Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of videotapes show. [...] Beyond collecting information, some of the undercover officers or their associates are seen on the tape having influence on events. At a demonstration last year during the Republican National Convention, the sham arrest of a man secretly working with the police led to a bruising confrontation between officers in riot gear and bystanders.
—Jim Dwyer, "Police Infiltrate Protests, Videotapes Show," New York Times, 2005-12-22
A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.
Two associates familiar with his decision said yesterday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable and may have tainted the FISA court's work.
—Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer, "Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest: Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel," Washington Post, 2005-12-21
I'm pleased to report that this Kingston card (purchased from Onsale.com) is fast enough to keep up with video recording on the SD450.
I'd originally ordered a Sandisk Ultra II SD 1GB card from Buy.com, who notified me only after the order that they wouldn't be able to ship after all. I won't be ordering from Buy.com again.
HtmlPrag 0.15 has been released. This addresses a couple issues identified by Corey Sweeney and Jepri.
Update: Version 0.16 fixes a documentation problem.
Last night, ventured to the CambridgeSide Galleria to commence the Christmas shopping I'd been deferring. That's a snapshot from my Canon SD450, shrunk from 5 megapixels to 0.5 megapixels for the Web.
The mall was surprisingly uncrowded, except for the Apple Store, which was packed. Apple Store customers and staff alike were harried, yielding an environment that wasn't conducive to anything other than a production line of iPod checkouts. The prominent security guard in the center of the store, facing out, was a particularly tasteless choice; let's show a little more class, Mr. Jobs. I left quickly, without buying anything.
The camera has more than 30 Best Shot scene modes for stills and video, all accessible by clicking the dedicated BS button and selecting the mode you want.
—Terry Sullivan, "Casio Exilim EX-S500," PC Magazine, 2005-06-23
"BS" is what I was thinking when finding my new Canon SD450 has no apparent shutter speed control nor even fast-exposure mode, yet does have an entire set of modes entitled "Kids and Pets."
Version 0.5 of csv.scm ("Comma-Separated Value (CSV) Utilities in Scheme") has been released. This fixes a R5RS portability issue that was flagged as an error by Guile and reported by David Pirotte yesterday.
I want HEPA room air cleaners for home and office. After much headache-inducing Web-shopping and reading of reviews, I resorted to Consumer Reports's room air cleaner Ratings, and ordered a Whirlpool Whispure AP45030R from BestBuy.com. At $248 shipped, it'll pay for itself the first time it saves me a few hours of work. If I like it, I'll get one for the office as well. Stay tuned for a review.
This is a heads-up to people who knew I'd decided to order a Canon PowerShot SD450, and who might be considering giving one as a gift this Christmas. I received the SD450 last Monday, and haven't gotten much time to play with it, but I have to say that I'm disappointed with many things so far. I'll likely sell the SD450 in favor of a different manufacturer's ultracompact. Details later, once I get a chance to type them up.
This page by Dr. Murray Grossan, http://www.ent-consult.com/salineadditives.html, suggests that the benzalkonium chloride in the saline nasal spray I just bought might be very bad:
Recent articles on the negative effects of Benzalkonium include:
Berg: Mucosa exposed to benzalkonium chloride showed squamus cell metaplasia (the normal cells changed to undesirable cells). Benzalkonium chloride appears to be potentially toxic to the mucosa.
Steinsvag: benzalkonium chloride has toxic effects on human respiratory mucosa and human neutrophils. It destroyed mucosa and inhibited human neutrophil action. Benzalkonium chloride induces mucosal swelling, which explains why the presence of this preservative in a decongestant spray aggravates rhinitis medicamentosa.
Hoffman: An irreversible cessation of ciliary movement was observed in ciliary cells exposed to nasal sprays containing Benzalkonium chloride As benzalkonium chloride can cause complete standstill of ciliary beat frequency in vitro in human nasal mucosa, we recommend that this preservative should not be used anymore in topical nasal medications.
Version 0.2 of rfc3339.scm ("RFC3339 Date and Time Format in Scheme") has been released. It should be in PLaneT shortly.
This release is simply a repackaging for PLT 299/3xx, on request. It took all of a few minutes, and does not mark resumption of Scheme activities. (Paid employment and unpaid girlfriend consume all my time of late.)
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