) comments

NPR star Keillor sure sounds like more like a bigot than a humorist. I guess counting all the votes really means counting all the votes he wants to count.

Posted 1:19 PM by Marco (0) comments

McBride said. "You have a big company beating up on a little company. You put that up in front of 12 people in Salt Lake City a year from now, and we like the outcome of that." Of course, regardless of the merits, a fair read of ZDNet: Fact and fiction in the Microsoft-SCO relationship would lead you to believe there are two big companies involved.

Posted 8:19 AM by Marco (0) comments

I think this seems like a great product. PDF4Free creates PDFs as easily as printing. It was one of PC Magazine's Fall Freeware Recommendations.

Posted 11:12 AM by Marco (0) comments

Too much triumphalism is How Hillary Clinton Won the Elections of 2008 and 2012, by Dave Kopel, Independence Institute.

Posted 7:44 AM by Marco (0) comments

While there were more anti-Bush voters, Roger L. Simon lays out the anti-Kerry case.

Posted 6:50 PM by Marco (0) comments

Why is netiquette never enough? Shirky says Social Software must avoid the tragedy of the commons. As a bonus, you get the Slashdot FAQ and the Federalist Papers in the same sentence.

Posted 7:10 AM by Marco (0) comments

Can you distinguish between John Kerry, Osama Bin Laden, and Michael Moore? I took The Political Quiz, and scored less than 50%.

Posted 9:12 AM by Marco (0) comments

Became a real suburban dad this weekend. Yesterday, we joined Costco, and today, my inamorata provided cider for the neighborhood Halloween block party.

Posted 1:55 PM by Marco (0) comments

"'Yogi,' someone asked toward the end of the evening, 'is this going to become an annual event?' 'Well, yeah,' replied the Hall of Famer, 'if we do it every year.'"

Posted 11:08 AM by Marco (0) comments

Can you tell the difference between the beliefs (not the tactics) of Al Gore and the Unabomber?

Posted 8:02 AM by Marco (0) comments

Not that we believe in curses, but now we need to count on the NL to stop the Red Sox.

Posted 1:30 PM by Marco (0) comments

Charles Krauthammer calls it An Edwards Outrage.

Posted 4:40 PM by Marco (0) comments

Just in case anybody forgot, the rush to war may have prevented more killing fields.

Posted 3:52 PM by Marco (0) comments

Hugh Hewitt thinks Bush won, but the real loser is Shieffer and MSM. With bias in the open like this, Bush was wise to not to refuse to participate in a debate moderated by a CBS airhead.

Posted 4:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

To know him is to reject him.

Posted 3:29 PM by Marco (0) comments

Whoo-Hoo. This United States Patent: 4,022,227 has now expired, and the comb-over is back in the Public Domain. The Donald, who is no doubt reading this blog, is notified.

Posted 1:51 PM by Marco (0) comments

Today our little emby turned six months old.

Posted 12:36 PM by Marco (0) comments

Word for word, Instapundit is an underrated humorist.

Posted 10:23 AM by Marco (0) comments

Let's blame Clippy.

Posted 3:44 PM by Marco (0) comments

But I knew him even earlier, as a classmate at Johns Hopkins.

Posted 12:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

I hope that any settlement will not even pay for a Big Mac.

Posted 1:38 PM by Marco (0) comments

Hit & Run claims Bush and Kerry are related.

Posted 8:27 AM by Marco (0) comments

The 10 most dangerous species of IT manager. Not mutually exclusive.

Posted 7:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

IBM plans fewer U.S. layoffs to compensate for offshoring. I was read that script also.

Posted 7:13 AM by Marco (0) comments

Now that we have been on wifi for a month or so now, this essay on the relationship between physics, engineering, and regulation, and their effect on our culture (so strong I did not think about it until I read the essay), seems much more interesting that it would have been a year a go.

Posted 3:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

Last night, our little emby slept through the night, for the first time ever. UPDATE: He slept through Friday night again, but Saturday and Sunday he returned to form.

Posted 7:04 AM by Marco (0) comments

Finally, an intelligent alternative to random airport checks on grandmothers, coming, of course, from an economist.

Posted 3:48 PM by Marco (0) comments

Alcohol sharpens your brain, say researchers. What would we do without researchers?

Posted 7:22 AM by Marco (0) comments

Even better than recycling, because this is a real (though small) incentive.

Posted 5:04 PM by Marco (0) comments

Last week, our little emby learned to roll from front to back. Yesterday, he finally achieved his goal of rolling from back to front. Today, he is more frustrated than he ever has been, because he cannot crawl.

Posted 5:01 PM by Marco (0) comments

Who says polyticks cannot be fun?

Posted 11:49 AM by Marco (0) comments

Why? Because it's there?

Posted 6:35 PM by Marco (0) comments

Glad I moved away from the Most Expensive in America. Three of the top four most expensive publicly listed homes in America were on LI.

Posted 7:43 AM by Marco (0) comments

Did J.P. Morgan Chase waste billions so its CEO could keep his job? How about $3.5B/year? And then, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank announced it is relinquishing its New York state banking charter to convert to a national bank and merge Bank One's principal banking subsidiary and J.P. Morgan Chase Bank under one national charter based in Ohio.

Posted 7:20 AM by Marco (0) comments

Five flooded towns in NJ declared a state of emergency, and for us, our shopvac got a workout, but we were fine otherwise.

Posted 9:06 AM by Marco (0) comments

Wireless, with one less tripping hazard.

Posted 2:35 PM by Marco (0) comments

I got the Firefox Download, and really like it. And I might not be alone. Is Internet Explorer Is Too Dangerous to Keep Using?

Posted 1:49 PM by Marco (0) comments

Johns Hopkins Is Top Hospital. In your face, Mayo Clinic and Mass General.

Posted 6:56 AM by Marco (0) comments

Our little emby made it to his first non-family birthday party yesterday at The Philly Zone, and then he went out to dinner with his parents and his nanna. Needless to say, he was perfectly behaved. We dined al fresco, and he woke when a car alarm went off, but did not even fuss.

Posted 1:43 PM by Marco (0) comments

A week too late, the NYT writes, "Iraqis, Seeking Foes of Saudis, Contacted bin Laden." Their headlines screaming "No Collaboration!" are now just hair-splitting. Update: Andrew C. McCarthy agrees with me.

Posted 4:34 PM by Marco (0) comments

Is Rumsfeld soft on terrorists?

Posted 6:45 AM by Marco (0) comments

More geeks, fewer skateboarders in Love Park, thanks to Wireless Philadelphia.

Posted 5:40 PM by Marco (0) comments

A big day for our little emby. At 9.5 weeks, he had his two month physical. He now weighs in at 13.6 pounds (80th percentile, and that is without his diaper even on, and he surely could break 14 pounds after a good feeding), and is 25 inches long (95th percentile). He was also a big star at pushing up while prone, but he could not manage a social smile despite the loud tie on the pediatrician. Then came the trauma. His DTaP, Hep B, IPV, Hib, and Pneumococcal vaccines were a bit tough. He tolerated the first two, started crying on the third, and let us know he was very unhappy by the fourth. But, never has he slept so well in the afternoon.

Posted 12:16 PM by Marco (0) comments

What she said.

Posted 6:55 AM by Marco (0) comments

When you go on a fishing expedition, patience is a virtue.

Posted 7:18 AM by Marco (0) comments

Reagan did not triple the deficit. In this presentation of the The Laffer Curve, we read, "The most controversial portion of Reagan's tax revolution was reducing the highest marginal income tax rate from 70 percent (when he took office in 1981) to 28 percent in 1988. However, Internal Revenue Service data reveal that tax collections from the wealthy, as measured by personal income taxes paid by top percentile earners, increased between 1980 and 1988--despite significantly lower tax rates." UPDATE: Opinion Journal (last item) eventually gets around to reading the same paper.

Posted 3:48 PM by Marco (0) comments

The new Iraqi government is thanking America and Bush. Why are the media silent? Well, not ALL the media.

Posted 4:59 PM by Marco (0) comments

First Hopkins, and now West Islip, falls to an upstate team.

Posted 2:58 PM by Marco (0) comments

Hello allows me to add pics to my blog. Whoo Hoo!

Posted 7:42 AM by Marco (1) comments

After Syracuse ousted No. 1 seeded JHU 15-9, let's hope the USNA can salvage yet another disappointing Memorial Day Weekend.

Posted 1:49 PM by Marco (0) comments

Gotta love Newsday's T-Rock's Take, not just for the prediction, but for his sense of humor. UPDATE: Of course, all three of his final four predictions were wrong, but it was funny nonetheless.

Posted 7:17 AM by Marco (0) comments

Another threat to my FF miles?

Posted 5:18 PM by Marco (0) comments

One of the reasons Hofstra still holds the Lacrosse quarterfinal record with 12,289 in 1999 is that I took my father and sister there to watch the Jays avenge a regular season loss to Hofstra there.

Posted 7:22 AM by Marco (0) comments

I watched JHU beat Carolina on Comcast Sports Net, and with that victory, I zoomed all the way from 839 to 658.

Posted 1:40 PM by Marco (0) comments

My Left Arm for a Gmail Account? I got mine. Just be an active blogger.

Posted 3:39 PM by Marco (0) comments

Did you know Paul Ehrlich won a Heinz Award for stupidity?

Posted 8:34 PM by Marco (0) comments

I needed a 1st-round upset, so now I am tied for 839.

Posted 6:01 PM by Marco (0) comments

OK, I have been gone for a while. Short excuse: I became a father on Monday April 5. Longer version: I found myself in a race with MB (emby = embryo; my nickname has stuck, to the chagrin of my inamorata's mother, but we have tried not to refer to him that way recently). Saturday morning, nine days before he was born, I was just putting the second coat of white on the walls of his nursery, and Saturday late afternoon I put the third. Then, on Sunday before noon Mass, I taped around the trim, and painted the trim. Sunday afternoon, I painted the doors, and Sunday evening my inamorata's brother helped me move the furniture back in after WEEKS of having to edge around furniture piled in the alls, and beds stacked against walls. Monday, the crib and changing table arrived, and Monday night, I scraped the paint off two of the windows. Wednesday night, I attacked the third window. Then on Thursday, my inamorata put up the window treatments, and all seemed picture-perfect, but I could not get the entire image into my viewfinder. My inamorata had her last Doctor's appointment Thursday morning, and all seemed well, we checked into the hospital (ahh, bellhop?), Sunday night, trying to time things for Monday morning, April 5, which has been our due date all along. That way we started with the A-Team and they could still be done by sundown on Monday, Passover.

Posted 5:09 PM by Marco (0) comments

A year out of bankruptcy, US Airways' future is still precarious. Must be the lawsuits. Oh well, "Never mind".

Posted 2:43 PM by Marco (0) comments

How can Cuba's flag get a solid A and Puerto Rico's only a B+?

Posted 7:08 AM by Marco (0) comments

A first for me. After listening to the webcast on WAER-Syracuse where the Blue Jays crushed the Orangemen, I called into sports talk radio show, and got on the air.

Posted 6:09 PM by Marco (0) comments

We got him.

Posted 1:39 PM by Marco (0) comments

We got an 80% on our Biophysical Profile. A lifetime of scored test results awaits.

Posted 11:33 AM by Marco (0) comments

Christopher Hitchens wields the sword of sarcasm pretty deftly.

Posted 6:17 AM by Marco (0) comments

Of course this is a parody. The real NYT Op-Ed columnists are infamous for not having to run corrections.

Posted 5:27 AM by Marco (0) comments

The Viacom-EchoStar dispute illustrates why content providers and cable monopolies need to be separated.

Posted 5:46 PM by Marco (0) comments

I passed my Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Examination this morning. No more flashcards for me.

Posted 6:50 AM by Marco (0) comments

I went to Princeton Athletics' page, and after a half-hour plus download of RealPlayer, I caught most of the second half from their radio. It appears that I joined in just when we took over the game.

Posted 6:31 AM by Marco (0) comments

Sometimes, you have to count to ten first.

Posted 6:26 AM by Marco (0) comments

If Ebbers Masterminded the Fraud, Why Didn't He Sell More Stock? Because he was a believer.

Posted 5:05 PM by Marco (0) comments

Now here is a gut.

Posted 12:40 PM by Marco (0) comments

Google saves yet another document from the memory hole.

Posted 12:04 PM by Marco (0) comments

"Smart Cars" in New Mexico?

Posted 4:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

The BBC reports that a Valentine kiss exhausted an Italian man. But who believes the Beeb, especially on a story so incredible?

Posted 11:46 AM by Marco (0) comments

Come to San Francisco and get your license.

Posted 4:33 PM by Marco (0) comments

Can you say disproportionate impact? Sure you can.

Posted 8:12 AM by Marco (0) comments

Alice knows how to train her replacement. This would even work for an off-shore replacement.

Posted 5:20 PM by Marco (0) comments

Without access to something like the Google Cache, bloggers would find it harder to prove MTV was rewriting history.

Posted 12:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

Surprise: The Russians and French were the leading beneficiaries of Saddam's oil. I guess the protesters were correct. It is all about oil.

Posted 12:28 PM by Marco (0) comments

On Saturday, my inamorata, her brother, and I took in My Architect, an excellent documentary.

Posted 2:10 PM by Marco (0) comments

What, no more brandy, chess, and conversation? Well then, the academy will have to do without me.

Posted 10:11 AM by Marco (0) comments

Michael Kinsley never gives up, and neither do the candidates who aren't conceding anything. Where's my towel?

Posted 2:28 PM by Marco (0) comments

Can US Airways be saved? Forget that, what about saving my frequent flyer miles? I suppose I go to the back of the line.

Posted 1:27 PM by Marco (0) comments

If everybody agrees, it must be true. Osama is on Mars.

Posted 5:33 PM by Marco (0) comments

Good news. Johns Hopkins Maintains Waiver For Men's and Women's Lacrosse, as the Division III Membership Votes Overwhelmingly In Favor of Amended Proposal.

Posted 2:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

Dick Grasso's secretary made a whopping $250,000 a year, and his two drivers made $125,000 apiece, according to The New York Post. Well, I can type, and I can drive, and if they paid me half a million, they could save on benefits.

Posted 2:27 PM by Marco (0) comments

We saw the Eagles advance to the NFC Championship game with a thrilling victory over the Packers. My inamorata got invited to a skybox, and we took the Broad Street Subway Line with some rather boisterous fans, walked passed Kate Smith, and a guy receiving medical treatment (my guess, he was atop his vehicle and fell off), breathed a sigh of relief when we entered relative calm of the box area, and enjoyed one of the most exciting games I ever saw in relative warmth. I say relative because the daughter of the guy with the box kept cracking open the window to better experience the full-throated fans, and the rear door kept getting opened (by the waitresses, the fans in the box sneaking out for a smoke, by a trio of cheerleaders entering to warm up, and during the overtime, the guards who kept the sky box section secure basically just camped out in our box), but I was pretty comfortable. On the return subway ride, a true gentleman who offered my inamorata his seat, redeeming all of humanity, or at least the typical Eagles fan.

Posted 8:22 AM by Marco (0) comments

Michael Crichton speaks at Caltech. Not a page-turner, but more worthwhile (and I like his novels).

Posted 8:04 AM by Marco (0) comments

Michael Kinsley discusses the Novak affair. Cynically, but well, if within a narrow field of view.

Posted 3:24 PM by Marco (0) comments

Happy New Year. To be happy at home is the ultimate end of all ambition. Yup. What he said.

Posted 11:17 AM by Marco (0) comments

Eric Raymond discusses Libya twice. First, he adds not just truth (as he claims) but vitality to the NYT account. Second, he gives us an election prediction. Spot on in both instances, IMHO.

Posted 10:04 AM by Marco (0) comments

If she had lived, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her [Mary Jo Kopechne] in her old age. Or to be more accurate, would have taxed us to send checks to her.

Posted 7:19 AM by Marco (0) comments

Visit stopprop65.com and help save JHU Lax (or protect our football players from Division I). But be careful. The website allows you to write to NCAA President Myles Brand. No matter what you think of the NCAA, let's not be counterproductive.

Posted 10:44 AM by Marco (0) comments

It's another Festivus miracle!

Posted 5:21 PM by Marco (0) comments

W.H. Auden reviews The Return of the King. Good review, better book.

Posted 2:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

Hackers say, "Happy Anniversary, Wilbur and Orville". One picture, or a thousand words?

Posted 11:25 AM by Marco (0) comments

SelectSmart.com tries to match all candidates to my Platonic ideal (a 100% match). Bush leads the generic Libertarian Candidate 70% to 66%. Howard Phillips is next at 41%, and Joe Lieberman leads the Democrats at 36%.

Posted 3:22 PM by Marco (0) comments

A great topic sentence: I think we are all disgusted by the way George W. Bush's administration has allowed honesty and candor to seep into the genteel world of international affairs.

Posted 2:40 PM by Marco (0) comments

An appropriate way to celebrate our first anniversary yesterday, with the Messiah.

Posted 2:36 PM by Marco (0) comments

If we are all nerds now, then none of us are nerds.

Posted 6:36 PM by Marco (0) comments

Trust the NYP to cut to the heart of the matter, when they outline The Weasels' Just Desserts. Andrew Sullivan is similarly spot-on. It might become the international version of The Little Red Hen (maybe I would link to The Dallas Morning News version, if it were not for their stupid and evil linking policy), especially now that we got him.

Posted 5:45 PM by Marco (0) comments

Could M$ really be patenting a visual HTML editor?

Posted 4:47 PM by Marco (0) comments

If you could Hold Moonbeam in Your Hand, what would the speed of light be while you were holding it?

Posted 4:21 PM by Marco (0) comments

Say it ain't so, Andy. You chose the Astros over the Yankees?

Posted 7:18 AM by Marco (0) comments

After shoveling out from our first snowstorm, I turned in a spectacular couch potato performance, as I watched Navy beat Army.

Posted 7:59 AM by Marco (0) comments

Maybe the real Wal-Mart shoppers are well-behaved, even when offered $29.87 DVD players.

Posted 3:55 PM by Marco (0) comments

Unscientific poll: Which of these [tech] companies does the BEST job of treating its customers right?

Posted 7:26 AM by Marco (0) comments

Major League Baseball gives Yankee fans hours of pleasure, decade after decade, and provides invaluable learning opportunities to xSox and Cubs fans, so maybe MLB deserves its Antitrust Exemption. Now, the MPAA, RIAA Seek Permanent Antitrust Exemption. They will probably get it, so they can get better at bullying innocent people. UPDATE: MLB does not deserve its Antitrust Exemption. They are trying to deny me my Yahoo pitch-by-pitch updates.

Posted 4:53 PM by Marco (0) comments

Whom shall we boycott? I vote we start with Madonna, as that might be easier than Time Warner, the Gap stores, and eBay.

Posted 1:54 PM by Marco (0) comments

Our difficulties in Iraq are pointing at least one Op-Ed Contributor to The Three-State Solution, my fave.

Posted 9:17 AM by Marco (0) comments

I would be more willing to sit on jury if I could pick the trial. I would start with this case of Spam Rage. Definitely mitigating circumstances.

Posted 8:17 AM by Marco (0) comments

Last night, my inamorata and I attended a gala for the Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. If this blog gets me into trouble, I hope they will represent me.

Posted 1:28 PM by Marco (0) comments

We should not be so quick to underestimate the ancient technology. Roman aqueducts we can see, but it appears that Mexican Indians knew something about applied genetics 4,400 years ago.

Posted 4:24 PM by Marco (0) comments

The CounterRevolutionary helps the Times find a quagmire.

Posted 1:56 PM by Marco (0) comments

It is a boy. My inamorata and I went for the high-resolution ultrasound today, and within the limits of the equipment, they discovered no problems. Of course, there are plenty of more diagnostics (amniocentesis, triple blood test) they had been willing to do, but we had passed on them.

Posted 3:47 PM by Marco (0) comments

Imagine a UN-run Internet. Let me join the Black Helicopter Crowd.

Posted 10:06 AM by Marco (0) comments

Happy Armistice Day.

Posted 6:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

Here's hoping that either the Bronx DA or a NYC jury has more sense than the NYC cops. But, maybe they will manage to accidentally mangle their paperwork.

Posted 12:59 PM by Marco (0) comments

At least one person, Mark Medish, thinks Iraq should not repudiate Saddam's debts. The NY Times might someday disclose that he is a lawyer representing international corporate creditors of Iraq, and that he previously favored canceling the Soviet-era debt still outstanding on Russia's books.

Posted 11:58 AM by Marco (0) comments

A partial victory as CBS exiles its planned Reagan mini-series to Showtime. Of course, Showtime, unlike broadcast TV, could also show an uncensored view of the Clinton Presidency, but I doubt they would have entertained that idea. And, ultimately, did Drudge and the new media save CBS from itself? BTW, my inamorata has repeatedly confirmed that what Terry Teachout blogs, "Newspapers, in case you didn't know, take cancel-my-subscription-you-bastards letters very seriously—if they get enough of them". Her publisher not only reads them, but replies to them.

Posted 6:09 PM by Marco (0) comments

Just when you worry that the Left has no sense of perspective, they surprise you and offer balanced reporting. For example, Ellen Gray reports that Ronald Reagan has a lot more friends [than Adolph Hitler].

Posted 12:41 PM by Marco (0) comments

Andrew Sullivan makes Fisking Andy Rooney look easy. Is that because Sullivan is so good? Or maybe because Andy Rooney is so bad?

Posted 7:02 AM by Marco (0) comments

On Friday, over 100 Trick-or-Treaters visited my inamorata and me. On Saturday, I finally got a haircut (a good one) at Raph's in Bryn Mawr, and after a two-fer (All Saints and All Souls), we settled in to watch The Thomas Crown Affair on DVD.

Posted 12:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

What's worse: getting your blog posting copyedited or lawyered?

Posted 5:35 PM by Marco (0) comments

ACLU Sues Bush for White House Ramadan Feast. Truth or ScrappleFace? We report. You decide.

Posted 10:23 AM by Marco (0) comments

They are not anti-war. They are just pro-anything so long as it is anti-American. The best reporting I saw on Saturday's protest came from Belligerent Bunny, a blogger. At no extra charge, Belligerent Bunny quotes P.J. O'Rourke. "'How come,' I asked Andy, 'whenever something upsets the Left, you see immediate marches and parades and rallies with signs already printed and rhyming slogans already composed, whereas whenever something upsets the Right, you see two members of the Young Americans for Freedom waving a six-inch American flag?' 'We have jobs,' said Andy."

Posted 7:42 AM by Marco (0) comments

A spammer has found my favorite personal in-box. What does spam cost your company? And, not that I think either will be effective, but lawsuits and national legislation tap an anger that I share with many.

Posted 3:56 PM by Marco (0) comments

Treat your employees like dogs, and manage a 300% turnover rate, treat them as humans, and you can have 5% turnover rate. Maybe even get a decent reputation, and get better employees in the first place. UPDATE: My inamorata reminds me that inbound and outbound telemarketers have very different turnover rates. Of course, outbound telemarketing is a less pleasant job, and the 300% turnover rate surely applies to them.

Posted 5:24 PM by Marco (0) comments

Glad he has got that vision thing, but I hope is he proves more effective than most Wilsonians.

Posted 4:08 PM by Marco (0) comments

Required reading for dinosaurs: We're Not Losing the Culture Wars Anymore by Brian C. Anderson. Why are we not losing? Three new developments: cable news, the Internet (especially bloggers), and a democratization in publishing.

Posted 1:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

Of course Jeff Jacoby is correct strategically. But tactically, how about opening one front at a time?

Posted 6:10 PM by Marco (0) comments

For my birthday, after an excellent dinner at Fork, my inamorata and I arrived at the Philadelphia Orchestra just as the house lights dimmed. First, a showy orchestral piece Richard Strauss' Don Juan, and then an incredibly showy cellist, Steven Isserlis, who played the Elgar Cello Concerto, which I had never heard before. He played like a violinist, not just the speed of his finger work, and the ease with which he hit high notes, but he also frequently raised his bow with a flourish. For his encore, played a rapid pizzicato plucking with the neck hand as well. Then my inamorata noticed that he had anonymously joined the orchestra for the "Enigma" Variations, also by Elgar, but the principal cellist got to perform the solo as the variations rotated around the orchestra members. And Sunday night, I got treated to cake and ice cream, and amiable madness. Good preparation? I hope not.

Posted 8:19 AM by Marco (0) comments

Yet another reason to boycott the NYT. Self-hating American is bad, but a self-hating New Yorker is unforgivable. And, no, it is not for the money.

Posted 12:38 PM by Marco (0) comments

The most common Leadership Style? You guessed it -- follower.

Posted 8:50 AM by Marco (0) comments

My sis sent me an e-card last night, writing "Happy Birthday! As of 11 PM Thursday, the Yankees just got back into it. May be they will win in honor of your birthday! Have a great day and Happy Birthday, Happy Friday!" Of course, my inamorata and I were already tired, and the pizza lasted longer than we did, so we did not get to see the Yankees honor my birthday by extending the Curse of the Bambino over the BoSox.

Posted 6:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

Who needs digital TV? I don't, and if it cripples current functionality, neither does Dan Gillmor.

Posted 11:23 AM by Marco (0) comments

Good News: IBM's Performance May Indicate Better Times Are Coming. But it would be better news if we "will hire 10,000 new workers" in the US.

Posted 9:38 AM by Marco (0) comments

Who says that geeks cannot compose works of art? Compare NaDa to silent compositions.

Posted 12:02 PM by Marco (0) comments

You had better have a good excuse if you are going to be wearing red socks.

Posted 7:06 PM by Marco (0) comments

Just as somebody must believe that OJ is still looking for the real killer, and somebody must believe that the WP is still looking for the real leaker, I suppose somebody must believe that that Saddam was curing Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever. Surely (stop calling me Surely) a shame his search was interrupted.

Posted 6:45 PM by Marco (0) comments

Gotta be tough to live without your CrackBerry.

Posted 10:32 AM by Marco (0) comments

Congrats to my sis and her hubby. The Atlantic Monthly rates the 'tute Number 1.

Posted 10:30 AM by Marco (0) comments

Now Wall Streeters may get a taste of their own medicine, as as they try to cut costs by looking to India.

Posted 8:55 AM by Marco (0) comments

One of the chemists receiving a Nobel Prize was from Hopkins. He became the 30th person associated with Johns Hopkins to win a Nobel. As a 1974 graduate of the School of Medicine, he also became the 13th graduate of the university to do so, in a line dating back to Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D. 1886, who won the Peace Prize in 1919. And he is using his bully pulpit.

Posted 6:02 PM by Marco (0) comments

A two-sport school? JHU Blue Jay Football cracks the Top 20 for first time in school history.

Posted 4:21 PM by Marco (0) comments

My inamorata and I got to break in our dining room chairs for the first time with non-family guests. We started off with a great crab dip appetizer, followed by roast turkey with mashed potatoes and asparagus, and ended with a double dessert: a Martha Stewart Apple recipe and cake.

Posted 5:53 PM by Marco (0) comments

My inamorata reads in the Hindustan Times that Kuwait foils smuggling of chemicals from Iraq, and she wonders "How does one smuggle weapons of mass destruction that do not exist?"

Posted 3:27 PM by Marco (0) comments

About time. Geek Eye for the Luddite Guys.

Posted 10:48 AM by Marco (0) comments

Here is a scoop: Attention Is a Finite Resource. OK, the real story is that a growing body of research evidence indicates that multitasking actually erodes, rather than enhances, productivity.

Posted 2:47 PM by Marco (0) comments

The U.S. Capital is on a crisis footing for Hurricane Isabel, and so are we. I ran out for bread, and my inamorata is filling our gas tank.

Posted 2:41 PM by Marco (0) comments

Former JHU News-Letter editor Russ Smith makes OpinionJournal.

Posted 9:35 AM by Marco (0) comments

Michael Kinsley can speak plainly when he wants to. Nice little software company you have here. Sure would be a pity if something legislative happened to it.

Posted 6:35 PM by Marco (0) comments

The NYT discovers that when people who can get somebody else to pay for services will line up for all that they can get.

Posted 7:37 AM by Marco (0) comments

Almost a year ago, I installed my first pop-up stopper. I am usually slow to upgrade an existing configuration for a minor benefit, but in this case, Google's toolbar is a huge improvement.

Posted 6:19 PM by Marco (0) comments

It is a shame we could not watch Johns Hopkins Roll Past Washington & Lee, 36-7, especially since my inamorata's Irish lost to Michigan.

Posted 5:45 PM by Marco (0) comments

Welcome aboard. The New Republic has started a blog by Gregg Easterbrook, and he gets off to a pretty good start. But, if pressed for time, try Signe's version.

Posted 12:16 PM by Marco (0) comments

Bias at the NYT is not new. In their September 9, 1976 obit, Mao Tse-Tung was merely the pre-eminent figure of the Chinese Communist revolution and the leader of his country since 1949. No mention of the fact that, if you exclude reckless but not purposely murderous government policies--for example, the loss of over 20 million Chinese during the famine of 1959-'62, which was caused by the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao was the number two mass-murderer of all time.

Posted 3:43 PM by Marco (0) comments

Frustrated IT managers are ready to bolt if the economy heats up. Of course, that is a pretty big if. And that means that somebody has a perverse interest in ensuring that the tech recovery is postponed (or moved off-shore). Good thing I generally do not believe in conspiracies.

Posted 1:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

Worked in the office yesterday (and today), missing a great opening day for football. Hopkins beat Rochester 27-9, as Merrell connected with Wolcott for three second-half touchdowns. Meanwhile, my inamorata's Villanova edged Temple in double overtime, while her number 19 Notre Dame pulled out an overtime victory against Washington State 29-26.

Posted 4:48 PM by Marco (0) comments

Yet another model allowing us to choose between Rousseau and Locke, as well as a couple of others, but I suspect few will fall in the other two quadrants.

Posted 4:54 PM by Marco (0) comments

The Dow's biggest winner was IBM, which soared $3.75 to $85.76 after Goldman Sachs upgraded computer hardware stocks. Good thing we are a hardware company today.

Posted 7:11 AM by Marco (0) comments

And who will bell the cat? Wally?

Posted 4:46 PM by Marco (0) comments

The NCAA is getting some bad press. So, what do they do? Force Hopkins to leave Division III, including football. We would surely be black and blue. But maybe we can play Division I cricket, just as our fencers have always faced Division I opponents?

Posted 3:52 PM by Marco (0) comments

Maybe not a better mousetrap, but funny, if sick.

Posted 3:44 PM by Marco (0) comments

Pretty productive Sunday. In one day, chipped, sanded, primed, and painted the northeast (smallest) exterior face of our family room extension. Let's see how it looks when dry.

Posted 9:49 AM by Marco (0) comments

If we're all geeks now, then none of us are geeks either.

Posted 5:16 AM by Marco (0) comments

The Blackout is over, and my inamorata and I made it to LI, but my work e-mail is still down.

Posted 9:22 AM by Marco (0) comments

The NYT has just given me permission to subtitle my Blog "All the news that's fit to print". But, I like my current subtitle better.

Posted 11:05 AM by Marco (0) comments

Gem-quality, cultured diamonds, near-perfect carbon crystals, undetectable by scratch tests or a jeweler's loupe. And I thought we would have to wait fifty years for nanotechnology to change the supply chain.

Posted 4:47 PM by Marco (0) comments

My sis submitted the item to the Best of the Web Today about John Kerry wanting Swiss cheese on his Philly cheesesteak. But, in fairness to Kerry, I have been able to order provolone in place of the de rigueur whiz.

Posted 5:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

The NYT re-discovers States' Rights.

Posted 3:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

So the NCAA's idea of reform is to eliminate scholarships. Sounds like a monopolistic cartel to me.

Posted 6:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

Hope for geezers? A Cure for Aging?

Posted 8:27 AM by Marco (0) comments

I wonder if the FBI does as well on its Most Wanted list.

Posted 10:24 AM by Marco (0) comments

Yet another reason to use only your own bank's ATM Network.

Posted 8:58 AM by Marco (0) comments

Early Saturday morning, my inamorata and I schlepped to Bucks County to look at dining room chairs. We sat on set of shield backs, but thought a Chippendale set to be sturdier, and preferred mahogany to cherry. By Sunday night, ours was the winning bid. But I think we can recommend the entire Seller's List as fairly priced.

Posted 6:29 PM by Marco (0) comments

A federal court ruled that I.B.M. violated age discrimination laws when it converted its traditional pension plan to one that cut benefits to about 130,000 workers and retirees. Of course, workers who get "resource actioned" before they reach a traditional retirement age benefit from the newer plan. And those who have held more than a few jobs might have never vested in any significant pension under traditional plans.

Posted 6:02 PM by Marco (0) comments

I guess in the Doonesbury version of cultural literacy, military terminology is omitted from the curriculum. A klick is slang for a kilometer. BTW, Doonesbury is sponsored by Slate, which features "Bushisms". Actually, now that I think of it, both GWB and GBT are Yale alumni. Maybe something in the New Haven water?

Posted 11:44 AM by Marco (0) comments

Nuance makes a welcome appearance in this NYT Opinion column on the Pentagon's proposed "terrorism futures market", which has a better intellectual pedigree than most of its critics.

Posted 4:50 PM by Marco (0) comments

Now that tight neckties have been linked to glaucoma risk, I am glad to sport an open collar.

Posted 11:41 AM by Marco (0) comments

My mother had a soft spot for Bob Hope, Master of One-Liners and Friend to G.I.'s.

Posted 9:19 AM by Marco (0) comments

I grew up in western Suffolk County, and it was fine, but "perfect for young families" is a stretch. And "Just 15 minutes from New York City"? Has anybody from MSN ever been east of the East River?

Posted 3:52 PM by Marco (0) comments

My inamorata and I went to the beach and then celebrated my mother's birthday with the entire clan at the Pridwin. It was the first time we were all together since my inamorata and I said "I do". And the next morning, we completed the crossword puzzle.

Posted 7:40 AM by Marco (0) comments

Boston pitcher Pedro Martinez was baffling the Yankees, whose starter, David Wells, walked five batters. Mariano Rivera blew a save. All that, and the Red Sox still lost. The curse of the Babe continues.

Posted 11:40 AM by Marco (0) comments

What ever happened to the Powell Doctrine? Now that Pentagon leaders are warning of dangers for U.S. in Liberia, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell favors sending forces there.

Posted 2:14 PM by Marco (0) comments

Multimillionaire John Gilmore is suing the government to remain anonymous. Is this the last stand for privacy? But we'll give away our life story for a Big Mac.

Posted 6:52 AM by Marco (0) comments

First Sex Arrests on a Gay Beach in the Hamptons, next "a train to Buchenwald". And better watch that public drinking.

Posted 7:12 PM by Marco (0) comments

Whom do I hate more? Internet pornographers or somebody who, in 1992, managed to patent video compression over networks, and is now looking for some little guys to maul before going after big bucks from deeper pockets. Students were writing compression algorithms in the 1970's, so I guess if you are trying to move the [large] video data files across a network, wouldn't the idea of compressing the data be obvious?

Posted 4:01 PM by Marco (0) comments

The Alligator Zydeco Band was on our plaza today at noon, and I managed to slip out for five minutes to enjoy an Italian Water Ice (lemon, of course) and listen to some fun tunes.

Posted 9:03 AM by Marco (0) comments

Can you say substantial non-infringing uses? MP3 is only a technical specification, so MP3 files can contain more than just music shared from strangers. Alert your network administrator if he is busily scrubbing all MP3s from your network.

Posted 8:43 AM by Marco (0) comments

Is there a tech recovery? Accenture tops net revenue, earnings expectations. Yahoo's Q2 Net Revenue Jumps 42%, and, most important, IBM's profit grew by a quarter billion dollars after non-recurring charges were added back to last year's number.

Posted 11:29 AM by Marco (0) comments

Relaxing and enjoyable weekend. On Friday night, my inamorata and I hosted her brother for pizza and a movie. Funny, not laugh-out-loud funny, more like a building strange situation. Saturday night was our night for fine dining with friends. And Sunday we recovered with a green salad featuring chicken from the grill, followed by a great warm, homemade blueberry pie.

Posted 1:36 PM by Marco (0) comments

Karl Malone will play for LA for $1.5M. Maybe a ring is worth $17.7 million. But, in any case, he is a real athlete.

Posted 11:00 AM by Marco (0) comments

Blogging is to the media as open source is to proprietary software?

Posted 10:52 AM by Marco (0) comments

Wow, a cloaking device. Now, if only I could connect it to a radar detector...

Posted 8:06 AM by Marco (0) comments

Dilbert knows a bad day.

Posted 11:45 AM by Marco (0) comments

Assuming that this is not just another Modest Proposal, we can add one more to the ranks of libertarians. Now all we will ask of Michael Kinsley is a little consistency.

Posted 1:03 PM by Marco (0) comments

So now you can go off-shore for your radiologist also.

Posted 3:18 PM by Marco (0) comments

So feel free to comment on my blog; I have one less thing to worry about.

Posted 12:03 PM by Marco (0) comments

Can NYC learn from China? I doubt it, but at least a NYT regular can.

Posted 11:29 AM by Marco (0) comments

Saturday night, my inamorata and I celebrated the anniversary of our engagement at Bleu, where we ate after she said yes on the last Saturday of June 2002. It has been a very good year.

Posted 11:12 AM by Marco (0) comments

Sometimes an Op-Ed column needs a picture. Even better, in full color.

Posted 5:52 PM by Marco (0) comments

I like the symmetry here; when I hear that calls may be monitored, I wonder by whom?

Posted 3:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

Now my sis contributes to the Best of the Web also. See the human shields article under the "Stupidity Watch". But she outdid me, because on Monday it was the featured story, as the top box read, "BEST OF THE WEB TODAY / DNA discoverer says stupidity can be cured! But then where would we find "human shields"?"

Posted 3:31 PM by Marco (0) comments

I might like the idea of rationality, but sometimes when negotiating, or to sidestep the prisoner's dilemma, maybe irrationality (or at least, the appearance of irrationality) is not such a bad thing.

Posted 1:27 PM by Marco (0) comments

As for our new offices, I now have an internal "tie line" phone number, but had no nearby LAN connection until almost 1:00. So, on Monday morning, I stretched a long hot-pink CAT-5 patch cable to a hot drop in another cube (waddageek, but I did my part in the effort to help decorate our offices). On the bright side, the IBM network is much faster now that we do not go through the PwC network, out over a VPN tunnel through the Internet, and back through the IBM network.

Posted 1:24 PM by Marco (0) comments

On Friday night, my inamorata and I went to Spezia for some outstanding fish. The waiter poured the wine very generously. Good thing it was a BYOB.

Posted 5:26 PM by Marco (0) comments

No phones after 12:30 or so Friday. Some peace and quiet, but plenty to do, at least while the network is up. I now have a futuristic phone on my desk, unconnected and ugly, but sporting fewer features. On the other hand, there are more generic houseplants.

Posted 6:24 PM by Marco (0) comments

My inamorata, her brother, and I will be checking out Buddy Guy and Los Lobos.

Posted 5:25 PM by Marco (0) comments

Number four out of 40. Not too bad. I hope I am helping.

Posted 3:22 PM by Marco (0) comments

The search for WMD continues. Are they in Maryland?

Posted 4:23 PM by Marco (0) comments

Men Ask: Who Needs to Buy Clothes? This is news?

Posted 6:25 PM by Marco (0) comments

Come on, it is not THAT bad, is it?

Posted 1:11 PM by Marco (0) comments

My inamorata and I just got back from San Francisco. On Thursday, we had a good flight out, and we checked into the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf (adjoining my parents' room). On Friday we visited Muir Woods and had a great dinner at Tommaso's, which was recommended by my inamorata's friend from law school whom we met later that night in the Mission District. Saturday, we rode a cable car to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and went to a wedding with the fun side of my family. Sunday, we had another good flight back. Now we are sleepy, but back to our routine, and maybe a little grateful for it.

Posted 2:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

Off to SFO with my inamorata.

Posted 2:42 PM by Marco (0) comments

Vindication. Top New York Times editors resign, thanks in part to the many bloggers who have kept the issue alive. Maybe if they only had cartoons?

Posted 6:02 PM by Marco (0) comments

We still have not found the (still-hidden? destroyed without record?) Iraqi WMD, but that does not mean they never existed. And in any case, "literally every neighborhood and town [in Iraq] is reporting possible [mass] grave site".

Posted 5:56 PM by Marco (0) comments

Let's see. First we mislead a jury, and then we worry about federal sentencing guidelines. Which is the bigger problem? According to the NYT, it must be the federal sentencing guidelines. Follow-up: the jury got the result it wished, despite being denied a full role in the process.

Posted 6:04 PM by Marco (0) comments

Reconfiguring my new laptop, with the IBM standard image replacing the PwC standard image. So far, no complaints.

Posted 6:03 PM by Marco (0) comments

What, the LA Times is only occasionally liberal and politically correct? Still, John Carroll can spot a problem almost as well as his ex-readers and a lot better than Howell Raines.

Posted 5:04 PM by Marco (0) comments

Support my right to keep and bear arms. My choice, HMS Vengeance. Only $4,500,000.

Posted 12:02 PM by Marco (0) comments

Great I love, but invisible? Maybe JHU needs a better Ministry of Propaganda? Thanks to my sis for the link.

Posted 6:57 PM by Marco (0) comments

Save the Warthog.

Posted 1:44 PM by Marco (0) comments

The Blue Jays ended an otherwise great season as they were outplayed (by more than the 9-7 score would indicate) by Virginia in the NCAA lacrosse final. Worst of all, the Virginia goalie is a junior. But we can wait until next year also, as we are losing only one first team All-American, and two second team All-Americans. Another consolation was the quality of the fans on our sofa.

Posted 6:39 AM by Marco (0) comments

On Saturday, I settled on the sofa with my inamorata, but could not stay settled as we watched No. 1 Hopkins roll into title game with a 19-8 victory over Syracuse. JHU now faces UVA in the final.

Posted 6:38 AM by Marco (0) comments

The rest of the week progressed well. I became our group's designated presenter, and I managed to walk to and from the hotel between all the rainstorms. And on my way back to the hotel, after the rainstorms ended, somebody in a van leaned out and asked if I needed a lift. Second time it happened to me this week. I guess he assumed that a pedestrian is somebody with car trouble, because I was the only pedestrian, despite the good sidewalks. Also, I heard from my manager. AMS is planning a "resource action", but I will be spared this round. On Friday, the weather broke, and we saw the sun for the first time. Passed the first of the IBM certification examinations, and was able to get to ATL well before my scheduled flight. Delta no longer offers standby, but does offer confirmed same-day departure changes, for $25. Well worth it to depart at 5:05 instead of 8:00, but I wanted to make sure the flight was on time. Sure enough it was, so I went though security, without my belt as planned, and without my shoes on, as recommended by the TSA folks, and got to my gate in the nick of time. Of course, by the time I got there, it was showing an hour late, because of bad weather in Philadelphia. Must be the scattered showers forecast in the McPaper.

Posted 7:44 PM by Marco (0) comments

For the first time since our marriage, I am away from my inamorata, as I start the process to become IBM-certified as a project manager. On Sunday, she dropped me off at PHL nice and early, and I used my Delta FF card to print my boarding pass at a kiosk, so I did not need to stand in the ticket agent line. There was a good fifteen-minute security process, including five minutes while they re-ran my shoes through the X-Ray and pawed through my bag. Still, at 2:50, a whole hour early, I was sitting at the gate, with my laptop open when they announced a gate hold because of weather in Atlanta. The first announced departure time was 4:40, with boarding at 4:00. Then, at 4:20, they announced a 6:00 departure, but at 4:30, we seemed to get a clearance and they tried to get us to start boarding in a hurry. But, I guess some passengers had scattered for bars, telephones, Crown Room clubs, whatever, and they tried to accommodate other delayed travellers, so we were not loaded until 5:30 or so, when we pushed back. By then, we learned we lost our clearance, so we went to a remote spot and shut down our engines until 6:20, when I called. And, by 6:30, we were airborne, taking off to the east, and circling north, then west before turning south, giving me a great view of Philadelphia. After an hour and a half in the air for an (I guess they schedule the flight for over two hours because they know about delays and runway traffic), we landed at 8:00, but we could not get to a gate until 8:30, and it was after 9:00 when I checked in to a nice Hyatt with a great IBM rate. After all this, I understand why more business travellers are using regional airports to avoid big ones with reputations for delays. And through it all, I missed Hopkins move into final four with 14-6 win over Towson. After a night of poor sleep, typical for my first night in a strange hotel room, I walked over to the IBM Education Centre. My table selected me to present Monday morning, and it was well received by the entire group. Had a quick lunch, like everybody else, and like everybody else, I dashed to replicate email. Tuesday, on the walk back to the hotel, I passed by a nice ($20 entrees) restaurant called Houston's. I noticed its tough dress code. Baseball caps need to be worn brim-first. Rain today, so I am checking out the hotel's wireless high-speed network. Sweet - blazingly fast and idiot-proof. The receiver was a separate box, powered via my USB port, with a cable to plug into my network adaptor.

Posted 5:05 PM by Marco (0) comments

So hard to figure out whom to hate more, Chuck Schumer or Melvyn Weiss.

Posted 4:57 PM by Marco (0) comments

Strike One: New Net, Inc. wants to subvert the DNS system. Strike Two: It abuses its lusers with Foistware. Strike Three: It takes on one of the best free downloads ever, Ad-Aware.

Posted 4:56 PM by Marco (0) comments

Why is it so difficult to provide universal health care? Despite leaving off two issues, replacing [almost] first-dollar insurance with catastrophic only (I know, what is catastrophic to me might not be catastrophic to you), and the administrative and reporting burden, and barely mentioning the direct and indirect costs of medical malpractice claims, I think this is some smart talk from a Robert Shapiro, a Clinton economist. Maybe the NYT could hire him, and dump Paul Krugman.

Posted 4:53 PM by Marco (0) comments

What is a greater threat to Linux? Bare knuckles (if not illegal) competition from Microsoft, or SCO, which now threatens to sue all commercial Linux users. Any proof from SCO? I suppose software companies have a cycle: losing money while creating; making money on license sales; making money on professional services; making money on maintenance; trying to sue others. Well, they must be at the end of their cycle, because they have forfeited all credibility in the tech community.

Posted 4:50 PM by Marco (0) comments

Brian Shuster, a porn baron, is seeking a buyer for his US patent covering pop-up ads. Normally I hate stupid patents (weren't they supposed to promote the useful arts), but I hope he finds a buyer who will enforce this one with a vengeance.

Posted 5:48 PM by Marco (0) comments

Federal advisory jury declines to find gun industry liable. Will the judge take some sound advice?

Posted 5:46 PM by Marco (0) comments

Christopher Buckley is a scream, and he has Donald Rumsfeld down pat.

Posted 5:46 PM by Marco (0) comments

Now, did this need to be revealed? Forty years ago, it would have been news (albeit of a very personal nature), but now? All it proves is that Bill Clinton's morals were not unique.

Posted 6:17 PM by Marco (0) comments

Spammers: sleazy, stupid, and just plain evil. OK, on second thought, they might just be lazy instead.

Posted 6:16 PM by Marco (0) comments

In Blogs We Trust, in Howell Raines we don't.

Posted 10:09 AM by Marco (0) comments

On Saturday my inamorata and I picked out our wedding pictures (we are almost done) and on Sunday we hosted Mothers' Day. Mmmm leftovers.

Posted 7:08 AM by Marco (0) comments

The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays advance to the round of eight, beating Army for the first time in years. Next week, they will face Towson at Towson.

Posted 7:03 AM by Marco (0) comments

Bush might not be smart in the academic sense, and I hope is smart enough not to be too flattered to be compared with Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Ike, and Reagan.

Posted 6:06 PM by Marco (0) comments

More fun with numbers. How much is a high roller really betting? Say I go to Preakness Day (an old vice), and bring $100, my usual stake. On the first race, I bet my usual $12 ($2 on each of two horses to place, and then boxing the exacta). Say I cash $20 worth of tickets. So, I feel lucky, and for the second race, I double my bets, but again only cash the same $20 worth of tickets. I continue betting $24 for the remaining eight races, cashing $20 each time. How much did I bet? Well, I went in with $100 to risk. But I left with $72. So, was it $28? Or was it the $228 I dropped at the ticket window over the course of the day? Any single number is misleading, but in my simple example, my total bets were almost an order of magnitude greater than my net loss on the day.