supposedly, i’ve left my angst ridden teenage years today.
ralph nader spoke to a packed house on campus last night. he was a very good speaker, and also very well informed. hearing him actually speak gave me a lot more confidence that if he were to be elected president, he’d be able to do better than most anyone else in the situation.
my disappointment is that he made almost no mention of the net. although, it’s implicit in his platform (fighting corporate hegemony), he really needs to talk about and explicate his position on net issues and increase his presence there – not only would it get tech activist people a lot more involved. the battleground for our rights will be online.
in a related suggestion: forget tv, stream all your speeches and appearances, live if possible (this would be also much easier if you were able to mobilize net savvy individuals who could provide infrastructure and expertise).
last of my political spew: issues2000 is a really good resource. votematch is amusing. also, nader2000.org is a way better site than the official one.
must every site have a bajillion blinking ads?
how ironic, dvd to cd w/ DivX.
darren aronofsky’s upcoming film, requiem for a dream looks sorta interesting from the trailer and the site, done by hi-res, of soulbath fame.
dan touretzky interview on salon about judge kaplans decision, blah blah blah.
The judge decided to invent a new category of speech that does not enjoy First Amendment protection. Besides the old standards (libel, fraud, obscenity, incitement to riot and copyright infringement), the court’s new category is, essentially, “anything that potentially threatens the profits of Time Warner and Disney.”
That ought to scare the hell out of everyone. If the government can suppress information that is true fact — as opposed to speech that has a direct effect like inciting people to riot — then we’re all in trouble.
oh, in case you missed it, touretzky has a decss gallery with some rather clever decss distribution methods. i have yet to make mine, but i have some good ideas (which i’ll probably never get around to doing).
The real battle for freedom on the Net is just beginning. We’ve seen some clues about what’s coming: processor chips with embedded serial numbers (Intel has already done this), word processors that secretly store their software license number in every document they touch (Microsoft Word did this until they got caught), attacks on anonymous re-mailers, the FBI reading your e-mail (Carnivore), and so on. It’s going to get a lot nastier in the next few years. And with every step, we’ll be told that this is necessary to “protect consumers” — the exact words Jack Valenti is using today to justify the DeCSS lawsuits.
my personal view is that my consumer rights aren’t being protected if my civil rights are being taken away for the “public good” (read: corporate good). same way with the war on drugs.
today’s xblog has some really neat links.
hmm… revised projected utilization approaching 125%… something definitely has to give. hmm, if i got rid of the 56hrs/wk of sleep, i’d be able to fit everything else in. haha funny.
one step closer to the drexlerian vision with the discovery of ultrananocrystalline diamond film.