"What we're seeing is something much larger in scale and danger than anything that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s," he says. "That's because of computers. Now, instead of having these agencies working in semi-isolation or occasional cooperation, there's the equivalent of the great Alaska pipeline running between them, and the information flows in both directions. In addition, in the 1950s or '60s, it took weeks of pavement pounding and doorknobbing for the FBI or police or military to collect personal information about people, the kind of information you need to put them under surveillance. Today that kind of information can be obtained by a few computer keystrokes. The harassment potential is much greater."

Part 1 Link, Part 2 Link

Microsoft IIS has been reported prone to a remote denial of service vulnerability. It has bee...

The C...

Spammers are increasingly exploiting home computers with...

Then, starting on April 1, I'll be heading off to London, England, to work for Creative Commons and EFF on a variety of projects:

• Responding to the EUIPR enforcement directive in Brussels
• Participating in the DVB standards-body in Geneva
• Working with large-scale UK open licensing projects
• Representing EFF at WIPO in Geneva

1. No, I'm sorry, I just don't have any time for dinner, drinks, lunch, coffee or meetings before I leave San Francisco. Every moment is spoken for. I'd love to see you at one of my book-signings, and there's a chance that I'll throw a party before I go (watch this space for details).
2. I have a little bit of time in Toronto to hang out, but first priority is going to be finishing my novel (which, have I mentioned, is due at the end of March, eek!), seeing my family, and spending quality time with my closest friends. I'll be working out what days I have free time on after I touch down, and I'll post something here once I've got that sorted out.
3. I would love to talk to you about EFF's plans in Europe, and/or socialize in London. Please drop me an email after April 2, once I'm off my leave-of-absence, and we'll sort something out!

Anyway, the other reason for this post is to let you know that I'm selling off a bunch of stuff that I'm not storing or shipping:

• A deco table lamp
• An iPod
• An iMic
• A bull-skull
• An iBook stand
• A fax machine/scanner/printer
• A Metro shelving unit
• A two-tub washing machine
• A queen-sized bed and frame (comfiest bed I ever slept in)
• A machine-washable rubber keyboard

• A city bicycle
• Two Sony Dream Machine clock-radios
• An oil-filled radiator

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(Thanks, Sarah!)

More logomarked futurism: a Flash app (with un-mutable, obnoxious soundtrack) showing various Paris landmarks as they might appear once sponsored by multinational brands. You know, I wrote a story about this.

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(Thanks, Chryde!)

See over 20 new innovations ...

The first issue results from a lack of suffic...

Du, who has been detained since October, also accepted money from overseas organisations and individuals in return for helping them post articles harmful to state security on domestic Web sites, official news agency Xinhua quoted the spokesman as saying. Du had overstepped his legal right to criticise government work and civil servants with good intent, and viciously incited subversion of state power through fabrication, Xinhua said.

(...)Du's case has drawn protests from scores of Chinese academics and reporters who have urged his release. Activists have written to Premier Wen Jiabao saying Du's detention was groundless. Internet surfers have flocked to Du's defence, even posting an online petition at www.mzyzy.com saying he had not called for the overthrow of the Chinese government.

BoingBoing reader Philip says:

Webmonkey is closing down! They finally pulled the plug. "Webmonkey, the site that turned humble Web developers into attention-grabbing authors, said last week it is closing down following a round of layoffs in the U.S. division of its parent company, Terra Lycos (also the parent company of Wired News). Judging by blog posts and e-mails, the site's fans aren't surprised. Still, they're sad to see the end of an era."

This merger won't necessarily be bad for competition.I've been using AT&T Wireless' GSM service for about a year now. Quality of service is marginal, and the customer service has been a bit lower than marginal. But Cingular, also a GSM carrier, has an even worse reputation. So maybe combining these two networks will create something that offers at least reasonable quality.

Cingular probably overpaid, but it's smart to make this deal in at least one respect. There's only room for a couple of mergers before the market gets too cozy for real competition. While expecting serious antitrust scrutiny from the Bush administration is probably futile, there's probably enough angst in Congress to keep consolidation from being rampant.

Nice gallery of photoshopped images of a sponsored future in which logomarks are plastered everywhere we look. Erm, kinda like today, but moreso. Nice counterpoint to the idea that in a PVR world, product placement displaces direct ads.

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(via Beyond the Beyond)

But there's a question of whether the number can even be transferred to the winner once the auction ends Feb. 22. Verizon says there's no question: It can't. Individuals do not have ownership of the numbers given to them, a Verizon spokesman said.

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(via Fark)

Meet Dudley Hiibel. He's a 59 year old cowboy who owns a small ranch outside of Winnemucca, Nevada. He lives a simple life, but he's his own man. You probably never would have heard of Dudley Hiibel if it weren't for his belief in the U.S. Constitution.

One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around minding his own business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and demanded that Dudley produce his ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He was arrested and charged with "failure to cooperate" for refusing to show ID on demand. And it's all on video.

On the 22nd of March 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Dudley and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where we must show "the papers" whenever a cop demands them.

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(Thanks, Bill!)

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