"Family" Reunion 2008   (random re me)

Family reunions are fun, sometimes. You don't get to pick your family... or do you? This year, the 3rd Annual Family Reunion will be going on in beautiful Boulder, Colorado. Probably Denver, too. Details. It's not technically family. It's a group of high school and college friends who like keeping good friends once they have them.

The weekend of September 27th is when it all goes down. There's an Oktoberfest going on in Denver, David Allen Coe is playing at The Fox, Kevin is having a birthday, and we'll probably go to some museum or something.

Love it.

new pics!   (pic(s))

I've been taking pictures and posting them and not saying anything about it. Some of the more recent ones are Roller Skating 80s Party and OSCON 08. Whee!

new pictures!   (pic(s))

Posted some new pictures finally, from closing day at Vail. Whee!

how many?   (personality test)

waterboarding. really? really?!   (opinion)

I know I'm a little late on this. But honestly, who cares? This is important. Let's follow the link trail. Even if you followed the issue but haven't seen these particular things, take a second.

It started with Mark Morford's column titled "Outrage Fatigue?". From there, we find ourselves watching Keith Olbermann talk about waterboarding in general, as well as its wider implications (transcript). This was the "holy shit" moment for me. I've heard the word waterboarding tossed around, and I kinda assumed it was a synonym for Chinese Water Torture, but when you watch the video and see the demonstration and listen to the description of it by someone who underwent it... that fired me up in a way I don't often get.

amateur security just makes it worse   (opinion)

Bruce Schneier just posted an article on his site which calls out many current counter-terrorist "strategies" as useless or downright harmful. It's worth a read, but it will make you angry at incompetence.

Even worse: after someone reports a "terrorist threat," the whole system is biased towards escalation and CYA instead of a more realistic threat assessment.
...
If you ask amateurs to act as front-line security personnel, you shouldn't be surprised when you get amateur security.

the RIAA makes its move   (geekin)

I got an email today, from the founder of Pandora, which is an innovator in online music distribution based on the user's unique musical tastes. He asked me to sign a petition to Congress opposing "a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora" retroactive to January 1, 2006. This is a power grab by the RIAA to put its competitors out of business. Sign the petition and do your part to promote innovation in music and music distribution. What I attached to my petition signature is after the jump.

hot chick + plasma tv + cashiers check = scam   (random re me)

I'm renting out rooms in my house and put an ad on Craigslist. I got several local responses, but one in particular stood out as rather odd. This is just the teaser, there is a bunch of back and forth. I'll add more after the jump when I'm not swamped with work!

From: "hh gg"
Reply-To: loveandloveback@gmail.com
Subject: $450 3 rooms $450-475 in quiet South Boulder neighborhood

Hello,
I am katherine benedito, I grew up in Portugal and working with my present establishment Harveys &Co. (clothing) Ltd which specialize in production of all kind of work wear As a Market Researcher. I started working with my present establishment In the year 2003 I got transferred to the U k, which obviously I did not find it easy at all initially but had to cope because of my sustainance.Weve got a tremendous increase in turnover in US market over the last 2 years, since then our company has been planning to establish and penetrate the US market. Some weeks ago, a memo came from our head office notifying my assignment to the STATES" this will take a couple of months as part of our marketing planning in US market.
My job is to do a lot of secondary research and also access the weekly report of our Marketing Research Agency. Most of my job is from home and little on field. Ever since I have started my career I have been enjoying international transfers and have been using that opportunity to gain international exposures which I belief it's very useful for me in the near future...lol. I am a Christian, a social drinker and a non smoker, I would want to know more about you and why you which to rent out your place and if it is still very much available. Please let me have your quick response ASAP.
Regards,
Harveys &Co. (clothing) Ltd
katherine
07031894238

beware the woe-man   (random re me)

I take cabs to and from BWI relatively often, and the cabbie I get is usually either of African or Arab descent, with a relatively thick accent. I'm usually either tired or hung over or both, so I don't generally strike up conversation. Sometimes the cabbie will talk forever about boring crap and I smile and nod, but today I had the most hilarious misogynist from Ghana. I don't even remember what we talked about, but he had the craziest laugh, and he cracked himself up. And he kept saying "Beware the woe-man! You know, like from the bible when they say 'Woe unto you!' woe-man!" and talking about how back in Ghana he didn't have to cook, ever, or do any dishes, but once African women get to America, they get all uppity. Dude was 63, had 2 houses and a Mercedes and still drove a cab. Assuming he wasn't lying through his teeth. I laughed for basically the entire cab ride.

$$ "Good luck with your woe."
"Thank you, sir! Have a safe flight, and beware the woe-man!"

neutrality or bust   (opinion)

There is a lot of confusion about what people are calling the "Net Neutrality" issue. This article, the cover story in the Boulder Weekly last week, is a must read for anyone who is even a little confused about what's really going on. It's basically war (fuck you, pay me) on the broadband consumer. It's written for the layperson and does a great job of laying all the facts out there.

Any discussion of network neutrality inevitably resorts to metaphors. Fast lanes and slow lanes. Toll booths. Book stores and endcaps. KFC and Pepsi vs. McDonald's and Coke. The phone system vs. the postal system. Electrical outlets that accept toasters as readily as computers, and so on. Of course, these metaphors have their limitations because there's really nothing like the Internet. So, it helps to understand something about how the Internet functions.