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DA investigates Gizmodo guy over iPhone

Oops. Seems like Gizmodo Editor Jason Chen is in plenty hot water for publishing details about Apple’s new 4G iPhone before the official company release date. It seems that an Apple employee took the phone with him to a bar, left it behind, and Gizmodo bought it for between $5 and $10,000 dollars from the person who found it. Apparently, that’s not a good thing to do in California.

The District Attorney seized Chen’s computers but haven’t begun to search through them. Gizmodo’s attorneys filed a lawsuit claiming that Chen should be protected from investigation by California’s Shield Laws and TechCrunch reports the San Mateo district attorney has put the investigation on hold while they review the laws. read more

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The Crime of Reason

Robert B. Laughlin, Department of Physics at Stanford University gave this talk at the Xerox PARC Forum on October 23, 2008.

There is increasing concern about the disappearance of technical knowledge from the public domain, both on grounds that is presents a security danger and because it is economically valuable “Intellectual Property”. I argue that this development is not anomalous at all but a great historic trend tied to our transition to the information age. We are in the process of losing a human right that all of us thought we had but actually didn’t–the right to learn things we can and better ourselves economically from what we learn. Increasingly, figuring things our for yourself will become theft and terrorism. Increasingly, reason itself will become a crime. read more

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Landline loss can hurt elderly, disabled and low-income families

AT&T is now pushing for the FCC to relieve telephone carriers of the expense of maintaining copper phone lines and the POTS (plain old telephone service) that goes along with it – traditional phone service known today as “landlines”.

It’s worthwhile noting that low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities receive protection of their essential utility services, including POTS under fcc regulations. But VOIP falls under the bailiwick of broadband internet connectivity, which is not regulated by the government, so those protections would not be in place for these vulnerable individuals and families should they lose their POTS. read more

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Family sues school for spying on student

In a tale that mirrors the crushing privacy violations and vitriolic penal environment of Delores Umbridge in Harry Potter’s world, high school administrators in the Lower Merion School District of Pennsylvania used school issued computers, and software supposedly installed to protect students, to invade the privacy of the students homes and family lives.

Installed webcams were activated to spy on students and their families. This blew up in their face when a school administrator disciplined one student for “engaging in improper behavior in his home,” (that’s the language used in the family’s lawsuit) – and had the audacity to back her claim up by showing the photograph the webcam took of the Robbins boy as evidence. read more

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Microsoft v. Brazilian official – for moving to drop Windows

People ask me why I won’t let my kids buy an XBox. I explain our family policy: “Our family doesn’t support Microsoft. In any way.” Many hearing this think my view is seriously radical (not to mentioned extremely flawed). After all, XBox graphics are great and the games are cheap. “But, buying a kids’ gaming system? That’s not supporting a company!”

“To you it isn’t, which is completely fine. But to me, it is,” I reply. “Microsoft manufactures XBox, so my boys can’t have one.” read more

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Internet “Driver’s Licenses” – a very, very bad idea

An ‘incredibly dangerous concept’

In several articles written in his typically clear style, internet user advocate Lauren Weinstein explains why he opposes the idea of ‘Internet Driver’s Licenses’, which he refers to as an, “incredibly dangerous concept. . . . I’m disappointed, though not terribly surprised,” Lauren comments, “especially in light of Microsoft’s explicit continuing support of Chinese censorship against human rights — to hear a top Microsoft executive pushing a concept that is basic to making the Internet Police State a reality.” He frames his opposition in an earlier article(January 2010). read more

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10 Stupidest Laws

Geeks From Down The Street gives us this great list

  • Top 10 Stupid Laws
  • In China you have to be smart to go to college
  • In Ontario its illegal to climb trees.
  • In Nova Scotia it’s illegal to water your lawn when its raining.
  • In Australia a life sentence is 25 years
  • In Alaska it’s illegal to break a law.
  • In New York you can get fined for flirting
  • In Scotland if someone knocks your door you have to let them use your toilet.
  • In Alabama its illegal to drive blindfolded.
  • In Ohio it’s illegal to get a fish drunk.
  • In New York the penalty for jumping off a building is death.
    • read more

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    Cellphones Save Marriages?

    Today I came out of the supermarket and headed towards my car. A couple in their 50s were pushing a cart just ahead of me. I noticed them particularly because they were conversing in fairly loud voices. I was parked right next to the cart return kiosk and as I offloaded my bags the woman headed towards the kiosk and me to return a cart.

    It was odd that the woman kept talking to her companion as she walked away from their car – where he was offloading bags too – but she never raised the level of her voice. Then I noticed that the guy, now with his head half into their black SUV, was talking too. Also not loud enough for myself or the woman, who was now almost next to me, to hear. Especially since she continued to talk steadily in a conversational voice all the time that she walked. read more

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    “White supremacy” groups alive & well in north Jersey

    Although some mainstream newspapers have given this matter a bit of coverage, it remains a little-known fact that the white supremacy movement is alive and well in northern New Jersey.

    A Village Voice article describes the experience of an undercover reporter who got himself invited in 2007 to attend a “white power” event that was held in Elmwood Park, New Jersey.

    . . .white supremacist groups around the country had called for “patriot” get-togethers over the three-day weekend. The one organized for the New York area included a Saturday barbecue and a Sunday visit to “the incomparable Metropolitan Museum of (White) Art.” read more

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    Intellectual property rights hold back scientific advances

    Sir John Sulston, Nobel Laureate, explains a phenomenon which merits thoughtful consideration.

    Ownership rights pose a real danger to scientific progress for the public good

    The idea of ownership is ubiquitous. Title deeds establish and protect ownership of our houses, while security of property is as important to the proprietors of Tesco and Sainsbury’s as it is to their customers. However, there is a profound problem when it comes to so-called intellectual property (IP) – which requires a strong lead from government, and for which independent advice has never been more urgently required. The David Nutt affair has illustrated very well the importance of objective analysis of complex social issues. read more

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    Kimi’s chopped liver (chicken)

    Use 2 lbs chicken liver, olive oil plus 3 T schmaltz (rendered chicken fat), 2 medium onions chopped roughly and extra 1/2 onion finely minced for after, 3 boiled eggs, 3 scallions and 1/4 large bunch cilantro, plenty of sea salt and pepper and 1/2 t Chinese hot pepper sauce (the grandmother type, with oil and visible seeds) and 1/8 c. dry red wine [a splash].

    I used the big pan so the liver could spread out plenty and I did not press liver down to squeeze out juice; I seared it both sides and then reduced flame to a pretty steady lowish-medium. read more

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    US Chamber of Commerce fighting climate regulations

    The US Chamber of Commerce has spent $488 million in the past 11 years on lobby efforts. Now they’re throwing their weight and cash behind trying to block regulation that will cap carbon emissions. Now they want the Environmental Protection Agency to hold hearings to prove

    that greenhouse gases pose enough of a danger to public health to justify regulations controlling their emissions under the Clean Air Act.

    It’s fortunate that William Kovacs, the chamber’s top environment specialist, isn’t buying into this tactic to stall environmental change so companies can continue to make financial profits at the risk of the world’s health. When he said as much this triggered a series of defections by the chamber’s eco-sensitive members read more

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    Pension system failure

    Recently I was thinking about how much stress pensions cause to the social and economic systems in the United States. After looking at this issue for a while I concluded that pensions are a major contributor to social inequality, and they create unreasonable (and maybe unpayable) financial burdens on future generations of employees and citizens. Here’s how:

    Promise now, others pay later

    When I began talking to people about pensions I learned that they may also be unsustainable: that is, pensions are promised to employees by a generation of company execs and union bosses who aren’t going to be around the day pension payouts start to come due. This is the same sell-the-future-short ruse that politicians employ when they’re able to get public commendation for voting a law into being although they make no provisions to fund the law’s enactment. New Jersey’s Amistad Legislation which became law in 2002 but is still waiting for funding to bring a racially balanced historic perspective to classrooms across the state is a good example of this. The Racism in Higher Education paper sheds some light on this sujbect. read more

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    Paulo Coelho. An accessible sage.

    My current hero is Paulo Coelho. If you want access to a positive and empowering perspective on life that can be easily adopted by anyone breathing, take a look at his website and learn more about what Paulo does and says. Paulo’s a Brazilian guy possessed of a mountain stream of beautiful wisdom and comments, for example

    The moment we set off in search of love, it sets off in search of us.

    You ask if love wins over anything. The answer is yes if you don’t try to possess the subject of your love. read more