Subterranean Homepage News

By Sheila Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros

Fair and balanced, too!

October 3, 2003 7:40 p.m. -- (Last week's weblog)

The hunt for good radio: A while back, I got an email from projo.com's programmer (and hot guitarist) Joe Alba:

Check out this new toy:
XM Satellite Radio

Since radio is such crap nowadays, I've been thinking about getting an XM receiver for my car. But, since my car is ALSO turning out to be crap (stupid Mexican VW's) -- and I spend more time in front of my computer, this XM Radio Receiver for PC sounds cool to me! I think I'm going to pre-order it on Friday (payday).

I asked, "Will you briefly review it after you have it running? (ease of installation, affect of heavy rain on signal, range of programming, etc.)"

Here's Joe's review. The condensed version:

Pros: Different selection from radio, no static, occasional cool live broadcasts.

Cons: "Low-to-midgrade mp3 quality"; there were supposed to be NO commercials* ; coupon code was not accepted; you have to actively seek out good music using their terribly-coded Windows-only interface program.

*From XM's corporate FAQ: "More than 35 of XM's (71) music channels are commercial-free; the other music channels carry limited advertising. Music channels are limited to no more than 6 minutes of advertising per hour -- a fraction of the 18 minutes or more per hour that today's FM stations carry. " (A FAQ for the The Delphi XM SKYFi™ radio says commercials are limited to two minutes per hour.)

I followed up with some questions:

Sheila: I've compared what you said to some other reviews I've seen. You and CNet agree on this part:
"Of course, unless you hook up your PC to your stereo, the quality of your computer speakers will limit the sonics. Even at its best, XM radio doesn't sound as realistic as CD, but the fidelity will satisfy most people, especially if they're used to listening to MP3 files."

Joe: Right. I've got a great little pair of Sennheiser headphones here, and I know what they sound like when the music comes from a quality source... and XM just isn't doing it.

I wouldn't be surprised if this limited quality was completely intentional to help limit the recording of content, but it could just be their choice of transmission methods and/or bandwidth limitations that make for the lifeless mix.

Sheila: Is this affecting your sound quality: A review at unrealisticexpectations.com says, "The major Con that I've seen thus far is that the XM Radio doesn't get the best reception "near some windows with metal linings" or something like that. Big translation here: OFFICE BUILDINGS!"

Joe: Actually, I get 0% reception from the satellite, but they do have a backup "terrestrial" source that works great here by the window. I haven't walked around the building with it, so I'm not sure how fast the signal will drop off once I walk over a few cubicles.

Sheila: You write, "While the music selection is fairly wide, you have to actively seek out good music using their terribly-coded Windows-only interface program. "

Aren't 100 channels enough, or are they weirdly grouped? (i.e., who decided these songs were all blues?)

Check out the user interface.

The software lets you sort by all the top categories, so I can browse through the Rock, Jazz&Blues, and Classical stations easily enough. But, my monitor settings are certainly not that of the average user, and this creates problems with poorly developed Windows apps that rely on specific screen dimensions to work properly.

And speaking of song categorization... I was on a Rock station yesterday that decided to play Norah Jones. Now, I'm a fan of Norah Jones, but she ain't rock by any stretch of the imagination.

Sheila: What do you mean by "seek out"? Change channels, feed it your favorite bands so it knows what you like? Are you hoping it would be smart enough to know eventually what you might like and not like, like a spam filter?

I don't really want the software to figure out what I like, because then I'll wind up trapped in the same musical rut I was in before. But, I would LOVE to be able to filter out all the crappy New Age Jazz Kenny G crap!

The only way to find good music using this interface is to browse the channel lists until you find a song that you know and like. Then, you hope that the dj for that channel has some good taste in music and knows about some killer bands you've never heard of. So far, I've spent quite a bit of time on the "SquiZZ xL" channel, and I found some cool stuff on the VH1 channel.

Sheila: Too bad it didn't work for you. I'm not impressed with the music channels I get on cable TV, either. I really want that Giant Jukebox in the Sky, with a smart person feeding channels like a dj, not like a database keyword assignment.

Joe: I had read an article on XM about a year ago which touted XM's music selections as exactly that -- some wise ol' radio guru making some overall program choices and hiring the right dj's to control the other channels. Some people may really hook into a dj's selections, and they'll love the service. But hey, some people with limited musical taste really hook into the ClearChannel selections too.

Beyond everything else, it's the sound quality that really kills this product for me. And, the "almost truths" in the advertising don't help my opinion.

Sheila: Having trashed this gizmo, know of a better way to go?

Joe: I'll have to go back to the music that's in my head.

I'm really stuck, because I refuse to buy new CD's until the RIAA gets their heads out of their asses. And, I don't download music. So, I'm not sure what to do next. Maybe I can spend some time checking out some of the classic Zappa and Hendrix stuff that I can find in the used CD bins.

Can you help Joe out? With so many net radio stations gone, have you found a good, legal alternative to commercial radio broadcasts? (Please don't point to iMusic or other downloading sites. We're talking good alt-radio here.)
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Oppose the Patriot Act? Block Island has, Providence might A group called Rhode Island Bill of Rights Defense Committee is spreading the word: There's a public hearing at Providence City Hall on Tuesday (Oct. 7) at 6 p.m on a proposed Providence Resolution that would have the City Council

...affirm that any efforts to end terrorism not be waged at the expense of the fundamental civil liberties of the people of Providence, and all citizens of the United States.

...affirm the rights of all people, including United States citizens and citizens of other nations, living within the City in accordance with the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution;

...urge the city administration and its citizens during the course of their daily life to be guided by the collective responsibility and obligation of safeguarding the constitutional protections afforded all people of our city. The Council recognizes that this is the paramount responsibility of local law enforcement personnel, appointed and elected government offices that are ultimately responsible for upholding the solemn oath they have taken to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the State of Rhode Island,
and

...call on our United States Representatives and Senators to monitor the implementation of the Act and Executive Orders cited herein and actively work for the repeal of the Act or those sections of the Act including Executive Orders that violate fundamental rights and liberties as stated in the United States Constitution and its Amendments.

Block Island already passed such a resolution last month. From the Sept. 20 Block Island Times (Town Council opposes Patriot Act),

Block Island has passed a resolution opposing the Patriot Act, becoming the first town in the state to do so.

The New Shoreham Town Council voted unanimously on Wednesday, Sept. 17, to adopt a position on the act, joining three states and 164 communities across the country.

An audience of around 20 participated in a 40-minute debate that focused on the language of the resolution.

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Painted pigs raise funds for arts in Vermont community: Amazing. The pigs have a site; there was a Pig Parade.

BRANDON, Vt. (AP) - Pigs are fetching big bucks in Brandon: An auction last month of 25 porkers raised more than $70,000. Forty more go on the block this month.

These 5-foot long pigs - with names like Pig Newton, Pork Jester and Country Ham - are not farm bred, though. They are fiberglass and have been decorated by local artists and school children.

The Really, Really Pig Show, designed to raise money for local arts programs, has been a tremendous success. An auction last month on eBay sold 25 pigs over 10 days and raised more than $70,000, excluding expenses.

A pig painted by renowned folk artist Warren Kimble fetched $15,000. Petunia Pig sold for more than $9,000 and Pigaquarius went for $7,900. Only two of the pigs sold for less than $1,000.

But money is not only what the pig auction is all about, organizers say.

"The biggest success of it is not the money gained," said Kimble. "The big success has been the sense of community that it has created. Brandon has been rejuvenated. The town looks better. This has brought people together that wouldn't have."

The 15 remaining pigs, excluding one that the town will keep, will be auctioned off next Saturday in a tent behind the Brandon Inn. Bidders will be able to preview the pigs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. before the auction starts. The town will kick off the event Friday by showing the movie "Babe" followed by a pig-kissing contest.

The money raised will support the Brandon Artists Guild, pay for art education and supplies for local schools and an art scholarship at the high school. ...

Thanks to Sean Polay for the links.
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Let the mob test the voting machines: From California votin' at Embedded.com,

The FEC's mandates are much too weak to eliminate miscounting machines. It's time for a different approach.

Let's get the mob involved.

Don Corleone would never tolerate gambling machines that might rip off the five families of New York. State lotteries and casinos won't tolerate rip-offs either. They know how to instill trust in their products, trust that though everyone loses, customers know by how much. Customers would flock to other casinos at the faintest hint of a cheating machine.

Outside contractors verify the integrity of all gaming machines, electronic or otherwise. They do this so thoroughly that granny hasn't a care in the world when she pulls the lever of the one-armed bandit.

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Moving day: J.D. Lasica's New media Musings blog url changes as he switches from MovableType to TypePad. The new one is http://blog.jdlasica.com.

And there's something wrong with Lou Josephs' server, so the temporary url for Media Network is http://static.devfarm.com/.
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Senator calls for end to excessive fines against file-traders: At The Register (U.K.) so the date that looks like March 10, but it's Oct. 3.

US Senator Norm Coleman has called for new legislation to reduce fines faced by file-traders that have been sued by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Coleman, applying a refreshing dose of sanity to the whole P2P affair, says that fines of between $750 and $150,000 per downloaded song are excessive. The high penalties could well force innocent people to settle with the pigopolist mob out of fear.

...Coleman hopes to push forth legislation that will lower the fines and also require a judge - and not a lowly clerk - to approve subpoenas, seeking file-traders' information.

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Rush Limbaugh pulls a Clinton: Conservative talk-show host Michael Graham today:

Updated 12:13pm I just heard Rush's response to the drug charges, and it was truly a low moment in my long-standing admiration for the guy who created talk radio. I say this as a talk host who replies "Damn straight!" whenever I'm called a "Rush Limbaugh-wannabe," Rush Limbaugh is letting down his listeners, his principles and the entire conservative movement.

I've already written (below) about how he failed his ideals by quitting ESPN. But the sad, lumbering attempt at verbal Clintonism he began his show with today was even worse. Some of Rush's excuses for not simply telling his loyal listeners whether or not he's a junkie came straight out of President O.J.'s mouth.

The comments about how Rush can't speak out until he hears all the facts, until the story plays out--that's pure Clinton. What do you mean you can't tell us whether or not you did drugs until the reporters settle on a story? When Clinton tried that, Rush pointed out (rightly) that Clinton was just waiting to find out what he had to lie about.

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VeriSign Freezes Search Service: Washington Post reports,

VeriSign Inc., the firm that operates a key piece of the Internet's address system, said it would temporarily shut down a new service that makes money off the typos of Web users after the Internet's oversight body threatened to take legal action against the company.

Earlier today, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) President Paul Twomey sent a letter to VeriSign demanding that the company take the service down or face legal consequences. Under its contracts with VeriSign ICANN can impose up to $100,000 in fines or strip the company of its authority to operate the registries that handle dot-com and dot-net Internet addresses.

"Without so much as a hearing, ICANN today formally asked us to shut down the Site Finder service," said VeriSign spokesman Tom Galvin. "We will accede to their request while we explore all of our options."

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House Rebuffs the White House Over Rules to Limit Overtime Pay: Although this vote is being cast in political terms, its content is important. The administration's proposed rules change would have permitted overtime to a fast-food manager who's not currently eligible, but middle-class workers, including police officers, nurses and journalists, could have lost the right to overtime pay.

As I blogged back in June, "Don't you love mandates that simultaneously help the poor and hurt the middle class?"

... the House reversed course yesterday and voted to oppose the White House's efforts to rewrite overtime pay rules. The action marked a significant victory for Democrats and labor leaders, who contended the administration's plans would deny overtime benefits to millions of employees when they work more than 40 hours a week.

While the 221 to 203 vote is not binding, it essentially overturns earlier House approval and puts the chamber on record as supporting the Senate, which opposes the new regulations. House-Senate negotiators trying to resolve legislation to fund the Labor Department and other agencies will have difficulty allowing the proposed overtime changes to go forward, lawmakers said.

Here are links to the AFLCIO's take, to the administration's, and to the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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October 2, 2003 7:15 p.m. -- (Last week's weblog)

...These banners advertised select shows, ones often not seen in the upper echelons of the Nielsen ratings, but worshipped by TWoP users nonetheless.

Glark, the online handle of David T. Cole, one of the three TWoP "elders," said the decision to switch from corporate ads to those funded by users came early this year, mostly due to circumstances outside their control. "Ad brokers rarely want to place ads on pages with user-generated content due to its unpredictability," he said. Because of this, few advertisers were buying ad space on the forums even though several hundred thousand users were taxing the limits of the servers (and the elders' pockets) each day. The elders needed a way to generate cash to keep the popular site running in the short-term while investigating more permanent financial options. TWoP users knew that a decision on the site's fate was coming after the end of the 2002-03 television season, and they were desperate to do something to show their support. Those two concerns met head-on in the forums' ad space.

The setup allowed users to fire up Adobe Photoshop or other comparable graphics programs to create their own ads, or submit copy to Glark for design, which was included in the cost. Ads initially cost $100 for 24 hours in the forums, and $50 for each consecutive day after that. Layering was also an option, which allowed any ad buyer to submit four separate ads. One ad would appear on each level of the TWoP forums, giving buyers more bang for their advertising buck. Ad creators could also designate text to appear in the banner's alt tags. These banners were for TWoP users alone-there was no tracking information provided for ad clients or any of the bells and whistles associated with Internet advertising. "It was all grassroots stuff," Glark said.

The opportunity for users to create their own ads caught on right away (click here to see some of these ads), and became one of the hallmarks of a site already famous for irreverent reverence. ...

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The first two chapters of Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century by Bev Harris are now online in pdf format: Chapter 1 / Chapter 2. More chapters will be made available every few days, according to publisher David Warren, and other sites are invited to host the files. (News, updates and .png versions are available at Warren's site, blackboxvoting.com)

Harris's site, blackboxvoting.org is stilll down; Warren's site is filling in. (Warren wrote last week, "[Voting-machine maker] Diebold's lawyers told the ISP that unless we were shut down, they would go to court and shut the entire ISP down. The plug was pulled rather fight this.") Background info is here and here.
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Bands without lulls: Rattlehead Records produces shows by local bands and records them for downloading free from RattleHead's libraries and for streaming by their webstation, DownCitySignal.

Now. they've launched Projekt Kaos -- one stage, three bands' equipment already set up, six nonstop 40-minute sets.

Tomorrow night's (Friday's) lineup is Jon Tierney & the Truth, Stefan Couture and Just Before August. It all happens at Gallery Insane, 7 Dike St. in Providence (that's in Olneyville, across from Wes' Rib House). Admission is $10, or free with the flyer on the Projekt Kaos schedule page, says the flyer.

Rattlehead also runs a high-school talent-scout program. Rattlehead honcho Sean Sands calls it the Institute for Sonic Evolution at Projekt Kaos. Open competitions are will happen Nov. 14 and 21. The registration deadline is Oct. 15. To be eligible, at least one member of the band must be in high school. Email Sean for more info on any of this.
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FBI May Subpoena 13 Reporters' Notes: This is a follow-up from AP to The Subpoenas are Coming! (blogged here Tuesday) by Mark Rasch -- who identifies himself on the Security Focus site as "a former head of the Justice Department's computer crime unit."

AP's Pete Yost reports,

WASHINGTON -- (AP) The FBI has notified 13 reporters that it might subpoena their records regarding a hacker charged with breaking into The New York Times' computer system.

A Sept. 19 letter from the FBI directs Associated Press reporter Ted Bridis to preserve any documents pertaining to Adrian Lamo, stating that the request is in anticipation of an order requiring materials to be turned over to federal law enforcement authorities. The FBI said Wednesday that similar letters went to 12 other reporters or news organizations, which the agency did not identify.

Lamo, 22, has acknowledged hacking computer systems in the past two years, including the news pages of Yahoo! Inc., and the public Web site of WorldCom. He worked with the companies to fix the security weaknesses.

...An Internet publication, SecurityFocus Online, wrote a story more than a year and a half ago quoting Lamo as acknowledging accessing the Times' computer system. The story said Lamo notified the Times of the vulnerabilities through a SecurityFocus reporter.

Interesting, in light of the furor over sources playing out in Washington right now. Here's the relevant quote:

David Tomlin, assistant general counsel of the AP, called the letters "a government effort to turn the news media into criminal investigators." He added, "Reporters who are viewed as tools of law enforcement, even against their will, can't do the job the Constitution sets out for them. Thoughtful prosecutors have generally recognized this and respect the key role that independent reporting plays in our system. We hope that's not changing."

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Blogging Makes You Fat: Bill Koslosky, M.D., blogging as BKMD, read David Weinberger's complaint that sedentary blogging is putting on the pounds -- and because he's a vegetarian, a low-carb diet is out.

The doctor comes to the rescue:

Foods with high glycemic loads include dense, starchy foods such as potatoes, bagels and foods containing refined sugars such as soft drinks. You can find a table here. (Don't be confused by "glycemic index (GI)." GL better represents the available carbohydrates per serving.)

... Foods with high glycemic loads include dense, starchy foods such as potatoes, bagels and foods containing refined sugars such as soft drinks. You can find a table here. (Don't be confused by "glycemic index (GI)." GL better represents the available carbohydrates per serving.)

David: "The chart is, of course, the inverse of my eating preferences because the universe is not just cruel, it's petty."
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Planetary Linguistics: The names of the planets in many different languages.
The 33 1/3 greatest rock 'n' roll movies of all time: By the Austin Statesman-American.

They're annotated; here's the barebones top of the line:

1 'A Hard Day's Night' (1964)
2 'This is Spinal Tap' (1984)
3 'Dont Look Back' (1967)
4 'The Buddy Holly Story' (1978)
5 'American Graffiti' (1973)
6 'Monterey Pop' (1968)
7 'Pink Floyd: The Wall' (1982)

Both links via Travelers Diagram.
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October 1, 2003 7:25 p.m.

Extreme pumpkin carving: No more Mr. Nice Ghoul!

At what point did the carving of pumpkins turn into a "cute" event? When did boys stop carving pumpkins and moms start? Where did we lose touch with one of the years coolest events?

Today we will seize back this ritual. Today is the day we throw away those safe, cute carving tools. Today. We will buy a big, ugly, pumpkin so large one man cannot lift or move it. Today. We will carve that sumbitch into something ugly and plop it on the front porch. October 31st we will light it brightly enough to give visiting children suntans.

Welcome to October. This is how it will end.

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The venerable publication invited a group of journalist-bloggers*, including me, to write for the fall issue, which just went up on the web today as a pdf.

Here's the table of contents of our section, with page numbers. (I've added links to the authors' blogs/publications)

Weblogs and Journalism:

61 Weblogs and Journalism: Do They Connect? BY REBECCA BLOOD

63 Is Blogging Journalism? BY PAUL ANDREWS

65 Weblogs: A Road Back to Basics BY BILL MITCHELL

68 Weblogs Threaten and Inform Traditional Journalism BY TOM REGAN

70 Blogs and Journalism Need Each Other BY J.D. LASICA

74 Weblogs Bring Journalists Into a Larger Community BY PAUL GRABOWICZ

76 Blogging Journalists Invite Outsiders’ Reporting In BY SHEILA LENNON

79 Moving Toward Participatory Journalism BY DAN GILLMOR

81 Weblogs and Journalism: Back to the Future? BY GLENN HARLAN REYNOLDS

82 Blogging From Iraq BY CHRISTOPHER ALLBRITTON

85 Determining the Value of Blogs BY ERIC ALTERMAN

86 The Infectious Desire to Be Linked in the Blogosphere BY MARK GLASER

88 Readers Glimpse an Editorial Board’s Thinking BY KEVEN ANN WILLEY

91 A Reporter Is Fired for Writing a Weblog BY STEVE OLAFSON

92 An Editor Acts to Limit a Staffer’s Weblog BY BRIAN TOOLAN (Editor, Hartford Courant, no blog)

94 Blogging Connects a Columnist to New Story Ideas BY MIKE WENDLAND

95 Bloggers and Their First Amendment Protection BY JANE E. KIRTLEY

97 A Weblog Sharpens Journalism Students’ Skills BY LARRY PRYOR

And yes, links are typed into the text.

I asked editor Melissa Ludtke if the bloggers were any different to work with from journalists working in other genres.

Her reply:

"The editing on this section was really not all that different from other packages of stories -- but I will say that I had a lot more requests for resendings of FINAL EDITS, even after I'd thought we'd gotten everything squared away and agreed upon, and a bit more concerns expressed, or so it seemed, about the editing....although I think, in the end, folks went away satisfied with the process and the end result. (At least, I hope so.)"

(Rebecca Blood had asked the same question, so Melissa sent us both the same reply.)

On the writers' end, the challenge was to make blogging issues clear to journalists worldwide who perhaps have no computer experience and have never seen the Web. Melissa held their perspective throughout the editing process.

The issue is broken into three chunks:

Journalism and Black America: Then and Now
Journalist's Trade: Weblogs and Journalism
Editorial Disasters: Newsrooms and Normal Accident Theory

They're all interesting to me in some way -- they're first-person accounts of doing journalism by journalists.

Download Entire Issue, pdf, large file 2.9 mb.
Download individual pdf articles from pdf Table of Contents.

The hard copy -- no advertising, few pictures -- now lives in my bathroom, and will take months to get through.

* Updated 10/2 12:12 p.m.: Rebecca Blood points out in an email that she's an exception to my characterization of the anthologized as "journalist-bloggers" -- she's a "pure blogger." And Brian Toolan, the Hartford Courant editor who writes about shutting down staffer Denis Horgan's personal blog, is not a blogger. These two are our bookends.
7:08 p.m. Jane Kirtley demurs, too: " I'm not a blogger, either, and some would question whether I qualify as a journalist, though I do write a column for every issue of AJR and occasional free lance op eds here and there."

Jim Romenesko, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, Rebecca Blood are spreading this around today..
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Sting Operation: What's the best remedy for a bee sting? William Brantley at Slate bares his forearms and takes the stingers for science.

Spoiler: The winnings painkillers were... toothpaste and ice.
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Will your job move to India? Probably, says MSN Money, if it's not tethered to a local need:

The early job exports are predominantly in the areas of information technology (including software and product development), customer service, back-office accounting and sales.

Obviously, American real estate, hospitality, health care and security can't move to India, and financial services won't either.

Of course, most of us won't be able to afford to buy muchmade in India or elsewhere if we're all working in retail.
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GPS Users Still Lost in the Woods: You knew this, didn't you? Wired confirms it.

"I knew (the system) was off when it showed us driving into the Pacific Ocean," said Dan Faust, who used a navigation system in a Ford Taurus rental car.

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Ten Technologies That Deserve to Die: Good geek dinner-table conversation from Bruce Sterling at MIT Tech Review. Prisons, lie detectors, cosmetic implants would be ditched. So would space travel. (I've always thought riding for long periods in a tin can atop burning rocket fuel was a primitive way to travel. The Star Trek transporter is the way to go.)

Sterling's working definition of DVDs: ...collateral damage to consumers in the entertainment industry’s miserable, endless war of attrition with digital media.
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Deja voo-gate: The Washington Post reports,

Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe a special prosecutor should be named to investigate allegations that Bush administration officials illegally leaked the name of a covert CIA operative to journalists, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Washington is vibrating again.
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Tapes, DVDs banned for Oscar voting: AP reports,

LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood implemented an anti-piracy plan Tuesday banning special DVDs and videotapes for Oscar voters, angering champions of smaller movies that have taken home an increasing share of the film industry's highest honors.

Academy Awards voters will have to catch most of their movies in theaters after the major studios and their trade group, the Motion Picture Association of America, agreed to stop sending "screener" copies to the 5,600 Oscar voters.

But...

The plan also would benefit truly independent distributors such as Lions Gate, Newmarket or IFC Films, which have no corporate links to MPAA studios and are not bound by the ban.

"If implemented the way it's being discussed, it will be one of the greatest boons to some of the more freelance companies,'' said James Schamus, co-president of Focus Features, the Universal banner that released "The Pianist.''

There's some evolutionary justice here: MPAA's attempts to discourage "unauthorized" viewing (file-sharing) by making Academy members go to a theater to see every nominee. Meanwhile, indie distributors will be mailing dvds to their homes.

It could change the type of movies that win; it could balance the playing field, leading to more interesting movie choices for us.
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Thank this guy for ‘control-alt-delete’: (Mac users, please move along, nothing to see here.) In the The Indianapolis Star, David J. Bradley gets his due:

Bradley chose the control and alt keys because he needed two shift keys to make the operation work, and he chose the delete key because it was on the opposite side of the keyboard. He didn't want people to hit control-alt-delete by accident.

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Link fixed: Yesterday I neglected to link the Meet-Ups on the item that begins with a link to Election Central, California elections official Warren Slocum's blog. (Meet-Ups are a way to organize face-to-face meetings in many cities of people with the same interests. Presidential candidate Howard Dean has organized extremely well this way.) Here's the link:

From VerifiedVoting.org: National Election Reform Meet-Ups are scheduled for Oct. 8, everywhere. (Choose your city.) If you're interested, sign up, vote for a venue, and meet others in search of a paper trail.
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Build your own "balancing scooter": Trevor Blackwell writes,

Balancing lateral scooters, like the Segway™ are often thought to be technological miracles, but it is not actually very hard to build a balancing scooter. I built the one described here for my own amusement, ...

I put this scooter together in a week using off the shelf parts. Altogether it cost about $2000, or $2500 if you include the "one-time" costs of buying development kits and parts I ended up not using. It doesn't need high-tech special components. Wheelchair motors and RC car batteries work fine.

And then he shows you how -- with photos.
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Election Central is touted by its creator as the ...

World's 1st Blog Devoted to Election Reform, Verified Voting and Democracy - Updated Daily!"

Check out Warren Slocum's thoughts on a variety of subjects by visiting the web's 1st blog devoted to the areas of election reform, verified voting and citizen engagement issues. Visit often and get daily updates on the news that affects the very core of democracy.

What's important here is that Warren Slocum is Chief Elections Officer & Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder of San Mateo County, Calif.

Slocum links to VerifiedVoting.org, an advocacy site, with this blurb:

Get involved in the fight for a voter verifiable ballot. Use these resources to help organize in your community or just learn more about the issue. Resources include a brief introduction of the verifiable ballot issue, a general purpose flyer and sample letters.

National Election Reform Meet-Ups are scheduled for Oct. 8, everywhere. If you're interested, sign up, vote for a venue, and meet others in search of a paper trail.

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The Presidency Wars: David Brooks, now a N.Y. Times columnist via the Weekly Standard, writes today about Bush-hating, '80s culture wars that have given way to something way more personal:

The fundamental argument in the presidency wars is not that the president is wrong, or is driven by a misguided ideology. That's so 1980's. The fundamental argument now is that he is illegitimate. He is so ruthless, dishonest and corrupt, he undermines the very rules of civilized society. Many conservatives believed this about Clinton. Teddy Kennedy obviously believes it about Bush. Howard Dean declares, "What's at stake in this election is democracy itself."

Mr. Brooks, who appears to be about 40, probably doesn't remember how thoroughly hated Richard Nixon was by many Americans. And in his piece, he never mentions the Democrat who inspires some of the the nastiest attacks of all: Hillary Clinton.
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Gadget fatigue: James J. Cramer writing for The Street.com (Disney's MovieBeam Will Fade Like a Moonbeam),

No more devices. Sorry, I don't want still one more device attached to my television set. And I certainly don't want to pay for it.

Yet, there goes Disney, offering Operation MovieBeam, under which you can add a device to your television that costs you money every day so you won't have to pay late fees at Blockbuster.

Huh?

If, unlike me, you still have available outlets and can use your microwave without blowing a fuse, read on. You may still find little to like about these parameters, as described by CNews:

MovieBeam would deliver films directly to consumers' TVs through a set-top box.

Disney will set the retail price for the movie downloads, which typically range between $2.95 and $4.99 US, Movielink said.

The movie files can be viewed on a PC or on a television connected to a computer, but customers have a maximum of 30 days to begin watching their downloaded movie. Once they begin to do so, the movie can be viewed only over the next 24 hours.

A computer with a broadband Internet connection is necessary to use the service.

No outlets left? Gizmodo spotlights lots of new gadgets that don't need 'em.
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House plans vote on Harkin overtime amendment Wednesday. The Kansas City Star reports,

The Senate acted earlier this month to block the Labor Department from implementing new Fair Labor Standards Act regulations that would take away overtime rights from workers who now have them.

The Washington Post today supports the Harkins amendment:

Despite a veto threat from President Bush, the House should vote to block the rules. While the overtime regulations need updating, the administration proposal tilts too far in the direction of employers. It ought to be redrawn in a more balanced way.

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Monday night, MIT put all 500 courses online, reports CNEWS:

The idea for OpenCourseWare came from a faculty committee formed in 1999 to determine how MIT should use the Web in its teaching. The committee considered and discarded a number of revenue-generating ideas before settling on the free-for-all idea.

That idea owed much to the increasingly high-profile open-source software development model, made famous by Netscape Communication's 1998 decision to put its browser into open-source development. Under that model, anyone can access the underlying source code to a software title for free and licensed use, and developers are expected to contribute any improvements they make back to the project.

"OpenCourseWare faculty are hoping they can lead a sea change in the way people think about access and education, so that access is not limited by how much money you have, or where you happen to live," Jon Paul Potts (communications manager for the program) said.

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The Subpoenas are Coming! "Citing a provision of the Patriot Act, the FBI is sending letters to journalists telling them to secretly prepare to turn over their notes, e-mails and sources to the bureau. Should we throw out the First Amendment to nail a hacker?"

Remember Adrian Lamo, the "homeless hacker" who broke into sites and told their owners how to beef up security, then was arrested after breaking into the Ney York Times site?

Mark Rasch -- who identifies himself on Security Focus site as "a former head of the Justice Department's computer crime unit, and now serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Security Counsel at Solutionary Inc." -- writes,

(The FBI) recently sent letters to a handful of reporters who have written stories about the Lamo case -- whether or not they have actually interviewed Lamo. The letters warn them to expect subpoenas for all documents relating to the hacker, including, apparently, their own notes, e-mails, impressions, interviews with third parties, independent investigations, privileged conversations and communications, off the record statements, and expense and travel reports related to stories about Lamo.

In short, everything.

The notices make no mention of the protections of the First Amendment, Department of Justice regulations that restrict the authority to subpoena information from journalists, or the New York law that creates a "newsman's shield" against disclosure of certain confidential information by reporters.

Instead, the FBI has threatened to put these reporters in jail unless they agree to preserve all of these records while they obtain a subpoena for them under provisions amended by the USA-PATRIOT Act.
The FBI doesn't want the reporters talking to anyone, because that would supposedly harm the ongoing criminal investigation.
The government also officiously informed the reporters that this is an "official criminal investigation" and asks that they not disclose the request to preserve documents, or the contents of the letter, to anyone -- presumably including their editors, directors, or lawyers -- under the implied threat of prosecution for obstruction of justice.

That's why you're reading about the letters for the first time here. ...

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A video game wants to teach you Japanese.
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I had intended to look at free wi-fi today, but I'm now sneezing in time to the music I'm listening to. Gonna go curl up with tea and a lapwarming cat instead. Later...

September 29, 2003 6:55 p.m.

It's a big weekend -- David Johansen and J Geils at the Hot Club 20th anniversary celebration, The Patriots host the Tennessee Titans and a passel of Halloween and other perennial fall events -- but this might just get me into the wilds of Kingston for a night.

And if you're not within a thousand miles of there, here's a band to watch for when it comes through your town.
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Court won't block FCC do-not-call rules: From UPI,

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer refused the request of a group of telemarketers Monday to block the Federal Communications Commission from implementing the National Do Not Call Registry.

The refusal means the FCC apparently can begin to enforce the list Wednesday, as it has announced it intends to do. More than 50,000 telephone numbers have been registered by people who want telemarketing calls to stop.

Earlier: Trade Group To Abide by No-Calls List. The Washington Post reports,

The nation's largest telemarketing association yesterday said its members would comply with the government's do-not-call list on Wednesday, even though a federal judge has ruled that the registry is unconstitutional.

Direct Marketing Association President H. Robert Wientzen said that after a conference call Saturday with more than 200 of the association's largest members, there was unanimous agreement to voluntarily stop calling the 50 million phone numbers on the national do-not-call list. The DMA, which has been fighting the planned restrictions, represents about 80 percent of the companies making sales calls, industry officials said.

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Passive Audience? Wishful Thinking: Steve Outing,writing at Poynter.org's E-Media tidbits:

Broadcasting & Cable reports today... on a broadcasting ad conference where some outdated "old-media" notions were uttered. Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather's CEO, Shelly Lazarus, argued that TiVo and other digital video recorders (DVRs) may not be as big of a threat as many in the television industry expect because most viewers are so passive they won't make the effort to zap commercials with the devices. Wow, that's wishful thinking -- and dead wrong.

Really. We recorded Survivor: Pearl Islands, which had so many commercials it only took 40 minutes to watch.

(I've mentioned before that I use an older Panasonic Showstopper HD-2000, which is discontinued but can still be bought on eBay. You can pause for up to 90 minutes, and rewind up to 7 hours, as long as you don't change the channel. The llifetime subscription was built into it, so, unlike Tivo, there's no $12.95 monthly or $299 one-time fee for nightly channel guide updates. But the phone numbers the Showstopper calls have changed, so you'll need to buy from a knowledgeable eBay seller who'll make the upgrade for you.)

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Addictive game: Seat everybody at dinner with a compatible partner. Subtle once you get the hang of it.
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The Sharer: Questions for Linus Torvalds. Finnish Linus gave us the open-source Linux operating system, and he's got more to share. (NYT, reg.req).
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Robert Novak's July 14 column: Mission to Niger,

...(retired diplomat Joseph C.) Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told me. ...

Related: The Washington Post is all over this, starting here. Novak is refusing to reveal his sources, of course.
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BlackBoxVoting update:

BBV to Go ''Open Source: From Bev Harris,

... As the author of "Black Box Voting: Ballot Tampering in the 21st Century," I -- and publisher David Allen, of Plan Nine Publishing -- will make a PDF version of the book available to everyone, free of charge. "Black Box Voting" is designed for action, to provide facts and information so that voting can once again belong to the people. Many of those most at risk of disenfranchisement may be unable to afford this book. Therefore, the PDF version is completely free.

PAPERBACK VERSION: A trade paperback version will be sold through Buzzflash, Plan Nine, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets. The paperback version is compact and appealing, and is designed for distribution to public officials, friends, and leaders of organizations. The book is meant to be USED, so select whichever versions best meet your needs. It will be available in the next few weeks.

However, chapters of the PDF book will become available this week for download on the Plan Nine and Black Box Voting web sites, watch for the announcement at the top of the homepage). The first download will appear Wednesday Oct. 1, with new downloads appearing every two days after that date.

Web site owners will also be able to offer the book through their own Internet sites; details are being worked out on that now, so that the PDF files can be available on as many web sites as possible, in as many countries as possible.

More news and updates at BlackBoxVoting.com

Ehrlich Seeks Probe Over Ballot Machines: Contractor, Reviewer Used Same Lobbyist. Washington Post,

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has asked state investigators to look into the opposite interests of a well-known Annapolis lobbyist who represents two companies involved in the overhaul of the state's voting machine system.

Ehrlich requested the inquiry last week after learning that Gilbert J. Genn, a former Montgomery County delegate, is registered as a lobbyist for Diebold Election Systems Inc., the company that has a $55 million contract to provide the state with its electronic voting system, and Science Applications International Corp., the computer security company the state recently hired to examine the Diebold voting machines for flaws.

"It was a complete surprise to the administration," Shareese N. DeLeaver, a spokeswoman for Ehrlich, said yesterday.

EFF: Flawed E-Voting Standard Sent Back to Drawing Board

Verified Voting - Campaign To Demand Verifiable Election Results

Voting machines taking heat: Critics say touch-screen systems lack a paper trail, among other things.

Buzzflash interview with Bev Harris

The Agonist: Diebold Machines and Your Vote by Sean-Paul Kelley

Weird link: Chris Floyd's Global Eye: Vanishing Act (Chris Floyd's political column, "The Global Eye," appears weekly in the Moscow Times and the St. Petersburg Times.)
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Subterranean Homepage News
by Sheila Lennon
features & interactive producer of projo.com