] ...because, as the Spanish philospher Unamuno said, "At
] times, to be silent is to lie."
]
] ...One actually has to be something of a specialist, today,
] to even begin to grasp quite how fantastically, how
] baroquely and at once brutally fucked the situation of
] the United States has since been made to be.

It seems like he has a point to make but as yet he has not made it.

William Gibson is blogging again...

] Found the following links which all seem to point to the
] same company that is suspected of tearing up Democratic
] voter registration forms in Las Vegas. It has set up
] registration drives in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan,
] Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Nevada and is accused of
] the same things in most if not all of these states.
] Sproul & Associates is a Republican consulting firm run
] by Nathan Sproul, former head of the Arizona Republican
] party and Arizona Christian Coalition.

The mainstream press seems to be picking this up. Lawsuits where filed today...

Daily Kos :: RNC funds voter supression efforts

] "The FBI can't pull the plug on more than 20 news
] websites -- our modern printing presses -- based on a
] secret proceeding at the request of a foreign government.
] This is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment,"
] said Kevin Bankston, EFF attorney and Equal Justice
] Works/Bruce J. Ennis Fellow. "As far as the Constitution
] is concerned, Indymedia has the same rights as any other
] news publisher. The government can't shut down the New
] York Times, and it can't shut down Indymedia."

[ A story to keep your eyes on... -k]

EFF: EFF Challenges Secret Government Order to Shut Down Media Websites

Acidus turns 24 on Friday. Party time!

Happy Birthday Acidus!

] Over the years our world famous "Dynamite Clock" has
] repeatedly made the news due to it's super-realistic
] appearance. Designed by a REAL demolitions expert, each
] unique piece is and hand assembled one-at-a-time. Each of
] these works of art will instantly command anyone's
] attention. Talk about a conversation piece... Each clock
] features multiple sticks of dynamite (simulated), and
] realistic explosives wrapping paper. We then attach a
] hi-quality digital clock, motion sensor (mercury switch),
] circuit board with functional L.E.D. lights, a speaker,
] battery power supply, and top it off with a de-activated
] detanator pin. Once the battery has been connected the
] unit will be "set-off" if it is moved, jostled, or picked
] up in any way. The red L.E.D. lights blink, the buzzer
] sounds, and the poor fool who moved it will need a change
] of underwear!

There are all kinds of entertaining gadgets on this site...

Realistic dynamite clock

] What is Dropload?
]
]
] Dropload is a place for you to drop your files off and
] have them picked up by someone else at a later time.
] Recipients you specify are sent an email with
] instructions on how to download the file. Files are
] removed from the system after 7 days, regardless if they
] have been picked up or not. You can upload any type of
] file, mp3, movies, docs, pdfs, up to 100MB each!
] Recipients can be anyone with an email address

This seems pretty cool.

Dropload - Drop off downloads

Chrisopher Reeve died yesterday

Superman has fallen

Any comments on this list?

1. Stable government with system of laws that enable the ownership of property, and the ability to leverage that property to borrow money.

2. Did not get bombed out during WWII.

3. The worlds largest single language, single culture market.

4. A self contradictory culture that teaches rebellion while it teaches conformity, resulting in subculture of independents who innovate in the face of threats, quickly adapting the society to changes.

The next question is going to be harder.

] Somewhere in Andrew's house is a hefty Linux server
] running many applications, including an Asterisk Open
] Source VoIP software PBX. There is no desktop PC in
] Andrew's house. Instead, he runs a Linux thin client on
] a Sharp Zaurus SL-6000 Linux PDA. Sitting in its cradle
] on Andrew's desk at home, the Zaurus (running a special
] copy of Debian Linux, NOT as shipped by Sharp) connects
] to a full-size keyboard and VGA display, and runs
] applications on the server. Another cradle, monitor and
] keyboard are at Andrew's office, where he also doesn't
] have a PC. Walking around in his house, the Zaurus
] (equipped with a tri-mode communications card) is a WiFi
] VoIP phone running through the Asterisk PBX and
] connecting to the Vonage VoIP network. Walking out of
] his house, the Zaurus automatically converts to the local
] mobile phone carrier, though with a data connection that
] still runs back through Vonage.
]
] Yeah, but what about that wireless TV? How does that
] work? Andrew's server runs Myth TV, an Open Source
] digital video recorder application, storing on disk in
] MPEG-4 format (1.5-2 megabits-per-second) more than
] 30,000 TV episodes, movies and MP3 music files.

Cringely's vision of the wifi future. I can tell you from personal experience that none of this crap works half as well as you'd want it to, and it has about twice the security concerns that you're thinking. But it is the future. The FOSS version of it anyway. The FOSS future is a future in which nothing quite works right but you can do anything you want with it. In the alternate future you can pretty much do most of the same stuff, with some restrictions, particularly on your creativity, and everything costs a monthly fee, but it all works perfectly.

FOSS isn't going to be what you are using at home. FOSS is a check upon professional consumer electronics world. Its like the bad cop to their good cop on the media industries. If the commercial stuff is too expensive or too controlling, it will be less trouble to struggle with the FOSS stuff. FOSS will keep the prices down and the capabilities open, but only to a certain extent...

But thats not the point. The point is that this is the future. You have one network connection. You have one phone. It works everywhere. Its flat rate, mostly. Asterisk probably works a hell of a lot better then MythTV, because there is money in it. A lot of money.

When internet video conferencing gets cheaper and better, the phone call paradigm is going to die. You'll just leave it on. You'll leave it on because why hang up. If you friend comes over to hang out you don't just kick them out all of a sudden because you've got nothing else to talk about. You'll share audio and video of your friend's places all the time, unless you want privacy and pull the shades. It will be like you are all in the same place all the time.

PBS | I, Cringely... WIFI near future

] First, once you fire up red | blue, the phone
] either connects to the GPS on your phone and
] gets your latitude and longitude, or asks you to input
] your U.S. address (depending on your version of
] the application). The phone then connects to the
] internet to send that information to the Gravity Monkey
] servers.
]
] Then, like a magical greenback Geiger counter, red
] | blue will tell you if you're in Republican or
] Democratic territory, and will also show you the
] total amount of contributions for Republicans or
] Democrats in your area.

leet

Gravity Monkey - Red/Blue