Every time I get a privacy policy in the mail, usually from a bank, I groan. They are all the fucking same. They are all contradictory. And most of all, they are all bad.
The scam goes like this. They claim they don't "sell your personal information to third parties." Just what I wanted! BUUUUUUT... They turn right around and give it out freely to "companies that perform marketing services on [their] behalf or to other financial institutions which we have joint marketing agreements."
So instead of directly selling your information, they set up "joint marketing agreements" or hire other companies to advertise, and give it to them. Same fucking outcome. I get spammed and other organizations get some of the info these banks collect, including "name, address, social security number, assets, income, account balance, payment history, parties to transaction, credit card usage, creditworthiness, and credit history." Fuck banks.
These days, if you are a highschool student who writes on your own time, there is a good your school may suspend you or identify you as a problem student. Tough shit too, as there isn't much you can do about it. We've all learned recently the dangers of your employer reading your blog but this is going too far. The material on the student's journal was simply rude—not threatening. We need to stop cowering our heads in fear every time a highschool student coughs sideways.
I have to admit, though, I've cut out a few of my blog entries on sensitive topics, just in case. What kind of world is this? Maybe it is time to start a 100% anonymous blog for myself.
The news is spreading like wildfire around the Internet that Netscape has been killed by its parent company, AOL. Maybe Netscape was just in the right place in the right time, maybe they were lucky, but they certainly succeeded in changing the way we communicate. Because of Netscape, the World Wide Web has incorrectly become synonymous in the public mind with the Internet and everywhere we go, we are bombarded by the ubiquitous URI for everything from personal to corporate websites.
It's the end of the world as we know it
Sadly, with the death of Netscape, AOL also fired all of the Mozilla developers they had employed. So we are left to wonder, what will become of our shiny, new web browser, the David that was to take on Goliath and win the battle for real standards conformance? Will Mozilla gasp its dying breath and sputter out? Will those of us who disdain proprietary operating systems and value real conformance to established open standards on the Web be forced to use Konqueror? Or will the World Wide Web sink back into the dark ages of standards divergence?
Here -- he says he's not dead!
Thankfully, Mozilla lives on with the Mozilla Foundation, and because the source to Mozilla was open anyway, it will always be around. Ultimately, the death of Netscape can't stop the movement for real open standards on the Web. It all hinges on the content producers out there--the choice is ours. We can continue our push for true interoperability, accessibility, and usability. Alternatively, if we lose site of our goal, we can let control slide back into the hands of corporations to proprietize and polute real standards. The choice is clear. If we fail, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Hello, everyone. Updates have been moving at a blindingly slow pace here, but I have managed to post an HTML version of the updated 8th Edition Magic Rulebook. This time, rather than cleaning it up by hand, I ran it through HTML Tidy; therefore it lacks the nice cross-references and other cool features of the previous version I posted. But it is up-to-date and it took a lot less time to make. HTML Tidy is nice.
Okay, perhaps I am parnoid, but has anyone but me noticed that the new Federal Do-Not-Call Website has a signup process that boils down to a federally maintained database mapping email addresses to phone numbers? If you register online, Your email address is stored (remotely it says) and associated with your phone number. This lets them email you to confirm that your number is on the list. They also go on to say that they will share their information with law enforcement agencies.
Sound like a new era of wiretapping abuse? Mr. Ashcroft and his band of lazy goons should have a field day with this one. Don't feel like doing real work to catch the boogie-men out there? Just wiretap everything and watch everyone. With no oversight in law enforcement, are we to trust them?
So it goes without saying, register via the phone and avoid mapping your email address a phone number. And use encryption. Have a nice day.
Updated some links in this entry.