While doing a bit of research on Bloggers Rights for an article I’m writing today, I found the following information about AT&Ts violation of customer rights and privacy (providing information to NSA to help them spy on Americans).
It makes my skin crawl (as do most actions classified as “Homeland Security”). Continue reading
I saw some interesting information the other day about the current debt load in America — the result of the “war on terror” (aka: Bush’s public display of overwhelming narcissism).
And I felt that the $145 billion in additional debt for his little role as the vain queen gazing into a mirror and crooning “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the biggest little guy of them all?” could have been better spent in other ways.
For a graphic breakdown of alternative projects for that debt, I refer you to the Budget Graph Blog (aka: Death and Taxes: A Visual Graphic of Where Your Tax Dollars Go). It’s pretty interesting stuff.
As always, I support our troops and all those individuals with the horrid responsibility to protect us and enforce the orders of their not-so-superior commander in chief. It’s not a job I’d want. But the commander himself??? Very little respect and support streaming from me in his general direction these days.
WARNING: It’s a rant…
Ok, my freak flag is about to fly high again. I have been reading the hubbub about a recent bill to “protect our children from pornography” and psychotic poaching in the schools. And once again, I have to wonder about our school system and our political system.
I mean, seriously (to capture one of my favorite Grey’s Anatomy phrases)…If we, as a society, have first given our right to parent our children to the state and the school system, I must (apparently) learn to quit asking “where are the parents in this scenario?” But, after reading the bill that’s being promoted, I have to ask a similar question, “Where are the teachers during school hours?” if this is the type of thing they worry will happen in schools?
Of course, concern for the children’s privacy is a serious one. After all, I recently learned that my own son’s high school class called the daily roll by projecting the children’s names up on the wall, along with sensitive personal information, such as social security numbers and home phone numbers and addresses. I nearly had a fit.
So, you want to have your computer run smoothly, keep your information safe and you don’t want to make keeping your stuff safe a second full-time job?
I found just the thing for you! Go and read the article “The 20 Minute Guide to PC Security” over on ITSecurity.com. It’s a great little article that covers most of the basics and give you an excellent collection of links and resources. If you are worried about security (and you should be!) go here. Go now. (heads up provided by Tracy at StudentTabletPC.com)
Wired magazine recently reported that several of the electronic voting machines, which contain the “closely held” software secrets were recently auctioned off at government auction. How’s that for “homeland security” gone awry? The cost? $82.
The man that purchased these five machines was none other than a Princeton computer science professor who promptly reverse-engineered the systems, along with his students seeking security holes. Want to know what he found?The read the entire Wired article about the Auction of Top Secret US Voting Machines. *tsk-tsk*