It's Like Déjà Vu All Over Again
"You could probably waste an entire day on the preceding links alone. But why take chances? We also give you Paul Snively..." — John Wiseman, lemonodor
This is another test, now that I've added the Google-It! macro. Next stop, blogrolling. Time to participate in the larger community.
10:28:24 PM Google It!
OK, this is just a test to get the Instant Outlining mug. Here we go now...
9:49:24 PM
Smut Filter Snags Non-Smut, Too. A witness in the case to overturn library filters says that among the blocked pages was 'The Pen Is Mightier' because the software read 'penis.' Declan McCullagh reports from Philadelphia. [Wired News]
It strikes me as funny that there's been so much written about why DRM systems are doomed to fail, but very little written about why natural-language-content filtering systems are doomed to fail. Content filtering won't be workable until we solve the natural-language-processing problem. A filter is, by definition, interested in blocking language with some particular meaning. But it's not yet possible to ascertain the meaning of natural language with software, despite significant advances in the technology to do precisely that, especially in the area of Latent Semantic Analysis. But until about another decade's worth of progress has occurred, we should be hesitant to rely on a bad technological approach to what is arguably bad policy to begin with.
9:28:42 PM Google It!
I'm glad this came up: I also have issues with PingID as a service, apparently with a corporate entity attached. And it makes me nervous when I read digital identity specs that feel compelled to include a notion of a "notary" or any other name for the concept of a trusted third party.
I've asked it before, but I'll ask it again: why should I trust the Liberty Alliance? Why should I trust PingID? What do Liberty or PingID do/buy me that the OpenPrivacy initiative doesn't? What's the relationship between any of these and the ERights project, and if there isn't one, why not? The ERights crew have been on this stuff in one form or another for literally decades, have been published in peer-reviewed journals, not only on cryptography, but on finance; anyone dealing with identity and privacy ignores their work at their peril. Sorry if this sounds pedantic, but the subject is far too important to screw up or to leave in the hands of a corporate entity. Discussion of the topic is not merely welcome, not merely encouraged, but actively begged for on hands and knees. Not a pretty sight, I assure you.
9:17:22 PM
Due Process. _Charles_ (http://www.letbetter.com/) passed along this note in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about traffic cameras, fairly unremarkable, even agreeable, except for Marietta city official Warren Hutmacher saying "Our position is, we have an absolute right to catch you, and you have no right of privacy". This is especially scary in an area where the outgoing sherriff is the primary suspect in the murder of the sherriff-elect (Just to be clear, the former is in Cobb Coun...[truncated] [Flutterby!]
QOTD: Java. T.M. Pederson, quoted by Michael Hinz in the Scary Devil Monastery:
It seems to me that in most households, boys are not
involved (much) in cleanup and get the impression it
happens automagically. This may explain the popularity
of Java.
[Flutterby!]
This would be funny if the popular alternatives, C or C++, didn't put you in the position of attempting to build the Golden Gate Bridge one molecule at a time.
8:28:05 AM Google It!
