Of the $1.1 billion in boxed chocolates that Americans are expected to buy on Valentine's Day, very little will be untainted by the scourge of child labor. Although some who buy those bonbons will do so without knowing the sinister history of their purchases, others, like the chocolate makers, will have known for at least two years, if not longer, that cocoa beans imported from the Ivory Coast -- used to make nearly half the chocolate consumed in this country -- are harvested in large part by children, some as young as 9, and many of whom are considered slaves, trafficked from desperately poor countries like Mali and Burkina Faso.

Great, not only am I contributing to terrorism and endangering fellow drivers with my SUV, but I'm also supporting child slavery with my Chocolate Ice Cream. Everytime you try to try to have fun, God kills a domo-kun... Think of the domo-kuns.

Bittersweet chocolate

So today I look with nostalgia on Sun Microsystems and hope -- probably in vain -- that the company doesn't die.

Honestly, Linux and cheap Intel hardware do not make a scalable server farm by themselves. Sun is building technology that makes linux server farms more manageable. They are in a good position to translate their position with Solaris into a dominate position in the emerging linux based server world, if they continue to provide really good hardware platforms for linux with lots of automated management technology that reduces administration costs. I don't think they really have to worry about Microsoft. Linux is winning server battles. I think they can give HP a run for its money here. I like HP's security technology but I think that automated server management is a more compelling proposition. And Apple? Their server stuff is really really cool, but I wouldn't choose it over linux for anything more involved then a fileserver/intranet application, and they really only hit one market segment. If you need more or less power then what they offer you are out of luck with them. I do, however, think Solaris is dead, along with HP-UX, AIX, and the other UNIX variants. I don't see a compelling reason to run them over Linux or BSD, and they cost money.

However, if Sun puts too much real energy into Solaris it will cost them. Marketing spin in one thing (you want customers to beleive you are committed to the platform) but reality is something else.

no SnApple

] Calling heads of state pygmies, labeling whole countries
] as evil, denigrating powerful European allies as
] irrelevant -- these types of crude insensitivities can do
] our great nation no good. We may have massive military
] might, but we cannot fight a global war on terrorism
] alone.

Sen. Byrd (who may be a former Klansmen, but we'll just file that for the moment), rakes the Bush administration over the coals on the Senate floor. Much of this criticism is well deserved...

Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous Consequences

] "This piece of that puzzle turns out to be fabricated and
] therefore the reason for a lot of the alarm, particularly
] in Washington this week, has been dissipated after they
] found out that this information was not true," said Vince
] Cannistraro, former CIA counter-terrorism chief and
] ABCNEWS consultant.

ABCNEWS.com : Alert Partly Based on Lies

The Swiss excel at making clocks and also... henges?

A skeleton was found near Stonehenge hypothesized to be a regional bronze age king of Stonehenge who may have played an important role in the construction of Stonehenge and surprisingly, may be Swiss.

Possible King of Stonehenge Discovered

] The weapons you are looking for are currently
] unavailable. The country might be experiencing technical
] difficulties, or you may need to adjust your weapons
] inspectors mandate.

Read Carefully

Cannot find Weapons of Mass Destruction

Rarr!

Molecular Expressions: The Silicon Zoo - Guitar-Strumming Tyrannosaurus Rex

] George Bush doesn't sound as mean and stupid as I would
] have expected. Or maybe I'm just in a frame of mind to
] cut him slack. There are three armed Secret Service men
] here in my bedroom/Dogyears-World-Headquarters.

I love Rudy Rucker. This is basically Robert Wilsonesque nerdcore. Its fast and fun.

The Infinite Matrix | Rudy Rucker and Rudy Rucker, Jr. | Jenna and Me

] It seems that this particular spammer took things one
] step further, and made the "reply-to" address for all of
] his spam message set to my personal email address. If
] anyone looked at the headers, it was clear that I had
] nothing to do with the email whatsoever. However, most
] mail servers aren't so smart.

I've gotten hit with this several times in recent months. We don't need new laws to stop spam. We need federal law enforcement for petty crimes.

Techdirt:My Short Life As An Unintentional Spammer

] House leaders agreed with Senate fears about the threat
] to personal privacy in the Pentagon program, known as
] Total Information Awareness. So they accepted a Senate
] provision in the omnibus spending bill passed last month,
] said Representative Jerry Lewis, the California
] Republican who heads the defense appropriations
] subcommittee.

The House follows up with the Senate. There seems to be a broad base of support of this, but its a non-decision. It doesn't really restrict TIA. It says that Congress will restrict TIA if the DOD doesn't provide a report on it within a certain period of time. Its easy for Congress to agree that Congress has authority.

Conferees in Congress Bar Using a Pentagon Project on Americans