fak3r

Ok, I’ve read this a few times, but I still cannot believe it. Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security disclosed that traveler’s laptop computers “or other electronic devices” can be confiscated, without any suspicion of a crime! Better yet, they can make and share copies of your data, have the data translated, unencrypted, etc. This is especially topical for me since I’ll be leaving the country on Sunday with the laptop that I’m typing this on. “Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” Now I ask you, how fucked is that? “”The policies . . . are truly alarming,” said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government’s border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.” So while congress is now looking at it, the article points out that these procedures have been in place for a long time, but only revealed last month, “…because of public interest in this matter.” So this makes me ask, what else should we be interested in that our government is doing so we can discover other ways our rights are being shoved aside? These tactics are excessive and a violation of individual rights, could at least can cause an interruption of business, but at most are a direct invastion of privacy and a violation of civil rights. And if they can do this, I think the next obvious step would be for them to check on incoming data into the country, why not? What’s the difference if I carry a laptop with data on it into the country versus emailing it into the country? I don’t think it would be that big of a leap; we need to keep up the ‘public interest’ in this matter else we lose more freedoms we didn’t know we had. Go to EFF today to learn what they’re doing to fight for our digitial rights and privacy, because the laws are being (re)written NOW!

It looks like the ultra conservative news site, OneNewsNow, brought to you by our friends over at the American Family Ass (remember them?), aren’t very hip with those new web technologies.  Oh sure, they block plenty of news that doesn’t meet their views so they can present the user with a tainted view of the world in order to support their viewpoints, but they also *fail* hard when they do a blind ‘find and replace’ of the word ‘gay’ to ‘homosexual’.  A fun example is the image above, where runner Tyson Gay’s accomplishments were introduced with the line “Gay eases into 100 final at Olympics” becomes the much more interesting headline, “Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympics”.  Other times when runner Tyson Gay’s name is ‘re-spelt’ to conform to the sensibilities of the more conservative set:

(more…)

So while I realize this won’t be of interest to the majority of people out there, to me it’s very cool (something I would even blog about!)  So I’m in San Francisco last week meeting with developers and programmers from a variety of backgrounds; web 2.0 start-ups, .com verterans, non-profit and academic folk alike.  We’re all sitting around a conference table, each one with a laptop, so you can see what’s coming, here’s the breakdown: 11 laptops, 4 running Apple’s OSX, 4 running Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Mandriva) and only 3 running Windows XP!  Again, it was a certain subset of folks, so I know that ratio won’t hold up most places, even this year’s DefCon in Las Vegas, but at that meeting things just clicked.  I even talked to some of the Devs running Linux and we have the same feelings about OSX, it’s great, but it’s just not as open or free as Linux is; at some point someone is making the call on how you’re going to use the software and, for us, it just ‘didn’t fit’ right.  Anyway, seeing that many like minded folks was very cool, I’ve not worked with people like that in the past, so to have this opportunity is a dream.

This has to be my favorite ‘lost in translation’ picture ever. If that’s not a band name or a website I don’t know what is. [Source link]

Wow, amazing news of late for people like me that are still laughing so hard it hurts while rewatching the Arrested Development DVDs, a movie deal is brewing. From a recent interview with Bluth family spokesperson…er, I mean Jason Bateman “I can confirm that a round of sniffing has started,” Bateman says. “Any talk is targeting a poststrike situation, of course. I think, as always, that it’s a question of whether the people with the money are willing to give our leader, Mitch Hurwitz, what he deserves for his participation. And I can speak for the cast when I say our fingers are crossed.” Meanwhile, Jeffrey Tambor echo’d comments on a recent XM Radio appearance, “I think we’re going to make a movie. I talked to [Arrested Development's executive producer] Ron Howard and he hinted that there’s a push to get the movie made.” And not only did Jeffrey say he would jump at the chance to sign on, he also revealed one more member of his faux-family that was definitely in!” Producers and the execs behind it have ideas in mind for the flick as well, “While there isn’t a script in place, Hurwitz reportedly has a strong idea of what he wants the movie to be. Even better, Universal seems to be interested in what he may have in mind.” That sounds like even more postitive news to me, since often ‘the buck stops here’ mentality will nix a good idea. Who knows, maybe we have another Futurama style comeback, if they could make 3 AR movies, and spin them off as ‘Season 4′ that’d be a co. It seems to have that feeling about it. “If the Arrested Development movie actually goes forward, it will be vindication not only for the cast of a beloved show that ended before its time, but for the devoted legion of fans who watched the show when it was on Fox, continue to obsessively watch the DVDs and make bizarre Arrested Development jokes to confused family members, co-workers and strangers. Not that I would know anything about that. Or chicken dances. Ca-Caw, Ca-Caw!“

Ok, now to lighten the mood a bit after my prior post, apparently Obama has challenged Hillary to a breakdancing showdown, who saw this coming?  With Clinton could result in splintering the Democratic party. Apparently Barack is, “…planning to “turn the tables and take it old school. Bring your cardboard, woman, and that busted hair, because we are going to settle this with a break-off,” Obama told the crowd at a press conference in Reno. “Two dancers enter, one leaves.” [...] “I’m way blacker than Obama,” an exasperated Clinton said.” There’s already bold predictions from each camps’ inner circle, “It’s a fascinating strategy, but I think B-Boy Barack is grossly underestimating the moves of Hillary,” noted political consultant James Carvel. “She has been known to pop and lock with the best of them, and nobody does a suicide better than H’dub.“  This should make the one on one debates far more entertaining…too bad Kucinich isn’t still in the race, I suspect he has some awesome moves.

Yep, call me a day late and a dollar short, but after all this time, Stewart and Colbert were back on last night, although still sans writers. While I understand it’s a tough situation for all, having this many people out of work (not just Jon, Steven and the writers, but everyone from makeup to camera to sound, etc) is crazy. Think about your job if you were ‘off’ for two months and had no way to resolve it yourself? Anyway, here’s to the shows (and people’s lives) getting back on track soon. As for the ‘talent’, they were back in the guises we love, with Stewart showing his solidarity with the writers by claiming that, “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ is a show we do with our very creative team of field producers and correspondents and studio people and, of course, our writers,” he said Monday night, then added with pointed irony, “From now on, until the end of the strike, we’ll be doing ‘A Daily Show with Jon Stewart.’ But not ‘THE Daily Show.’” Meanwhile Colbert kept it in character with a tirade I can see in my head, “I got a problem here,” snapped Colbert in his most indignant tone. “There are no words on my (Tele)prompter.” Refusing to concede that writers are required to provide his “commentaries,” Colbert declared, “My understanding is, this little magic box (the Teleprompter) reads my thoughts and lays them up on the screen for me to read to the audience.” His director advised him the words would have had to be furnished by staff writers. “The writers!” Colbert scoffed. “The guys on the fourth floor with the opium bongs, playing Guitar Hero all day! I find that a bit of a stretch.” “I don’t like unions,” railed Colbert, whose on-air persona is a right-wing blowhard, “and I don’t need writers. Which brings me to tonight’s Word” — a favorite feature of the show. But Colbert was quickly mortified: There was no word. That would have required a writer.” Ah, so nice for them to be back, maybe tonight I’ll actually have the TV on again; bring on the election coverage Jon!

Last night at Dinner, my son, soon to be 5, let it be known that his favorite They Might Be Giants album is Flood.  My kids got into TMBG after we got them the band’s first kids cd, NO!, followed by the amazing Here Come The ABCs on both cd and DVD (*highly* recommended if you have kids).  A greatest hits compilation, A User’s Guide… rounds out the bunch which gives them a wider swath of material to judge TMBG, who now perform family shows, as well as the traditional 21 and over shows, while on tour.  Of couse his mention of Flood being his favorite only reminded me that I still need to burn him a copy of Lincoln, and also about the time I bought their first release, They Might Be Giants (pictured) on vinyl in 1986. At the time it was only available on vinyl, so I had to go to a friend’s house who had his parent’s stereo setup with a good turntable so I could tape it, and then play it in my car. Yeah, that’s funny, both in how long ago it was, and that I remember all of it.  As I’ve mentioned before, I love music, and even the act of visiting a music store is some religious experince for me, there’s no telling what will happen that I’ll be retelling some 20 years later…

This is cool (and somewhat of a relief), Jon Stewart will be paying his writers out of his own pocket during the writers strike. “In a show of solidarity with his fellow scribes, the Daily Show host has told his writing staff that he will cover all their salaries for the next two weeks, according to a well-placed source. He has also vowed to do the same for writers on The Colbert Report. A Comedy Central spokesman referred my inquiry about this to Stewart’s personal publicist, who has yet to respond. Stewart’s intention, says the source, is to ensure his writers will face no financial hardship should the strike, which kicked off at 3 a.m. local time, conclude within that time frame.” I was wondering if we were going to have to endure weeks of reruns and loss of coverage that the strike would have brought, cool! Wonder what Colbert has planned.

Apparently Stephen Colbert’s “candidacy” has started to take off, apparently a new poll (in South Carolina only natch) shows him in double digits! “Comedian Stephen Colbert, who recently announced he would run for U.S. president as both a Democrat and a Republican but only in the state of South Carolina, scored 13 percent in a new poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports. The national telephone survey found that 13 percent chose Colbert as an independent candidate in a race against Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and former New York mayor Republican Rudy Giuliani. Colbert received 12 percent support when former Sen. Fred Thompson was suggested as the Republican candidate. (Clinton won both match-ups in the poll.) The host of “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central declared his newfound political intentions last week and clarified his position a few days later, telling NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday: “I don’t want to be president. I want to run for president. There’s a difference.”