Political corruption again?

May 14, 2010 — BarryK

Can't say that I'm surprised...

http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=2957

Comments

Politicians Again
Username: JustGreg
Why do politicians think they can decide on what should be done on technical issues. In discussing technical issues with my local state and federal representatives, it amazes on the lack of understanding they have on technical issues. They seem to go what is recommended by their biggest contributor or the bureaucracy. They do not want to take the time to understand what they are doing by passing a law. Too often, they do not read completely the entire law or regulation they are about to pass."14 May 2010, 21:33"01593"208.103.68.246'standards? "prehistoric"This is an argument I've had repeatedly over decades. One opponent talks about the benefits of standardization M$ has brought to information technology. Our disagreement starts with M$ BASIC, which is ancient history. When it comes to HTML, I get real incomprehension. Of course M$ implements the standard, it also adds numerous extensions, he says. Do you realize there are plenty of websites using M$ software which a browser meeting the published standard cannot begin to display? In that case, the "extensions" are not extensions they are undocumented deviations from the standard. Undocumented "standards" mean M$ can do what it damn well pleases, and everyone else can play follow the leader. Couple this with legislation which effectively extends non-disclosure agreements on DRM to people who never signed them, and you have a recipe for permanent lock-in, enforced by law. Secret data interchange standards mean these people who are so concerned about intellectual property not only keep their intellectual property, but also control your ability to use your own. The idea that I should have to sign a complicated legal document to type a letter and save it in a form I can expect to access 10 years in the future should have been laughed out of court. I think the breakdown looming ahead, when any form of Windows is suddenly exposed as unmaintainable, and data in proprietary formats becomes inaccessible, will have crippling effects on confidence, producing an economic earthquake. The aftershocks will go on long after the initial problem is fixed. (Say, just why did the stock market drop 900 points in a day?) "14 May 2010, 21:35"01593"68.203.76.50'hugely important times"stray"This goes to show that this juncture in history is one of huge stakes as far as liberties for individuals (aka the working class.) Methinks we ought do our darndest to offer users the most easy route possible to use and advocate open tech such as Ogg Theora and HTML5 and make it the default to shun bullies of cyberspace like Adobe Flash. Alongside Slashdot.org and ArsTechnica, some URLs with which to keep current: http://news.cnet.com/8300-13578_3-38.xml (their Politics & Law feed) www.stallman.org www.epic.org www.eff.org (sorry that these are pretty US-centric, please add similar ones for your region.) ps HUGE apologies on failing to get that list of somewhat-more-progressive media streamlinks together as promised.. been overwhelmed with trying to keep afloat fiscally.. peace! -stray Username: 15 May 2010, 3:20
"01593"67.159.44.184'local newspaper"greg"According to this newspaper article...Google has admitted collecting data... or as the article says "Vacuuming" interesting term... and agreed to stop. Problem today is data-information- is power and money. http://www.startribune.com/science/93806759.html"16 May 2010, 3:51"01593"72.100.46.33'people trust The Cloud (megaconglomerate corporations) too much"stray"Thanks for that newspaper link. People sending their personal info over unencrypted public wifi hotspots. Thugs like Google might say theyll stop sniffing, but various and sundry others wont stop. Folks need to utilise things like SOCKS (ssh tunneling) or at least Tor. (Have yet to see if Lupu finally has GLIBC 2.7+ so modern tor versions can be compiled. Will post to the fora when I get to it.) Dont suppose someone will want to put together a VoyeurDog puplet that automatically fires up kismet (multiple wificard support?) and whatever that app is that selects out interesting bits of traffic (i.e. images) to give a slideshow of what everyone else in the cafe is browsing as you chat on PSIP over coffee.. ? What the kids are connecting to, though, makes such wifi-securing efforts pointless though, when it's god-awful Facebook for example.. privacy.org Username: 16 May 2010, 7:59
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Tags: general