Adam Fields (weblog)

Google has repeatedly, across all of their recent product launches, failed to properly address privacy and security concerns.

“Don’t be evil” doesn’t cut it.

Google Desktop privacy branded ‘unacceptable’ | The Register

On top of that, there’s a larger issue at hand which has not been properly addressed. There is a difference between network content and desktop content. There is a security/privacy difference (who do I want to see this?), a latency difference (how long does it take to see this?), and a control difference (will I always be able to see this, in this form?), at the very least. Treating network content and desktop content as the same thing is a leaky abstraction at best. Blurring the line without properly addressing these differences is an invitation to disaster. But sure, it’s easier than teaching people what the differences are.

Scoble thinks it’s okay for Windows Update to reboot your computer without your permission.

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/10/15.html#a8422

Haven’t we moved past the point where computers need to reboot, ever?

Jon Stewart appears on Crossfire, and tears them a new asshole.

While we were sleeping, all of the “serious” media was co-opted by those with an agenda against that of the common good. Ironically, the humorists are now painting the only realistic picture left, and most of the “real” journalists are part of the soulless charade. This spectacle of blithering partisan nothingness sickens me to my very core.

God save the funnyman!

Now, more than ever, is the time to call out the lies for what they are. I’m sorry, but not all opinions are equal. There may be more than one right answer, but some are just wrong. All I ask, and what we need, is a little honesty. No, a lot of honesty.

“We need help… from the media… and they’re hurting us.” Jon, I feel your pain.

Salon.com Politics

CNN Transcript

Video Clip (more on boingboing.net if this one doesn’t work.)

This pretty much echoes how I feel about the whole offshoring debate. Software development is REALLY HARD to do well, and more than anything else, requires a lot of face to face and realtime communication.

http://www.legadoassociates.com/softwareoutsource.htm

I find it a little unsettling that Salon has been fairly assiduous in taking credit for “discovering” the Bush bulge story.

They had an article on the “isbushwired.com” site on Obtober 8th.

Then, they referred to that article with “Not long after Salon gave birth to the intriguing little campaign story-that-could late last week”

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2004/10/12/dave_bulge/index.html

Then, again, today, they had another followup piece, in which they reference the original article with “Since Friday, when Salon first raised questions about the rectangular bulge that was visible under Bush’s suit coat during the presidential debates”.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/13/transmitter/index.html

Does anyone else think this credit is largely undeserved? Granted, they’ve done some investigation since then, but it’s not like they did the initial analysis, or even came up with the idea.

A whole host of legislation is pending, to criminalize a lot of the behavior we take for granted.

http://www.publicknowledge.org/

Framed pictures of original 1979 Star Wars pictures next to the 1997 versions.

Figures

I have a bunch of places where my writings and postings and whatnot are scattered throughout the internet. I spend a lot of my effort on maintaining several private mailing lists for my close friends (going on almost six years now!), where most of the stuff I find goes. I’m still doing that, but I think it’s time to open up some of these things for public consumption.

The livejournal blog is fine for random mutterings, but very few people that I know actually use livejournal, and I don’t seem to be a club kid, bdsm enthusiast, or high school student, so it’s never really built up a sense of community for me. So, here we are.

As with any of these things, I don’t know yet what this will be. Stick around, subscribe to the rss feed, and help me find out.