archive for February 2002

2002.02.28 (Thursday)

Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets Of Scientology

Israel cautioned over raid. The US and the UN urge Israel to avoid harming civilians after at least 13 die in a major raid on West Bank refugee camps. [BBC News: world]

Because sometimes you want to read a 12-page bibliography: Jacob Neusner's CV

2002.02.27 (Wednesday)

Enabling Category-Specific Stories

Radio UserLand : Changing file extension

Woman bomber attacks Israelis. A Palestinian woman blows herself up at a West Bank checkpoint, wounding at least three Israelis and two men accompanying her. [BBC News: world]

Matti Caspi gets suspended time, fine for bigamy (Ha'aretz)

The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court handed down a six-month suspended sentence and NIS 5,000 fine yesterday against singer-composer Matti Caspi, who was found guilty of bigamy. In his decision, Judge Daniel Be'eri also criticized Israel's Rabbinical Court, suggesting that it could have prevented this situation had it handled the case more expeditiously.

The judge noted that the divorce proceedings between Caspi and his first wife, Dorine, that had begun in 1990 had languished in the Rabbinical Court for years and that the defendant had traveled to the United States to seek a solution.

In March 1994, a rabbi in California, Gabriel Cohen, contacted the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court and asked it to grant Caspi a divorce. Three months later, without the approval of the Tel Aviv court, Cohen himself provided Caspi with a divorce and sent copies to both Dorine Caspi and the court. The Tel Aviv court, however, refused to recognize the get that Cohen provided, saying the bill of divorcement did not meet halakhic requirements.

Nonetheless, a few months later, Caspi married Rachel Winger in a civil ceremony in California.

NY Times: Congressional Broadband Fight Intensifies. Two weeks after the House of Representatives approved legislation to limit the influence of money in politics, the House is expected to approve a telecommunications bill that is largely shaped by the huge campaign contributions it has generated. [Tomalak's Realm]

Macromedia CourseBuilder for Dreamweaver and UltraDev - Tutorial and Article Index

Parents These Days:  Mom smacks, shoves teacher in front of first-graders

As terrified first-graders watched, an irate mother allegedly smacked and shoved their teacher yesterday in Jamaica Plain in the same classroom where another teacher was beaten by a parent last year.

Xochitl Perez, who had replaced the assaulted teacher at Fuller Elementary School, said she was terrified as Cassandra Price allegedly threatened to beat her up for disciplining her child the previous day.

[Boston Globe via Romenesko's Obscure Store]

Three gunmen killed near Gaza Strip. Israeli troops kill three Palestinian gunmen on the Israel-Egypt border, as the EU seeks to build on a Saudi peace plan. [BBC News: world]

Middle East diplomacy stepped up. The UN Security Council looks at ways of calming Israeli-Palestinian violence as Saudi Arabia's peace iniative gathers momentum. [BBC News: world]

2002.02.26 (Tuesday)

Mid-East peace plan gathers momentum. Intensive diplomatic efforts are under way to try persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to end violence and return to negotiations. [BBC News: world]

Arafat backs new security talks. The Palestinian leader bows to European pressure to reopen security talks with Israel as violence threatens to escalate after fresh militant attacks. [BBC News: world]

Tuesday, February 24

Arafat backs new security talks. The Palestinian leader bows to European pressure to reopen security talks with Israel as violence threatens to escalate after fresh militant attacks. [BBC News: world]

Monday, February 24

Ten injured by Jerusalem gunman. A Palestinian gunman opens fire on a group of people at a bus stop north of Jerusalem, injuring 10 before he is shot dead. [BBC News: world]

Two Israelis killed in West Bank. Palestinian gunmen shoot dead two Israeli civilians, only hours after a pregnant Palestinian woman is injured by Israeli troops. [BBC News: world]

Israeli tanks leave Arafat compound. Israel partially lifts a blockade on Yasser Arafat, a move condemned as an insult, as troops open fire on the Palestinian speaker's car. [BBC News: world]

Sunday, February 24

Israeli tanks leave Arafat compound. Israel partially lifts a blockade on Yasser Arafat, a move condemned as an insult, as troops open fire on the Palestinian speaker's car. [BBC News: world]

Shooting fuels Mid-East tensions. Israeli troops fire at a car carrying the Palestinian speaker, fueling anger after restrictions were only partially lifted on Yasser Arafat. [BBC News: world]

2002.02.25 (Monday)

School official mentions Hitler in profanity-laced talk [Romenesko's Obscure Store]

"I'm not even apologizing for this," she said of the uproar over her remarks. "I can't remember the last time I had a bunch of high school kids over to my house and they said, `Baloney.' I talked to them the way I talked to my sons."

Mark Paschal has a suite of tools for Radio 8 called "Kit."  [Scripting News]

Blogzilla is a weblog about Mozilla.  [Scripting News]

2002.02.21 (Thursday)

A federal appeals court yesterday nullified two long-standing government rules limiting the size of the world's largest media companies, opening the door to a new wave of mergers among cable television conglomerates and broadcast companies.

Deregulation in meida industries always takes place when politicians need their media outlets to be loyal. Usually around election time or during wartime. Be wary of what you see on TV. [Adam Curry: CurryDotCom]

2002.02.20 (Wednesday)

Frank McPherson gave me this idea. We know what your favorite weblogs are, and we know when they updated. So why not have an easy way to include that in your home page template? That's what this macro does.

[Dave's Handsome Radio Blog!]

Internet Game Plays on Dylan Songs

Photos AP Photo

Fans of the veteran troubadour have launched an intricate Internet pool built on their predictions of what Dylan sings in concert.

The pool reflects both the obsessive interest Dylan still draws 40 years into his career and the way this road warrior has structured his career. He generally plays more than 150 concerts a year.

For the fans, it's mostly fun.

"If I ever got a chance to meet him, I'd say `thanks,'" said one player, Becky Dalton, of Westminster, Calif. "I'm almost 49, and he makes me feel 16 when I go to see him. He'd probably look at us and say, `get a life.'"

The pool was started a year ago by 24-year-old Canadian graduate student and computer expert Arthur Louie, and has quickly grown.

Participants pick a set of songs, which are given point values: low for the songs Dylan plays most frequently, high for the songs he plays rarely.

It's a game that could be created around very few artists. For one thing, not many perform as much as Dylan. For another, most acts are so tightly choreographed their set lists change very little, if at all, from city to city.

Dylan usually plays around 20 songs a night. During a 35-date concert swing last fall, he played 92 different songs, Louie said. The pool has exhaustively catalogued his current tour: "Blowin' in the Wind," "Honest With Me" and "Summer Days" were played on each of the first 14 dates.

Twelve different songs, including "Visions of Johanna" and "Simple Twist of Fate," were performed only once.

Antimatter captured for the first time. The most elusive building block of the Universe is trapped by CERN researchers [New Scientist]

If you wonder why I sometimes tuck mine under my hat:

Cops find 93 ponytails ($21K value) in man's home [Romenesko's Obscure Store]

Israel steps up reprisal raids. Israel pounds Palestinian targets after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approves intensified attacks following the killing of six Israeli soldiers. [BBC News: world]

2002.02.19 (Tuesday)

Israel pounds Gaza targets. Israeli aircraft and navy vessels attack Palestinian targets in Gaza after militants kill six Israelis at an army checkpoint. [BBC News: world]

New Releases: Another Hit for Poliker, but not for Sacharof (Jerusalem Post)

Ruth Eglash reviews Yehuda Poliker's  Ech Korim L'ahava Sheli? (How do I name my love?)  and Berry Sakharof's Acher (L'autre)

"As with all his previous efforts, rocker Yehuda Poliker has another hit on his hands....

"...The album's first song, the title track, was named Song of the Year at the recent Tammuz Awards, the local music industry's highest honor, though Poliker shocked organizers by refusing to show up and collect the award in person.

"...as always Poliker's lyrics are powerfully moving and his deep voice once again manages to relax the listener from the opening chords of the disc.

"While Ech Korim L'ahava Sheli? is somewhat of a departure from the Greek-sounding folk songs of his earlier days and most definitely aimed at the mainstream music population, Poliker and his music partner Ya'akov Gilad (Gilad penned nine of the 10 songs with Poliker) have produced a disc that will surely keep most traditional and die-hard Poliker fans happy.

"FELLOW local music veteran Berry Sakharof has also just released his first album after a lengthy hiatus from the recording scene. Like Poliker's Ech Korim L'ahava Sheli?, Acher (Different) has many of Sakharof's traditional trademarks. Packed with hard hitting drum rhythms and fast-paced heavy guitar beats, Sakharof skillfully connects the music together with his nasal, Bowie-style vocals.

"However, Sakharof's new material seems to have no strong direction. "

West Bank gunmen kill six Israelis. Palestinian gunmen kill six Israelis in an ambush near Ramallah in the West Bank, Israeli military officials say. [BBC News: world]

What is the FBI Smoking? The Wrong War (The National Review Online)

Last week, the FBI warned that "a planned attack may occur in the United States or against U.S. interests on or around Feb. 12," thanks to 12 terrorists led by Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Saudi-born Yemeni. Suspecting this, federal officials should have deployed as many dedicated, talented agents as possible to protect high-profile targets such as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, or the pyramidal Transamerica Tower.

Think again. Washington instead chose February 12 to unleash tough, gun-toting Drug Enforcement Agency officers against AIDS and cancer patients. These federal agents raided a suspected cannabis cultivation center in suburban Petaluma, California, and medical-marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco and Oakland. They arrested four men who led these operations.

...Three of the center's associates face between five and 40 years in federal prison. Officials say James Halloran, 61, grew more than 1,000 marijuana plants in Oakland. That could cost him ten years to life behind bars. Compare these staggering potential terms to the actual penalties two men received January 31 for unwittingly helping 9/11 hijackers Abdulaziz Alomari and Ahmed Alghamdi secure bogus Virginia I.D. cards. Victor Lopez-Flores got 27 months in prison while Herbert Villalobos earned a four-month sentence. His previous 18 weeks in custody earned his immediate release.

(Via Instapundit.com)

2002.02.17 (Sunday)

http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-of-Mon-200111-2/044785.html

I'm not much of a '+1'er, but Interland is as bad as it gets when it comes
to tech support and customer service. Merging with HostPro has taken their
stupidity and added some out-and-out confusion. You wouldn't have thought it
could get worse, but it has.

spinhead

From John Conde's shit list:

Interliant:

They fired every last person who works at Digiweb because they have no idea how to run a company. They spent thousands of dollars on a new network just so they could close it 3 weeks later. Morons. [09/24/2000]

From SoulBlaze.com:

As many of you know, this site has been down for the past couple of days.  Our hosting company Interland somehow messed up a bunch of servers.  I use Interland for some other sites that I do, and I know this isn't an isolated incident.  I can say with confidence that Interland sucks!  Don't use them.  Don't worry, I'm working on switching, too. </rant>  Look for new stories later today. [1.23.01]

Here's the link to download and implement the inline frame macro

2002.02.15 (Friday)

Web hosting hell: The Interliant -Interland St. Valentine Day's Massacre:

On Feb. 5, I received the following email from Interliant, where I had been hosting a dedicated server in July 2000:

As you may know, Interland will soon be providing the hosting services for your Interliant dedicated server. Your server, shmoozenet.com, will need to be relocated to the Interland data center in Atlanta.

In order to change your network IP settings and facilitate your move to the Interland data center, Interland will need to gain root access to your dedicated server. In order to do this, we will need your username and password for your server.

Since I prefer not to send root passwords by email, I instead called the number they listed. I got bounced from department to departnment; finally I was connected to someone who took the information.

On Thursday, Feb. 14, I began getting calls from clients. Their web site was down. Their email was down. Sure enough, after 385 days of uptime, my server wasn't responding. I called Interliant / Interland. They rebooted it. Still no luck.

In the evening, I try again. I talk to tech support. Sure enough, my machine had been moved across Atlanta that morning -- with no advance notice other than the above email! Then I check the hourly email my box sends me to find out when the outage was, and discovered that in the afternoon, following a reboot, the cron job restarted. But now, the email is coming from a new ip address! Sure enough, I telnet to the ip address and find my server.

OK, so  they've shut down my machine for a crosstown move, and changed my ip address, all without any warning. Wonderful. So I adjust my apache httpd.conf file to recognize the new IP address, and send a list of domains to redirect to the new IP address. Support promises it will be taken care of in a couple of hourse. That's a 10 pm Thursday. It's 2:45 pm Friday now. No progress. Another tech person promises to send the ticket to the attention of the DNS department.

I assume this will eventually be fixed. Then I'll start looking for a new host.

Moral: If you're valuing a hosting company, don't count the clients they're "acuqiring" until they're happy in their new home. I don't plan on being on Interland's books very long.

2002.02.12 (Tuesday)

Andy Sylvester continues to kick butt with the Radio 8 users directory.

2002.02.10 (Sunday)

Coming Out in the Jewish Week: One's woman's view.

And her husband's response.

Taking a hard line on hard-ons: Locust passes nudity ordinance

The law seeks to prevent, among other things, "the showing of covered male genitals in a discernible turgid state."

Parents These Days: Cheating young cheaters (Chigago Tribune)

Students cheat. Teacher flunks students. Parents cry. School board overturns teacher. Teacher quits.

Bravo for the parents and school board. Someone has to stand up for the bold value of success at any price that made Enron and Global Crossing -- if not America -- great!

Meanwhile, the D.A. is investigating.

 

2002.02.07 (Thursday)

Welcome to family and friends...

Joey, Eve and Grampa - Dec. 2001

A mirrored menorah....

designed and executed by my father.

2002.02.05 (Tuesday)

Linking to the Teaching sub-log.