I accuse Judge Bork with the Powell Memo in the smoke-filled room. — 40-some years ago, US antitrust enforcement took sick. In the years since, it has been largely comatose — right up until the very recent past, when the Biden administration began to take muscular — but very belated — action to restore a modicum of competition to the economy. There’s a…

2002, 2007, 2012, 2017. — #20yrsago Why is it so hard to get a cab in San Francisco? https://web.archive.org/web/20021003045806/http://www.bradnewsham.com/articles/why_so_hard.shtml #15yrsago The Future of Ignoring Things https://web.archive.org/web/20071011000250/https://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=479&doc_id=134703& #10yrsago Congress: The DHS’s “fusion centers” full of bad intelligence, lies, and imaginary buildings https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/us/inquiry-cites-flaws-in-regional-counterterrorism-offices.html?_r=0…

Capital, Not Vision. — When it’s railroading time, you get railroads. “Innovation” is the intersection of collage and timing. For hundreds of years, people observed the action of a screw-press and the motion of a twirling maple-key, and invented the helicopter:

2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021. — #20yrsago Notes from OSXCon’s DRM and Digital Hub panel https://web.archive.org/web/20021018232143/http://blog.glennf.com/gmblog/archives/00000254.htm #20yrsago Sidekick, your mobile blogging pal https://web.archive.org/web/20021017125512/http://www.hiptop.com/ #15yrsago RIAA: Our anti-fan lawsuits are costing us millions https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2007/10/music-industry-exec-p2p-litigation-is-a-money-pit/

Stealth privatisation was always the endgame for public-private-partnerships. — Britons are divided on many matters, but one uniting force that cuts across regional, party and class lines is jealous pride for the NHS and fierce resistance to its privatisation and the importation of America’s grisly omnishambolic health care “system.” But while the British people oppose privatisation, the British investor…

2002, 2007, 2012, 2017. — #20yrsago Danger Hiptop reviewed https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Likable-Sidekick-is-priced-right-2765968.php #20yrsago Distributed.net cracks the RC5–64 cipher https://web.archive.org/web/20030710002806/https://www.distributed.net/pressroom/news-20020926 #20yrsago Kevin Mitnick’s laptop, signed by Woz, on eBay https://forums.atariage.com/topic/14593-own-a-piece-of-hacking-history/#comment-145970

2002, 2007, 2017, 2021. — #20yrsago Dan Gillmor responds to Jack Valenti https://web.archive.org/web/20021012222914/https://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4175607.htm #20yrsago 2000+ year old Greek computer reinterpreted https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2002/09/19/the-clockwork-computer #15yrsago Guerrilla librarians free the $86k Library of Congress copyright database https://web.archive.org/web/20071011005126/http://bulk.resource.org/copyright/

Chokepoints, compliance, weakest links. — In 2018, Tumblr announced a ban on “adult content.” That call was made by Verizon, Tumblr’s erstwhile owner, and to call the resulting mess “a shitshow” is an insult to good, hardworking shitshows all over the world. Verizon enforced this policy with an automated filter, which was charged with analyzing…

2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021. — #20yrsago My talk at UT Austin https://web.archive.org/web/20021022184450/https://www.weblogsky.com/2002_09_01_blarchive.html#85498216 #15yrsago Pratchett’s Discworld: a reading-order guide https://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/ #15yrsago New AT&T terms of service: We’ll cut off your Internet connection for criticizing us https://web.archive.org/web/20071011020653/http://home.bellsouth.net/csbellsouth/s/s.dll?spage=cg/legal/att.htm&leg=tos