] Magnetic Stripe Snooping at Home
]
] Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday March 01, @09:59AM
] from the because-you-can dept.
]
] pbrinich writes "Have you ever wondered what information
] is actually stored on all those cards you have in your
] wallet? Well, it turns out you can find out yourself! An
] excellent project, Stripe Snoop started by Billy Hoffman,
] a Georgia Tech computer science student, contains
] schematics, source code and a wide variety of information
] about the standards used to store all sorts of
] information on your magnetic cards."

[ Billy makes the front page of /. Go billy! -k]

StripeSnoop on /.

] Public reaction to this radio show episode inspired
] Negativland to turn their idea into an actual book/CD
] release. Click the above link to listen to the segment.

Take 11 minutes and listen to this NPR segment. Its a reading of letters found inside totalled cars in a junkyard.

DEATHSENTENCES - Audio

] The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an
] adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a
] "parasite," to a federal privacy advisory board.

Wow thats stupid. I hope this isn't indicitive of their anti-terrorism policies.

Adware maker joins federal privacy board | CNET News.com

] Anita Thompson also echoes the comments that have been
] made by Hunter Thompson's son and daughter-in-law: That
] her husband's suicide did not come from the bottom of the
] well, but was a gesture of strength and ultimate control
] made as his life was at a high-water mark.

Some of you might take an interest in this information.

Details of Thompson Suicide

Can you know you are in the middle of a tipping point, or is it only something you can see in retrospect?

The Tipping Points

The spam is getting really annoying. I've implemented rel=nofollow for people with low global reputations as well as a couple other subtle tweeks. Hopefully these people are smart enough to know when they are wasting their time. I'll make more changes if they are not.

] We got it, we played it, we love it. Polyphony Digital's
] latest-generation Gran Turismo introduces a toolbox full
] of new features that'll have you playing for hours,
] sometimes without even driving a single lap. Ever want to
] race in the Grand Canyon? On ice? Around New York City,
] Hong Kong, The Cote D'Azure? How about a drag race down
] the Las Vegas Strip? Now you can take your pick--all over
] the world, on any track, on any surface.

Damnit. I just solved San Andreas and they go and release this. I need a life man. I don't want to be a gamer!

Gran Turismo 4 - First Drive - Motor Trend

Pretty sure I had the last one...

Star Wars Knock-Offs

] Given the quality of the writing in the
] blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People
] are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts.
] It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are
] met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In
] that case, their rejection of my view is quite
] understandable.

The author of the L.A. Times editorial "Google and God's Mind" which seemed to make several (in my opinion short sighted) arguments against digitizing books has come out swinging at the Bloggosphere. As MemeStreams appears first on a Google Search for "Google and God's Mind" its entirely possible that my comments factored in here, although fortunately they don't seem to be referenced specifically.

Writers in the Blogosphere can be rather harsh to public figures. This public figure is rather harsh back. I'm not sure what the point of all of this bickering is. I don't care which one of you is an idiot. NoteWorthy's point that access is a mostly solved problem in the west is a good one, but it doesn't lead to the conclusion that digitizing works has no value, nor does this author's straw man argument about where else to spend the money.

You'll see books mostly go away in your lifetime. There are other, harder problems to solve about how to make the most of information resources available to you. I'd rather think about the later, but I'm still a fan of the former.

Library Journal - Revenge of the Blog People!

] In one recent case, the lawsuit and subpoena were issued
] in response to someone opining on an online message board
] that the president of a corporation had "a Napoleon
] complex." In another, the lawsuit was based on a
] statement that the company's executives were getting rich
] while the stock price was in free fall. Each of these
] suits was dropped once it became clear that the anonymous
] speaker was going to court to protect his identity,
] suggesting that the real purpose of the litigation was to
] discover whether the statements were made by employees so
] that the company could retaliate against them.

Anonymous speech on the Interent matters.

Legal Technology - Publius, RIP?