By a 20-13 vote Thursday that partially followed party lines, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would require broadband providers to abide by strict Net neutrality principles, meaning that their networks must be operated in a "nondiscriminatory" manner.

About time.

House panel votes for Net neutrality

This is interesting to me - one, because I have a diagnosed major sleep disorder. (Both severe RLS and PLMD) I know I just never sleep. I don't eat that much, but I just darn keep gaining weight like a sitting hen. lol I've read before that people with sleep apnea often lose weight after being treated with CPAP machines - this ties in very neatly with that observation.

Now, if I could just get more than an hour or two sleep at a time...

Sleep more important than diet in weight control

I saw the DaVinci code today with my ten year old son. We both loved it. We were delighted that so very much of the movie was in well spoken Latin. The movie is subtitled for those that have unfamiliar with the language. If subtitles bother you, you may not like this movie!

The movie is much more violent than I perceived the book to be. Though there is violence, there's very little gore. It was well presented, enough to give it some punch but subdued enough with the blood to maintain its PG-13 rating.

It was refreshing to see this was such a CLEAN movie - very little harsh language, and very little nudity.

The movie WAS long, but it did not drag. My son did not once wiggle, or go to the bathroom. When the movie was over, he said it was "VERY GOOD" as compared to Narnia's being "OK."

In the theater that I was in - for a Sunday matinee- there was considerable applause at the end of the movie.

We did not see the 911 preview that some people have complained about. We did see a preview for The Omen, opening 6-6-2006.
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Now, for my rant. I personally am sick of all the fiction/nonfiction controversy over this movie, except for the fact that it is driving more people into the theaters. In all the debunking of the book that I've seen/heard, I have YET to hear anyone really address the ugly history of the Catholic Church that is presented in this movie.

For all the chatter about Christians being uniformed of Biblical history, or history of the early Christian Church, the truth is that our populous is more informed that ever. There are millions of people that actively seek out and read the Gnostic gospels and look into the history of the Church. It is all available online - just a Google away - even the newly revealed Gospel of Judas.

There is something very unsatisfying about Christianity for a lot of people. While it is true that the masses do need their opiates, and that the Church is that for many, there are a lot of people who are not intellectually or spiritually served by a cracker and some grape juice. There are many that do not even understand what the word Gnostic means - yet they intuitively sense that some higher teaching has been left out - there's something to Christianity that they just don't GET. Between the people that are looking for THAT, and people that have a disdain for the authority of the church, and people that just love crypto and puzzles - you've just got one wide audience that is willing to enjoy and consider such a theory as this movie provides.

To argue over what the templars did or didn't do, or what blah blah blah did - WHO CARES? I have not yet heard the church respond to the DaVinci code by acknowledging how many Gnostics that they killed to preserve their power. They did. So much was secret back then - there was no real communication of such things as the massacre of the templars to the genera... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

Tommorow is the big day for the EFF's AT&T NSA spying case. There is a public hearing in the morning to determine whether or not the Federal Government will be able to assert the State Secret's Privilege to squash the case. Wired has tons of coverage, including information from the EFF's exhibits, which I'm linking here.

The normal work force of unionized technicians in the office are forbidden to enter the "secret room," which has a special combination lock on the main door. The telltale sign of an illicit government spy operation is the fact that only people with security clearance from the National Security Agency can enter this room.

The above-referenced document includes a diagram (PDF 3) showing the splitting of the light signal, a portion of which is diverted to "SG3 Secure Room," i.e., the so-called "Study Group" spy room.

Since the San Francisco "secret room" is numbered 3, the implication is that there are at least several more in other cities (Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego are some of the rumored locations), which likely are spread across the United States.

Now, the description offered here would be valid for a CALEA compliance room. The existance of these things doesn't demonstrate what is being surveilled or why or with what authority. But the technical information is likely of interest to the geeks on this site, including the tool used for collecting data (which is a common CALEA compliance tool). There is also a picture of the room.

The State Secrets Option, BTW, is the nuclear option in law. If this case proceeds it will be a watershed event, particularly given that this option was accepted in the rendition case of Maher Arar. Getting tortured by a foreign government is a bit more serious then getting your phone tapped.

Of course, consideration of this matter leads one rapidly to worry that that if the intelligence or security establishment commits a crime, and you are the victim of that crime, you have no recourse. This tends to incidate that the realm of intelligence and national security is an autonomous zone, where the only real law is "trust us."

Wired News: AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence

By: Attorney Deborah Stevenson, Executive Director, National Home Education Legal Defense

"Nothing makes me angrier than a lie, except when a lie is repeated so often that people believe it to be truth. I’m sick of lies, distorted truth, spin, and revisionist history. Can we just get back to reality? Can we just hold people accountable for their purposeful distortions?

Can we just set the record straight?

The lie that makes me the angriest is the lie that “It’s legal to homeschool “now.”” The implication in that statement is the lie. The implication is that it wasn’t legal to homeschool before, or that homeschooling only became legal in the past 20 years or so. Nothing could be farther from the truth. "

The Big Lie about Public Education, Homeschooling and Compulsory Attendance

Now, "the real battle lies between" Negroponte and Rumsfeld, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Donald Kerrick, a former deputy national security adviser and once a senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"Rumsfeld rules the roost now."

If they are smart, Negroponte will take over.

The Fix-It Man Leaves, but The Agency's Cracks Remain

Colbert's real sin wasn't lese majesty, it was inserting a brief moment of honesty into an event based upon a lie -- one considered socially necessary by the political powers that be, but still, a lie.

Like its upscale sibling, the annual Gridiron Club dinner, the White House Correspondents dinner is a ritual designed, at least implicitly, to showcase the underlying unity of our Beltway elites. It's supposed to demonstrate that no matter how ferocious their battles may appear on the surface, political opponents can still gather in the same room and break bread, with the corporate media acting as the properly neutral host. It's a relic of the good old days of centrism and bipartisan log rolling ("the end of ideology"), visible proof that in the American system, there may be enemies, but there are no mortal enemies. And so last night we had Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame sitting at one table, Karl Rove at another, and no knives were drawn.

Another good analysis, this time by billmon...

The Blog | Billmon: American Nightmarez | The Huffington Post

Security researchers and legal experts have voiced concern this week over the prosecution of an information-technology professional for computer intrusion after he allegedly breached a university's online application system while researching a flaw without the school's permission.

Find a bug. Report it. Have the U.S. Attorney claim in court that you are liable for the costs associated with fixing the bug. Go to Jail. Dave Aitel has it right... Retarded...

Boy am I glad this wasn't the case a few years back. I know there were some students at Shorter College here in Rome expelled and prosecuting for exploiting a very similiar flaw, but I've not looked into the details of it.

There are a lot of problems with Sungard/Banner software/webCT integration. Colleges want to forget all about security - it just has to be easy and cheap.

This is retarded and encourages people to keep stuff quiet.

Breach case could curtail Web flaw finders

Reports filtering back to the Tokyo headquarters of the Japanese electronics giant NEC in mid-2004 alerted managers that pirated keyboards and recordable CD and DVD discs bearing the company's brand were on sale in retail outlets in Beijing and Hong Kong.

After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the company said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The pirates were faking the entire company.

In the name of NEC, the pirates copied NEC products, and went as far as developing their own range of consumer electronic products - everything from home entertainment centers to MP3 players. They also coordinated manufacturing and distribution, collecting all the proceeds.

"On the surface, it looked like a series of intellectual property infringements, but in reality a highly organized group has attempted to hijack the entire brand," he said. "It is not a simple case of a factory knocking off a branded product. Many of them have been given bogus paperwork that they say gives them the right to do it."

Next step in pirating: Faking a company

President Bush on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline, making it easier for refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen prices at the pump.

Great, so the price stays the same and Exxon makes MORE??? George, you're insane.

He's NOT insane; he's an OIL MAN.

Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline - Yahoo! News