Say "Hi" to the Spam Cube™. Just plug in this powerful little tool and you'll completely protect up to four computers in your home from spam. Our proprietary built-in anti-spam technology stops spam so there's no subscription fee and it's easy to install. It also works with all operating systems and virtually every email program.

Linked from Pogue at NYT.

Spam Cube™ | Plug it in. Stop spam. No subscription fee.

Squeezebox is a study in downtempo, modern design appropriate for any setting. It is a joy for the eyes as well as the ears.

The contrast of highly polished material against a crisp brushed metal fascia is a fitting reflection of the sophisticated technology within.

This looks like a really sweet device. It even supports ogg and flac and doesn't need some godawful Windows software to make it work.

System requirements:
...
* Linux/BSD/Solaris/Other: Perl 5.8.3 or later

!!

Slim Devices : Squeezebox : Free your music!

For the first time in a quarter-century, the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday a case involving the basic question of what type of discoveries and inventions can be patented.

Justices Reach Out to Consider Patent Case

A 49-year-old man died Friday morning when he stepped into the path of a commuter train at E. Meadow Drive in Palo Alto, according to Caltrain spokesman Jonah Weinberg.

For those of you keeping score at home, for the 2006 season, Caltrain: 3, People: 0.

Pedestrian struck, killed by Caltrain

A woman who was struck and killed by a commuter train Wednesday morning has been identified as Bonnie Heitz, 58, a Redwood City resident who apparently was crossing the tracks to catch a bus to the Kelly-Moore Paint Co. in San Carlos, where she worked in the accounts payable department.

Not a suicide, apparently.

Woman killed by commuter train was heading to work

As trees go, the pair of scraggly-looking Monterey cypresses sitting on a crest on Telegraph Hill are somewhat pitiful, even downright forlorn. But in a city where some movie stars bear wings, even ordinary trees can be transformed into a cause célèbre.

The trees are a favorite feeding spot and hawk lookout point for the now-famous wild parrots of Telegraph Hill (see the movie, read the book). In recent weeks, the removal of three adjoining trees by an absentee property owner and the resulting brouhaha — including the spectacle of the parrot author Mark Bittner throwing himself in front of a chain saw — prompted San Francisco officials to amend the city's Urban Forestry Ordinance to allow significant trees to be designated landmarks, including those on private property.

The amendment, which takes effect in February, treats trees much like historic buildings. It would place San Francisco squarely in a growing movement, from suburban Washington to Los Angeles, to protect mature urban trees — and in some communities, make it a crime to chop them down.

Wow.

New Laws Crack Down on Urban Paul Bunyans

Editor's Update 11/11/04: As James Taranto wryly notes in Opinion Journal, citing this original Israel Insider report, "Yasser Arafat is in stable condition after dying in a Paris hospital. A hospital spokesman 'said there would be no details about the cause of death because of French privacy laws,' reports the Associated Press." Now why do you think there would be a need to invoke privacy laws in reporting a man's death? And why, suddenly, is it no longer a "mysterious illness" but an illness that must be concealed?

The article as originally reported on November 6, 2004:

Former White House speechwriter David Frum has joined the growing chorus of pundits, medical experts, and intelligence operatives who claim Yasser Arafat is likely suffering from AIDS.

I have no idea if this is credible. At least I'm not the only one who suspected some such...

Hospital concealment strengthens suspicion: Arafat died of AIDS

Here comes the good part: management has asked the bankruptcy court to let it have — free — roughly 15 percent of the stock in the new company, or about $900 million. Mr. Tilton, the chief executive, who plays the Orson Welles character in this drama, would get about $90 million personally for his hard work shepherding UAL through bankruptcy (for which he was already paid multiple millions of dollars).

...

Wait, Mr. Tilton and Mr. Bankruptcy Judge. The employees were the owners of UAL. They were the trustors, and Mr. Tilton and his pals were trustees for them. How were the trustors wiped out while the trustees, the fiduciaries, became fantastically rich? Is this the way capitalism is supposed to work? Trustors save up, and their agents just take their savings away from them?

This really resonates with everything I've been reading in The Intelligent Investor lately.

Ben Stein on the UAL Debacle

Other cellphone companies get the idea, too. In fact, Samsung has already come up with a Razr clone, nicknamed the Blade. (Its official name is the A900. It's offered only by Sprint, for $200, although a Verizon edition is reported to be in the works.)

I bought one of these a few weeks ago. Its awesome.

Razr vs. Blade: Cloning Is Only Skin Deep

A state court judge sentenced a Las Vegas couple who admitted to planting a severed human finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili to lengthy prison terms Wednesday.

Couple Sentenced to Prison for Wendy's Chili Scheme