This morning’s work soundtrack is provided by Jack Johnson. Info and mp3′s available at his site.

Little Norton here has already zapped two attempts by the virus-du-jour to get into the system here at casa. No trouble really – it just fried them and then told me about it afterwards. Just like Pongo tries to do with visitors at the door.

I was a bit disappointed with the Washington Post’s writeup of the virus though, particularly the claim that

The issue isn’t necessarily security flaws in Microsoft’s products so much as it is gullible computer users who continue to ignore the advice of cyber-security experts and the office techie down the hall.

I’m sorry, but if I can manage to keep Norton up-to-date, and Norton apparantly can dispatch this virus without a hitch, then if a virus gets into a business network via e-mail the “office techie down the hall” needs to be reviewing his career options. My only disappointment is that my ISP and host either don’t or won’t eliminate viruses before they even get to my inbox.

I tried to give them an out. I tried to let them walk away and save face. But the drones couldn’t take a hint. The silly form letter (twelve different check boxes) misspelling my address and requiring that “the requested information must by [sic] received within the next 30 days” was not someone trying to scam financial information out of me. It was merely a drone trying to figure out how to process an automated payment. And since my address was correct on the four computer-generated letters received from the same office this month, I have to assume this is not a systems error but just another example of why California’s unemployment rate really needs to be higher. Normally I rant here about the state of the economy, and unemployment in particular, but some days I really think that raising the unemployment rate just a bit higher might grease the economy more than all the politicians in Washington realize.

To the best of my recollection, and accounting for mergers and splits in a few cases.

create your own visited country map

[via Expurgate.nu]

Updated 1/28 – I’d left off the 1987 South American tour.

As though legal research wasn’t bad enough, there’s an article at law.com on another byproduct of the War on Terror. Secret caselaw! And it has persuasive value, although not here, at least not yet.

Perhaps the most interesting part though is the government’s statement about why they shouldn’t release the case law to a Defendant’s attorneys:

The government will not cite to the sealed opinion or rely on it in any way in arguing its position in this case.

So, let me see here. A government attorney has read a case that has persuasive authority and decided not to use it in presenting their case. It’s not a big leap to draw the conclusion that the case is either not on point or not favorable to the government. If it’s not on point, no harm. If it is on point, but unfavorable, the government has the incredible advantage of being able to suppress unfavorable case law from both adversaries and the courts until they get a ruling they like. Somehow I don’t like where this is going.

Just jumping from site-to-site-to-site a bit while trying to get sufficiently caffeinated for a meeting with a client. I know I’ve quit many times, but stopping my coffee intake would force several Latin American (or Sumatran, depending on the morning) families into poverty, and I’m afraid Sally Struthers or some other do-gooder would come and beat me up. I’ve got enough on my plate right now; I just don’t want to take the risk.

On our continuing theme here for to provide a factual basis for an eventual American “visit” to Mars, press accounts of President Bush’s visit to Roswell, NM today are not reporting on whether the visit is actually to review available evidence of Marvin’s WMD program.

OK, I guess I’ve had enough coffee.

Just watched most of the speech. Pongo and I both had to tinkle, so there were two breaks in the flow, but I doubt anything major was missed. I haven’t made a secret here of the fact that I’m not a fan of George W. Some people who know me live know I prefer the old Doonesbury reference of Shrub for the little Bush. I didn’t vote for him in 2000 and I won’t vote for him in 2004. Don’t take that as a sign of any great liberal tendancies; I didn’t vote for Gore either. In fact I’ve never voted for a Democrat for President and it will take a lot of positive statements from the right candidate to change that track record. If you have to pidgeonhole me with a label, try something like moderate-libertarian or fiscal-conservative-who-likes-civil-rights.

It was nice to see the President discuss the number of terrorists killed and captured, but unfortunate his Report to the Congress couldn’t include mention of a single trial, or even a tribunal-type proceeding, which may or may not be like a trial.

It was interesting seeing him transition from security and the War on Terror into the War on Drugs with a straight face. Apparantly we are more secure than ever, and the tons of chemical substances that illegally enter the country each year…well, let’s just be thankful that al Qaida doesn’t subcontract to the Colombians. Maybe it’s a cultural thing.

If there was a reference to the massive deficits, I missed it, but whatever. His budget for next year will limit the increase in spending to four percent. Usually when I start deficiting around town, people suggest I cut spending, but apparantly that’s not part of the plan.

And then, the capper. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it, so I went and read the text. He managed to do two paragraphs slamming gay marriage, but couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘gay’ once. I did think I caught him flashing a grin at someone when he successfully pronounced ‘biotechnology,’ but I guess ‘gay’ is just too much of a mouthful for the compassionate conservative.

Spent a lot of the weekend trying to exclude some of the stress-causers for a while. Clients were ignored, but I did still work on my other project. Clients are easy to ignore when they’re shunted straight to voicemail or their e-mails are set to the side for a bit. Instead I did the positive things. Pongo was showered with attention. Good food was eaten with good friends. Overall it went well despite a flair-up from the radioactive mutant thingees in the intestines last night. Fortunately it was a minor inconvenience, the resistance was quickly proven futile, and I was able to start off the week with a good swim, albeit a cold one. Now I’m working with some random blues coming at me through the wonder called iTunes. There’s only so much work that can be done in the absence of a law library due to a government holiday, but I’ll do what I can until siesta time. I’ve decided that it’s time for the little law firm to get back to the standards upon which it was founded; the mandatory poolside lunch & siesta rules have gone unenforced for too long and it’s time to crack the whip. Do any tax specialists out there want to tell me whether this means I can write-off swimsuits as a business expense (business uniform?)?

The high point of the day was definitely the lunchtime swim. Of course, I swam outside, where it was sunny and the temperature was in the 60s, not like the DC area (20s), or northern Idaho (30s), two places where I’ve wintered in the past. Have I mentioned how much I love living here recently?

The low point? Upon reflection, there are really too many possibilities, and it wouldn’t be fair excluding some truly deserving candidates. Let’s just leave it at TGIF, and I am turning off the office phones for the weekend.

In 1961, President Kennedy challenged the nation to go to the Moon, and Apollo 11 reached the target in 1969, eight years later. Today, after more than thirty years of apathy and mismanagement by the U.S. Government, President Bush challenged NASA to get back to the moon by 2015, twelve years in the future. According to the AP article, this was part of a vote of confidence in Sean O’Keefe, the man who’s been administering NASA since before the Columbia breakup. Would it be a vote of confidence in Bill Gates if the Microsoft shareholders in 2003 gave him a decade to bring a PC to market meeting the specs of the original ’286? Would the chairman of Ford think it a vote of confidence if told to roll out some big family sedans with no smog controls, no mileage standards, no air bags or and no consumer electronics within the next decade? I kind of think that in both cases the “mandate” would be a huge slap in the face. I want to see a return to manned space exploration as much as anyone, but this is just pathetic.