random quotes ... to amuse, inspire, enrage:
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
Иконописиконографияиконимека мебелRosalind Picard, a co-inventor of software that can assess people’s expressions, is marketing the software for people with autistic spectrum disorders, and other users. However, she notes that: Affectiva, Dr. Picard said, intends to offer its technology as “opt-in only,” meaning consumers have to be notified and have to agree to be watched online [...]
Or rather, the phenomenon that is Google cries out for Tom Lehrer. Come out of retirement, Tom! Political satire is not obsolete, notwithstanding Kissinger’s Nobel …. A colleague posted on a listserv a brief note about an article on “Google’s planes”. I thought, no, really? Google is buying planes? for streetview, I imagine — holy [...]
Someone twittered today, “Did you know today was Data Privacy Day?” No, I did not know. But indeed it is. Behold! On January 28, 2009, the United States, Canada, and 27 European countries will celebrate Data Privacy Day. One of the primary goals of Data Privacy Day is to promote privacy education and awareness among [...]
Of course, it’s never surprising when the EFF takes on the most challenging issues in technology law, but it was particularly gratifying to see them arguing to overturn the odious telecommunications immunity passed last year. The Machinist at Salon — a blog I’ve been appreciating more and more lately — has a great summary & [...]
In Burger with a Side of Spies (editorial, NYT 5/7), Eric Schlosser calls for legislation to protect people from private entities, á la the Bill of rights. The article discusses a number of incidents, including spying and infiltration – by HP on journalists; – by a private security firm on Greenpeace & other environmentalist groups; [...]
New Jersey’s Supreme Court has recognized that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their email communications — thus, law enforcement has to get a search warrant or grand jury subpoena. This was under the New Jersey Constitution and applies only to New Jersey. It’s the first major case finding a state constitutional privacy [...]
Speaking of penumbra yet again (1, 2) , I had previously blogged about a Circuit split on laws banning sex toys — it was Valentine’s Day, and I was feeling a bit whimsical, so I wished for a “penumbra” that would strike down stupid laws. LawPundit “ha[s] an opinion” on my wish for a penumbra [...]
Well, the 5th Circuit (Texas) has just said that Texas’s anti-sex-toy-law (memorably mocked by Molly Ivins in this video, available at youtube via pandagon) is unconstitutional, relying heavily on Lawrence (or so I hear, via pharyngula); I haven’t read the case yet). This looks like a pretty clear Circuit split with the 11th Circuit (Georgia, [...]
Or at least those who stuck around for the drug tests. After Gainesville, Florida, implemented drug testing for its library volunteers, the number of volunteers, most of whom were senior citizens, dropped from 55 to 2. Bill Maher gave this story the fisking it deserves, and radref at Radical Reference pointed me to it to [...]
It was the only thing to do, after such postings as: There’s No “War” in “Warrant”1 (12/17): So George Bush secretly authorized the NSA to spy on Americans without warrants or judicial oversight. Oh, it violates your civil liberties, oh, it illegally breaks the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, oh, that tape of you and your [...]
oh happy day! The war on us is progressing nicely and soon we will have won the war against ourselves. Phones are being tapped willy-nilly and surely some of them will generate some useful information to allow us to be held without trial or access to the courts indefinitely under the president’s powers. The government [...]
… DRAFT: a work in progress; will be updated as I review more cases (or find typos) … Well, according to NPR, Judge Sam Alito from the Third Circuit is nominated. I’m sure that everyone will be all over his record on every conceivable issue in no time at all, but I’m looking at his [...]
Yahoo!’s historically less-than-stellar track record of protecting user privacy is made much, much worse by this news: Yahoo! turned over a user’s identity information to the Chinese government, and now journalist Shi Tao has been sentenced to ten years for “e-mailing a government’s plan to restrict media coverage around the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen [...]
In the fourth & final entry in Salon.com’s series on ‘ex-gay’ therapy ministries ['True confessions'], the writer describes how one ex-ex-gay’s attempt to control photographs of him is thwarted by copyright: On the front page of the Exodus International Web site is a photograph of several dozen men and women. The allegedly changed homosexuals, or [...]
siva calls out the folks who keep on talking to men in the public interest tech community & ignoring the women who’ve laid the groundwork: SIVACRACY.NET: Siva Vaidhyanathan’s Weblog: Y (Chromosome) the Same Old Faces? [thanks to copyfight] and an nyu student demonstrates to j. antonin scalia understand that the private sex practices of consenting [...]
privacy: Florida 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that “Rush Limbaugh’s medical records were properly seized by” the investigators looking into Rush’s drug-buying habits. The ACLU had come in on the side of Limbaugh. The First Cir. has granted en banc review [pdf] of the US v. Councilman decision. [Oct. 5] Oral argument scheduled for [...]
“warrenjones” [hi, warren!] sent me this fascinating anti-spy-cam spam: Return-Path: warrenjones @jpopmail.com Received: from mailer.mis.ccu.edu.tw ([140.123.174.3]) ; Wed, 22 Sep 2004 10:19:01 -0700 Received: from sammimail.com (DHCP-116.mis.ccu.edu.tw [140.123.174.116]) by mailer.mis.ccu.edu.tw (8.13.1/8.12.11) with SMTP id i8MHGT5G016090; Thu, 23 Sep 2004 01:16:32 +0800 (CST) (envelope-from warrenjones@jpopmail.com) Message-Id: <200409221716.i8MHGT5G016090@mailer.mis.ccu.edu.tw To: list @mailer.mis.ccu.edu.tw From: “warrenjones” warrenjones @jpopmail.com Subject: eliminate [...]
Sigh. Now i know why i was feeling kinda blue today: On Wed, 9/22, Schwarzenegger signed SB1506, the so-called ‘true-name’ bill, which requires anyone putting copyrighted content on a p2p system to include their name and contact information. [Sacramento: Governor signs Internet piracy bill: E-mail address required to share movies, music online by Mark Martin [...]