MAPLight’s awesome Money Near Votes tool

If you haven’t heard of MAPLight.org before, here’s what they do (which is fantastic): MAPLight.org, a groundbreaking public database, illuminates the connection between campaign donations and legislative votes in unprecedented ways. Elected officials collect large sums of money to run their campaigns, and they often pay back campaign contributors with special access and favorable laws. …

Hey Chase bank — 1995 called, they want their user agreement back

Buried in my Amazon Chase Visa “This E-Sign Disclosure and Consent” was this gem: Hardware and Software Requirements. In order to access, view, respond to, and retain electronic Communications that we make available to you, you must have: an Internet browser (Microsoft ® Windows 95 or higher, Windows NT 4.0 or higher with Microsoft Internet …

I’d rather you be right

Jeff Ello wrote an interesting article for Computerworld about managing geeks. Here’s the heart of it: While everyone would like to work for a nice person who is always right, IT pros will prefer a jerk who is always right over a nice person who is always wrong. Wrong creates unnecessary work, impossible situations and …

The US Congress doesn’t understand the Internet

Recently, I received an email from Nancy Pelosi: Apparently no one explained to her (despite representing Internet central), that scanning your letterhead and pasting it in to your email is a bad idea. It looks worse when it’s on a funny angle. Having text as images this must be some sort of ADA violation. Finally, …