Parents are more wired than non-parents

According to the latest Pew Internet survey, parents are more enthusiastic about technology than non-parents and more likely to use the Web for health information, for their work or training, and for getting religious information. Seventy percent of parents with a child at home use the Internet, compared to 53% of non-parents. These parents are more enthusiastic than non-parents about technology and its benefits and are strong believers that their children need to master computers and the Internet in order to get ahead in life.

Bush Mark 2 equals Orwell Mark 1

William Safire’s vitriolic attack on Admiral Poindexter’s [of Iran Contra fame] plan for “Total Information Awareness” — which is part of the Homeland Security Act. If this goes through, then Osama bin Laden has really won. Meanwhile, here’s David Carr’s splendid article on the impossibility of making the US terrorist-proof.

Useful guide to Microsoft shady practices

A scarifying document detailing the various ways in which acceptance of Microsoft software exposes users to intrusions by the company into their privacy and the innards of their machines.

The latest Halloween memo

This one is a remarkably candid meditation on the progress of Microsoft’s anti-Open Source campaign to date. Conclusion: it hasn’t worked. The memo also recommends that Microsoft should stop denigrating Open Source software. Black propaganda doesn’t work. Well, well.

How the law is an ass when it tangles with digital stuff

Red Hat vs. the DMCA. Red Hat publishes information about a security patch ONLY to people outside the United States, because of fear of the DMCA. It seems that a description of a fix to a vulnerability also contains information about the vulnerability itself, which could be a violation of the DMCA. And while we’re on the subject of ridiculous, here are some of the “digital media devices” that would be required to incorporate government-approved copy-protection technology under the Hollings CBDTPA Bill: hearing aids, talking picture frames, scrolling signs, and baby monitors.

Security and insecurity

“We are being told that we are in graver danger than ever, and that we must change our lives in drastic and inconvenient ways in order to be secure. We are being told that we must give up privacy or anonymity, or accept restrictions on our actions. We are being told that the police need new investigative powers, that domestic spying capabilities need to be instituted, and that our militaries must be brought to bear on countries that support terrorism. What we’re being told is mostly untrue. Most of the changes we’re being asked to endure don’t result in good security. They don’t make us safer. Some of the changes actually make things worse….”.

Bruch Schneier in the latest edition of his newsletter.

The Law of Leaky Abstractions

An example of the wonderful stuff published in weblogs every day. This essay by Joel Spolsky is about the usefulness and limitations of models. It also contains an hilarious analogy for TCP/IP. Joel is the creator of CityDesk, an affordable content management system for small outfits. Alas, it only runs on WIndows. Sigh.
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Supreme Court to review porn filtering Act
“NYT” story.

“WASHINGTON, Nov. 12. The Supreme Court agreed today to review Congress’s latest effort to shield children from pornography on the Internet, a federal law that requires libraries to install filters on all computers providing Internet access to adults as well as to young patrons.

A special three-judge federal court in Philadelphia ruled last spring that the Children’s Internet Protection Act was unconstitutional because it induced public libraries to violate their patrons’ First Amendment rights as a condition of receiving federal financing for Internet access….”

UK Government discovers danger of email scams. Sharp cookies, eh?

Speaking yesterday at the launch of National Consumer week Consumer Affairs Minister, Melanie Johnson, said: “We have warned the public about the danger of postal scams, such as bogus prize draws and competitions. But people also need to bear the same warnings in mind if they use mobile phones, fax machines and e-mail.

“Every day, people throughout the UK open their mail, turn on their computers or switch on their mobile phones to learn that they’ve won ‘an exciting prize’ in a draw, lottery or some other promotion. While much of the marketing conducted in this way is legitimate, unfortunately it also includes examples, which are misleading or untrue.

“All too often those people taken in by scams make the mistake of being too trusting and lose money as a result,” she said.

McDonalds cuts back to, er, beef up, profits

Now here’s an interesting thing: McDonalds is pulling out of three countries, shutting 175 outlets and laying off 600 staff because of falling sales. Needless to say, the Middle East has suddenly become a profit-free zone, and sales in the UK have not recovered from the BSE scandal — which has put a lot of people off eating beef they haven’t been introduced to beforehand. But the really interesting thing of course is that McDonalds, like Coca Cola, is a token for American values. If it is really a victim of anti-Americanism, then the US corporate world will sit up and take notice. Who’ll be next? Disney? Microsoft? Meanwhile, fat people in the US are suing fast food chains for selling them the gunge that made them obese. Isn’t capitalism wonderful.