WTF?

For me, this is one more small piece of proof that the bureaucracy that wants to control every tiniest aspect of our lives must be dismantled. In the dismantling, feel free to use as much prejudice as you like.

Yahoo earns its place in the Takedown Hall of Shame

EFF:

Here's where the bogosity begins in earnest. Yahoo sent a formal DMCA takedown notice to Cryptome.org, demanding the removal of the compliance manual. In the letter, Yahoo's lawyers allege that posting the manual infringes Yahoo's copyrights (the only proper basis for a DMCA takedown), as well as claiming that it's a trade secret (absurd for a marketing document) and that posting it constitutes "business interference" (huh? informing customers about Yahoo's disclosure practices "interferes" with business?).

A bogus use of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by Yahoo, just in case you think it's a better alternative to Google. It isn't. Yahoo just isn't as big and powerful. If they were, they'd be just as evil. Read the whole thing for the full explanation--and this has an "Only Ones" connection.

Bonus points to EFF for using the word "bogosity."

NSA coming to San Antonio

SA Current - NEWS+FEATURES: The panopticon economy:

Surrounded by barbwire fencing, the anonymous yet massive building on West Military Drive near San Antonio’s Loop 410 freeway looms mysteriously with no identifying signs of any kind. Surveillance is tight, with security cameras surrounding the under-construction building. Readers are advised not to take any photos unless you care to be detained for at least a 45-minute interrogation by the National Security Agency, as this reporter was.

There’s a strangely blurry line during such an interrogation. After viewing the five photos I’d taken of the NSA’s new Texas Cryptology Center, the NSA officer asked if I would delete them. When I asked if he was ordering me to do so, he said no; he was asking as a personal favor. I declined and was eventually released.

America’s top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters — oddly positioned directly across the street from a 24-hour Walmart — where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency’s mission to identify terrorist threats.

“No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its secret city, the agency has now built a new data warehouse in San Antonio, Texas,” writes author James Bamford in the Shadow Factory, his third book about the NSA. “Costing, with renovations, upwards of $130 million, the 470,000-square-foot facility will be almost the size of the Alamodome. Considering how much data can now be squeezed onto a small flash drive, the new NSA building may eventually be able to hold all the information in the world.”

I recommend reading this whole thing. Not only for information about this thing coming to S.A., but for a reminder of how our Fourth Amendment has been completely and effectively nullified in the interest of the almighty dollar. Here's another spooky little snippet:

The new NSA facility is just a few miles from Microsoft’s data center of the same size. Bamford says that under current law, NSA could gain access to Microsoft’s stored data without even a warrant, but merely a fiber-optic cable.

Further important reading is at New American.

No longer able to store all the intercepted phone calls and e-mail in its Ft. Meade, Maryland, headquarters, the NSA is engaging in its own housing boom. How much data will these giant, multibillion dollar new facilities hold? According to James Bamford of the New York Review of Books, the facility in Utah alone could hold data that will be measured in Yottabytes. Never heard of Yottabytes? You're not alone. Most computers sold at stores still measure their storage at gigabytes, or billions of bits of data. A few store a terrabyte of information, or one trillion bits of information. That's 1,000,000,000,000 pieces of information. Yottabytes is the highest number that has yet been named in computer information. The number is septillions of billions of bits of data, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bits of data.

Personal side note: I had to read the meter at the Microsoft place a couple of times. It's just outside the front gate right next to the security shack. I was having trouble finding it (because it was originally on the wrong route), and was told that the place belonged to Microsoft. That didn't help at all, because there is no identifying signage of any kind that would indicate what the place is.

They got off easy

Man sprays 'toilet-papering' teens with fox urine:

A 50-year-old man told authorities he was fed up with teens toilet-papering his house during homecoming week. This year, he decided to defend his property — with a squirt gun filled with fox urine.

Now, Scott Wagar is in trouble with the law. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday in Kandiyohi County District Court to misdemeanor assault and other charges. He was released on personal recognizance.

According to police, on Sept. 16, Wagar used night vision goggles and saw 15-20 people running toward his place. He told them to leave and sprayed them with the fox urine. He also struggled with one teen who he says grabbed him from behind.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Wagar says he's innocent, and has a right to defend his property. He says groups of teens have been toilet-papering and egging his house during homecoming for about eight years, and each year it gets more destructive.

He says he sprayed the kids with a mixture of one-third fox urine and two-thirds water because "it stinks, but it doesn't hurt anything."

Fortunately for the teens, they chose to vandalize the property of a mere civilian, who is now charged with assault for protecting his property. If they had decided to egg and t.p. the Willmar Police Department HQ, I'm sure everyone would have had a good laugh and gone merrily about their business.

Yeah. I'm sure of it.

via The War On Guns

Foolproof biometrics

Proof against fools, perhaps, but not against someone with a few smarts.

Members of the Chaos Computer Club of Germany managed to acquire the fingerprint of German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble and published it in their club magazine The Datenschleuder.

Their point? That biometric data is not a safe means of identification because it can be easily stolen when used in public applications such as Germany's E-Pass.

They point out that it would be easy to steal fingerprints by simply, oh, say following someone around in a supermarket and snatching things that person has touched and then put back on the shelf, particularly items in glass packaging.

That's the gist of it. The linked article is a Google translation so it's a little rough. The original article in German can be found here.

via EFF