Monday, June 30, 2008

Got groups working. Did I spell well?

FBI's Next-Gen ID Databank to Scan Eyes, Raise Eyebrows

Lockheed Martin is building a massive digital warehouse of criminal information, set to bring facial recognition and eye scans to local law enforcement within 10 years. The FBI may use biometric technology to bolster mug shots, fingerprints and DNA to catch crooks—but privacy advocates say there's reason for law-abiding citizens to worry.

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Libertarian Bob Barr's Issue: Privacy

Speaking in Portland, OR, on Sunday, Presidential nominee Bob Barr spoke on the importance of privacy, and the respect of privacy by the government.

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Sunday, June 29, 2008

California's New Cellular Phone Laws Go Into Effect 7/01/08

In California, 2 new laws go into effect on 7/01/08 governing the use of Cellular phones while operating a motor vehicle. The first law prohibits all drivers from using a handheld wireless phone while driving without a hands-free device. Any driver under the age of 18 cannot use a Cellular phone while driving. Continued on AC.

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Flock

Am testing Flock 1.2 and must say I find it quite useful for social networking and blogging. Hopefully someone will release extensions to give Firefox this functionality, or I might consider switching. :-D
Blogged with the Flock Browser

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Supreme Court's Handgun Ruling Spreads

A powerful gun lobby group in the United States has filed legal challenges to handgun bans in San Francisco and Chicago.

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Nvidia says no to free drivers, I say no to Nvidia

So in short, the deal is, you get the card, but the only way to use it is to rent a driver to which you have an incomplete access, thereby making your fruitful use of the card consistently dependent on Nvidia and, quite obviously, therefore limiting the control you as a supposed owner of the card really have over it

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Friday, June 27, 2008

SAF Files Lawsuit Challenging Chicago's Handgun Ban - F

-Following Thursday's 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms,

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Thursday, June 26, 2008

Court: A constitutional right to a gun

The Supreme Court strikes down the Washington, D.C. handgun ban.

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Judge upholds $107,834 in attorneys' fees award against RIAA

The book is about to be closed on Atlantic v. Andersen, as the judge has awarded the exonerated P2P defendant over $100,000 in attorneys' fees. Her malicious prosecutio lawsuit against the RIAA is still pending.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

U.S. School District to Begin Microchipping Students

A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children.

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Court rejects case on fast track for border fence

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a plea by environmental groups to rein in the Bush administration's power to waive laws and regulations to speed construction of a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has used authority given to him by Congress in 2005 to ignore environmental and other laws...

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

ISPs experimenting with new P2P control methods

Peer-to-peer traffic management was a hot topic at this year's NXTcomm convention in Las Vegas, as keynote speakers and telecom industry panelists highlighted new methods for handling P2P traffic crunches.

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49% Say Government Should Regulate Internet

Nearly half of Americans (49%) believe that the federal government should regulate the Internet the same way it does radio and television, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national survey.

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Dems Agree to Expand Domestic Spying, Grant Telecoms Amnesty

Breaking months of acrimonious deadlock, House and Senate leaders from both parties have agreed to a bill that gives nation's spy agencies the power to turn a wide swath of domestic communication companies into intelligence gathering operations, and that puts an end to court challenges to telecoms.

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DailyTech - House Passes Telecom Immunity Bill, Expands Domestic Spying Powers

DailyTech - House Passes Telecom Immunity Bill, Expands Domestic Spying Powers

Friday, June 20, 2008

MPAA Says No Proof Needed in Copyright Infringement Lawsuits

The Motion Picture Association of America said Friday intellectual property holders should have the right to collect damages, perhaps as much as $150,000 per copyright violation, without having to prove infringement. "Mandating such proof could thus have the effect of depriving copyright owners of a practical remedy against copyright infringment"

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Thursday, June 19, 2008

ISPs and the music industry: Beginning of the end.

could an ISP deal with music companies destroy the Internet? Oh yes. It may seem like a slippery slope, but the argument has proof. Get ready for a return to AOL.

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Monday, June 16, 2008

Canadian DMCA: Made in America

Michael Geist points out an article from the Victoria Times Colonist regarding Bill C-61.

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State worker's child porn charges dropped; virus blamed

Prosecutors have dropped child pornography charges against a state employee after an investigation determined that his work laptop was poorly configured and riddled with malicious software. The case shows how easy it is for someone to be charged with illegal computer activity that they may know nothing about, said the defendant's counsel.

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Police, troops keep residents from flooded Iowa homes

Thousands of people didn't know Monday when they would be able to return to their flooded eastern Iowa homes.

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Don’t forget to be part of Firefox’s Download Day!

"Mark your calendar, wrap a ribbon around your finger or write a little sticky yellow note. Download Day will start on June 17, 2008."As received in my Inbox.

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

Oklahoma declares Sovereignty! MUST READ!

"A Joint Resolution claiming sovereignty under theTenth Amendment to the Constitution of the UnitedStates over certain powers; serving notice to thefederal government to cease and desist certainmandates..."

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Internet Addiction To Be Added to Manual of Mental Disorders

First, we all had mild Asperger's. Now, Internet addiction disorder? Give a geek a break. In the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Jerald Block proposed that Web abuse be added to his field's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

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Vinyl shower Curtains Release 100 Toxic chemicals,Study Find

That smell given off by new vinyl shower curtains isn't just annoying - it might also be hazardous to your health, says a study issued yesterday by Canadian and U.S. environmental groups.

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Does Google Hate America?

The search giant rankles the right by declining to commemorate certain holidays.

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Friday, June 13, 2008

Canada Proposes Draconian Anti-Piracy Law

Canada, one of the shining lights in the copyright and intellectual property world, has a shadow approaching that may dim that for all. The name of that shadow? Bill c-61, which was formally introduced by Industry minister Jim Prentice an hour or two ago. One of the ‘highlights’ is the abolition of court’s flexibility in statutory damages, fixing i

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Firefox Download Day 2008

Download Day

A Field Guide to Firefox 3: A Full Inventory of the Goodness

Deb, long time mozillian, gives a hefty outline of all the juicy new goodness in Firefox 3 in preparation for the final release next Tuesday.

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Young Employees Quit Jobs due to Blocking Facebook

What would make you quit your job? Lack of insurance or other benefits? A lengthy and expensive commute? Limited advancement opportunities? No Facebook access?

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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

N.Y. attorney general forces ISPs to curb Usenet access

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday that Verizon Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint would "shut down major sources of online child pornography."What Cuomo didn't say is that his agreement with broadband providers means that they will broadly curb customers' access to Usenet--the venerable pre-Web

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Cigarettes whisked out of sight

By Jonathan Spicer TORONTO (Reuters) - You can browse the latest porn magazines at Canadian shops, but tough new laws mean that cigarette packages are simply too suggestive. Shop owners in Ontario, Quebec and a few other provinces must now hide...

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Sunday, June 8, 2008

How They Rebuilt Stonehenge

For decades the official Stonehenge guidebooks have been full of fascinating facts and figures and theories surrounding the world's greatest prehistoric monument. What the glossy brochures do not mention, however, is the systematic rebuilding of the 4,000 year old stone circle throughout the 20th Century.

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Web-based malware on legit sites soars

Study found 68 percent of all internet-based malware was now being hosted on legitimate sites."The compromise techniques being used now allow hackers to quickly 'colonise' thousands of legitimate sites, from big brand-name sites, to smaller but equally legitimate sites,"

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Saturday, June 7, 2008

UK ISP bows to record industry, to send P2P warning letters

British ISP Virgin Media has come to an agreement with the BPI, which represents the record industry, to warm filesharers on its network about the dangers of copyright infringement.

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Airports Install See-Through Body Scanners

Body-scanning machines that show images of people underneath their clothing are being installed in 10 of the nation's busiest airports in one of the biggest public uses of security devices that reveal intimate body parts.

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Monday, June 2, 2008

Time Warner to test metered internet access

Nothing like going back to the days of pay by the hour dial-up from AOL.

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A Quarter of US PCs Is Infected With Malware

An worrying recent study into online crime says that increased activity by cyber criminals has left an estimated one-in-four US computers infected with malware.

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Texas Judge Signs Order Returning Polygamists Kids

Lawyers representing polygamist sect parents will submit a revised order to release hundreds of children from state custody to a Texas judge Monday, according to a newspaper report.

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Sunday, June 1, 2008

Parents say teacher went too far answering sex-ed questions

The Jordan School District is investigating allegations that a seventh- and eighth-grade health teacher violated the sex education statute by responding to questions from students about topics beyond the core curriculum, including homosexual sex, oral sex and masturbation. They are working with a lawmaker to seek criminal penalties.

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