Oops, is the FBI reading the WHOLE internet? I've mentioned Carnivore in the past, and occasionally mentioned other things like Echelon. Well this is another reason never to visit the US, or deal with US websites...

Unfortunately, they're the biggest economy in the world, and most of us have to deal with them or their products in some way or another. Grr.

posted by Jeremy Smyth 10:43  |  

Thursday, October 18, 2001

This is getting more and more unbelievable... according to Wired magazine, the Recording Industry Association of America Wants to Hack Your PC. Not only does the US government want to make cracking PCs a terrorist offense, but large business wants immunity, and the ability to break into your computer whenever it feels like it, on suspecting that it contains copyright material, such as that cached copy of the HamsterDance in your Temporary Internet Files folder, or that satirical WAV file you got by email last month. Or that newspaper article you saved after recieving the link. The notion of "Big Brother" is spreading from goverment through governmental agencies to big business and other governmental lobbyists. If this continues, we'll get to the stage where the only criminals are those organisations who can afford to pay off the government. Central America, anyone?

posted by Jeremy Smyth 15:02  |  

Thursday, October 11, 2001

Classicarticle in The Onion about US treatment of liberty and freedom in the wake of Sept. 11...

Went to see "The Score" last night - Marlon Brando is SOOOOO bad. He should really retire or die or something. de Niro is excellent, as is Norton. Otherwise, a fairly slow-moving movie.

posted by Jeremy Smyth 09:41  |  

Wednesday, October 10, 2001

You probably remember the whole fiasco about filling out "Jedi Knight" as your religion on the census form - it started in New Zealand, and worked its way around the world. Well now, due to a minor loophole in the British Census, "Jedi Knight" is listed as a religion. Apparently, as it is in most countries, giving false information on the census form is heavily penalised. However, in the UK, the religion heading does not come under that condition. Here's the quote:

'Completion of the Census form is compulsory under the Census Act 1920. If you refuse to complete it, or give false information, you may be liable to a fine. This liability does not apply to question 10 on religion.'

In other news, I bought "Hitman" the other day, and it's a bit good. I cheated for the first two levels by reading walkthroughs, and I'll tell you how I get on with the next few :-)

posted by Jeremy Smyth 09:50  |  

Monday, October 08, 2001

Heehee. This is good. The US is clamping down more and more on things like encryption and Free Software (as in "libre", rather than "gratis"), by pandering to conservative Big-Brotherists and large wealthy donating organisations such as Microsoft.

Well I'm glad I live in Europe - a German government email contract could lead to agencies switching to high encryption using Free Software, so it'll be publicly available, and sanctioned, in fact, providedby the single most powerful government in Euroland.

I'm all warm and fuzzy now.

posted by Jeremy Smyth 10:17  |  

Friday, October 05, 2001

If any of you thought I was the only technoliberal around here, try reading this comment by a Slashdot reader. It explains a little bit about how the US government can trace your (yes YOU) every move on the web, they can reconstruct an entire psychological profile on you based on everything you search for in google, excite, MSN, metacrawler, wherever. All with a simple note from a judge. This affects you, even if you're not in the US, because google, excite, etc. are in the US. How do you like being profiled without your knowledge (and without probable cause)?

See the Privacy & Encryption article on the left for more information.

posted by Jeremy Smyth 09:44  |  

Thursday, October 04, 2001

You may be in breach of international copyright law whenever you dial a telephone number - two composers have copyrighted millions of melodies, which happen to coincide with the sound made by most telephone numbers as dialled. Here's a way to check your number to see if they've copyrighted its melody. It will even display the sheet music of your telephone number, as dialled.

Hmmmm....

posted by Jeremy Smyth 11:53  |  

Wednesday, October 03, 2001

At last - an article that answers the "why?" - Roots Of Rage@ Time.com. Interesting.

Also at last, I've finished (ish :-) the encryption article, it's here. Read and give out, either on the fridge, or to my inbox. And whatever you do, get encryption! Read the European Parliament's recommendation in the link in one of the footnotes.

I'm tired. I've been training for nearly two weeks non-stop now. Need some time off. Good thing is my course for next week has been cancelled. Lovely. Time to do other stuff. Of course, my week will probably suffer from under-the-stairs-syndrome, y'know, where all available space-time fills up, regardless of how much you have to begin with. Should be swimming tonight though. Funny how physical exercise makes you feel better when you're tired.

And just in case you thought I'd become a non-nerd what with all this political hoo-ha going on, I've spent much of my free time over the last few days sorting out a problem with recompiling my kernel in Linux :-)

posted by Jeremy Smyth 17:18  |