The Blogging Journalist

Condolences To The Families of Those Murdered at Virginia Tech

My condolences to the families and friends of the 32 people murdered August 16, 2007, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. As I listened to coverage of the tragedy on CNN and read about it online, I was once again reminded of how a tranquil setting, without warning, can suddenly be transformed into a horror scene.

This Sounds Like A Law & Order Script

On Friday, October 13, 2006, the blog Good Morning Silicon Valley published a post headlined "Murder case rocks little community of Opensourceville." As blogger John Murrell writes:

It sounds like your basic "Law & Order" [link added] script. A pretty Russian émigré disappears after going to drop off her kids at the home of her estranged husband. Her boyfriend leads vigils of worried friends. A reward is raised, billboards and a Web site go up. If you've watched enough episodes, you know somebody at the cop shop is going to say, "So, Lenny, you like the husband for this?

According to Murrell, "That's where Oakland police ended up as they investigated the disappearance of 31-year-old Nina Reiser on September 3, and on Tuesday [October 10, 2006] they arrested Hans Reiser on suspicion of murder."

Reiser is prominent in the Linux kernel development community. Murrell writes that, "He and his company, Namesys, developed ReiserFS, a popular file system currently incorporated in the Linux kernel, and its successor, Reiser4, which Reiser has been trying to get included in the kernel for several years (an effort thwarted, some say, by his contentious personality)."

What's Behind The Democrats' Decision To Take On Fox News?

The New York Times says "In Taking On Fox, Democrats See Reward in the Risk." According to The Times, "The Fox News Channel doesn’t officially turn 10 until this week, but the Democrats have already begun doing their best to spoil the celebrations."

Newsweek Offers 'Exclusive Excerpt' From 'State of Denial'

Newsweek online has put up what it calls an "exclusive excerpt" from Bob Woodward's ‘State of Denial,’ part three of his 'Bush at War' series. The tome is getting widespread attention in traditional media and the blogosphere.

Regarding the Iraq war, Woodward says, "It was Bush’s decision. But [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld drove the dynamic on Iraq." The excerpt purports to tell how Rumsfeld "blew it."

If You Like International Affairs

If you are interested in international affairs and diplomacy, take a look at The Diplomatic Times Review (TDTR), my blog on those subjects.

I started TDTR in 2000 as a newsletter after thinking about and planning it for 10 years. I put it online as a website in 2002 or 2003. I created and maintained it using Microsoft FrontPage. You can imagine how tedious it was to keep it up. Here's a WayBackMachine copy of that website.

I converted it into a blog in 2004, which I regularly maintained until I started The Blogging Journalist in December 2005. It took up most of my blogging time until now. I try to blog daily at TDTR.

By the way, I also blog at The Weblog Gazette, a technology blog.

CNetNews.com: 'AT&T Leaks Sensitive Info In NSA Suit'

"Lawyers for AT&T accidentally released sensitive information while defending a lawsuit that accuses the company of facilitating a government wiretapping program, CNET News.com has learned," Declan McCullagh, staff writer at CNET News.com, reported May 26, 2006.

McCullagh said, "AT&T's attorneys this week filed a 25-page legal brief striped with thick black lines that were intended to obscure portions of three pages and render them unreadable (click here for PDF).”

"But,” he added, “the obscured text nevertheless can be copied and pasted inside some PDF readers, including Preview under Apple Computer's OS X and the xpdf utility used with X11."
Both the article and the brief are quite revealing. For more, please see "AT&T leaks sensitive info in NSA suit."