Right-wing British historian David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison Monday after admitting to an Austrian court that he denied the Holocaust -- a crime in the country where Hitler was born. [...] The court convicted Irving after his guilty plea under the 1992 law, which applies to "whoever denies, grossly plays down, approves or tries to excuse the National Socialist genocide or other National Socialist crimes against humanity in a print publication, in broadcast or other media."
—"Austrian Court Sentences Holocaust Denier to Prison," Associated Press via New York Times, 2006-02-20
I think Holocaust deniers are dangerous to society, but even more dangerous is the state imprisoning someone over it.
Mr. Barnes, who describes Mr. Bush as "a dissenter on the theory of global warming," writes that the president "avidly read" the novel [Michael Chrichton's State of Fear] and met the author after Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, arranged it. He says Mr. Bush and his guest "talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement."
—Michael Janofsky, "Bush's Chat With Novelist Alarms Environmentalists," New York Times, 2006-02-19
This reminded me of two The Onion pieces:
"Bush Finds Error In Fermilab Calculations," The Onion, 2001-08-01
"Bush Regales Dinner Guests With Impromptu Oratory On Virgil's Minor Works," The Onion, 2005-07-06
"Rumsfeld Says Extremists Winning Media War," Associated Press via New York Times, 2006-02-17
Only a few weeks ago, I snapshotted the newly 24-hour CVS/Pharmacy in Central Square. The all-nightness was well-timed, as I've made desperate use of it after midnight twice this past week.
The Walgreens across the street has put up an open-til-midnight sign, but that just doesn't compare.
I took advantage of being bedridden with the flu to catch up on the SotU speech I missed due to work.
James Fallows, "Post Mortem: State of the Union," Atlantic Unbound, 2006-01-31
WhiteHouse.org, "The 2006 State of the Union Address: Complete Transcript of President George W. Bush's Speech to Congress and the Nation," 2006-01-31
dpreview.com finally has a review of the Canon SD450, although it's not by Phil Askey:
Simon Joinson, "Canon PowerShot SD450 Digital ELPH /Digital IXUS 55 Review," dpreview.com, 2006-02
I got an SD450 a few months ago to replace my PowerShot S10 as a carry-everywhere camera. Some criticisms I noted immediately:
The Power button on my unit didn't work reliably from the start. I had to learn to press past the tactile feedback before the press would have effect.
Vignetting at the wide end.
Muddy at the long end.
Very noisy with indoor light, even at low ISOs.
Flash is underpowered even at a distance of 5 feet.
No apparent control for shutter speed, not even a "fast shutter" or "sports" mode. It does, however, have an entire category of "Kids & Pets" modes.
Door over usb port uses a flexible flap of plastic as a hinge, and feels like it'll break off.
Due perhaps to the small size and weight, it seems especially hard to hold steady at the tele end.
I've not yet found the right pairs of codecs on Linux for playing the AVI video and audio reliably.
I don't like the shiny accents on the case edge.
I've mostly been using the camera for snapshots of friends, but here's a few semirandom recent snapshots: boston skyline, "Welcome Back Schoolboy" on girder of new construction at Draper, and Alewife T turnstile wet from ceiling leak.
Since bugs in my old Netgear MR814 wireless router had become especially problematic, I urgently ordered a new device on which I could install the Linux-based OpenWRT firmware. That was a few weeks ago, and I've been so busy with work that I've not had time to set it up. Today, in a flu-induced delirium, finally setting up the new router seemed like a good idea.
I originally wanted to get a particular version of the Linksys WRT54GS (and not the latest version), but could not find a reseller who'd guarantee that version, except for on eBay, where they were pulling the usual sketchy eBay seller tricks. So I ended up getting a WRT54GL from a reputable online store, which has half the memory of the GS, but should be sufficient.
I ended up not hassling with boot_wait and TFTP, and
instead just used the Linksys Web admin interface to upload the OpenWRT
firmware. It worked fine.
After configuring OpenWRT, and making sure that I could SSH in, I
distabled telnetd. Then I noted with surprise that the Web admin
interface in White Russian RC4 seems to have no access control whatsoever --
anyone on the LAN side can reconfigure the router, including replacing the
firmware, or turning it into a doorstop -- so I also disabled
httpd.
I used ipkg to install the packages screen
(for doing config things over SSH that might drop the connection) and
ntpclient (for updating the clock).
There's probably a business opportunity for people who move the guts of Linksys WRT54GL units from the cheap, ugly blue plastic chassis into something less crappy-looking.
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