July 7, 2008
American ingenuity
It's not all bad news out there on the business front.
Over this past holiday weekend, Cirrus Design Corporation successfully completed the first 45-minute flight of the company's innovative "The-Jet" (H/T James Fallows), which is a five-plus-two seat aircraft that many in the aviation industry believe is destined to ignite a revolution in general aviation. Aimed at the market of owner-pilots, The-Jet is simple to fly and includes an efficient single-jet operation in an aircraft that is more flexible than larger and far more expensive aircraft. AVWeb has more pictures of The-Jet's first flight here.
Ready to hail that air taxi yet?
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July 5, 2008
CNET visits the JSC
CNET's Road Trip 2008 blog visits the Johnson Space Center in the Clear Lake area of Houston (photos here). The article and accompanying photos are a good primer for the always interesting visit to the JSC.
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June 24, 2008
Browse while finding a pickup game
Proving that there is a market in almost everything, Infinite Hoops allows you to find or schedule pickup basketball games. About 15 years and a blown out Achilles' Tendon late for me, though.
Meanwhile, Zoomii is a slick virtual bookstore for Amazon books. Zoomii is a real world bookstore that allows you to browse through Amazon books just as if you were wandering through Border's or Barnes & Noble. Zoomii - Virtual Bookstore for Amazon Books.
The Web is truly amazing.
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June 13, 2008
Cool Graph Friday
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June 7, 2008
Take a ride on Google Earth
Check the following out on Google Earth. Go to "Tools" in the top navigation bar, click "Options" and then the "Touring" tab. Down below, you will see "Driving Directions Tour Options. " Input the following settings:
- Camera Title: 80 degrees
- Camera Range: 150 degrees
- Speed: 50 to 75
Click "Apply" and then "OK" to close out that box, then hit the "Directions" tab in the "Search" box on the upper left side of the Google Earth screen. Input a couple of addresses in your community and then allow Google Earth to prepare the directions for the route between those addresses. After Google Earth prepares the directions, hit the play button just below the directions. Then, sit back and enjoy the ride! (H/T GoogleEarthHacks.com).
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May 28, 2008
Hope on the horizon
Following up on this post from awhile back, don't tell the folks at MIT that the prospects for mankind are gloomy. Check out this MIT News article that resulted from the institute's news office asking a collection of MIT faculty and researchers for their thoughts on the potentially life-altering technologies that are just around the corner.
Despite what the presidential candidates say, it's not all that bleak out there, folks!
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April 15, 2008
An eternal optimist
Don't tell Ray Kurzweil that we ought to be all gloomy about the prospects for mankind. This WaPo op-ed reflects that he is downright bullish:
MIT was so advanced in 1965 (the year I entered as a freshman) that it actually had a computer. Housed in its own building, it cost $11 million (in today's dollars) and was shared by all students and faculty. Four decades later, the computer in your cellphone is a million times smaller, a million times less expensive and a thousand times more powerful. That's a billion-fold increase in the amount of computation you can buy per dollar.
Yet as powerful as information technology is today, we will make another billion-fold increase in capability (for the same cost) over the next 25 years. That's because information technology builds on itself -- we are continually using the latest tools to create the next so they grow in capability at an exponential rate. This doesn't just mean snazzier cellphones. It means that change will rock every aspect of our world. The exponential growth in computing speed will unlock a solution to global warming, unmask the secret to longer life and solve myriad other worldly conundrums. [. . .]
Take energy. Today, 70 percent of it comes from fossil fuels, a 19th-century technology. But if we could capture just one ten-thousandth of the sunlight that falls on Earth, we could meet 100 percent of the world's energy needs using this renewable and environmentally friendly source. We can't do that now because solar panels rely on old technology, making them expensive, inefficient, heavy and hard to install. But a new generation of panels based on nanotechnology (which manipulates matter at the level of molecules) is starting to overcome these obstacles. The tipping point at which energy from solar panels will actually be less expensive than fossil fuels is only a few years away. The power we are generating from solar is doubling every two years; at that rate, it will be able to meet all our energy needs within 20 years.
I just thought I'd toss in that third paragraph for those in the oil and gas industry that believe that a period like the mid-to-late 1980's can't happen again. Meanwhile, light, sweet crude oil futures for May delivery settled yesterday at $111.76, a new record, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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February 29, 2008
Indexed
Jessica Hagy has had a smart blog for awhile. Now, she has a smart book. Barry Ritholtz provides a taste of her work. She is a very insightful lady. Enjoy
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February 19, 2008
Alltop, all the time
Have you checked out Guy Kawasaki's new venture, Alltop? If not, you should. Guy is adding categories and new links frequently, so Alltop is turning into a great launching pad for finding informative blogs on a wide range of topics. Check it out.
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February 3, 2008
WinkingSkull.com
Check out WinkingSkull.com, a worthy counterpart to the Visual Medical Dictionary (noted earlier here) in better understanding anatomy and medical conditions.
Along those lines, did you know that "the bacteria count in the plaque on human teeth approaches the bacteria count in human feces?" (H/T Kevin, MD)
Still biting those fingernails? ;^)
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January 31, 2008
What time is it over there?
When I'm going to be involved in telephone conferences with folks overseas, I am constantly wondering what time of the day it is for them. This website helps me.
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January 21, 2008
The power of Twitter
On Dwight Silverman's recommendation, I've been checking out Twitter over the past couple of weeks and am impressed with it. Although people use it in different ways, Twitter is essentially a social networking and instant communication network. This interesting site called Twittervision provides a quick visual of Twitter's power and potential. Check out Twittervision and give Twitter a try.
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Visual Medical Dictionary
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January 8, 2008
YouTube for eggheads?
This looks as if it has great potential. The NY Times has the background story on the project.
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December 5, 2007
For the uncommonly curious
I swear, there isn't much that you can't find out something about on the Web these days. Check out this list -- 25 Unexpectedly Useful Websites for the Uncommonly Curious.
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November 27, 2007
Reviewing the Kindle
This John P. Falcone/Webware article does a good job of providing a preliminary evaluation of the new Amazon Kindle reading device:
The Bottom Line: With its built-in wireless capabilities and PC-free operation, Amazon's Kindle is a promising evolution of the electronic book (and newspaper, and magazine)--but overpriced content could be its Achilles' heel.
The six-minute Amazon video on the Kindle is here.
Update: The WSJ's technology reviewer, Walter Mossberg, is not particularly impressed after using the Kindle for a few days, while the Chronicle's excellent technology columnist, Dwight Silverman, is a bit more optimistic, but not yet sold.
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October 9, 2007
An interesting variation on the Nigerian email scam
I've had my email address for a long time, so I get a receive a lot of spam, which I ignore.
However, I thought I'd already seen every possible variation of the Nigeriam email scam imaginable, but I have to admit the one below that I received a few days ago is more imaginative than most:
From: rebzxxxxxxxxxxxx@peoplepc.comLuciano Pavarotti (Next Of Kin)
Dear Sir,
My writing to you should be surprising but it’s not a mistake because I believe that I could confide in you on this business deal which would be highly beneficial to both of us only that you should promise me that you would not disappoint me at the conclusion of this deal. The main reason why I am contacting you today is to seek your assistance but firstly let me introduce myself before proceeding to the purpose of this letter.
I am Graham Robson Wallace from London in the United Kingdom and I worked as a personal assistant and attorney to one Luciano Pavarotti who died of pancreatic cancer on the September 06, 2007. I was so close to him that on the 27th of June 2005, before his untimely death, he deposited the sum of Thirty-Seven Million Dollars (US$37M) in the custody of a Security Company in London and Holland and this deposit was made known to me alone. The problem now is that these Security Company has written to me few days ago requesting that I provide the beneficiary and next of kin to the deposited fund hence the real depositor is dead.
I would have claimed the money but the company already knows me as the late Luciano Pavarotti's attorney and personal assistant. So that is why I am contacting you just to present you as the bonafide beneficiary and next of kin to the said fund and I would provide all necessary documents to back up the claim but you must promise me that you won’t disappear into tin air by the time the fund is remitted into you account and also bare in mind that you would be entitled to 35% of the said fund, though the percentage sharing is negotiable.
Please signify your interest by providing me the following: This is to enable me commence immediate preparation of all legal document that will back up our claim.
1. Full Name :
2. Your Telephone Number and Fax Number
3. Your Contact Address.Your urgent response will be highly appreciated.
Best regards,
Mr. Graham R. Wallace
Based on this earlier post about the late Pavarotti, it doesn't sound as if he had $37 million laying around to give to Mr. Wallace. ;^)
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October 4, 2007
The genesis of bad regulations
I'm not an advocate of using cell phones indiscrimately while driving. In fact, I try to avoid it as much as possible. But every few months or so, some media outlet passes along another superficial story (see also here) on the latest study or tragic story that supposedly suggests that use of cell phones while driving leads to accidents and, thus, should be outlawed.
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September 25, 2007
More on lackluster Vista
Ben Worthen's WSJ Business Tech blog post channels Warren Meyer's opinion of Windows Vista:
Microsoft started selling Vista, the latest version of its Windows operating system, to businesses last November. And despite the fact that over 90% of businesses run Windows, only 7% of large companies plan to switch to Vista this year, according to this Journal article. The article touches on all the reasons that companies are delaying the switch: Some of the security software isn’t ready; problems with special software called “drivers” that run printers and other devices; the fact that most companies run software that may not work with the new operating system.This blog thinks it all suggests one thing: Companies don’t need Vista yet. In the past, Microsoft was replacing a version of Windows with known flaws or introducing a new version with a lot more capabilities. But XP, the version of Windows that was released in 2002, works great – or at least good enough for businesses.
The Chronicle's best columnist -- technology expert Dwight Silverman -- also contributes his thoughts on Vista.
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September 14, 2007
Not an advertisement for Vista
Don't look for Warren Meyer to be a spokesman for Microsoft Vista any time soon:
The laptop I bought my kids 6 months ago is rapidly becoming the worst purchase I have ever made. Not because the laptop is bad, but because of a momentary lack of diligence I bought one with Vista installed. It has been a never-ending disaster trying to get this computer to work. [. . .]Vista is rapidly becoming the New Coke of operating systems. I have had every version of windows on my computer at one time or another, including Windows 1.0 and the egregious Windows ME, and I can say with confidence Vista is the worst of them all by far.
Read Meyer's entire post, which he backs up quite well. Meanwhile, sales of Vista continue to lag badly behind those of XP.
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August 28, 2007
What's ailing you?
Have you had a symptom of an illness or an injury that has bothering you for awhile? Medgle allows you to click on the body part that's bothering you and select the specific symptom from a list of possible options. Then, Medgle asks how long the symptom has been apparent, as well as th inquirer's sex and age. Medgle then returns a listing of possible matches for the symptoms.
Moreover, you can then take the result that Medgle generates and, on the following page, provides you with a brief summary of the condition and a Google search relating to treatment, prevention, drugs, tests, research, diet, alternative medicine, and fitness. You can even refine the search by changing the age or gender.
This is never going to replace a visit to your doctor, but it sure provides a handy way to increase the patient's knowledge and understanding regarding diagnosis and treatment. Check it out.
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August 1, 2007
Silverman pans the iPhone
Chronicle technology columnist Dwight Silverman is one of the best in the business, so when he pans the trendy iPhone, it's time to sit and listen:
I lived with the iPhone for about a month, and as an experiment, I carried both it and my Samsung BlackJack, my own PDA. My goal was to see which device I preferred for which tasks. For example, when I wanted to access the Web online, or check e-mail, which would I reach for first?I started out using the iPhone more, because using it was an adventure. But by the end of my experiment, I was back to using the BlackJack for most serious tasks.
While the iPhone is indeed a very cool device, and there's a lot about it to like — see the aforementioned earlier reviews for a litany of them — I think its shortcomings are major.
Read Silverman's entire review, whcih pretty much concludes that the iPhone elevates style over substance. Meanwhile, the WSJ's Carl Bialik breaks down the initial sales numbers for the iPhone and concludes that the pre-release hype definitely exceeded the actual sale numbers.
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June 20, 2007
How Not to use PowerPoint
Comedian Don McMillan nails it in this hilarious video. It's a must view for anyone who has ever endured a bad PowerPoint presentation (is there anyone left who has not?). Hat tip to Craig Newmark.
Meanwhile, the WSJ's ($) technology columnist Lee Gomes takes a look at the status of PowerPoint on its 20th (!) birthday.
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March 29, 2007
60 Sites in 60 Minutes
One of the most popular sessions each year at the ABA Technology Show in Chicago is the 60 Sites in 60 Minutes session, in which a panel of tech-savvy lawyers review 60 of their favorite websites. Although directed toward lawyers, most of the sites are equally useful to businesspeople and other professionals, so check out this year's selected websites that were presented at last week's show. It's a great way to keep up with web technology that is on the cutting edge for the law and business.
Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 27, 2007
Old-timey photographs
Shorpy.com is an innovative new blog that presents old photographs from around the United States over the past century. As the blog's authors describe it, "Shorpy is a photo blog about what life a hundred years ago was like: How people looked and what they did for a living, back when not having a job usually meant not eating."
The photo on the left is from Houston. Called "The Banana Wagon: 1943," the May, 1943 photo shows a house with a fruit stand in Houston on Franklin Street. Note the laundry hanging around the second floor porch. Check out this interesting new blog.
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March 13, 2007
Medstory Beta
Medstory is an interesting new search engine that offers "Intelligent Search for Health & Medicine." When I ran a search on "diabetes," Medstory generated at the top of the results "Information that Matters" -- specific categories of information regarding diabetes, including Drugs and Substances, Conditions, Procedures, In Clinical Studies, Complementary Medicine, Personal Health, and People. Each of these categories has five related topics on which you can click to narrow your search further. Beneath these categories are the Web results, which allow you to narrow your results to specific types of information, such as news, audio/video, clinical trials, or research articles. And there is even an RSS feed for each search. Inasmuch as speed and focus is the name of the game these days in search engines, Medstory looks to be a very promising addition to the medical search field. Hat tip to Tom Mighell for the link.
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March 12, 2007
The impact of blogging
The blogosphere's coverage of the Scooter Libby trial prompted James Joyner to make the following insightful observation about the impact of blogging on the processing of information:
When the blogosphere broke open RatherGate, it was through a combination of two things that the mainstream press seldom has: obsession and expertise. There are people out there who simply care more about things like Dan Rather, Scooter Libby, Valerie Plame, or just about any other topic that you can think up than anyone working for any press venue. Similarly, there are people out there who know a whole lot more about the nuances of 1960s era typefaces, perjury law, FISA, or what have you than any working journalist could possibly be expected to know. The combination of these things give citizen journalists a powerful advantage.Because bloggers don’t have to even pretend to be unbiased or interested in “all the news that’s fit to print,” I wouldn’t want to rely on any one blog for my news, or even my commentary. Collectively, though, blogs add an enormous amount of information and insight to the process.
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March 8, 2007
The magic of innovation and markets
FeedDemon is a highly-popular RSS aggregator that I have used for several years. Nick Bradbury developed FeedDemon, and he passes along the interesting story of how development of this elegant product came about:
I used to rely on email, but it's almost useless to me now.Funny thing is, if it weren't for spam, I might not have created FeedDemon. As I've mentioned before, after spam and anti-spam filters made it impossible for me to communicate with customers by email, I dumped email and started using my blog and its RSS feed to communicate instead.
And that led to the creation of FeedDemon, which I'm having a blast working on. So I actually benefited from spam. Go figure.
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February 22, 2007
Cancer Diva
"My name is Terry, and I'm dying of cancer. Welcome to the adventure."
That is the welcome to the Houston Chronicle's newest blog -- CancerDiva. Terry Hayes, the author of the blog, describes herself as follows:
I'm a single, 40-year-old woman living in Houston with my sister and her two dogs. I have a kitty cat named Sasha. I love to shop, read, watch movies and listen to music. I enjoy a challenging jigsaw puzzle, "This American Life" and "Prairie Home Companion". I like plays, traveling, and art cars. I love my job and my co-workers. I can't get enough of "CSI," "Law & Order," or "The Closer," and I'll watch anything on BRAVO. My favorite color is pink.Oh, and I'm dying of cancer.
No use sugarcoating it. When my oncologist told me in April 2006 that I have metastatic colon cancer, I nodded my head and said, "Okay." When she told me I had about 24 months to live, "give or take a few," I nodded my head and said, "Okay."
My cancer had spread from my colon to distant sites in my body, namely my ovaries, liver and abdominal wall. Last week, I thought I might have a brain tumor. Luckily, my MRI was normal (normal for now anyway).
Only 5-8% of patients with Stage IV/Duke's D colon cancer make it five years after diagnosis. The usual course, from diagnosis to death, takes about 24 months, "give or take a few".
I'm not sure why I took the news quite so casually. My oncologist, a wonderful woman named Dr. Glover, said I was "eerily calm."
I have a few theories. One of the many, many issues I'll be discussing in this blog.
You can bet I'll be reading this one.
Posted by Tom at 4:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 16, 2007
Tracking federal cases
Justia, the company that developed the popular Blawgsearch engine, has just introduced another outstanding search vehicle -- a website that allows the user to track federal court cases in a number of different ways, including by date, state or party name.
The website taps into a database of recently filed federal district court civil cases and starts with a list of all of the cases, which then can be broken down by State/Court/Practice/Sub-Practice. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of all of the new cases that meet these criteria, or you can do a search and subscribe to an RSS fee of the search results. For example, you could track all of the federal court cases filed against a particular company as an RSS feed, or you could subscribe to just those that are filed in Texas. Whatever the search criteria, you can track new cases with an RSS feed.
Each case has an individual page with a link to the Pacer info page (you do need a subscription to access these documents at 8 cents per page) as well as Blog, News, Finance and Web searches on the party names. Not a bad way of picking up some quick informal discovery on the parties to litigation.
Justia has inputted over 300,000 case titles since January 1, 2006 and are now updating the database daily. The website is still in beta and Justia plans to add more functionality and editorial groupings of parties. But it's pretty darn useful already. Give it a look.
Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 11, 2007
Acrobatic lawyers
In my practice, I am continually amazed at how most lawyers underuse Adobe Acrobat's features despite the fact that pdf files have become the standard file form for legal briefs and pleadings. Such basic and simple-to-use Adobe features as bookmarking and linking greatly facilitate the review of large documents, but rarely do lawyers include these features in their papers. I bookmark and link all my large briefs and pleadings, and many judges -- most of whom review briefs and pleadings on a computer these days -- have commented to me on how much they enjoy using those features in reviewing voluminous documents.
Ed Poll realizes the same thing that I do. So, he interviews Rick Borstein, Business Development Manager for the Legal Community for Abobe Systems, Inc. in this podcast in which Borstein discusses the new features in the latest version of Adobe Acrobat that are of special interest to lawyers. It's 20 minutes of listening that will be well worth your time.
Posted by Tom at 4:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 9, 2007
Reviewing the best Web technology of 2006
Dallas lawyer Tom Mighell is the dean of Texas law bloggers and is a widely-respected expert on application of technology to the practice of law. Along with fellow legal technology expert Dennis Kennedy, Tom writes a monthly column entitled "Strongest Links" for the ABA Law Practice Management magazine that highlights helpful technologies.
In this column, Tom and Dennis provide their "Strongest of the Strongest Links" that they wrote about during 2006. Although written primarily for folks interested in application of the technologies in the practice of law, most of the technologies are helpful for anyone interested in using their time more efficiently. Check it out.
Posted by Tom at 4:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 21, 2006
The blog mob?
Wall Street Journal assistant editorial features editor Joseph Rago doesn't think much of blogs:
The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps.[. . .][Most blogs] are pretty awful. Many, even some with large followings, are downright appalling.
Every conceivable belief is on the scene, but the collective prose, by and large, is homogeneous: A tone of careless informality prevails; posts oscillate between the uselessly brief and the uselessly logorrheic; complexity and complication are eschewed; the humor is cringe-making, with irony present only in its conspicuous absence; arguments are solipsistic; writers traffic more in pronouncement than persuasion.
Larry Ribstein, who is on the cutting edge of writing on the impact of blogging, responds to Rago here and bores in on what is really going on here -- blogging's dilution of old media's impact on the distribution and shaping of information to the public. Does Rago really believe that the old media's approach to distributing and shaping information examined here, here and here is the best way to present reasonably complex issues to the public?
Moreover, another key utility of blogs is the linking to articles in newspapers, magazines and specialized journals that the reader probably would otherwise miss. For example, corporate law bloggers such as Professor Ribstein and Stephen Bainbridge have greatly facilitated the public and legal profession's understanding and discussion of often misunderstood business law principles that otherwise would have been relegated to rarely-read law review articles and an occasional backpage op-ed. The linking process increases the efficiency of the distribution of information and often refines that information. That such flow of information may be accompanied with a blogger's opinion of the information is really beside the point. Those opinions will be alternately illuminating, worthless or in-between, but the reader does not lose the ability to evaluate the information or the opinion.
Curiously, while a WSJ editor decries the proliferation of blogs, Peter Lattman's WSJ Law Blog is one of the best blogs to emerge during 2006. Go figure.
Posted by Tom at 4:06 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December 15, 2006
BlawgSearch
The blawgosphere -- that is, the world of law-related blogs -- has really come of age over the past couple of years as a research source, so it is becoming increasingly important to have a tool that facilitates research contained in blawgs.
BlawgSearch is a search engine that Tim Stanley and the folks at Justia.com have developed that focuses one's search on blawgs (Tim's blog post on BlawgSearch is here). It is in beta right now, but Tim and his crew are adding blawgs on a daily basis. While using it on a variety of issues over the past couple of days, I have found the coverage to be excellent already and far more focused than blawg searches on more generalized engines. Check it out and include it in your bookmarks. This looks like a winner.
Posted by Tom at 4:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 28, 2006
Bainbridge Cubed!
A month or so ago, Clear Thinkers favorite Stephen Bainbridge took some time off from blogging while revamping his blog site.
Now, he's back. And he's tripled!:
Professor Bainbridge's Business Associations BlogProfessor Bainbridge's Journal (Politics, Religion, Culture, Photography, and Dogs)
Posted by Tom at 4:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 3, 2006
WSJ goes blawging
The Wall Street Journal ($) begins the new year by rolling out a new blawg called -- somewhat unimaginatively -- "Law Blog," focusing "on law and business, and the business of law." Former Forbes Magazine reporter Peter Lattman -- who is an attorney -- is the lead writer for the WSJ Law Blog, which will include contributions from reporters and editors at The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. Law Blog is a part of the WSJ's rollout of this flashy new Law news page, which the Journal says will focus on "news, trends and buzz for lawyers at firms and in-house law departments, as well as the business people who work with them." Check the new blawg and page out.
Posted by Tom at 5:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 1, 2005
Houston's Theater District
My family and I enjoy attending events in Houston's fine downtown theater district, so I am pleased to see that the district has put together this handy and good-looking website. Houston is one of only five U.S. cities with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines of opera, ballet, music and theater, and its theater district is wonderfully-centralized in a several block area of downtown Houston. Check out the website and attend a show in the theater district during the holiday season -- it's a great way to spend an evening or weekend afternoon.
Posted by Tom at 5:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 5, 2005
Daniel Drezner lands on his feet
The University of Chicago's loss is Tufts University's gain.
Hearty congratulations are in order for Professor Drezner, who is one of the pioneers of the blogosphere.
Posted by Tom at 10:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
October 11, 2005
Daniel Drezner is moving on
DanielDrezner.com -- maintained by University of Chicago assistant professor of political science, Daniel Drezner -- is one of the first weblogs that I regularly reviewed and it remains one of my favorites. Over its three year existence, it has become one of the most popular academic blogs in the blogosphere.
Professor Drezner disclosed this past weekend that his application for tenure at the University of Chicago had been denied and that, as a result, he will be moving on from his position there. This New York Sun article (hat tip to Howard Bashman) is already speculating that Professor Drezner's popular blog was one of the factors working against him in the notoriously stuffy academic world of considering tenure applications. Larry Ribstein -- who is at the forefront of addressing academic issues relating to blogging -- has more analysis here.
Regardless of whether Professor Drezner's blogging had any effect on the rejection of his tenure application, my sense is that this is a temporary setback for him. He is an insightful commentator on politics generally, and on foreign affairs and political economy issues in particular, so he will not be without gainful employment opportunities for long. UChicago's loss will be someone else's gain.
Posted by Tom at 10:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 26, 2005
Apple stories
The ever informative Dwight Silverman informs us that the new Apple Store is opening this weekend in The Woodlands. Given the spirit of the typical Mac user, Dwight points out that you may want to allow the initial stampede to recede before venturing over to do some serious shopping.
By the way, speaking of Apple, you can rest assured that Ken Leebow will not be one of the shoppers at an Apple Store anytime soon!
Posted by Tom at 3:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
July 3, 2005
Create your own traffic jam
With the microsimulation of road traffic, you can now create your own traffic jam in the comfort of your home.
Posted by Tom at 5:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
June 22, 2005
Cool federal courts tool
Check out this creative interactive map to the federal courts organized by federal circuit.
This is just another example of how the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has embraced technological advances in streamlining litigation in federal courts. The ECF (electronic filing) system that is available now in most federal courts is the prototype for electronic filing systems in other courts around the country.
Posted by Tom at 7:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 27, 2005
Making Congressional voting transparent
This post by Tom Mighell over at Inter Alia reminded me to pass along GovTrack (www.govtrack.us), a new site that will provide you email notification of up-to-the-minute information about Congress.
GovTrack differentiates itself from other sites devoted to Congress in that it sends users e-mail updates anytime there is activity on legislation that they want to monitor. GovTrack lets users track activity of specific legislators. It can also send updates via RSS, or Real Simple Syndication, which is the most efficient way to organize and review such updates, as well as blog updates. The site collects information from Thomas (thomas.loc.gov), which is the Library of Congress's legislation tracking site, as well as the websites for the House of Representatives and the Senate. Check it out.
Posted by Tom at 8:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 22, 2005
Velvel on blogging
Lawrence R. Velvel is the dean of the University of Massachusetts Law School and writes an interesting blog called Velvel on National Affairs. This earlier post referred to one of Dean Velvel's earlier posts relating to the plagiarism scandal at Harvard Law School.
In this recent post, in the course of complimenting this Joseph Ellis op-ed regarding what George Washington would recommend as goals for the Bush Administration's second term, Deal Velvel provides one of the most insightful descriptions of the power of blogging that I have seen:
Frankly speaking, I assume -- I dont know this, but am assuming it -- that the column got into the papers in the same way that the book and newspaper industries normally work together. That is to say, to flog sales publicists at big name publishers ask big name newspapers to carry a column by a big name author relating to the subject of a new book the author wrote. Because the publisher and the author are big names, the big name newspaper agrees. This typical arrangement is symptomatic of the symbiotic elephantiasis which exists everywhere in this nation and is ruining the country: It is typical of the fact that, in every walk of life, only the huge in size, huge in money, huge in reputation, and/or huge in connections can really get anywhere.This fact, incidentally, is one of the reasons for the rise of the poor mans printing press called The Internet, which gives a small opening to people who are otherwise shut out regardless of competence -- just as, conversely, others are insiders regardless of competence.
Posted by Tom at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
December 24, 2004
Is your surgeon a "Nintendo surgeon?"
Following on this earlier post about video games being used as anesthetia for young patients, several of my surgeon friends, nephews, and my two sons are going to enjoy this latest finding:
Surgeons who play video games three hours a week have 37 percent fewer errors and accomplish tasks 27 percent faster, . . [based on] observation on results of tests using the video game Super Monkey Ball.
Link hat tip to Tyler Cowen, who hilariously suggests that maybe the surgeons and the patients could play each other?
Posted by Tom at 8:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
December 6, 2004
The Becker-Posner Blog gets cranked up
Second Circuit Judge and scholar Richard Posner and University of Chicago economist Gary Becker are now posting on their long awaited blog. Check it out here.
Posted by Tom at 6:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 26, 2004
Oh great! Cell phone viruses?
Your cell phone may be the victim of the next wave of viruses.
Posted by Tom at 7:03 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
October 29, 2004
Chess players -- check this out
Thinking Machine 4. Play a computer that shows you the various moves that it is considering. Very, very cool.
Posted by Tom at 11:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
October 18, 2004
SBC launches WiFi service
SBC Communications Inc. begins a major Wi-Fi broadband internet service today by offering its broadband Internet customers $2-a-month access to its wireless hotspots. The $2-a-month charge is only for customers who have an SBC digital subscriber line connection. SBC charges non-DSL subscribers $20 a month for the service and sells day passes on its network for $8 in most location
The plan gives SBC customers access to its FreedomLink wireless Internet service in nearly 4,000 locations across the country and 262 in Texas, including UPS Store locations. Including the UPS Stores and many Barnes & Noble bookstores. The company has a full list of its FreedomLink locations at www.sbc.com/freedomlink.
Posted by Tom at 5:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
August 17, 2004
In case you are not updating your virus, spyware, and adware protection regularly . . .
and maybe even if you are, read this.
Posted by Tom at 1:31 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
August 6, 2004
Excellent 2004 Election website
I have been meaning to pass along the Electoral Vote Predictor 2004, which has one of the best interfaces that I have seen in analyzing the upcoming Presidential election. Check it out.
Posted by Tom at 7:37 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
July 24, 2004
The Blawg Channel - An intriguing new blawg
Six of the pioneers of legal blogs (i.e., "blawgs") -- Tom Migdell, Dennis Kennedy, Ernest Svenson, Marty Schwimmer, Denise Howell, and Rick Klau -- are collaborating on a new blawg called The Blawg Channel. Ernie described the purpose of the new blawg in the following manner:
[to promote] some positive changes in the legal world, and