tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70324332011-10-27T09:17:26.201-04:00<p>This blog is now closed. </p>Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-60078481044848664642009-07-23T11:50:00.003-04:002010-04-28T06:38:00.097-04:00

I haven't done much with this blog in a long time, but I am now officially closing it, and will not make any new posts. I'm thinking of moving my other blogs as well. Update: I no longer have any active blogs on blogspot. To find out why I'm ending it at this time, read what Google did to this blog. You'll have to click through Google's flag warning you that it's vile and evil. The vileness and

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-3620900029537397372009-07-05T06:04:00.003-04:002009-07-05T06:24:28.579-04:00

Thomas Van Flein, an attorney for Alaska's resigned governor Sarah Palin, has attempted legal intimidation against bloggers and major newspapers: To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as 'fact' that Governor Palin resigned because she is 'under federal investigation' for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-13110573982896476002009-04-29T19:07:00.004-04:002009-04-29T19:30:50.076-04:00

Today I got a call from one of the auto warranty scammers, with a caller ID of 516-858-7142. This is the first time these crooks have hit my home phone number. (I'm on the Do Not Call list and unlisted.) I've filed a report. A comment on whocallsme.com says that these people demand that victims provide their name, address, and social security number to be removed from their list. This simply

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-3038222428417844352009-04-16T19:16:00.003-04:002009-04-16T19:32:52.681-04:00

I'm not really using this blog any more, but it's a convenient place to leave my warranty-scam reports for whoever may find them with a web search. An extended-warranty scammer left a message on my cell-phone voicemail telling me that this was the "last" message I would receive from them (I can only hope I'm so lucky, but the experience of others suggests they'll be calling my phone incessantly

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-39471407499885328852009-01-14T14:02:00.004-05:002009-03-07T20:15:48.394-05:00

Postcard received today from Dealership Warranties, 12131 Dorsett Rd., Maryland Heights, MO 63043. In big letters: MOTOR VEHICLE WARRANTY NOTIFICATION Below it is a meaningless "Registration identification number" and the phone number 1-866-533-9966. The message: VEHICLE SERVICE NOTIFICATION  Dear Gary McGath:   This notification is to inform you that your factory warranty has expired or is

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-58927918211731150382008-12-19T20:23:00.004-05:002008-12-19T20:27:18.583-05:00

This blog is basically inactive, but in case anyone still drops by, I'd like to mention my new blog, Taking License. This is a one-subject blog, on user licenses which you agree to by opening a package or clicking a button, and which you might not even read. Some of those licenses have really nasty features, and I'll be reporting on them.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-40868109514185399652008-09-06T10:07:00.003-04:002008-10-30T14:26:48.038-04:00

As long as I'm posting about scams today, in the hope that someone will find these posts with a web search and not be duped: reunion.com is the latest of the rogue "social networking" sites that asks users to give them their webmail passwords, and then of course spams everyone in their address book. The spam impersonates the owner of the account and tries to get the victim to sign up. Any web

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-40961856351159264442008-09-06T07:34:00.004-04:002008-09-06T08:08:14.871-04:00

Yesterday I received yet another automobile warranty scam postcard: FINAL WARRANTY NOTICE Call 1-888-963-6723 This is to inform you that this is your FINAL NOTICE to extend the warranty coverage on your vehicle. Call us immediately with your exact miles and VIN# to take advantage of this final offer. You have been pre-selected for this exclusive program.   Additional 20% discount off the already

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-24483250609229125352008-08-28T16:49:00.003-04:002008-08-28T16:56:30.528-04:00

I'm not using this blog regularly any more, but will occasionally use it to post items which someone might find with a web search, but aren't permanent enough to go on my regular web site. I've been getting considerable spam at my work address for the past few months from the MIT Alumni Association. Since they take in money, they're allowed to get away with it. Much of the spam was sent through

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-16528756973306242052008-08-21T13:36:00.001-04:002008-08-21T13:39:03.168-04:00

The only handwritten letters I get these days are from people in jail, it seems. The letter I just got from Cory Maye was a surprise; I hadn't written to him in well over a year. He mentions that his direct appeal is due September 25 and hopes his attorneys will have everything completed on time. The Mississippi Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal, giving it over to the Courts of Appeals;

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-12468977910284970772008-08-19T06:22:00.002-04:002008-08-19T09:49:45.237-04:00

"Libertarian" presidential candidate Bob Barr attempted to get a court order forcing Saddleback Church to include him in its forum with McCain and Obama. The judge properly ruled against Barr, though the article implies that he did so for the wrong reasons, not because the church had the right to decide whom to invite. Barr is a conservative in libertarian clothing, with no respect for private

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-13779103728973045032008-08-17T07:42:00.003-04:002008-08-17T08:18:14.946-04:00

People who expect Barack Obama to be a firm defender of abortion rights may be disappointed. In a joint appearance by him and John McCain at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, he said he doesn't have the competency to answer a question on when a human first has rights: "I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade. ... not because I am pro-abortion ... but because, ultimately, I

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-35864286344027115862008-08-16T08:14:00.003-04:002008-08-16T08:21:25.063-04:00

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-48337027684585088732008-08-16T06:29:00.004-04:002008-08-16T08:08:57.491-04:00

The CASPIAN mailing list recently mentioned a protest which was held against a conference on RFID in clothing. The controversial aspect of the conference is the proposal to uniquely tag individual items ("item-level tagging"), which has potential for serious post-sale privacy problems. In most existing tagging schemes, all equivalent items have the same tag code, and tracking of an individual

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-81125416078925774642008-08-15T20:55:00.006-04:002008-08-15T21:40:21.845-04:00

Universal Hub has posted the MBTA's latest filing (PDF) against the MIT students, in an effort to keep its restraining order in effect. It pushes hard on the problems which I mentioned in my earlier post; the slide show implied that the people who heard the talk would leave knowing how to do illegal things to the MBTA's fare system. If the MBTA claimed simply that distributing the information

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-34237641012872289052008-08-15T06:02:00.003-04:002008-08-15T06:21:45.669-04:00

Wendy McElroy reports that RightBias has offered a (mostly) new set of cartoons on Islam. One of my favorites has a group of bearded men with shocked expressions looking at a letter that says "To the Taliban: Give us Osama Bin Laden or we'll send your women to college." Two of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons are included. So are four items which clearly aren't cartoons. Whatever you think of the

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-73333297079451335022008-08-12T07:01:00.001-04:002008-08-12T10:11:09.618-04:00

The Internet and Democracy Project at Harvard reports that the Russian invasion of Georgia has been accompanied by denial of service attacks on official Georgian websites, including the President’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Defense. In addition, I've noticed that Russia has loosed its most fearsome weapon of cyberwarfare: Internet trolls! A number of low-volume

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-20627900562582379672008-08-10T06:20:00.005-04:002008-08-11T20:04:53.643-04:00

The MBTA obtained a restraining order against three MIT students, preventing them from giving a talk on weaknesses in the T's "Charlie Card" system. My initial knee-jerk reaction was that this was a typical case of using lawsuits to keep people from realizing what a bad job someone had done with security; but as I read more, it looks as if the students went beyond reasonable bounds. There is a

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-89606169443945335922008-08-09T13:07:00.004-04:002008-08-09T18:27:03.834-04:00

Thanks to the Institute for Justice, I've read of numerous laws which create legal cartels, artificially limiting the people who are allowed to perform certain kinds of work; but this takes the cake. In Texas, it is illegal to do many kinds of data analysis on a computer without a private investigator's license. According to the printed article in Liberty & Law: The Texas Private Security

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-29009547068193075882008-08-09T08:36:00.005-04:002008-08-09T08:54:56.766-04:00

"Net neutrality" bloggers are thrilled not only because the FCC ruled against Comcast, but because of the arbitrary nature of its decision. Ed Felten writes, under the title "Comcast Gets Slapped, But the FCC Wisely Leaves its Options Open": "But the majority, despite technical competence, avoided a bright line rule—and that might itself turn out to be great policy." He understands fully what the

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-47256654473410092592008-08-08T06:32:00.002-04:002008-08-08T06:43:06.227-04:00

The US Olympic Committee has rebuked American athletes for not wanting to choke on Beijing's smog. China revoked Joey Cheek's visa for speaking out -- about Darfur. China rebuked Bush for timidly suggesting the Chinese people should have a little more freedom. It's Munich 1936 all over again.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-62844853266721629452008-08-06T12:14:00.004-04:002008-08-08T06:24:23.332-04:00

The idea of the above is to raise a large amount of money all on one day -- August 8 -- for a "moneybomb" for a left-right coalition PAC opposed to "rampant presidential lawbreaking and a limitless surveillance state." I haven't made a decision yet on whether to provide financial support; that depends in large part on how reliable and secure their online payment mechanism looks. But I like the

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-83451134241959089642008-08-04T06:13:00.005-04:002008-08-04T06:46:07.752-04:00

Sometimes complaint sites are themselves abusive. I've received comments with links to pissedconsumer.com on three or four of my scam-reporting posts. The accounts from which they're submitted vary, but they're all from the same boilerplate: Hello. I think your blog is great. Recently, I have read a lot about [company I posted about]. The most useful information came from

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-20321345532343166022008-08-03T06:52:00.001-04:002008-08-03T06:54:35.658-04:00

The blogosphere is choking from unoriginality. Search for any topic, and most of what you'll find is material recycled from someone else, with no more than a line or two of original commentary. That's not counting the outright spam. So to help find a bit of authentic material, here's a roundup of links to thoughtful articles on issues I've posted about. I'm focusing here on lesser-known blogs,

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-79522747769285688092008-08-02T09:04:00.002-04:002008-08-02T09:27:06.619-04:00

In the name of "national security," the Department of Homeland Security has announced that customs officials can take people's computers without cause, keep them as long as they deem necessary to snoop through them, and share whatever they find with other governmental or private entities. DHS claims that this is necessary to "prevent terrorism." CNet has links to the policy text. This isn't

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-76627798618656988182008-08-02T06:38:00.002-04:002008-08-02T06:43:11.802-04:00

Liberty LOLcats.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-69858934200003709962008-07-31T05:14:00.000-04:002008-07-31T06:35:59.065-04:00

It's hard to guess how IOC head Jacques Rogge thought he'd get away with his lie that China would not be censoring the Internet during the Olympics. Not only has censorship continued as usual, but the IOC was caught making a secret deal to agree to censorship. Yielding to censorship when there is no alternative is one thing; claiming "there will be no censorship on the Internet" while working

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-22119061143265121692008-07-28T18:05:00.000-04:002008-07-28T18:09:21.595-04:00

Barack Obama's "Joshua Generation" project ran into an embarrassing snag when it turned out that an existing group owns the name. This is an embarrassing mistake, but no more than that. But his choosing the name in the first place, honoring the Biblical Joshua, is more troubling. Obama said: As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn't cross over

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-4593416479166678742008-07-27T08:01:00.001-04:002008-07-27T08:03:47.712-04:00

A group of fellows and faculty members with Harvard's Berkman Center have filed formal comments against the FCC's proposal for auctioning AWS-3 (Advanced Wireless Services) spectrum with the requirement that the winning bidder provide national free wireless Internet service with content filtering. The proposal provides for a single winner in the auction, which will have a nationwide monopoly on

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-31579919326346543642008-07-25T06:15:00.002-04:002008-07-25T06:31:27.993-04:00

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has found that Comcast won't cave in to his anti-Usenet vendetta as quickly as some other companies, so he's threatening a groundless legal action against Comcast. The news media have fallen into line, routinely referring to newsgroups as "child porn" in covering Cuomo's censorship campaign. Cuomo may be taking advantage of Comcast's unpopularity for

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-18390213276730693362008-07-24T09:18:00.002-04:002008-07-24T09:27:29.610-04:00

The Massachusetts legislature isn't any better than Congress at standing up to torturers. A bill which would have restricted the use of electric shock treatment to cases of "immediate risk of serious physical injury or harm to self or others" had been passed by the Senate. It hardly sounds like a difficult case, does it? But the bill to impose that restriction has been stopped in a conference

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-66445000831150432752008-07-22T07:29:00.000-04:002008-07-22T08:52:27.606-04:00

Do you remember the absurd $550,000 fine which the FCC imposed on CBS for a fleetingly exposed nipple during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime entertainment? The "net neutrality" crowd doesn't; Kevin Martin is their hero, and they want him to have lots of power because he'll use it only to make ISP's play fair. But he declared he was "disappointed for families and parents" when a federal appeals

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-59632289307245737782008-07-21T06:20:00.003-04:002008-07-21T13:00:06.083-04:00

The International Olympic Committee has reported that China has reversed its Internet censorship policy thanks to "silent diplomacy." Jacques Rogge proclaims: "For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet." This would be the headline of the decade from China if it were true. The Great

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-5613833969171122452008-07-20T06:23:00.004-04:002008-07-20T07:04:20.219-04:00

Louisiana is the latest state to pass anti-Real ID legislation, adding support to the idea that the law is a dead letter. Jim Harper applauds. North Carolina's House has approved similar legislation. The article on that bill mentions some of the assaults on Americans which Real ID will implement, including denial of the right to legal representation: For example, if the federal government does

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-40638075395134328562008-07-15T19:36:00.000-04:002008-07-15T19:37:19.719-04:00

Today the Democratic National Committee had some shills out in Harvard Square, and I went up to one of them to talk to him. (Uncharacteristic of me, I know.) I asked him, in a reasonable tone, why I should support a candidate who favors shielding companies that conspired with the government to break laws from legal liability. He asked if I had had my rights violated; I told him the government

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-55994564785110438332008-07-14T12:11:00.000-04:002008-07-14T12:12:52.730-04:00

The Citizen Media Law Project reports that the Iranian Parliament has approved a bill that would provide the death penalty for "establishing weblogs and sites promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy." Maiming is also a permitted punishment. The Council of Guardians still has to approve the bill before it becomes law. There are already laws which let the government kill people for saying

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-55092803842638787942008-07-13T08:46:00.001-04:002008-07-13T10:07:10.019-04:00

Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general of New York State, has decided that the Big Lie is the path to success. In his new website, he smears Usenet, referring to it as "a major source of online child pornography known as Newsgroups, an online service not associated with websites." According to a press release issued this week, "Cuomo last month secured agreements with Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-63764728774166192562008-07-12T07:24:00.003-04:002008-07-12T07:55:08.663-04:00

"Net neutrality" advocates are cheering FCC chairman Kevin Martin's move to enforce a statement of principles against Comcast for its past packet-blocking practices. This policy statement (PDF) contains a footnote which states, "Accordingly, we are not adopting rules in this policy statement. The principles we adopt are subject to reasonable network management." That's a clear statement that it

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-33060895083967305892008-07-10T07:59:00.000-04:002008-07-10T09:12:09.249-04:00

This isn't a philosophical blog; I've elected to focus more on current issues here. But a recent post by Harold Feld provides an opportunity to discuss one of the basic points which underlie the principles of liberty. I left a brief comment on that entry, but would like to say something at more length here. Harold criticizes libertarians as those who worship the "Gods of the Market Place,"

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-37928788663380113822008-07-09T21:01:00.000-04:002008-07-09T21:02:47.021-04:00

In 1999, some people predicted disaster when the year rolled over to 2000, as databases and software with two-digit dates would fail and produce massive disruption. This didn't happen, as the efforts of developers took care of nearly all significant problems. Now some people are offering a new prophecy of doom: the transition to digital broadcast television on February 18, 2009. The federal

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-88213441875188173102008-07-09T16:24:00.003-04:002008-07-09T16:30:19.138-04:00

As expected, Obama voted to give retroactive immunity to telecom companies that colluded with Bush in illegal spying. There are some matters that are beyond compromise, and a chief executive who demands exemptions from the law is one of them. At this point, I don't know or care whether Obama or McCain is worse. Either way, we're in for four more bad years.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-29146739168605015212008-07-07T06:31:00.003-04:002008-07-09T21:16:36.542-04:00

It's nice to see that an anti-immigrant "white pride" rally in Hudson, NH, flopped. The ten participants were outnumbered by the protesters against the rally. They picked Hudson as a friendlier place for their views than Nashua; in the past, Hudson police have arrested at least one foreigner for "trespassing" in the town. The anti-immigrant crowd is a powerful political force, but this group

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-81300156603981157872008-07-06T08:53:00.003-04:002008-07-06T09:10:00.148-04:00

Ripoff Report currently lists 171 reports about fraudulent collection attempts from CBCS. If you want a more neutral sampling, try this Google search; after a couple of links to CBCS page, the rest of the leading results are mostly accounts of fraudulent or illegal practices. I have to wonder why prosecutors haven't shut down that operation yet.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-2943297860896645232008-07-05T15:59:00.003-04:002008-07-05T16:03:18.969-04:00

Increasing copyright lengths, automatic copyright coverage, and abolition of renewal requirements have led to the growth of a problem called "orphan works." These are works which may be under copyright, but whose owner is impossible to identify or locate. It's possible that I've violated copyright on orphan works myself; my filk tape of a decade ago, Shrink Wrap Blues, included my musical

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-64129935855602063632008-07-04T06:46:00.005-04:002008-07-04T07:15:26.487-04:00

Thanks to Universal Hub and Deb Geisler, we can follow the story of a "hazardous materials" crisis when someone spilled cleaning supplies not far from Boston's state house. Allow me to play a minor-league Radley Balko and summarize the story: July 2: The police were "called on a strange odor at 21 Temple St." This was handled as a "second-level hazardous materials response." A blogger reports

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-52613653674957115892008-07-03T19:43:00.003-04:002008-07-03T20:11:08.386-04:00

As I was coming home today, I was thinking about what to write for a July 4 post. It grew impressively, "There was darkness over the land" dark during the train ride home, foreshadowing the downpour that followed and echoing my feelings about the way the country is going. We're seeing that the opposition of the left to excessive presidential power was nothing but a political game, and they're

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-47791145866792027912008-07-03T06:12:00.001-04:002008-07-03T06:14:43.836-04:00

"So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called "The Audacity of Hope." And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-7145562959857228262008-06-30T21:11:00.001-04:002008-06-30T21:13:47.256-04:00

Although today's political left and right are equally hostile to freedom, they're bitter enemies of one another. In part, this is a matter of two gangs fighting over the same territory, but there are differences in thinking which make each group genuinely believe in its own worthiness and the other's depravity. To understand this, it's helpful to look at two cultural archetypes of collectivist

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-17023240621864701272008-06-28T07:37:00.003-04:002008-06-28T07:52:46.078-04:00

Massachusetts has decided that its electronic highway signs are a great way to deliver a steady stream of authoritarian threats to the population. Yesterday morning, the signs were threatening "Click it or ticket." This is a flatly illegal threat in Massachusetts; drivers cannot be ticketed for failing to use a seat belt, except in conjunction with some other violation for which they're first

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-50433828720309799642008-06-27T06:39:00.001-04:002008-06-27T09:48:13.896-04:00

Scott Bradner, Harvard's security guru, reports on an FCC proposal for a "free," wireless, censored Internet. Government intrusion into the wireless Internet seemed to be fading as scheme after scheme for municipal Wi-Fi has collapsed. But now the FCC has come up with a big gun: making a chunk of the RF spectrum available to wireless Internet, on the condition that "pornographic" or "obscene"

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-28137250939902261222008-06-27T05:25:00.004-04:002008-06-27T05:39:21.074-04:00

The Department of Homeland Security refused to send a representative to a Senate hearing on the government's claim to the power to search through unlimited private information at border crossings, and Michael Chertoff refused to answer written questions from Senator Feingold. Feingold declared, "Once again, this administration has demonstrated its perverse belief that it is entitled to keep

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-85979274766851514992008-06-26T06:15:00.002-04:002008-06-26T06:18:52.939-04:00

Continuing the "no surprise" category, Ralph Nader sinks into playing race against race.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-27052766899383385012008-06-25T20:15:00.007-04:002008-07-04T09:20:46.411-04:00

It's no surprise that Congressional Democrats who switched to voting to shelter telecoms from legal liability were the ones who got the biggest contributions from telecom companies. Nor is it much of a surprise that Obama is making only token noises of opposition to shielding them from legal liability. He says he'll try to strip that provision from the latest FISA bill, but hasn't said that he'll

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-32345333050263375872008-06-24T17:10:00.002-04:002008-06-25T10:13:02.300-04:00

Here's the latest extended-warranty scam in the mail: You purchased your 2004 Civic 8 months ago. The original in service date of the vehicle, which activates the factory warranty, was over 38 months ago. Your 36 month/36,000 mile factory warranty has expired.   This is your Final Notice to extend your new vehicle bumper to bumper coverage. This plan is valid for your 2004 Civic only. Please

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-43468096994735549922008-06-19T18:34:00.003-04:002008-06-19T18:49:26.175-04:00

Congressional leaders are getting ready to sell out to Bush on illegal wiretapping. I'm not surprised, just disgusted.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-34798482941245674052008-06-19T07:29:00.000-04:002008-06-19T07:30:10.226-04:00

A University of Washington study of how one can get invalid DMCA takedown notices has attracted quite a bit of attention. Ed Felten, for example, has written approvingly of it. But after looking at the main page, the FAQ, and the technical report (PDF), I find that the authors didn't do a very good job of it, at least on the reporting end. The FAQ makes a bold claim: "While others have

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-82430345910641862072008-06-18T11:27:00.003-04:002008-06-18T11:37:33.668-04:00

I periodically get mailings from the Institute for Hitlerite Rubbish Historical Review. I don't ask to be removed from their mailing list, since every piece of junk mail they send me costs them some money. It also gives me a chance to let people know what these neo-Nazi fake historians are like. Just quoting two of their latest offerings should be enough to turn anyone's stomach: Hitler's Place

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-38519565417798800892008-06-18T11:18:00.004-04:002008-06-18T11:45:11.537-04:00

Associated Press is attempting to define fair use out of existence, putting up a web form in which web sites are expected to pay for using quotations as short as five words. I'm certain that no court would consider such a quote as anything but fair use. If you're an educational or non-profit organization, you might get a special price break, except that those links lead to non-existent pages.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-21048143070885425402008-06-16T20:45:00.003-04:002008-06-17T05:35:16.175-04:00

The Texas Observer's website has a detailed article on the Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts, a "special needs school" which takes in minors with severe behavioral problems and is notorious for its use of shock "treatments." Author Jennifer Gonnerman writes of the shocks: "The school's staff claim it is no more painful than a bee sting; when I tried the shock, it felt like a horde of

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-51398313191550130632008-06-15T10:51:00.005-04:002008-06-15T11:00:46.101-04:00

Declan McCullagh reports that under pressure from Andrew Cuomo, New York State's Attorney General, several major ISP's are limiting the newsgroups they offer or dropping newsgroups entirely. Time Warner Cable said it will cease to offer customers access to any Usenet newsgroups, a decision that will affect customers nationwide. Sprint said it would no longer offer any of the tens of thousands

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-50552613416565991072008-06-15T07:15:00.003-04:002008-06-15T07:45:46.525-04:00

The widely discussed story of a judge in a porn case who was reported to have "sexually explicit" material on his website is looking more and more like a non-story. I first heard of the matter with Judge Alex Kozinski on Deb Geisler's LiveJournal, which referred to a news article declaring: A federal judge suspended the obscenity trial of a Los Angeles porn distributor Wednesday following a

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-56158163831881269882008-06-11T07:27:00.002-04:002008-06-11T07:46:39.666-04:00

Rasmus Fleischer has an article on Cato's website on the increasing push to outlaw technology for the sake of protecting copyrights. People with some programming skills, however, won’t need to do much more than combining a few readily available and otherwise perfectly legal code libraries to compile their own streamripping tool, one that would circumvent the PERFORM Act. For regulations like

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-14888641288998744102008-06-10T06:12:00.003-04:002008-06-10T06:27:42.618-04:00

With Real ID spiraling toward failure, Bush is trying another tactic to put Americans under government surveillance. He has issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to use E-Verify to force their employees to prove they are legally permitted to work for a living in the United States. Where E-Verify has been used, it has proven a nightmare for people who have lived in the United

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-78918898581439555852008-06-09T18:32:00.003-04:002008-06-09T18:54:17.490-04:00

Reporters Without Borders does an excellent job of showing the individual, personal impact of censorship. Many other sources discuss what laws have been passed, what firewalls have been put up against the truth, and how many people have been arrested, but RSF (their name is actually the somewhat impure French "Reporters Sans Frontières") puts a face on them. One of these faces belongs to Golapan

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-59097636134494473682008-06-07T08:12:00.001-04:002008-06-07T08:13:05.138-04:00

We're now down to two choices, and it's a relief that one of them isn't the candidate whose sole principle is that she should be president. Obama is hardly an attractive choice, to be sure; he's hostile to free trade and Second Amendment rights, and the prospect of Democrats controlling the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives is scary. But McCain is a completely unacceptable choice

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-2043906523446790412008-06-04T06:23:00.000-04:002008-06-04T06:24:35.353-04:00

Verichip, which hoped to find success through RFID implants, is on the skids. Last month it sold off its Canadian subsidiary, Xmark Corp., and its VeriMed Health Link business or the entire company may be up for sale. Its stock has been in a long-term decline. Verichip became notorious when it used Alzheimer's patients as "volunteers" for a test run of its implants, even though many can't give

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-58962798513459998432008-06-03T06:26:00.001-04:002008-06-03T09:35:13.258-04:00

Intelligence may not be allowed in Ben Stein's film Expelled, but fair use is. Yoko Ono had sued over the use of a fifteen-second clip from John Lennon's song "Imagine." Judge Sidney Stein ruled that the usage fell within the bounds of fair use, since the use of the short excerpt was for purposes of commentary. A lawsuit by EMI, based on copyright of the recording as distinct from the song, is

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-53611330000481227082008-06-02T21:08:00.003-04:002008-06-02T21:27:52.588-04:00

In September of 2007, Suffolk County in Massachusetts brought trumped-up charges against MIT student Star Simpson for wearing a high-tech shirt in Logan Airport. The prosecution has backed off from the felony charges, admitting it doesn't have a case. But instead of apologizing as they should have, the prosecutors are trying to save face by requiring her to apologize and perform community service

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-64642290570801926212008-06-01T09:26:00.002-04:002008-06-01T09:44:31.900-04:00

From Global Voices Advocacy, we learn of the Chinese government's harassment of Zeng Jinyan, an activist blogger. She and her husband Hu Jia are also mentioned on Reporters Without Borders, PEN American Center has an article on her, and Arianna Huffington mentions her on Time's website. Zeng Jinyan's blog is available online, though probably not to the average person in China. It's in Chinese

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-65337431346479534642008-05-30T12:52:00.001-04:002008-05-30T14:02:35.440-04:00

CNN reports on an intriguing new use of technology to fight speed traps, called Trapster. As the Trapster site explains: When you see a trap, report it by pressing a button on your phone, or calling a toll free number. Other user's phones will alert them as they approach the trap. Trapster® learns the credibility of traps based on how many users agree. It also learns the credibility of each user

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-71745161779436623492008-05-29T20:15:00.003-04:002008-05-29T20:31:02.205-04:00

Today it was Porter Station on the MBTA that was filled with cops. However, they were only at the subway entrance. Anyone could go up to the commuter rail level and ride right into North Station. In this case, terrorists wouldn't even have had to walk to another station. I wouldn't be surprised if this round of harassment, coming so soon after similar action in Harvard Station, was aimed at

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-47419698517165734372008-05-29T05:40:00.003-04:002008-05-29T06:04:46.825-04:00

Der Spiegel has reported that Deutsche Telekom may have engaged in extensive spying on journalists, shareholders, and even its own board members. According to the allegations, it hired an outside company to track thousands of telephone calls. Prosecutors have begun an investigation. Deutsche Telekom is a private company, but the German government owns a third of it. The report states that "

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-57856099781476915862008-05-27T21:16:00.003-04:002008-05-27T21:30:10.442-04:00

"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance." -- Declaration of Independence Today there was a swarm of officers in Harvard Station around 5 PM, evidently to harass people with random searches. I took a look down the Church Street entrance as well; there was a cop sitting by the turnstiles. I walked to Porter.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-43401651840934844772008-05-27T15:52:00.003-04:002008-05-27T15:56:45.603-04:00

The Libertarian Party has become even more pointless than before, nominating Bob Barr as its presidential candidate.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-18010846402490908102008-05-23T06:05:00.003-04:002008-05-23T06:14:05.442-04:00

A friend lent me some tapes of the TV show Numb3rs. It's nice to see a series with so much respect for intelligence, and the attempt makes it challenging to create scripts that don't have embarrassing errors, so I don't want to complain too hard. But it's amusing how little the writers understand the Internet. In one episode, the FBI issues a subpoena to a suspect's ISP and is then able to

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-66965408221653791132008-05-22T06:00:00.001-04:002008-05-22T20:11:19.760-04:00

Guerilla photography from the Porter Square commuter rail station. These pictures provide a very good idea of why T employees keep telling people they can't take pictures, even though that's a lie. East of Massachusetts Ave., the station looks OK. But go into the pedestrian underpass, where you have to if you need to avoid steps when entering the train, and you find a veritable garbage dump, "

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-46149434361732898062008-05-21T09:16:00.002-04:002008-05-21T09:23:32.470-04:00

The federal government has received an overall "C" for computer security, according to a report card (PDF) issued by Rep. Tom Davis of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Homeland Security is up to a "B" from a "D" in 2006, which is some relief. But several departments -- including the Department of Defense -- got an "F" in both 2006 and 2007. By way of Security Fix.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-37659554370993999922008-05-21T06:17:00.000-04:002008-05-21T06:19:31.303-04:00

As municipal wireless continues to collapse, with MetroFi being the latest to make an exit, its advocates are getting desperate. Esme Vos has a solution: Force private businesses to provide the public with free Wi-Fi. Suddenly the answer came to me. San Francisco could have required cafes to install Wi-Fi networks and also required them to offer Wi-Fi service free of charge to the public.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-4879038224555937972008-05-20T07:30:00.002-04:002008-05-20T15:34:34.228-04:00

Kathleen Parker of the Baltimore Sun spews out racist garbage. Don't read it on a full stomach. Full-bloodedness is an old coin that's gaining currency in the new American realm...   Some run deeper than others, and therein lies the truth of Mr. Fry's political sense. In a country that is rapidly changing demographically - and where new neighbors may have arrived last year, not last century -

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-42358959503852523482008-05-20T07:03:00.000-04:002008-05-20T07:07:21.472-04:00

Reporters Without Borders tells us that Thailand has set up a toll-free number to report websites that criticize King Bumbler -- sorry, Bhumibol -- Adulyadej. The number is 1111. If you live in Thailand, could you please call that number and let them know about this blog? The government has threatened to shut down twenty-nine web sites that criticize King Bigfoot. Under Thai law, the police can

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-31201664432633554122008-05-19T20:34:00.002-04:002008-05-19T20:40:28.810-04:00

I've set up a proxy journal for Bill Wells on LiveJournal, as a way for him to communicate with people who prefer not to write directly or can't quite find the time for it. People without LiveJournal accounts can comment anonymously or using OpenID; mentioning who you are would be courteous.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-22563271542791990542008-05-18T21:30:00.000-04:002008-05-18T21:31:24.231-04:00

It's obvious why Bush desperately wants to grant retroactive amnesty to lawbreaking telecom companies; he's trying to save his own skin once he leaves office. But figuring out his supporters' arguments is more confusing. Let's take a look at an article by Jeff Babbin on the Human Events website. He starts off with an absurdity: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been the sole obstacle to

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-46767067802029923002008-05-16T19:55:00.002-04:002008-05-16T20:09:05.582-04:00

Suspicion is growing around Bush's National Cyber Security Initiative. The Senate Armed Services Committee has raised some questions about the secrecy surrounding not just the details, but the fundamental purposes of the initiative. A chief concern is that virtually everything about the initiative is highly classified, and most of the information that is not classified is categorized as `For

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-46922932688522182912008-05-15T19:34:00.000-04:002008-05-15T19:39:11.345-04:00

Justice has been moving slowly against the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts, but apparently it is moving. The Boston Globe's website reports that according to unofficial, unnamed sources, the state police have seized documents relating to a case of torture committed by Rotenberg employees on two students last year. On August 26, 2007, an unknown person called the Rotenberg Center, a

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-20014365595483713902008-05-14T21:07:00.003-04:002008-05-14T21:30:07.551-04:00

States are throwing Real ID back in the feds' faces at an accelerating pace, now that Homeland Security's threat to ban the citizens of rebellious states from airplanes has proven an empty bluff. Minnesota's House and Senate have voted to prohibit implementation of Real ID, overriding the governor's veto. Governor Doyle of Wisconsin has removed $20 million dollars from Real ID funding and put

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-8619815313413058752008-05-13T18:00:00.004-04:002008-05-13T18:07:40.582-04:00

A recent death in Nashua generated a lot of news outside the local area, but as far as I can tell, no one reported on a remarkable irony about it. Ivonne Hernandez of Nashua is a Yankees fan in Red Sox country, and got into an argument in a bar over baseball. She got angry enough about it -- particularly over some chanting of "Yankees suck" -- that she allegedly got into her car in the Maynard

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-3529241518074483042008-05-13T05:59:00.003-04:002008-05-13T06:44:48.343-04:00

For some people, the special feature of the Internet, the one most worth preserving, isn't that it's a medium which is particularly free of government control, on which people can say what they want. It's the concrete detail that it uses a certain delivery model, known as "net neutrality." So far it's the norm almost everywhere, aside from censorship attempts, nannyware, spam filtering, and such.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-4877800166853231472008-05-12T06:15:00.002-04:002008-05-12T12:19:07.427-04:00

The deadline for Real ID compliance has gone by, and not a single state is fully compliant. A number have said flatly that they won't implement it, but DHS gave them "extensions" anyway. It's starting to look as if passive resistance has beaten one draconian piece of federal legislation. I'm still surprised that Bush isn't denouncing the state legislatures for allegedly helping terrorists.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-59081949720178519702008-05-11T07:14:00.002-04:002008-05-11T07:32:50.500-04:00

The state of Oregon is going after websites that post its laws, claiming copyright violation. Justia.com is one of the targets of this legal harassment. The Oregon government apparently likes to squeeze money out of the population by charging them to find out what is legal and illegal. David Post writes: What burns me up is that the State of Oregon would choose to assert its rather fanciful

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-87350477077197577332008-05-06T19:31:00.003-04:002008-05-20T07:39:40.706-04:00

These have gotten routine: Honda Notification Dealer Services 100 Mall Parkway St. Louis, MO 63385 ... Our records indicate that the factory warranty on your 2004 Honda has expired or may be expiring soon. As a loyal Honda owner, you qualify for extended vehicle coverage of up to six additional years or 100,000 miles. Only your vehicle qualifies for this program. ... Call immediately, 1-866-847-

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-61626073118093436122008-05-06T07:31:00.003-04:002008-05-06T07:40:55.163-04:00

The Citizen Media Law Project has put up a legal guide for people who publish online content. It's still incomplete (for instance, clicking on New Hampshire in the map provides no information), but it provides a lot of information on where you have a good chance of standing up to the government and where you can get into trouble. As an example of the latter, if you record illegal actions of cops

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-70042925035746787142008-05-05T19:43:00.004-04:002008-05-05T20:48:36.607-04:00

A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to put more teeth into the requirement that governmental electronic records, especially those of the White House, be preserved. This bill, HR 5811, is called the Electronic Communications Preservation Act (PDF). This bill would "require the electronic capture, management, and preservation" of "electronic communications that are records."

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-252195208719009652008-05-04T07:52:00.003-04:002008-05-04T08:29:59.305-04:00

An online protest against the Chinese government's repression of its people has taken the form of an international poem relay in support of a jailed journalist. As the Olympic Torch has passed from country to country, Shi Tao's poem "June" has been translated into local languages and posted to the Web in both text and spoken forms. Today the torch begins its so-called "Journey of Harmony" across

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-56292377165037095902008-05-03T08:20:00.000-04:002008-05-03T08:21:06.350-04:00

One of the bywords of international travel is that "you have no rights at the border." Customs agents can search anything, take anything, degrade you, and delay or block you. In accordance with this time-honored principle, the Ninth Circuit Court has held that customs agents can rifle all the files on your computer just because they feel like it. It doesn't matter that you're a US citizen; the

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-50731059237103502292008-05-02T06:15:00.004-04:002008-05-02T06:25:27.465-04:00

Ben Stein, whose movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed has gained him notoriety lately, has outdone himself by explicitly denouncing science. He tells us, "science leads you to killing people." If he were consistent about this, Stein should have renounced movie-making, which depends on huge amounts of science. He should be wandering around the country with bare feet and an animal skin,

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-45708164255860486692008-05-01T17:10:00.001-04:002008-05-01T17:11:36.216-04:00

In a blatant attempt to gain visibility, I've changed the name of this blog to "The Blog of M'Gath: Technology and Liberty."

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-86290691648600485342008-05-01T07:10:00.003-04:002008-05-01T07:18:14.506-04:00

Timothy Lee has an article on Ars Technica, going into some technical detail, on why the White House has "lost" so much e-mail. Some part of it looks like incompetence, but Bush's policy that the law doesn't apply to him is also a major factor. Incompetence happens more often when it's convenient. Bush has till May 5 to give a federal court some answers about the missing e-mail. Unfortunately,

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-15491443133356769172008-04-28T19:27:00.003-04:002008-04-28T19:35:26.903-04:00

ZeroBrokerFees.com, with the help of the Institute for Justice, has won a victory for free speech on the Internet. A U.S. District Court has granted an injunction against any attempt by the state to require a broker's license for websites that carry advertising for home sales by owners. Judge Muirhead held that there is no defensible basis for denying web sites a freedom which is granted to

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-65499145174743327682008-04-28T06:24:00.001-04:002008-04-28T12:29:04.334-04:00

Boxofficemojo.com has an interview with Michael Burns, the Vice Chairman of Lionsgate, on the eternally-delayed movie of Atlas Shrugged. This interview shows more signs of doing it right than some earlier discussions I've seen, especially this: In a strange way, we have to get it right because it is—even though Ayn Rand was Russian—it is the quintessential, one of the few, true American

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-9898420668588450112008-04-27T16:51:00.003-04:002008-04-27T16:54:43.378-04:00

Thanks to LibraryThing for getting me an advance review copy of 1001 Events that Made America! Unfortunately, I couldn't give the book an enthusiastic recommendation, as my review explains.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0