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Saturday, February 22, 2003

Pecking Order

So I guess this makes Rosie and Rocky the Special Forces. [via Ernie] (Probably flying over with this guy.) [via Rick]

Truth From A Friend, Part II

On blogging and its permutations: "So where we used to have the Sage on the Stage, we now have the Clod on the Blog?"

(See also Guide on the Side; Alison King, "From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side." College Teaching 41.1 (1993): 30-35.)

We have guests for the weekend -- can you tell?


Friday, February 21, 2003

Truth From A Friend

"We're now a little closer to the Gene Hackman character than the Tom Cruise..."

Twist My Arm -- Please!

It should go without saying that some diligent attendee should blog the heck out of D:ALL THINGS DIGITAL, May 27-29, 2003 in Carlsbad, CA. I mean, check out the speakers. I mean, check out the price.

Here's a promise: if someone feels compelled to, y'know, underwrite my presence at this thing, I'll certainly, uh, see what I can do. (It's axiomatic, after all, that "denise howell is a master of realtime capture of conference proceedings..." --gracias a Frank.) Whaddya say: want to

SEND D TO D?

...note that new PayPal donors must verify their account before they can make a payment over $2,000...

By the way, not speaking of the enforceability of contractual arbitration clauses [via Howard], it seems PayPal's new user agreement provides for arbitration of all disputes involving less than $10,000 USD. This is a step back from the comparable clause in the old agreement which called for arbitration of all disputes. (So what are we waiting for again, exactly???)

...note also that while the WSJ knows how to Find A Blog (reg. req.), it's not clear whether D will have WiFi -- jipes, the irony -- or whether its producers would take kindly to live blogging...

Courting Greatness In WV

Rory Perry: "A little bit of typing and scanning on my part saves work, phone calls, paper, AND gets public info out to the public faster."

"How a Windows guy makes amends"

That would be iBert, an essential OS X application from Steve Saxon that is not, repeat not, included in the Perversion Tracker (your resource for "the very worst of Mac software"). [both via Macworld Audible News]

And because undoubtedly you've been consumed by the need to know, these should help determine just how L337 you are, and whether you care. (Another public service from B4g 4n|) B4gg4g3!)

Happy Blirthday, Tom!

Insiteview will be 52,5600 minutes old this afternoon. 180 cheers!


Thursday, February 20, 2003

Cross Exam Heaven

This (scroll down to American Airlines Suit Alleges Web Site Pilferage) could not have happened to a nicer guy. ("During a temporary injunction hearing Thursday, AA.com's managing director, Scott Hayden, testified that his company would never use another Web site's content without its permission and would stop immediately if it learned that American did not have permission. Hayden also said that American would not display another site's content with an American frame around it. [...]")

I bet you can guess what happened next, but go read the whole thing anyway. You can make this stuff up (television tries), but experiencing it in person is rare. I'm looking forward to the first-hand account. Even in the absense of courtroom drama this is a fascinating case, with issues like those I wrote about awhile ago here. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has more in this article.


Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Topical Reading

Andrea Guerrero graduated from Boalt Hall in 1999, and published her book Silence at Boalt: The Dismantling of Affirmative Action last fall. Ms. Guerrero's timing is providential in light of two matters pending before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the propriety of race as a consideration in the University of Michigan's admissions practices. Ms. Guerrero writes that race-blind admissions standards at law schools such as Boalt Hall (my alma mater) have led to precipitous drops in the enrollment of minority candidates. Some of her other thoughts on this subject are available here and here.

On the Reed Smith front, these issues also are at the heart of one of our first notable cross-country collaborations since the merger, in the form of an amicus brief authored on behalf of Carnegie Mellon University and thirty-seven other private colleges and universities. You can access the brief here (PDF), and read Carnegie Mellon's perspective here.

How Appealing and the SCOTUSBlog continue to provide excellent coverage of the ongoing news, commentary, court filings and online resources related to the University of Michigan cases as they unfold.

Goodbye, Dolly

Though Dolly the Sheep no longer is with us, her big fleecy self lives on in video with her "dad," Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute, at Tech TV's Big Thinkers. Dr. Wilmut describes current cloning techniques as "horribly inefficient," and thinks it's "really quite appalling" anyone would consider applying them to humans.

Common Talk

Movable Type now has full support for Creative Commons licenses. Scientific American includes an overview about CC licenses in its March, 2003 edition, and Dave Sifry has added a CC license to the Technorati indices and feeds. [all via the Creative Commons Weblog]


Tuesday, February 18, 2003

Gonzo Indeed

So, you think I'm kicking myself for not driving up Saturday for this? Though I wasn't there, I have a small story that says perhaps big things.

Before the event, I emailed Doc, in essence: "Wish I could go, long drive, weekend night and I do that commute all week [insert lame, old-beyond-my-years excuse of your choice here]. My FTP password for Blog*spot has gone missing, think you could mention it to Ev?" What happened in the next several hours is now the stuff of legend. Yet, in the middle of all the chaos and confabulation, before the next business day even had dawned, Ev and colleagues were personally in touch to help me solve my niggling FTP issue. ("Class Act, you know your old pals, Loyalty, Trust and Genuine Affection? Come on in and have a cheese puff.")

Thanks to their kind -- and in light of current events, mindblowingly unexpected -- responsiveness, Bag and Baggage should be getting a facelift soon (not to mention a few other nips and tucks; if you have an elastic garment to spare, do let me know). You won't have to do a thing to your bookmarks or blogrolls.


Monday, February 17, 2003

Blawgsoming

And yet more blawgs! Carolyn Elefant is one of the authors at MyShingle, a Slashcode blawg for solos and small firms. Nice content, good philosophies (see, e.g., the Policies page), thoughtful insights: "[W]eblogs and increased sharing of substantive information is where the web is heading while static internet marketing that mimics hard copy (e.g., Yellow Pages and directories) is officially passe." Carolyn also has fired up the LOCE Wind and Wave Energy Weblog, a blog devoted to offshore wind and wave energy (one of Carolyn's practice areas). Soho Attorney asks, in similar vein, "Because Why Should You Be A Wage Slave?" and provides further information for solo practitioners and small firms with a heavier emphasis on tech issues. Phil Carter is a law student and former Army officer. Thanks to Jonas for the pointer. And Hani O.K. is "everyone's favorite Snarky Egyptian Midwestern Transplant Clothes-horse 1L living in the NYC," with a photo of something you don't see every day: a cross-country skier in Manhattan. [via The Blawg Ring]

Eyes Right

Welcoming some newcomers to the Bag and Baggage blawgroll: Products liability specialist Monique Svenson, Ernie's wife. Terry Seale, aka The Old Fox, "a legal research specialist and information architect." Dennis Kennedy, an IP/IT attorney, author and legal technology expert. (More about Dennis.) [via Ernie] Adam White, a 2L at Harvard. [via Weblogs At Harvard] Rebecca Nesson and Wayne Marshall, blogging from Jamaica, Mon. Both are Harvard grads, Rebecca of the law school too, and she's a Berkman Fellow. [via Weblogs At Harvard]

Interesting Times

Howard Rosenberg has this entertaining rant in today's L.A. Times (reg. req.) about the "troubled times" we now confront: "Something must be done -- before it's too late -- to end this television of mass destruction." (Sounds like Aaron Brown would be a blogging natural ;) .)

Sunday, February 16, 2003

Nouns Of Multitude Or Signifying Many

Good discussion at Shelley's about the Google-Pyra news, including this comment from bumr ("More and more of the content Google returns in its results are weblogs;" more) and this one from Jeneane ("Look for Gonzo to take hold"). Consistent with bumr's observations, lately I've noticed myself looking for -- and finding -- pertinent information using Google by limiting the search to the "radio.weblogs.com" or "blogspot.com" domains. Now, I'm well aware that most of the world has a different host or server*, and I'm not saying I don't search more broadly as well. What I'm saying is you should give this a whirl and see how effective it can be. A quick example: I found a number of these resources by limiting the search to radio.weblogs.com. The same search limited to blogspot.com turned up this really wonderful electronic discovery library, maintained by Kroll Ontrack, and via Old Fox Den. I didn't know Kroll Ontrack from Adam, but its eEvidence law library is quite good, and it doesn't surprise me at all that I learned this from a blawger and Kylie Minogue fan. "But Denise," you say, "Daypop already lets you limit search results to weblogs in general." Sure, but this is Google we're talking about. See Cory Doctorow: "If Google pulls it off successfully, it will be able to generate tons of great, new, brilliant features, use its data-mining to refine them and build secondary services atop them, and that innovation will flow out to the other blogging tools. And vice-versa." *Think about how this might shift, is shifting. Sweet mullet, is it an AOL world after all??

News

Dan Gillmor: "Weblogs are going Googling." Don't miss the "Update" links at the end; as-published article here. Keynote HQ: "This site will provide valuable resources to make the most out of your presentations developed with Keynote." [via J-Files; link added]

Another Reason Why It Frequently Must Suck To Be A Judge

Aside from the appearance of impropriety thing? Not to mention the funding/staffing thing? The CA Attorney General's suggestion you should be precluded from deciding death penalty cases because you toured death row and have met and corresponded with former death row inmate and writer, Michael W. Hunter.* More in the L.A. Times and at Howard's. *Mr. Hunter's Merchants of Death was cited by Judge Kozinski in his dissent in Gerber v. Hickman, the Ninth Circuit's 2002 decision that found "the right to procreate is fundamentally inconsistent with incarceration" (PDF; Judge Kozinski's dissent begins at page 20). Other writing by Mr. Hunter includes: Maintenance of Justice, Mel, Mother Teresa and Dave.

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