actual constitutional common sense is still out there in the courts

Judge Invalidates Patriot Act Provisions - washingtonpost.com:

A federal judge struck down controversial portions of the USA Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional yesterday, ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York said the FBI's use of secret "national security letters" to demand such data violates the First Amendment and constitutional provisions on the separation of powers, because the FBI can impose indefinite gag orders on the companies and the courts have little opportunity to review the letters.

The secrecy provisions are "the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values," Marrero wrote. His strongly worded 103-page opinion amounted to a rebuke of both the administration and Congress, which had revised the act in 2005 to take into account an earlier ruling by the judge on the same topic.

why piss off the geeks? because it works...

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The Puppet Master | PBS:

So why did he do it? Why did he cut the price? I have no inside information here, but it seems pretty obvious to me: Apple introduced the iPhone at $599 to milk the early adopters and somewhat limit demand then dropped the price to $399 (the REAL price) to stimulate demand now that the product is a critical success and relatively bug-free. At least 500,000 iPhones went out at the old price, which means Apple made $100 million in extra profit.

Had nobody complained, Apple would have left it at that. But Jobs expected complaints and had an answer waiting — the $100 Apple store credit. This was no knee-jerk reaction, either. It was already there just waiting if needed. Apple keeps an undeserved $50 million and customers get $50 million back. Or do they? Some customers will never use their store credit. Those who do use it will nearly all buy something that costs more than $100. And, most importantly, those who bought their iPhones at an AT&T store will have to make what might be their first of many visits to an Apple Store. That is alone worth the $50 per customer this escapade will eventually cost Apple, taking into account unused credits and Apple Store wholesale costs.

So Apple still comes out $75 million ahead, which is important to Steve Jobs.

road signs for the 80s

grokked from testaclese .  Not sure who did it...

can somebody tell me...

why september 22/23 has so completely escaped my mind?

for some reason i kept holding on to sep 29/30 as adventurers weekend in my head and not the 22/23rd even though i was pretty sure there was only one weekend in between the special event weekends.

*sigh*

it's almost like i *want* this season to end quickly.  i don't.  i just don't want to deal with tomorrow's 88 + humid days in the wool.  i'm already short-kilting it to keep my sanity intact.

side note: in digging through the accessories bin to find my scottish kilt pin crap, i found my clip clock!