One of the web-comics I've recently discovered has been doing a series of comics about the state of America in the last few days and he's right on. Check them out for a good laugh (or cry). Uncle Sam and Liberty – Hmm. Similar concept to this one Tough Times Uncle Sam's Addiction. – This one is brilliant on so many levels. Star Wars Sam America Sleeps The Devil and execs Tags: Webcomics

Brilliantly written though not just a little depressing.

And although the president now understands—or so he says—that we must begin to wean ourselves from oil and coal, we have on his watch become more deeply dependent on both.

Tags: Bushiness

Well, not really, but they could be. You see, John McCain believes in light market regulation. Because, gosh darned it, that’s worked so well in the past… And for your amusement, click for today’s political cartoon on the issue. And another about the bailout. Tags: McCain, Public Confidence

So I know that to buy a website that either the name of a famous person or business in the hopes of making them pay you bunches of money when they get smart enough to want that site is Cybersquatting and is illegal. Simple enough. I also know that buying a domain that similar to a major site in the hopes of getting traffic from people who make spelling mistakes is also illegal. For example, if I were to register Hotmial and I got lots of traffic from people who meant to go to Hotmail. Clearly bad. But here's the important question: what about ad squatters? Ad squatters are what I call those people who buy up every possible domain that consists of words or letter combinations that people would likely buy, park annoying ads on them and leave them there for all time. For you to actually get that site, you would have to pay a lot more money than if the site weren't registered assuming the ad squatter decides to sell at all. I say ad squatting should also be illegal because if someone like me wants to register a domain name for a new business or website, I'm screwed because every possible good name has been taken. If some real company or individual somewhere legitimately used the site for their own blog or store, I wouldn't mind, but these jerks only have worthless ads and no content and do nothing to add to the Internet as a whole. In fact they make it worse because search engines often list them as relevant due to the domain name alone when in fact they have nothing useful on their pages at all. I've read the stories about how these people make millions a year on these annoying ad pages, and I say screw them. I don't begrudge someone from coming up with a brilliant idea and making a lot of money, but when you're choking the opportunities of everyone else to do it at the same time, that's not ok. So question time: Is this already illegal and either way is there anything someone can do to get a domain name away from one of these weasels? If not, does anyone know a senator they can convince to introduce a new bill or modification to one of the existing cybersquatting laws?

The Thomas v. Captiol case was something we all watched with horror as some poor woman was slapped with a fine of $220,000 simply for having downloaded some music. However, that case has recently been overturned due to the fact that the RIAA's argument that merely having copyrighted music available for download is a crime. Tags: DRM, Jammie Thomas, Thomas v Capitol

It's hardly surprising that there has been a huge backlash against Spore due to the decision to include DRM. I'm a little surprised, but very happy, that someone had the tenacity to file a class action lawsuit against them for it. In the end, no company has the right to control your game playing to this degree. It's a shame that a game from such a well-renowned company would be smeared and tarnished because their foolish decision to treat their customers like criminals. I guarantee that if Starcraft II does something like this, I will pass it by only buying it after some enterprising hacker releases a fix sans DRM that I can download. (H/T to slashdot for the link) Tags: DRM

Bruce Schneier explains that because screeners take no action with liquids other than to throw them away, there’s no reason a terrorist won’t keep trying until they succeed. Check it out. Tags: TSA

Most credit reporting companies have made it as difficult and cumbersome as possible to get a credit freeze because they desperately hope that by putting barriers in your way, they can discourage you from doing it (in my opinion). That said, Transunion has suddenly decided to offer FREE freezes to everyone, even people who live in a state that allow them to charge a fee. Not only that, but they are also allowing you to do it through an ONLINE system rather than a cumbersome certified mail system. I'm so shocked I had to to confirm it and here it is: There's no telling how long this will be the case so make sure you get it done now while you can. Tags: Identity Theft

Brilliant:

First off, Verizon is doing away with contracts under certain conditions. Let’s face it, contracts are for cowards. Carriers had to default to them because of the industry’s spotty record of customer service. It was their way of preventing you from fleeing.

That aside, the news is that Verizon has decided to no longer force contracts on people who already have a Verizon phone and will only use them when people want to buy a phone at the subsidized rate (in other words, those penny phones that actually cost several hundred dollars). It’s hard to believe that a company like Verizon would do such a thing, but the Wall Street Journal confirms it. They say that there will be an activation fee, but no termination fee. Finally!

Good news for Georgians. Tags: Credit Freeze, Identity Theft