Trace who is linking to your site Free Speech 3/5/2001; 10:40:28 PM From Hack the Planet:  'The Register: Trace who is linking to your site. "A British company has come up with what it claims to be the first true map of the Web. The LinkMap will let site owners track inbound links to their sites, and is aimed at deep linking." And all this time I was using obsolete stuff like Google and referer logs.

Stomp the identity thieves Privacy from Companies 3/5/2001; 8:55:38 PM 'Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country, and there's no doubt that the Internet makes it easier. But while some argue that sequestering personal information from the Web is the only solution, I have seen the future of identity theft, and I believe that approach would prove a complete disaster.... 'Regardless of motives, what makes all this thievery possible is the system by which people are issued identification documents, and the practices of verifying identity.

LinkBack woes: The Ultimate Woe LinkBack 3/4/2001; 10:25:26 PM Well... I've got a confession. I toasted a 20 GB hard drive, with many unique copies of many things that I have now lost forever, including several tens of personal, irreplacable music files that I wrote and tons of other things. A quick slip of the finger was all it took, and now it's all gone, despite several days of frantic attempts at recovery.

Napster Clone's Curious Terms DMCA 3/4/2001; 9:19:12 PM 'Aimster encrypts everything that is moved around its network, including all files and directories. It is impossible for anyone outside the system to monitor the network without circumventing the security. Breaking the encryption is illegal under the DMCA because the network and its programming code are copyrighted. 'This leaves copyright owners such as the music and movie industries unable to access the network to monitor the traffic without first breaking the very law they helped get pushed through Congress in 1998.

The real Slim Shady General IP Issues 3/3/2001; 11:26:14 PM 'But here's the Internet, which at a very fundamental level is all about copying. Consider email, the single most-used application on the Net. You don't ever really "send" a message when you use email. Instead, you make a chain of copies. When you hit the Send button, your ISP's or company's mail server makes a copy of the message. Another mail server, somewhat closer to your message's destination, gets yet another copy, and then another server, then another, and so on until a copy arrives at the recipient's mail server.

Juror may have sent "guilty" e-mail to 900 people Misc. 3/2/2001; 5:28:36 PM Another interesting computers-affects-justice story (see preceding item). 'When you serve on a jury, the judge makes it clear: Don't talk to anyone about the case. But one juror may have broken that rule in a big way -- by writing an e-mail that went out to 900 people. '"Just say he's guilty and let's get on with our lives!

British Child Justice and "Anonymity for Life" Misc.3/2/2001; 2:46:51 PM Note: Despite the title, this is not a story about privacy, it's a story about justice and a particularly unusual Internet effect.The story behind that link is relatively long. To summarize, many years ago two ten-year old boys brutally murdered a two-year old boy in Britain. You may recall the news story... I believe it was international and I seem to remember something about it.

Wierd spam, man... Humor/Amusing 2/28/2001; 11:29:33 PM I just recieved the following spam message, suitably de-HTML'ed: Sooner or later the antis spammers will win but in the mean time  I will keep bringing you the news at http:/ /www.global-prosperity.com if this site is not working go to this one and you can see http:/ /www.geocities.com/downwithigp Links deliberately broken but those are the real URLs... I figure why hide it?  Can you believe it?

Telemarketing tracking Personal Commentary2/28/2001; 12:34:46 PM I got another telemarketer phone call yesterday. Started out by asking for "Mark somebody-or-other", whereby I told them there is no person by that name here. They confirmed my number... then started into their speil anyhow! This made the "This is a courtesy call" part particularly amusing... a courtesy call when you don't even know who I am?(Side question: Can anybody tell me what a courtesy call is supposed to mean?

My apologies Personal Notes2/28/2001; 11:38:58 AM I'd like to apologize for the further lack of posting to this 'blog. My computer system has recovered, but my biological systems went down. Next week is Spring break, and boy do I need it! I think I want to spend an hour just sitting on the couch, doing nothing but basking in the sun (although the odds of there being sunlight are about one out of five, no exagerration unfortunately.