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Googles has released their adsense-program for RSS-feeds, its available to users with more than 100 subscribers.

More info straight from google: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/feed-me.htm l

Apply form: http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/aff

They won't fill it with flashing, blinking ads...

But they will fill your life with carefully targeted ads. Google is setting up the best media network ever created and it is being build as the ultimate advertising delivery method. Remember how your email is being scanned for AdSense? Same will happen to your RSS. Personalize your news? They'll have ads for that.

Whatever Google releases to the public, think about how AdSense can take advantage of it. There is too much money there not too...

-LogoCulture
http://logoculture.blogspot.com/
(check the most recent post for more Google shite...)

I think, going by the trend, that google is consolidating its hold on the internet by getting itself integrated into the lives of all people using computers irrespective of the OS that is being used. Now the question whether Google is another Microsoft in the making can only be answered a few years from now when most of the competition gets swalowed by google or gets waylayed - if it ever comes to that. For now it is a good thing for the users who get all these wonderful technologies for free.
--
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/

My friends have been asking me for something that could add Gmail and news headlines to the Google homepage. I saw a Slashdot post requesting the same thing, and someone wrote back: if you want that feature, do it yourself and whip up some code or scrape the data. Of course, why would my friends spend any time hacking this together when they could just get me to do it for them? - Brian Singerman, Software engineer on the Google Blog posting about the new portal.

Somehow I think this explains it.

They even rent out hentai!

It's a feasible long-term model if they move beyond website placement... Which they're doing right now.

Google just partnered with a few cell providers to use GoogleMaps and built-in cell GPS and GPRS to move AdSense from the web to the physical world. Theoretically, AdSense now operates within a cell-users physical world. Walk into a pizza shop and an AdSense message will be sent to your phone giving you a coupon for the shop you just walked into, OR telling you a better pizza deal is right down the street.

Here's where it gets interesting... Retail is all about holding your attention. Think of the advantage AdSense businesses will have if they can literally interupt your shopping in another store. Best Buy can now text you their prices for car stereos the moment you walk into another car audio shop.

Google Search, Maps, etc... they're all apparatuses for content. This is the killer app that will expand the internet into your lives.

-logoCulture
http://logoculture.blogspot.com/

Agreed. However, it makes more sense from a business perspective to not fix current systems but instead release new ones with fixes for the specific problems associated with the last release.

Similarly, I will be watching this OS simply because I am interested as to how hardware manufacturers respond. When Linux makes reviving old machines practicle and purchasing new ones gratuitous, PC makers might get worried... But when Redmond starts turning their attention to products that consumers already own, there might be some fallout...

-logoCulture

http://logoculture.blogspot.com/

This whole "study" is bullshit. The figures are made up from wind. To give an example: you might be interested in knowing that open-source software is counted as pirated (since it was not purchased). A more complete analysis can be found on: http://chosechu.blogspot.com/

Just wait until Google releases GoogleOS, like next week, and we'll see who will be gone in 5 years.

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

even when it becomes a buzzword (and you know it will--just look how long it took bluetooth to make it to the mainstream...) it will be very difficult to get everyone to switch out the old hardware. there will be plenty of unsecure legacy hardware floating around long after the government (and corporations and private users) have started buying nothing but 802.11i, and what many of these users (and even admins) don't realize is that any hole behind the security perimeter is still a hole--and that makes the whole network vulnerable... but you're definitely right--we need to get it out as soon as we can.

--cid

http://cidviscous.blogspot.com/

That 'Rods from God' thing -- that's the old Project Thor idea that's been around since, what? The early Sixties?

http://www.donaldsensing.com/2004/07/rail-guns-for -navy.html

http://avoyagetoarcturus.blogspot.com/2003_04_01_a voyagetoarcturus_archive.html

First I'd ever heard about it was when reading Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Footfall. Pournelle, at least, was one of the Boeing team that came up with the idea. Given the inflammatory nickname though, and the way the other projects seem to parallel things out of movies, I'd say they were chosen more for how the story would play to the audience than any real effort to provide information to the reader.

I haven't seen it mentioned but FirefoxforOpera is a blog dedicated to making firefox more like opera.

I posted an analysis of the NYT article and these issues at: http://yourpinews.blogspot.com/

See what kind of review THESE guys are giving it... 3 Hands on reviews so far.

http://geekaustin.blogspot.com/

Maybe objective was the wrong word to use. Google has a well-balanced review system where no reviewer receives more cred than another and an overall score is computed based on the conglomeration of all the reviewers. So an Ebert would be listed next to an aspiring epinions.com reviewer, to use an example. I find a problem when people take Ebert's reviews as gospel. And also, I didn't even think Ebert was all that great, when Siskel was alive, he only became big after Siskel passed away..

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

http://thehousingbubble.blogspot.com/2005/05/22-ye ar-old-owns-13-homes-hes-never.html#comments

You must fight it yourself: http://stoprulebymob.blogspot.com/

Their reasoning is that the states' 'authority to regulate the sale of alcohol within their borders' under the 21st Amendment does not supersede 'the Constitution's ban on state discrimination against interstate commerce

That is plain wrong
Parent post is modded +5, insightfully wrong.
The dormant commerce clause is a tricky constitutional doctrine.
The 5-4 split today was about whether the 21st Amendment contains an exception to the dormant commerce clause. The text is ambiguous, and this court is hestitant about using evidence of understanding at the time it was passed. It could have gone either way, more discussion at my blog.
If the 21st does not contain an exception to the doctrine, then congress could pass law allowing the states to regulate in this area.
The 4 dissenters argued that congress has done so,
although those bills aren't very clearly written on this point.
Dormant commerce clause issues do have a lot to do with the internet - it's why your state anti-spam law is unconstitutional, and why 6 cases have said the states can't regulate online indecency.

Here's a blog entry i wrote about a year ago. It addresses specifically Freepascal's Lazarus project.

Simply go down to your Register of Deeds office. Countless documents that are public record and available to anyone with a quarter have Social Security Numbers on them. The only restrictions are birth certificates, military discharges, and death certificates, which are available only to the immmediate family of the individual. And since a fake ID template can be downloaded from Kazaa, you've spent less time ripping off someone's identity than cooking dinner.

Deeds offices are becoming more cognizant of it, but in so many states with millions of documents already on record (and so many of which are available over the net), most of the states don't even have laws to redact SSNs, though legislation is pending in some states, and people don't know enough to understand that the SSN is never required (nor do the banks, lawyers, etc., it seems).

Check your mortgages and deeds of trust.

http://corporatefirefox.blogspot.com/

Here is an article my friend wrote regarding SSNs and the magstripe ID cards most colleges use.
http://privacyumd.blogspot.com/

To get more Opera-like behaviour is easy and can be done by the extensible options in Firefox like SO.

Thus all those hotmail and gmail open link in new window pains will just go away!

I am glad that you found some of my everything write-ups, that frees me from the need to repeat whatever arguments I made there already. I will also add that one of my writeups there was arbitraly deleted by the site owner as too controversial (which is why I lost interest in e2 and moved on), though you still might be able to find it somewhere by applying your well-honed detective skills. :)

But first things first. I disagree with you that panty shots are unnatural. For example, Hayao Miyazaki regularly includes panty shots of prepubescent girls just for the sake of it. Yeah, he directs anime, not real films, but this still suggests that may be, just may be a panty shot of a small girl is not evil (though some people like yourself immediately resort to calling Miyazaki a pedophile). As far as I remember my school years, the boys certainly weren't above oogling girls and (when opportunities arose) looking at their panty-covered areas. I heard that it's not uncommon in schools all over the worlds. While this doesn't prove that panty shots are good, it suggest that they are rather natural and probably not very harmful (if at all). And please don't use the slippery slope fallacies. We are not talking about rectums, we are talking about panty shots. There can be a gradation of disgusting photographs face->bare hands->belly->breasts->pubic area->vaginal lips->spread vagina->deep photo->endoscopic photo->x-ray scan. :) Just because a certain stage is bad taste doesn't prove that the one before it is too. :)))

Oh, so now I'm a closet child molestor because I disapprove of people ogling little girls? Very very interesting. I wonder if you'd have the balls to make that kind of accusation to my face, internet warrior.
Yes, I do and yes, you may be. Note, how I didn't say "closet child molestor", I said "latent pedophile" (i.e. the guy who may not even be consciously aware of it).

Tell you what - get into a relationship with someone messed up by childhood diddling
But not everyone, who has childhood diddling develops problems. One of my well-adjusted female friends first had sex in her tweens (pre-13), albeit not with an adult. Sex is not necessarily harmful and the only thing I object to is arbitrary statutory restrictions on sex. If someone tries to "mess up" a child, of course, arrest the guy/gal and try them at court. But first there has to be some evidence of "messing". I would even support compulsory psychiatric testing for each child-adult couple, but if the testing shows that both partners are fine, they should be allowed to pursue their relationship.

see at 15 your 15 year old female classmates who are supposedly mature, supposedly with it, hip and together modern women manipulated and screwed up by older men.
So what? I don't understand this one.

I've never seen a man of the age of consent, esp. in his 20s, who was interested in sniffing around the high school who didn't have some kind of serious problems relating to other people.
But they do exist. Yes, I admit that some pedophiles have psychological problems, but some do not. The fact is that the vast majority of cases of child abuse are perpetrated by non-pedophiles. So sex with kids is not necessarily connected with pedophilia, which is not necessarily connected with psychological problems. It's the same as with, say, gays. You can have sex with men and not be gay, you can be gay and not be mentally ill (though as recently as 50 years ago homosexuallity was barbarically "treated" with sex hormones).

I am still not happy with your strong suggestion I molest my daughter.
It is not fully serious. :) It's half an attempt to make you angry and half a bad-taste joke.

And by the way, you might get away with that in Russia, but here most people would violently assault you for makin

http://dynatech.blogspot.com/2005/05/nintendo-revo lution.html

And there is no constitutional or guaranteed right to remain anonymous.

A minor quibble with the grandparent post:
There is a constitutional right to remain anonymous, but it only applies to actions by government, so it doesn't fit here.
Talley v California, McIntyre v Ohio, http://majors.blogspot.com./

There is a right to privacy, balanced by first amendment public right to know, so that such cases rarely win.
Say a newspaper, without consent, publishes the address of a juvenile rape victim, the rapist sees it and goes for a 2nd helping, the newspaper might be liable. I wouldn't call that guaranteed, tho.
So the quote isn't wrong, i'm just clarifying a bit.

So you came up with a new wiz bang idea. You want to make millions of dollars on your new wiz bang idea. You want to make millions of dollars from all the people in the community around you. Your idea was based off the technology of 20 other ideas , but you spent night and day working really hard to combine everything into your one new cool product.

Now you want YOUR idea protected. You want to sell your product to the community; the product that was built using the technology, and ideas from the community. But, you don't want the community to be able to use your idea. You only want their money.

What your really saying is, "I don't want to be part of this community" I want to steal from your idea pool, I want to take from your resources, I want all your money, but I don't want to give back. You want to rape the community.

You have two options when you have an idea. One, you can be part of the community, tell them your idea, let other people work with your idea, change it, come up with their own ideas, etc. Or if you really want to keep your idea to yourself, and not let anyone else use it, then don't tell anyone. Keep your idea to yourself. Don't try to be part of the community only when it is convenient to you. Don't use their technology, and then never give back.

You are either part of the community or your not. Stop trying to have it both ways.

http://chaosfarmer.blogspot.com/2005/05/sharing-of -ideas.html

On a more practical level, couldn't some malicious person or persons buy a large quantity of these batteries and extract the nuclear source out of them to build a dirty bomb? Just a thought..

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

I've heard the same thing once or twice, but this page says it's one of the least expensive radioisotopes.

This blogger comes to the conclusion that it is at least a thousand times more expensive than gold.

And here's a solid figure: the Canadian Ontario Hydro company asks about 28 million dollars (Canadian) a kilogram. Hang on, I'll get my wallet.

Virus defense is the most worthless technology ever created for a computer. What you end up paying for, is software that runs in the background eating up your cpu, while providing no benefit for your machine. When new viruses come out, your virus software won't stop them, because your virus software does not know about them yet. Then the vendor of your OS will come out with a fix to stop the virus from spreading, and you install the patch from your vendor to stop the virus.

So what exactly does your virus software do to protect you? If the bug isn't patched, the virus can always get in by changing it's signature to something the virus software doesn't know about yet.

In the Slashdot article, people claim that Microsoft has every right to ship a anti-virus product, because it is impossible to stop viruses on the OS. But isn't that what they are claiming the anti virus software will do? Stop the viruses on the OS? The logic these people have makes no sense. They say it is impossible to stop viruses, and they say they can stop viruses with software. Is you OS not software? Can't these MAGIC changes be made on your OS, instead of stripping them out into a seperate product?

http://chaosfarmer.blogspot.com/2005/05/virus-scan ning.html

When antiviruses were just coming out my uncle made a funny comment -- that those antivirus guys have got the perfect formulae: write virus, profit by protecting people from that virus. There is nothing new here. The mafia has been doing this for years. Obviously this is pure stipulation, something to ponder over a drink.

Microsoft Mafia: let's write a P.O.S. OS with gaping security holes in it, making a killing on it, and then write an antivirus to protect people from the OS, and make another killing on it..

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

Sure, it may not improve usability in itself, but having a consistent interface (say selecting Plastik in both Qt/KDE apps and GTKx) sure is pretty.

Wemmy

He does this regularly. His poll question this week is "Is your organization outsourcing any IT functions to offshore providers?" You can answer it here.

This is probably less meaningful than Slashdot polls. No CowboyNeil option, either.

Ted, On your site: http://simplyted.blogspot.com/2004/10/your-inkjet- printer-as-replicator.html There is a link to your site (http://simplyted.blogspot.com/2004/10/your-inkjet -printer-as-replicator.html) This made my head explode Good Day,

Ted, On your site: http://simplyted.blogspot.com/2004/10/your-inkjet- printer-as-replicator.html There is a link to your site (http://simplyted.blogspot.com/2004/10/your-inkjet -printer-as-replicator.html) This made my head explode Good Day,

...about 12 hours before I first read of this.

In March 2005, we discovered engineers at the University of Bath working on a machine that can rapid prototype and replicate itself.

Researchers Hod Lipson and Jordan B. Pollack at Brandeis University have coupled inkjet technology and software to autonomously design and fabricate robots without human intervention.

Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, who runs a one-semester smash-hit class called "How to Make Almost Anything", is determined to produce affordable, replicating personal fabricators by 2025.

And today Hod Lipson has announced the arrival of simple self replicating robots with enormous potential.

Applications

More complex shapes are possible in principle, such as adding grippers, cameras, new sensors etc. to modules. A robot could assemble itself into a new structure to deal with novel events. Also points a way to self-repairing robots.

Nanomachines: Lipson is interested in making these machines at microscale. That could drive major advances in Nanotechnology because huge numbers of robots are needed to manufacture things at a molecular scale. Self-replication is how biology does it.

Implications

Could change the way almost everything is manufactured. Machines that clone themselves are a key factor in the near horizon revolution of digital fabrication.

The movie (accelerated 4X) is eerie to watch. It's easy to imagine a clutter of cubes picking themselves up and walking towards you.

In March 2005, we discovered engineers at the University of Bath working on a machine that can rapid prototype and replicate itself.

Researchers Hod Lipson and Jordan B. Pollack at Brandeis University have coupled inkjet technology and software to autonomously design and fabricate robots without human intervention.

Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, who runs a one-semester smash-hit class called "How to Make Almost Anything", is determined to produce affordable, replicating personal fabricators by 2025.

And today Hod Lipson has announced the arrival of simple self replicating robots with enormous potential.

Applications

More complex shapes are possible in principle, such as adding grippers, cameras, new sensors etc. to modules. A robot could assemble itself into a new structure to deal with novel events. Also points a way to self-repairing robots.

Nanomachines: Lipson is interested in making these machines at microscale. That could drive major advances in Nanotechnology because huge numbers of robots are needed to manufacture things at a molecular scale. Self-replication is how biology does it.

Implications

Could change the way almost everything is manufactured. Machines that clone themselves are a key factor in the near horizon revolution of digital fabrication.

The movie (accelerated 4X) is eerie to watch. It's easy to imagine a clutter of cubes picking themselves up and walking towards you.

In March 2005, we discovered engineers at the University of Bath working on a machine that can rapid prototype and replicate itself.

Researchers Hod Lipson and Jordan B. Pollack at Brandeis University have coupled inkjet technology and software to autonomously design and fabricate robots without human intervention.

Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, who runs a one-semester smash-hit class called "How to Make Almost Anything", is determined to produce affordable, replicating personal fabricators by 2025.

And today Hod Lipson has announced the arrival of simple self replicating robots with enormous potential.

Applications

More complex shapes are possible in principle, such as adding grippers, cameras, new sensors etc. to modules. A robot could assemble itself into a new structure to deal with novel events. Also points a way to self-repairing robots.

Nanomachines: Lipson is interested in making these machines at microscale. That could drive major advances in Nanotechnology because huge numbers of robots are needed to manufacture things at a molecular scale. Self-replication is how biology does it.

Implications

Could change the way almost everything is manufactured. Machines that clone themselves are a key factor in the near horizon revolution of digital fabrication.

The movie (accelerated 4X) is eerie to watch. It's easy to imagine a clutter of cubes picking themselves up and walking towards you.

already?

http://realvirtualcar.blogspot.com/

Have a nice day =)

You may have a point - it may be a vicious cycle..

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

We need more women in CS... Seems like when I went to school 5 years ago, the male:female ratio in CS classes was something like 99:1. We were all very depressed males. If society could somehow be more accepting of women in CS then all us CS guys wouldn't be as depressed/apathetic in college. It/s a win/win situation. It might even attract more guys to CS... The real question is - how? How do we get more women to go into science/computer science?

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

if everyone in india got one. This company would make $200 billion dollars...

--
http://unk1911.blogspot.com/

Maybe sloppiness, carelessness, cluelessness...

What struck me though, was the possibility that this is a deliberate tactic to avoid you telling them in advance that you disagree with the story and make corrections that run contrary to their story. It's both a way to avoid a nuicance, AND shield themselves from a lawsuit for libel, maybe.

If you have time and sanity to re-visit the CBS memos, I'd recommend this blog post on contrary information: Sneak Peek at What's Not in the Memogate Report, although it's more about avoiding contacting you in the first place, than checking quotes. What might be relevant though, is the tactic of giving you minimal input to a news story.

Or, they could have just created Wired: the Blog, and move all her stories there. Problem solved!

shameless semi-related plug

This is the *last* time we ever get to be this excited about Star Wars again -- amazingly -- we may not feel SICK about it the next day!

Imagine that!

It's like I'm back in May of 1999 again -- innocent and as yet untainted by Jar Jar.

Also, the swell of enthusiasm has meant great things for those of us who happen to journal the daily life of certain dark lords of the Sith.

yep
This appeared in Slate recently:

http://ervin-peretz.blogspot.com/2005/04/what-happ ened-to-microsoft.html

It's a small world and you never know when you're going to run into the same people again. It's worth almost every decent effort to be cooperative and helpful, to try to end your current job with a good conscience.

Confronting your boss is very risky. There's only one way I would recommend if you have to - insist on a meeting with your boss AND his boss to plan how you will best use your remaining time (and while you're at it, make your case that you're being a good employee). Bear in mind that as a departing employee, you are actually providing your company the service of being able to blame things on you rather than look in the mirror. As a consultant I've faced this a lot, and I just regard it as one of the things I'm paid for (see below). Don't let it get to you.

NEXT time you change jobs, here are some pieces of advice:
(1) Don't tell anyone at work about your new job until you start it and decide how you like it. (2) Give as little notice as you decently can, rarely more than two weeks. Longer notice opens you up as a longterm target.
(3) Think about negotiating a "reciprocal notice" clause, something I've managed to do for 20 years. The idea is that the amount of notice you are required to give the company is the same that they are require to give you, be it one hour, two weeks or whatever; the more security they give you, the more you give them.
(4) Since we always sign agreements about proprietary property (which tend to be vaguely written in favor of the employer), it's a good idea when you change jobs to change to a somewhat different field, to avoid charges you are taking knowledge with you. Your boss of course has no right to withhold your paycheck for any grounds whatsoever. If you're worried about a real problem here, get copies of all relevant company policy BEFORE your last day. It will be much harder after you leave the company. Make it gently clear to the company president, if they actually try to withhold your paycheck, that you will be contacting your senator, a lawyer, and the relevant state regulatory boards (even though such boards probably do not exist) and that the time they spend dealing with you will be a much greater waste than paying you. E.g., "If you try to illegally withhold my paycheck, you're going to wind up spending an awful lot of time responding to queries by the government and all the relevant regulatory agencies I find. Heck I might even have to get a lawyer if we part on bad terms, I'd to do that. Why not pay me now instead of wasting all that precious time?"

If they try to make you sign something before you leave, you almost have to insist that you show it to an intellectual property lawyer before you sign; believe me, the stakes will be too high. If they are offering your $50,000 or more, take it or leave it, to sign without a lawyer, it might be worth it.

Finally, here's an example of how I was paid to be the "dumped on" person in one job. My main responsibility was to write the user documentation telling the customer how to operate the system. For years after I left this job, I ran into people who knew I had "failed" in this. The reason I wrote no user documentation at all was that there were no specs for this system, it never got out of the design phase, there was no running software, and no one could tell me what the user screens were going to look like! When told I failed to document this system, I just smile.

http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com/

Jesus, I am absolutely stupefied that people do this.

I've already written one comment about this in a different article and mentioned it in a blog post at my blog, so I'll try not to repeat that stuff here.

But for real, I'm truly saddened that the "RP" in MMORPG means so little these days. Everyone keeps taking about how much they hate grinding levels. Funny, when I used to play Dungeons and Dragons with my buddies, I never seemed to mind that my wizard was only level (whatever). Why? Because the point of the game wasn't to win, it was to have fun and (gasp!) socialize. Those of you who remember the old pencil-and-paper games, can you imagine a player offering a game master five bucks for 1,000 freebie gold pieces? If I were the game master, I would immediately figure out some heinous irrevocable death for that character.

What some people see as mindless grinding through levels, I see as an opportunity to meet other players, some of whom are rather interesting. What some people see as farming for game currency, I see as an opportunity to roleplay and boost my reputation. Not this silly reputation by ownership of a cool gametoy, but the reputation as someone who is fun and interesting to run missions with.

My MMORPG of choice is City of Heroes. One of my favorite characters is a Taxibot. We hardly ever level. We can't kill crap by ourselves. We have a lot of fun. The fun of the game isn't mindlessly killing mobs of enemies, although I do get fleeting enjoyment from figuring out strategies to defeat particularly tough enemies. The fun isn't even getting that new high-level power, although I do get fleeting enjoyment from seeing the cool effect of it. These things are supposed to add to the enjoyment of the game, not to be the enjoyment. My advice for MMORPG players (most MUD players figured this out a long time ago): If you really want to get long-term enjoyment from the game, get over that stuff quickly.

I get frustrated because I often wonder how many people even bother to read the mission descriptions they're given before they go to empty a warehouse full of villains. Sometimes I'll be in a group of people and I'll say something game-related ("We can't let Ubelmann succeed!"), and I often get responses that indicate that the people in my group have no clue ("Who's Ubelmann?"). Needless to say, those people don't get invited to run in a group with me again, and the people who do run with me regularly have lots of fun "grinding" levels, even if it is the 100th time we have been to disable the Rikti portal devices.

If level grinding has got you down and you've having so little fun that you feel the need to buy stuff on eBay or Sony's Station Exchange to use in the game, I'm begging you to play Progress Quest instead. We'll all have more fun, and you don't even have to spend a dime!

I know what the first replies to this post will be: Wah, people play games for different reasons. Yeah, well, if your reason is so that you can brag about your über-whatever with a gazillion gold to the lower levels, you're not playing at all; you're being a pompous ass that the game would be better off without. Do you go around in real life bragging about how much more money you've got than people on welfare? We're not impressed.

Damn, so much for keeping this post short. Oops, maybe I'll do better next time we have an "Buying virtual goods is a good thing" type of story.

The current government, you mean? The one that wants biometric National ID cards tied to passports?

I don't see how you can claim that the Blair government hasn't introduced anything as oppressive as the Patriot Act when the Civil Contingencies Act exists, along with the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001, which, unlike the original Patriot Act, does not contain sunset provisions (provisions which the Bush administration may convince Congress to overturn, unfortunately). And which, since the government has been returned, is unlikely to be changed or repealed, even if Tony Blair is tossed on his behind and replaced by Gordon Brown.

Heck, maybe you can give this a read, and see if you can find anything that the author asserts which isn't true.

I lived in the UK for a bit under a year, finishing out my military service. It was incredible to me to hear Brits aghast abotu the evils of the Patriot Act when they were under far more draconian laws, with cameras on every street corner, an Official Secrets Act (which exists to protect Officials, not secrets, as they said in Yes, Prime Minister), police taking DNA samples from anyone arrested and a Home Secretary who seemed to be trying very hard to make the Bush administration seem reasonable and protective of civil liberties.

Of course, if you point this out, you're purveying anti-British propaganda. Just like anyone who criticizes the Bush admin hates America.

The UK is just ahead of us in the US in the turn back to totalitarianism. We Yanks should look at the UK if we want to see what our future will look like.

And, for those who don't think the Brits love being screwed by their government, that government was returned this week. With a reduced majority because of Iraq (not civil liberties, Iraq) and anger among hardcore Labour supporters that Tony Blair isn't socialist enough.