Perri Nelson's Website 

'Blue Screen of Death'

In addition to picking up researcher Mark Russinovich and the rest of the Winternals Software team in July, Microsoft has apparently acquired an interesting piece of intellectual property — the Sysinternals "Blue Screen of Death" screensaver.

On Nov. 1, Microsoft added the BlueScreen Screen Saver v3.2 prank software to its TechNet developer web site.

"Use Bluescreen to amaze your friends and scare your enemies!" the software claims.

Read all about it...

I've seen altogether too many real BSODs in my time. This one is remarkably genuine looking.

Sysinternals is an interesting acquisition for Microsoft. I've been using their "process explorer" application as my task manager for months now. This tool is wonderful. It beats the heck out of the default task manager and gives a lot more information.

Maybe we'll start to see some improvement in diagnostic software for Windows now?

This Is What The Democrats Want To Stop...

A federal judge has refused to throw out the guilty plea of a convicted al-Qaeda supporter who argued that he was illegally spied on through President Bush's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program.

Iyman Faris, an Ohio truck driver, pleaded guilty in 2003 to plotting to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge and launch a simultaneous attack in Washington. He asked a judge to vacate the plea, arguing in part that the alleged surveillance violated his rights and that the government could not use it to build a case against him.

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Faris is unique among defendants who have challenged the surveillance because Bush administration officials have said he was spied on -- and credited the program with helping to uncover his plot.

Good for the Judge! This traitor was a terrorist plotting to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge, and he confessed in open court. He deserves what he gets. Read more.

The New York Times reports:

After meeting with Mr. Bush at the White House, Senator Harry Reid, the incoming Senate majority leader, said “the first order of business” when Democrats formally take over in January will be to reinvigorate Congressional scrutiny of the executive branch, with a focus on Iraq.

“Let’s find out what’s going on with the war in Iraq, the different large federal agencies that we have,” said Mr. Reid, Democrat of Nevada. “There simply has been no oversight in recent years.”

In other words, The Democrats are going to try to paralyze the administration with investigations, subpoenas and the like. They're going to try to gut everything the administration has done to stop the terrorists before they manage to pull off another attack in the United States.

Linked to Moosetracks Open Trackbacks

Justice Thomas, Strict Constructionist.

A rare interruption of oral arguments by a spectator at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday led one professor to look up the arcane law used to enforce order in the courthouse. Just a sentence long, the law forbids setting off fireworks or shooting guns. It also warns people not to "make a harangue or oration."

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The purpose of the law is clear, Mr. Kerr said, but it is "an example of atrocious law writing."

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Mr. Kerr's findings sparked several amused postings on the Volokh Conspiracy Web log. One reader found in the law a new interpretation of Justice Thomas's reputation for saying little during arguments.

"See?" the reader wrote. "Justice Thomas has just been scrupulous in his strict construction of that law, uncommonly silly though it may be."

Read more.

What more can I say, except that maybe if a few more lawyers learned to follow his example it would be a good thing?

Linked to Uncooperative Talk Radio

The Sonics and Some Developers Just Don't Get It

Some politicians and area developers just don't get it. Twice before the voters in the State of Washington voted against funding for stadiums for professional sports teams, which the state legislature then promptly ignored. [Correction: Once before. The voters narrowly approved funding for Qwest Field.] The voters in the City of Seattle overwhelmingly voted down any city tax dollars to fund a new stadium for the Sonics. Now in the Seattle Times, we hear about another legislator (a Democrat naturally) and some developers that still don't get it.

Backers of I-91 on Friday called on other cities, such as Bellevue, to heed the message sent by the three-fourths of Seattle voters who favored I-91.

"This vote reflected not just the will of the people of Seattle. It reflected sentiment statewide," said Chris Van Dyk, organizer for Citizens for More Important Things, at a news conference.

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Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, one of the Sonics' biggest legislative allies, said I-91 won't stop her efforts to secure an arena deal in the suburbs.

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"Just because the city of Seattle took an unfortunate vote doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the state should follow suit," [Bellevue Developer Bob] Wallace said.

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... [Kemper] Freeman ... said I-91 confirms what he has believed for a while: The public is fed up with subsidies for professional sports. "The interest in putting a major subsidy in another [facility] is as close to zero as it can get," Freeman said. Citizens "feel like they've done more than their share."

...

Van Dyk called on the Legislature and the Sonics to "respect and honor" I-91's message by submitting any arena package requiring substantial taxpayer dollars to a public vote.

Read the full article in The Seattle Times.

How many times will we have to go through this in this state? How many times will the voters have to say "NO!" to blackmailing, spoiled professional sports organizations before they get the message?

Professional sports is a business. Owning a professional sports team is a business venture. If your business can't stand on its own and turn a profit without having to blackmail the government for it, it doesn't deserve to succeed. Let the fans pay for it. Let the sponsors pay for it.

Our tax money should go to more important things. The roads in King County are in terrible shape, especially in Seattle. My children have learned how to tell when we're in King County when we take a road trip by the roughness and noise of the road. My 12 year old son can tell instantly when we enter or leave the county on I-5, even if he's got his head buried in a video game.

These leeches have got to go. The people of Seattle have said NO to the Sonics. Your Democrat state senators have already declared that they'll try to raise taxes to get them to stay.

There are more important things. But Senator Prentice and Bob Wallace just don't get it.