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Archive for January, 2007

THEY WATCH

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

Cnet has a report on the FBI’s current Internet wiretapping methods.

Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.

Anybody who’s been paying attention to the ongoing Internet privacy situation already knows that whatever they do on the ‘net is public. ISP’s monitor what users do, companies that provide net access for their employees know what they do, malicious hackers monitor your traffic and steal your information, and the government has all the traffic you’ve ever passed in a database somewhere.

Also, they can read your mail anytime they want, and they can tap your phone without a warrant.

You are being watched all the time. Never forget that. You’ll have to communicate with your mistress via carrier pigeon.

| January 31st, 2007 | by BC | Categories: News | Trackback | No Comments »



SNAP JUDGEMENT: VISTA LAUNCH EVENT

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

Being out of work has its advantages; for example, I was able to attend the Windows Vista launch even in San Francisco. How was it? It was a hype hurricane. But, more than that, it was a sobering vision of a dark and dreary future of work.

I don’t mean that Vista itself will necessarily be a terrible operating system. Hey, it might be okay; I don’t know. I was given a preview copy of Vista, but my system won’t support it. No, what I’m talking about was the keynote speech. It was given by some high-up Microsoft guy, and all he could talk about was the fact that the future will be filled with constant connectivity, and pressure to be available to your business at all times.

I could hardly concentrate on how this new OS is going to solve all my business problems; I was too busy imagining what it will be like to not be able to go home and relax ever again.

Other than that, the swag was disappointing, and the break-out sections were dull. But at least I’ve been too busy doing that and spending the day hoofing it through the city to post here.

| January 30th, 2007 | by BC | Categories: Science & Technology, Snap Judgement | Trackback | No Comments »



TILTING AT BOOKSHELVES

Monday, January 29th, 2007

The Bookslut Blog links to this article about the perceived growth of independent bookstores:

The swan song of the independent bookstore has been sung — and then sung again. In a bookselling climate dominated by the Internet and chain stores, even the most persistent redoubts are reportedly packing up. Certainly the numbers bear this out. Membership in the trade organization for independently owned bookstores has dropped by more than half in the past decade.

Yet new stores continue to open. “We’re like Mark Twain” (who lived long after he was mistakenly reported dead), says Oren Teicher of the American Booksellers Association (ABA). “Rumors of our death are premature.”

While it’s heartening to see that there might be more indies out there, it’s not an optimistic report. The article seems suggest that these new bookstore owners are a different breed; they’re not in it for the money.

Surely the indies of the past weren’t thinking about making a million dollars though, right? C’mon.

| January 29th, 2007 | by BC | Categories: Miscellaneous | Trackback | No Comments »



THE WAR FOR THE PAST

Sunday, January 28th, 2007

Harper’s has a story detailing the attempts of fundamentalists to “clarify” history, primarily (it seems) through the use of quotations:

Federer, leaning over the back of his seat as several pastors bent their ears toward his story, wanted me to understand that what Jefferson – notorious deist and author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom – had really meant to promote was a “one-way wall,” designed to protect the church from the state, not the other way around. Jefferson, Federer told me, was a believer; like all the Founders, he knew that there could be no government without God. Why hadn’t I been taught this? Because I was a victim of godless public schools.

“Those who control the present,” Federer continued his quotation of 1984, “control the past.” He paused and stared at me to make sure I understood the equation. “Orson Welles wrote that,” he said.

You see, I too can take quotes out of context.

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

| January 28th, 2007 | by BC | Categories: Religion | Trackback | 1 Comment »



MONEY AND HARD WORK

Friday, January 26th, 2007

I have been mulling over a post addressing the issues that surround income inequality, and the often implied, and occasionally explicit belief that every single person in the world could be super-rich, if only the poor weren’t so lazy. I’ve found this topic difficult to approach because many middle and upper-middle class folks immediately take offense at any suggestion that they don’t work hard, or that they don’t deserve what they have. Even though I wasn’t trying to make those arguments, I wasn’t able to make that clear. But something needs to be said:

And no one works harder than the poorest people in America. No one works harder than someone who gets on a bus at 5:30 in the morning and an hour later gets to a hotel where she cleans rooms for $5.15/hour, then takes another bus home, picks up her children, makes dinner and gets ready to start all over again. It is, frankly, disgraceful to pretend that the difference between that person and Jack Welch is somehow related to Jack Welch “working harder.”

See the rest of this here.

| January 26th, 2007 | by BC | Categories: Money & Commerce, Politics | Trackback | No Comments »



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