A man who was fired by IBM for visiting an adult chat room at work is suing the company for $5 million, claiming he is an Internet addict who deserves treatment and sympathy rather than dismissal.

James Pacenza, 58, of Montgomery, says he visits chat rooms to treat traumatic stress incurred in 1969 when he saw his best friend killed during an Army patrol in Vietnam.

In papers filed in federal court in White Plains, Pacenza said the stress caused him to become "a sex addict, and with the development of the Internet, an Internet addict." He claimed protection under the American with Disabilities Act.

... Wait a second here. Because he saw his buddies get killed over 28 years ago he needs to get some some dirty talking during the work day?

Ok, seriously, this is the bullshit.

[Agreed. This reads like some kind of fucking fiction story. And it plays into the notion that people will make every behavior they have into some kind of victim syndrome if they can.

This is outrageous and, while I'm certainly sympathetic to the bullshit this guy went through in 'nam, I'm not in anyway sympathetic to his claim that the results require him to surf adult chat rooms and port, much less while at work.

For christ's sake, some things really are up to oneself. -k]

Man sues IBM over firing, says he's an Internet addict

Acidus wrote:
...
Of course the counter-counter attack would be to randomly select some ratio of pixel locations based on the resolution of the image and toggle the red component on them.
...

I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but it seems to me that spending time working through the logistics of circumventing a bad piece of legislation that hasn't even passed yet to be a little like putting the cart before the horse.

This is still a political concern and the solution seems like it ought to be likewise. E.g. write your senator and congressperson, raise awareness (i recognize this is happening to some degree organically, since i just found out about it, but nonetheless), etc.

Have we become so cynical about the likelihood of being listened to that we assume bullshit laws will be passed and jump straight to figuring out how to get around them?

Decius wrote:
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Its worth noting that the law doesn't require ISPs to screen traffic. It merely authorizes the sharing of child porn images for this purpose. Presumably there are ISPs lined up who want to do this but presently its illegal.
...

Oh? I'm not saying you're wrong, but what motivation do ISP's have for this kind of self regulation? Are they presently liable in some way for child pornography that crosses their networks? Do they want to engage in PR to say that they throw child pornographers in jail?

I don't assume any business wants to do anything that would require a large investment with no clear return besides some social benefit (recognizing that business don't do things just because it's the "right" thing to do). This sounds rather more like setting the stage for privacy intrusion that the ISP's have little interest in, to me.

RE: Thought Crime

The city may be fighting a war on trans-fats but Google's NYC cafeteria might as well be Switzerland from the looks of some photographs of what's being served up. Today, a Bacon Krispy Kreme Burger (whose sign also says "wrong on so many levels") was on the menu. Not only is the Krispy Kreme bun grilled, but the burger had cheese, too.

Um. Wow...

Gothamist: Google Mashup: Krispy Kreme Donuts Burgers

Markov Chains and the rap...

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

God's view on LISP, and Perl.

Perfect... i love "oh, God, it's full of 'car's"... LOL.

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

Comparison of dynamic web frameworks to J2EE/JSPs.

[ Very interesting and informative. One of the guys in my team at work has been struggling, for months now, with a totally convoluted J2EE/JSP/Beans application (with a SAS backend, the part he's expert at). I've had to step in and help a bit just because I have a greater understanding of java and some of the XML garbage, but it sucks. We also don't have the source, so that's even more fun.

Meantime, i'm developing a personal project in Rails and found it pretty nice. I didn't go through a long exploration process, but it sounded good so I figured I'd give it a shot. So far, so good.

I will note that this vid must've been produced before Rails added support for what they call Migrations, which is a Ruby-based data modelling mechanism. You still have to run one SQL command at the beginning of your project, but from that point on, you just specify the data model in a simple ruby way and run the migration. It versions your migrations too, so if you create a table, or add some fields, that you don't actually want, you can roll it back to a previous version. Anyway, that feature brings rails a bit closer to the others, i guess. -k]

Better Web Application Framework - Google Video

Iraq War Plan Assumed Only 5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006

CentCom PowerPoint Slides Briefed to White House and Rumsfeld in 2002, Obtained by National Security Archive through Freedom of Information Act

PowerPoints Reflect Internal Debates Over Size and Timing of Invasion Force

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 214

The Polo Step presentations have been declassified and obtained via a FOIA request.

Back in ancient history, the 90's, the term stepin' was in the common street vernacular. It came from the term "stepping up", which was synonymous with the term frontin'. In short, it meant one was being overly aggressive and suggesting a challenge.

I honor of this report, I suggest we bring the term back, in the form of Polo Stepin'.. The term meaning, being too aggressive and getting into a situation that will not go as planned.

"You best not be polo stepin' in my face, or you gonna become a causality."

[ Heh, nice. Also, what a great prediction... those war planners are great.

Sidenote, i don't think "front" is at all synonymous with "step". The latter, as you say, means, roughly "to instigate conflict". "Front", rather, has always meant "to misrepresent oneself, to act contrary to one's true (or presumed true) personality".
-k]

TOP SECRET POLO STEP - Iraq War Plan Assumed Only 5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006

Which (with great linear narration) brings us to right now. And as I dip my plaid-cut crystal tumbler back n' forth to the terrible, terrible music of Phillip Glass, I'm reminded not only of how much I dislike minimalist three-tonal medleys, but that I love whiskey - A four-inch ankle boots on Michelle Trachtenberg kind of love. Ah, the warm embrace of Whiskey! Tis the will o' the wisp of my heart! It is the best friend a man with hundreds and hundreds of friends could have.

Excellent quote (and Oh, how true)... I'll drink to that!

Pocket Change

A site which presumes to analyze your personality on the basis of your name. While I don't believe it at all, like many such things, some of the (presumably very general) things it says are actually perversely accurate for me :

- Although the name Kerry creates an active mind and a restless urge to explore new ideas, we emphasize that it causes a restless intensity that defies relaxation.

Overactive brain, check.

- You can work intently at whatever is new and holds your interest at the moment, but your interest wanes quickly when drudgery and monotony set in.

Holy hell, yes, check.

- Obstacles to your progress or restrictions on your freedom to act create a sense of frustration which may cause you to feel resentful and even rebellious.

Yes. Stay out of my way. That includes you, Self!

- You can then become intolerant of others, and caustic and belittling in your expression, thereby imposing stress on your personal relationships.

*sigh* Check. But I try my best to be caustic without being belittling.

Making a Name Change or Choosing a Baby Name - What you need to know about name meanings

Google believes that pointing to content on the Web is legal under copyright law, Mr. Elkaim added. “We have always explained that any licensing agreements Google does with content providers is for use that goes beyond indexing or referencing,” he said.

I thought so too. I suppose that was here in the U.S., but I still think the argument that linking to a site is an infringement is silly.

But, hey, if they want me not to read their content, that's fine. I'll never find it via a search engine, and I'll never read it. That's how it works with the web.

Google Said to Violate Copyright Laws - New York Times