Kids today! MikeRoweSoft and the G5 Hacker
File under “oh those kids today!”
Item 1: Mike Rowe is supposedly making a bundle on eBay by selling legal docs
(though ostensibly only got an MSDN membership and an xbox)
Item 2: The G5 Kid was a big hoax
<Nelson-Muntz>
Ha Ha.
</Nelson-Muntz>
Brother Bruce Speaks
In his latest op-ed, Slouching toward Big Brother, Bruce Schneier asks the questions our politicians and media OUGHT to be asking.
Security is a trade-off. It makes no sense to ask whether a particular security system is effective or not–otherwise you’d all be wearing bulletproof vests and staying immured in your home. The proper question to ask is whether the trade-off is worth it. Is the level of security gained worth the costs, whether in money, in liberties, in privacy or in convenience?
This can be a personal decision, and one greatly influenced by the situation. For most of us, bulletproof vests are not worth the cost and inconvenience. For some of us, home burglar alarm systems are. And most of us lock our doors at night.
Terrorism is no different. We need to weigh each security countermeasure. Is the additional security against the risks worth the costs? Are there smarter things we can be spending our money on? How does the risk of terrorism compare with the risks in other aspects of our lives: automobile accidents, domestic violence, industrial pollution, and so on? Are there costs that are just too expensive for us to bear?
Unfortunately, it’s rare to hear this level of informed debate. Few people remind us how minor the terrorist threat really is. Rarely do we discuss how little identification has to do with security, and how broad surveillance of everyone doesn’t really prevent terrorism. And where’s the debate about what’s more important: the freedoms and liberties that have made America great or some temporary security?
Warnock’s Dilemma
“Warnock’s Dilemma The act of choosing whether the lack of response to a discussion-list post is because of its brilliance (there’s nothing to add) or because of its stupidity (it doesn’t deserve comment). Named after Brian Warnock, who first described the condition on a Perl list.”
( from Wired 9.10 )
WE the people
Citizen of the US? Go read Senator John McCain:
In the State of the Union Address just last night, the President called on us to act “as good stewards of taxpayers dollars.” He asked that, when he sends us the new budget plan, we “focus on priorities, cut wasteful spending, and be wise with the people’s money.” Why wait for that budget? Let’s start right here. Let’s strip all of the pork, all of the earmarks, and all of the good deals for special-interests out of this bill and “be wise with the people’s money” right now. “
I encourage you to read it all.
November Election
Doc Searls says: “Then remember that we’ve only had two primaries so far, and that November is a long way off.”
Microsoft advises against clicking in MSIE
“The most effective step that you can take to help protect yourself from malicious hyperlinks is not to click them. Rather, type the URL of your intended destination in the address bar yourself. By manually typing the URL in the address bar, you can verify the information that Internet Explorer uses to access the destination Web site. To do so, type the URL in the Address bar, and then press ENTER. ”
You know your web browser is buggy and old when you’re telling people not to click on links.
( via http://boingboing.net/ )
John Perry Barlow on Dean
Read this: BarlowFriendz: The Counter-Revolution Has Been Televised:
“This is especially true in a primary campaign where the leading criterion driving candidate preference is the ability to beat the incumbent. Given the relentless hammering he took from the media, Dean was lucky to get 26% of the New Hampshire vote. Even so, Dean may be done for. Or, more to the point, done in. Some will say that he strung his own rope, but it looked more like a media lynching to me. Assuming I’m right about this, why did television want to hang Howard Dean?
I may have an answer. It may be that, once again, we have met the enemy and he is us. By pre-announcing the possibility that this might be The Internet Election, we issued fair warning both to the traditional media and the big money politicos that a threat was at hand.
If Dean could actually raise enough money online to match in aggregate the much larger and fewer donations Bush has bought from the plutocrats with his tax cuts, it would shake the system to its rotten core. Worse, if information from the Web and the Blogosphere were to start defining enough personal realities to contest the great mass of tube-zombies at the polls, the gazillions presently spent on television campaign ads would start to wither. An enormous amount of power and money might be at stake.”
Read it all.
Like Starbucks?
Check with the The Oracle of Starbucks. Silliness.
What Dori Said…
Orkut (what’s Orkut?) was down, but now it’s back up again. Not a member but want to be? Ask.
Later note: uhhh… I meant ask if you and I actually do know each other, virtually or otherwise.
Hee. Yeah, if you know me, ask to be invited, and I’ll let you in on all the fuss.
