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Tuesday, October 30 2001

"Farewell Tuvalu"

Guardian article about Tuvalu, the Pacific island population population 11,000, sinking into the sea. Or, according to the article, the sea rising to cover Tuvalu as a result of global warming.

Sunday, October 21 2001

"Everyday accidents far deadlier than bioterrorism"

SFGate article provides statistics on ways you're more likely to die than via anthrax: in the bathtub, by being struck by lightning, etc. "While one person has died from anthrax, 44,000 people will die this year in car crashes, according to National Safety Council statistics."

Sunday, October 14 2001

Business Week Online: "Why Apple Can't Pull the Plug on OS 9"

Business Week pretty much says that Apple can't stop supporting OS 9, in the wake of OS X's release, because of the huge installed base of OS 9 users. And the many applications those users run which won't be coming out with OS X versions.

So why haven't I upgraded to OS X? Too busy. And I haven't needed to, at least not yet. What will get me to upgrade? When I eventually buy Interarchy, Stairways' funky FTP/net diagnosis/website mirroring/etc. program. It only supports FTP over SSH if you're running OS X.

Thursday, October 11 2001

Alamo Flags, major U.S. flag seller, owned by Arab-Americans

Interesting: according to the Arab American Institute, one of the leading providers of American Flags, Alamo Flag Company in Texas, was founded and is owned by an Arab-American, Tony Ismail. (Here's the company web page.)

(The page linked to was written by Casey Kasem; it's hard not to read it in his voice...)

(Casey's got the same birthday as me...)

Wednesday, October 10 2001

Why not to use Windows XP

Brian Livingston on why Windows XP isn't a good operating system.

(Unfortunately, it looks like Windows XP is all you can get on new machines at most stores. I was looking recently to buy a PC with Windows 2000 on it, but store clerks I called said I'd have to buy a machine with XP and buy a separate copy of Windows 2000. Couldn't even get an upgrade price for Windows 2000.)

International Aid Agencies say U.S. food drops won't work

Aid agencies such as Care International and Oxfam say the U.S. air drops of food are no substitute for the by-land food aid that has had to stop as a result of the bombing of Afghanistan.

The Boondocks vs. The War

The Boondocks, Aaron McGruder's comic strip featuring "militant" pre-pubescent inner-city black kids transplanted to white suburbia, had some installments pulled from New York newspapers for criticism of the U.S. government, regarding its pre-attack policies and post-attack response. (For example, a strip labeling Reagan as training and financing Bin Laden.)

Sunday, October 7 2001

Arbitration

SFGate article on how citizens often are forced into arbitration, rather then legal trials, with corporations that want to avoid publicity (or culpability). Traces how arbitration was originally meant just as a tool for corporations (entities of generally equal power) to settle disputes, but courts eventually decided corporations could force individuals to agree to arbitration as a prerequisite (or even a post-requisite. really.) of using their services.

Saturday, October 6 2001

Ubiquitous surveillance cameras: Britain's experience

Geoffrey Rosen, an associate professor at GWU Law School, writes about the effects of greatly-expanded surveillance (as is being proposed to stop terrorism here) on British society.

In short, surveillance hasn't stopped any terrorists (because "few terrorists are suspected in advance of their crimes", they're not listed in the databases as terrorists), the operators monitoring public activity tend to point their cameras towards big-breasted women ("a control room in the Midlands, for example, took close-up shots of women with large breasts and taped them up on the walls") and dark-skinned young men (surveillance won't stop racial profiling), the proponents lie about the technology's accuracy and coverage ("but then, we're entitled to disinform some people, aren't we?"), and people alter their non-criminal behavior so as not to stand out ("I would not kiss my boyfriend now... Something like that might be regarded as an offense against public decency.")

But the surveillance does make people feel like they're safer (even though the crime statistics are inconclusive) and can shame people into altering illegal behavior ("they [the cameras] scared the johns [prostitutes' customers] -- especially after the police recorded their license numbers, banged on their doors and threatened to publish their names in the newspapers.").

Thursday, October 4 2001

The Bush administration seems to be doing things right...

Pentagon to airdrop food to Afghans: looks like we'll be feeding the Afghani people as we fight (or maybe in prep. for fighting) the Taliban. Good move.

The Return of Colin Powell?: Powell's ideas seem to be driving U.S. policy on terrorism.

That second article is part of Salon Premium, meaning only subscribers will be able to read it. ($30 a year.)

Prince George's County Cops

The homicide unit commander in Prince George's County is being replaced; his unit has come under fire for denying suspects their constitutional rights and extracting confessions from innocent parties through force, sleep deprivation, and lies.

There were some other Washington Post articles on the unit many months ago, but I don't have the links anymore...

Skunk Anansie Split

Skunk Anansie have split up. I used to say that I wouldn't be able to die happy until I'd seen The Prodigy, Skunk Anansie, and NIN live. I've seen The Prodigy (twice), I've seen NIN (twice), maybe I'll see the Skunk bandmembers when they tour solo...

Wednesday, October 3 2001

Picturing the World, Online

Participants in The Confluence Project seek out confluence points (latitude and longitude integer degree intersections, for example 37 degrees N 80 degrees W), take pictures, and post them to the web. Link found via Search Engine Watch.

Also of interest: Virtual Terrain Project, which aims to "foster the creation of tools for easily constructing any part of the real world in interactive, 3D digital form."

Tuesday, October 2 2001

Bruce Schneier on the Sept. 11th Terrorist Attacks

Bruce Schneier, Net security guru, gives a very good analysis of airport/airline security: why it failed, how it should change, and why many measures being taken are useless.

Plastic.com has some good discussion of his essay, some positive, some negative.

Monday, October 1 2001

RRE links about 9/11/2001

Phil Agre's accumulated links related to the 9/11/2001 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon.

No National ID cards

The White House says they aren't even considering national ID cards for U.S. citizens. More sophisticated military ID cards are coming, though.

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...