time for a Saturday morning rant
Typical Saturday morning, browsing through the various news links, catching up on all the worldwide happenings and having my buttons pushed:
The US government is after Google's records for porn searches. Google has declared it will refuse to submit to a Justice Department(JD) subpoena for its records. Its two-fold reasoning is to protect its own secret software and to protect the identities of people using its services. The JD is on a fishing expedition to prove that the online pornography law was justifiable. The law was struck down by the Supreme Court on free-speech grounds. Although they say they didn't supply any personally identifiable information, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL all turned over their porn search info over to the JD. Definately makes you want to exclusively search via Google. It doesn't matter what I search for, I don't think the JD needs to use my searches to justify a law they want on the books. As a law-abiding citizen, I don't think it is any of their business.
The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is in the process of evaluating a new Registered Traveler Program to begin in June. Right now the only benefit from the program is being able to "take cuts in line" when going through the security checks at the airport. To qualify for the program you would have to submit to an extensive background search similar to a high level security clearance check, then pay a fee of $80-$100. The background checks will be done by private companies contracted by the TSA. After passing and paying a traveler would receive a personal id card with a digitized picture and their fingerprint that would be used at the airport to waive them to the special express lane. The background checks are supposedly to prove you are not a terrorist. Depending on how long a sleeper terrorist has been here, this process may or may not actually find a terrorist. It would seem to me that a terrorist wouldn't bother with registering anyway. As for me, I don't travel by air often enough to justify the cost nor do I want another agency compiling a file of all my personal data that could be stolen. Waiting the five to ten minutes it takes in a TSA line at the airport is a small price to pay for keeping my info out of the hands of another leaky system.
As a reverse look at the first rant, I just found an article about Web sites that review escorts. These are not your average street-walkers, but the high end, top dollar hang on your arm beauties. The sites let potential customers browse the statistics and acts they are willing to do before deciding who they want to pay to spend an evening or night with. In return the escorts can rate the customers allowing other escorts to know who to contract with or who to avoid. Sounds like they have found a way to use the internet to mutual benefit.
Quirky note for the gamers that occasionally read my lj is an article I read about a California band, The Advantage. Quoting the article, their reported goal in life is "to record every Nintendo song by the time each member lie dead." If you want to read the whole article, it can be found at this MSNBC link. Duck Tales, Mario3!
Do you know who has gotten copies of your phone records? I first read about the sale of illegally gotten phone records with personal data in a The Red Tape Chronicles article. Supposedly, the FCC is looking into the sale of the privacy practices of telephone companies. While they are compiling information about the practice, it would be the FTC that would have to take any action against violators. In the meantime, the biggest users of cell and landline phones are stepping up to the plate to preserve their personal information. Like I have said all along about identity theft "until it starts affecting the legislators they don't really place a priority on laws to protect against it." Our wonderful Congress is now proposing legislation against obtaining phone records and instituting substantial penalties against the companies for giving out the information without a customer's permission.
An item of interest, especially for Kelly and Kyle, is that even though almost a million copies of WoW sold in 2005, the sales of computer games dropped 14% last year. The second and third top sellers were The Sims 2: University Expansion Pack and The Sims 2.
One last note on the issue of porn is how it has helped develop some of the internet technology that we all take for granted today. Just like streaming video was first utilized and perfected by the porn industry they are now working on live video chat for cell phones. "Can you see me now?"
Lastly, this one is from a week ago but since I didn't do any ranting (or posting) last weekend it almost got forgotten. If I hadn't just read an article about The Center for Science in the Public Interest suing Kellogg Company and Viacom to keep them from marketing junk food to children, you probably wouldn't be forced to endure this bit of trivia. Since they are targeting good old Tony the Tiger it reminded me of the article about the top twelve favorite marketing spokes-creatures. In order of popularity, they are:
1. The M&Ms
2. Poppin' Fresh (Doughboy)
3. Aflac Duck
4. Tony the Tiger
5. GEICO Gecko
6. Energizer Bunny
6. Chester the Cheetah
6. Kool-Aid Man
6. Trix Rabbit
10. Snap! Crackle! Pop!
10. Snuggle the Bear
10. Willy Wonka
What happened to the Lucky Charms leprechaun or the Michelin Man? Although I was glad to see that the stupid dog from the Taco Hell commercials did not make it in the top picks.
The US government is after Google's records for porn searches. Google has declared it will refuse to submit to a Justice Department(JD) subpoena for its records. Its two-fold reasoning is to protect its own secret software and to protect the identities of people using its services. The JD is on a fishing expedition to prove that the online pornography law was justifiable. The law was struck down by the Supreme Court on free-speech grounds. Although they say they didn't supply any personally identifiable information, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL all turned over their porn search info over to the JD. Definately makes you want to exclusively search via Google. It doesn't matter what I search for, I don't think the JD needs to use my searches to justify a law they want on the books. As a law-abiding citizen, I don't think it is any of their business.
The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is in the process of evaluating a new Registered Traveler Program to begin in June. Right now the only benefit from the program is being able to "take cuts in line" when going through the security checks at the airport. To qualify for the program you would have to submit to an extensive background search similar to a high level security clearance check, then pay a fee of $80-$100. The background checks will be done by private companies contracted by the TSA. After passing and paying a traveler would receive a personal id card with a digitized picture and their fingerprint that would be used at the airport to waive them to the special express lane. The background checks are supposedly to prove you are not a terrorist. Depending on how long a sleeper terrorist has been here, this process may or may not actually find a terrorist. It would seem to me that a terrorist wouldn't bother with registering anyway. As for me, I don't travel by air often enough to justify the cost nor do I want another agency compiling a file of all my personal data that could be stolen. Waiting the five to ten minutes it takes in a TSA line at the airport is a small price to pay for keeping my info out of the hands of another leaky system.
As a reverse look at the first rant, I just found an article about Web sites that review escorts. These are not your average street-walkers, but the high end, top dollar hang on your arm beauties. The sites let potential customers browse the statistics and acts they are willing to do before deciding who they want to pay to spend an evening or night with. In return the escorts can rate the customers allowing other escorts to know who to contract with or who to avoid. Sounds like they have found a way to use the internet to mutual benefit.
Quirky note for the gamers that occasionally read my lj is an article I read about a California band, The Advantage. Quoting the article, their reported goal in life is "to record every Nintendo song by the time each member lie dead." If you want to read the whole article, it can be found at this MSNBC link. Duck Tales, Mario3!
Do you know who has gotten copies of your phone records? I first read about the sale of illegally gotten phone records with personal data in a The Red Tape Chronicles article. Supposedly, the FCC is looking into the sale of the privacy practices of telephone companies. While they are compiling information about the practice, it would be the FTC that would have to take any action against violators. In the meantime, the biggest users of cell and landline phones are stepping up to the plate to preserve their personal information. Like I have said all along about identity theft "until it starts affecting the legislators they don't really place a priority on laws to protect against it." Our wonderful Congress is now proposing legislation against obtaining phone records and instituting substantial penalties against the companies for giving out the information without a customer's permission.
An item of interest, especially for Kelly and Kyle, is that even though almost a million copies of WoW sold in 2005, the sales of computer games dropped 14% last year. The second and third top sellers were The Sims 2: University Expansion Pack and The Sims 2.
One last note on the issue of porn is how it has helped develop some of the internet technology that we all take for granted today. Just like streaming video was first utilized and perfected by the porn industry they are now working on live video chat for cell phones. "Can you see me now?"
Lastly, this one is from a week ago but since I didn't do any ranting (or posting) last weekend it almost got forgotten. If I hadn't just read an article about The Center for Science in the Public Interest suing Kellogg Company and Viacom to keep them from marketing junk food to children, you probably wouldn't be forced to endure this bit of trivia. Since they are targeting good old Tony the Tiger it reminded me of the article about the top twelve favorite marketing spokes-creatures. In order of popularity, they are:
1. The M&Ms
2. Poppin' Fresh (Doughboy)
3. Aflac Duck
4. Tony the Tiger
5. GEICO Gecko
6. Energizer Bunny
6. Chester the Cheetah
6. Kool-Aid Man
6. Trix Rabbit
10. Snap! Crackle! Pop!
10. Snuggle the Bear
10. Willy Wonka
What happened to the Lucky Charms leprechaun or the Michelin Man? Although I was glad to see that the stupid dog from the Taco Hell commercials did not make it in the top picks.