Wednesday, April 2, 2003

Recipe for abuse TIA proponents defend domestic spy plan. Backers of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness project dismiss criticism of the plan as "hysterical vociferous cries" from privacy advocates. [CNET News.com] I just love choice quotes like this: "Can it be abused? Yes. Is that what DARPA is trying to do? Absolutely not..." History suggests that when government has power that can be abused, government abuses that power. We can expect it. That's why the Constitution limits government's power, and why it's so scary that the current administration seems bent on expanding and abusing power. Time to say no, over and over again. No. 7:34:56 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Here's an idea: Let's just repeal it. Copyright Office announces California hearings on DMCA anticircumvention exemptions. Among other things, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits the circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works.Ö [CIS Blog] The latest issue of ACM's Communications includes several articles and letters to the editor regarding DMCA and DRM, nearly universally anti-. For example, Ed Felten says (I paraphrase) that no computer algorithm can ever manage fair-use rights. 1:41:02 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Also very funny. . . Are IAs a bunch of Quacks? Well, looking at the upcoming Designing for User Experiences conference, one might think so: DUX2003 conference site. At least they maintained the links. 11:21:30 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Funny, very funny. Linksys community network bashes rival "default" community network. I really like this community WiFi in-joke gag site: the "Linksys community network" is a WiFi networking group whose sign is open access points called "linksys" and whose worst enemies are the "default" community network. Weirdly enough, I'm in range of APs for both networks. [Boing Boing Blog] So I broke down and bought a WiFi card and AP (Linksys, of course), in the expectation that one of the hotels I'll stay at in the next months will have wireless internet. And of course I set up the AP with all-new names and passwords and as much security as I can muster. So I get the joke. I also noticed that there don't seem to be any other access points in my neighborhood, which shouldn't be surprising, given the general cluefulness of this town. 11:14:13 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

QOTD "Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles." Frank Lloyd Wright. [Quotes of the Day] Today, QOTD is also Question of the Day: Q: Why is Santa Cruz like granola? A: What isn't fruits and nuts is flakes. 9:17:30 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

No comment? I'm finding it hard to believe that none of the usual suspects have commented on the coverage of blogging (more specifically, warblogging) on CNN last night. I caught it mid-way through the discussion, a live interview with two professors (one from USC Annenberg, didn't catch the other) talking about blogs as news sources. Nothing really worth noting about the conversation, except it might be the longest television coverage of blogging. The Annenberg professor did note that blogs are one source of information, not the best, nor the worst. And someone noted that blogs are "no longer" written by people with too much time on their hands. 9:10:04 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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