Happy Halloween everyone!

I played golf today for the first time in almost two months. During the summer, I injured my left foot while playing (how remains a mystery), so I'd been taking it easy and trying to heal. I played lousy, but it was a gorgeous day and the course was beautiful (and more difficult than anything I've ever played). The foot feels good, so hopefully I can take advantage of one of the few remaining weekends left in the season.

Washington Post: Gore Agenda's Delicate Balance. "…on issues ranging from health care to gun control and the environment…the campaign has found itself laboring under uncomfortable constraints. And there has been a continuous internal debate centered on a familiar question: How far out on the limb can Gore safely go?"

New Scientist: Spam Hits The Fan. Major US ISP blocks all email from co.uk because of a little spam. What's next,.com?

ZDNN: Can Gates the salesman sell Win2000?. "The situation on servers is especially challenging for Windows 2000. One reason: Many large shops — including Chase, National Semiconductor, Nissan and Nortel Network Corp. (NYSE:NT) — have embraced Novell's NDS to manage their networks." An interesting reversal — Microsoft trying to penetrate an installed base.

San Jose Mercury News: Surviving the Dot-Com Boom. I can certainly understand the pressures and lifestyle compromises dictated by incessant, ever-accelerating deadlines, but the place where I work could sometimes use a good dose of hurry-up. There are times when I would gladly trade a 6-month development cycle for a 6-day one.

Reuters: Clinton Grants A 93-Year-Old's Demand For A Kiss.

PollingReport.com. Up-to-the-minute polling results on all sorts of topics.

Slate: Keyes Loses It. GOP candidate Alan Keyes enlivens an otherwise dull debate in New Hampshire.

Salon: Talking 'Bout A Computer Revolution. "…using speech-recognition software can stunt the creative writing process — you end up feeling like a computer program, thinking in short phrases with your voice as the command line."

Slate: Gore and Bradley Debate. "At first, you think: Hey, this new Al Gore's not such a stiff after all. Then you think: This new Gore is a bit over the top. By the end of an hour, the impression is of someone as desperate as he is unable to achieve Clintonian union with his audience."

Washington Post: Clinton Set to Conduct Online Chat November 8, 7:00pm - 8:30pm, at http://www.townhallmeeting.excite.com — mark your calendars.

College Football Wrap-up

No surprise here — USC lost to Tennessee 30-7. For those who are playing along at home: 0-9 for the year, and 19 straight losses. On a better note, Cornell beat Wagner 31-14 to move to 5-2 for the year. And UMass won its fourth straight, beating Rhode Island 31-9 to go to 5-3.

New York Times: 5 G.O.P. Candidates Gather for Talk but Little Sparring. "'Perhaps in the future in a forum like this, if we call it a fund-raiser, [George W. Bush] might show up,' Forbes said, adding, 'They want a coronation and not a real contest — that's fundamentally wrong.'"

A friend sent me some haiku computer error messages. My favorite:

Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that

Joel Achenbach: A Dollar Coin, Wrapped in an Allegory, Within a Representation. Of course it was this convoluted. What else?

New York Times: Election Regulators Clear the Way for Online Debates. I don't really see the significance of this right now.

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld: The Ross Perot Of The Net. Actually, Mr. Andreesen, he means that as a compliment.

CNET: Linux Shoot-Out. Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 vs. RedHat 6.1.

New York Times: Forbes Spending Having Effect Beyond Polls. "Drawing on his business savvy and a seemingly bottomless pool of assets, Forbes is engaging in politics in ways that are influencing the Republican field far beyond his standing in the polls."

Washington Post: Democrats Echo Themes in N.H. Face-Off. "Vice President Gore and former senator Bill Bradley, echoing similar themes and priorities, each told a New Hampshire audience here tonight that if elected president he would work to expand health care coverage, increase school funding and fight to enact campaign finance reform."

Washington Post: Smith Dropping Presidential Bid.

Washington Post: Gore, Bradley Search for Distinctions. "The reality is that Gore and Bradley share similar views and even many of the same policy priorities. 'Historically,' said Robert Borosage of the progressive Campaign for America's Future, 'there's not much difference between the two.'"

The Onion: National Funk Congress Deadlocked On Get Up/Get Down Issue.

SalonHerringWiredFool.com. A news aggregator, this site ties into the story flows of Salon, Red Herring, Wired News, and the Motley Fool, and is updated every hour. If you're into web news, it's a great place to go.

InfoWorld: Mac OS 9 Boosts Internet Access, File Sharing, Security. These new features don't help me out, so I'm going to wait a while before upgrading.

Washington Post: For Rival Portals, Pace Picks Up.

New York Times: Regulators Expected to Lighten Up on Internet Campaigns. "…even though the [FEC] draft opinion absolves the campaign of responsibility for volunteer sites, it offers no guidance on the legal status of individuals who create the sites." Thus the job is only half done.

Anthony Lewis: The Story of K. INS + secret evidence = Kafka.

E. J. Dionne: Fight Over Legacies. "Talk to historically minded Republicans these days and two names keep coming up — Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt. The battle for the Republican presidential nomination is a fight over their legacies."

Media Week: Media Person: Cyberpols Amok.

Reuters: Poll - Bradley Tops Gore, Ties Bush In New Hampshire. Does New Hampshire count anymore?

What did I do this weekend? {glossSub ("Multimedia", "I watched movies and read books")}.

Microsith. One of the best Microsoft parody sites I've seen. There is only one problem: the Microsoft Office Assistant paperclip is way more evil than Microsith's Darth Paperclip.

The Gore campaign is looking for a few good folks. If you have campaign experience and want to work in Nashville or out in the field, send your resume to Donnie Fowler, National Field Director, at fowlermail@aol.com. (If any other Democratic campaigns are looking for staff, feel free to post a notice here.)

Wired: AOL Struggles With Hate Speech. "America Online says it won't tolerate hate, but finding racist content on its site is often as easy as ABC. Or in this case, KKK."

Washington Post: Trump Set to Join Reform Party. "Calling Buchanan 'a Hitler lover,' Trump said on NBC's 'Meet the Press' program, 'I guess he's an antisemite. He doesn't like the blacks, he doesn't like the gays.'" Let the games begin!

The Nation: Calling for Philip Morris. "Taken together, Bush's friendships and his stance on tobacco-related issues are causing cigarette makers to salivate over the possibility of a Bush victory next year. 'The prospect of Bill Clinton gone and a George Bush presidency makes the industry almost giddy,' said Martin Feldman, a tobacco industry analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, in September."

Yet another Gore ad is out. In this spot, titled "Ocean", Gore proposes to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in California and Florida.

Washington Post: Louisiana Governor Wins Reelection. David Duke is probably happy; I'm not.

IntellectualCapital.com: The Partial-truth Abortion Bill. "Abortion is a difficult enough issue when simply argued on its merits. Having failed to win the debate honestly, abortion opponents have resorted to deception in their creation of the term "partial-birth" abortion."

New York Times: The Cable Guys. "The unseriousness of the Reformers — exactly what gets them so much attention — has reached the point that it is eclipsing the seriousness of their stated purpose, to root out political corruption and instill fiscal discipline. Too many Reformers seem content with the circus and the nuts."

Slate: Bill Bennett and the Cultural-Decline Decline. Some people just can't take good news well.

College Football Wrap-up

Cornell lost to Dartmouth today 20-17, and drop to 4-2 for the year; they've lost their last two games. UMass beat Delaware 26-19, and move above the.500 mark for the first time this year at 4-3. And USC continues to meet expectations by losing to Vanderbilt 11-10. The sad totals: 0-8 for the year, and a losing streak of 18 games in a row.

Washington Post: Missouri Senate Race Is Heating Up Early.

Dirt Patch. My co-worker, Jason Buckley, built this site for his band.

New York Daily News: The New Monica: Fallen Intern Loses Pounds And Munchies. "Gone are the days of button-popping dinners of fried calamari, steak and warm chocolate pudding cake washed down with pink martinis."

Suck: Hit & Run 10.21.99. Chess tantrums, possibly pedophilic Senators, Satan comes to the Palmetto state, and more!

New York Times: Early Preferences to Lead the Parties and the Nation. "Despite the trappings of a political campaign, the speeches, the handlers, the commercials and the megabucks, there is something missing as yet from this campaign: a consensus issue which compels the majority of voters."

PrimaryScoop.com. Lots of good news and inside info on the various Presidential campaigns.

News.com: Palm Cofounder Shares Design Philosophy. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Salon: The War For America's Thumbs. "The elements of victory are straightforward — technology, price, game availability and speed to market. But the stakes are greater than mere console market share. For at least two combatants — Sony and Microsoft — the ultimate goal is not just to grab your gaming hardware dollars, but to control the very center of your entire electronic life."

CNN: Web Inventor Sees His Baby As A 'Play Space'. Another interview with Tim Berners-Lee.

Washington Post: All Aboard the E-Train. Old media is in love with stories about new media. Says Jon Katz: "Either the Internet is destroying our kids and families and values or we're awash in techno-hype about the Internet changing everything. Every new thing that comes out of Silicon Valley is insanely hyped. There's a difference between being important and reordering the Earth."

Doom as a Tool For System Administration. I want this.

Media Week: Media Person: Bra, Humburg. "Poor George W. Bush got so desperate for attention that he criticized the Republicans. This confused his adoring fans, who turned to each other in mid-cheer and whispered, 'Say, wait a minute. Aren't we the Republicans?'"

Washington Post: Dole Bows Out of Presidential Race.

The McCain website has an interesting link on it's front page, specifically for Bush staffers…

Washington Post: Hackers Alter Bush Campaign Site. Here's a screenshot of the hacked page. Ha ha.

Braves Win! Off to the Series!

Wired: Web Britannica Hits Iceberg. "That was stupid, Bob."

ZDNN: Linux Craze May Alter Encryption Limits. Another reason to like open-source software.

Anorak. If you ever get tired of the American press, the British press is good for a few laughs.

ABC News: Students Banned From 'Tequila'. "Albany Memorial Middle School Principal Randy Lary says it's not appropriate at a middle school for students to yell 'tequila' in the middle of the song."

San Jose Mercury News: The Man Who Really Invented the Web. An interview with Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the web.

Pankaj Chowdhry: Open Source Meets Baywatch. "…with Linux, I'm forced to accept patches written by a multitude of people, all of whom I should just "trust." Mulder wouldn't do it, Scully wouldn't do it, and I won't do it."

George W. Bush rolled out v2.0 of his website yesterday. Much improved, but the vaunted "personalization" features are a complete joke.

A new Gore ad is out; this one is called Bio. I haven't been able to watch it yet because I can't connect to the Real server. I had the same problem with the first add a couple of days ago. Gore needs to find a better streaming media vendor.

New York Times: Candidate on the Stump Is Surely on the Web. "No one is suggesting that the Internet has come of age as a medium of political influence, as television did most notably with the Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960. But with 67 million Americans on line, up from 7.5 million four years ago, it has become a new variable in campaign calculus."

Time.gov. The official US time.

InfoWorld: Windows 2000 Up In The Air. "Questions continue to swirl around Microsoft's monolithic Windows 2000 operating system, with speculation over the launch date becoming rampant as the company pulled yet another feature from the operating system."

Washington Post: House Whip Wields Fund-Raising Clout. Part 2 of the Post's profile of GOP House Whip Tom DeLay.

Macintouch. There is no better source for news about the Macintosh platform.

Congratulations, Donnie! Have a great time in Nashville (and get out of the office every once in a while).

Luc Sante: Be Different! (Like Everyone Else!).

Washington Post: D.C. Region Leads Nation in Net Access. Because out in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, what else is there to do?

David Broder: Bottom-Line Bluntness. A profile of Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, the new General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The Hill: Bush 'triangulation' could cost GOP control of House. "Texas Gov. George W. Bush's obsession with triangulation has put House Republicans into a corner from which there may be no escape."

College Football Wrap-up

Cornell ends it's winning ways, dropping to Colgate 55-16. They're now 4-1 for the season. UMass beat Maine 38-17, and even their record at 3-3. And, of course, USC lost again, this time to Arkansas 48-14. The depressing stats: 0-7 for the year, and 17 straight losses. On a happier note, congrats to friend William F., who is no doubt thrilled that Penn State beat up on the Buckeyes today.

Salon. My day starts with checking up on the news, and Salon is one of my first stops. Its coverage of political news is particularly good.

Mary Jo Foley: The World Isn't Revolving Around Redmond Anymore. Damn, just when I was getting ready to learn NT…

Washington Post: NAACP OKs Tourism Boycott of S.C. Good.

Water Balloon Drop 4. A Shockwave game that enables me to waste even more time at work!

Manchester Union Leader: Gov. Shaheen to Endorse Gore Monday. Not a surprise, but good news for Gore.

Washington Post: Texas Environment Could Work Against Bush. "…there is statistical evidence that the air in Texas cities is as foul — and perhaps more so — than when Bush took power in 1995. The frequency of smog alerts in Houston, Dallas and Austin has risen steeply in the Bush years."

Braves Win! Only one win away from the World Series. (ESPN had this page up 30 seconds after the game ended. Very well done!)

The first Gore ad — about the recent Senate defeat of Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty — is available online. And if you have 10 minutes and a fast connection, watch The Al Gore Story.

E. J. Dionne: Gore's Union Card. "Gore will get real help from individual unions. But for the movement as a whole, issues will rule. Gore won't have as much baggage from the unions as Mondale did. He may not have as much muscle, either."

Goats. A funny online comic about Satanic chickens and beer, among other things.

I updated my Frontier suites.mrLogger suite; it is now at version 1.0d3. I hope I've finally fixed that crashing bug that's been puzzling me for a while now. mrLogger processes Frontier GDB daily web server logs and produces a text-file version that can be used with your favorite log analysis tool.

Bob Herbert: Gore Has It Made. "Al Gore has just about locked up the official support…. But the voters are another matter. Mr. Gore is not connecting with the people. And time is running out."

CNN: Presidential Commission Finds U.S. Generals Kept Some Holocaust Loot.

Washington Post: For U.S., Fallout Will Be Fading Influence. The Senate rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty yesterday. Rebecca Johnson, editor of Disarmament Diplomacy: "The signal the rest of world gets is that the United States prefers to engage in playground partisan politics rather than working with its allies on collective efforts at international security."

News.com: FEC Rethinks Net's Role In Presidential Race. Interesting…

New York Times: Editorial - A Damaging Arms Control Defeat. "The Senate's action… is a destructive abdication of American leadership on arms control and other international issues. The harm done to United States foreign policy and national security could be considerable."

News.com: Internet Explorer Vulnerable To Java Security Problem. Again.

New Frontier beta server software is now in effect. If you seen any broken images, I would love to hear about it. Thanks!

Braves Win! 2 down, 2 to go.

An Arial View: Hometown editorial cartoonist does good.

Salon: White Men Can Jump. "The reality, of course, is that blacks have always voted for whites; they've had very little opportunity to do otherwise. It's whites who've only recently begun to vote for minorities; blacks remain substantially more likely to vote cross-racially than are whites." I grew up in South Carolina, and this is so true.

A Day Without Weblogs. Save the date: December 1, 1999. I'll be dark — you be dark too, OK?

Washington Post: In Fairfax, an Uneasy Election. This election (right in my neighborhood!) is likely to turn on immigration issues, and the GOP is once again showing that, despite what its PR people would like you to believe, it is not the party of tolerance and diversity.

ZDNN: Apple Tops Lowered 4Q Estimates; Expects Strong 1Q. Why didn't I buy Apple when it was trading at $12 a share?

Tomalak's Realm. A great weblog that focuses on web design and usability issues. Required reading if you're in the biz.

Wired: The Dot Com vs. El Punto Com. "WhatsHappenin.com, a news and information portal, sued its Spanish counterpart, quepasa.com, Tuesday for infringing on its trademark." Oh, this is just stupid.

A few weeks ago, I went off a bit on The West Wing, but I'm slowly changing my tune. I watched it tonight, and I have to say it's starting to find it's pace. The characters are becoming individuals, and the story flows better than in the series premiere. Good shows grow, and I'll be watching next week.

John Dvorak: Waste of Technology. "Having a camera send images over the Internet seems okay, but I wonder about NetAid and other bandwidth hogs using the Internet just to show off."

Salon: Microsoft's Annual Report: Made on Macintosh. Cooool.

News.com: Microsoft Admits Browser Security Hole. How many times has this been a headline in the last few months?

New York Times: Information Superhighway Roars Outside the Beltway. "…Washington and its suburbs are home to far more entrepreneurs and other businesspeople than Federal workers and the assorted private companies and institutions connected to the Government. In fact, by at least one measure, Washington is now the technological capital of the United States."

Salon: Down in the Trenches. A profile of Donna Brazile, Gore's new campaign manager.

Washington Post: Bradley Stays Course on 'Joyous Journey'. "Ignored by the vice president, underestimated by many political analysts and a decided underdog at the beginning of the campaign, Bradley has risen by remaining steady in his course."

News.com: Y2K Official Predicts Fallout For Months. "'The Y2K problem is not going to look very interesting when it happens,' [Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center] said…. But a lot of relatively minor problems, like credit card rejections tied to mistakenly machine-read expiration dates, 'could really gum up the works over a period of time.'"

If you're in DC, and looking for something to do for Halloween, you might want to come to this party.

New York Times: One Wide-Reaching Slash Could Settle Budget Battle. "'An across-the-board cut is the ultimate confession of policy failure,' said Robert L. Bixby, policy director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group. 'It's the meat cleaver approach.'"

Washington Post: AFL-CIO Poised for Endorsement of Gore. "For Gore, the early endorsement, which will be formally voted on later this week, is the first positive competitive development in weeks, if not months."

ZDNN: This E-Mail Will Self-Destruct In… "Using the software, administrators can set policies for when a key is disabled. Once the key is destroyed, all copies of the mail message, whether on a server or a local PC, become unreadable and unrecoverable." Is this really a good idea?

Washington Post: Al Gore, Growing Up in Two Worlds.

CNN: Gore Questions Bradley's Party Loyalties In Iowa.

A favorite little site of mine: Ditherati.

Maureen Dowd: Gore's Gawky Phase. "At this early stage in the game, his campaign is already a matter of damage control. Even his friends find the tinniness of his electoral ear mysterious."

Michael Lewis: The Search Engine. What does Jim Clark do, and why does he do it so well?

New York Times: George www.Bush.com. If political candidates were stocks, who would you add to your portfolio?

Braves Win!

College Football Wrap-up

Cornell continues to roll, beating Harvard 24-23 and moving up to 4-0 for the season. UMass had an awesome afternoon, crushing Northeastern 77-0, and goes to 2-3. And finally, USC fights its way to another loss by dropping to Kentucky 30-10. The hapless Gamecocks are now 0-6. Some interesting stats: the Gamecock offense has scored a total of 32 points all season, and its 16-game losing streak is the currently the longest in the country.

Washington Post: House Votes to Increase Rights of HMO Patients. It's about time….

Wired: Visor Closing In on Palm. "Dayakar Puskoor, CEO of the software firm JP Systems, said the Visor turns a handheld into a real computing device and not just an organizer. 'That's where the big excitement is. I don't think the Palm will go away, but this is the first big competition.'" Palm better not go away — they make Handspring's OS!

Washington Post: When the Majority Doesn't Always Rule. "'Could one argue the Democrats are driving the agenda in the House? Yes, but that could mean the Democrats have some ideas people back home seem to like,' Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) said yesterday."

CNN: Military says U.S. Launched Computer Attacks on Yugoslavia.

Washington Post: Trump Forms Exploratory Committee. Is this one of the signs of the apocalypse?

Have you been wanting a Bill Bradley bumper sticker for your car? A Bill Bradley hat for your head? The Bill Bradley online store is now open for business.

New York Times: The Fight for Patients' Rights. "The Norwood-Dingell bill, which has President Clinton's support, offers the best place to start in getting strong protections for millions of American families."

Salon: Top Bush Flack Grinds Out Candidate's Memoir. The bell continues to toll for biographies as a legitimate endeavor.

Wired: US Lines Up Y2K Defense. "The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to have over 800 employees on the job from 28 December to 4 January at locations including the underground bunker below Virginia's Mount Weather…" Nice to know they'll be in my neighborhood..

Editor and Publisher: Free or Paid: Which Article Archives Bring in Most Revenue? "The State", my hometown SC newspaper, should read this: "If you're The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, sure, you can make decent money by charging a couple bucks for past articles. But if you're a newspaper in a smaller market, don't count on Web archive revenues to pay many bills."

It's Wednesday, so it's time to read The Onion.

Washington Post: "Private" Online Writings Can Later Become Public. James Rutt, the new CEO of NSI, just erased himself online.

Salon: Bush: As Compassionate As He Has To Be. "Just how far will George W. reach out to minorities? As far as he can without alienating any bigots."

CNN: Senators Try To Find Exit Strategy On Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Vote. As usual, Jesse Helms is being a jerk. What is the problem with the treaty? First, we know everything we will ever need to know about how nuclear bombs blow up; second, we are the only remaining superpower, and now stand a chance to slow down other countries who might want to make the mistake of pursuing the nuclear option. It's a no-brainer — ratify the treaty.

Washington Post: Labor May Hold Off on Gore. If the AFL-CIO doesn't endorse Gore next week, this would be a huge blow to the Vice President's campaign.

CNN: Hastert Denies Republicans Have Abandoned Earned Income Tax Credit Idea. This story proves two things: 1) The GOP leadership can't get it's act together; and 2) the GOP leadership is committed to making incredibly stupid decisions.

A new feature: http://discuss.nomadder.com, a free public bulletin board for this website. You have to register to post new messages, but anyone is free to read any and all. Let me know of any bugs you find; this feature is still a bit immature.

In celebration of the new discussion group, this website has been given a makeover. If you see something here that's not working, please drop me a line. Thanks!

Bob Herbert: Attention Must Be Paid. A good piece on Gore's new approach to the campaign.

News.com: Red Hat updates Linux OS. 6.1 is out.

ZDNN: Palm VII Not In Sync With Third-Party Software. Well, there goes my reason for buying a Palm VII. Handspring is looking better all the time.

CNN: Monster Raving Loony Party Race Heating Up Between Chairman — And His Cat. American politics are comparitively boring. Why don't we have a Monster Raving Loony Party? (Besides the GOP, I mean…)

College Football Wrap-up

Cornell had a good day yesterday, squeaking out a win over Brown 33-28. The Big Red is now 3-0. USC, however, continued its losing ways, falling to Mississippi 36-10. The shameful totals: 0-5 for the year, and a 15 game losing streak. UMass also had a bad day, losing to Hofstra 27-14, and now find themselves 1-3 for the year.

Maureen Dowd: Cultural Drifter. "In an interview about culture, W. gamely concedes there are yawning gaps. Baseball, he says, is his favorite 'cultural experience.' (Like his father, he views cultural questions as some kind of psychoanalysis.)"

Washington Post: Bush Criticism of GOP Proposal Surprised House."…GOP lawmakers and aides expressed their anger with Bush. 'A large portion of our membership and an enormous amount of staff feel they were clearly double-crossed by George Bush,' said a senior GOP aide. 'The last president who distanced himself from his party in Congress got impeached. He should learn a lesson from that.'"

Salon: Bill Bradley, the Candidate Of Weird. "He's less animated than Al Gore, has little patience for detail and generally seems spaced out. But he just might be the Democratic nominee."

ZDNN: Unplugged! The Biggest Hack In History.

Happy anniversary, website! A year old and still up(dated). This beats my old record by a mile. So, a new note: One Hell of a Year. And a new quote.

I just saw that Cisco Systems commercial again, the one where everyone is asking, "Are you ready?". One line in the ad particularly struck me: "Every fourth person on the internet is buying something right now." Now, how big a load of shit is that? It is so obviously false, it's hard to know where to begin.

CNN: House GOP Retreating From Plan To Delay Benefits For Working Poor. It was a dumb plan, but on the bright side, it did give Dick Armey another chance to look like a complete ass.