Got Blogs?

While in Russia, I'm giving a presentation on weblogs. Here's the title: "Weblogs: The Changing Face of Academic and Political Discussion Online"

It's going to be a fairly short talk, as they translate it into Russian in real-time, thus reducing the amount of time I'm going to be blathering by half. I've already got some sites selected to showcase in my presentation, but if you've got a favorite political or academic weblog that you think is important or interesting, and worth a mention, please post it in the comments below, and I'll add it to my talk.

Secure posting

I'm trying to get SSL set up for my web site, so that I don't have to worry about any Russian crackers getting their hands on my passwords. If this appears on my weblog, I've been successful.

Microsoft patch for VPN issues, post-SP2

If you're having issues connecting to your VPN after installing Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, Microsoft has issued a patch.

MarsEdit and NetNewsWire

I'm posting this from the public beta of MarsEdit, the new weblog editor app from the fine folks at Ranchero Software. I'm also playing with the public beta of NetNewsWire 2.0. While I liked having the weblog editor integrated in NetNewsWire, I can make room on my dock for an icon as flashy as the excellent MarsEdit image.

Finally, a message

I'm happy to see that John Kerry finall seems to have found a message to run with in this campaign. I wouldn't call myself a fan of Kerry, I'm largely in the Anybody But Bush crowd, but the Kerry campaign's performance has been lackluster at best until this point. Andrew Sullivan, someone who was for the war in Iraq, has a great piece up at The New Republic, talking about the situation in Iraq, and the political hay that Kerry can make of it, if the Bush administration doesn't start changing what they're saying/doing soon.

But the reality is unavoidable: Large swathes of Iraq have been ceded to terrorist insurgents; the multinational force is deeply unpopular in all the surveys of the general population you can read; barely a fraction of reconstruction funds has been spent; military and civilian casualties continue to rise; parts of Baghdad are not secure; the chances of national elections in January look iffy in the extreme; the White House's own internal reports are full of gloom. None of this was discussed at the Republican National Convention, and you can understand why. But the extremely rosy picture of Iraq sketched by that convention could well become a liability if the facts on the ground begin to make the commander-in-chief seem culpably out of it at best, and deceptive at worst.