Make your car less attractive to theives

(Image is in the Public Domain)

I have always said the best defense against theft is to have a lousy car. Now I might want a nice car someday, but there must be a way to make it at least look bad…. Well here's a good example: stickers that make your car look rusted.

It would be simple enough to scrape away paint and let it rust for real or bang in the metal here and there, but real damage affects resale and could end up causing need of repairs. This solution is far more elegant.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

"DHS is essentially whittling Real ID down to nothing—all in the name of denying Real ID is a failure," said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani. "Real ID is in its death throes, and any signs of life are just last gasps."

Let's hope so.

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

It's a start. Let's hope it goes somewhere.

More coverage found @: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=29792&sectionid=3510203 and http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/04/articles_of_impeachment_to_be.html

(Image is in the Public Domain)

A depressing report from a few California universities shows that most people have no idea to what extent their online activities are tracked and used against them. This report doesn't offer any solutions other than to try to opt-out of tracking (if it's even possible to do so) though they also state that many companies find clever ways of circumventing promises not to track and do it anyway.

If you don't want to be tracked, make sure to use adblocking software and turn off images in your e-mail. This removes many of the techniques used to track you.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

Finally, some federal guidelines for e-voting have been released. Of course, they're voluntary so we'll see if they actually do any good.

(Image is used under the Pixabay license)

There's noise about the government trying to secure the right to read anyone's e-mails any time without any kind of warrant. Since this is still in the works and nothing concrete has happened yet, I'll wait before saying much about it. You're free to read up on the issue using that link though.

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Have you ever bought a hard drive that didn't seem as large as was advertised? Why is my 80 gigabyte hard drive showing less than 75 actual gigabytes?

The reason is that companies like Seagate define their gigabytes by a standard that no one but hard drive manufacturers use which is this:

The first, while semantically correct, has no bearing on computing terms at all and is highly misleading. Though the term "giga" technically means 1 billion, in computing terms 1 gigabyte is 1024 megabytes which translates to the second number you see there. For a hard drive manufacturer to play with numbers like that, I say they deserve some retribution.

In this case, they've settled on a class action lawsuit (without admitting any fault of course). Customers of Seagate will be able to get a 5% refund on Hard drives they've purchased… assuming they find out about the settlement of course.

That said, to see the settlement information, go to this site.

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Schneier has a great summary article of how citizen informants combined with officials who won't take responsibility for over-reacting over the last few years is making America look dumber and dumber every day.

Here's an excerpt:

Causing a city-wide panic over blinking signs, a guy with a pellet gun, or stray backpacks, is not evidence of doing a good job: it's evidence of squandering police resources. Even worse, it causes its own form of terror, and encourages people to be even more alarmist in the future. We need to spend our resources on things that actually make us safer, not on chasing down and trumpeting every paranoid threat anyone can come up with.

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I don't know what authority or notoriety this group has, but if you want to have a say in what their recommendations for e-voting guidelines are, now's your chance.

(Image is in the Public Domain)

In the wake of every tragedy come scammers looking to profit off the victims. It's sad, but true.

Fortunately, California (historically a very forward–thinking state), is prepared:

“Unlicensed contractors who offer their services during this state of emergency will face up to three years in state prison – and we will show no mercy, ? Dumanis said. “This is a felony crime, not a misdemeanor. ?

Brown issued a warning to those who might try to illegally raise prices for goods, services, or hotels. "Anyone who tries to wrongfully profit from the suffering of others will be investigated by the California Department of Justice, ? he warned.