Today's New York Times has an article describing Columbia's desire to expand the campus all the way up to 133rd street. Most interesting about this is that Columbia is actually trying to deal well with the surrounding communities. Apparently, this is new for Columbia.
Michael Powell defends his rollback of the limits on media ownership concentration in an Op-Ed in todays new Uork Times. One interesting line: "Popularity is not synonymous with monopoly." Apparently, Powell thinks that a monopoly is formed only when it is literally the only company left standing, not just the only one with a product worth anything to consumers. Apparently, he missed the ruling in the Microsoft case, where Microsoft Windows' popularity was enough to constitute a monopoly despite the existence of other OS products.
Though it is pretty early, I was wondering what people thought so far of the various Democratic candidates for President. My personal choice would be Joe Lieberman, but I think the media does not like him and might try hard to kill his candidacy just as they did to Al Gore by creating the myth of George Bush as straight shooting everyman.
Last I looked at Columbia's website, they suggested that we have both Word and Wordperfect, in order to placate those professors who might want to be a bit iconoclastic and reject the usefulness of Microsoft. I thought I might save a few coins by looking at Sun Microsystem's StarOffice, which incorporated most of Wordperfect's technology a while ago and was being given away for free in order to spite Redmond.
Lo and behold, I just discovered that Sun no longer gives the software away for free, even for download. How things change...
OK! Here goes my first post....
In preparation for all the dry reading we're going to do in law school, I've stopped reading fiction and instead picked up some nonfiction over the last few months:
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich
For those interested in public policy maybe? Shows how the deck is stacked against the working poor, and it's fun to hear Ehrenreich's stories about her (undercover) experiences taking crappy low-paying jobs. I can relate.
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser
If you're addicted to fast food (I am) or interested in suing McDonalds (nah) it's a great read. I can't wait to read Schlosser's newest book: Refer Madness!
Game Over Press Start To Continue
by David Sheff
Amazing reporting documenting everything from the fall of Atari to the rise of Nintendo, a must read not only for video game nerds, but anyone that's interested in the behind the scenes business dealing and lawsuits you usually don't think about when you're playing Zelda.
Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, The Battle of Brazil and The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood
Three books about the making of two great movies and one bad one, I'd only recommend these for film buffs.
Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community
by Robert D. Putnam
I wrote my personal statement about this book. Might be a good read if you're into nonprofits or community organizations.
Fire in the East: The Rise of Asian Military Power and the Second Nuclear Age by Paul J. Bracken
I wouldn't really recommend this book, it's pretty scary.
So there you have it, my nonfiction kick. Any comments from peope who've read any of these or want to add to my list??
For my first blog entry, I'd like to reveal some scholarly research I did in hopes of easing my anxieties about our new institution (I've edited a bit for length and sense):
columbia law school is fortunate enough to be the home of 14 law journals
columbia law school is dedicated to the research and teaching of european law
columbia law school is devoted to training the next generation of human rights lawyers
columbia law school is a center for human rights workers and scholars from around the world
columbia law school is pioneering a new model of human rights education
columbia law school is stronger than it has ever been; dean david leebron explains how he will make it even stronger
columbia law school is the best place to do this
columbia law school is also a very distinguished ny law school that is known for a more innovative admissions policy
columbia law school is collaborating with simon and shuster to set standards for copyright protections
columbia law school is represented on the top
columbia law school is in the process of adding links to the wuerzburg university
columbia law school is extremely grateful to the reed foundation for their support in developing this site
columbia law school is a great site
columbia law school is researching military tribunals and is working to focus international attention on the conditions
columbia law school is one of the first law schools in the united states and a charter member of the american association of law schools
columbia law school is the primary academic sponsor
columbia law school is spearheading a national boycott of abercrombie this weekend by holding a drive to collect company products
columbia law school is among the oldest and most distinguished law schools in america
columbia law school is set apart from other schools in the us because in 1993 they started a mandatory pro bono scheme
columbia law school is hosting scholars and practitioners from multilateral institutions
columbia law school is published
columbia law school is a leading chinese legal scholar with a special interest in intellectual property law
columbia law school is hosting scholars
columbia law school is posted on www
columbia law school is extremely grateful
columbia law school is denied
columbia law school is now accepting applications for the henkin senior fellowship
columbia law school is devoted
columbia law school is credited with being the first law professor to do something about this by providing black letter rules
columbia law school is the first
columbia law school is hosting a day
columbia law school is not
columbia law school is proud
columbia law school is historically credited with the introduction of the socratic method into us legal education during the 1850s
columbia law school is a dog collar
I've now heard from three different 2Ls that we should ignore Legal Methods as an introductory class, or at least not stress over it. I've also heard from two of them that all 2Ls give this advice, and all 1Ls ignore it.
I'll probably belong to the ignoring it faction (who knows, I might find it interesting), but I wonder how long the 2L-advises/1L-ignores tradition has been going on. Who knows, maybe the Class of 2008 blog will link to our ponderings about it next year?
I spent a long time on the phone with Dell's tech support, and while I spent quite a bit of time on hold and had to call three times, I am happy with the end result. Seriously. Two out of three of the techs were friendly, and while one was an idiot, I think two out of three for tech support is not bad. In the past I have dealt with Compaq and had amazing difficulty reaching them, and with Netgear, a company that not only makes absolute crap, but who also makes you pay to ship it back for a replacement. The Dell techs were professional, and willing to stay on the line as long as it took to sort out my problem. They were not the most knowledgeable, but they were very concerned with making sure my machine was in working order, and even asked me after ordering one replacement part if I needed anything else replaced. The only other blemish on their service is that at night I was on hold for a long time.
Forthose of you who don't know, Columbia has a free version of Norton Antivirus available for download. This version does not need a subscription to get updates.
In an attempt to get random popup ads from appearing on my father's computer, I spent a lot of today working with Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. It's one of many programs out there that scan your system for malicious or just invasive software that you can accidentally download.
Now that I've gotten through that, does anyone know some software that scans for the more- or less-common trojan horses out there? Since my computer is now connected to the net at all times, I'd like to protect it a bit better.
This is a solicitation for advice from the other geeks on this blog. After years of working in Windows (W2k for the last several years) and Unix variants -- building machines from components, installing dual-boot OSes, the whole nine yards -- I'm seriously thinking about trying out a Mac laptop for law school. There are several reasons I've avoided Macs until now, but four of these have recently disappeared:
My reasons for buying a Mac would be:
Opinions? I've heard pretty good things about OS X: mostly from designer types, but even from a few real geeks. I'm at the point whereI'm willing to go on down to the Apple store in SoHo and get the sales staff to convince me. My real reservations spring from Columbia's requirements: they tell us that most of their resources (networking, wireless) can work on Macs with a little tweaking, but they also say something about our exams being administered through some PC-only system. I don't want Columbia's requirements to be a three-year headache as a Mac user. Does anyone have more specific info? Advice? Email addresses for Columbia IT support or current students with Macs?
If ever there was a book inspired by hope for a better future. Feldman, a professor at NYU Law School, lays out his vision for a better Middle East one dominated by Islamist democracies that rule for the benefit of the governed. Unfortunately, that is the only positive about the book itself. Feldman writes short essays, but never really lets the reader in on his secrets, as to how he knows that radical Islamism is finished, and that most Muslims no longer support violence against the United States. It appears that we are to just trust him, as Iraqis will have to when he helps write them a constitution, but his disjointed essays (this is not supposed to be a book of essays) do not really justify his hopes. The New York Times reviewed this book in its Sunday Book Review and had another complaint: that Feldman ignores issues that have disruption and conflict in Muslim lands that have nothing to do with religion, but with the various ethnic groups in these regions. It is nice to see that President Bush has sent a liberal thinker to help shape the Iraqi constitution, but the work there will be more complicated than Feldman's series of essays would seem to indicate.
Michael Kinsley argues against marriage in Slate. Meaning, he wants to take the regulation of marriage away from government to avoid fights on gay marriage. (Israel has had a similar fight about marriage for years. There, all marriage is regulated by religious courts, and those whose marriages would not be recognized by the religious courts want marriage to be handed over to the government directly.) Unfortunately, Kinsley glosses over the technical issues involved in making marriage the equivalent of a Commitment Ceremony. Government regulation of marriage no longer serves as the government's moral imprimatur, but the realization that for many legal and financial issues these people are now considered one. Kinsley says that some other standard could be created to determine who is a real couple and who not, but in the end doesn't that just bring us back to the same debate of who should be married and who shouldn't?
Sorry to harp on this, but I stumbled on an interesting article about the life of Strom Thurmond at Slate. This was news to me, but apparently Strom's womanizing beat out his hatreds, and he actually had a Black daughter. Some people never cease to amaze.