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Category: Privacy & Surveillance

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 21-Sep-10 1731)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. “The Money’s Flowing,” But From Where? – But that’s not really money! That’s (corporate) FREE SPEECH! Right?
  2. Voter Suppression Plan Uncovered in Wisconsin – “Trying to win an election by getting fewer people to vote is a desperate move, and far from the spirit of democracy.” Which is why the GOP and the Right keep doing it.
  3. A Reasoned Debate on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell: Miranda
  4. In defense of extraneous amendments – The GOP hypocritically criticizing a procedural move they’ve used eleventy-dozen times themselves? Inconceivable!
  5. Matt Kane: When American Exceptionalism Should Be Absolute: Matt Kane
  6. Dr. Susan Corso: Millions Pouring Into Campaigns — Who Does This Benefit?: Dr. Susan Corso
  7. Thundarr the Barbarian: 4-DVD Release of ‘The Complete Series’ Available Next Week…But Online Only – Ookla! Ariel! RIIIIIIDE!
  8. A Challenge To Republicans: Here’s What Reducing The Deficit Through Large Spending Cuts Looks Like – Option 4 for the (GOP) win!
  9. Being Gay in the Military is a “Private Hell” Under DADT – Sorry, folks – tales of personal sadness and love must always be trumped by the Ick Factor in some people’s minds.
  10. With Just 40 Votes, Republicans Block Debate Over Defense Authorization Bill – So the GOP is willing to block the defense authorization bill in the Senate for the first time since 1952, all out of base’s fear of Teh Gayz and the “moderate”s’ outrage at procedure. Nice.
  11. On the Other Hand: Sometimes (Parental) Silence is Golden – I heartily approve, especially if the cowbells are kept home, too.
  12. Joe. My. God.: CALIFORNIA: Beer Sellers Oppose Marijuana Legalization Bill – “Unless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances, the motivation behind this contribution is clear.”
  13. New Google transparency tool shows gov requests, blocked traffic – Well done, Google.
  14. Twitter To Serve Targeted Promoted Tweets Based On Who You Follow – I’m willing to put up with some ads (servers don’t pay for themselves, after all) so long as (a) they are clearly ads, (b) their noise doesn’t obstruct the signal.

Unblogged Bits (Thu. 19-Aug-10 0600)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Beyond Toleration: The Enduring Message Of Washington’s Letter To The Touro Synagogue « The Wall of Separation – I’m quite familiar with Washington’s letter. I wish more of the Islamophobic brouhahaistas were.
  2. Gabrielle Bell’s comic strip about ComicCon – Boing Boing – An interesting collection, but … well, one commenter put it best. “Comicons are like Star Trek conventions – they’re about the core values. Core values like comic books that are for kids, not those artsy fartsy 20-something angst-ridden disenfranchised white kids with ennui.” Bell makes it sound like the Worst Possible Experience in the World, even when she’s invited to attend and given a freaking per diem.
  3. Think Progress » Chamber Blames Women For Pay Gap: They Should Choose The Right ‘Place To Work’ And ‘Partner At Home’ – Stay classy, Chamber of Commerce!
  4. Keep Calm and Carry On – I actually have a copy of this poster up in my office. It’s a good reminder that, no matter the business brouhaha, flying into a tizzy isn’t productive.
  5. BBC News – Last US combat brigade quits Iraq – A noteworthy milestone — though the many remaining US troops will still be in harm’s way, even if their mission is not explicitly for combat.
  6. YouTube – Is Sarah Palin gunning for 2012? – This is certainly unfair, uncivil, inflammatory, mocking, and disrespectful. However it is just too funny (and creepy) not to share.
  7. 13 Brands Of Eggs Recalled For Possible Salmonella Contamination – Offered as (a) a public health notice, and (b) a wry observation that the underinspected egg producer now being assisted by the FDA and CDC operates out of the town of Galt, Iowa.
  8. Prosecutor: no charges in webcam spy scandal – Yeah. This is more likely to be settled in civil court.
  9. Google chief warns of Internet imperiling privacy – The question becomes whether this sort of universal public square will suppress behavior, reimpose more keeping of behavior private, or change what becomes (eventually) acceptable. In either case, I expect a decade or so for society to adjust.
  10. Under fire, SBI blood analyst suspended – Agents’ Secrets – NewsObserver.com – “The criminal convictions or sentences of three people who have since been executed in North Carolina, and four more cases in which the defendants are now on death row, are may be in doubt because of flawed reports.” The more I know about the criminal justice system — and the human failures of judgment, objectivity, or even love of truth, that riddle it — the more convinced I am that capital punishment is inexcusable. Not because the state cannot have a compelling reason to put some individuals to death, but because the state cannot convincingly assert that its evidence for doing so is correct “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
  11. Torchwood: The New World – Oooooh …
  12. Please forgive me for the actions of extremists I have never met who commit acts of violence that I have never advocated – Must. Reading.
  13. The Starlost – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – And more on “The Starlost.” Now I really need to reread that Ellison essay on his experience on it.
  14. YouTube – The Starlost – original TV opening – All you need to know about the high quality of TV SFX in 1973 — especially in cheap SF from Canada. sigh

Unblogged Bits (Wed. 30-Jun-10 0202)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. New financial unit of measure: the “TDJ” – Big, inspirational art, cathedrals, stuff like that, do serve a purpose, so I can’t immediately hop on DOF’s bandwagon here (since obviously SOME Philistines out there were inspired by TDJ). But I’d suggest that before investing a quarter mil into rebuilding this eye-sore (and handwaving away any suggestion that, well, MAYBE THEY SHOULD CATCH A CLUE ABOUT WHAT THE ALMIGHTY THINKS ABOUT THIS MONSTROSITY), the church in question ought to very, very seriously think about what Jesus would actually suggest in this circumstance, and how much of this is to glorify themselves, not to do God’s work (whited sepulchres can be Jesus-shaped, too).
  2. Gohmert Cracks the Case [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] – Next up, Gohmert claims that Obama was a dry run … or was he simply the FIRST OF MANY??!!
  3. Do not apply for jobs with “TTJ Property Management” as it’s just a scam. – Bravo, Les. Great research. I suspect others will find it useful, too.
  4. London cops enforce imaginary law against brave, principled teenaged photographer – For people we trust to go armed and use physical force against miscreants, way too many police seem to be shy of public oversight.
  5. Four Great Reasons Your Facebook Profile Should NEVER Be Public | Facebook blog and news
  6. YouTube – NASA Satellite Time Lapse Images of Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – Amazing, and disturbing.
  7. Gorilla psychologists: Weird stuff in plain sight – opinion – 28 June 2010 – New Scientist – We can only focus on so much at a time. Which is one reason why “multi-tasking” is not nearly as effective as folks deceive themselves in to thinking it is.
  8. YouTube – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 & 2 Official Teaser (2010) – Okay, some of the screen text is a weeeee hyperbolic — but, damn, that does look exciting.
  9. Do we play Farmville because we’re polite? – Boing Boing – I very much suspect this is true. And, yes, it’s a reason I never accept those sorts of invites (nor do I often get onto FB).
  10. Bumpology: Fed up of the booze and cigs police – health – 29 June 2010 – New Scientist
  11. Kirkman’s ‘Walking Dead’ conquers comics. Is TV next? – USATODAY.com – If played true to the comics, this could be a real hit.
  12. Tor.com / Johnny Depp Starring in Big Screen Doctor Who Adaptation? – Um … I really hope this turns out to be about 98.6% Not True.
  13. YouTube – Bistro Bordeaux – No Need For A Corkscrew – Not quite as funny as the guy on the street in an earlier video, but interesting to see. I would not do this with a good bottle, for a variety of reasons.

Unblogged Bits (Tue. 11-May-10 2000)

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. USDA Tightens Chicken Rules – Damn bunch of socialists, interfering with the consumer’s right to buy tainted chicken! What would the Founding Fathers say?
  2. Humble Indie Bundle hits $1m, goes open-source, gets 4 day extension – I made a donation — worthy causes and some cool games.
  3. Going to Mars—sort of – I will definitely be keeping an eye out for information on contacting these people.
  4. Heavy rain may flood Front Range with 1.8 inches of precipitation tonight – The Denver Post – Thar’s a storm a-brewin’, boys!
  5. Perversely stupid (cont’d.) – “Constantly arguing in bad faith leads to thinking in bad faith and to living in bad faith, until bad faith is all you’ve got left. Calculation becomes habit, that habit supplants thought and one winds up in the perverse circumstance of earnestly arguing for the goodness of oil spills.”
  6. Palestinian Official: I Call Palestine ‘The New Philippines’ – Without disputing the damage that the Palestinians have done to their own cause, there’s little doubt that the Israeli government, through its support of ever-expanding settlements, is dealing in extremely bad faith (so to speak).
  7. Republicans And Right-Wing Media Push Myth That Kagan ‘Banned’ Military Recruiters From Harvard Law School – Let’s not let the truth get in the way of our talking points!
  8. Telecoms’ Secret Plan To Attack Net Neutrality: Target Video Gamers And Stoke Fear Of Chinese Censorship – Isn’t claiming that Net Neutrality is a government takeover of the Internet sort of like claiming the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a government takeover of the hotel industry?
  9. Kagan and military recruiters, redux – “The problem, of course, is that the criticism is factually wrong, a detail her detractors either don’t realize or choose to ignore.”
  10. Pew pew! For science! Lasers map ancient Mayan temples – Very cool.
  11. The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook – But heaven help you if you try to pull data out of Facebook.
  12. Cool collection of optical illusions – Flipper? I hardly know’er!
  13. You’re an asshole, not a genius – Queue jumpers are among the lowest forms of life. Turning your signal on doesn’t change that.
  14. Alabama, evolution, and the 21st century – Alabama is pretty far down on the list of places I’d be willing to visit, let alone live.
  15. Ending the ‘war on drugs’ – There’s certainly a role for law enforcement regarding drugs, but treating it as a “war” — complete with getting overly involved in military exploits overseas as well as spending zillions at home with little effect and filling our prisons without actually much impacting drug use or profits … well, that’s been a war we weren’t winning and can’t afford to keep fighting. If you can’t impact the supply, though, you can certainly try to impact the demand.
  16. Lowest taxes in more than a half-century – Money graf: “Looking ahead, tax rates more in line with the recent norm — say, tax rates of the 1990s, when the economy was strong and the budget was balanced — would do wonders to reduce the deficit the right pretends to care about.”
  17. King: If Gays Don’t Want To Be Discriminated Against, They Should Stay In the Closet – People only keep quiet about things they feel ashamed or fearful about. While I don’t expect my gay acquaintances to be going into graphic detail about their sexual escapades (I don’t expect my straight acquaintances to do so, either), I also don’t think they should have to hide the fact of their personal relationships.
  18. Schlafly: Obama Must Apologize to America For His “Poor Moral Tone” – As soon as she apologizes for being a pushing, judgmental, blithering ignoramus.

Unblogged Bits for Thu, 22 Apr 2010, 2:01AM

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Leonard Nimoy Retiring, Won’t Star in ‘Trek’ Sequel – I’ve very much enjoyed the voice-overs he’s done for Star Trek Online.
  2. Dem. Sen. Carper: Dems should drop areas of disagreement from Wall St. reform bill – So the way to move forward is to let the minority dictate to the majority what should or shouldn’t be in a bill. Um … right.
  3. Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul – Not at all surprising. What percentage of people (my guess: low single digits) actually read all the EULA information during an installation? (And, no, I don’t, either.)
  4. Facebook Used To Make Partners Delete Your Data After 24 Hrs. No Longer. – I don’t have anything on Facebook that worries me, and I decline to join in any games or applications that want to access my profile. That said, I’d never dream of making it my primary social platform.
  5. Glenn Beck, the IMF, and the “Global V-A-T” “prison” conspiracy | Media Matters for America – The Rodeo Clown meets Global Financial Policy. Hilarity ensues.
  6. Pope Urban Novak II – Right! We must protect the site of the Sermon on the Mount, and act as Blessed Peacemakers by BOMBING THE SNOT OUT OF IRAN! Just like Jesus would do!
  7. Army considers rescinding invitation to evangelist – Yahoo! News – It’s highly inappropriate to invite a speaker to the Pentagon who refers to Islam as “a very evil and wicked religion” — not least of which because (a) Muslims serve in the military, and (b) we have military posted in (and ostensibly in service to the people of) Muslim countries. That’s not censorship — that’s common sense. (Plus: why the hell does the Pentagon have a guest speaker for the National Day of Prayer in the first place?)
  8. Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is on a mission to rehabilitate George W. Bush’s reputation. – By Jordan Michael Smith – Slate Magazine – Money quote of Mr Scott: “Bush is clearly very smart. And you don’t need to be a genius to be president — you need good leadership skills and good instincts.”
  9. Barbershop Ewoks – I love Barbershop. I love Star Wars. I love … well, I appreciate Star Wars Barbershop.

Unblogged Bits for Tuesday, 09 February 2010

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

  1. Official Google Reader Blog: Readers: Get your Buzz on – I will be curious to see how the information ecosystem between the two platforms works.
  2. Another Day, Another Anti-Gay Post From Bryan Fischer: Kyle
  3. Obama Rebukes Boehner In Testy Exchange, Charges GOP Wants To Kill All His Initiatives – “Boehner made the case that long-term concern over Dem policies — health care, cap and trade — was leading to uncertainty in the private sector, damaging job creation efforts.” By “long-term concern” read “endless obstruction by the GOP to keep anything of substance from actually being passed.”
  4. Kristol Calls GOP’s Preconditions On Health Care Meeting ‘Silly’ – “We have been engaged in substantive debate in health care, we Republicans, for a year, and we are perfectly happy to continue that debate” … as long as you start over and begin with our minority position as the groundwork of anything that gets done.
  5. Insurer Denies Life-Prolonging Treatment To Five-Year-Old Boy With Cancer – Money graf: “The United States is the only industrialized nation without cradle-to-the-grave, universal health care. In no other developed country would a child with cancer have to go without care because an insurance company decided it was not profitable enough to cover him.”
  6. How Google Buzz is Disruptive: Open Data Standards – Some interesting perspective here. And, if I read this right, Google all of a sudden becomes a relatively seamless social aggregator and relay (via RSS), which has lots of interoperability possibilities. That consideration make me think much better of it.
  7. Introducing Google Buzz – We’ll see. For some reason, I just don’t see this taking off (if for no other reason that it means you have to be in Gmail or with a registered Google user).
  8. LOTRO Defragger – Interesting. I guess it would depend on how they manage their internal files of objects and possessions and locations and so forth. I can imagine a game set up to do this automatically and cleverly, but I suspect it’s not high on the list of things developers focus on.
  9. Invade a Hospital
  10. Caplin Rous: World’s Largest Pet Rodent: Alex
  11. L.A. Ferrari Owner Builds Dream Garage, Whiny Neighbors Wake Him Up [Garage Mahal] – I think there would probably be grounds for a law suit against the city, at least. That might make them change their minds (again).
  12. Complex smells make food more filling – life – 09 February 2010 – New Scientist – But, interestingly, doesn’t seem to reduce consumption.
  13. Even dumber than we thought – And yet, this is the woman SO MANY REPUBLICAN LOOOOOVE! She’d be the second coming of George W. Bush. Wait, I guess that explains it.
  14. EFF Asks Court to Suppress Evidence Illegally Gathered From Password-Protected Phone – I guess the conceptual question is: is your cell phone like your pockets (which the police can search pursuant to an arrest) or like your home office (which they can’t without getting a warrant). I’d argue the latter.
  15. EFF Fights for Cell Phone Users’ Privacy in Thursday Hearing – That cell phones can be tracked is a pretty cool thing. Do you want the government (or individuals within it) to able to use that ability on a whim, or for no compelling reason other than curiosity? Neither do I.
  16. Inhofe’s Grandchildren Build Igloo To Mock Killer Snow Storm: ‘Al Gore’s New Home’ – Y’know, the old “blizzards vs global warming” is a funny-ha-ha irony, along the lines of “well, I lost my job but I found this $10 bill on the way home, so I guess we’re okay” lines. That the denialists are seriously using it as “proof” to the public that it means that global warming is false is wretched science at best, and intentional deception at worst.
  17. Rep. Blackburn touts Social Security privatization. – Not that Social Security is trouble-free, but did any of these folks actually pay attention to what happened to the stock market these past few years, or what happened to people and institutions that relied upon investment income for survival?
  18. Shelby releases most of his blanket hold, but continues to block three military nominees. – And, of course, it’s not about the qualifications of the candidates, or the safety of the nation, but, really, about pork in his back yard.
  19. Three Times Makes a Trend – Sadly, not surprising, but worthwhile remembering: a lot of the people most vocal about limiting your freedom are also most likely to criminalize your “aberrant” behavior.
  20. New study warns that herbal supplements and medicines don’t always mix well. – Actually, what concerns me more here is that if I get heart disease it might mean I have to wean off of garlic, ginger, and grapefruit juice. Yikes!

Unblogged Bits for Friday, 25 September 2009

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

Unblogged Bits for Thursday, 21 May 2009

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

Unblogged Bits for Tuesday, 12 May 2009

Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….

Unblogged Bits for Tuesday, 07 April 2009

Links that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries …

Making the world safer, one disgruntled volunteer at a time

Imagine that — gratuitously treat people as as-yet-uncaught criminals, and they get all huffy and stomp off. Levy County’s public libraries are struggling to get books checked out or reshelved…

Imagine that — gratuitously treat people as as-yet-uncaught criminals, and they get all huffy and stomp off.

Levy County’s public libraries are struggling to get books checked out or reshelved because retirees who usually handle many of those chores have balked at a requirement that they “pee in a cup” as part of a mandatory drug test for all county volunteers.

“It’s not like we are a high-risk group for coming in drunk or high or stoned or whatever,” said one volunteer. “This is just a common-sense issue – why are we spending tax money to test 75-year-old grandmothers for marijuana? We should be using that money to buy more books and computers.”

The situation has gotten to the point where the pool of 55 volunteers has dwindled to two and the number of hours worked by volunteers in the county’s five libraries plunged from 330 in September 2005 to 11 this September, according to county library records. None of the former volunteers contacted by The Sun wanted to be publicly identified in a story about drug-testing.

Why, the nerve! They should be bloody grateful to be volunteers, especially when they can be certain none of their other volunteers are reefer addicts! And just because they’re being told to drive to another town and pee in a cup within hearing distance of a tester (to make sure they aren’t smuggling in “clean” urine in their attempts to volunteer for library work) doesn’t mean their dignity is affronted. It just means they’re not trusted until proven “clean.”

County officials said they realize that some people may find the test intrusive. “But our public risk management insurance says we should treat volunteers no differently that any other employees,” said Levy County Coordinator Fred Moody. “This is just the days that we are in and we know that there are some people who aren’t happy about this, but it is something we are requiring if anyone wants to volunteer.”

Moody said the drug-testing as well as background checks required for library volunteers are identical to what is required of all county employees and volunteers, including dozens of unpaid firefighters and hundreds of Community Emergency Response Team members from among the 36,000 county residents.

Right! And if they don’t like it, well, they can just darned-well … leave …

(via J-Walk)

Huh?

I am no fan of Micro$oft, as readers of this blog know. On the other hand, the article this morning on NPR was … well, bizarre. It was about the…

I am no fan of Micro$oft, as readers of this blog know. On the other hand, the article this morning on NPR was … well, bizarre.

It was about the new technology coming out from M$ that lets creators of Office documents restrict what can be done with them — no saving to disk, for example, or no printing, or limited to just certain folks. It’s a document security management system, basically, not tied to a network but self-contained.

The article was between NPR and a Seattle Post-Intelligencer journalist. Did it focus on how this increases M$’s lock on business technology, restricting third-party software access to M$-generated docs? Only in passing. How about a technical evaluation of how it works? Nope.

No, the jist of the article was that this is a Bad Thing because (wait for it) …

It restricts the information that whistle-blowers can use.

If a document cannot be easily printed and forwarded to the media or the regulators, the argument is, it means that Big Business and Big Government is finally secure from pesky whistle-blowers and oversight from anyone. Bwah-ha-ha!

What if, the journalist suggested, this technology had been around in the 70s? Would the Pentagon Papers have ever been published? What about Iran-Contra? Or Enron? My God, what about Enron?

One irony here is that it’s usually the Feds who are screaming about efforts by businesses (or private citizens) to keep information locked up and secure — the battles over encryption and the Clipper chip and ways of tapping into the Internet are all part of that debate. Whether it’s national security, the War on Drugs, or trying to beat the Mob, it’s the Feds who are usually a lot more adamant about their ability to have a back door into everything out there.

The fact is, company vaults are full of potentially damaging documents. Do away with company vaults! Heck, do away with locked file cabinets! All company documents should be kept in unmonitored bankers boxes out in the front lobby! Ditto for firewalls and networks with security on certain directories! All company documents should be scanned and posted online, with full Google-assisted indexing and all the incriminating sections highlighted. Anything less than that keeps whistleblowers from accessing everythig they need! My God!

To be honest, this does in fact impact whistle-blowers (though not in any way that a small digital camera couldn’t deal with). That’s a problem, but it’s the least of problems here, since we generally don’t evaluate security technology based on how it’s going to impact whistle-blowers. I just thought it was a very odd tack for the article to take on this stuff, vs. all sorts of ways that it impacts competition, long-term lock-in to M$, or, for that matter, long-term historical research.