[ via Arts & Letters Daily -> The Washington Post ]
This review really misses the mark on Catcher in the Rye [Amazon]. The author complains that the protagonist is presented as both sentimental and rebellious, but succeeds as neither. I had finally read the book a year or so ago and enjoyed that ambiguity. Holden Caulfield is struggling with his identity equipt with only limited intellectual means but with a deep honesty. Where the WaPo author sees manipulation, I enjoyed a rough-hewn bluntness.
[ via Wikipedia ]
This is a location for several scenes in Cryptonomicon as a location for a technology start-up. This is apparently based on fact. From the Wikipedia article Many companies, such as Intel, establish manufacturing plants in one of the numerous industrial parks here.
[ via CNN ]
[ via Wired News ]
The wife sent out the CNN article to a friend whose computer we have been struggling with to clean up--I had never before seen such an infestation of ad- and spy-ware. A week ago I had read the Wired article based on the same government study. The bottom line of both the study and our experience: casual computer users can easily cripple their computers with spyware to the point that even many hours of an experienced user's time (with only a few drinks in them) is not sufficient to fix the problems. This may be an epidemic.
[ via FactCheck.org ]
[ via The Democratic National Committee ]
FactCheck.org points out that there is no proof that Cheney gains financial benefit from Halliburton. However, the DNC shows that most of the accusations against Cheney w/r/t Halliburton surround his questionable practices while there.