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Wisconsin Joins the Matrix [updated]
unassimilatible writes "Wired reports that Wisconsin has decided to join a controversial interstate antiterrorism database that holds billions of records of ordinary Americans' activities known as the MATRIX, or Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. Is your state next?" Update: 03/10 19:05 GMT by T : Thanks to reader philthedrill for a correction: according to an article in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Daily Cardinal, Wisconsin has backed out of the Matrix, effective yesterday.
I have to see it for myself.
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
Cnet is reporting that Texas-based Symbiot plans to release a corporate defense system that fights back against distributed denial-of-service and hacker attacks by launching counterstrikes. See the press report and white paper for more.
Wake Up Wisconsin...
The MATRIX has you...
Follow the white Republican...
Hammer of Truth
"Whoa!"
Now that that joke is over, do people really think that having all this information in one setup is going to improve anything? After all, look what happens when massive numbers of users try to access one particular resource at the same time (Slashdotting, Farking, September 11).
It seems like this MATRIX is going to require a huge amount of potential bandwidth, computing resources, etc. which will cost us (the taxpayers) more money.
Overrated / Underrated : Moderation
</sarcasm>
i have hated this state from the moment i saw it, but this is the nail in the coffin...any chance that wisconsin had of keeping me as a post-collegiate resident has now expired and it will be their economic loss
The article and the MATRIX homepage, seem to have some differences in what information they collect. The data that they do collect/have doesn't really seem like it would be a bad thing.
from the MATRIX homepage:
The Data Reference Repository
EXCLUDED DATA
The reference repository does not contain the following:
* Telemarketing calling lists
* Direct mail mailing lists
* Airline reservations or travel records
* Frequent flyer/hotel stay program membership or activity
* Magazine subscriptions lists or reading lists
* Telephone calling logs or records
* Credit card or debit numbers
* Purchases (e.g., retail store, Internet, or even gas stations)
* Mortgage or car payments
* Bank account numbers or account balances
* The costs of a home addition
* Birth certificates
* Marriage licenses
* Divorce decrees
* Utility bill payments (i.e., gas, electric, phone, heating oil, cable or satellite TV)
Therefore, such data is not provided to law enforcement. Under federal law, when such data is required to further a law enforcement investigation, law enforcement must obtain a judicial order (i.e., subpoena) and serve it directly on the organization having or owning such data.
INCLUDED DATA
The data reference repository for the FACTS application contains public records from thousands of locations (i.e., county courthouses and other public records locations) on U.S. individuals and businesses. Examples include:
* FAA pilot licenses and aircraft ownership
* Property ownership
* Coast Guard registered vessels
* State sexual offenders lists
* Federal terrorists watch lists
* Corporation filings
* Uniform Commercial Code filings (i.e., UCCs or business liens)
* Bankruptcy filings
* State-issued professional licenses
This new "MATRIX" sounds worse than the two sequels put together. And in the fictional and non-fictional sense, both matrixes were just plain bad for humanity!
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
All of this information is publicly available already, and really not that hard to collect. The mere existence of the aggregated database shouldn't be a fucking problem for people. The problem is that despite the existence of a shitload of data on all of us, there's relatively few laws to restrict who can see it. Usually, the privacy of personal data is protected by the concept of the 'fiefdom'. That is, a government agency spends their fucking money to develop the database, so that database becomes their 'property' so to speak. The officials of that government agency aren't going to be very willing to share that data with others, even those in private industry, because ownership of that data gives them a certain amount of leverage when it comes time for a raise or a political appointment. It's damn scary that our privacy depends on a pointy hair little fuck in government, hoarding their database like that fat guy in 'Office Space' would hoard red staplers.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Christ my state can't even pave roads. Not to mention slow Meth production. Rural boobs in the MATRIX is the last of my concerns.
Screw Hollywood being out of ideas, now the government has run out of ideas! I mean... MATRIX, agents, UAVs/Sentinels... haven't we already seen this three times, already?
Crickey! Next thing you know, NASA will be announcing plans for turning the ISS into a larger, more military-oriented space station, tasked to study the sun and keep watch on the Earth, that they call the "Death Star."
May Neo have pity on us all....
~UP
Eat the Path.
How on earth did this get moderated Interesting? It's just some infantile rant by some guy. Hey whiteSanjuro, I've got some news for you: Wisconsin is the most liberal state in the midwest. They routinely vote Democratic. In fact, Madison (the capital) was one of the few cities in the nation to denounce the Patriot Act. I'm not sure where you're thinking of moving to but Wisconsin -- all jokes aside -- is one of the more progressive states in the nation.
GMD
watch this
That is "mission one" at this time.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Or is this a rather unfortunate acronym?
Or was it the blue one? Anyway, as a Wisconsinite, I have to make a correction. I saw this article in the school newspaper this morning stating that Wisconsin has backed out of the Matrix.
The citizens of Wisconsin may soon be speculating if they have former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, a Bush cabinet appointee, to thank for this. Keep in mind most of the reliably liberal population has been quarantined in Madison and Milwaukee. However, the university educated liberty lovers won't necessarily be the decisive factor, as articulate and fact based as they may be.
Competing with elections in November is this little event we call Deer Hunting season in Wisconsin. If this MATRIX thing turns out to be something the NRA doesn't like, we'll be hearing more from the state where beer, cheese, tractors and heavy equipment, Gander Mountain, and Jockey Underwear are headquartered. It isn't just the bearded liberals who demonstrate in Madison. The farmers have rode their heavy equipment around the capitol in the past to make their points. A few dozen combines and tractors positioned at strategic locations around the capitol square can be quite imposing and very photogenic.
*find/replace bombs|guns|warez|porn/fluffy bunnies
There. Now reading my logs would make people think that the Columbine kids and Paris Hilton are really into fluffy bunnies.
Heh, okay, I'll fess up, I sorta borrowed this from a bash.org quote.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
I'm not sure where you're thinking of moving to but Wisconsin -- all jokes aside -- is one of the more progressive states in the nation.
And Wisconsin has a long history as a seed-bed of progressivism: it elected and re-elected, to the U.S. House, the Governorship, and the U.S. Senate, progressive Republican Robert La Follette, Sr. from 1884 until his death in 1925.
Few remember Bob La Follette these days, but he's proof that Wisconsin, and Republicans, can be progressive.
But a more familiar Wisconsin name, unfortunately, is that of the man who defeated "Fightin' Bob" La Follette's son, then the incumbent U.S. Senator, in the Republican primary in 1946: "Tail Gunner Joe" McCarthy.
It's perhaps a cautionary tale for the people of Wisconsin, for the decent majority of the Republican Party that does believe in liberty and the Constitution -- and does not believe in trivially amending it --, and for Americans in general: it only takes a few men shouting lies about "Communists in the state Department" -- or about Terrorists -- to sell out the liberties so many Americans have sacrificed, fought, and died for.
Wisconsin's MATRIX is one step in the direction of -- to paraphrase the Book of Genesis, Chapter 25 -- buying a "mess of potage" of worthless security by selling the birthright of our liberties.
And as Joe McCarthy showed us, it only takes a few steps like this before Fightin' Bob La Follette's legacy is forgotten, and Wisconsin's progressivism is a dim memory.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
I'm not sure where you're thinking of moving to...
Europe?
Do you actually say "Crikey!" in person?
may I just say "WHEW!" that we backed out of it.
It's on-purpose because it really spells "MATIE", arrrrrrrr arrrrrrr.
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
New Hampshire -- why do you assume i'm a democrat? LP all the way.
Is how a little exposure caused our (Democratic) State Attorney General to back out of the Matrix program. When I called their office at ~ 2 PM yesterday, I was told I was give or take the 20th caller. Helps, perhaps, that the AG was already in a good bit of political trouble for her recent drunk driving arrest.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
bush says "Moon Base"
Wisconsin is just plain fucked up. Yes, they (we? I'm not sure if I still count as being 'from' Wisconsin or not) vote for progressives, and denounce the patriot act. Wisconsin also elected our good buddies Joe McCarthy and Bill Proxmire, and was home to Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein. Those last four pretty much destroy all hope I have for the state.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!