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Sunday, September 30 2001

Granny D on terrorism

Granny D, the woman who walked across the U.S. in support of campaign finance reform, on why the terrorists hate us, and what to do about it.

Getting Driver's Licenses Without Hassle

From Phil Agre's mailing list: you can get drivers licenses in several states without a Social Security Number, license from another state, or anything. At least 12 of the terrorists from Sept. 11th appear to have gotten drivers' licenses from states that don't check your identity.

Teleportation

Wired News has an article about Danish scientists tackling the "hard part" of transportation.

There's more information at the IBM website.

Saturday, September 29 2001

Blocking ad-blockers

MediaBEAM says it has software that lets it block access to websites for people who block advertisements, and tell the surfers to either watch the ads or pay to enter the site.

I actually think it's a good idea, as long as there's some way to pay a (reasonable) fee to access the site ad-less...

Why banning encryption is bad

CNET perspective on why banning strong encyrption would be worthless.

Basically, a competent enough computer scientist (of which there are plenty outside of the U.S.) could create almost-impossible-to-crack encryption products based on computer science theories that have been around for years, even if all of today's encryption products were banned.

Besides which, as Bill Gates wrote to Dave Winer in 1997: leaving backdoors in encryption would create even worse security issues than the ones we typically see in software these days. And as computers and networks are integrated more into our daily lives, this would give malicious hackers more opportunity to disrupt society. (Say, by altering law enforcement orgs' pictures of terrorists, using consumers' credit cards for buying beer or bombs...)

Friday, September 21 2001

Pictures of mourning and support

A page with pictures of people from around the world mourning the deaths in New York and DC, and offering support to those hit especially hard by the tragedy. Don't miss Yasser Arafat giving blood.

A number of corporations have set up a website where you can make donations for relief efforts.

Thursday, September 20 2001

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Report has a blurb on Philip Zimbardo's 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, and how it's entered popular culture; apparently Zimbardo has started a website dedicated to the experiment, including photographs and notes.

The American Psychological Association Code of Ethics has since been adopted, and presumably wouldn't allow such an experiment again. One thing the Code does allow is deceiving research subjects if it's necessary for the integrity of the experiment.

Wednesday, September 19 2001

Jane's Security on the attacks

Jane's Security has an interesting article on how Israel's military intelligence service thinks Iraq sponsored the recent terrorist attacks on the U.S. They also have a number of other articles on the attacks, and possible responses to them; it's an especially interesting publication because they serve the security community, rather than the general public.

Tuesday, September 18 2001

New article on ahref.com (finally)

I've finally put a new article on ahref.com; this one about ht://Dig, the open-source search engine.

First in a two-parter; this one gives a gentler introduction to the program than you'll find at the official ht://Dig site, and gives guidance on useful configuration parameters. The next part will cover a few interesting tricks you can do with ht://Dig.

Monday, September 17 2001

Terrorist group profiles

A Navy website lists and profiles terrorist groups around the world (not just in the Middle East).

A State Department website has another list.

News from Central Asia - where we might be bombing

Dave Winer of Scripting News has accumulated links to newspapers in Central Asia in order to present the perspectives of those living in the areas that will be affected by any retaliation for the WTC destruction.

Privatizing services -> cutting corners -> national catastrophes

Paul Krugman has an opinion column at the New York Times, in which he points out how the calls for smaller government and privatizing as much as possible resulted in poor airline security; and cautions that other disasters ("attack by microbes") might result from privatizing so much that might better be handled by government or non-profits.

Therapy for those affected by terrorism: knowing when it's worthwhile

Pretty good NYT article on the difference between normal grieving reactions to massive acts of terrorism, and abnormal psychological damage.

Using cell phones on airplanes

After so many folks on the hijacked planes from 9/11 used their cell phones to call home, people are wondering about why cell phone use is prohibited on planes. The NY Times article says it's not clear if cell phones can disrupt aircraft communications.

Wouldn't it make sense to build your aircraft communications in such a way that someone carrying a cell phone couldn't screw 'em over? Or are cell phones going to be required issue for all future hijackers?

Thursday, September 13 2001

Airline security, terrorism, etc.

The FAA, after conference calls with the airline industry, announces stricter security rules at U.S. airports. Among other things, airport restaurants will no longer provide you with a knife.

A Congressional panel which began work in 1998 issued a report in January, 2001, stating that further (we've already had the WTC bombing in 93, the OK City bombing later) terrorist action in the U.S. is inevitable, and recommended that steps be taken to reduce the risks, and the possible consequences. In May, the White House decided that Dick Cheney would head up a task force looking into the matter (after he was done with his energy task force?), essentially ignoring the commission's report. The creators of the report don't say that Tuesday's actions would have been prevented if the report had been acted on; but do say adopting their recommendations will greatly reduce the chance of further terrorist actions succeeding. (The executive summary is available.)

Ariana Huffington takes the press to task for not giving any substantial coverage to the Congressional report.

Wednesday, September 12 2001

The Tragedy in New York, DC

Phil Agre sent out links to some coverage of the attacks in DC and New York.

Michael Moore links to various articles in an attempt to explain why and how people hate the U.S. enough to kill thousands of U.S. civilians, and complains about the lax security of airports and airlines.

Meanwhile, you can make a donation to the Red Cross to help deal with this tragedy at Amazon.

Alex Chiu's Eternal Life Rings

Funny interview at Slashdot with Alex Chiu, who makes and sells Eternal Life Rings. As in, rings that will give you eternal life.

Monday, September 10 2001

Roger Ebert rants about cropping wide-screen movies

Here.

Sunday, September 9 2001

Profiting by cutting pollution

Courtesy of Slashdot: numerous companies find that reducing waste products, or finding ways to recycle or reuse them, are saving money (or making them money) in ways they never predicted.

Thursday, September 6 2001

Advertisements altering your childhood memories?

According to a Media Guardian article, scientists have determined that they can give adults false childhood memories with advertising. Specifically, after seeing videos of children shaking hands with Bugs Bunny at Disney World, subjects reported remembering having done so as children. But, of course, Bugs Bunny is a Warner Brothers property, and so would never have greeted visitors at DW.

The (lead?) psychologist involved has a web page dealing with memory, false memory, witness fallibility, etc. Interesting stuff.

Tuesday, September 4 2001

Eye bounty

The sales force at a DC-area Lasik surgery franchise apparently uses high-pressure sales tactics, and receives commissions, for convincing people to sign up for Lasik surgery before being completely informed of the risks. The franchise is violating various federal government rules in various ways, but the feds aren't doing much about it:

"In March, the FDA sent two letters to LVI President Marco Musa questioning [various claims on the company's website and requiring changes be made].

Agency spokeswoman Sharon Snyder said that if LVI does not make the changes, the company will receive another letter."

About this site

This is the personal web site for Edward (Ed) Piou. Consisting mainly of a blog (operational since 1999) and various photos.

Some online projects I'm working on

Politics

Charity, Non-profits...

A while ago, I decided to put my money where my mind is on a (roughly) monthly basis and give to:

Photos

Public events documented through pictures...