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Microsoft has been fined (again) by the European Union. This time, the Commission brought down the hammer, fining Microsoft € 899 million ($1.35 billion) for failing to comply with a previous decision on patent licensing fees.

While the fine may only be a fraction of the company’s revenue, the fine represents about 10% of the company’s 2007 revenues, putting it towards the maximum end of the fine allowed. Under EC competition rules, a company may only be fined a maximum of 10% of its previous year’s turnover.

[From European Commission Competition Authority ]

I will be in Baltimore for the next few days taking the Maryland state bar examination. The exam is two days long with the first day consisting of essays. After that, it’s pretty much downhill.

If you need to reach me, you won’t be able. I will be tuning out the outside world until Thursday morning.

For those who really hate themselves, you can simulate my pain by going to the state board of law examiners‘ website and downloading old exam questions. If you’re thinking about becoming a lawyer, this is a good way to dissuade you.

I will be in Baltimore for the next few days taking the Maryland state bar examination. The exam is two days long with the first day consisting of essays. After that, it’s pretty much downhill.

If you need to reach me, you won’t be able. I will be tuning out the outside world until Thursday morning.

For those who really hate themselves, you can simulate my pain by going to the state board of law examiners‘ website and downloading old exam questions. If you’re thinking about becoming a lawyer, this is a good way to dissuade you.

According to the wire services, a B-2 Spirt stealth bomber has crashed in Guam. Both pilots are reported to have ejected safely and are under medical observation at this time.

This is a substantial loss for the United States Air Force. Not only does the B-2 cost $1.2 billion dollars, but there are only twenty-one B-2s in existence.

I think we the people will see a new funding request. I don’t think it will be granted.

[From In a First, $1.2 Billion Stealth Crashes - washingtonpost.com, Un appareil B-2 de l'US Air Force s'écrase à Guam]

The Economist magazine has a write-up on “e-government”, or technologically sophisticated government bureaucracy. The focal point: the District of Columbia.

While the Economist may be taken by governments that spend less by using Google (a huge privacy problem, if you ask me) instead of Microsoft and iPhones instead of police-band radio (making two parties — DC and AT&T — immune to suit in the event of a communications breakdown instead of one) does not seem like the best of long-term decisions.

Further, the service provided online by are not the utopia that the Economist suggests. While it is much simpler now to renew a driver’s license in the District, you are still dependent upon a corrupt, slow-moving bureaucracy to actually perform those services.

And to say that the police are not corrupt anymore is not to have lived here.

I’m happy to see that dc.gov is moving more services online and away from the crowded offices; I just wish that they would do

[From Making it happen | Economist.com]