i caught a screening of The director’s new film with Q&A after the show. I’m excited (pretty good seats even).
Category: Politics
Congress shall make no law . . .
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Remember when this meant something? Does no one else see our liberties disappearing? Once journalists are no longer protected, then what? who is next. Land of the free? not anymore. R.I.P.
Enemies of freedom don’t get my business!
When amazon dropped wikileaks from it’s servers under government pressure without any actual criminal or copyright wrongdoing they showed where they stood in regards to the first amendment. Anyone who disregards their principals at the approach of a powerful adversary is spineless. Without proof, or at least due process, we are innocent in this country. At least that is how it is supposed to be. I encourage all holiday shoppers to avoid amazon.com. These are scary times and we don’t need our interent providers abusing their authority and helping censor our internet. Now dyndns.com joins the ranks of the enemies of freedom. I did business with them for years, but no longer. If you stand against freedom, i will vote in the most powerful way i have: with my wallet.
When COICA came up it looked dangerous, however it turns out that it’s power was already granted inside the DMCA. The government can already seize any website that they even suspect of copyright infringement. however, the US government does not copyright its documents, and thus wikileaks was a terrible target. These laws should not apply at all. Using these methods to silence dissenters is NEVER effective. especially in this: the information age.
Snuggly the Wiretap Friendly Bear.
The new face of privacy.
EFF wins DMCA exemptions!
Jailbreaking, DeCSS, and more LEGAL! read all about it.
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2010/07/26
“When one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses.”
“The Copyright Office recognizes that the primary purpose of the locks on cell phones is to bind customers to their existing networks, rather than to protect copyrights.”
Caller ID Spoofing to be outlawed in the US.
It does make a handy tool for criminals, but this could mean bad news for telecommunication service providers and even google voice.
read slashdot article:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/19/1740219/US-House-Passes-Ban-On-Caller-ID-Spoofing
May i borrow a cup of wifi?
The internet went out again. it seems that time warner is made of sugar or wicked witches. They melt in the rain. last time we traced the run from pole to modem, but it seems that water continues to find a way in. Luckily i set a little something up with the neighbors. It had to be put in place after the last time when i ran off my iphone using tethering. Believe me, edge at home is ONLY for desperate people. A time warner serviceman made it out this morning to fix it. Knowledgeable workmen AND speedy service, this is a side of time warner i’ve never seen before. I’d still like to see less of these glitches and of course the 8Mbit we’re paying for! Even more then that, i’d like to see a real solution.
Real Solution
What i’d like to see, is a solution to the fundamental internet problem once and for all. What problem? The lack of free and available internet to ANYONE throughout public spaces (and even private ones). That is a stimulus with a real and tangible benefit. Our wireless communications carriers have failed us. We gave them the very air and they repay us with early termination fees and dropped calls.
The powers that be could bring the internet in through the power lines. You can get incredible bandwidth though existing infrastructure and utility poles make great places for hanging access points. Heck, i wouldn’t even mind if they snooped (you know they spy already). In fact people would probably line up to be snooped on free wifi all over town!
once we have a nation wide public wifi network and everything plugged into the wall was also connected to that network, things will really start to get interesting. Imagine a world where our gadgets conspire to improve out daily life? What if you never had to set an alarm clock? Simply plugging it into the wall gets it online and sets the time. Imagine a world where wireless communications doesn’t require faustian contracts with providers full of marketing and empty promises. What if a txt didn’t cost 20¢? What if you could make a call or send a message from your pocket for free? What if this actually happened? These simple ideas will extend the functionality and integrate our devices and networks in ways we cannot even comprehend. I honestly believe that combined with IPv6 and other great implementations, these foundations of technology that will pave the way to the future we’ve seen in science fiction.
Dead Peasants Policy Holders Outed!
Read all about it and check the list:
http://deadpeasantinsurance.com/which-employers-bought-policies-on-the-lives-of-employees/
(I wouldn’t have a problem if they shared the earnings with the families)
Space Contractors Not War (Defense) Contractors
i like that NASA is going to contract out manned space travel to private contractors. Applied Composites, I’m looking in your direction. I’ll admit that NASA can land a probe anywhere they want, but the shuttle was a bad idea even 20 years ago. Who thought it was a good idea to haul a huge gas tank *almost* into space, just to send it hurtling back to earth. It’s not like we can use that for a space station or moon base.