Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:21:11 GMT: Hacker Public Radio #330 released.
Hpr0330:Deepgeek reviews the software Listgarden, which makes rss feeds a cinch to generate. Deepgeek also announces to the HPR community his new show Talk Geek To Me.

Deepgeek reviews "listgarden" for Hacker Public Radio

Find here a review of many "niche" social networking sites.

first, anybody want to check any of these out?
Secondly, can we get on this list?

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Deepgeek

It is amazing how quick niche social networks have grown. I am attempting to review, catalog, and monitor these sites. Below is an ever growing list of niche social networking sites. (I am including sites that are built on community building sites like Ning.) Also I have included links to my review of these sites so you can help determine where you want to build a profile and participate. If there isn’t a review I just haven’t gotten to it yet… This list will be continually updated and tweaked.

Niche Social Networking Sites from Social Media Answers

Imagine this scenario: You've gone out of town for whatever reason, driving your Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. (If we had a Gallardo, you'd bet that taking road trips would be high on the agenda). Anyway, you get to your hotel, surrender your supercar's keys to the valet, and go on with your business. When it's time to leave, they go to retrieve your car and ... it's gone. That nightmare is just what happened to Eric Vargosko when he took his droptop lambo to Atlanta's Intercontinental Hotel. The swank hotel in the upscale Buckhead neighborhood was the last place Vargosko saw his car until it turned up a month later, damaged.

Just as disturbingly, the hotel has refused to talk to Vargosko, and the media isn't having any better luck with them or the Atlanta police. With WWSB TV's consumer reporter on the case, a police report was unearthed which stated that a hotel security camera recorded a valet handing the Lamborghini's keys to two men in the wee hours of the morning. Whether the two men, part of a larger group of seven that had been recorded by the camera while exiting an SUV at 3:30 AM, were thieves or acquaintances of the valet is unknown. Denied satisfaction on the issue thus far, Vargosko's hired an attorney, and will be avoiding the Intercontinental during future travels.

PSA: Be careful who you give your Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder keys to

Avant-Garde podcast at it's best

Cyber Punk Radio

Pimping myself, here

Talk Geek To Me

And in fact, inspirational women in technology are everywhere. From games designers Elonka Dunin and Jane Jensen to Turing award-winners Barbara Liskov and Frances Allen to influential CTOs Mary Lou Jepsen and Padmasree Warrior, women have been making high-level careers in science and technology for a long time now.

I got blurbed. :)

Guardian: On Ada Lovelace Day, let's hear it for women in technology

Dr. X was the ideal man for this job because of his very disreputability. He was a reverse engineer. He collected artificial mites like some batty Victorian lepidopterist. He took them apart one atom at a time to see how they worked, and when he found some clever innovation, he squirreled it away in his database. Since most of these innovations were the result of natural selection, Dr. X was usually the first human being to know about them.

Hackworth was a forger, Dr. X was a honer. The distinction was at least as old as the digital computer. Forgers created a new technology and then forged on to the next project, having explored only the outlines of its potential. Honers got less respect because they appeared to sit still technologically, playing around with systems that were no longer start, hacking them for all they were worth, getting them to do things the forgers had never envisioned.

Excerpt from The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

"We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective," the Supreme Court wrote in its decision. "The Legislature has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."

This is huge, bigger than Tinker, probably as big as Griswold v. Connecticut. It's a state ruling, but having read Bobby Hanson's original ruling, is very easy to apply at a federal level. The ruling deals with equal protection under state rules, but the decision also went into detail on applicable federal rules because of rulings that apply to states (like Griswold).

Things just got VERY interesting. Federal unconstitutionality overrules state constitutions, period. Hanson's breakdown presents a clear argument that barring gay marriage is unconstitutional under the US Constitution which means those state constitutional amendments barring gay marriage could easily be voided. Expect this one to go up the ladder quickly because of this. Someone in a state that has such an amendment will challenge the state rule in federal court, using the Iowa decision, depending on how things go with the California Supreme Court and Prop 8, I would expect it challenged there in the 9th Circuit, but there are other possibilities, Wisconsin and Florida are other likely locations for challenges.

Finally, there is no, none, zero chance of a federal ban amendment getting though anything resembling the current system. Doing so would require a 2/3 vote of both houses, followed by ratification of 2/3 of the states. Right now it can't even make cloture in the Senate, is even farther from super-majority status, and then would need approval in 2/3 of the states? There is no part of that process it would currently pass, or would have at any time in the last 20 years.

Iowa high court legalizes gay marriage in state

"Provide for licensing and certification of cybersecurity professionals." What the hell is this? The bill would require "...a professional licensing and certification program for cybersecurity professionals similar to those required for other major professions." So in order to do security functions you'll have to go to Security School and pass your boards? I suppose if you do something unapproved, like the wrong kind of research, your license can be revoked. I don't like where this part is going.

I strongly agree with this sentiment. There many be many good ideas wrapped up in this bill but professional licensure of security professionals is a terrible idea. You know its time for a career change when the common denominator in your profession gets to decide who is and is not allowed to practice it.

The Proposed Federalization of the Computer Security Field