Author: Tim Jarrett

And no, I don’t mean blank checks

Ashcroft finds himself on the stand today before Congress. This is an interesting example of checks & balances in action. Good old Patrick Leahy: even after being an anthrax letter recipient, he can still say things like “I want to make sure after we’re all gone that the Constitution is still here…It’s not always popular upholding the Constitution, but it’s always the right thing to do.”
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Now playing

Currently playing song: “Isn’t It A Pity (Version One)” by George Harrison on All Things Must Pass.

Okay, I confess. I’m one of those miserable bastards whose only knowledge of the Quiet Beatle was from the recordings of the Fab Four, “Cloud Nine,” and the Traveling Wilburys (plus a vague horrified memory of “Gone Troppo”). I’m listening to Isn’t It A Pity for the first time and I’m knocked out.

Isn’t it a pity
Now, isn’t it a shame
How we break each other’s hearts
And cause each other pain
How we take each other’s love
Without thinking anymore
Forgetting to give back
Isn’t it a pity

Seven years later, KPMG discovers the Web

This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. [KPMG] I’ll be sure to go out and get a formal Agreement signed next time I link to someone’s site. [KPMG]

> A recent audit of Web sites, to which KPMG is hyperlinked, has revealed that
> www.corporateanthems.raettig.org contains a link to KPMG’s Web site,
> www.kpmg.com. Please be aware such links require that a formal Agreement
> exist between our two parties, as mandated by our organization’s Web Link
> Policy …However, we
> would ask that you please remove the KPMG reference and corresponding link
> from www.corporateanthems.raettig.org in the meantime.

Oh, and just for the record: [KPMG]

Lizards??

How do web pages get amazingly popular? They produce silly pop-psychology survey tests that give an amusing result, and provide HTML code that includes a link to the survey site so you can share your results with everyone who comes to your web site.

Like this:

If I were a work of art, I would be M. C. Escher’s Lizards.

I am a bizarre juxtaposition of the real and the unreal. Based in the realm of mathematics, my two-dimensional appearance belies a complex and free-willed behaviour which both delights and confuses people.

Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

Or that’s the theory, anyway. Too bad it doesn’t really work.

What I’ve been doing in my spare time

Long time no blog. It is, as I’ve mentioned recently, the end of the semester in about two weeks. Tomorrow I’m doing a presentation on the future of Web Services and how it will affect the Internet and the business of software. The website will be available by the 12th; I’ll link it when it comes on line. I don’t have anything to do directly with building this website; for once I’m happy just to be a content provider.

Threat or Dissent?

It’s good to know that the war against terrorism is protecting us from protected speech:

“Do you have a warrant?” Brown asked. They did not. “Then you’re not coming in my apartment,” she said. And indeed, they stayed outside her doorway. But they stayed a while–40 minutes, Brown estimates–and gave her a taste of how dissenters can come under scrutiny in wartime.

And all because of a poster on her wall.

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Deck us all

It’s hard to get into the holiday spirit when it’s 55° outside, somehow. What’s that? Didn’t you grow up in Newport News, Virginia, where it snowed maybe three holidays in the eighteen years you were there? Well, yes, alter ego italics, I did. But this is frickin’ Massachusetts. Last year it was already below freezing by Thanksgiving.

It’s hard to get into the holiday mood without the proper incentive. So, without further ado:

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., and Kalamazoo!
Nora’s freezin’ on the trolley
Swaller dollar cauliflower Alleygaroo!
Don’t we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou
Trolley Molly don’t love Harold,
Boola Boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!

Or something like that.