Why American University/WCL’s wireless sucks

This email came out today from the Student Bar Association. Emphasis on the good parts added.

Dear Student Body:

The following problems have been discovered with the WCL
network:

1. All access points in room 101 were either turned off, or
nonfunctional for the past two years.
2. All access points on the 5th floor were located in elevator shafts,
or other places where they did not provide coverage.
3. Certain points on the 6th floor were assigned the wrong IP address,and so did not provide access.

The Technology department is working to address these problems.

If you continue to experience problems with the internet, please inform the Student Services Committee at StudentServices.SBA@gmail.com

You can also file an online trouble ticket, when you find yourself in an area with internet access: http://www.wcl.american.edu/techres/complab/trouble%5Fticket.cfm

Regards,
Student Services Committee

You are receiving this e-mail as a result of your enrollment in - “Student Bar Association (Full Year 2007-2008) - Koukourinis”.
This email was generated by The West Education Network.

How fucking outrageous is that? “Oh by the way, we forgot to turn on the internet for 2 years. Oh and we put the WAP’s in the elevator shaft. Oh, and if you can’t get online, send us an email….when you can?

This is typical of WCL’s reaction to things. This is how they reacted to MacGate, this is how they reacted to the chemical weapons dig coverup….

Published by: SWATJester on January 28th, 2008 | Filed under Uncategorized
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Obama and Huckabee win Iowa

According to CNN, Obama and Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.

Also, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd have both abandoned their campaigns, but not yet endorsed a candidate.

The Dem’s side:

Obama: 38%
Edwards: 30 %
Clinton: 29%
(Richardson had 2%)
(Biden had 1%)

The GOP side:

Huckabee: 34%
Romney: 25%
Thompson: 13%
McCain: 13% (less state delegates estimated than Thompson)
Paul: 10%
Giuliani: 4%
Hunter 1%

The big surprise is that McCain did so poorly. I would have expected him to at least beat Fred Thompson for 3rd. Giuliani’s numbers are not shocking as he concentrated on super tuesday states.

I’m glad to see Obama do well in Iowa. I hope this carries him through N.H. too. What will be interesting is to see how Edwards does in N.H. If Edwards can beat Clinton again, he will basically solidify Obama’s position in the lead, and remain a viable candidate. If Edwards does poorly in N.H. I expect he will join with Obama, possibly as a running mate, to ensure that Clinton does not win.

We’ll see what happens in New Hampshire. Maybe Richardson will make a stronger showing there.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under Elections
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On leaks, transparency, and the Wikimedia structure

The big issue of late is leaks and transparency within the Wikimedia Foundation. On foundation-l, there’s been an ongoing debate that recently blew up with Erik Moeller’s appointment to the Deputy Director office from his position as a board member, something that we now are finding out has been in the works for months, and goes contrary to the board’s majority position that there should be a 6 month period between someone going staff–> board or board –> staff. These and other decisions of late have been highly criticized by a community that has been more active about calling out the foundation than ever before.

The latest drama in the series has been leaks. From the leak of the information regarding Carolyn Doran, to more recently, leaks from Internal-l and WMFCC-l about financial reports prepared for Sun that have not been shown to the board, and leaks on the upcoming Kaltura deal, which was under intense debate even between the board members on WMFCC-l (and notably, Erik tried to stifle it), the big question is “Why?”

Kelly Martin speculated on some of the reasons why at her blog, and to be fair, they could be accurate. But it ignores the larger issue as to why these leaks are happening.

These leaks are happening because people are tired. They’re tired of the opacity that the foundation plays with one hand, while pretending to be paragons of transparency in the other. They’re tired of shell games by Erik, Florence, the board and the office. To be fair, this is NOT a blanket criticism of all of the board members, and all of the office staff. Some of them have been downright critical of their peers for lacking transparency. But I feel that these leaks are coming from people who are sick and tired of being pushed around by a company that does not respect what they do as volunteers. So they leak. They leak because maybe there is one event that pushes them over the edge and they’re doing it as retaliation. Or they leak because there is event after event that convinces them that they’re no longer working for an organization they can feel good about, so they leak so other people can learn too. Maybe they’re just sadistic and they leak solely to hurt the foundation. Or, they leak because they believe in pure transparency. I think it’s a combination of some, or even all, of these things as to why people such as Amgine, have done it.

It’s time for the foundation to take a long hard look at who its supporters are: the community. It’s time for them to stop pushing around the community, and start respecting it. It’s time for the foundation to be more open, more efficient, to accept the idea that this organization is not like other organizations and it MUST answer to its community, or it will inevitably fail.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under office, board, Wikimedia, Wikipedia
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Overheard in law school

From a sample deed in Property: “…signed this 14th day of January, in the final year of the reign of our liege lord, George W. Bush…”

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under Uncategorized
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Overheard in Con Law

Overheard in Constitutional Law while discussing the associate justices of the Marshall court:

“If you name your kids brockholst, I will come to your house and break down your door and make you change it.”

This from a law professor who self admittedly watches Battlestar Galactica and says “Frak” in class. I love it.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under Law School
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New Arbitrators Elected

Here’s the final outcome. From WikiEN-L:

Congratulations to the new arbitrators named, and to FloNight, whose term
was extended by one year:

Newyorkbrad — 3-year term
FT2 — 3-year term
FayssalF — 3-year term
Sam Blacketer — 3-year term
Deskana — 3-year term
Thebainer — 1-year term

Here’s Jimmy’s original post on the topic:

For the 2007 ArbCom elections, I am making the following appointments and shifts:
Newyorkbrad - Tranche Alpha
FT2 - Tranche Alpha
FayssalF - Tranche Alpha
Sam Blacketer - Tranche Alpha
Deskana - Tranche Alpha
This fills the 5 vacancies in Tranche Alpha.
Then I am removing Flcelloguy from Tranche Gamma for inactivity, with the understanding that if he chooses to return to active service, he may claim a (perhaps temporary) expansion seat in Tranche Gamma. This is intended to be the same situation as Mindspillage and Filiocht have in Tranche Beta.
Into Flcelloguy’s seat, I am moving FloNight. This effectively extends her term by 1 year, moving her from Tranche Beta to Tranche Gamma.
And then finally I am appointing Thebainer into FloNight’s old seat in Tranche Beta. This unfortunately gives him only a 1 year term, but he did come in 6th.
Finally, I want to announce a desire that the ArbCom should institute some informal notions of a required level of activity, and that I will gladly act upon the advice and consent of the ArbCom at mid-term to make replacement appointments (June-ish - July-ish) for any Arbs who unfortunately have found themselves unable to live up to the time commitments of the position.
I will gladly leave the choice of those mid-term appointments up to the Arbcom (or, at their desire, make the tough decision myself), but will have a strong preference at that time for appointments (based on the election results) from this list of runner-ups: Raul654, Rebecca, Manning Bartlett, Giano II, David Fuchs, Shell Kinney, MastCell.
I am particularly interested that the community work to heal what appears to me to be perceived rifts between various factions, and encourage everyone to work without [sic] our existing frameworks and institutions for positive change with a minimum of drama. We are all here to build an encyclopedia and should understand that there are very often complex judgment calls in which we may not personally agree with every result - our first obligation is to pay attention to making sure that our _processes_ are as just, open, participatory, and transparent as possible consistent with our mission.
I believe that none of my appointments today will cause any surprise or drama, as I have followed the election results quite closely.

In addition, Flcelloguy will be allowed to regain his seat, should he request it, before the end of his term.

This fits in pretty well with what I predicted , where I predicted 7 seats, but wanted only 6. Well, we got 6, with Rebecca and Raul not winning (hopefully addressing the inactivity problem). I’m also pleased with the mid-year appointment procedure, if any of these guys go inactive. That will be a huuuuge help.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under Arbcom, Arbitration Committee, Wikimedia, Wikipedia
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Duke lacrosse prosecutor bankrupt, $180M in debt

And the nation smiles in revenge. Mike Nifong, the district attorney from the Duke lacrosse rape case, recently filed for bankruptcy, listing around $180 million in liabilities. He listed his assets at around $9000 in personal property, a 2003 Honda Accord, a $230,000 house, and around $5,000 a month in pension. The above link has a copy of the document which has some interesting info on his financials.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under Uncategorized
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Attorney costs Toshiba 1 million dollars with one minute late filing

Thanks WSJ Law Blog.

Mr. Mersel, attorney for [Toshiba], asserts that he waited until 3:14 p.m. on the last day of the filing period to deliver the motion to Morrison & Foerster’s regular courier service. Mr. Mersel asserts that although he was aware that the filing deadline was 4:00 p.m., he had “never had a problem with getting papers filed by 4:00 p.m. when delivering them to the attorney service” forty-five minutes in advance. The courier, Mr. Moskus, swiftly responded to Mr. Mersel’s request, leaving on his motorcycle for the courthouse at approximately 3:30 p.m. Unfortunately, Mr. Moskus encountered “unusually heavy traffic” and had to “wait at the railroad crossing on Grand Avenue for a long train to pass.” Consequently, Mr. Moskus arrived at the Courthouse after the office had closed and Mr. Mersel was unable to file the motion until the following day, on October 11, 2007.

According to WSJ it was just 1 minute after the office closed. Bet you that courier is going to get bitched out.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under Court, law firms, Law
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Macworld: Jobs Keynote speech

Well some of the predictions were right thus far, but wow, did Apple go nuts on the new iPhone.

The new iPhone is going to have a bunch of new software upgrades. PCWorld is erroneously reporting that it’s 1TB in memory now. They’re confusing it with the second part of the keynote. iPhone will now support multiple people SMS, and some AV upgrades like lyrics searching, and chapter browsing in video. Free upgrade for iPhone subscribers. iPod Touch gets many of the benefits too (weather, maps, notes, mail, stocks) as a $20 upgrade.

Airport now comes with “Time Capsule” a wireless version of Time Machine that allows you backup to a “server quality” hard drive, of either 500GB or 1TB, wirelessly. This will be good news for attorneys running OS X that want to ensure data integrity. Jobs said they are aggressively pricing in order to spur more people to backup. Price is looking like $499 for the 1TB model, and $299 for the 500GB version.

iTunes + Apple TV. Apple TV price drop to $229, from $299. iTunes movie rentals, $2.99 for library release, $3.99 for new releases. $4.99 for HD titles. Download it through Apple TV and it automatically syncs to your Mac and iPhone/Pod. Can now watch Flickr images on Apple TV, which also now has Dolby surround sound and HD support.

And finally the killer app: MacBook Air. The world’s thinnest notebook. 3lbs, 0.16″ to 0.76″ thick. 13.3 inch widescreen display w/ built in iSight. 80 GB HDD standard, or a 64GB Solid State Drive optional for faster access times and weight/heat reduction. 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1/EDR, and Micro DVI output. Power adapter is the same kind of MagSafe as the MacBook Pro’s, but in a 45W version. 2GB memory, 1.6 or 1.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, but no standard optical drive (comes with an optional Superdrive accessory, and some option that lets it use another PC or Mac’s optical drive). Multitouch trackpad. Priced at $1799. You can actually fit it into an envelope. This is fabulous for the attorney on the go, who doesn’t need an optical drive internally, it’s super lightweight and can fit into almost any briefcase out there, should have great battery life, and wireless everything.

See pictureshere.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under technology
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NY State Supreme Court considers Rectal Exam

What a great title. In March, the NY Supreme Court will consider the case of a man who was sedated and forced to receive a rectal exam….for a head wound. The man had received an injury to the head that required eight stitches, but was coherent, in full control of his extremities, and had full range of motion in them. He was told he needed an emergency rectal exam to determine if he had a spinal cord injury, but refused repeatedly. When he was held down, he resisted and struck one of the doctors. He was then sedated, and forced to undergo the exam anyway. When he woke up, he was arrested and charged with assault.

The criminal charges against him were dropped, but now he’s suing the hospital for an informed consent violation. One of the exceptions to the requirement of informed consent is when a procedure is a medical emergency to save the patient’s life or prevent substantial harm from occurring to him. It’s not certain that this was the case here. The other big exception is when the patient is not in control of his mental faculties, and would have reasonably refused the treatment. The final big question is one of medical necessity. We’ll be watching this case closely as it goes to trial: it could have major importance on informed consent cases in New York.

Published by: SWATJester on January 17th, 2008 | Filed under Uncategorized
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