Tuesday, November 19, 2002

While the idea of innocent people getting on a list and never getting off horrifies me, it also tittilates me in that "I loves a spectacle" sense.   It also intrigues me as a computer programmer to try and solve the problem of connecting all those databases and making only the correct information available to the correct people.  Hmmm.  A company funded by the CIA has a data-mining program called NORA - Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness.   What a fucked up name. 8:29:43 PM    comment []

"A study in how not to share intelligence" Amid the debate on privacy,  The Wall Street Journal published a chilling article today about another bungled FBI activity.   Basic story:  FBI compiles big list of names of people it wants to question about 9-11.  FBI gives list to all kinds of companies and associations.  The list spreads around the world.  FBI tries to close it down, but has lost control of it.  Story about one guy, Mark Deuitch, who appeared on the list and has struggled ever since to clear his name. Story about another guy, Asem Atta, who got "disappeared" for a while after 9-11 and is still struggling to clear his name And Here is a cached page from google with the list that includes Deuitch and Asem Atta. What a nightmare.  The as the google cache shows, once you get on a list, you never really get off.   The FBI list in question is still being used by companies and organizations all over the world and mutates as data is added and mistakes are made.    8:19:04 PM    comment []

I have been helping beta-test sokkit, the new software that installs Apache, PHP, mysql on windows systems.  The first release version now is available.  It works great.  Download it, then bend over and grab your butt cheeks while it installs itself.  It can either act as a production environment to host your site, or a desktop test system to run your scripts and learn about apache, php, and mysql on Windows.  It is $19.95 and is the progeny of phpTriad, which was free.  The creator served hundreds of thousands of free copies of phpTriad and got too bogged down by support requests to continue offering it for free.  So, he retrenched and put together a very nice piece of software so he could sell it and get paid for all the support and upgrades he does.  He uses Apache 2 and wrote the installer with NSIS  from Nullsoft, which is worth checking out itself. 6:21:01 PM    comment []