Can you hear me now?

It appears that Colorado Represenative Diana DeGette is proposing a bill that will require all ISP's to keep a log of customer data permanently, until at least one year after they have cancelled their account. In the proposal (pdf) it states that this will apply to any ISP which "enables users to access content", which I cannot think of any ISP which does not do this. It will require them to "...retain records to permit the identification of subscribers to such services for appropriate law enforcement purposes." Now this is a very vague definition. Will it require them just to keep subscription information such as name and address, or much more detailed information such as a record of what their IP address was and at which time, or even more detailed connection information? A spokesperson for DeGette said "We're still addressing some of the issues, and we will have those issues or answers before we introduce this as either an amendment or a bill. " I would suspect that when you propose a bill or an amendment you might have a good idea of what technical limitation you are up against, but it seems that DeGette doesn't. If an expansive reading of her proposal were taken, then a whole lot of data is going to be generated. Many people and especially businesses will stay with the same ISP for many years. With all this this data being generated, that is going to cost a lot for the ISP to store permanently, and the cost will be pushed onto the consumer.

Now of course this bill isn't being introduced standing alone. It is being toted as a means to curb child pornography in the U.S. (another post in which I discuss privacy issues relating to child pornography laws is located here). This in addition to the recent announcement that the lawsuit against the NSA regarding illegal wiretapping was going to be dropped due to the States Secret Privilege.

In other, non-political news I have finally managed to hurt myself on my bicycle. It's a bit funny because I also happen to have a video of it. In retrospect, any jump big enough that it justifies taking a video recording of, is probably not a good idea. I have also embedded the video into this webpage below.

7 Wiki's Feast

While browsing through various articles on Wikipedia (which I believe is one of the greatest achievements on the web in a while). I ran upon some terms of which I've recently heard people throwing around with little regard to what they may actually mean. Another problem I see is that way that they were presented in the public school system (At least in my experience most things were presented in a very Black and White, good or bad manner.)

Fascism
Authoritarianism
Nazism (Most people are not so much wrong about this, but grossly ignorant of the origin/ideas. There are also some interesting similarities in current policies and political views in the U.S.)
Marxism
Totalitarianism
Police state
Socialism


I have been sick for about a week straight, and this is the worst I've felt in many years. I don't think I've felt this bad since I was sick as a kid. I've seemed to of made it through the worst of it without any life altering problems, so I guess it's not too bad.

On a somewhat lighter and semi-comical note(in retrospect), I did manage to finally get my motorcycle down here again. It was, what's the word I'm looking for...hmmm... Wet, and I did not have on proper raingear.




I will be repairing some minor damage (due to age and dryrot from the sun) and just do some general tune-up and work before I sell it and purchase a newer bike. I would like to keep this bike since it used to be my dad's, but it will be a big burden to keep both and a car, both financially and practically. I'll throw in some pics of me riding my other bike...




until next post...

Livin' the G-life

In addition to the plethora of other web-based apps that Google is producing, I recently discovered Google Calendar. Upon first use the interface seems to be very intuitive and snappy. Currently it has not been integrated into my Gmail interface, and actually took a while for me to figure out why it was not displaying. Nonetheless, I will give it a more thorough test when it's integrated into my Gmail interface.

While I love the simplicity and cost (Free is good, right?) of Google's products, it now seems to be getting a little scary. Many people forecasted that the path Google was choosing will be a privacy advocates bad dream. Not only does Google have info about what I talk to my friends about through Gmail and Gchat, as well as what I search for through my Google personalized Page, but now they know what I'm doing and when and where I'm doing it with Gcalendar. While Google has had the "Do no Evil" Motto for some time and seem to be sticking to it pretty well, the fact that they collect this data and have it stored somewhere is the scary part. Now, even if the current people at Google have no intention of using this personal data without our permission, it still has the chance of falling into others hands. It just seems like a bit too much information collected on me to be sitting on a HDD somewhere. Where will this data be in 10 years? 20 years? 50 years? What if a future oppressive government were to seize the data? They could use this data to spy/imprison/eliminate possible troublemakers based on emails sent years ago that do not agree with their political views. Of course this is a worse case scenario, but the fact that it's possible is what scares me. In spite of all this concern, I will continue to use Google's services for now. They are just to useful and easy that it's hard to turn down.

On another somewhat frightening note, it seems that the President of China's first visit to the states will be for a dinner with Bill Gates.

In personal news, not much has been going on. I've been searching for a house to rent for several weeks, but haven't found anything that stands out yet. I will be buying a new(used) motorcycle soon, after I sell my current one. Oh, and one last thing. If you are using Myspace and reading this, please learn how to design a webpage that is somewhat readable and functional. Also, stop using static background images that contain colors that are the same as your text and make posts that are somewhat coherent. Another thing, stop playing damn music on your website, it's annoying and your taste is music is really bad. If I want to listen to music, I'll fire up my media player and listen to my music. It seems that Myspace is the new AOL.