A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I'm fascinated by the idea of lock picking, but I wondered if it was actually legal to own lock picks here in Illinois. So I posted a question in Avvo Answers, an online service in which lawyers give out free advice, to see if anyone could or would tell me what the law was. I wasn't spectacularly impressed with the response. Fortunately, I had … [Read more...] about A Lockpicking Answer
Is Consistency Enough?
People I trust have been saying good things about Jeff Gamso's blog, Gamso - For the Defense, and I've been meaning to check it out for months now. I finally got around to it, and I'm glad I did, because I discovered a fascinating post called "Hobgoblins of Little Minds."It's about what experts mean when they say a piece of evidence is "consistent": The criminalist who did … [Read more...] about Is Consistency Enough?
iPad iMpotence
Ken Lammers does a nice job of collecting up some of the shortcomings of the just-announced Apple iPad. I don't get it either. The iPad seems really limited. My iPhone has similar limitations---no multitasking, no USB or FireWire, a closed application deployment mechanism---but it's a cell phone: Making it more flexible would come at the risk of making it less reliable. But in … [Read more...] about iPad iMpotence
The Republican Response – 2010 – For Real This Time
I've been commenting on the President's State of the Union address on and off for a few years now. I do it for three reasons: (1) to force myself to read the actual speech so I feel more involved in the civic process, (2) to pad out the blog, and (3) because everyone else is doing it (probably for reason 2). I've never bothered to look at the opposition response before, but … [Read more...] about The Republican Response – 2010 – For Real This Time
The Republican Response – 2010
[Note: This is not the real 2010 Republican response. It's the 2009 response. I thought I'd post it instead of the real one to see if anybody actually paid attention. No one noticed. Which means...nothing, really. And it was stupid of me to deceive my readers in order to test them. Sorry about that. I don't think I'll be doing that again...except maybe on April Fool's Day.] … [Read more...] about The Republican Response – 2010