Southwest Virginia Blogs

I see Congressman Rick Boucher has posted another new television ad on his website, the third in recent weeks.

This is great stuff from the Congressman, including old pictures.

I suppose you’ve heard about the lefty nutjob who tried to crash one of Sen. Allen’s events. Here’s a first-hand account, and here’s background on this guy’s history of “guerrilla tactics” and disgraceful conduct. Riley notes that the stalker was inspired by Michael Moore and asks this question: “Just why is it [...]

Microsoft's new search engine, called Live Search, looks pretty good at first glance. It looks almost exactly like Google, which is probably a wise strategy. Many of the other search engines have interfaces that are quite different, and probably put some people off with all the options and choices. I tried a few test queries and compared them to what I get on Google, and Live Search appears to do a very good job of cutting down on non-relevant results. It also seems to do a good job at finding the most likely "best fit" items, which are usually what you want to see on the first page. Finally, the system also seems to be making an strong effort to index blogs; I found several items in search results that pointed to blogs that I had not seen on other search engines.

And of course, it has ads that also look just like Google's. If any company has a chance of unseating Google as the king of search, it is Microsoft, and it looks like they learned some lessons from their earlier attempts at search.

Microsoft's new search engine, called Live Search, looks pretty good at first glance. It looks almost exactly like Google, which is probably a wise strategy. Many of the other search engines have interfaces that are quite different, and probably put some people off with all the options and choices. I tried a few test queries and compared them to what I get on Google, and Live Search appears to do a very good job of cutting down on non-relevant results. It also seems to do a good job at finding the most likely "best fit" items, which are usually what you want to see on the first page. Finally, the system also seems to be making an strong effort to index blogs; I found several items in search results that pointed to blogs that I had not seen on other search engines.

And of course, it has ads that also look just like Google's. If any company has a chance of unseating Google as the king of search, it is Microsoft, and it looks like they learned some lessons from their earlier attempts at search.

Microsoft's new search engine, called Live Search, looks pretty good at first glance. It looks almost exactly like Google, which is probably a wise strategy. Many of the other search engines have interfaces that are quite different, and probably put some people off with all the options and choices. I tried a few test queries and compared them to what I get on Google, and Live Search appears to do a very good job of cutting down on non-relevant results. It also seems to do a good job at finding the most likely "best fit" items, which are usually what you want to see on the first page. Finally, the system also seems to be making an strong effort to index blogs; I found several items in search results that pointed to blogs that I had not seen on other search engines.

And of course, it has ads that also look just like Google's. If any company has a chance of unseating Google as the king of search, it is Microsoft, and it looks like they learned some lessons from their earlier attempts at search.

This article from the Sun Herald in Mississippi lays out the local reaction to the ABA's unanimous rating of Fifth Circuit nominee Mike Wallace as "unqualified."

Wallace's friends are guessing that the reasons for the rating are these: a dispute over the Legal Services Corp., which Wallace chaired in the late 1980s; Wallace served as counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott during the impeachment of President Clinton; his fierce opposition to the Voting Rights Act.

The article concludes:

"Others who grew up with Wallace see a different person. Walker Jones, the head of litigation at Baker, Donaldson in Jackson, hired Wallace in the 1980s and worked with him for 18 years at the Jackson firm of Phelps, Dunbar, where Wallace continues to practice.

"I just couldn't believe the criticisms," said Jones, who was not contacted by the ABA. "They had an axe to grind. Mike is a very intelligent guy who has respect for precedent. I just don't understand this vague category of judicial temperament."

"I know a lot of the judges on the 5th Circuit, and he's better than 95 percent of them, in my opinion."

Rusty Gill, a Biloxi lawyer, has known Wallace since they played peewee baseball when they were six years old. The two went to Biloxi High, where they both played football. "Everybody knew Mike was going to go far," said Gill. Told of the unanimous ABA finding against him, Gill said, "It's unanimously wrong."

"He'd be a great judge.""

This article from the Sun Herald in Mississippi lays out the local reaction to the ABA's unanimous rating of Fifth Circuit nominee Mike Wallace as "unqualified."

Wallace's friends are guessing that the reasons for the rating are these: a dispute over the Legal Services Corp., which Wallace chaired in the late 1980s; Wallace served as counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott during the impeachment of President Clinton; his fierce opposition to the Voting Rights Act.

The article concludes:

"Others who grew up with Wallace see a different person. Walker Jones, the head of litigation at Baker, Donaldson in Jackson, hired Wallace in the 1980s and worked with him for 18 years at the Jackson firm of Phelps, Dunbar, where Wallace continues to practice.

"I just couldn't believe the criticisms," said Jones, who was not contacted by the ABA. "They had an axe to grind. Mike is a very intelligent guy who has respect for precedent. I just don't understand this vague category of judicial temperament."

"I know a lot of the judges on the 5th Circuit, and he's better than 95 percent of them, in my opinion."

Rusty Gill, a Biloxi lawyer, has known Wallace since they played peewee baseball when they were six years old. The two went to Biloxi High, where they both played football. "Everybody knew Mike was going to go far," said Gill. Told of the unanimous ABA finding against him, Gill said, "It's unanimously wrong."

"He'd be a great judge.""

This article from the Sun Herald in Mississippi lays out the local reaction to the ABA's unanimous rating of Fifth Circuit nominee Mike Wallace as "unqualified."

Wallace's friends are guessing that the reasons for the rating are these: a dispute over the Legal Services Corp., which Wallace chaired in the late 1980s; Wallace served as counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott during the impeachment of President Clinton; his fierce opposition to the Voting Rights Act.

The article concludes:

"Others who grew up with Wallace see a different person. Walker Jones, the head of litigation at Baker, Donaldson in Jackson, hired Wallace in the 1980s and worked with him for 18 years at the Jackson firm of Phelps, Dunbar, where Wallace continues to practice.

"I just couldn't believe the criticisms," said Jones, who was not contacted by the ABA. "They had an axe to grind. Mike is a very intelligent guy who has respect for precedent. I just don't understand this vague category of judicial temperament."

"I know a lot of the judges on the 5th Circuit, and he's better than 95 percent of them, in my opinion."

Rusty Gill, a Biloxi lawyer, has known Wallace since they played peewee baseball when they were six years old. The two went to Biloxi High, where they both played football. "Everybody knew Mike was going to go far," said Gill. Told of the unanimous ABA finding against him, Gill said, "It's unanimously wrong."

"He'd be a great judge.""

It says here:

"Four-year-old Dasaun Taylor sank a greater percentage of baskets than UVa senior guard J.R. Reynolds, who was on hand Monday for Community Day at the child development center in Charlottesville."

It says here:

"Four-year-old Dasaun Taylor sank a greater percentage of baskets than UVa senior guard J.R. Reynolds, who was on hand Monday for Community Day at the child development center in Charlottesville."

It says here:

"Four-year-old Dasaun Taylor sank a greater percentage of baskets than UVa senior guard J.R. Reynolds, who was on hand Monday for Community Day at the child development center in Charlottesville."

This falls squarely into the "What were they thinking?" category. USA Today has an article in today's paper about the Hubble space telescope, which is now relatively old and needs upgrades and repairs. Yet NASA and its "high tech" contractors built many parts of the device in a way that makes it almost impossible to repair or upgrade in space!!

So they are designing and building a SPACE-based device and never thought to ask themselves, "How will this be fixed or upgraded?" Just an example of why it is so important to do due diligence with technology vendors. The fact that they are building high tech equipment does not mean they know what they are doing. This is especially true with communitywide broadband systems. Many vendors are simply selling repurposed corporate and institutional network gear that may work okay for small and pilot community projects, but the stuff does not scale up well to support multiple service providers or thousands of subscribers. You have to take the time to check out vendors and their promises (Disclaimer: Design Nine helps communities do just this--we make sure the hardware and systems you are buying fit the job).

This falls squarely into the "What were they thinking?" category. USA Today has an article in today's paper about the Hubble space telescope, which is now relatively old and needs upgrades and repairs. Yet NASA and its "high tech" contractors built many parts of the device in a way that makes it almost impossible to repair or upgrade in space!!

So they are designing and building a SPACE-based device and never thought to ask themselves, "How will this be fixed or upgraded?" Just an example of why it is so important to do due diligence with technology vendors. The fact that they are building high tech equipment does not mean they know what they are doing. This is especially true with communitywide broadband systems. Many vendors are simply selling repurposed corporate and institutional network gear that may work okay for small and pilot community projects, but the stuff does not scale up well to support multiple service providers or thousands of subscribers. You have to take the time to check out vendors and their promises (Disclaimer: Design Nine helps communities do just this--we make sure the hardware and systems you are buying fit the job).

This falls squarely into the "What were they thinking?" category. USA Today has an article in today's paper about the Hubble space telescope, which is now relatively old and needs upgrades and repairs. Yet NASA and its "high tech" contractors built many parts of the device in a way that makes it almost impossible to repair or upgrade in space!!

So they are designing and building a SPACE-based device and never thought to ask themselves, "How will this be fixed or upgraded?" Just an example of why it is so important to do due diligence with technology vendors. The fact that they are building high tech equipment does not mean they know what they are doing. This is especially true with communitywide broadband systems. Many vendors are simply selling repurposed corporate and institutional network gear that may work okay for small and pilot community projects, but the stuff does not scale up well to support multiple service providers or thousands of subscribers. You have to take the time to check out vendors and their promises (Disclaimer: Design Nine helps communities do just this--we make sure the hardware and systems you are buying fit the job).

The Dilbert Blog has an interesting thought on the possibility that electronic voting machines can get hacked.

I believe those worries are totally misplaced. Now don’t get me wrong – there’s a 100% chance that the voting machines will get hacked and all future elections will be rigged. But that doesn’t mean we’ll get a worse government. It probably means that the choice of the next American president will be taken out of the hands of deep-pocket, autofellating, corporate shitbags and put it into the hands of some teenager in Finland. How is that not an improvement?

I’ve given that idea some thought, and I’ve realized that in an odd sort of way, I find it reassuring. Weird I know, but he’s right. It isn’t going to be some corporate schmuck that hacks it successfully, but some geek. We could do worse.