b.cognosco
Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Health Insurance for the Self-Employed
Copyright is to Protect the Artists
More Evidence of Need to Revamp USPTO
Barr's Loss is Loss for Privacy Fight
Relative Links Script
Falcon Fans -- Like Nowhere Else
Tuesday, August 27, 2002
The Dreaded Ampersand Bug
At least now I won't break my RSS feeds (for AmphetaDesk, anyway) when I throw an errant Ampersand (like "Barnes & Noble") into my Item Title. Thanks, Userland!
system.verbs.builtins.radio.weblog.writeRssFile changed on Tue, 27 Aug 2002 04:04:01 GMT: Entity-encode item titles. Fixes a bug which would cause generation of non-compliant XML if the title included the '&' character. [Radio.root Updates]
Health Insurance for the Self-Employed
As newly self-employed, getting my insurance in order is at the top of my list -- particularly health insurance. Scott Walker recently used e-healthinsurance.com to get a policy for his family. They seem to be a clearinghouse for lots of carriers, and list numerous policies and programs on their site. I started the forms process, but it got really long and I haven't gotten back to it.Meanwhile, I ran across this earlier today.
Meg and Dave can't find good individual health insurance. If you're in the same boat, we've used AAQHC and CIGNA for years, and we've been very happy with them over all. And we especially like that they have all their rates online. [Backup Brain]
And Glenn Fleishmann adds in the Backup Brain comments section:
[...]NASE, National Association of the Self-Employed (www.nase.org) is a great place to check. I've had their insurance more or less since 1992 (in Maine, then here, then cancelled during a job, then resumed).[...]
Note: Dave adds, also in the comments, that his health insurance is just fine, thank you.
Monday, August 26, 2002
Copyright is to Protect the Artists
Honest, recording labels are interested in Copyright protection so they can ensure the artists are fairly compensated. Really. That's what it's all about. Artists are starving because of piracy. The labels are just being the diligent servants of our cultural heritage. Really.
Zeppelin Denied Copyright For 'Houses Of The Holy'. Billboard Aug 26 2002 1:13PM ET[...]
The U.S. Copyright Office has rejected a request by members of Led Zeppelin to renew the copyright for its 1973 Atlantic album "Houses of the Holy," listing the band as owners, Billboard Bulletin reports. Instead, the Office gave the renewal to Atlantic, which has held the copyright since the recording's release and has shipped 11 million copies, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.[...] [Moreover - IP and patents news]
More Evidence of Need to Revamp USPTO
The USPTO reallly needs a mandatory period of public comment prior to actual issuance of a patent. Such a period would allow the general public to step forward with evidence of prior art, which could force full disclosure on just exactly what is covered in patents like this.
Catalina Patent Worries Loyalty Marketers. dmnews.com Aug 26 2002 7:47AM ET[...]
Consider some of the 13 claims in the filing. Claim 10 alludes to "the method of claim 5 wherein said step of issuing an incentive comprises effecting an electronic discount from the customer's bill at point-of-sale." The next claim refers to the "step of issuing an incentive comprises varying a smart card memory." Claim 12 says the "step of issuing an incentive comprises printing promotions for delivery to customer's home addresses."
[...]
Barr's Loss is Loss for Privacy Fight
The newly gerrymandered Georgia Congressional District 11 pitted Republican incumbents Bob Barr and John Linder against each other last week. From what I understand from friends, this race was one of the most prominent in the nation. This synopsis of Barr by Declan McCullagh highlights Barr's contradictory nature, and the issues that made this race so difficult.Is it possible to be both glad and disappointed to see someone leave office?
CNET NEWS.COM By Declan McCullagh - Internet privacy loses a voice in D.C..WASHINGTON--Georgia Rep. Bob Barr is an irascible conservative, an unyielding foe of abortion, gay marriage, and any drug more potent than nicotine. A floor manager during Bill Clinton's impeachment, Barr had lobbied for the president's ouster long before anyone knew of an intern's unfortunate affections inside the Oval Office.
Yet even Naderites should recognize that Barr's defeat in Georgia's Republican primary last week removes the fiercest champion of privacy in the U.S. House of Representatives, and his electoral loss will be a gain for the surveillance state.
As a member of the influential House Judiciary Committee, which oversees criminal laws, Barr has been in a unique position to advance privacy-friendly proposals while thwarting his opponents' more heinous schemes. Barr tried to limit government snooping on Americans' bank accounts (it failed, in a 129-299 vote), successfully campaigned for more oversight of the FBI's Carnivore monitoring system, and opposed a plan to let police obtain customer records from Internet providers and telephone companies without search warrants.
In 1999, Barr, a former CIA analyst, pressed for hearings to investigate the extent of the National Security Agency's shadowy Echelon surveillance network. "If Congress doesn't exercise regular as well as periodic oversight, then agencies are going to get away with as much as they can," he told me at the time.
[ ... ]
Barr says he's not giving up the privacy fight. "It's an issue that has been very close to my heart during the entire time that I've been in the Congress," Barr said last Friday. "A lot of it stems from the fact that I've been a prosecutor and I've been at the CIA and I know from prior public service just how powerful government is. It's given me a very healthy skepticism of giving government more and more power."
Barr is an unusual political phenomenon: An unapologetic Republican--boasting a 100 percent voting rating from the Christian Coalition and a zero percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters--who frequently allies with left-leaning groups on privacy topics. The American Civil Liberties Union applauds his approach to privacy, and even the liberal diehards at People for the American Way say they agree with Barr on the invasive nature of "legislation proposed and passed since September 11."
[ ... ]
Libertarians may applaud Barr's suspicion of government eavesdropping, his support of low taxes, and his vigorous defense of Second Amendment rights. But that's about it. [Privacy Digest]
Relative Links Script
More UserTalk script tools for generating relative links. I've got a lot to learn before I can use this, or even know precisely how it's used, but it seems to me relative links are key to effective content automation.
Ralph Hempel's Relative Links UserTalk Macro. thanks, Ralph<quote>I've had a number of requests for the UserTalk script I use to generate relative links between files in the www folder. If you use it, please let me know if it does not work in your environment...getFilePath (pathSource, pathDest, adrPageTable=nil)
</quote> [Roland Tanglao's Weblog]
Sunday, August 25, 2002
Falcon Fans -- Like Nowhere Else
Who says the Falcons aren't making headway with fan support.
Falcons Game Leads to Jail Uprising. 11 Alive Aug 25 2002 12:02PM ET[...]
SWAT team members were called to monitor the Bellwood Detention Center, which houses about 105 inmates."They were upset over not being able to watch the length of a football game which started the whole process, so we have responded appropriately, we think, with just the right amount of force," said Sheriff Jackie Barrett.
[...] [Moreover - Atlanta news]
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