License Plate Lust Personal Notes5/2/2000; 6:31:55 PM Feb 11, 2000: I normally try to keep my personal life out of this 'blog, but this is kinda cool I think... I'd actually like to have this license plate someday (though I think my state of Michigan doesn't allow seven letters).How many people's domain names are short enough to fit on a license plate, including the '.com' or '.org'?

Manila Experiences
Internet/Weblog Culture
5/2/2000; 6:29:50 PM Feb. 11, 2000: So, everybody else is posting their experiences with Manila. I thought something a little different was in order, so here are my Manila Experiences. Read these if you're thinking about getting a Manila site, but think you don't need something that is designed for people who aren't too experienced with the web. I was surprised by the results, you will be too.

Reno, FBI feast on bad network security
Surveillance and Privacy from Government
5/2/2000; 6:26:37 PM Feb. 11, 2000: I've been waiting the past couple of days for just this sort of article on the latest Denial of Service attacks. "FBI officials don't appear to know much of anything, except that they desperately need heaps more money, and that Western Civilisation desperately needs their increasing intervention in all matters digital. Indeed, it was such a good setup for DoD that conspiracy paranoiacs will soon be claiming that the FBI conducted the attacks themselves, to justify increased spending and increased intervention in Net-related law enforcement." From The Register.

Speculation on the Motives in the DVD Trial
DVD & DeCSS
5/2/2000; 6:24:38 PM Feb. 11, 2000: More demonstration of why I don't find it impossible to believe that those who would trample our rights can win in the end: An article speculating (though I don't think too wildly) on the real motivations behind the DVD lawsuits. After all, the MPAA don't need to squash all other options, only prevent the public from ever thinking of them as real options.

How many of your friends know what PGP is? (Do you know what PGP is?) I know what it is, but I don't use it. If I don't use it, why would anyone else, who doesn't know half of what I know about these issues facing us? (I suppose this means I should start... but none of my e-mail recipients would have a clue what to do with a PGP-encoded e-mail.)

Passport Access & Resumes Privacy from Companies5/2/2000; 6:16:53 PM Feb 10, 2000: Hey, PassportAccess solves my What Is A Web Page? controversy in their reply to mathowie's request for them to remove his resume from their system.Per your request, we have removed your resume from our database. Our technology works by searching the Internet (public domain sites such as Yahoo and Excite) and collecting resumes that match a specific criteria. Once you post your resume or any sort of material on the internet it becomes public information and therefore, can be spread from site to site very quickly. This is most likely how we got your resume.Wow. Not even any babbling about the DMCA. Folks, did you need any more evidence that there are companies and people who believe they own everything on the internet?Yahoo, are you aware you're in the public domain? Why doesn't PassportAccess get out of the resume business and start mirroring Yahoo, selling their own ads? After all, Yahoo's in the public domain!Exclusive iRights offer!: For a $2000 sponsership, I will post on the public Internet every resume PassportAccess possesses. They charge $995 for a year of access, the other thousand is for my pocket. Depending on how long it takes I may be forced to charge more. But good news! PassportAccess can't complain, because by making those resume's available on the Internet, don't ya know, they're public domain! They can't add restrictions to public domain material once it's in my grubby little hands, and even if they try, if they can usurp copyright, so can I.(Actually, there are some database protection laws proposed that would turn that into an illegal act, but as far as I know, it hasn't happened yet! Act fast!)OK, the offer is satirical, but there's no reason it has to be. There's nothing stopping somebody from doing that, it seems.Hello! Internet companies, wake up! If you don't want people doing it to you, you can't do it to others. In other words, if you claim people's content as your own, so can I.Sheesh.

Privacy bill would control 'cookies'
Privacy from Companies
5/2/2000; 6:09:50 PM Feb 10, 2000: Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., says he wants to control networks' use of "cookies," or digital ID tags, dropped on Net users' hard drives. OK, great, we've got people who want to do something about the privacy issues on the Internet. Is Sen. Robert Torricelli, or any of his staff, aware that Cookies aren't the problem, tracking people is. Banning cookies isn't any good, Doubleclick can still track you by IP address, they just won't be able to trick your machine into doing the hard work for them.

Things need to change, but they need to change at a high level; ban cookies, and tommorow they'll use some other tracking technique. Want to accomplish something (skipping the debate as to the goodness or badness of the something)? Ban a behavior, like user tracking. Don't go after the hammer, go after the idiot beating heads in with it. Tools aren't the problem; uses are.

FTC Investigates Amazon's Alexa
Privacy from Companies
5/2/2000; 6:06:46 PM Feb 9, 2000: Update on yesterday's Alexa story. Using a packet sniffer to monitor the data travelling between his computer and Alexa's servers, Smith discovered that his full home address had been sent to Alexa while he was using AltaVista's yellow-page service. He also learned that Alexa's servers had received detailed information from an airline ticket purchase he made on Travelocity, and a personal phone call he made to a relative in Florida. Wow!

Criminal Code DVD & DeCSS5/2/2000; 6:04:26 PM Feb 9, 2000: I hate linking to stories after they've made the rounds on the other weblogs, but this one is just so perfect, it could replace my Purpose page. Well, pieces of it anyhow. Every day, in our increasingly networked world, our freedoms and privacy are being stolen from us. And most of us just let it happen -- most of us tend to accept our computer's workings as immutable, that we are chained to an irrational, vindictive, uncontrollable machine destined to rule over our 9-to-5 days.But the machine is not opaque; the rules today need not be the rules of tomorrow.

Amazon, Alexa unit face privacy lawsuits Privacy from Companies5/2/2000; 6:00:49 PM Feb 8, 2000: I don't usually emphasize this issue, but it is one that people should be aware of. Alexa is a browser companion that, among other things, gives a "More Pages Like This One" type-feature. In order to display that information, the software must query the Alexa servers on every page view. This gives them access to your browsing patterns for every page you visit while this tool is activated. They may have stepped over the line, if this article is correct.Some browser companians, such as uTOK, promise never to use your information in that fashion. Other make no such promise. None of them have any other visible residue stream at this time without collecting and selling this information (Third Voice as of two weeks ago still appears not to have sold any ads for the service). And what promises exist can unfortunately be erased if the company in question is aquired by another, which is part of the Doubleclick fiasco. If you really care about your privacy, at the very least, I'd recommend against using any of the browser companions. (update upon conversion to News Item format: Link is now dead, sorry.)

MP3.com files countersuit against RIAA
Music & MP3
5/2/2000; 5:56:33 PM Feb 8, 2000: MP3.com returns file against RIAA's copyright violation suit with a suit against RIAA for "unfair business practices."

They're going to need a sympathetic judge, esp. if the copyright infringement case goes well for RIAA. Hard to accuse 'them' of unfair business practices if you are legally 'stealing' from 'them', isn't it?