privacy

Courtesy of Citizens for Legitimate Government:
The NSA is doing continuous intercepts of phone calls and personal email of all Americans, not to mention foreigners.  In a manner that hasn’t been stated, someone momentarily roused Congress from its slumbers and it became irritated because it discovered the NSA’s spying is much worse than they initially disclosed.
Are [...]

Emboldened by the reviews of other bloggers (both of them), I downloaded the latest alpha of Ubuntu 9.04.  I decided to take the safe route and install in a virtual machine.  Here are the particulars:

host machine: Xubuntu 8.10
VMplayer: latest
vmappliance: live cd boot

The initial attempt had the 2G virtual hard drive that comes with the appliance.  [...]

Today the FAA released the tapes from the flight that went down into the Hudson River.  The captain was hailed as a hero and one would be hard-pressed to disagree.
What I find most interesting is that the FAA released the tapes in the first place.
They still won’t release the 9-11 tapes, citing privacy, etc.

Twas the night before Christmas, from here to L.A.
And nothing was stirring, except the NSA.
The wiretaps were placed at the phone companies
They’re listening in, from a fax to a sneeze.
The press were nestled all snug in their beds
While printing everything the government said.
And my wife with her cell phone and me with email
None of us [...]

More than 4,500 people received free flu shots Saturday at Bucks County’s third annual Pandemic Flu Drill.
Come on down!! Barbecue and free flu shots! It’s our third year anniversary! Free masks and duct tape!!!
The National Retail Federation wants to help retailers prepare for the worst.

Emergency officials tested the county’s Points of Dispensing [...]

Top NSA Scribe Takes Us Inside The Shadow Factory
See?  I’m not making this shit up!
Maryland Police Put Activists’ Names On Terror List
What a super idea!
Homeland Security’s Space-Based Spying Goes Live
They see you when you’re sleeping…
NSA Whistleblowers Reveal Extent of Eavesdropping
Hint: it was kind of unnecessary and widespread.
UK Government Says More Spying Needed
Well, you have to [...]

As I mentioned elsewhere, beta 1 of Firefox 3.1 is available.
Please read this description of one of its features:
Another major feature that is included in this release is Mozilla’s new implementation of the W3C Geolocation Specification. It allows web applications to obtain information about the user’s geographical location through a simple JavaScript API. In beta [...]

Stories about your rights being stolen or items on the periphery.
TSA Screener Helped Himself To $200,000 Worth Of Your Stuff
Don’t forget to keep those bags unlocked, people!
Chertoff: No Big Brother approach to ‘Net security for DHS
If he says No Big Brother approach, watch your rights and your wallet.
It’s a short list tonight but remain vigilant.  [...]

Starting today I’ll be `organizing’ things a bit by putting the more blatant rights grabs on one page.  Don’t worry - this is the closest I ever get to organization.
What Are ‘Community Standards’ When It Comes To Obscenity Online?
that sure as hell isn’t my community..
Most People Don’t Realize Their ISPs Are Already Spying On Them
read [...]

Here’s yet another in the series of “Before you call me a paranoid raving lunatic” blogs.
Right after 9-11, Operation Highlander got started.  Poorly organized, hastily staffed, and given an illegal mandate to violate your civil rights.
Rest assured there were counterparts in at least two countries.  I’ll go with the UK and Australia, but that’s my [...]