Former Adelphia Executives Arrested for Fraud. Five former executives of troubled cable operator Adelphia Communications were arrested today federal charges, including at least two members of the company's founding family. By Reuters. [New York Times: Business]

It's about time.

12:47:21 PM    

More Bad Law.

Jeff Chapman points out an article and discussion at Geek.com about the Cyber Security Enhancement Act that passed the House of Reps on July 17 on a vote of 385-3, the lopsided majority just about ensuring that it was a vote based on expediency backed by ignorance. According to the article:

Before the Patriot Act passed, law enforcement needed probable cause and had to go through slow legal channels to get ISP information. After the passing of the Patriot Act, law enforcement could get ISP information more quickly if agents believed that it could be used to stop a dangerous situation. Now, under CSEA, law enforcement or any government entity (not specifically law enforcement agencies) can get subscriber information if agents/representatives of that group think it relates to a threat to national security

So any government agency could tap the Net without probable cause. No possibility of abuse there, eh? Why'd we need that stupid ol' Constitution anyway when we can trust all those government agencies not to abuse their powers?

There's more at Geek.com and at slashdot. [JOHO the Blog]

This is such a bad piece of legislation, I don't even know where to begin. There are plenty of laws on the books right now, and if we'd just enforce them, a lot of this stuff would be covered already.

12:42:25 PM    

Press release: "Salon Media Group, in partnership with UserLand Software, today announced the launch of Salon Blogs, a new service that will allow Salon's users to publish their own weblogs through Salon." [Scripting News]

10:07:52 AM    

Study: Brains Want to Cooperate. You probably didn't even know you had a 'reward center' in your brain, but you do, and it's telling you to help your fellow human. By Louise Knapp. [Wired News]

I think that they need to expand their test base to see how men react (the study was only done one women) and how people who have a history of violence (convicted criminals) react as well.

9:19:50 AM    

Ideas Aplenty From Idealab Head. After launching a string of famous Internet failures -- and a few successes -- Idealab founder Bill Gross hasn't given up on starting new companies. He lays out his modus operandi in a Wired News Q & A with Joanna Glasner. [Wired News]

One of the companies that this guy is working on will make a personal printer that makes objects. This would be one of the first tools in the home shop that I described back in February.

9:12:59 AM    

Tech-Interview Riddles [Slashdot]

Of course, the site is currently slashdotted, but this is an archive of riddles that people have been asked on job interviews.

8:52:55 AM