] TELUS blocks long distance direct-dialed calls to four
] countries to help reduce "modem hijacking"

This is a growing trend I've noticed recently, where hardware solutions are needed to fix simply software security issues, because the software people can't get their head out of their asses.

See a great article in ACM about this here: http://acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=160

Hardware again fixing Software security

] A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday barred
] prosecutors from filing criminal cases under a federal
] law designed to restrict Internet pornography, concluding
] that enforcement could violate Americans' free-speech
] rights.

Supreme Court: COPA ....Bad! Porn ......Good!

] The Express products are an expansion of the Visual
] Studio product line to include lightweight, easy to use,
] and easy to learn tools for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and
] students who want to build dynamic Windows applications,
] Web sites, and Web services.
]

Ok, I think its safe to assume Microsoft is concerned about the rise of Linux. So how does this help Microsoft combat Linux? Simple, developers! (x4). In any Linux Distro you have everything you need to make Linux software. You have several good compilers, revision control software, and IDEs. I write Linux software because, a) I like Linux and its what I use, and b) developing software for it is trival. However I would port my software to Windows because I want people to use it, and I know more people use windows than Linux. Thus, by Microsoft making a "lite" developement software thats free to download, I can add a Windows version and it doesn't really cost me. Microsoft trying to shoot Linux' legs out from under it, by trying to reduce the number of quality, free programs that are exclusive to Linux.

They are also trying to hook new hobbists, etc into their .NET bullshit. Its like Gates donating all that money to India.

Visual Studio Express: Developers Developers Developers Developers!

] The Mythology is an elaborate storyline that has weaved
] itself throughout the X-Files since the series began.
] Alien abductions, colonization, hybridization and
] government conspiracies are all aspects of the Mythology,
] but the story is much more complex.

Whats the black oil? Who is the black agent who is such a badass? Wait, Scully has cancer, than no cancer, than she has no ovaries, then she has a kid?

A nice summary of all the events and their meanings in the X-files. Nice to know since there is a 2nd movie coming out in the next year or so.

X-Files The Sixth Extinction

] FINK: When you're talking about politics, what do you and
] [your father] talk about?
]
] DUBYA: Pussy.
]
] -- Interview with David Fink of the Hartford Courant at
] the Republican Convention, 1988

Things I never want the leader of my country, who makes policies about what I can and can't do with my body, to have said.

This was apparently said two years AFTER Rev. Billy Graham helped him to "recommit his life to God".

DubyaSpeak.com : Dubya on Himself

] I realize that we have enemies and they need to be
] confronted. But I do not want this to be all that America
] is about in the world anymore, and that is what has
] happened under this administration. I don't want the rest
] of my career to be about an America that exports fear,
] not hope, and ends up importing everyone else's fears as
] a result. I don't want it to be about explaining to young
] Chinese why my government can't give them student visas
] anymore. I don't want it to be about visiting U.S.
] Embassies around the world and finding them so isolated
] behind barbed wire, they might as well not be there at
] all. Defeating "them" has begun to define "us" in too
] many ways.

I'm enjoyed Thomas Friedman's analysis of Iraq for a while now, and he makes a good point about where this "War on Terror" is taking us.

Friedman on US Foreign Policy

] WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI issued a warning last week
] for state and local authorities to be on the lookout for
] booby-trapped floating material in and around the
] nation's marinas, warning they could contain explosives.
]
] A homeland security official told CNN on Sunday there is
] "no intelligence terrorists are planning to or want to do
] this."

I'm not sure what's going on with Ridge and Ashcroft. These conflicting reports that keep occuring are not only childish, but confuse the public about the severity and number of threats, undermining what both of the departments are trying to do.

DHS and Justice Dept Turf war

] ABC already spinning off 'Wife Swap'
]
] In the vein of "Wife Swap," which features two moms
] swapping households for 10 days, "Husband Swap" will
] feature fathers in the same situation, while "Boss Swap"
] will revolve around executives swapping workplaces.

... ... Apparently Disney _doesn't_ know what "Wife Swapping" is.

] Fox has similarly themed show

Now that doesn't suprise me. Probably will been shown after Foxy Boxing and before the new reality show "Stop the wedding I'm really your cousin"

ABC already spinning off 'Wife Swap'

] The preparations for the possibility of an early transfer
] were started a week ago, according to a senior U.S.
] official.

To paraphase Jay Leno: "And if Fahrenheit 9/11 keeps doing well, Carl Rove said the Administration will push forward the bin Laden capture"

Iraq handover of sovereignty completed

Wow. I guess the Internet does bring people together.

I imagine this says something such as "If you can't read this round eye wait about 50 years"

China Spam