Posts from — September 2003

Vixie Vexes Verisign. From Anick Jesdanun, AP Internet Writer comes this story on how ISC is planning to “patch” BIND to block the Verisign typosquatting service. According to the article, the folks at the Internet Software Consortium expect to release the patch tomorrow. [Lextext]

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hehehehehehheheh…hehehehehhehe, this is 'just' as some things just are.

ernie brought up this idea of a 'techology anthrologist', and in a nietzschean eternal return, i think it is time to bring this back to the vernacular.

apparently Vatech is working with the rest of Virginia to boost our networking infrastructure again, there is alot of other info in this article, well worth reading.

some more info: http://www.cwru.edu/its/strategic/national_lambdarail.htm

and the lambdarail homepage http://www.getlight.net/

the mid-atlantic terascale project http://www.midatlantic-terascale.org/

cutegirlsonly. Cute Girls Only – The only dating web site where they actually reject the ugly chics. via [linkswarm.com] [MetaFilter]

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while i find this somewhat problematic for a wide variety of reason, what i find humours is that the number of supposedly cute girls on the site was 61 when i clicked. hehehehe

Homeland Security, Blacklists and Your Bank. Did you know that your bank can blacklist you in the name of homeland security? Financial institutions can close accounts and cancel credit cards with little explanation. Not surprisingly, complaints are beginning to stream in. [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]

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in a capital oriented society, this is like removing the rights of citizenship, much like Athens did when they expropriated people.

WTF at WSIS. Wong Choon Mei writing for Reuters: A fight over the role of governments in managing the Internet is brewing as policymakers prepare for a U.N.-backed summit on the network's future, said an official at the body governing Internet domain names. [Lextext]

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well it is a bit strange that given the international nature of the internet, that the u.s. commerce department still has oversight…. it is time for an itu like body to take over.

Open magazine has a nice article today on the World Summit on the Information Society and the political intrigues around the proposition of encouraging open source at the international level, likewise this morning I was reading some materials from the Visions of the Information Society conferences from the ITU, which are interesting.

if you aren't aware, this is the first time, i'm told, that corporations and their lobbyists have been included in the category of 'civil society' for a world summit. It is interesting to see that the usual suspects are 'running with scissors' again, and look like they will be the bully and get their way either in wsis or by other legal means, the WTO is suggested, and as we've already seen the usual suspects have put a hold on discussing open source solutions in other venues.

more on tompaine, but here are some:
$87b Is More Than The Combined Total Of All State Budget Deficits In The United States

The Bush administration proposed absolutely zero funds to help states deal with these deficits, despite the fact that their tax cuts drove down state revenues. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

$87b Is More Than Double The Total Amount The Government Spends On Homeland Security

The U.S. spends about $36 billion on homeland security. Yet, Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) wrote “America will fall approximately $98.4 billion short of meeting critical emergency responder needs” for homeland security without a funding increase. [Source: Council on Foreign Relations]

$87b Is 7 Times What The Government Spends On Title I For Low-Income Schools

President Bush proposed a budget of just $12 billion for Title I, leaving a $6.2 billion hole in what he promised to spend on Title I in his No Child Left Behind Bill. [Source: House Appropriations Committee]

$87b Is 87 Times The Amount The Federal Government Spends On After School Programs

President Bush proposed a budget that reduces the $1 billion for after-school programs to $600 million — cutting off about 475,000 children from the program. [Souce: House Appropriations Committee]

$87b Is More Than 10 Times What The Government Spends On All Environmental Protection

The Bush administration requested just $7.6 billion for the entire Environmental Protection Agency. This included a 32 percent cut to water quality grants, a 6 percent reduction in enforcement staff, and a 50 percent cut to land acquisition and conservation. [Source: Natural Resources Defense Council]

in short, it is not much in the grand scheme of things if you are a capitalist who will be hired after the presidency to 'consult' for several million a year….

people have been looking on the bright side of economic recovery for a few months now, but i'm still doom and gloom, why? because i see the personal debt load that people carry, it's ruinous, this story from yahoo illustrates the point.

Licensing Internet users?. Wired News picked up this provocative thinkpiece from the Associated Press (no author credited): “A virus ,pfouls your computer and you haplessly pass it on. Advertising software loads stealthily on your machine. Your password gets stolen because of your negligence…. [InternetPolicy.net]

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here's a little question, knowing what you know about the internet, would you pass a user licensing program? or not? it is a hard question really, or it should be and if you don't think it is, i would lay odds that very few people who think they know how, actually know how to use and access the net in a way that like the highways, keep it safe for others. why is this? fundamentally the net is structured so that there is a technological elite that retains that knowledge above the level of the user….