Archives for February 2009
Weekend Notes- Audio Blog
He Escaped Twice
What kind of crazy prison are these guys running. Even Andy from the Shawshank Redemption wants to know.
Two men hijack a helicopter and then force the pilot to fly over the roof of a maximum security prison in Greece. They unfurl rope ladders and bam, they are on their way:
Prison guards shot at the helicopter during the escape, witnesses told local media.
No injuries were reported.The pilot was found gagged near the helicopter north of Athens, a state-run media report said.
The inmates and the unidentified accomplices had not been located, Greek authorities said.“I will not tolerate this embarrassment and all necessary measures will be taken, no matter how stringent they may be,” Justice Minister Nikos Dendias told CNN.
The prison break by helicopter is the second for Paleokostas, who was convicted for abducting a businessman and escaped the prison the first time in June 2006. He was recaptured several months later.
Internet Privacy Issues
I am very concerned about taking measures to protect society and children in general, but this is problematic. Once we start giving up civil liberties they become very hard to get back and that is part of how I see this.
Information can be used in a variety of ways and once this is collected I wonder what is going to happen with it.
Two bills have been introduced so far–S.436 in the Senate and H.R.1076 in the House. Each of the companion bills is titled “Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act,” or Internet Safety Act.
Each contains the same language: “A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user.”
Translated, the Internet Safety Act applies not just to AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and so on–but also to the tens of millions of homes with Wi-Fi access points or wired routers that use the standard method of dynamically assigning temporary addresses. (That method is called Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP.)
“Everyone has to keep such information,” says Albert Gidari, a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm in Seattle who specializes in this area of electronic privacy law.
The legal definition of electronic communication service is “any service which provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications.” The U.S. Justice Department’s position is that any service “that provides others with means of communicating electronically” qualifies.
That sweeps in not just public Wi-Fi access points, but password-protected ones too, and applies to individuals, small businesses, large corporations, libraries, schools, universities, and even government agencies. Voice over IP services may be covered too.
Under the Internet Safety Act, all of those would have to keep logs for at least two years. It “covers every employer that uses DHCP for its network,” Gidari said. “It covers Aircell on airplanes– hose little pico cells will have to store a lot of data for those in-the-air Internet users.”
Social Networks and Love
Here is an interesting article on CNN about social networks and relationships. It ties into how many people have used Facebook or similar media to connect with old friends and lost loves.
Not to mention how social media has also facilitated new relationships.
More than one-third (35 percent) of U.S. adult Internet users have a profile on a social networking site, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s daily tracking survey of 2,251 adults.
As more people join social networks like MySpace and Facebook, getting back in touch with old friends and lovers is becoming increasingly easy.
A search on both networks turns up a handful of groups dedicated to lost loves and first loves. Although neither site formally tracks the number of groups dedicated to the topic, MySpace spokeswoman Jamie Schumacher says it’s common for users to meet on the site and fall in love and end up together.
Everyone Wants Their Own Lightning Gun
Shooting lightning bolts isn’t just for wizards anymore. Ok, I am kind of down on the idea of being able to shoot people with lightning.
It is just not sporting, not unless your opponent has some sort of invisibility cloak or the ability to shoot magic missiles back at you.