Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 (
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However, as the data shows, CAN-SPAM hasn't changed the United States' rank as the number one producer of spam e-mail. Despite a few high-profile arrests, CAN-SPAM is not getting the job done, much to the surprise of no one.

No kidding.
This is what happens when Congress listens to businesses and lobbyists instead of people and people organizations.
The number one issue with the CAN-SPAM act is common in bad federal laws: it preempts stronger state laws which makes the federal law a
maximum instead of providing a
minimum bar of protection. Now that the act has been proven by time to be completely worthless, I wonder what congress will do.
Actually, no I don't, I think I know exactly what they'll do.
Tags:
Congress
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 (
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It looks like they're
not meeting any of the political, economic, or social targets for Iraq according to a report that's been leaked early and is making its way around the Internet.
What remains to be seen is what effect this will have on the senators who still support Bush and his Iraq strategy.
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Tags:
George Bush
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 (
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Beware of the new scam that spammers have thought up. Now they’re sending fake e-cards which can trick a recipient into opening a website or even downloading a virus without realizing it. The problem with e-cards is that people are already used to receiving these randomly (since you never know when you might get an e-card) and they have always required that you click the link in the e-mail to get your actual card.
It looks like e-card companies are going to need to address this by only putting the card reference number in the e-mail and making people come to their site directly and enter it instead of using in-email links. Chances are that the e-card companies will be reluctant to do so since any added steps or difficulty will reduce the number of users willing to look at the cards, but they may not have a choice if this scam gets out of hand.
Friday, July 6th, 2007 (
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The agreement is intended to encourage the sharing of confidential scientific and other information between EFSA and the FDA, such as methodologies to ensure that food is safe.

This is good news considering the
massive amounts of food safety problems recently reported concerning China (where it seems like everything but Americans are made). But the Chinese people are no happier about it than the rest of us apparently:

"There's a great deal of concern, a great deal of anger as well at the government for what appears to them to be a lack of concern about food and health safety standards -- basic things that for a while, Chinese people took for granted."

Doesn't sound that different from us. The FDA is a failure as a regulatory body
often favoring businesses over people.
It's too bad that the Chinese system of
punishing corrupt agency directors can't be used here 🙂
Tags:
Good Stuff
Thursday, July 5th, 2007 (
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One of the biggest problems with the iPhone is that they're exclusive to AT&T's service (
a company that is at the very bottom of cell providers due to privacy problems). Fortuneately, it was only a matter of time before the good hackers of the world broke that link and they're
making some progress already.
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Tags:
Good Stuff
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 (
5 comments)

Spyware: Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user's Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. Once installed, the spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else.

Because of the End User License Agreement of Vista,
Microsoft arguably has the legal right to collect a large amount of data on you and report it back to their home servers. Some will say that they're not hidden, but is being buried in a giant EULA that most people don't have the expertise to understand really the same as full disclosure?

Microsoft says that users have the possibility to disable or not use the features and services altogether. But at the same time Windows update is crucial to the security of Windows Vista, so turning it off is not really an option, is it?

Not only that, but you have to know this a problem and then perform the immense amount of work required to identify all the various services and features that spy on you and disable them properly. By the time you're done, you won't really be using much of the software that came with Vista in the first place.
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Tags:
Consequences,
If You Only Knew,
Windows
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 (
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I really did wonder if
Bush would have the guts to pardon Libby which only furthers the image that he's cultivated over the years as being someone who completely flouts the law. To be straight, he didn't actually
pardon him, just commuted, but that still means that Libby won't be seing the inside of a jail.
He's left instead with a $250,000 fine and probation, but gosh if that 3 year sentance wasn't "excessive".
Bush couldn't allow that for a loyal lier. Torture is ok for people that look like terrorists, but
bushies remain ever safe.

The president noted Libby supporters' argument that the punishment did not fit the crime for a ''first-time offender with years of exceptional public service.

Oh really?
He was convicted of a "five-count indictment alleging perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to FBI investigators" during an investiagation of presidential misconduct. His actions shielded the nation's highest criminal and this quote definitely applies:

"People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem"

If ever someone someday pardons Bush and Cheney,
their career will die (I hope).
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Tags:
George Bush
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 (
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From the "Wow that's funny, though very, very sad" department, we hear a story of a T-Mobile rep who tries
desperately to keep a customer from cancelling his account because of buying the new iPhone.

The best part is probably when Vic asks Matt if he still wants to stay with Tmobile and Matt says, "No," and then Vic asks, "Was that a yes?"
They try to sell him to taking to the Tmobile Wing, give him a month of free service, or reduce his service fee to $20 a month and keep his phone "as a backup."

Though very funny because this happened to someone with the tenacity to see it through, it's sad because this is the kind of back-handed harrassement that customers often have to go through to cancel services. Just look at the famous
AOL cancellation video from not that long ago.
Of course, the other sad part is that the iPhone is
AT&T service which we all know to avoid.
Monday, July 2nd, 2007 (
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There's a lot of angry news out there saying that the
US Supreme Court's recent ruling against school diversity plans is a major set back to racial equality. The catalyst was a suit brought by parents who's kids had been the subject of discrimination:

One plaintiff in the case was a white woman in Louisville whose son was denied a transfer to attend kindergarten in a school that needed more black pupils to keep its minority population at the district-required minimum of 15 percent.

Excuse me, but isn't still discrimination even if the kid is white?

We only hope those schools will continue to value racial diversity and will make the effort to identify and use other methods to integrate classrooms.

How about accepting whoever lives in the area? If you're in a primarily white town, the students will reflect that. If you're in a highly hispanic or black neighborhoods, you'll probably end up with hispanic and black children. Discriminiation will never end if we have all these laws that focus only on skin color (no matter what the reason).
Tags:
Schools
Monday, July 2nd, 2007 (
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This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Hopefully, this will go to a full showdown between him and congress. But considering any kind of proceedings to force the information from him will take longer than he has in office, chances are that it may not mean much.
I wonder what kind of repercussions there are for someone who has been proven to abuse the office after the fact?
Tags:
Congress,
George Bush