Dang furriners, keep out!

Well, well. I’ve just tried to access Dubya’s official re-election website, www.georgewbush.com. I get an Access Denied You don’t have permission to access “http://www.georgewbush.com/” on this server message. And, according to the BBC, this is deliberate. “Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush. The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning. Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it. The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp.”

John Kerry’s website, however, still welcomes furriners.

Update: The Bush camp claims the lockout is for ‘security’ reasons. An interesting thought is whether US soldiers serving in Iraq, or devout Bush supporters living outside the US, are likewise excluded from access to the site. If they are then the poor dears may find what they’re looking for at this address.

NYT comes out for John Kerry

Surprise, surprise! Good editorial though.

The Florida voting experience

Wonderful animated spoof by Boom Chicago. Very funny unless you know about Diebold voting machines. Thanks to Gerard for the link.

The new iPod…

… does indeed — as the rumours predicted — handle images as well as music.

Quote from NYT story:

“SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 26 – Apple Computer introduced on Tuesday its next generation iPod music player, which has the ability to display digital images as well as play songs.

The new iPod Photo, priced at $499 and $599, will be able to store up to 25,000 wallet-size digital images and display them on a television via a cable. It comes with 40-gigabyte or 60-gigabyte disk storage, capable of storing up to 15,000 songs.”

Footnote: At today’s exchange rate, (USD) 499 translates into (GBP) 272. So guess how much the 40GB model costs at the UK Apple store? Why (GBP) 359. What a racket.

Vorsprung durch technik

This image puzzles most people who aren’t interested in cars.

But for anyone who is interested in automobiles, it’s obvious: the filler cap on an Audi TT roadster!

The Cornell note-taking system

What every student should know.

Explanation here. Thanks to Ben for link.

Unstoppable eBay

Text version of my Observer column about eBay is here.

Google mail

I’ve been using Gmail for nearly a fortnight, and am very impressed at the slickness of the interface and the speed with which it works. Webmail used to be like wading through treacle. Gmail changes that. Jon Udell has done some poking under the bonnet/hood and come up with this informative account of how it’s done.

Be nice to the Yanks

Europeans’ detestation of George Bush is leading many of them to forget their manners. Visiting Americans report increasing (and IMHO unforgiveable) hostility directed at them personally — as if somehow they were individually responsible for the excesses of the Bush-Cheney regime. For any Briton disposed to take such a view I suggest the following thought-experiment. Just imagine how you’d have felt if you had been held personally responsible for Margaret Thatcher during her interminable and repressive reign.

What kind of democracy, exactly, is Dubya proposing to export?

The US has an electoral system which looks increasingly corrupt and rickety. On the corruption front, just look at the relationship between campaign funding and legislators’ behaviour — e.g. on copyright law — not to mention the way in which electoral districts for the House of Representatives are comprehensively gerrymandered to ensure that there is a real contest in only a minority of seats. (See the Economist‘s piece “How to Rig an Election” for details.) On the rickety front, see this NYT editorial. It reads, in part,:

“In Florida, voter registrations are being thrown out on pointless technicalities. Missouri is telling soldiers to send nonsecret ballots by e-mail through a Pentagon contractor with a troubling past. Nationwide, eligible voters are being removed from the rolls by flawed felon purges. And nearly a third of this year’s votes will be cast on highly questionable electronic voting machines. No wonder a large percentage of Americans doubt that their votes will count. The election system is crying out for reform.”