This is why we should never torture

The Taliban is waterboarding capture US soldiers.  What are they using as justification?  The fact that we've done it.

Breathalyzer source code

The source code to an alcohol breath detector has been made public.  The results are alarming.  A thorough inspection of the software shows that this thing could easily give a false reading, without alerting the operator (likely a cop).

It also brings about the larger discussion of whether it is ethical for laws to be based on tests performed by closed source, non public software.  I would argue that it is not ethical.  Many people have tried to get this information in the past, and the makers of these devices usually cite "trade secrecy" as to why they cannot and should not have to reveal their source code.  

Now we know the real reason.

Posession of beer still illegal? Who would have known?

Some Libertarian activists were arrested in the most backward of United States, Mississippi. Among other things, they were charged with posession of beer in a dry county.

Yes, that's right, in certain counties of Mississippi, having a 6 pack of Bud is a crime.

Need a job?

Screen adult ads in craigslist. Seriously. We are falling back as a society. Why is prostitution still illegal? And some believe that torture is not? Seriously?

More pragmatic than any US president

It's amazing how we have to turn to the former President of Mexico to see a leader who has the right ideas.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 upgrade problems; worse than Jaunty

For all you readers out there who have Macs, take care when upgrading to 10.5.7

This is the most buggy Mac upgrade I have ever encountered. Here are the issues I had, which are not as bad as others.

My stats: Macbook 13" white that is about 18 months old; 2GB RAM, more than enough space on the HD.

1. When trying to upgrade via Software Update, the file failed a hash check, meaning that Apple was trying to send me a corrupted file. I tried restarting my computer, but the problem did not go away.
2. Due to the above problem, I downloaded the update from Apple's website, and attempted to install it myself.
3. Things went well until it wanted to restart, at which point the screen became completely garbled (it reminded me of a Windows 98 crash) and the computer kept trying to restart, but could not. The screen would go grey, then the garbled screen would re-appear.
4. In the end, my only option was to hold down the power button to turn off the computer.
5. Upon restarting, the computer proceeded to the main grey screen with the Apple logo, and then restarted.
6. The second time around, it go almost to the login screen, up to the point where the mouse cursor was workable. It restarted again.
7. Third time was the charm, the computer came back online and thankfully everything was OK.

Macs are just "supposed to work". This didn't. It sucked. I upgraded my 6 year old Dell to Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope last week and that went down a lot better. Easier to upgrade Linux than OS X? Who would have predicted this day would come.

The lesson to be learned is to backup your computer often, to an external hard drive. And don't just assume things will work, even if its from Apple.

Taibbi on terrorism

He brings some sense to the issue

Health care reform accelerates

A large group of private interest groups in the healthcare industry has vowed to significantly stem cost increases, making it much easier for universal healthcare to become a reality.

I'm sure that the big insurance companies are shitting their pants now.