Seek! » Politics

phone spying

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:57:24 +0000

Sprint and AT&T have admitted to secretly installing a piece of software called Carrier IQ which tracks everything you type into your phone and where you go. While there is nothing saying that they do anything with this data, it exists if the police/FBI/whatever want to grab it or if a lawyer wants it for evidence. I can just imagine the folks at AT&T saying “OBTW, there’s a record of everyone you called and every text you sent and everywhere you went. Didn’t we mention that? We don’t really look at it, we just like to have logs of where you go. It, uhhhh, ummmm, it’s fun!” Creepy!

At what point is it appropriate to turn into a raving protestor and get ignored by the news? How do we actually affect change?

OWS

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:04:34 +0000

“Our top political and economic institutions are not structured as representative bodies in any real sort of way. Rather, the idea of representation is being used to legitimize the vast decision-making powers of the ruling elite. Few people sit at the helm of this giant ship, and some of the ones who do are incompetent. With cracks in the hull expanding each day, the 99 percent are feeling powerless to change course and stay afloat.”> -Washington Post: Why Occupy Wall Street wants nothing to do with our politicians

Double Your Money Back!

admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 03:56:41 +0000

Some crazy scientist found an investment that governments can make to save themselves double what they put in. The problem is that it looks like being soft on crime.

Educating inmates reduces recidivism to the tune of 1 in 3 ex-cons who get a GED and a job don’t come back to prison. That savings adds up to about 2 times the cost of the schooling.

Yeah, the inmates should have taken advantage of their first chance to get a high school diploma for free. Yeah, it’s no one’s responsibility to improve your life but your own. But we get to help our fellow man and we benefit from it too.

Economy

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:55:46 +0000

The legislature has move tools in its toolbox than spending to stimulate the economy. There are ways to make it easier to hire new employees. I bet there are a hundred laws that can be reworked to make entrepenneur’s lives easier. Improving the patent system could unlock a huge amount of economic growth. Heck, even chasing fraud would improve the economy. Spending our way out is just visionless blundering.

German Town Makes Electricity to Sell

admin — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:51:11 +0000

the article

The government and citizens of this village have invested in renewable energy production at four times what the village’s inhabitants need and they’re selling the extra back to the grid. 4 million euros per year coming in. Nicely done!

“The village’s green initiative first started in 1997 when the village council decided that it should build new industries, keep initiatives local, bring in new revenue, and create no debt.”

e-Voting!

admin — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:13:01 +0000

The Texas Supreme Court has declared that the voters there can’t sue to get electronic voting machines which are capable of being audited and recounted. According to the court, the voters need to prove that they were wronged somehow. Sooo, after someone hacked the machines to steal an election, the voters would need the sort of papertrail that they are suing to get. Then, and only then, can they sue to get their papertrail.

-via ArsTechnica, Texas Supreme Court: no e-voting paper trail required

It is my professional opinion, as a software engineer, that any software product can be hacked eventually. It is an invitation for abuse to deploy a voting system which relies only on software. If you are asked to vote on a machine that does not include paper evidence, I would recommend casting a write-in or absentee ballot.

I remember too

admin — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 06:06:35 +0000

I heard this terrible bit of hate mongering music on the radio late tonight:

I hear people saying we don’t need this war
But, I say there’s some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground
We didn’t get to keep ‘em by backing down
They say we don’t realize the mess we’re getting in
Before you start your preaching let me ask you this my friend

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell
And you say we shouldn’t worry ’bout bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

Darryl Worley – Have You Forgotten?(youtube)

No sir, I have not forgotten that terrible tragedy. I also have not forgotten the stupid war that we didn’t fight hard enough to prevent. Here’s a quick reminder of my problem with that war.

In small words, we goofed. We attacked the wrong country. By the time we got around to the right country, Bin Laden was over the border and in Pakistan which refuses to allow US troops in.

And, yes, I vividly remember the calls to nuke the entire region into a glass crater. The calls to indiscriminately slaughter, maim, poison and irradiate the millions living in a place you couldn’t find on a labeled map. Please don’t turn off your brain when bad things happen.

No sir, I have not forgotten.

wikileaks

admin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 05:11:33 +0000

If you’re the sort who likes the actual facts, here’s where you can find the wikileaks cables. The ones I read didn’t look particularly damning. Cruddy, and very political but not that surprising. And I can’t argue much about the US trying to limit the number of man portable anti-air missiles floating around non- governmental forces.

Why I’m done with Apple

admin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:53:44 +0000

Folks ask why I didn’t stick with Apple for my second smart phone. It’s because they act like nannies and limit what their users can do. Most recently, Apple banned an app that presents Android news. And, as I looked into it, I found out that Apple gets to approve each and every issue of a magazine before it’s allowed to be published via an iPhone app. That’s just not acceptable.

TSA compromise

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:07:41 +0000

Looks like the TSA is going to compromise by doing everything the same long enough that it stops being news.

A NY Times article has some great quotes. “in the sort term there will not be any changes.” And “most Americans are not used to a real law-enforcement pat-down like that.”

Yeah, it’s surprising how few law-abiding citizens have been arrested or treated like criminals isn’t it?

VIP’s like TV magician Penn (& Teller) and congressmen can opt out of security. Some people are, after all, more equal than others.

In the land of the free, routine search is not acceptable.