000607.html
Java Web Start Early Access version 0.4 is available from Sun. This is new technology that they're introducing at Java One that allows you to download a Java application and any needed VM with a single click. The code is cached on your machine, and automatically updated when it needs to be. This is being hyped as reinvigorating Java on the client side. Maybe it will, but it still has the problem of a long download wait the first time you use an application. [wes]
There's lots of JavaOne news over at Cafe au Lait.
Dave Winer wrote up a specification for RSS 0.91. Apparently, noone is maintaining the spec at Netscape anymore, and Dave wants to move forward on it. He thinks there will be political issues with his posting. No capiche. [script]
John Hanchette of Gannett News Service via USA Today - Counterterrorism: a threat to civil liberties? It seems that the government will use any excuse to take away our liberties. [market]
Gwyneth K. Shaw at the Orlando Sentinel - 'Terrorized' families sue state: The state of Florida is being sued for $500 million for kidnapping children in the name of protecting them. That should get their attention, eh? [market]
Jacob Sullum at Reason Online - Knowledge Control: a good analysis of the abomination called the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act. [market]
Daniel T. Griswold at the Cato Institute - Whatever Happened to "the Giant Sucking Sound"? Why Ross Perot's giant sucking sound never materialized, and why it never will (unless U.S. export restrictions become too bad). [market]
By focusing on low wages in less-developed countries, opponents of openness ignore the crucial fact that workers in poor countries are much less productive than workers in the United States. Their wages are lower, not because they are inherently lazy or incapable, but because they lack the human and physical capital and the pro-market institutions that foster higher productivity.