I know cases such as these are considered by doctors to be anomalies and ‘bad’ mutations; but how will we know, once that time arrives, that we as a species are trying to evolve some more to adapt to changing conditions?
UPDATE: Petter has a good definition here.
That was a short-lived offer by Microsoft, but they pulled the plug. Either too many people wanted to get it for free or privacy advocates have indeed clamped down on the issue. I think the issue would be transferred licenses1. Think corner shops that otherwise sell pirated copies of Windows. Now they would sell ‘legal’ copies, but the customer wouldn’t be the wiser - and their whole life would be under the watchful eyes of Microsoft.
My world is largely at peace right now, but that doesn’t mean all is well on this western front. Welcome to the brief! «Continue Reading»
Ars is reporting that Rogers ISP started playing with code injection into webpages that go through their pipes in order to bring ads to customers. This should make some people angry, considering that Rogers has its history riddled with mishaps. It’s also an issue that I believe can be easily solved with AdBlock.1
What some lawyers and some companies learned a long time ago is that if you want to keep something private in the age of the Internet, you shouldn’t be coming up with ridiculous legal threats to protect its privacy. It will just blow over and get in the mainstream, generating crazy page hits. Push hard to get some documents kept out of a magazine, and you will get a lot of attention. Try hard to hide code you’ve leaked, and it will multiply.
Take your customers and their friends for idiots and you will get buried. Wow, I hope Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is not what Harvard hopes all of its students turn out to be like. «Continue Reading»
Zune maker Microsoft pays royalties to the RIAA for every unit sold in the idea that all these devices may be used for copyright infringement.The RIAA, in turn, has continued to sue its customers under the pretext of bringing criminals to justice, although so far it managed only to alienate people. They are also generally assuming that because they don’t make as much money as they want to, somebody must be stealing from them. So who else but their own customers are the criminals. Screw evidence.Entering the US means you have to prove, somehow, you are not a criminal. Apparently, at some point it was decided that only terrorists and thieves1 want to visit the US to do bad things to its people and/or its economy. So even if you are not being interrogated by customs officers, you are treated like a common criminal: fingerprints, possibly retina scans, background checks and data retention and mining to asses your danger levels. But of course, why should it be different? A country must protect its assets. Security and economy. Freedom. Freedom for corporations to strengthen their share prices and get a better grasp on their target demographics. Unfortunately, there are signs that the US is not a democracy anymore. It is not a free country. Certainly, there aren’t many “free” and “brave” people making house here. The foolishly brave fight wars to serve the puppet government of multinational corporate conglomerates. Those that want to be free quickly become terrorists, radical and dangerous activists, nuts, crazies, freaks. I sound like a broken record because I don’t have the strength or the indifference to change the track.
Time for a little weekend-end ramble session. Today we’re focusing on Facebook’s follies, Department of Homeland Security’s new massive profiling campaign and The Pirate Bay’s support of artists.
