MOsanthrope

Updated on July 11, 2006 at 4:38 pm.
I knew him, Blogosphere….
I have accepted a position which will permit me, I hope, to do some important work. It’s been awhile since I’ve walked the walk. I start July 17.
Employees of the office I’m joining may not publicly spout off about things political. I’ll […]

Filed under: Politics, Announcements, Blogs, Employment, Law, Missouri

Remember Vietnam Veterans For The Truth? They ran that KerryLied.com site. They’re back, this time with clever new web sites like MurthaLied.com and BootMurtha.com.
You see, Congressman Murtha (D-PA) has actually criticized the President’s increasingly popular war. Worse yet, last year he introduced a House resolution advocating withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, […]

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Internet, Media

In a previous post, I linked to a Wired News article detailing the NSA’s warrantless domestic wiretap program. The article was accompanied by copies of sealed documents describing the NSA operation, including details of a secret facility housed in an AT&T building located in nearby Bridgeton, Missouri.
Today, FiredUp! Missouri links to a […]

Filed under: Politics, Business, Law, Internet, Missouri

The AP recently interviewed Bill Maher about his new half-hour weekly Internet broadcast, “Amazon Fishbowl.”
As usual, Maher’s political commentary was right on:

AP: How much do you think Ralph Nader is to blame for the current political situation?
Maher: I don’t blame Ralph Nader at all. Please. The people who are to blame are the Democrats […]

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Internet, Media

This evening, my wife and I rebooted the laptop from Linux to Windows (you remember Windows, right?), fired up WiFi, closed Firefox and opened Internet Explorer (you remember viruses, right?), and having finally pleased the Microsoft gods, plugged the laptop into our living room receiver and thoroughly enjoyed MSN’s broadcast of the Dixie Chicks […]

Filed under: Music, Internet

Given the Biblical prohibition against charging interest, why do I keep getting so much spam from “Christian lenders”?
Discuss.

Filed under: Religion, Internet, Email

There are pros and cons to hosting your own Internet servers. On the plus side, for example, you may configure your network and server software to your heart’s content. On the other hand, it’s no fun when someone plugs a vacuum cleaner into your UPS and takes down your whole network.
Everything should […]

Filed under: Announcements, Computers, Networking, Internet

If the blog is behaving slowly, it’s because we’re being hit with what appears to be a very half-hearted DDoS attack. All of the hits are originating from different (mainly overseas) IP addresses but share an identical user agent string.

Filed under: Announcements, Computers, Networking, Internet

Just how perverted must your concept of Christianity be to come up with something like this?
From Talk to Action via Crooks and Liars:

Mark Carver, a top aide to mega-church pastor and best selling author Rick Warren, has resigned as a business advisor to Left Behind Games, the developers of a video game in which Christian […]

Filed under: Entertainment, Religion, Computers, Games

Updated on May 22, 2006 at 4:44 pm.
Wired News has posted a stunning article on the NSA’s warrantless domestic wiretap operation, along with the full text of sealed documents prepared by EFF witness and former AT&T employee Mark Klein. Wired explains why it elected to publish the documents, which describe the NSA program […]

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Law, Internet

Updated on May 22, 2006 at 10:54 am (I), 11:03 am (II) and 12:47 pm (III).
The blogosphere is abuzz with rumors of an impending Bush/Blair press conference to announce plans to begin Operation Cut and Run.
The Raw Story is a good place to lurk as these types of stories swirl up.UPDATE: Attaturk sticks his […]

Filed under: Politics, Blogs, U.S., World

I just noticed that an article about my alma mater is today’s featured article at Wikipedia.
Shut up and stop pretending you’re not fascinated.

Filed under: Internet, Education, Michigan

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R –WI) has a plan:

Wisconsin Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is proposing that ISPs be required to record information about Americans’ online activities so that police can more easily “conduct criminal investigations.” Executives at companies that fail to comply would be fined and imprisoned […]

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Law, Internet

Once you’ve begun inserting random consonants into words in a futile attempt to fool our anti-spam software, your subject line is no longer even remotely intelligible to English-speaking readers; and we’re not biting on opening the email to figure out what the flock “VtAzGRA,” “VALtUfM,” “AMBtEwN” and “CtAoLlS” are.
However, I was fascinated to learn that […]

Filed under: Internet, Email

Updated on April 18, 2006 at 1:36 pm.
I just stepped in from an enjoyable afternoon at the Saint Louis Science Center with the boys and noticed WAN activity lights blinking maniacally and our little server fighting valiantly to dish yesterday’s silliness.
Thanks to the good folks at BoingBoing for the link!
I imagine I should put away […]

Filed under: Announcements, Blogs, Internet

Over at Centerfield, an interesting discussion about centrism and partisanship is occurring. I’ve offered my $0.06.
It’s worth a trip, if only to remind yourselves why blogs have comment sections: A post’s comments are frequently more engaging than the post itself.
↓ {hint, hint} ↓

Filed under: Politics, Blogs, U.S.

The Washington Post’s new “conservative blogger” has apparently never written anything which he did not plagiarize.
Seriously.
You can’t make this stuff up. {rimshot}UPDATE: WaPo.com Executive Editor, Jim Brady: He’s outta’ here.UPDATE II: Domenech’s rebuttal is here; surrebuttals are here, here and here. Point of procedure: What is the term […]

Filed under: Politics, Blogs, U.S., Media

I administer email for friends and family members using my quinns.net domain. The process of creating a new email account on my server requires approximately thirty seconds and costs roughly $0.00.
This defies logical explanation:

NEW YORK (AP) — Budget constraints are forcing some FBI agents to operate without e-mail accounts, according to the agency’s […]

Filed under: U.S., Law, Internet, Email

A flaming liberal, I meant. Knock it off, you two.
Those of you who resent periodically being forced to swallow your own vomit after a Google misfire sends you off to read Kathryn Jean Lopez might enjoy this: Kosmix, a new search engine, attempts to sort query results into liberal, libertarian and conservative categories.
I’ve […]

Filed under: Politics, Internet, Web

Has anyone else noticed the recent evolution of spam subject lines? Not long ago, spammers were trying to entice me with subjects like “You need a bigger penis!” and “Christian home loans.” (That first one worked only for a year or two).
I’m now filtering about 20 of these each day:

Subject: Bush is a […]

Filed under: Politics, Culture, U.S., Internet, Email

This is the last time I will write anything about Ann Coulter.
I don’t mean to suggest that I’ve ever spent a great deal of time worrying about Coulter. While I have, on occasion, linked to other bloggers’ recitals of her outrageous diatribes, I’ve never actually mentioned her name in a post before now. […]

Filed under: Politics, Blogs, U.S., Media

Have you ever wondered why you continue to receive those ridiculous Nigerian bank scam emails? Is there anyone alive who is sufficiently gullible to fall for such obvious fraud?
Yes, Mabel, such a person lives; and he’s a psychiatrist at UC Irvine:

A renowned psychiatrist from UC Irvine was duped into squandering at least $1.3 million […]

Filed under: Culture, Law, Internet, Email

Via Think Progress:
The Minnesota Republican party is distributing a new CD-ROM in support of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. In addition to its presentation of flashy graphics and talking points, the CD walks users through a series of poll-like questions and asks them to enter an activation key and personal information, ostensibly […]

Filed under: Politics, Internet

Scary stuff:

Whatever the outcome of Bush’s warrantless NSA surveillance program, it seems clear that government surveillance of our communications and even our social networks is only going to increase. The New York Times reports on recent “shopping trips” by NSA officials to Silicon Valley to purchase new data-mining tools.

Read on….

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Internet

Google has taken a lot of flak recently for its collusion with Beijing in censoring search results for Chinese users.
It’s not just China, folks.

Filed under: Politics, Technology, U.S., Internet, World

I remain astonished by the extent to which the Internet has changed the way we obtain information. I use Google far more often than I use my cell phone, and I can’t remember the last time I cracked a phone book. I also use Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia edited by its users, nearly […]

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Internet

One of the web buttons displayed in the sidebar of my main page is this:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a nonprofit group of attorneys, technologists and others who work to protect civil liberties in the digital world. EFF attorneys have successfully prosecuted cases involving abusive copyright claims under the DMCA, intervened on behalf […]

Filed under: Politics, U.S., Law, Internet

These days it seems that every technological advance is followed by an immediate short-sighted frenzy by corporate America to cash in without any consideration of long-term effects on innovation or future profitability.
Sunday’s Washington Post contained an interesting article about telecommunication companies’ plans to alter the flow of Internet information in an attempt to […]

Filed under: Technology, Business, Internet

Music is a great love of mine. Although my album collection contains a disproportionate number of indie and punk titles dating back to my days in college radio, I’m not really an aficionado of any particular band or genre. There isn’t much music I don’t enjoy.
I’m also a geek. I […]

Filed under: Technology, Computers, Electronics, Networking, Music, Internet

Seriously. As if its roving censors (”guides”), restrictive software, screaming ads and often poor network performance were not reason enough to get your packets elsewhere, now you may add this: AOL has opted to unilaterally add gibbering bots to all of its instant messenger users’ “friend lists.” With them, users may […]

Filed under: IM, Internet