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Benlog

crypto and public policy

Archive for May, 2005

The Answer is No. The Question is To Be Determined.

Posted: Monday, May 30th, 2005 @ 2:12 pm in Policy | Comments Off on The Answer is No. The Question is To Be Determined.

The French have said No. Officially, the referendum was about the EU Constitution. But the exit polls show that, while the majority of “Yes” votes answered that question indeed, the majority of “No” votes answered a totally different question regarding approval of the current government’s domestic policies.

On the Brink of Nuclear War?

Posted: Friday, May 27th, 2005 @ 1:00 pm in Policy | Comments Off on On the Brink of Nuclear War?

When the Bush administration first talked tough on Iraq (2002), I wondered if (and hoped that) it was a bluff. An attempt to scare Iraq into accepting weapons inspectors back into the country to ensure they were not developing WMDs. When the weapons inspectors were allowed back in but the escalation of words continued, it […]

The Beauty of Evolution

Posted: Sunday, May 15th, 2005 @ 11:43 pm in General | Comments Off on The Beauty of Evolution

The Kansas Board of Education is redefining science. According to them, evolution is a hotly contested theory among scientists. Other theories, like creationism (now marketed as intelligent design), should be taught alongside evolution, they claim. One wonders about the obvious contradiction of (1) stating the intelligent design is a science and (2) redefining the term […]

Hilary Rosen, meet DRM

Posted: Monday, May 9th, 2005 @ 12:45 pm in Policy | Comments Off on Hilary Rosen, meet DRM

On Arianna Huffington’s new blog, the Huffington Post, we find out that Hilary Rosen is begging Steve Jobs to “let her music go.” As the Recording Industry’s ex-president, she’s peeved because she can’t play songs from “other music stores” on her iPod. Allow me to quote the juiciest part: But keeping the iTunes system a […]

The Web 2.0 Apps

Posted: Saturday, May 7th, 2005 @ 6:39 pm in General | Comments Off on The Web 2.0 Apps

I’ve been keeping an eye on the people at 37 Signals, particularly David Heinemeier Hansson who founded the Ruby on Rails web development project. I’m quite impressed. They really get it. Their web applications are very easy to use and very useful, and the Ruby-on-Rails development platform is incredibly interesting (if only they favored PostgreSQL […]

Where’s the Microsoft PR Department?

Posted: Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005 @ 4:49 pm in General | Comments Off on Where’s the Microsoft PR Department?

A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft withdrew support from a bill that would have mandated equal opportunity protection regardless of sexual orientation. The response in the press has been so overwhelming that Bill Gates recently expressed his surprise. It seems he thought this would go unnoticed. And the best MS can say to explain its […]