Hackers are hijacking thousands of PCs to spy on users, shake down online businesses, steal identities and send millions of pieces of spam. If you think your computer is safe, think again.

This is a really good article on the botnet/spyware industry. Interestingly enough the botnet operator who agreed to be interviewed for this article did so on the condition of anonymity. According to Slashdot the Washington Post published his hometown as the "location" caption for an odd image in the article. He lives in a very small town. Chances are he is going to prison.

Invasion of the Computer Snatchers

Apple Computer appears to have invoked the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to stop the dissemination of methods allowing Mac OS X to run on chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

DMCA axes sites discussing Mac OS for PCs | Tech News on ZDNet

The Global Online Freedom Act is sponsored by Smith and five of his colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans. It would make the free exchange of ideas on the Internet a central concern of US foreign policy.

For example, no US firm could locate its Internet server computers inside one of these countries. Smith said that China or other repressive countries would still be able to subpoena an American Internet provider. But the subpoena would pass through the US legal system.

In addition, the bill would make it illegal for any US company to censor Internet information hosted on a US government website. Thus, Google Inc., which offers censored Internet searches inside China, would be barred from blocking access to the website of the Voice of America or Radio Free Asia.

The bill could mean trouble for US firms like Cisco Systems Inc., which sell Internet switching hardware. It calls on the Commerce Department to set up export controls on such equipment.

Bill aims to fight Net censorship - The Boston Globe

Lantos, to Microsoft: Is your company ashamed?

Microsoft: We comply with legally binding orders whether it's here in the U.S. or China.

Lantos: Well, IBM complied with legal orders when they cooperated with Nazi Germany. Those were legal orders under the Nazi German system...Do you think that IBM during that period had something to be ashamed of?

Lantos, to Yahoo: Are you ashamed?

Yahoo: We are very distressed about the consequences of having to comply with Chinese law...We are certainly troubled by that and we look forward to working with our peers.

Lantos: Do you think that individuals or families have been negatively impacted by some of the activities we have been told, like being in prison for 10 years? Have any of the companies reached out to these families and asked if you could be of any help to them?

Yahoo: We have expressed our condemnation of the prosecution of this person, expressed our views to the Chinese government...We have approached the Chinese government on these issues.

Lantos: Have you reached out to the family? I can ask it 10 more times if you refuse to answer it. You are under oath.

Congressman quizzes Net companies on shame | CNET News.com

The Bank of Asia is a very famous building in Bangkok. It was made way back in 1985, and it's robotic appearance is just a symbol of the modernization of banking. It also has the ability to transform into a mega-robot.

Man I wish I had see this when I was there.

U: OK, this site is down, so try this one instead...

UniqueDaily.com - The Many Unusual Looking Buildings On Earth

There is not now nor has there ever been any correlation between economic and political development in China.

The cDc's comments aren't bad, but the hearing is the criticism they seem to be asking for. My problem with this whole thing is that I'll bet some of the legislators who held this hearing voted for the Communications Decency Act. How can Congress get its panties in a bunch about political censorship in China when they voted just a decade ago to imprison people for saying fuck on the internet? We sowed these seeds, and China knows it.

There is a correlation between economic development in China and peace. A healthy, interconnected, global China is less likely to start bombing stuff then a poor, angry, isolated China. I don't think Google really had a choice here. They either comply with various national demands or they are liable locally or in the case of China they simply get banned. I don't blame them. I do blame the telecommunications companies who went in there and built China's firewall. They didn't have to take that business. I do think we should be engaged. I don't think we should take opportunities that we shouldn't support when we don't have to. And if we have to, we should take them like a C student.

CULT OF THE DEAD COW on China hearings

Charles Duelfer, who led the official U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction after the war, says the tapes show extensive deception but don't prove that weapons were still hidden in Iraq at the time of the U.S.-led war in 2003. "What they do is support the conclusion in the report, which we made in the last couple of years, that the regime had the intention of building and rebuilding weapons of mass destruction, when circumstances permitted."

I don't think that was ever in dispute. This is a non-story, but it gives the Conservative rags something to talk about while the second reel of Abu Ghraib photos goes around.

RE: Secret Saddam WMD Tapes Subject of ABC Nightline Special -- 02/15/2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Science and math have zoomed to the top of the nation's education agenda. Yet Amanda Cook, a parent of two school-age girls, can't quite see the urgency.

"In Maine, there aren't many jobs that scream out 'math and science,"' said Cook, who lives in Etna, in the central part of the state. Yes, both topics are important, but "most parents are saying you're better off going to school for something there's a big need for."

Janelane: Oh. My. God. I think I've just had a stroke and heart attack.

Decius: Oh, so THATS what this place is coming to...

CNN: Parents don't see a crisis over science and math

If we want to keep email as open as it used to be, we have to be very inclusive. This is where reputation systems come in: just as credit bureaus tell financial institutions if someone is likely not to pay their bills, reputation systems tell mail receivers if someone is likely to be a spammer. Reputation systems are essential to solving the first- contact problem, but that is a topic for a different article.

This is notable, but its more a manifesto then an idea.

Internet Governance: An Antispam Perspective

Cambridge academic Ross Anderson told MPs it would mean more computer files being encrypted.

He urged the government to look at establishing "back door" ways of getting around encryptions.

Ross Anderson supports GAK!?

BBC NEWS | Politics | UK holds Microsoft security talks