I’ve got two new columns up online at Datamation:

Spam, Free Speech and the Founding Fathers — October 20, 2008
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/features/article.php/3779076/

The Hassle of iPhone Passwords — October 14, 2008
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/secu/article.php/3777706/

Due to technical difficulties, my September column didn’t get posted until October. Enjoy!

Early this morning we said good bye to our beloved Felix. In declining health over the last year or so, a recent recurrence of an upper respiratory infection was more than he could battle. Tonight he appeared to be having more difficulty than usual in breathing, so before it got to the point of distress, we made the difficult decision to put him to sleep.

As I checked on him before I went to bed, I noticed that his breathing was somewhat labored and he looked generally exhausted from the effort to breathe. He hadn’t gotten up from his spot on the spare bed very much today, so I carried him to his water bowl where he drank profusely, a sign that he’d not wanted to (or couldn’t) get up earlier. A quick check indicated that he was indeed fairly dehydrated (a symptom of his advancing kidney disease), so we gave him a round of subcutaneous fluids as we have done for more than a year. But even with the hydration, which usually perks him up, he was clearly uncomfortable. We knew it was time.

We’d been talking for a couple of months about his health and when we might need to make the difficult decision to put him to sleep. We’d considered it a couple of weeks ago, but a temporarily successful round of antibiotics seemed to clear up his upper respiratory issues for a while and he seemed to be more of his old self… wanting attention, following the sunlight to strategic snoozing spots in the apartment, etc. But about a week later, the infection was showing signs of returning, and his discomfort continued to slowly grow.

Tonight was a painful night for us, but it was peaceful for him. We all got to spend some time with him and he even purred a little as we scratched his tummy while waiting in the vet’s exam room. They took him into the back for a few minutes while the tech inserted an IV line so that, when it was time, things would go more smoothly. They brought him back to us in the exam room and we continued to pet him as he calmed down from the IV process. We continued to visit with him for about 15 more minutes until the doctor was ready.

Jongan and I withdrew to the lobby as Justin volunteered to oversee the event. I had been present at the passing of two other pets and I still have awful dreams about those events, so bless Justin for taking on the task. Justin reported that the end was very calm and peaceful.

We will miss Felix terribly. But I’m comforted by the fact that his remains will be cremated and scattered in the same place as his brother, Tiki, who we lost a couple of years ago. These years were rough on Felix without his brother, so I’m glad they’ll be together again. Meanwhile the three of us will work to keep Maggie happy. She and Felix got along pretty well but she’s been a pretty independent cat in the 2 years we’ve had her… we’ll keep a close watch to see how she fares as she realizes that he’s gone.

I can safely say that all who knew Felix would agree that he was sweet, loving, and had an outgoing and wonderful personality. We will celebrate the richness he brought to all our lives long after the sting of this night passes.

Rest in peace, our sweet boy!

Update (10/7/08): We got a letter today from the UC Davis Center for Companion Animal Health. The vet clinic where we took Felix, the San Francisco Veterinary Specialists, had sent them a donation in memory of Felix. That was very nice of them.

I am so insanely proud of and happy for my friend David Lawrence. Several of us have known for a while what is now just being publicized: David is going to be co-starring as a mutant villain in several episodes of the new season of Heroes.

USA Today covered the impending launch of the new season, including some cool photos of some of the new bad guys, located here.

Congrats David! Can’t wait to hate you! ;-)

For anybody who might be interested, I have updated the list of all my monthly columns at Datamation / eSecurity Planet / Jupiter… (wherever they’re posting it this month). ;-)

http://www.privacyclue.com/index.php/columns/

Cheers!

Word has already gotten out — in no small part due to my screwing up on LinkedIn — so I might as well post about it: August 1 was my last day at Habeas, and August 11 was my first day at Responsys. (The official announcement will be coming soon, so act surprised please!)

I will be serving in the role of Director of Privacy and Industry Relations. This is similar to what I was doing at Habeas, so all of those folks with whom I have interacted in the industry will probably see me doing all the same sorts of things, just wearing a different brand of hat.

To some of my colleagues at Habeas, my departure came as something of a surprise. I actually gave two weeks notice, but Des asked me to keep my impending departure confidential until my last day so as to not add further confusion or speculation to the internal office atmosphere during the pre-merger due diligence phase. So I had to forgo the lavish, tearful going-away party that I’m certain would have otherwise been scheduled. ;-)

While I am very much looking forward to my new opportunity, I do have some regret that I won’t be around to share in the excitement and adventure of merging Habeas and Return Path. I have known many of the folks at RP for many years and they’re a good group of people. I’m sorry I won’t have the chance to work directly with them — and to continue working with all of the great folks at Habeas. However, over at Responsys, we will still be travelling in all of the same circles and I look forward to seeing some of you at various industry events, conferences, etc., going forward.

Excelsior!

As some folks know, August 1 was my last day at Habeas. I told a number of folks that the “other shoe” would be dropping soon, and indeed today it was announced (and discussed here and here): Habeas will be acquired by Return Path in a deal to be closed by the end of this month.

I’ve had a number of folks reach out to ask for insights, juicy details, etc. Having watched Habeas for many years, and having spent the last year working there as the company approached this crossroads, I have a unique perspective.

First and foremost, I think this acquisition is the best outcome for as many of the smart and hard-working employees of Habeas as possible. Some stakeholders are getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop, but that’s to be expected. My biggest concern has always been for the employees, and it looks like the Return Path acquisition will preserve a lot of jobs.

Generally, I think the choice to enter into this acquisition makes sense for Habeas. But “makes sense” doesn’t mean that it was inevitable. Habeas did not have to be in the position it found itself in.

I’ll refrain from airing the dirty laundry of where I think Habeas *could* have been had the executive team made some different choices at some critical moments. Suffice to say that I’ve made my peace with “what might have been” and once it was clear that those new directions weren’t going to be pursued, I did my best to pitch in and row towards the destination chosen by the glorious leader. ;-)

I’m a little dismayed — but not surprised in the least — by the classless comments of some industry observers. Many of those folks have personal axes to grind, and because I too occasionally have my own axes to grind, I understand that impulse. But I try to keep the schadenfreude to a minimum, since I know that the karmic boomerang is a real bitch. Others? Not so much, apparently.

A mentor of mine likes to say: “The best revenge is living well.” For me, life is looking just fine, as I hope it is for my friends and colleagues at Habeas and Return Path.

Coverage:

Return Path buys rival junk-mail fighter Habeas – News.com

Return Path to acquire Habeas – DM News

Behind the Habeas Fire Sale – Direct Magazine

Return Path Acquires Habeas – ClickZ

Message boards are buzzing with angry iPhone 3G owners (myself included) who have discovered that many iPhone 1.0-compatible products are not fully compatible with the iPhone 2.0. Specifically, many third-party devices, and a good number of Apple-created devices as well, will access the data stored on the device, but does not recharge its battery.

Given the terrible battery life I’m experiencing on the new 3G phone, it’s all the more critical that I be able to charge my phone at every opportunity. But I’ve come to find that the three most important places in which I would normally recharge my phone will not do it: the dock I use for my phone and iPod at my desk, the iPhone adapter in my car (which both BMW and Apple promoted as a great new feature of that model year), and the great (and expensive) Bose speakers/docking station on my bedside table.

Folks posting to various message boards have said the snafu is a hardware problem, having to do with the rearrangement of some wiring in the connector port as a consequence of shifting from Firewire to USB 2.0.

Rumor has it that Apple is working on some kind of adapter, but that’s going to be impractical for some devices, and just downright awkward for others. (Oh, and you can be sure that Apple will charge through the nose for it too.) In any event, this is something that should have been spotted during QA at Apple, if not much earlier.

And whichever twit at Apple didn’t spot this as a potential issue, or decided that it wasn’t such a big deal, needs to be horsewhipped with all the charging cables that are now useless.

Corn starch, water, a cookie sheet, and a sub-woofer. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed today’s blog posting from Steve Friess, the perpetrator of one of my favorite podcasts, The Strip Podcast.

Steve is an incredible freelance journalist, writing for many major publications (New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, etc.) from his home base in Las Vegas. His husband Miles is also in the news biz, as a producer for the news hour at the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas.

In today’s blog posting, however, Steve tackles an issue that is a huge peeve of mine: the irrational loathing of Las Vegas. Case in point: some twerp who edited a major travel industry publication, who bad-mouths Vegas but hasn’t been there in ages.

I am so sick of people whose first reaction to a mention of Las Vegas is, “Ugh, I hate Vegas!” When you probe further into their dislike, you almost always find that they’ve, a) never actually been there; b) went there once about 15 years ago; or, c) are total cheapskates and think the steak house at Circus Circus is an indefensible splurge.

It takes particular chutzpah to criticize a place that you have never been, or haven’t been to in nearly a generation. With its incredible pace of change and vibrant growth (even in these difficult economic times), five years in Las Vegas is like 20 in many other major cities.

Vegas today is an entirely different animal. It has more Michelin Guide-rated 2 and 3 star restaurants than Los Angeles, and some of the most luxurious hotels and spas anywhere in the world. It remains one of the world’s top travel destinations for people from all over the globe.

And there’s tons of fun to be had even if you never set foot on a casino floor.

I commend to your reading Steve’s dismemberment of the dufus former editor of Budget Travel magazine, and the general trend of irrational Vegas-hating.

Here’s one for your McCain supporter buddies. This week he took credit for the new GI Bill, despite having opposed it. He was for it… after he voted against it? Sounds like John Kerry. (Was there something in the water in Vietnam that makes presidential candidates flip-flop later in life?)

Below is a summary of two dozen glaring flip-flops on major issues. You can see a video review of it, including notes on sources here:

Transcript:

Over the weekend, Senator McCain said, quote, “this election is about trust and trusting people‘s word and, unfortunately, apparently on several items, Senator Obama’s word cannot be trusted.”

Our third story tonight: Judging candidates based on their consistency. You see where I’m going with this?

The signing of the G.I. Bill not the only time Senator McCain was against something before he was for it, or vice versa or both. You may want to get pencil and paper and write these down.

On political reform, McCain last January opposed a grassroots lobbying bill he once supported. In 2006, the New York Sun reported that his presidential ambitions led McCain to reverse his support of a campaign financial bill called… “McCain-Feingold”.

Last October he said he would vote against the “Development, Relief and Education for Alien Miners Act” that he co-sponsored and then said he would vote against an immigration bill that he introduced.

In 2006, he said on Hardball, quote, “I think that gay marriage should be allowed.” Then after the commercial break he added, “I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal.”

On abortion, 1999, publicly supporting Roe v. Wade, privately opposing it in a letter to the National Right to Life Committee. In the 2000 debates, he would change the GOP platform to permit exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother. May 2008, no he won’t, ABCNews.com reported.

Storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain? Flip.

Military action against rogue states? Flip.

Negotiating with Kim Jong-Il? Not acceptable… until President Bush did it last week.

With Fidel Castro? Acceptable in 2000, not 2008.

With terrorists? Appropriate when Colin Powell went to Syria and in 2006 when McCain said, “sooner or later we’ll talk to Hamas,” but not appropriate now.

Unilateral action against suspected terrorists in Pakistan? “Confused leadership” when Obama suggested it, but not when Bush did it.

Warrantless wire taps? Six months ago, presidents had to “obey the law,” …not anymore.

Torture detainees? No way! …Except for the CIA. Hold them indefinitely? Wrong in 2003, the “right move” in 2008.

The Iraq war? “The right course” in 2004, “stay the course” 2005. Today: McCain has “always been a Rumsfeld critic.”

Tax cuts for the rich? In 2001, he “could not in good conscience” support them. Now he can.

The estate tax? 2006, “I agree with President Roosevelt” who created it and who had passed away. In 2008, “most unfair.”

This month not for privatizing Social Security, never has been. In 2004, he didn’t see how benefits will last without it.

In February, promised a balanced budget in four years. By April, make that eight years.

In May, “glad to look at” the windfall profits tax. By June, “that was Jimmy Carter’s big idea.”

In 2000, no new off shore drilling. Last month, it would take years to develop. This month, “very helpful in the short term.”

The Bush fund-raisers McCain called “coyotes,” were breaking the law in 2000. By 2006, they were co-chairing McCain fund-raisers.

Buddy Jerry Falwell, “an agent of intolerance” in 2000. [Video of McCain receiving honorary degree from Falwell in 2006.] The Reverend Hagee in, then out, this year alone.

In 1983, opposed Martin Luther King Day. Today, not as much.

In 1986, opposed South African divestment. This month praised it.

And in 2000, defended South Carolina’s confederate flag as “a symbol of heritage.” Two years later, McCain calling it, quote, “an act of political cowardice” not to say the flag should come down. Quote, “Everybody said, look out. You can’t win in South Carolina if you say that.”

McCain’s campaign says his positions… “evolve.”

Ironically, in 2005, McCain said alternatives to evolution should be taught in school… “evolving” the opposite position he had taken in 2000.