General

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15083 ª February 25 6:21 PM. We’re exporting toxic technologies to third world countries. We all know computer components contain lots of chemical badness, and it seems that as much as 80 percent of US electronics trash is sent to developing countries, where it is becoming a major health hazard. [MetaFilter]

Youssou N’dour wrote about this in the song “Toxiques” in 1990:

Rich countries make toxic waste. Why should they send it to us?

Poor countries know toxic waste. Why should they accept it?

How come people are suddenly waking up to it?

I have spent the last

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I have spent the last week upgrading six machines to Windows XP. On average it takes me eight to ten hours to complete. One took me around sixteen.

I actually like XP, it loads faster, runs faster, and seems much more stable. But the cost of getting there is horrendous. Of the six machines, only one installation went cleanly.

Jim, buddy, (Jim Allchin), this sucks. Your team had a lot more work to do.

[Craig Burton: logs, links, life, and lexicon]

Upgrading to Mac OS X usually takes me 1 hour or less

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15077 ª February 25 2:30 PM. Drug War roundup. The US will end drug-related sanctions against Afghanistan and Haiti. Neither country stopped producing drugs, they need loans sanctions stop them from receiving. A British journalist compares the drug policies of Holland to Britain. Noteworthy: despite heroin being half the price, there are 25% fewer Dutch addicts. The FARC and Columbia are openly warring again. So far, only civilians have been killed. The California Medical Association voted to lobby the state government to raise the smoking age from 18 to 21. [MetaFilter]

My application works with a

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My application works with a proxy server! I installed Proxy Workbench on my ThinkPad and turned on the proxy settings in the network system preference. Without changing anything in my code, it automatically used the proxy server, thanks to URL Access.

Written by two American guysFrom

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Written by two American guys

From Pravda: The Emergence of the Fascist American Theocratic State[via Doc Searls Weblog]

Historians will record that between November 2000 and February 2002, democracy-as envisioned by the creators of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution-effectively came to an end. As democracy died, the Fascist American Theocratic State [“The State”] was born. This new fascist era was designed and implemented primarily by Republican organizations and individuals who funded, supported and ultimately inserted George Bush II in office. Equally complicit in this atrocity was the Democratic Party, itself having become corrupt and beholden to its own interests. But the greatest tragedy in this horrific turn of events was that the public and media embraced fascism’s coming.

P.S. Doc, it would be nice if you separate items in your weblog instead of having the entire day’s entries appear in each update.

I spent the day at

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I spent the day at my new place buying paint & other stuff needed to fix it up. I also cleaned it up (it’s in pretty good shape, so I really didn’t have much to do). Thankfully, I won’t be painting it myself.

I’m exhausted now.

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15023 ª February 22 7:37 PM. What’s down, Doc? Animation genius Chuck Jones has died of conjestive heart failure. Has any other creative-type-person brought more joy and laughter to the last three-or-four generations? At least his website had already started paying tribute to him while he could still see it (click on “Letters from the Heart”, optional Flash). [MetaFilter]

🙁 He’s going to be missed. If it wasn’t for Chuck Jones we wouldn’t have The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, Pinky & the Brain, or any cartoons other than the sanitized Disney variety. He brought edginess & subversive attitude to cartoons.