Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Quote of the day: 'You'll see...everything'. Bill Scannell, a privacy advocate, says the Homeland Security Department's plan to test backscatter imaging technology in airports goes beyond the limits of what Americans will allow. [CNET News.com] Read the article, then follow the jump.  At one point I said something about the American population being made to strip naked to fly.  Boy, I really hate being right. 10:21:02 AM    comment []

House votes to outlaw computer spyware [Computerworld News] Great idea...yipee...now all they have to do is catch those responsible, bring them to the United States and find them guilty.  Not going to happen in your lifetime or mine.  9:30:54 AM    comment []

Macs replace university's Linux desktops (MacCentral). MacCentral - Hope of Linux tackling the desktop market has suffered a reality check with the University of Melbourne’s Trinity College dumping the penguin in favor of Unix cousin Mac OS X, not x86-based rival, Windows. [Yahoo! News: Technology News] It might make sense for the Linux desktop folks to fold their hand and put their efforts into OS X.  There is synergy there that might be the Windows killer everyone is looking for. 9:27:31 AM    comment []

Obituaries in the News (AP). AP - Marc Lappe [Yahoo! News: U.S. National] Go to the bottom and you will find this one.  He was also the singing voice in the Grinch (the cartoon, not the movie): Thurl Ravenscroft FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) — Thurl Ravenscroft, who provided the rumbling "They're Grrrrreeeat!" for Kellogg's Tony the Tiger ads and voiced a host of Disney characters, has died. He was 91. Ravenscroft died Sunday of prostate cancer, said Diane Challis Davy, director of Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters. For more than 50 years, Ravenscroft was the affable voice behind Tony the Tiger, TV's popular cartoon pitchman for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. He also narrated the summertime Pageant of the Masters at Laguna Beach for 20 years and lent his voice to characters on thrill rides at Disneyland, including the Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Haunted Mansion. Ravenscroft also did voices for the animated films "Cinderella," "The Jungle Book," "Mary Poppins," "Alice in Wonderland," "Lady and the Tramp" and many others. Born in Norfolk, Neb., Ravenscroft moved to California in 1933 to study art. By the mid-1930s he was appearing regularly on radio, and by the late-1930s he was singing backup for Bing Crosby. After military service during World War II, he returned to Hollywood, where he sang with the Mellomen, a group that performed with Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Elvis Presley. In 1952, Ravenscroft's voice appeared in the first Frosted Flakes commercial. 8:18:57 AM    comment []

Pa. Man Accused of Trying to Sell Bomb (AP). AP - A man who told undercover agents he has "no loyalty for America" has been charged with trying to build a bomb and sell it to an affiliate of al-Qaida, officials said Monday. [Yahoo! News: U.S. National] Tell me again why being a US Citzen is automatically a ticket to classified posistions?  With citizens like this, I would expect a everyone would be a suspect. 8:11:54 AM    comment []

Afghan President Optimistic on Drug War (AP). AP - Debunking State Department predictions that Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a "narco-state," Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his country could be free of opium poppies in five or six years. [Yahoo! News: Top Stories] The third paragraph contains the but clause (and I knew there had to be a but clause).  Afghanistan is pretty much the worst place on the planet to grow ANYTHING, but oddly, poppies seem to grow quite well and as many have discovered, they are quite rewarding financially.  What Karzai says out of the other side of his mouth is that the Afghan people need to learn how to grow something else (oh, and it probably should be as financially rewarding, otherwise the people will go back to their main cash crop). The problem with the drug war, whether we are talking about cocaine or opiates or others, is that they are financially rewarding to the producer.  Until that key fact is removed, they will continue to be grown in lieu of every other potential crop that could be grown, regardless of the pressures put on the farmers to grow something else.  What I find odd, in a nation that is struggling under a debt that is so massive, it boggles the mind, is that the government does not see the revenue stream in the taxation of the drug trade.  Make the whole thing legal, tax it like gas and it will go away, quick as you please.  But in the meantime the funds can be used to pay down the debt.  Simple. 8:07:47 AM    comment []

Web Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage (AP). AP - Computer users already anxious about viruses and identity theft have new reason to worry: Hackers have found a way to lock up the electronic documents on your computer and then demand $200 over the Internet to get them back. [Yahoo! News: Technology News] It is getting more and more dangerous all the time.  The more I do this stuff, the more I think that the best solution is to return to paper, pencils and file cabinets.  If that does not excite you, then kiosks that attach to the Internet that are air gapped from the corporate network.  Won't solve all the problems, but it will reduce them significantly. 7:45:26 AM    comment []

Uh, Folks, Your Data Was Swiped. Two banks notify more than 100,000 customers that their financial records may have been stolen, and nearly 700,000 patrons of four banks may be affected. But the banks are giving them free credit reports. [Wired News] Oh, goodie, a free credit report.  That and $5 will get you a latte at ... well you know the rest, but it better be $5 cash because there is no guarentee that you actually will have any credit.  Unfortunately, this scam was an inside job and there is VERY little that technology can do to prevent it from happening again.  Of course, if the banks were just a little more selective in their hiring.... 7:41:19 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2005 David Lane.