14 May 2004
How to fool ID card system

I really should have a "well, doh!" category: apparently it's just now dawned on politicians in the UK that people often lie when confronted by police or other authorities...

The UK ID card scheme will, it is alleged, greatly aid the forces of law and order in establishing the identity of offenders and suspects. But, as UK Attorney General Lord Goldsmith found himself blurting out in the House of Lords yesterday, there's an easy way out of this for the thinking minor offender - give the police a false ID.

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Economy Doesn't Need Protection

Absolutely! Positively! And when India stops protecting their labor market, and the EU stops protecting their farm market, and South Africa releases control of the diamond industry, and OPEC disbands, and the entire world becomes safe to live and do business in, with a unified currency (prefereably based on a commodity standard, like, say, gold), I'll stop suggesting that the American government needs to protect it's citizens against the depredations of foreign government policies.

The more I see of this silliness, the more I'm convinced that "Free Trade" is like "Communism": it can only possibly "work" when the entire planet subscribes to it's ideals. Are we willing to try, like Communist "true believers" tried, to "convert" (overthrow governments, install puppets, etc.) the world to our ideal of Free Trade? I don't think that's gonna happen in my lifetime.

Imagine a major-party candidate delivering the stump speech Silicon Valley needs to hear. The message? Protectionism will only make things worse. By Lawrence Lessig from Wired magazine.

(link) [Wired News]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Student uncovers US military secrets

What a brilliant bit of "hacking" ... get a "redacted" document, the kind with some words blacked out, meausre the font size and pitch, then apply text analysis to find words that would fit in the space. There's a limited set off English (or any other languages words) that will do so - make your selection and viola: plain text!

'Felt-tip pen' censorship cracked

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Simply Amazing ...

This makes me certain that hallucinogens are legal (and used frequently in government) in Saudi Arabia. No further comment should be necessary.

...the crown prince said he believed Zionists were behind most terrorist attacks in the Kingdom. But in a press statement after the attack, Prince Naif blamed Al-Qaeda.
“I don’t see any contradiction in the two statements, because Al-Qaeda is backed by Israel and Zionism,” he said.

Saudi Arabia is in a state of war with terrorism, Interior Minister Prince Naif declared yesterday. But he also said efforts at communicating with extremists had been effective in bringing a number of them back into the fold.

(link) [Arab News] via The Religious Policeman

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Another Insane Trip

If this goes on ... I just returned from a trip to North Carolina, moving my daughter back home. With her two kids, large dog and two cats. I left last Sunday, and was supposed to return no later than Tuesday, but this was the Road Trip from Hell, no doubt about it. Well, maybe to Hell would be a better description, because there are divorce lawyers involved - her marriage has collasped.

I'm exhausted, my news aggregator is overflowing, I have 700+ emails (most of them SPAM, no doubt) and a house full of noise. I might get back into the swing of blogging tomorrow, and I might regale my readers with a tale they can thank their gods they didn't live through, but then again, I may not. Too tired to think right now.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

RIAA Loss Report Contradicts Nielsen Sales Record

Somebody's lying. Guess who?

An interesting blurb at Ars Technica referencing a Kensei News article points out that Nielsen's Soundscan (Which tracks retail point-of-sale numbers for the music industry) shows a 10% increase in sales from Q1 2003 to Q1 2004. The RIAA has recently reported drops in revenue from last year, citing online piracy as the main problem.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

SCO Caught Copying

These folks seems to think that pilferage is OK, but releasing code or documentation as open source is unconstitutional. Incredible...

Some time before mid-2003, SCO copied entire chapters of a No Starch book, The Book of Webmin by Joe Cooper, into SCO's on-line documentation. The infringement was described last summer as "an open-and-shut case" by a person familiar with the facts. The Book of Webmin, originally copyrighted in 2000, is available on the Web, but it is not licensed for redistribution.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link