Category Archives: Legal & Political

Sony tells it like it is

If you buy a Sony PRS-500 Portable Reader System (PRS-500), you can get 100 classic books “free” as ebooks. These are books that are in the public domain, so Sony doesn’t have to pay royalties on them, though Sony slaps … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Gadgets, Legal & Political | 2 Comments

Good Riddance to the San Jose Grand Prix

Now that the four million dollar subsidy of the San Jose Grand Prix is spent, the promoters have dropped it like a hot potato.  What a surprise!  It is claimed that the reason for discontinuing it is downtown construction, but … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Taxes | Leave a comment

Personal data theft

Yesterday I received a mailed notice from Monster.com, stating that their database had been compromised, including my contact information. Fortunately I had not provided them with any information that I consider sensitive. Given how many such cases of personal data … Continue reading

Posted in Privacy | Leave a comment

SCO loses!

The wheels of justice grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine! Judge Kimball has ruled in SCO v. Novell that SCO does not own the Unix copyrights, and therefore most of SCO’s claims against Novell are dismissed. SCO has to … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Copyright, Software | Leave a comment

Bridge safety

The day after the bridge collapse in Minnesota, an article in the San Jose Mercury News reported that Caltrans claims the bridges in the San Francisco Bay area to be safe. While I have a lot of respect for Caltrans, … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Economics | 1 Comment

SSN Database for Sale

Thinking about starting a lucrative career in identity theft? Don’t rely on stolen backup tapes! Buy our new database containing nearly one billion Social Security Numbers, many of which are actually valid. The list includes the Social Security Numbers of: … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Privacy | 10 Comments

Your world, delivered… to the NSA, MPAA, and RIAA

AT&T now claims that they will deploy some kind of filtering to keep copyrighted content off their network, effectively spying for the MPAA and RIAA. No one has developed a reliable way to even identify copyrighted content, but even if … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Copyright, Privacy | Leave a comment

Waterfree urinals

In my workplace, half of the men’s restrooms were recently closed for some sort of remodeling, and after that was completed, the other half have been closed. I finally found out why: they’ve installed Falcon 2000 Waterfree Urinals. While saving … Continue reading

Posted in Environment | Leave a comment

Employees no longer need to fill out I-9 forms!

The DHS I-9 form, used by employers to report verification of employment elgibility, has expired as of 31 March 2007, and the DHS not issued a replacement. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq., the government cannot … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty | Leave a comment

Should we stay or should we go?

A friend pointed out Natan Sharansky’s article “Leave Iraq and Brace for a Bigger Bloodbath” in the Washington Post. I don’t disagree with any of Mr. Sharansky’s facts or general reasoning, but yet clearly favor a different course of action … Continue reading

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, War | Leave a comment