] PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania law allowing the
] state to force Internet service providers to block access
] to child pornography sites is unconstitutional, a federal
] judge ruled on Friday.
]
] Judge Jan Dubois, of the U.S. court for the Eastern
] District of Pennsylvania, found that the law was
] unconstitutional because technology used to block the
] sites would also prevent users from accessing sites that
] had nothing to do with child pornography.
]
] "With the current state of technology, the act cannot be
] implemented without excessive blocking of innocent speech
] in violation of the First Amendment," the judge wrote.
 . . .
] Federal courts including the U.S. Supreme Court have
] several times rejected efforts to curb online
] pornography, as violations of constitutional free-speech
] protections.

I am encouraged to see that as the lawsuits involving the internet are moving through the U.S. legal system, that we're seeing more and more courts and judges who "get it" when it comes to the internet. Not so many years ago, much of mainstream society was completely baffled by cyber-culture. But they're catching up and better understanding how things work.

Not that I'm glad that ISPs are allowed to link to child porn -- I just think that the better solution is that once such porn sites have been identified, that legal action should be taken directly against those sites, and not at the ISPs that provide access!

U.S. Judge Rejects Law to Block Child Porn on the Web

One of my cousins lives in Orlando, and she and her family (husband and 2 small boys) were directly in the path of the hurricane. I asked her to write up an email of what it was like, and she sent it to me today. I found it fascinating, and am sharing it here:

I finally have a few moments to collect my thoughts about the storm. You asked great questions, so here are a few long winded answers.

We spent the storm at our house, fully expecting the storm was not on a path directly toward us, or even if it was going to get close...that the storm would diminish greatly prior to Orlando and we would not have any problems except perhaps a short power outage or loss of cable tv type of thing.

One of the outer bands of the storm hit at about 4-4:30 - very strong rain - no wind though, then afterwards the air was completetly still and quiet - no birds etc. At 8 PM as we gathered to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, while the boys peppered us with questions like What are the Olympics and What is Athens and why is it greasy? and is that wind I hear? the storm hit. Huge winds heavy rain and by 8:15 we lost power. The noise of the wind for the next 2 hours was incredibly intense and howly I guess. We heard a few thumps which we guessed the next day were actually shingles hitting our house, saw lots of lightning and weird incredibly bright green flashes (still don't know what those were, some people say green lightning, others say transformers blowing??) We couldn't see much except when there were flashes. Truthfully, we thought no real damage was being done. All of our trees are relatively short, mabye not taller than 30 feet and they were all standing before we went to bed. Our pool area looked intact, so we went to bed at 10:30 with strong winds still blowing and figured we'd made it.

The next morning was perfectly clear and sunny, after we all woke up we "shoed" up and ventured outside to face the mess. Shingles all over our yard, holes in the screen enclosure over the pool, shingles in the pool. Several large limbs off our orange tree....all of which was negligible. Neighbors all around us lost most of their trees, had severe damage to their pool areas, some homes lost shingles and tar paper and were down to plywood. The street that runs past our neighborhood had EVERY power pole down, so we knew then we would be doing without for a while. But things looked up quickly, while we sat outside for an icecream breakfast (which attracted lots of neighbors) the man who lives next door said he had a generator and would we like to plug in our fridge.

The kids and a friend and I started picking up shingles and handing them to Mike and other neighbors who used the loose shingles and plastic sheeting to repair about 6 roofs. The generator neighbor made pancakes and coffee which we distributed to the many passers by. EVERYONE was out walking that morning.

Our phone... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]

I just got a really nice email from a soldier in Afghanistan:

I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you that I really enjoyed your website. My interest in cryptography and the like is a fairly new one, and your site was most informative. I am a soldier currently stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan (surgical tech). Hopefully I will eventually be allowed to return to KC, but all information regarding a departure date is rumor at best. So, when things are quiet here, I get online and try to learn something new. What better way to pass the time?

Awwww. A little letter like this can make all the hours of HTML coding worth it. :)

abaddon wrote:
] Acidus wrote:
] ] ] But CrimeThinc continued to ask attendees to deface the
] ] ] Republican National Committee Web sites, to launch denial
] ] ] of service attacks against their servers, to harass
] ] ] delegates in the street, to prevent buses carrying
] ] ] delegates from running, and so on. "By any means
] ] ] necessary," he said.
] ]
] ] This is not hacking, this isn't protesting, this is anarchy,
] ] and these jackasses deserve the brutality they get.
]
] I agree, its one thing to protest, its something entirely
] different to try to fight for your rights, like free assembly,
] and free speech by denying people at the RNC those exact same
] rights...
]
] as far as I'm conserned if your free assembly and free speech
] turns into anarchy designed to limit the free speech and free
] assembly of others then you are not helping the fight for
] freedom...
]
] the real thing these people are fighting for isn't freedom,
] they have it, and they would have republicans striped of those
] same freedoms because they dont agree with republican
] politics...no what they're really after is a totalitarian
] society that they themselves control, where they can deside
] who has rights and who doesnt...
]
] we dont live in that society yet, and until we do these people
] have no place telling the republicans, or anyone for that
] matter which rights they have, and which rights they have to
] give up...
  . . .
] --Abaddon

(applauds!) Well said, Abaddon. :)

RE: CrimeThinc @ Defcon: Cause chaos at the RNC (dumb idea)

] RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Paul Johnson's beheading
] sent a shiver of disgust throughout the world. Except the
] Arab world, that is.

This is an essay by a columnist for two arab-language dailies. I have to admit that I haven't seen much about Johnson in the Arab news either. Not even on Memri.

Strange Silence in Arab Media over Paul Johnson's Death

] RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - A Saudi calling himself "the
] believer" and a friend of Paul Johnson Jr. went to
] Internet sites known for extremist Islamic postings to
] make a religious plea for the captured American's life.
 . . .
] In his Internet posting, a man identified as Saad
] al-Mu'men said his friendship bestowed a protection on
] Johnson other Muslims cannot violate. If Johnson was
] harmed, al-Mu'men told the kidnappers, "I will never
] forgive you. I will curse you in all my prayers."
]
] Al-Mu'men - a pseudonym meaning "the believer" - pointed
] to a saying by Islam's Prophet Muhammad: "If they were
] granted (Muslim) protection, then killing or taking their
] money or harming them is forbidden."
 . . .
] Al-Mu'men said he was a colleague of Johnson but did not give
] any details about his job. He said he often invited Johnson
] over for dinner or and gave books on Islam as presents.
]
] The letter was posted late Wednesday on web sites where
] al-Qaida members and other Islamic militants post messages.
] It was subsequently posted on the web site of the Arab satellite
] television channel Al-Arabiya.

As Johnson is a friend of my family, I am following this story closely. Though "closely" may not be the right word, since sometimes I find myself almost afraid to turn on the news, for fear that I'll just be reading about his death.

I know that Johnson was in Saudi of his own free will, so he had to know that there were some risks involved -- it's just so damn frustrating that of all the Americans to have been kidnapped, that someone as sympathetic to Islam as he was would be one of the people targeted. I have to wonder if he's been able to talk to his captors at all, to "speak their language", to establish any kind of connection.

And in the meantime, all I can do is wait. And hope . . .

Saudi friend pleads on internet for life of kidnapped American

] The United States' invasion of Iraq was not a great idea.
] Its only virtue was that it was the best available idea
] among a series of even worse ideas.

This is pretty much how I feel about it. There was a problem in Iraq, and it was regularly spilling over to other countries. All other methods of dealing with the situation had been tried (covert action, encouraging revolt, using U.N. sanctions, etc.), without success. Saddam was going to have to be dealt with eventually, and the longer we waited, the worse the problem was getting. We *might* have been able to time the war better, or do a better job of getting international support, but overall, I think the invasion was probably timed about the best it could be, considering issues of will, resources, weather, and so forth. Which still didn't mean it was a *good* time to invade, but was probably the best available option among a series of even worse options.

Strategic Forecasting decides to offer an opinion...

] From the Indus Valley to Bedford County, 4000 years of
] untranslatable messages.

In tracking the blog sites that have been picking up the link to my "Famous unsolved codes and ciphers" page (thousands of links continue to stream in), I've been coming across many interesting site layouts. This is one of them: The page includes links to various sites, the number of hours since the link was posted, a brief comment by the site owner, and a screenshot of the site being linked. I found the page visually interesting.

Hot Links

] An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town. The
] boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked. As they
] went along they passed some people who remarked it was a
] shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding.
] The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so
] they changed positions. Later, they passed some people
] that remarked, "What a shame, he makes that little boy
] walk." They then decided they both would walk! Soon
] they passed some more people who thought they were stupid
] to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they
] both rode the donkey. Now they passed some people that
] shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a
] poor donkey. The boy and man said they were probably
] right, so they decided to carry the donkey. As they
] crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the donkey
] and he fell into the river and drowned.
]
] The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone,
] you might as well kiss your ass good-bye.

Truth. :)

Words of Wisdom

] Dunin, E. (2004) The unwritten rules of Orkut.com [Orkut
] posting] Retrieved April 2, 2004 from:
] http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=781&tid=81

Heh. One of my message board posts on orkut got cited as an official source in someone's research paper. I'm published! Sorta. ;)

Research Paper: Orkut at Eleven Weeks