I am disgusted to be a Minnesota and United States resident. This is fucking shameful and horrifying. There is absolutely no excuse for this type of free speech violation. This is a stupid political rally, not a fucking war on our soil. Personally I'd love to join the protests but I seriously fear for my freedom and my life.
You sound like you have principles and conviction. Please do one or the other:
1. Overcome your fear and do something about the atrocious system under which you now live. I don't mean violence or joining a meaningless protest march, but something constructive and meaningful (there are still organizations left that do this work). This is the best option, since it *might* result in a better place for our kids to live in. But not everyone can find a way to make a difference or can take the risks needed.
2. If you can't do that - maybe you have loved ones that depend on you - consider moving to Canada. Really. Canadians welcome people that find overbearing police state action like this shameful and horrifying, and people that care about civil liberties. Its why they trust their authorities and their government much less than Americans do, and maybe why its not gotten to that point yet in Canada. You wouldn't be the first American to move on political grounds.
They should protest these hooligans who don't believe in the core basis of the USoA: that ideas will not be propagated by violence.
What?!? I must have completely misunderstood the modern US history of the last 8 years or so. I had no idea that the CORE BASIS of the USA was that ideas wouldn't be propagated by violence. Speaking as someone living outside the USA, your foreign policy hasn't led me to believe that either.
Come to think of it, maybe the violent rebels of 1776 should have rembered it too.
Shut up you hoser! They will find out about our stockpiles of attractive WMDs (women of mass distraction) and our plans to release hordes of them to achieve world domination.
Oh, wait, aren't the Blackberry servers already in Canada? Maybe we'll just keep those stockpiles...
I have no problem with your mention of Google, but Apple... Really? Like for realsies? Sorry bro, I'm into computers... Not toys. Ballmer... is that you?
Knowing the history of how Apple & corporate IT departments have treated each other (prejudices on both sides), and the steadfast change-averse nature of corporate IT to this day, don't get your hopes up that the iPhone will be adopted much more than the Mac has across the enterprise. That's certainly been the conclusion of clear-deaded analysis outside of the RDF, at least. If there wasn't another solution that wasn't just "good enough" we might have a different outlook, but the truth is that RIM (like MS solutions) might be more expensive and cumbersome, but it's now been accepted by corporate IT as "standard". And heaven forbid anyone suggesting a "nonstandard" solution in corporate IT, especially one as flashy as an iPhone (videos? music? arcade games!?! the horror!!!) If anything, the relatively closed ecosystem of the platform would probably be seen as an advantage by most IT managers; but remember that you don't necessarily win in corporate IT by having the best technical or financial solution.
Mind you, even a small uptake of the iPhone in corporate environments does not necessarily mean Apple makes off poorly - it's more than they have now, their low-overhead iPhone model means they'll make money from corporate deployments no matter how few, it adds a sense of security to potential adopters of the iPhone (ie. a show of committment by Apple) and it adds momentum to the platform.
This it isn't just about an ID card. Even in this initially modest conception, the system requires a database to keep tabs on everyone, a massive infrastructure to collect peoples' details, and a network to verify people against their cards and the database. This presents a tempting & convenient source of data - its use will grow to more than just a licence for border crossing. There has almost never been a government system of this type that hasn't vastly expanded from its original purpose (eg. Social Insurance Numbers were originally just for pensions & some limited employment insurance programs, and we still live with the temporary measure introduced to fund World War I known as "income taxes")
Besides the fact that this system will undoubtedly cost lots of money to implement and add another layer of beauracracy, and besides the fact that its purposes are already well served by strong identification systems already in place (the Permanent Resident's Card, the Citizenship Card, current Drivers Licences, and above all, Passports) it will be hacked in no time. No electronic system is completely secure, in fact there has never been an electronic system invented in widspead use that hasn't been cracked and exploited, including RFID systems. We can assume that these will be freely readable to anyone with a reader from 30m away. Like credit card readers, these RFID readers will become widely available (on the open market) as these ID cards become more popular.
Let us not even consider the obvious temptation of putting people's biometic ID on these cards - an identity theft nightmare. Even if the only RFID tag on the card is a unique ID number that authorities use to look you up on a secure database - and assuming this RFID database remains both secure AND within the jurisdiction of Canadian privacy laws - the cards will still be widely exploited for criminal use. It's easy: scan everyone's ID driving down a residential street, then come back another night and scan again to see who's home. It's not just break-ins that are facilitated, but stalking people becomes much easier for those so inclined. Some say that we should just leave our ID cards at home or carry them in a "Faraday cage wallet" if we're paranoid about these types of things, but they forget that the more widespread ID cards are in use, the less you can do without them: as their utility increases, so does the pressure to use and carry one (even if you don't like borrowing, it's impossible to live in today's soceity without a credit card, for example) And sorry, people won't get a Faraday cage for their cards. Criminals will have a field day.
Canadians are far more distrustful of their government than Americans or Europeans are of theirs, and this is a good thing. It is a fact that has generally served Canadians well in defence of their liberties and privacy rights so far. But the pressure from foreign sources to implement these types of systems in Canada is intense - Canada has now acquiesced to handing over air passenger lists to the US government, for example (the agreement is not reciprocal). This system will be widely implemented in BC and then the rest of Canada unless action is taken. It's not futile: opposition to such systems worked in Australia 20 years ago and looks like NO2ID is winning over the UK. Write your MP and provincial representative if you value your freedom.
It is incredible what the world would look like, if we applied this logic to everything else in our life. [...] How much worry, how much concern, how much of your life does it take you to think about this to a point where you make it part of your life to avoid a specific company, Microsoft in this case.
Not much. I just avoid it where I can, that's all. Just like I don't like vanilla, so I tend to avoid vanilla foods & French vanilla coffee, etc. Neither has really affected me that much, and I definitely do what I want to do. In fact I avoid them both because that's exactly what I want to do.
I have over a decade of email on YahooMail too. Many people will probably be thinking of pulling their email, photos, documents, and other files off Yahoo! services while they still can, if this takeover goes through in the second half 2008. Here's how to download your Yahoo! Mail (assuming you are *not* using their POP mail service):
1. Log into Yahoo! Mail, then go to Options > Archive Messages
2. Choose the mail folder you wish to archive; Yahoo will calculate size and time required to download
3. Hit Download. It will download as a.zip archive.
Very easy; I assume this will change and only MS will only offer to download to Outlook or some other such crap if Microsoft takes Yahoo! over:-( As of right now, Yahoo! POP mail users can easily download email (with option to remove from server) to the following clients:
Microsoft Outlook 2002 (XP) and 2003
Microsoft Outlook 98 and 2000
Microsoft Outlook Express
Microsoft Outlook Express for Macintosh
IncrediMail 618 and higher
Eudora 5.1 and higher
Netscape Mail 7.0
Netscape Mail 6.2
Netscape Messenger 4.5
Macintosh Mail client (OS X 10.5)
Expect supported clients to change if the takeover goes through.
You may likewise still download or remove your items from Flickr, Y!Briefcase, Y!Video, Y!Personals, Y!360, Geocities, and a number of other properties farily easily. Y!HelpCentral has details on each.
Customers of Y!WebHosting and Y!Domains can transfer their web hosting and domain registrar easily.
Users of Y!Shopping, MyYahoo!, Y!Autos, Y!RealEstate, Y!Travel, Y!Profiles, Y!Sports, Y!Finance, Y!Music, Y!Movies, Y!News, Y!Games, and Y!PublisherNetwork will likely have to abandon personalized pages/portals/profiles rather than porting it to a different service. It is unclear how users of Y!BusinessEmail, HotJobs, Y!MerchantSolutions, Y!Store (to name a few) can be expected to transition to other serive providers.
The only online property that has more users than Yahoo! is Google, and that is because of Google's excellent search engine. The numbers are so large (hundreds of millions) that if even only a small percentage of Yahoo! users were concerned with Microsoft changing Yahoo - such as integrating Passport or dumping open source & open standards for proprietary standrds - that it would account to millions of users.
More importantly, look at Yahoo! and Microsoft's track records regarding online users - Yahoo! has continually grown their online user base since inception and continues to do so, while most of the online properties MS has taken over (eg. Hotmail) usually have significantly less success after their takeover. It's not a conscious effort to "rebel" against Microsoft by any means, it's that MS has a history of managing their new properties poorly, especially considering their huge advantage of leveraging their desktop monopoly to herd new users to these properties. They have less success not because people "rebel" as a religious platform issue, but because better options are soon available elsewhere (innovations slow or stop after an MS takeover, the inevitable changes become cumbersome, etc etc) and internet users by and large realise this. This is where the real concern is for the majority of Yahoo! users.
The press & people here seem to think this is no big deal because MS Search is pathetic and Yahoo Search is nowhere as popular as it used to be, at a distant #2 in the market. But who cares about Search? The real value in this deal for Microsoft is in the armada of Yahoo! services and online advertising properties. 88% of Yahoo! revenues come from marketing services; it's also the world's largest webmail service (one of may services). It is involved in a vast range or internet technologies, standards groups, open source projects, and more. The list of important internet technologies, projects and markets Yahoo! is involved in is long and attractive. For Microsoft, this is definitely a strategic acqusition and is reflected in how much they are willing to pay to get it.
Winners: Microsoft, Y!shareholders. Losers: Yahoo!, Y!users, the internet, open source, competition.
For a heavy internet user like me, this news comes as a crisis of conscience. Having been a loyal Yahoo! Mail user for over a decade (the world's largest webmail service), and having so much of my online presence on Yahoo's comprehensive services - Contacts, Flickr, online document storage, Messenger, Y!Finance, Groups, (the list is endless) - I am obvioulsy deeply loyal to an independent Yahoo!...But one reason that I've allowed Yahoo! to gradually become such an important part of my life is that it's NOT Microsoft. The same sentiments are felt by millions: will loyalty to a very useful Yahoo! be enough to overcome our distaste for Microsoft and the inevitable changes a takeover will entail? This is not insignificant nor a "religious platform issue" - note how Hotmail has fallen from #1 spot in email users after the MS takeover, for example. Yahoo! webmail alone reportedly accounts for 255 million of the world's 543 million webmail accounts, and webmail is only one of a vast range of internet & open source items Yahoo! is involved in.
Yahoo News itself is reporting this as a hostile takeover, but seemingly with Microsoft willing to pay such a large premium, one that will be hard to resist. It's interesting that Microsoft is willing to use up almost all of it's cash reserves for this takeover, largely sacrificing it's flexibility to make strategic investments in the future. But from the perspective of Yahoo! users the more important question is whether a MS takeover will turn Yahoo! into tepid porridge? And will the long, slow decline of Microsoft now drag Yahoo! down too?
On top of that, because of our stupid voting system, there are ALOT of would-be NDP voters who are scared of the conservative party winning, and end up voting strategically in favour of libs. It is worth noting that all of our small useless parties are left leaning. It is also worth noting that our one big right leaning party was formed by combining two smaller right leaning parties. You can thank our voting system for this stupid states of affairs where the majority of Canadians are clearly and decisively left leaning, but we are ruled by a minority conservative government. Crappy.
Our voting system screws almost every party in some way - 400,000 people in Canada's 3 largest cities voted Conservative, but that didn't produce a single MP. Stephen Harper had to create a scandal by enticing two floor-crossers (David Emerson and Wajid Khan) and appoint an unelected friend (Michael Fortier) to get some representation for these areas. Liberals in the prairie provinces don't do much better: 100% of MPs from Alberta are Conservatives, for example, when over 200,000 people voted Liberal in the province. And as you mentioned, the NDP gets the shaft everywhere: they attracted 17.4% of the popular vote nationally but only got 9% of the seats.
This means the system disenfranchises millions of voters every election - their votes are wasted because they count towards electing no-one. They have nobody to represent their views; in fact over half of all elector's votes are wasted like this every election. People know this and that's one reason why they often feel their votes don't count, and either they hold their nose and vote for someone they don't like but who has a chance of winning (like you point out) or they just stop voting. Voter turnout in Canadian elections has been on a downward trend for years.
Our electoral system descriminates against women, minorities, and minority viewpoints. If you're not mainstream, more often than not you're shut out. Take the Green Party of Canada for example, who ran candidates across the country and received 4.5% of the popular vote and no seats: under our current system they are unlikely ever to win a seat. Only 21% of MPs in Canada's parliament are women; this is one of the worst records out of all Western democracies. Does that mean that Canadians just don't like electing women? No: it means that fewer women are selected by their parties as candidates because of our one-member per district electoral system. Parties figure that if you've only got one shot, might as well make it as electable as possible (a middle-aged white guy). Likewise ethnic minorities are vastly under-represented in the most multicultural and ethnically diverse country on the planet.
Our electoral system creates a climate of confrontation instead of negotiation and compromise amongst politicians. Parties can receive less than 40% of the popular vote, which gives them 60% of the seats in the House of Commons, and all of the power. Mud-slinging is all the opposition can do when these "majority" governments rule the country like a dictatorship until the next election. And when a party has more than half of the seats in the House, they don't need to negotiate support from any other political party, so why should they listen? Instead they do what they want and sling mud right back. The tone of the debate gets lowered pretty fast in this climate, as we've all seen for years now.
Our First Past the Post electoral system causes huge inefficiencies in government when one phony majority government creates laws, policies and spends money on proj
I think this goes a long way to prove what many suspected: Apple is a hardware company, and their interest is not so much in selling DRM-protected music but the hardware to listen to it with. So Apple created FairPlay DRM probably on the insistence of the "Big Four" labels in order to do business with them (and made it as unobrtusive as they could get away with), but in the end the iTunes Music Store was created to sell iPods, not the other way around. In a revelaing quote Jobs says
"Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. [...] This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store." So much for Apple's vendor lock-in machinations: sounds like Apple would dump FairPlay if they were allowed. Will the record labels eventually see it this way too, leading to the death of music DRM as many have been saying?
I just came back from a film, in Montreal. At theatres it's common to have staff check your bags (especially at downtown theatres) for camcorders etc, and of course there are warnings everywhere about how it's a crime to film a movie in the theatre (even if it isn't). These measure I support - hey, it's their theatre - but the big studios coming out with this FUD just as the government seeks to change the Copyright Act is way over the top. And so are their statistics. Unfortunately, these obvious tactics have been know to work, let's make sure this time it doesn't: Inform yourself and don't just sign a petition, but sign up and write your MP. Visit the CPPIC for more.
As far as the threat to delay movie releases, please do! It may give the small domestic film industry a little opportunity when some moviegoers arriving at the theatre choose to see a Canadian film, instead of the delayed American crud that they thought was out.
The brilliant film Gattaca has been there, done that, and shows the early stages of the two "races" separating genetically. But part of the central story also shows how impossible it would be to keep the two human populations separate and avoid constant interbreeding. And who wouldn't interbreed with Uma Thurman anyways?
Dr. Curry's theory is also doomed by the tenacity of egalitarian and socialist tendancies in human societies. As more & more of the world's populations become more affluent and able to afford more health care, for example, they will insist on universal genetic health coverage too. Controlling genetic diseases in the zygote before they occur will be the first step towards large-scale mental & physical abilities.
Hate to rain on everyone's parade, but a "Perfect Storm" of Mac sales isn't likley to happen anytime soon, if that means widespread purchases & use of Macs. The iPod "halo effect" is there, but it's weak, and we're already seeing it in the current sales numbers FWIW. Corporate IT people still scoff at the Mac - maybe not as loudly as before, but they would never bet their jobs on any kind of a switch (and betting their jobs they would be if they migrated their departments). I certainly haven't heard of any big companies adopting Macs en masse recently. Mac sales will probably continue to increase a bit on home sales, but even an incredibly optimistic near-50% growth per year still gives Apple only single digit market shares as 2010 closes in. And growth like that is not likely to happen. To put things in perspective, last year's total PC market was estimated by IDC at about $218B, and Apple accounted for just over $8B of that from Mac sales. Apple has a long way to go before Macs stop being a rarity.
In the 90's there were so many preposterous predictions of a 'beleaguered' Apple's demise that MacObserver started the Apple Death Knell Counter. With Apple's (deserved) good fortunes now and the irrational exuberance shown by many of the same pundits maybe someone should start an Apple World Domination Counter instead.
Ironic that Bell Security Solutions (a division of the very same Bell Canada) has been funding Tor development. No, put your tin foil hats away: there is no way for Bell to get any sort of "backdoor access" nor is there any indication that they want to. Probably Bell's legal department just wanted to be up-front with their customers for when (if?) the Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act gets revived in the autumn. PIPEDA privacy legislation probably makes such open disclosure obligatory, even when the third party requesting the information is the government.
There are virtually no restrictions on the use of cryptography or encryption technology in Canada. Famously, this is the reason that the OpenBSD project is based in Canada and not the US - the extensive use of encryption in OpenSBD would mean that, amongst other things, if it were US-based its development and distribution would be severely curtailed. People distributing the software may technically even be arrested, depending on how stringently their laws were interpreted.
This proposed "warrantless" internet surveillance bill will encounter a great deal of resistance in Canada, and with a minority government it's passage is by no means guaranteed. In the event that it does become law, at least people can encrypt anything & everything they send over the internet. A law such as this, however, would be challenged in the courts almost immediately here.
As a libertarian, from what I read & see in the news every day the situation in the United States seems to quickly be getting intolerable. George Bush erroneously said that terrorists "hate our freedoms"; is his counterterrorism strategy then to take away those same freedoms so that there is no longer any reason to attack a downtrodden people? What I don't understand is why the majority of Americans are actually accepting flagrant erosions of their rights. Hasn't the situation gotten bad enough that a nation famously built on the principle of liberty would do something about this erosion of liberty? I suggest that Americans Escape to Canada, but not to abandon ship - this would only make matters worse - but to stand up for your rights.
Specifically, go to Montreal next year to attend the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference. CFP is one of the longest-running conferences about the impact of technologies on society, and specifically on the ways your information can be used against you. This is only a couple of hours away from New York & most of the Northeastern USA. Attendance was really low at this year's Conference in Washington, DC, entitled "Life, Liberty & Digital Rights" despite the fact that the conference is more relevant to Americans than ever: after an opening speech by senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), panelists & speakers included Eric Lichtblau (who broke the story about current NSA wiretapping), James Bamford (aouthor of many books on the NSA), and Stewart Baker (of the Department of Homeland Security, who revealed that it's up to people to take care of themselves in times of crisis, and the government shouldn't be depended upon). The venerable TidBITS Macintosh mailing list has an excellent review of the conference last week, one which included topics such as Wiretapping Victims, DRM & Fair Use, Constitutionality of surveillance & privacy (and the state of these in the US, EU & Canada), E-Voting, the EFF & it's campaigns, Cell Phone Tracking, Advocacy (fighting for your rights), and a tour of the NSA itself. Don't just complain on Slashdot about attacks on your liberty, get educated and do something about it.
Seems like the usual suspects fighting on the side of consumer rights again. This isn't the first time the growing artistic community around Nettwerk Music Group has attempted to make an impact, even the Nettwerk CEO saying "Litigation is destructive, it must stop.... as per Nettwerk copyrights, we have never sued anybody and all our music is open source to encourage fans to share it with others and help us promote our Artists. As per those Artists we manage on other labels (Majors), we take issue with those labels claiming that litigating our fans is in our interest, as it clearly is not."
None of the major labels would dare utter sacrilege like this. But to be fair, in Canada even the Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is not as virulent as it's ugly cousin to the south. They moderate their message somewhat with more honesty, for example recently releaseing a study showing:
CRIA's own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders' computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services. (words of Prof. Michael Geist, University of Ottawa)
"In light of the understandable comments incited by the RedBerry, with the tune of "Commie bastards, ripping off our ideas and mass producing them," let's take a different look at our trade relations with China. [...] To relate that to the China situation, the reason we have a trade deficit is because Americans, on an individual basis, want to buy cheap mass-produced goods."
"Apple is a boutique company that will always have fatter margins because it'll offer exclusive products. But it depends too much on fickle consumers that can change brands as easily in electronics as in shirts."
Apple has one of the most loyal customer bases in the history of the computer industry, one that most other companies can only wish for. This same base is the reason for the company's survival even in the darkest days for the company in the 1990s, when it could seemingly do nothing right. In contrast, I doubt that Dell's customers would bat an eyelash before changing to a cheaper alternative when - not if - one comes along.
And well you should find out where the parties stand on these issues before you vote later this year or early next. Check out detailed official party positions as of Election 2004 (they haven't changed much since) or read a Toronto Star summary on their stances.
Your local MP will soon be campaigning for your vote or seeking a nomination in your riding. Grill them on their position on Copyright, Open Source Software, and User Rights issues. This is an issue that has been virtually ignored, the fact is that most candidates know little about it and may alarmingly vote on complex IP legislation merely along party lines. Write them.
Slashdot Mirror
Dell caught selling faulty PCs? News is that people are surprised.
Maybe Dell should shut the company down and give the money back to the shareholders (Dell: Apple should close up shop, Oct 6 1997)
Mod me down as flamebait, I don't care. After 13 years keeping that bottled up, it felt sooo good.
I am disgusted to be a Minnesota and United States resident. This is fucking shameful and horrifying. There is absolutely no excuse for this type of free speech violation. This is a stupid political rally, not a fucking war on our soil. Personally I'd love to join the protests but I seriously fear for my freedom and my life.
You sound like you have principles and conviction. Please do one or the other:
1. Overcome your fear and do something about the atrocious system under which you now live. I don't mean violence or joining a meaningless protest march, but something constructive and meaningful (there are still organizations left that do this work). This is the best option, since it *might* result in a better place for our kids to live in. But not everyone can find a way to make a difference or can take the risks needed.
2. If you can't do that - maybe you have loved ones that depend on you - consider moving to Canada. Really. Canadians welcome people that find overbearing police state action like this shameful and horrifying, and people that care about civil liberties. Its why they trust their authorities and their government much less than Americans do, and maybe why its not gotten to that point yet in Canada. You wouldn't be the first American to move on political grounds.
What?!? I must have completely misunderstood the modern US history of the last 8 years or so. I had no idea that the CORE BASIS of the USA was that ideas wouldn't be propagated by violence. Speaking as someone living outside the USA, your foreign policy hasn't led me to believe that either.
Come to think of it, maybe the violent rebels of 1776 should have rembered it too.
Shut up you hoser! They will find out about our stockpiles of attractive WMDs (women of mass distraction) and our plans to release hordes of them to achieve world domination.
Oh, wait, aren't the Blackberry servers already in Canada? Maybe we'll just keep those stockpiles...
Knowing the history of how Apple & corporate IT departments have treated each other (prejudices on both sides), and the steadfast change-averse nature of corporate IT to this day, don't get your hopes up that the iPhone will be adopted much more than the Mac has across the enterprise. That's certainly been the conclusion of clear-deaded analysis outside of the RDF, at least. If there wasn't another solution that wasn't just "good enough" we might have a different outlook, but the truth is that RIM (like MS solutions) might be more expensive and cumbersome, but it's now been accepted by corporate IT as "standard". And heaven forbid anyone suggesting a "nonstandard" solution in corporate IT, especially one as flashy as an iPhone (videos? music? arcade games!?! the horror!!!) If anything, the relatively closed ecosystem of the platform would probably be seen as an advantage by most IT managers; but remember that you don't necessarily win in corporate IT by having the best technical or financial solution.
Mind you, even a small uptake of the iPhone in corporate environments does not necessarily mean Apple makes off poorly - it's more than they have now, their low-overhead iPhone model means they'll make money from corporate deployments no matter how few, it adds a sense of security to potential adopters of the iPhone (ie. a show of committment by Apple) and it adds momentum to the platform.
This it isn't just about an ID card. Even in this initially modest conception, the system requires a database to keep tabs on everyone, a massive infrastructure to collect peoples' details, and a network to verify people against their cards and the database. This presents a tempting & convenient source of data - its use will grow to more than just a licence for border crossing. There has almost never been a government system of this type that hasn't vastly expanded from its original purpose (eg. Social Insurance Numbers were originally just for pensions & some limited employment insurance programs, and we still live with the temporary measure introduced to fund World War I known as "income taxes")
Besides the fact that this system will undoubtedly cost lots of money to implement and add another layer of beauracracy, and besides the fact that its purposes are already well served by strong identification systems already in place (the Permanent Resident's Card, the Citizenship Card, current Drivers Licences, and above all, Passports) it will be hacked in no time. No electronic system is completely secure, in fact there has never been an electronic system invented in widspead use that hasn't been cracked and exploited, including RFID systems. We can assume that these will be freely readable to anyone with a reader from 30m away. Like credit card readers, these RFID readers will become widely available (on the open market) as these ID cards become more popular.
Let us not even consider the obvious temptation of putting people's biometic ID on these cards - an identity theft nightmare. Even if the only RFID tag on the card is a unique ID number that authorities use to look you up on a secure database - and assuming this RFID database remains both secure AND within the jurisdiction of Canadian privacy laws - the cards will still be widely exploited for criminal use. It's easy: scan everyone's ID driving down a residential street, then come back another night and scan again to see who's home. It's not just break-ins that are facilitated, but stalking people becomes much easier for those so inclined. Some say that we should just leave our ID cards at home or carry them in a "Faraday cage wallet" if we're paranoid about these types of things, but they forget that the more widespread ID cards are in use, the less you can do without them: as their utility increases, so does the pressure to use and carry one (even if you don't like borrowing, it's impossible to live in today's soceity without a credit card, for example) And sorry, people won't get a Faraday cage for their cards. Criminals will have a field day.
Canadians are far more distrustful of their government than Americans or Europeans are of theirs, and this is a good thing. It is a fact that has generally served Canadians well in defence of their liberties and privacy rights so far. But the pressure from foreign sources to implement these types of systems in Canada is intense - Canada has now acquiesced to handing over air passenger lists to the US government, for example (the agreement is not reciprocal). This system will be widely implemented in BC and then the rest of Canada unless action is taken. It's not futile: opposition to such systems worked in Australia 20 years ago and looks like NO2ID is winning over the UK. Write your MP and provincial representative if you value your freedom.
Write Your BC MLA
http://www.leg.bc.ca/mla/3-1-1.htm
Write Your Member of Parliament
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp
Vote for those that are clearly wary of these dangerous ID systems.
Not much. I just avoid it where I can, that's all. Just like I don't like vanilla, so I tend to avoid vanilla foods & French vanilla coffee, etc. Neither has really affected me that much, and I definitely do what I want to do. In fact I avoid them both because that's exactly what I want to do.
1. Log into Yahoo! Mail, then go to Options > Archive Messages
2. Choose the mail folder you wish to archive; Yahoo will calculate size and time required to download
3. Hit Download. It will download as a
Very easy; I assume this will change and only MS will only offer to download to Outlook or some other such crap if Microsoft takes Yahoo! over
- Microsoft Outlook 2002 (XP) and 2003
- Microsoft Outlook 98 and 2000
- Microsoft Outlook Express
- Microsoft Outlook Express for Macintosh
- IncrediMail 618 and higher
- Eudora 5.1 and higher
- Netscape Mail 7.0
- Netscape Mail 6.2
- Netscape Messenger 4.5
- Macintosh Mail client (OS X 10.5)
Expect supported clients to change if the takeover goes through.You may likewise still download or remove your items from Flickr, Y!Briefcase, Y!Video, Y!Personals, Y!360, Geocities, and a number of other properties farily easily. Y!HelpCentral has details on each.
Customers of Y!WebHosting and Y!Domains can transfer their web hosting and domain registrar easily.
Users of Y!Shopping, MyYahoo!, Y!Autos, Y!RealEstate, Y!Travel, Y!Profiles, Y!Sports, Y!Finance, Y!Music, Y!Movies, Y!News, Y!Games, and Y!PublisherNetwork will likely have to abandon personalized pages/portals/profiles rather than porting it to a different service. It is unclear how users of Y!BusinessEmail, HotJobs, Y!MerchantSolutions, Y!Store (to name a few) can be expected to transition to other serive providers.
The only online property that has more users than Yahoo! is Google, and that is because of Google's excellent search engine. The numbers are so large (hundreds of millions) that if even only a small percentage of Yahoo! users were concerned with Microsoft changing Yahoo - such as integrating Passport or dumping open source & open standards for proprietary standrds - that it would account to millions of users.
More importantly, look at Yahoo! and Microsoft's track records regarding online users - Yahoo! has continually grown their online user base since inception and continues to do so, while most of the online properties MS has taken over (eg. Hotmail) usually have significantly less success after their takeover. It's not a conscious effort to "rebel" against Microsoft by any means, it's that MS has a history of managing their new properties poorly, especially considering their huge advantage of leveraging their desktop monopoly to herd new users to these properties. They have less success not because people "rebel" as a religious platform issue, but because better options are soon available elsewhere (innovations slow or stop after an MS takeover, the inevitable changes become cumbersome, etc etc) and internet users by and large realise this. This is where the real concern is for the majority of Yahoo! users.
The press & people here seem to think this is no big deal because MS Search is pathetic and Yahoo Search is nowhere as popular as it used to be, at a distant #2 in the market. But who cares about Search? The real value in this deal for Microsoft is in the armada of Yahoo! services and online advertising properties. 88% of Yahoo! revenues come from marketing services; it's also the world's largest webmail service (one of may services). It is involved in a vast range or internet technologies, standards groups, open source projects, and more. The list of important internet technologies, projects and markets Yahoo! is involved in is long and attractive. For Microsoft, this is definitely a strategic acqusition and is reflected in how much they are willing to pay to get it.
Winners: Microsoft, Y!shareholders.
Losers: Yahoo!, Y!users, the internet, open source, competition.
For a heavy internet user like me, this news comes as a crisis of conscience. Having been a loyal Yahoo! Mail user for over a decade (the world's largest webmail service), and having so much of my online presence on Yahoo's comprehensive services - Contacts, Flickr, online document storage, Messenger, Y!Finance, Groups, (the list is endless) - I am obvioulsy deeply loyal to an independent Yahoo! ...But one reason that I've allowed Yahoo! to gradually become such an important part of my life is that it's NOT Microsoft. The same sentiments are felt by millions: will loyalty to a very useful Yahoo! be enough to overcome our distaste for Microsoft and the inevitable changes a takeover will entail? This is not insignificant nor a "religious platform issue" - note how Hotmail has fallen from #1 spot in email users after the MS takeover, for example. Yahoo! webmail alone reportedly accounts for 255 million of the world's 543 million webmail accounts, and webmail is only one of a vast range of internet & open source items Yahoo! is involved in.
Yahoo News itself is reporting this as a hostile takeover, but seemingly with Microsoft willing to pay such a large premium, one that will be hard to resist. It's interesting that Microsoft is willing to use up almost all of it's cash reserves for this takeover, largely sacrificing it's flexibility to make strategic investments in the future. But from the perspective of Yahoo! users the more important question is whether a MS takeover will turn Yahoo! into tepid porridge? And will the long, slow decline of Microsoft now drag Yahoo! down too?
On top of that, because of our stupid voting system, there are ALOT of would-be NDP voters who are scared of the conservative party winning, and end up voting strategically in favour of libs. It is worth noting that all of our small useless parties are left leaning. It is also worth noting that our one big right leaning party was formed by combining two smaller right leaning parties. You can thank our voting system for this stupid states of affairs where the majority of Canadians are clearly and decisively left leaning, but we are ruled by a minority conservative government. Crappy.
Actually it's much, much worse than that. Consider what the election results bring:
I just came back from a film, in Montreal. At theatres it's common to have staff check your bags (especially at downtown theatres) for camcorders etc, and of course there are warnings everywhere about how it's a crime to film a movie in the theatre (even if it isn't). These measure I support - hey, it's their theatre - but the big studios coming out with this FUD just as the government seeks to change the Copyright Act is way over the top. And so are their statistics. Unfortunately, these obvious tactics have been know to work, let's make sure this time it doesn't: Inform yourself and don't just sign a petition, but sign up and write your MP. Visit the CPPIC for more.
As far as the threat to delay movie releases, please do! It may give the small domestic film industry a little opportunity when some moviegoers arriving at the theatre choose to see a Canadian film, instead of the delayed American crud that they thought was out.
The brilliant film Gattaca has been there, done that, and shows the early stages of the two "races" separating genetically. But part of the central story also shows how impossible it would be to keep the two human populations separate and avoid constant interbreeding. And who wouldn't interbreed with Uma Thurman anyways?
Dr. Curry's theory is also doomed by the tenacity of egalitarian and socialist tendancies in human societies. As more & more of the world's populations become more affluent and able to afford more health care, for example, they will insist on universal genetic health coverage too. Controlling genetic diseases in the zygote before they occur will be the first step towards large-scale mental & physical abilities.
Hate to rain on everyone's parade, but a "Perfect Storm" of Mac sales isn't likley to happen anytime soon, if that means widespread purchases & use of Macs. The iPod "halo effect" is there, but it's weak, and we're already seeing it in the current sales numbers FWIW. Corporate IT people still scoff at the Mac - maybe not as loudly as before, but they would never bet their jobs on any kind of a switch (and betting their jobs they would be if they migrated their departments). I certainly haven't heard of any big companies adopting Macs en masse recently. Mac sales will probably continue to increase a bit on home sales, but even an incredibly optimistic near-50% growth per year still gives Apple only single digit market shares as 2010 closes in. And growth like that is not likely to happen. To put things in perspective, last year's total PC market was estimated by IDC at about $218B, and Apple accounted for just over $8B of that from Mac sales. Apple has a long way to go before Macs stop being a rarity.
In the 90's there were so many preposterous predictions of a 'beleaguered' Apple's demise that MacObserver started the Apple Death Knell Counter. With Apple's (deserved) good fortunes now and the irrational exuberance shown by many of the same pundits maybe someone should start an Apple World Domination Counter instead.
Ironic that Bell Security Solutions (a division of the very same Bell Canada) has been funding Tor development. No, put your tin foil hats away: there is no way for Bell to get any sort of "backdoor access" nor is there any indication that they want to. Probably Bell's legal department just wanted to be up-front with their customers for when (if?) the Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act gets revived in the autumn. PIPEDA privacy legislation probably makes such open disclosure obligatory, even when the third party requesting the information is the government.
There are virtually no restrictions on the use of cryptography or encryption technology in Canada. Famously, this is the reason that the OpenBSD project is based in Canada and not the US - the extensive use of encryption in OpenSBD would mean that, amongst other things, if it were US-based its development and distribution would be severely curtailed. People distributing the software may technically even be arrested, depending on how stringently their laws were interpreted.
This proposed "warrantless" internet surveillance bill will encounter a great deal of resistance in Canada, and with a minority government it's passage is by no means guaranteed. In the event that it does become law, at least people can encrypt anything & everything they send over the internet. A law such as this, however, would be challenged in the courts almost immediately here.
As a libertarian, from what I read & see in the news every day the situation in the United States seems to quickly be getting intolerable. George Bush erroneously said that terrorists "hate our freedoms"; is his counterterrorism strategy then to take away those same freedoms so that there is no longer any reason to attack a downtrodden people? What I don't understand is why the majority of Americans are actually accepting flagrant erosions of their rights. Hasn't the situation gotten bad enough that a nation famously built on the principle of liberty would do something about this erosion of liberty? I suggest that Americans Escape to Canada, but not to abandon ship - this would only make matters worse - but to stand up for your rights.
Specifically, go to Montreal next year to attend the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference. CFP is one of the longest-running conferences about the impact of technologies on society, and specifically on the ways your information can be used against you. This is only a couple of hours away from New York & most of the Northeastern USA. Attendance was really low at this year's Conference in Washington, DC, entitled "Life, Liberty & Digital Rights" despite the fact that the conference is more relevant to Americans than ever: after an opening speech by senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), panelists & speakers included Eric Lichtblau (who broke the story about current NSA wiretapping), James Bamford (aouthor of many books on the NSA), and Stewart Baker (of the Department of Homeland Security, who revealed that it's up to people to take care of themselves in times of crisis, and the government shouldn't be depended upon). The venerable TidBITS Macintosh mailing list has an excellent review of the conference last week, one which included topics such as Wiretapping Victims, DRM & Fair Use, Constitutionality of surveillance & privacy (and the state of these in the US, EU & Canada), E-Voting, the EFF & it's campaigns, Cell Phone Tracking, Advocacy (fighting for your rights), and a tour of the NSA itself. Don't just complain on Slashdot about attacks on your liberty, get educated and do something about it.
Seems like the usual suspects fighting on the side of consumer rights again. This isn't the first time the growing artistic community around Nettwerk Music Group has attempted to make an impact, even the Nettwerk CEO saying "Litigation is destructive, it must stop .... as per Nettwerk copyrights, we have never sued anybody and all our music is open source to encourage fans to share it with others and help us promote our Artists. As per those Artists we manage on other labels (Majors), we take issue with those labels claiming that litigating our fans is in our interest, as it clearly is not."
None of the major labels would dare utter sacrilege like this. But to be fair, in Canada even the Recording Industry Association (CRIA) is not as virulent as it's ugly cousin to the south. They moderate their message somewhat with more honesty, for example recently releaseing a study showing:
CRIA's own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders' computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services.
(words of Prof. Michael Geist, University of Ottawa)
"In light of the understandable comments incited by the RedBerry, with the tune of "Commie bastards, ripping off our ideas and mass producing them," let's take a different look at our trade relations with China. [...] To relate that to the China situation, the reason we have a trade deficit is because Americans, on an individual basis, want to buy cheap mass-produced goods."
But Canada has a trade surplus, not a deficit.
Apple has one of the most loyal customer bases in the history of the computer industry, one that most other companies can only wish for. This same base is the reason for the company's survival even in the darkest days for the company in the 1990s, when it could seemingly do nothing right. In contrast, I doubt that Dell's customers would bat an eyelash before changing to a cheaper alternative when - not if - one comes along.
And well you should find out where the parties stand on these issues before you vote later this year or early next. Check out detailed official party positions as of Election 2004 (they haven't changed much since) or read a Toronto Star summary on their stances.
Your local MP will soon be campaigning for your vote or seeking a nomination in your riding. Grill them on their position on Copyright, Open Source Software, and User Rights issues. This is an issue that has been virtually ignored, the fact is that most candidates know little about it and may alarmingly vote on complex IP legislation merely along party lines. Write them.
...while Apple's Macintosh is not. It's only anticompetitive / illegal to leverage an existing monopoly.