Justice Dept. Opens Domestic Spying Probe — SFGate/AP

The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush’s secret domestic spying program, Justice officials said Friday.

The officials, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the inquiry will focus on disclosures to The New York Times about warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Yes, that’s right. The probe will not be about the unconstitutional, unethical, illegal domestic surveillance, but rather about how the word got out!

SFGate’s Peter Hartlaub asks, “Where’s the fizz?”

After spending way too much energy fighting that fake War on Christmas, we’ve made ourselves vulnerable to something even more insidious: A Sneak Attack on New Year’s Day. Because like it or not, this weekend’s New Year’s celebration is shaping up to be the worst holiday ever.

…

Dick Clark is running on vapors, resolutions have become virtually meaningless and the ‘Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!’ television special gets nowhere near the respect of his Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving counterparts. There’s only one New Year’s song, it’s from Scotland of all places, and nobody can remember the lyrics past the sixth word. (‘Should auld acquaintance be forgot and blah blah blah blah blaaaaah. …’)

Jen and I will be working our second jobs on Sunday, as usual, but we do both have Monday off from our primaries.

The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

(Flash, sound)

Bill Maher explains why George W. Bush is not Hitler:

In the contest sponsored by MoveOn.org, two entries compared Bush to Hitler, ignoring the first rule for being taken seriously by grown-ups, which is don’t call everyone you don’t like, Hitler. Bush is not Hitler. For one thing, Hitler was a decorated frontline combat veteran.

Also, in the election that brought him to power in 1933, Hitler got more votes than the other candidate. And Hitler had a mustache. So let’s all take a rest from playing the Hitler card.

On the other hand, there’s this to consider:

Within four weeks of the terrorist attack, the nation’s now-popular leader had pushed through legislation – in the name of combating terrorism and fighting the philosophy he said spawned it – that suspended constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeas corpus. Police could now intercept mail and wiretap phones; suspected terrorists could be imprisoned without specific charges and without access to their lawyers; police could sneak into people’s homes without warrants if the cases involved terrorism.

To get his patriotic “Decree on the Protection of People and State” passed over the objections of concerned legislators and civil libertarians, he agreed to put a 4-year sunset provision on it: if the national emergency provoked by the terrorist attack was over by then, the freedoms and rights would be returned to the people, and the police agencies would be re-restrained. Legislators would later say they hadn’t had time to read the bill before voting on it.

Immediately after passage of the anti-terrorism act, his federal police agencies stepped up their program of arresting suspicious persons and holding them without access to lawyers or courts. In the first year only a few hundred were interred, and those who objected were largely ignored by the mainstream press, which was afraid to offend and thus lose access to a leader with such high popularity ratings. Citizens who protested the leader in public – and there were many – quickly found themselves confronting the newly empowered police’s batons, gas, and jail cells, or fenced off in protest zones safely out of earshot of the leader’s public speeches. (In the meantime, he was taking almost daily lessons in public speaking, learning to control his tonality, gestures, and facial expressions. He became a very competent orator.)

Yes, the similarities are deliberately chosen. But isn’t it creepy that they exist at all?

Three Seasons (Palo Alto), Tex Wasabi’s (Santa Rosa), Seafood Brasserie (Santa Rosa) and Buckeye Roadhouse (Mill Valley) are now up on Project Insomnia Restaurant Reviews.

Sony to unveil 82in LCD TV — The Register

According to a Nihon Keizai Shimbun report, Sony will unveil its prodigious panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

We (I) want a flat-panel TV over the fireplace in the living room. I have to think that an 82″ screen might overwhelm the room, though.

Note: This post is from December, 2005. For current information on using Opera Mini on Palm Treo devices, visit OperaMini.com.

Opera Quietly Ships Mini Browser — PCWorld.com

Users of Java-capable cell phones anywhere may find browsing the Web easier and cheaper now that Opera Software is allowing anyone to download its Opera Mini application. The official worldwide launch of Opera Mini is planned for January but Opera has quietly lifted restrictions that previously allowed only residents of some Nordic countries and Germany to download the application, a spokesperson has confirmed.

The PCWorld.com article doesn’t actually link to the Opera Mini information page, and doesn’t mention the necessity for a specific Java VM. I ran into some trouble installing Opera Mini on my Treo 650, and so I’m documenting the process which ultimately resulted in a successful install.

1. Start by reading the instructions and information on the Opera Mini page.
2. On your phone’s WAP browser (Blazer, if it’s a PalmOS phone), go to http://mini.opera.com/. If it doesn’t load the first time, keep trying; it took me three attempts to get to the download. Heavy traffic, no doubt.
3. Click Get Opera Mini and answer “Yes” to installation messages. When the download is complete, click [Save and Open] and accept the application.

Opera Mini is now installed on your phone. Find and run the “operette” launcher under “Applications”. If you get a message saying “Please ensure that IBM’s WebSphere Micro Environment Java VM is installed”, read on. Otherwise, you can skip to the end.

*** NOTE *** The following instructions assume a passing familiarity with your PalmOS device, and involve a “hard” reset. While you will be HotSyncing before the reset, I am not responsible for your data. Make sure you have a current backup before proceeding!

1. Perform a HotSync.
2. On your computer, find and open the palmOne user folder for your account. On my Windows XP PC, it’s under C:\Program Files\palmOne\RichA; your configuration may vary.
3. Under the user folder, open the Archive folder. Look for either of these items:
   • J9_Java_Launcher.PRC
   • JavaVMCheck_enUS.PRC

   or anything else named “Java” or “J9″. Move these out of the Archive folder–perhaps into a Desktop backup folder, or another safe backup location. You shouldn’t need them again, but you never know.

4. Back under the user folder, open the Backup folder, and look for the same items. Again, remove anything named “Java” or “J9″.
5. On your PalmOS device, perform a hard reset. Once again, please note that a hard reset will erase all your data and third-party applications. You’ve just HotSynced, so you shouldn’t actually lose anything, but I cannot be responsible for your data. Only proceed if you are comfortable and confident with your data backups.
6. When the hard reset is complete, perform a HotSync. This reloads your data and applications, sans the previously-installed Java components, to your device. Follow the onscreen instructions on your PalmOS device to soft-reset when the HotSync is complete.
7. Download and install the WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment, following the specific instructions for your platform. Don’t forget to HotSync!
8. Perform a soft reset. While this may not be strictly necessary, I found it helpful to allow the Java VM and Opera Mini to “discover” each other.

When I completed these steps on my Treo 650, I was able to launch Opera Mini.

Upon first launch, Opera Mini will ask for permission to use airtime and data transfer. I have an unlimited data plan and a reasonable airtime plan through Sprint PCS, so I allowed it to continue. You may want to wait until an evening or weekend to try out the browser.

Now that it’s launched and running, time to try it out! Opera Mini renders several Web pages I tried faster than Blazer, but the top and bottom frames were quickly annoying and I couldn’t find an option to disable them. Hopefully that will be addressed in a point release.

Note: This post is from December, 2005. For current information on using Opera Mini on Palm Treo devices, visit OperaMini.com.

Bush’s High Crimes — The Nation

For the generations who came of age after the mid-1970s, it is worth recalling why warrantless domestic surveillance so shocks the political system. It needs to be repeated that the same arguments cited by Bush–inherent presidential power and national security–sustained the wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr., unleashed illegal CIA domestic spying and generated FBI files on thousands of American dissidents. It needs to be repeated that in 1974, the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon included abuse of presidential power based on warrantless wiretaps and illegal surveillance. It needs to be repeated that a few months later, presidential aides named Cheney and Rumsfeld labored mightily to secure President Ford’s veto of the Freedom of Information Act, in an unsuccessful attempt to turn back post-Watergate restrictions on homegrown spying and government secrecy.

Indeed, I only know of Watergate from history texts–though I do have dim memories of watching the hearings on a black-and-white TV in the basement of our house in New Jersey–but the parallels between the crimes of the Nixon and Bush administrations are becoming more clear.

The Hidden State Steps Forward — The Nation

There is a name for a system of government that wages aggressive war, deceives its citizens, violates their rights, abuses power and breaks the law, rejects judicial and legislative checks on itself, claims power without limit, tortures prisoners and acts in secret. It is dictatorship.

It’s just unbelievable to me that this administration can continue to get away with these blatant abuses. Good to see that even the Republicans in Congress are beginning to show interest.

Two new entries in Project Insomnia Restaurant Reviews: The Blue Bayou and Tortilla Jo’s, both in the Disneyland Resort. Colleen also reviewed the same two places.

Google blamed for jump in high-tech pay — SFGate

The Mountain View search engine, they say, has pushed up salaries with its deep pockets and huge appetite for technology workers.

‘It’s driven up software engineering wages by 50 percent in the past couple years,’ Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, the online DVD rental firm in Los Gatos, said recently at a conference for the technology industry’s lobbying group.

I’m certainly not complaining.

Ye lives easy and denies yerself o’ nothin’ yer heart desires. Sleep soft and eat dainty, as the sayin’ goes. Aye! but ‘twarn’t brought on by sheer luck. Nay, matey, ’tis yer clever ways that has kept yer cruise in the bravest spirits… like the enchanted cruise what sails ’round the Small World in the Magic Kingdom. Caution, matey, there be indolent swaps bent on settin’ ye on a course charted on speculation and gaming. Avoid them as ye would the fever. Mark well me words: Chance be like a glass, it glitters most when it breaks.
© The Walt Disney Company

I’ll grant that things have gotten rather “easier” in the past several years, but I don’t agree with “denies yerself o’ nothin’”. It’s true that this hasn’t been sheer luck, though luck has played a part. I’m more interested in the fortune portion: who could these “indolent swabs” be, and what course of “speculation and gaming” could they be charting? I suppose it could be a reference to our upcoming May cruise, and specifically the onboard casino. If that’s the case, no worries; I know exactly how bad of a gambler I am, and make it a point to avoid shipboard (and all other) casinos.

I’ve added two new entries to Project Insomnia Restaurant Reviews: Mike’s Cafe in Menlo Park and Max’s Cafe in Redwood City.

Gmail has just added a new feature: Gmail Mobile. It’s a method of accessing your Gmail account through your mobile phone or PDA, and even reformats attachments so they’ll be viewable on the tiny screen. I could get to the “basic HTML” interface on my Treo, but rendering it took a while. The Gmail Mobile interface renders much more quickly.

If anyone reading this doesn’t have a Gmail account and wants one, let me know.

Mark Fiore’s cartoon in today’s SF Chronicle roundly skewers a deserving target: those too-obvious backdrops every press conference seems to use. They show up behind Bush whenever he talks, behind sports figures when they sign contracts, behind entertainment personalities when they accept awards… and they’re highly annoying.

Kikkoman!
(Flash, audio)

Daring rescue of whale off Farallones — SFGate

A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter.

‘It felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing that it was free and that we had helped it,’ James Moskito, one of the rescue divers, said Tuesday. ‘It stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun.’

This great period ad clip (hosted at archive.org) from 1971/72 shows the construction of Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Hotel by US Steel. Thanks to Opus1guy on MousePad for the link.

Back in 1983, Steven Barnes’ book Streetlethal described a new kind of sport: zero-gravity wrestling. Today, this SPACE.com article shows that space sports are closer to reality:

Given the growth of passenger space travel, space sports of one type or another are likely. If so, could orbiting stadiums be far behind?

An early look at space sports comes courtesy of the Zero-Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) – a space entertainment and tourism company headquartered in Dania Beach, Florida.

I’m having trouble picturing a sport whose active play only occurs in the 25 second period of weightlessness aboard the “Vomit Comet”. The company does have plans for “ParaBall” play in inflatable orbiting habitats, which could be launched within five or six years.

This clever and funny animation reminds me a lot of the work of Don Hertzfeldt.

(First link is Flash.)

I’m installing Movable Type on the Project Insomnia Web server right now. Depending on how difficult exporting from Blogger/importing to MT turns out to be, I may be up and running tonight or it may be days.

Edit: It doesn’t look like it’ll be very difficult at all.

Rounding out the backlog is a quartet of food links:

• Contemporary Kitsch: Chefs’ trendy takes on retro favorites inspire a holiday cocktail party — SFGate
  

  When it comes to food, sentimentality is the key word. Consider dishes such as deviled eggs, corn dogs and fishbowl cocktails. These aren’t just state fair foods: Kitsch, with a twist, is being served at restaurants throughout the Bay Area.

• Holiday Entertaining: Bon Aperitifs — Whet your appetite with light drinks and snacks — SFGate
  

  If you’ll be setting up a bar for a holiday party in the coming weeks, give some thought to aperitif drinkers like us. In fact, an all-aperitif bar could be your fashion statement this year, with ideas borrowed from some top San Francisco establishments.

  An aperitif — or aperitivo in Italy — is not a cocktail, which rapidly softens all the day’s rough edges, its main mission. An aperitif is an appetite stimulant, sharing etymology with the English word aperture, or opening.

• Mexican standards melt in your mouth — Mercury News
  

  Burritos, tacos and quesadillas are so commonplace in the South Bay that we tend to take them for granted. A meal at El Amigo Burrito in Santa Clara, however, reminds us why these simple dishes have become standards in our casual food repertoire. They’re fresh, flavorful and memorable.

  Everything at El Amigo is cooked to order using Mexican ingredients — from the crumbly fresh cheese, queso fresco, to the tangy cousin of sour cream, crema. Cubes of pork tenderloin are simmered 12 to 14 hours for the tender, spicy chile verde. Rib-eye steak is sliced and grilled on the spot for burritos and tacos. Salsas are freshly cut.

• Grand finales: Dazzle guests with a bevy of divine desserts — SFGate
  

  This year, a rich, flourless Chocolate Walnut Torte, chocolate-iced, multilayered Neapolitan Bars, Brown Butter Pear Tart and Savarin au Rhum will grace our dessert table.

  There’s something for every palate in this selection, and each dessert takes a basic preparation — torte, bar cookie, tart and yeasted cake — to a new level, matching the excitement of the holidays. Best of all, these desserts can all be made ahead in stages, allowing you to focus on other parts of the meal or, even better, on your friends and loved ones on serving day.

Don’t know about you but I’m getting hungry.

SF Chronicle sportswriter John Shea reports that the Giants have severed ties with J.T. Snow:

J.T. Snow, known for his popularity among fans, flash around first base and clutch hitting in the postseason, is officially an ex-Giant.

The Giants declined to offer Snow arbitration, severing ties with the six-time Gold Glove winner who joined the club in 1997 and had worn orange and black longer than anyone other than Barry Bonds on the current team.

This is not the first time it has happened; two years ago (scroll to Oct 20) the Giants declined Snow’s option and then signed him after all just two months later (scroll to Dec 8). The difference this time is that the team did not sign him before the arbitration deadline, and they declined to offer arbitration. All hope for Snow fans is not lost, depending on the market for free-agent first basemen and how well new acquisition Mark Sweeney works out. We’ve seen that Lance Niekro, however good his genes, doesn’t quite have what it takes at first base.

Here’s hoping the “Snow Pack” sign is still up at whatever the name of the park will be.

Wired News reports on “Fido’s First Cell Phone“, a bone-shaped phone that dogs wear on their collars. It has GPS, a feature called GeoFence (area limit alarm) and will support a Web cam. Unfortunately, it’s not yet available for cats:

One obvious user is left out of this calling plan. At 3 inches long, the PetCell is too unwieldy for your average feline. Although the company is working on further miniaturization, the battery has proven to be a formidable obstacle.

Still, Robb wasn’t ruling it out. He said optimistically, ‘The kitties will have to wait.’

Rebate-Tracker.com is a Web-based database application that, well, tracks your rebate submissions for you. From the site:

Every year, millions of people worldwide make purchases enticed by ‘price after rebate’ promotions. Surprisingly, very few of those rebates are actually mailed in (less than 5%, in fact!). Then, weeks pass and the consumer receives either a check or a rejection notice (or no notice at all!). By the time the rebate check is due, most people have either forgotten about the purchase altogether or have lost track of the relevant contact information and have no way to follow up. Literally, millions of dollars remain unclaimed each year!

This is where Rebate-Tracker.com comes in. Sign up for an account and enter the relevant details every time you submit a rebate. The web site will organize your submissions, keep track and report on the money you are owed, and will even send you reminders when your rebates are due. Give it a try, it costs nothing, and will likely put a few dollars back in your wallet!

I will give it a try next time I buy something with a rebate.