Atlanta Firm Caught in Southern Company/Mirant Spat

Mirant, the Southern Company's energy trading and supply spinoff, is now in bankruptcy and suing its former parent for allegedly dooming its existence by failing to properly capitalize it. What's bizarre is that the prestigious Atlanta firm of Troutman Sanders represented both the Southern Company and Mirant in those negotiations. I don't know enough about the deal or remember enough from my professional responsibility class to remember if this type of representation is actually unethical. But such representations can easily spiral out of control and create an appearance of impropriety. I know greed is good and greed works, but shouldn't law firms think twice or thrice about representing both sides in the same transaction?

Revised Mac HD Video Ripping Tool

While it sounds obscure, those who have been using their Macs to archive and transcode HD content from a Motorola DCT-6xxx DVR should happily note that Apple has updated the FireWire SDK. The SDK (short for software development kit) contains software that allows Macs running OS X to record content stored on the increasingly common Motorola-brand high-def set top box.

The SDK contains a program called VirtualDVHS, an uncreatively-named virtual DVHS deck. Connect your mac's FireWire port to one of the two on the back of the DCT and fire up VDVHS and you can record whatever show is playing, whether it is live TV or DVR content. This recording is digital, in high definition and beautiful.

And, thanks to the DC Circuit, sans Broadcast Flag!

News Flash: Iraq Insurgency Not in 'Death Throes'

In what should come as a shock only to W, the Dick, Rummy and their band of Merry Men, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said that the Iraqi insurgency is at best as strong as it was six months ago. Flanked by high-ranking field commanders, Rummy testified before a Senate committee today on recent goings on in Iraq.

General John Abizaid, the commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, told members of the committee that he believed "more foreign fighters (are) coming into Iraq than there were six months ago." Repeatedly pressed to confirm or deny the Dick's assertion a few months ago that the insurgency was on its last legs, another top U.S. general in Iraq stated "There's a long way to go here. Things in Iraq are hard."

Teddy Kennedy asked Rummy whether, after hearing his generals' reports, it sounded to him like the insurgency has entered the "last throes" stage. Noting that he had not uttered the "last throes" line, an obviously exasperated Rumsfeld said of Cheney's choice of words: "I didn't use them, and I might not use them."