John Brady Kiesling, the American foreign service officer who resigned
in protest over Bush's unilateral preventative war policy, will be
giving a talk, Preserving America's Moral Capital, this Thursday,
March 20, 2003, at 7:30 pm at the Sibley Auditorium at the (heavy
irony) Bechtel Engineering Center on the UC Berkeley campus. I have
listened to Mr. Kiesling, read his resignation letter, and written
about him. He is an incredibly articulate American hero, and I suspect
that it will be a fascinating talk. Highly Recommended. Maps and
Directions available at the Goldman School of Public Policy
website....
John Brady Kiesling at UC Berkeley, March 20, 2003
Grok Headline matches for John Brady Kiesling at UC Berkeley, March 20, 2003
Radio Interview with John Brady Kiesling and John H. Brown
Radio Interview with John Brady Kiesling and John H. Brown03/15/2003 06:05 AM KALW in San Francisco did an hour
long radio interview with John Brady Kiesling and John H. Brown,
the American Foreign Service officers who resigned over Bush's Iraq
policy. Both are impressive speakers, and Kiesling is as articulate
and as convincing as his letter:
If we can't convince
our historical allies that this is a good thing to do, there is no way
we are going to be able to convince the Arab world.
People have to take a stand. War may be inevitable, but we need to do
what we can to keep our consciences clean.
There is a policy to make America safer, but this is not it.
"America is still the safest country in the world. The
administration is trying to scare people with this talk about terror
and duct tape. We should use our safety and prosperity and our
strength to do good and we can do good."
Brown said his resignation was "in part a result of Andrew Card's
comment, 'Never launch a product in August.' War is not a
product."
I learned a lot from listening to it. Recommended. Requires
Real Player.
Salon interviews John Brady Kiesling.
Salon interviews John Brady Kiesling.03/19/2003 10:28 PM Salon interviews John Brady Kiesling. JBK: "The
talking points were pretty pathetic. They may work at home, but they
do not work with an audience of sophisticated people who have some
experience with the world, who are profoundly nervous about the Middle
East and terrorism, and would like to see some signs of intelligent
life in American foreign policy."
Are Americans too isolationist for their own good?
Courage comes in all forms: John Brady Kiesling argues for Preserving America's Moral Capital
Courage comes in all forms: John Brady Kiesling argues for Preserving America's Moral Capital03/21/2003 04:42 AM I went to hear John Brady Kiesling's talk at the Bechtel Auditorium at
UC Berkeley tonight. It was a packed house, a few undergrads but
mostly graduate students, professors, and Berkeley townspeople,
filling up the chairs, sitting on the floor in front and in the
aisles, and crowding around the doorways (I gather some of the
undergraduates were out making their unhappiness with Bush's War known
in a more traditional fashion.) Kiesling, author of the now famous
resignation letter, was given a standing ovation when he entered the
hall. He gave a great talk (although the Q&A, below, had the juiciest
one-liners). He said that while he wished he could say that he was
happy to be a temporary celebrity and giving talks, he wasn't. He said
that last night, when Bush started the war against Iraq, marked a
turning point in our history. It is the first time that the United
States has struck the first blow. The United States has also imposed
its own unilateral judgment that Iraqi freedom from the oppressive
regime of Saddam Hussein was worth killing Iraqis for. He said that
while he prayed for a quick and bloodless victory by our troops,
followed by a rapid physical reconstruction and establishment of
democracy, he didn't think it was very likely. He talked about his
experiences since joining the Foreign Service in 1983. Then the United
States had vast reservoirs of good will and moral capital. It was seen
as strong in wealth and virtuous institutions, and as having avoided
many of the vices of imperialism. It was truly the leader of the free
world, and that leadership was willingly given to it. Recently,
however the United States has been depleting that reservoir at an
alarming rate, and not replenishing it, e.g. Kyoto, Test-Ban Treaty,
ABM treaty, Trade liberalism, AIDs medicines for poorer countries,
etc. Kiesling resigned his position as political officer in Athens
because he personally found it intolerable to be defending Bush's
policies. Plus, he felt that Bush owed it to the American people to
have a real debate on the costs and benefits of his unilateralism, and
that debate wasn't happening. He wanted a license to speak, and an
audience to listen. He talked about how much Greek and European
perceptions of America have changed. In Greece, Bush is now called
"Ruler of the Universe." It is not a complement. The Greeks and...
ScienceMatters@Berkeley for March
ScienceMatters@Berkeley for March03/17/2005 03:56 AM David Pescovitz:
My March issue of ScienceMatters@Berkeley is online. I hope you enjoy
it!
March 2003 Column> What's New 200303/11/2003 09:44 AM My March 2003 column is complete and titled " What's New 2003". It
mentions Internet "What's New" resources that I articulate in my
various national key note presentations, workshops and
television/radio interviews. Other resources are also available to my
radio interview listeners by clicking here.
AngryCoder: “FogBUGZ is very well
designed, and virtually bug free. Frankly, if you are in the market
for a defect tracking solution, you can’t do much better than
FogBUGZ. It is by far the best solution on the market right now, and
is also very attractively priced.” Thanks!
Joseph Jones, who wrote the review, didn’t like the perceived
lack of customizability in FogBUGZ. I hear ya. This was one of those
agonizing
decisions for us. It’s a tradeoff between implementing
features that make the sale, versus implementing features that, we
think, will make people who use our software love it, which helps in
the long term. At the time it was discussed in depth here on
Joel on Software.
Take, for example, a typical report a bug tracking package gives
you that shows you the number of bugs generated per day per
programmer. Typical bad managers will use that tool to punish
programmers with high bug counts or reward programmers with low bug
counts. As a result, every time a tester tries to enter a bug, the
programmer will argue about it. “That's not really a bug.”
“Please don't enter it, I'll fix it on the side for you.”
Eventually the bug tracking system subverts itself. That's not
FogBUGZ's fault, but there you have it. Nobody wants to use it, they
never upgrade, they don't buy more licenses when they get more
programmers, and we lose the potential word of mouth.
The current system, in which we expect FogBUGZ users to have
enlightened development processes, makes us miss out on initial sales
but it makes our existing customers happier. And they tell friends,
and they buy more and more licences, and all is good. We've found that
anyone who has been using FogBUGZ and moves on to a new job that
doesn't have bug tracking will recommend FogBUGZ at their new job,
which is one reason our sales are up by about 200% since last
year.
But this is all, to some extent, speculation. I can't prove
anything here. Design decisions are hard that way.
15-March-2003 -- F@ck That Job
15-March-2003 -- F@ck That Job03/15/2003 09:42 AM F@ck That Job -- "my answer to employers taking advantage of folks
having a hard time finding a job in...
My latest article, “Building Communities with
Software,” was sent to email subscribers earlier today.
If you did not get it and expected to get it, you're probably
having problems with overenthusiastic spam filters. I got lots of
bounces, mostly from Fortune 500 type companies, rejecting the
message, because of "inappropriate content" or because their automatic
filters had decided it was spam. Some of them complained about
"taboo," other's complained about "hard core." Most didn't tell me.
Such is the state of email today.
If you did not get the article and you want it, you can read a
shorter, sanitized
version online. But it still contains the word "taboo" so if
that offends you you may want to avert your eyes!
I just got back from inspecting the new Fog Creek Office, a sunny
loft in the shmatta
district, with the architect. It's going to make a really nice
office when we're finished building it out, with private offices, a
living room area, kitchenette, and, budget permitting, a pool table
and plasma TV. Here's what I told the architect:
private windowed offices are non-negotiable
we need three times as many power outlets as anyone would think.
I'm sick of power strips. I have ten things plugged in right at my
desk. I specified 4 outlets every foot, is that absurd?
I want to be able to pull my own lan, telephone, fiber, and cable
TV wires. Even if they're exposed.
14-March-2003 -- eBayersThatSuck.com
14-March-2003 -- eBayersThatSuck.com03/14/2003 01:03 PM eBayersThatSuck.com -- "A public posting forum for ebay members to
inform ethical ebay users about problematic members, suspicious
occurrences, and...
Pro News : March 14, 200303/14/2003 01:39 AM Stick Software adds screen saver to revamped line; Devon retools Think
Griffin extends ADC connections; Two developers offer file navigation
for OS X; Virtix adds iDVD themes to plug-in offerings; Stupendous
revamps for iMovie 3; Web tuner for the rest of the world released;
Server tool released for education market
Pro News : March 7, 2003
Pro News : March 7, 200303/13/2003 10:20 AM Menubar widget for AppleWorks; Finder alternative offers speed boost;
Time-tracking softwares get updates; Gecko spawns three OS X browsers;
Worldwide presentations made easy; Open-sourced Windows emulator
released
19-March-2003 -- What Are Telesymposiums?
19-March-2003 -- What Are Telesymposiums?03/19/2003 10:44 PM What Are Telesymposiums? -- "Free teleseminars which are part talk,
part action. We discuss concrete tactics which solve the problem...
13-March-2003 -- The Answer
13-March-2003 -- The Answer03/12/2003 09:11 PM The Answer -- "Why does searching my PC for a file take several
minutes, yet searching for phrase in a...
5-March-2003 -- Nag-O-Matic
5-March-2003 -- Nag-O-Matic03/11/2003 09:43 AM Nag-O-Matic (Business 2.0) -- "I never thought I'd actually get to
meet Big Brother. And if I did, I never...
13-March-2003 -- Marketing Fix
13-March-2003 -- Marketing Fix03/12/2003 09:11 PM Marketing Fix -- "For busy professionals concerned with Internet
marketing and media, we aggregate news and analysis from dozens of...
8-March-2003 -- Usability Law
8-March-2003 -- Usability Law03/11/2003 09:43 AM Usability Law -- "There are a number of ways that the law impacts on
the usability of software and its...
Pro News : March 3, 200303/13/2003 10:20 AM 1U Mac-compatible server released; Backup system gets bigger; Drive
maker hits 250GB plateau; Apple to display wares in Boston show;
Mariner releases new Write public beta; Neat use for Bluetooth; Free
kalenders for everybody; Mass mailing software gets update
Pro News : March 4, 2003
Pro News : March 4, 200303/13/2003 10:20 AM Better utilities released for OS X; New Tool for FileMaker fiends;
Macromedia makes flashy moves; Blog by phone; Long arm of the law can
rat you out; Captain FTP gets update
18-March-2003 -- Just bluffin'
18-March-2003 -- Just bluffin'03/19/2003 10:27 PM Just bluffin' -- "Here are some terms you should be aware of when next
you have to talk techie or...
BOLTS : March 10, 2003
BOLTS : March 10, 200303/13/2003 10:20 AM OK, so you?ve made the switch over to Mac OS X from another Unix
flavor (Linux, Solaris, whatever). What are some of the goodies that
OS X brings to the table?
18-March-2003 -- Eve of destruction
18-March-2003 -- Eve of destruction03/19/2003 10:27 PM Eve of destruction -- "That this war, like Bush's larger "war on
terrorism," has no clear definition of its aims,...
CodeBitch : March 10, 2003
CodeBitch : March 10, 200303/13/2003 10:20 AM In which CodeBitch discusses the finer points of log analysis for fun
and standards usage
Pro News : March 17, 2003
Pro News : March 17, 200303/19/2003 10:24 PM Extensis lands preflight deal; Your preprint files go anywhere;
Shutterfly makes independent move; HP starts trial run for photo
kiosks; New cameras from HP; Kodak tries computing end run; Canon
releases high-resolution scanner; Vendor releases 16-megapixel chip
Pro News : March 20, 200303/19/2003 10:24 PM Trinfinity scripts iTunes; Developers seek user input; Musical lessons
on net radio; Digital hub gets disconnected; HAM radio app gets
update; German browsers get IE toolbar icons; Flashcards for the
digital set; New movie editor hits the streets
Pro News : March 11, 2003
Pro News : March 11, 200303/13/2003 10:20 AM Toshiba aims to put 802.11 everywhere; HP tries to hit the handheld
Hotspot; Radio broadcasts for wireless networks; Sony adds to the
digital hub; Mitsumi stretches Bluetooth further
""BERKELEY – With the Democratic National Convention over and the Republican one beginning next week, it seemed a good time to check in with George Lakoff, the UC Berkeley professor of cognitive linguistics whose scrutiny of the language of politics has..."
Conférence PHP Québec 2003 - (Montréal, March 20&21rst, 2003)
Conférence PHP Québec 2003 - (Montréal, March 20&21rst, 2003)01/29/2003 12:48 AM The PHP Québec association announces the Conférence
PHP Québec 2003. The conference will take place in the
École Polytechnique de Montréal, Québec, Canada.
The Conférence PHP Québec features two days of
conferences, with outstanding customer cases from Canada, and cutting
edge technical sessions, hosted by international experts. An
exhibitor room will showroom professional solutions. Learn more about
those exciting days at phpconf.phpquebec.com.
20-March-2003 -- is warchalking dead?!??
20-March-2003 -- is warchalking dead?!??03/20/2003 11:09 PM is warchalking dead?!?? (warchalking.org) -- "It has been about 2
months since I wrote the article. I've thought about warchalking...
10-March-2003 -- WebWord Comment03/11/2003 09:43 AM WebWord Comment -- Resistence is fertile? (5 reasons why IT users say
“no” to change)...
5-March-2003 -- IT & Society (Vol. 1, Issue 3)
5-March-2003 -- IT & Society (Vol. 1, Issue 3)03/11/2003 09:43 AM WebWord Comment -- Don't miss: IT & Society (Vol. 1, Issue 3) It is
all about information architecture, usability, web...
8-March-2003 -- WebWord Comment
8-March-2003 -- WebWord Comment03/11/2003 09:43 AM WebWord Comment -- Warren E. Buffett is a great communicator. The
Berkshire Hathaway 2002 Annual Report (PDF) is available....
10-March-2003 -- Equal access
10-March-2003 -- Equal access03/11/2003 09:43 AM Equal access (The Age) -- "But people with disabilities - whether
vision impaired, mobility impaired, speech or hearing impaired or...
10-March-2003 -- Boycott Google
10-March-2003 -- Boycott Google03/11/2003 09:43 AM Boycott Google -- "If you are worried about government spying like
Total Information Awareness, Carnivore or Echelon, you need not... Grok Description matches for John Brady Kiesling at UC Berkeley, March 20, 2003 GrokA matches for John Brady Kiesling at UC Berkeley, March 20, 2003
Not the Brady Bunch
Not the Brady Bunch05/28/2004 07:47 AM We want to get married but our teenage kids like each other maybe a
little too much.
The Marcia Brady of Search
The Marcia Brady of Search09/03/2002 09:43 PM Danny Sullivan: Google: Can The Marcia Brady Of Search Stay Sweet?
"Microsoft's supremacy as a company has caused it to be widely
loathed. Does search dominance by Google mean that the company is
destined to face general hatred, as well?" "Today, no one is worried
that Yahoo needs to be regulated. It remains an important search
engine, but clearly it does not control what people go to on the web.
[] Indeed, the fact that Google has competition is the key reason that
the company currently does not face the anger and concern that many
hold for Microsoft."...
Brady urges Pope's canonisation04/05/2005 02:30 AM The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland calls for Pope John Paul
II to be declared a saint.
Bizarre Brady Bunch opener parody
Bizarre Brady Bunch opener parody03/23/2005 01:19 PM Mark Frauenfelder:
This guy did a great job of filming himself as all eight characters of
the Brady Bunch for the famous tic-tac-toe opener. The video is pretty
surreal.
Link(Thanks, Santos!)
NFL-Brady Leads Patriots to Super Bowl Greatness (Reuters)
NFL-Brady Leads Patriots to Super Bowl Greatness (Reuters)02/07/2005 01:13 AM Reuters - Tom Brady threw two
touchdown passes to lead the New England Patriots to a 24-21
win over the Philadelphia Eagles and their third Super Bowl
title in four years Sunday, cementing a place among the NFL's
great teams.
:: John Kerry for President - John Kerry's Official Naval Records ::
johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0527.html track this
site | 8 links
"One Of The Authors Of A New Anti-John Kerry Book Frequently Posted Comments On A Conservative Web Site Describing Muslims And Catholics As Pedophiles And Pope John Paul Ii As Senile (If You Can't Refute The Charges, Attack The People Making Them)"
Ages ago, I created a page listing all the speaking engagements
I've done, putting descriptions of each event and links to any
presentations I'd prepared. And then I thought I linked to it
somewhere on the site. But I guess I didn't, except for a very minor
link at the bottom of my resume. Now I've added a "speaking" section
to the top of my navigation which sends you to my speaking resume. I'm not sure
'resume' is the right word for this, but I don't know what else to
call it. Anyway, if you're looking for a speaker, take a look at it to
see if I'm your gal!
" 'Who would you invite to dinner?' in regards to non-librarians
that you think have something to say of importance to librarians, but
are outside our usual streams of thought? Who do you think could shed
light on interesting issues about the future of information?
Information standards? Access issues (both accessibility and
legal/technological access)? Who is shaping thinking around public
sector roles in enlightened ways?
What would your ideal panel be about and who would it include? Once
you get it all shaped up - send it off to your local ALA
Councilor. At least that is the way that I think the process
works, but I am not completely sure - ALA's inner workings still
strike me as arcane." [TechnoBiblio]
This
Alifa of China flash player isn't that spectacular, but it does have
one cool feature: the cap that slips over the USB plug also doubles as
a speaker. Mostly useless, perhaps, but definitely a neat hack.
A Japanese company called Tec has introduced a
number of interesting products, and the first two we'll be covering
are the "USB Speaker Tower W" and "USB Speaker Cube W." The former is
a spiffy looking USB speaker/tower thingy with — get ready
— integrated light. Something like this would look quite nice on
a desk, presuming it actually puts out enough light.
The "USB Speaker Cube W" is a cube-shaped USB speaker (not
subwoofer) with an integrated 4-port USB hub. On the front of the unit
are various dials and buttons for controlling volume, bass and
treble.
Tec's USB Speaker Tower W will run 4,500 yen, and Speaker Cube
6,825 yen.
Nigerian speaker falls over graft04/05/2005 07:05 AM Nigeria's third-most powerful politician - the senate president -
resigns over graft allegations.
House speaker: Soros is a druglord
House speaker: Soros is a druglord08/31/2004 10:09 AM Cory Doctorow:
The Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert has gone on record as
suspecting that billionaire currency speculator George Soros (who made
his money on currency speculation) is a drug kingpin. Soros funds a
lot of progressive causes (including a lot of drug-law and
copyright-reform stuff) and has pledged his financial support to
overturn the Bush presidency, so this smear is clearly political in
nature:
"You know, I don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't
know where -- if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it
comes from," Hastert mused. An astonished Chris Wallace asked: "Excuse
me?" The Speaker went on: "Well, that's what he's been for a number
years -- George Soros has been for legalizing drugs in this country.
So, I mean, he's got a lot of ancillary interests out there." Wallace:
"You think he may be getting money from the drug cartel?" Hastert:
"I'm saying I don't know where groups - could be people who support
this type of thing. I'm saying we don't know."
* Ring around the collar for chromosomes
This
Alifa of China flash player isn't that spectacular, but it does have
one cool feature: the cap that slips over the USB plug also doubles as
a speaker. Mostly useless, perhaps, but definitely a neat hack.