Cloud Computing Is A Trap

Richard Stallman says that cloud computing is a trap and a hyped fad. It is only there to make you pay more over time and trap you in a proprietary format. In other news, the Internet is a fad that should be fading sometime soon.

Still Out Of Power

I've been out of power since Sunday at 4:30PM. I thought I would be going crazy by now but strangely I am enjoying being disconnected from all the technology I have in my life. Don't get me wrong, I will be happy to have television again. It just just isn't as critical as I thought it would be. Instead of zoning in front of the TV, I have begun reading in earnest again. I've read 3 books this week:

The Man With The Golden Torc
Street Of Shadows (Star Wars Coruscant Nights Book 2)
Against the Tide Of Years

It's amazing how much reading you can get done when you don't have the television distracting you.

How Invulnerable Can We Be From Terrorism ... Not Very

From Bruce Schneir's CRYPT-GRAM Newsletter and John Mueller:

In an excellent paper by Ohio State political science professor John Mueller, "The Quixotic Quest for Invulnerability: Assessing the Costs, Benefits, and Probabilities of Protecting the Homeland," there are some common sense premises and policy implications.

The premises:
"1. The number of potential terrorist targets is essentially infinite.
"2. The probability that any individual target will be attacked is essentially zero.
"3. If one potential target happens to enjoy a degree of protection, the agile terrorist usually can readily move on to another one.
"4. Most targets are 'vulnerable' in that it is not very difficult to damage them, but invulnerable in that they can be rebuilt in fairly short order and at tolerable expense.
"5. It is essentially impossible to make a very wide variety of potential terrorist targets invulnerable except by completely closing them down."

The policy implications:
"1. Any protective policy should be compared to a "null case": do nothing, and use the money saved to rebuild and to compensate any victims.
"2. Abandon any effort to imagine a terrorist target list.
"3. Consider negative effects of protection measures: not only direct cost, but inconvenience, enhancement of fear, negative economic impacts, reduction of liberties.
"4. Consider the opportunity costs, the tradeoffs, of protection measures."

The whole paper is worth reading.
http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller/ISA2008.pdf

Getting Back Into "Art" Again

I had some free time this last weekend and whipped this up. Maybe it will go good on a t-shirt ... maybe not ;-).

Constitution ... We Hardly Know You Any More

This country took one more step towards a Constitutionless future today. The Senate joined the House in passing the FISA Amendments Act. This basically lets the telecom industry off the hook for wiretapping American citizens unconstitutionally. It's official, the government no longer needs a warrant to spy on your private communications as long as you are talking to a foreign national.

If we add the Patriot Act and various other things into the mix, the last 8 years have been some of the worst in American history for the rights of Americans. I am ashamed that I voted twice for a President that has so little regard for the principles upon which America was founded.

911 was a great tragedy for this country. It is only compounded by the fact that because 2,974 people died, we are willing to hamstring the rights of 304,095,000 people in the country. It is further compounded by the fact that these terrorists have successfully changed they way we treat our own citizens. They have radically affected our foreign policy. They have inspired us to commit acts which only bring more people to their cause. In effect ... they have won by killing .000977% of our populatation. Am I the only one who finds that repugnant?

Baggage Mishandling

Hey wait. If the airlines are going to be charging me $15 for each checked bag, shouldn't they be doing a better job. 1/138 of all bags get lost forever. This statistic does not include luggage that gets to you late. If the airlines want to charge you money for something they used to give you for free, shouldn't they at least have to provide value? Just a thought.

Real Grief In A Virtual World

I just found out a long time SecondLife friend (Vx Shaw) passed away last month. I had not been in SL since last year. I had gotten really burnt out after 2.5 years of playing and needed a break. Weeks turned into months. I kept meaning to go back and check in but my home computer died and I just got it fixed. Now I'll never have a chance to talk to Vx (aka Bazoo Benton) again.

The things I remember best about V is her upbeat attitude and the endless support that she provided her friends. She let me camp my store out on Abydos for a year for free. She also always supported my many and sometimes wacky endeavors in-game. She will truly be missed.

Telecom Companies Need To Buy A Clue

I was just reading on law.com that telecoms are suing municipalities for rolling out free wifi to their constituents. These same telecoms often cannot be bothered to roll out any internet whatsoever to these municipalities. This is what happens when you base your business plans on artificial scarcity. You end up having to sue your own customers (i.e. the music and movie industries). Once your services are ubiquitous commodities you have to either find another business or employ economies of scale to make more money. Suing your customers is not a viable alternative ... ever. If you do so, do not be surprised when your customers walk all over you on their way towards a better alternative.