] A few hours after NBA star Kobe Bryant had sex with a
] Vail-area hotel worker last summer, the woman exchanged
] cell phone text messages with a former boyfriend and
] someone else.
]
] Texters beware. Like e-mail and Internet instant
] messages, text messages tend to be saved on servers.

[ Not surprising, but something to keep in mind. Everything you do digitally is stored somewhere, waiting to be extracted and correlated. -k]

CNN.com - Think before you text - Jun 7, 2004

] Diebold Inc., criticized last year for selling voting
] machines while its chairman raised money for Republican
] political candidates, has banned its senior executives
] from making such donations.

It appears someone has gotten the message.

[ Verry interesting. Now, lets work on that "shipping insecure products" ban. -k]

Diebold Stops Top Executives From Making Political Donations - from TBO.com

] But a proposal in Congress could shut down the party. The
] measure would end the fixed-rate option, making all
] federal student loans issued after July 2006 subject to
] variable rates. Repayments would then rise and fall each
] year in sync with interest rates.

!!!

[ Mixed feelings... it's not impossible that variable rates with a reasonable cap would be cheaper for me than my fixed consolidation loan, which is somewhere near 4.5 (not 3). I support the concept of getting the money to kids up front, preferably in the form of grants so that they have less loans in the first place. Subsidizing large loans seems like a less efficient use of money than just giving it to me up front, but i'm not a financial guru, by a far sight. I may have to look into this further, but my initial reasoning on this is trending positibve... -k]

CNN.com - Will fixed-rate student loan consolidation end? - Jun 7, 2004

] Editing documents in groups can be a challenge.
] Versioning systems like subversion or cvs help your group
] to keep a consistent copy of your document, but don't
] provide realtime collaboration. Wouldn't it be great to
] edit the same document, live, in realtime, together with
] everyone in your group?

[ I've been using this for a while, just because it's a good text editor, with syntax coloring and such. Hanven't yet had occasion to use it collaboratively, but it seems a really well put together bit of software otherwise. -k]

SubEthaEdit - Collaborative Editing Software for OSX

] Enjoy your iTunes music library in virtually any room of
] your house. Share a single broadband Internet connection
] and USB printer without inconvenient and obtrusive
] cables. Create an instant wireless network on the go.
] Extend the range of your current wireless network. How
] many devices do you need to do all this? Just one.
]
] Presenting AirPort Express.

[ Here's hoping the configuration / management of this thing is better than the existing AirPorts. All said though, quite a good product concept, in my opinion. -k]

Apple - AirPort Express

Put in what you want, and this site will search all the major book sellers to let you know WHO has the book for what price.

Its a great tool for finding books, comparing prices, and also selling books. (If multiple sites have cheap copies, you may not want to sell yours online if you have to pay to do so.)

Great site to find who's got your books CHEAP

Originally from the Washington Post, this is a personal story by a man who (like me) loves the USA but becomes more disillusioned by the day. For some time, there have been commentators who note that the ultimate Orwellian society would be based on "Freedom and Democracy". After all, as Orwell points out, an endless war (against "terrorism"?) is an unlimited mandate for totalitarianism in the name of democracy ...

[ I was hoping this would be a longer article, but what it describes still makes a valid point. Seems like the DHS isn't doing what it should be doing, and is primarily serving to further alienate everyone, without doing much to make us safer. 'Course, you couldn't possibly blame the president for that, could you? Tax cuts for the rich were more important than funding DHS, i guess. Ooops, guess i did place blame.-k]

Land of the ... Kafkaesque?

After 21 years, Phish is breaking up.

At long last, the dead is dead.

[ Don't count on it. I fear that as long as there are pot smoking frat boys and wanna-be hippie trustafarians, there will be some jam-band willing to give them 38 minute long songs and rootsy common ground.

It's fine in it's own way, I suppose, but the extreme attachment i see in such people, to a thing as ephemeral as a band, doesn't strike me as healthy.

On the plus side, Phish was a thousand times better, musically, than the Dead, so maybe the next generation will up the ante some more... -k]

Phish breakup 'bummer of a thing' for Maine fans

] Good morning. My name is Paul Rieckhoff. I am addressing
] you this morning as a US citizen and veteran of Operation
] Iraqi Freedom. I served with the US Army in Iraq for 10
] months, concluding in February, 2004.
]
] I'm giving this address because I have an agenda, and my
] agenda is this: I want my fellow soldiers to come home
] safely, and I want a better future for the people of
] Iraq. I also want people to know the truth.

[ Worth a read. Rieckhoff is a 1st Lieutenant in the NY National Guard, and has some very cogent, straightforward words... -k]

:: paulrieckhoff.com ::

Mr. Obama's effort to connect in a more than superficial way with people across ethnic, economic and geographic lines should serve as a template for future campaigns in both parties.

A Leap of Faith