i recently was fixing a computer, and was capping it off by double checking the search function on the web browser. i entered "fuck you" directly in the toolbar to verify that I had made google the default search engine, and it worked. this is the #3 result. anyway, i visited the site, and i must say i love this part. it's quite funny. well, i'm in ottawa right now visiting family for passover, and doing job interviews. tomorrow, i'm going to see the lovely feathers. well, i hope y'all enjoy yourselves... woot!

when i first heard that john bolton was president bush's nominee to be ambassador to the UN, i was worried that it was all over. however, bolton's confirmation has gone anything but smoothly. you can read here why bolton sucks for this job. also, go here for more up to the minute details on defeating john bolton

Carolyn Mark and Lederhosen Lucil did a show in Sackville on March 11, 2005. Here is what Carolyn has written in her tour stories about us (see day 12). just wanted to share. the thesis will be completed today

this documentary aried on the nature of things this evening explains in tragic detail how the pharmaceuticals are a corrosive force in our society - this is largely separate (but not entirely) from their intellectual property issues.

it appears that the media has election fever, if not politicians. it also appears that in the recent spate of polling there are wide discrepancies in the results; as well as unclear gap score numbers. gap score numbers will show you who has the most momentum. the question is generally something like "do you have a better/somewhat better/somewhat worse/worse opinion of blank today than you did blank time ago?" the two "better" categories will give you a figure "b" while the two "worse" categories will give you a figure "w." do b-w = gap score for a given leader. most polling i've read in the 2005 season doesn't ask gap score type questions or doesn't report the details. anyway, i think this is the most important type of polling to look at since it demonstrates unquestionably where the momentum is. momentum being the largest driver in getting the vote out. which is always the biggest challenge to getting elected in anything. finally, i'd like to point out that those 1000-person polls with a margin of error of 3.1% don't inform you of some crucial issues in the MOE. These 1000 canadians need to represent the general demographic and geographic spectrum in the country; and among the 105 Atlantic Canadians interviewed, or British Columbians, or Albertans (for instance) the actual MOE in that particular sample is almost 10 points (+/- !!!). this means, since we still elect on a constiuency system, that all of our polling is deeply unreliable based on our electoral system. or at least only good enough to give us a general impression. i would not be betting my electoral fortunes or plans on polling that is so convoluted. have good day!!

in canada, we are relatively fortunate. obviously this is true for a number of reasons. however, today I was reading about more than 400 new lawsuits filed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Ass'n of America) against some specified and some john doe users. basically the RIAA will browse P2P networks like Kazaa et al, find people who have really big "offerings" and log their IP adress. then they try and find out who these people are, often by attempting to subpeona the info from ISPs. There was a case that essentially stopped the RIAA from issuing subpoenas to obtain the identity of users. the electronic frontier foundation maintains a list of IP addresses currently being sued by the RIAA. maybe you're on it and you don't even know. of the plethora of legal issues here, you should be startled by a few primary ones. Firstly, there is no reason that an ISP should have to divulge who an IP address is unless the POLICE have evidence against the user. It's privacy - if it was that east to get our IP addresses to our identities, gov't agencies, hackers, spies, bosses, friends, family, etc could all easily view our internet activities. the major thing with this one is THIRD-PARTY LIABILITY. there is no way ISPs can be help accountable for the actions of its subscribers. further, there is no way that an ISP should have to submit to a mere subpoena to turn over private account information. a search warrant is sufficient burden to alleviate these privacy concerns. another major issue in all of this is the basic element of fair use. the US Supreme Court has found (in the Sony-Betamax case) that a distributor cannot be held liable for users' infringement so long as the toll is capable of substantial noninfringing uses. The supreme court just ruled last month that P2P software is the same. anyway, so the liability of the software makers et al is thereby resolved. the liability of the USER however is at great risk. not only is the US congress moving to strengthen their control over the internet, but current intellectual property laws have been made such that subpoena power has been granted to non-governmental officials on the scale of the PATRIOT act. that is, NO judge will oversee this process. the fair use feature of the USER's rights is explained here. the fact is, that under current US legislation it's illegal to make a mix tape! check it out. The CANADIAN parliament is currently reviewing their intellectual property laws in order to suck up the recording industry. this will make our fair use laws in tune with the US, making our current ability to share music with friends, family and strangers bad. TELL YOUR MP or something. maybe there'll be an election soon and the legislation will die. ok i'm out.

i went to new york this past weekend. it was sweet. did a conference, as i've mentioned. while i was there the pope died. when i got home prince rainier died. the time changed, and spring came out east. at least it's here today. when i first heard about gmail, i was worried about signing up because I had been advised of privacy concerns. i have long considered privacy to be a kind of white old man's issue. however, when i read up on the details of the concerns at goolge, i realised what these crackers were on about. the major complaint is that google tracks your email content to place targeted advertisments. this is no different that current widely used policies of tracking your general web use to place targeted advertisements. but this was the beef. here's the bbc's coverage. then while reading the gmail privacy policy [linked above], it dawned on me that gmail was all about keeping your mail - "search don't sort." it's not terribly difficult to delete your mail in gmail, but it's not nearly as easy as it is with other more "sort-friendly" email programs/offers. anyway, because gmail is under US Law, their storage of your email (up to 1GB right now) is regulated by The Electronic Communications Privacy Act. This act states that in order to retrieve email from Gmail, the government will need a warrant for stuff less than six months old, but a subpeona for stuff older than 180 days. since gmail is all about keeping your stuff, this is the REAL privacy concern. most people will consider themselves at no risk, because they have "nothing to hide." but if this were really true, you'd post your email password on your webpage with links, indeed, you'd get all of your files online as well, so we can all take a peek at anything you've ever kept! the concern is that the united states has, under the PATRIOT act, began tracking the reading lists of library users. obviously this is in and of itself a dangerous and scary move, but the legal infrastructure already exists for collecting and keeping the emails of anyone - and this isn't just about criminals. innocent people fall victim very easily to the misuse of information. anyway, in the end i decided to get a gmail address, and it's cool. i just monitor the material i keep there closely. but if you don't want to do that, i hear yahoo's offering 1GB of space soon.