dict.org has links to dictionary files and other fun (dictionary related) stuff.

to read: code and other laws of cyberspace

cool, google has streamlined their page a bit.

after reading a recent nytimes article on senator leahy, i dropped him a supportive note at his site, and despite selecting the no response necessary form option, got one today anyways. which isn’t a bad thing, as it points to statements made on the senate hearing on internet music distribution, as well as a list of his recent press releases. among the recent ones are two of background on the sheep seizure in vermont, and also his reaction to the proposed legislation to update wiretapping laws and encryption rules.

i am still waiting to get a response from senator feinstein’s office. i sent a message after finding out that the hr 2987, the methamphetamine anti-proliferation act, also attached as a rider on hr 833, the bankruptcy reform act (makes lots of sense, right) originally started life as senate bill 1428 last year, co-sponsored by feinstein. basically the bill tromps all over the 1st, 4th, and 5th amendments, which of course is really stupid (of course, historically speaking, the “war on drugs” has never taken the logical or smart path in reducing drug use or harm prevention). more info on what you can do at the eff or from the lp.

any politician willing to give up my constitutional rights for their pet concern gets no respect from me. in the words of our old friend ben franklin, Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety

interesting thread on what’s the best implementation of moderation. my current thinking, is that everyone moderates is a good idea. i’m torn right now in how to weigh the moderation, or if filtering should be on by default, and if it is turned on, if it should filter by threads or what… of course, i have yet to read the w3-collaboration notes or made much of a dent in other collaboration reading. i really need to take some time off and just go through my “to read” folder. wayy to much stuff gathering there.

haven’t posted much recently because i’ve been busy, doing vignette training.

communities, content syndication, and commercial interests, good discussion, found it searching for some more info on scoop in light of kuro5hin’s recent travails. kmself made an interesting comment on /.

What pains me is that the Three Big Weblogs (TBW) have portions of the solution. Slashdot has filtering tools. K5 has a good moderation system. Advogato has a good membership vetting system. However, the pieces need to be put together. Having them on seperate systems doesn’t quite cut it.

instant runoff voting is a pretty cool idea.

As for third parties, it’s really another dynamic–the fact that voting your third-party favorite ends up helping the guy you hate the most. This can be fixed with instant runoff voting: You pick your first choice, second, third, etc. Count up all the first-choice votes. If no one gets over 50%, eliminate the candidate with the least, take all the people who voted for him as first-choice, and count their second-choice votes. Continue until one candidate has over 50%.

rocket arena 3, now with new “true-lightning” client-side option to stiffen your shaft.

lots of interesting links on scripting news today. one of those is to go.com’s recently open-sourced cms. pretty cool news.

an interesting thread on the microsoft mentality. makes me hope no one i know ends up working there (and losing grip of reality).