December 16, 2005

Exaggerated: Reports on the Death of the Patriot Act

Despite headlines such as "Patriot Act renewal blocked in Senate," debate on the subject has not been concluded. From the NY Times:  

But no one would be surprised if yet another round of talks is undertaken to avoid the prospect of the lawmakers going home for Christmas and allowing the statute to lapse. 

Does the Left Oppose Free Speech? (2nd in a Series)

This report on demonstrations against the execution of Tookie Williams included the following photo and comment:

One of the standard activities of radicals at protests these days is to physically cover up the messages of people they don't agree with. At the vigil, the socialists did everything they could to cover up the Christians' signs. And, as you can see here, the media joined in: a sound technician from one of the leftist radio stations used his boom-mike to try to cover up the Christian protest sign. Using a microphone to stifle free speech -- could you get more ironic?  

War in Iraq: Game Over—We Win

We've now brought Democracy to Iraq. Even the Sunnis are actively participating. How can anyone argue that we haven't now accomplished a great, historic thing there, that has made the Iraqi people, and the U.S., safer?

As Mark Steyn put it yesterday on the Hugh Hewitt show:

The Baathist diehards guarded the polling stations in the Sunni Triangle today, to prevent the Zarqawi nutters blowing them up. In other words, even...it's not just the Kurds and the Shia, and the mainstream moderate Sunni, but even the Baathist Saddamite holdouts have figured out that democracy is in Iraq's interest. The only people left on the other side of the ledger are Nancy Pelosi, Jack Murtha, Joe Biden and Zarqawi.

GWB has made a historic change for the better in the Mid-East. All we have to do now is leave our troops there long enough for the Iraqi people to become capable, on their own, of eliminating the terrorists who would like to return the nation to tyranny, with themselves as the tyrants. 

The Patent Office Appears to Be Making Some Serious Errors

I don't usually blog about tech subjects, and there are so many historic events happening in Iraq and elsewhere, which I will of course continue to comment on.

But the errors of the U.S. Patent Office are paving the way for some major difficulties.

Microsoft patents Pause

Microsoft has been granted an interactive TV patent that pauses the show while the viewer follows an embedded hyperlink, such as a URL.

And so ends a 12-year battle. Incredibly, Microsoft originally filed for the patent in March 1993, and the language reflects its age: "The Internet has recently exploded in popularity," we learn, and that, "a computer user with a modem can get on-line."

Only Microsoft products are going to be permitted to pause a TV show when somebody clicks an on-screen link? If TV starts including links in shows, any viewer will need the ability to do that. Otherwise the links will be worthless and no one will be able to include them in the shows in the first place.

The Patent Office needs to hire some technology experts.