5. April, 2003 - I keep trying to avoid war news
- Daylight Saving Time returns tonight for most of us in the US. Remember, it’s spring ahead, fall down.
- Oregon Law Would Jail War Protesters as Terrorists, now straighten up and fly right, or it’s into the pokey with you. (Do I need to mention that this is a Bad Idea?) [flutterby]
- The Secret War Machine explores the link between Iran-Contra and al Qaeda. Hmm. John Poindexter? Hey, speaking of John Poindexter, TIA proponents defend domestic spy plan. Yeah, spying on everyone, just because they might be a terrorist is a good way to preserve what makes America special. Do Privacy Fears Allow Terrorism? Heather MacDonald, a lawyer at the Manhattan institute says we should shut up and cooperate, since that’ll make us all safer from terrorism. Perhaps someone should show Ms. MacDonald just how much information is available about her and see what she thinks about the subject then.
- Traveling? Take Big Brother Along. The information contained in CAPPS II is nothing compared to the information stored in most travel agents’ reservation systems. And guess what, they’re pretty much centralized and probably available to the TSA.
- It’s a little disturbing to know that my TiVo is a Spy TV, and could rat me out to the feds. Then again, I don’t know if there’s a lot to worry about, except for someone discovering that I watch way too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Do you have the Fear of a Million Big Brothers? Maybe you should. Most websites keep fairly detailed logs about what the people who surf those sites are reading. Here on Dave’s Picks, I’ve almost got all the software hooked up so I can gather the information I want without using the regular server logs, and all the extra information that’s collected in them by default. It’s not perfect, but it means that I still get the raw data I want, and what you do while you’re here is pretty well private. Of course that’s just one server on the whole internet, but it’s got to start somewhere. [endwar]
- Fed Agencies Asleep at the Wheel:
This is how ill-prepared the federal government is to protect itself against terrorist attacks: Many of its agencies don’t even know which buildings and computer networks to defend.
They were ordered to figure out which facilities were critical five years ago. But hey, it’s best to trust the government to take care of this sort of thing, right? At least it offers some comfort—if they can’t even keep track of their own facilities, maybe there's some hope of keeping a little privacy after all.
- Marylaine has a whole slew of pointers useful for Tracking Our Government.
- Akamai ends Al-Jazeera server support. On top of the hack attacks, having their reporters kicked out of the US stock exchanges, and then kicked out of Iraq, they’ve now lost the server farm.
Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek.
Last updated on Sat, 05 Apr 2003 07:41:48.