February 17, 2003 -
Are You Scared Stupid? Do Tell
- By Michelle Delio, WireNews,
Shuck your shoes and socks
at the airport as your luggage
is blithely loaded onto the
plane without a scan. Wait in
line for the cursory backpack
and bag search before entering a
public building. We endure the
inconveniences forced upon us in
the name of national security by
chanting the mantra "It's okay
if it keeps us safe." ...
February 17, 2003 -
Crummy UCITA Legislation is Back
- By John C. Dvorak,
PCMag.com, There is good
news and bad news. The good news
is that the American Bar
Association refused to endorse
the horrible Uniform Computer
Information Transaction Act (UCITA),
which is designed to standardize
the total legality of rigid
licenses for software and more.
The bad news is that the
promoters of this vile law are
still at it, hoping that a
long-term push will win out
because a fickle public loses
interest over time. Many of the
anti-UCITA Web sites, for
example, are suffering from a
failure to update and will soon
be offline or ridiculously out
of date due to fatigue and
boredom...
February 10, 2003 -
The Space Shuttle Must Be
Stopped - It's
costly, outmoded, impractical
and, as we've learned again,
deadly, BY GREGG EASTERBROOK,
TIME.com, A spacecraft is a
metaphor of national
inspiration: majestic,
technologically advanced,
produced at dear cost and
entrusted with precious cargo,
rising above the constraints of
the earth. The spacecraft
carries our secret hope that
there is something better out
there—a world where we may
someday go and leave the sorrows
of the past behind. The
spacecraft rises toward the
heavens exactly as, in our
finest moments as a nation, our
hearts have risen toward justice
and principle. And when, for no
clear reason, the vessel
crumbles, as it did in 1986 with
Challenger and last week with...
February 10, 2003 -
Government seeks freedom to snoop - By Declan McCullagh,
Special to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--Attorney General John Ashcroft wants
even more power to snoop on the Internet, spy on private conversations,
and install secret microphones, spyware and keystroke loggers.
Ashcroft's Justice Department has quietly crafted a whopping 120-page
proposal that represents the boldest attack yet on our electronic
privacy in the name of thwarting future terrorist attacks. The
nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity posted the draft legislation,
which reads like J. Edgar Hoover's wish list, on its Web site Friday.
Called the Domestic Security Enhancement Act (DSEA), the legislation has
not been formally introduced in Congress, and a spokeswoman for Ashcroft
indicated Friday that it's a work in progress. But the fact that it's
under consideration already, before we know the effects of its USA
Patriot Act predecessor, should make us realize that the Bush
administration thinks "homeland security" is the root password to the
Constitution...
February 13, 2003 -
What's behind the tech brain drain? - By Michael Kanellos,
Special to ZDNet, COMMENTARY--There's a reason U.S. high-tech
companies are hiring an increasing number of engineers and other
employees from overseas: In many cases, they are smarter than us. Often
lost in the debate over H-1B visas and the announcements marking another
ground breaking ceremony by a western company in Asia is the slow, and
arguably inevitable, globalization of the tech industry. In the '80s and
'90s, other nations saw how the United States benefited from the
computer revolution and began to change their tax structures and invest
in university capabilities. France and Spain have invested heavily to
transform a few selected university departments into centers for analog
and microprocessor chip design. China, while attractive for its low
labor rates, has also become a research and development center.
Microsoft's second largest lab sits in Beijing...
February 07, 2003 -
Friends Don't Let Friends Use Camera
Phones - By Paul Boutin,
SLATE.COM, Cell-phone owners prone to
what's known as the drunk dial now have a
whole new way to embarrass themselves:
Phone-makers are packing their latest
models with tiny video cameras and big
color screens (instead of something
useful, like a Breathalyzer). For besotted
late-night callers still learning to
handle unlimited minutes responsibly, this
is enabling technology. Not only will the
rest of us have to listen to your rambling
five-minute voice mails, now we'll have to
look at you, too...
February 09, 2003 -
That was then, this is now -
Colin Powell’s hypocritical reversal on
Osama bin Laden. By William Saletan,
SLATE.COM, If you want to know why
people don’t trust what the United States
says about Iraq, get a load of what
Secretary of State Colin Powell said
Tuesday morning...
