Thursday, March 06, 2003

I'm watching the Preseidential press conference, of course, and getting more irked by the moment. President Bush did a good job of seeming presidential, but I'd like to go yell at his handlers for a while.

Why, when reporters asked about the opposition of France and Germany et al, didn't he respond that neither Chirac nor Schroeder is primarily concerned with the good of the U.S.? Even if he (and you) want to assume that's understood by all the people in the room, he should still state it. Out loud, and with force.

Also, when the same (or equivalent) reporters asked about the masses opposed to the U.S. policy, why didn't the President respond by naming the nations and masses who are with us? He said even France approved resolution 1441, but he completely dissed the Vilnius group by not mentioning that the majority of the citizens' governments in Europe have published an open letter stating their support? Why would he just let the barely unstated assumption that it's us against the world go unchallenged?

Crap crap crap. Another opportunity not completely capitalized upon. Still, it was much better than it could have been. He stayed on message and didn't provide any wiggle room whatsoever. Plus, as a bonus, he smacked every maroon who asked about "another last chance" with the clue-stick that they so richly deserve.

Monday, March 03, 2003

A history of graphing, as found by Colby Cosh. Only geeks with more analytic skill than life will find this compelling, but boy do we ever!
Today was a very special day in the life of Mitchell Morris. For the past four weeks, I've been busting my ass writing a web application for data visualization and dimensional alaysis of some performance metrics. Today I arrive at the client site to install the first code drop (version 0.1.0) only to find my <quote type="scare">partner</partner> had shown up and told the client that I was his employee, not his partner, and that he'd fired me and I should be escorted from the building. Hooray for internal power politics!!!

Unfortunately, my lawyer tells me I can't send a cease-and-desist to the client for reasons with long legalese names that I promptly forgot. All I've got is this pitiful little soapbox.

So ... fuck James Copher and his horse.

Actually, the last time we were delivering a product to the client that was primarily my work-product and not his, he also engineered a big row just before the deadline. Apparently, he always has to make damned double sure that he's always got somebody else he can visibly blame if things aren't just right. Here I thought we were partners and it turns out I was just his scapegoat.

Sunday, March 02, 2003