Today’s post comes to us courtesy of my friend Julie, who sent me an article from the British web site The Register, about a University of Minnesota study that determined friends-with-benefits or casual sex relationships have no harmful psychological effects.  The findings were part of an ongoing study that assessed the behavior of 1,311 sexually active adults.  Of the participants, 12 percent said their last sexual encounter had been with a “close but not exclusive” partner, while 8 percent said their last encounter was with a casual acquaintance.  The study cautioned that, while casual sex relationships may not have harmful psychological consequences, it does not diminish the potential for negative physical impacts, and participants need to protect themselves accordingly.  (To read the full Register article, go here. To read the study’s results in plain English, go here.)

So…hooray!  We can bounce from bed to bed, sucking and screwing with whomever we want, with no negative repercussions, so long as we use condoms and birth control.  We’ll all be floating around on a cloud of sexually-fulfilled bliss!  Great success!  Right?  Well…maybe not.

Call me a cynic, but it’s going to take more than one study to convince me of the consequences of a behavior, especially since this particular study does not do much to qualify what constitutes  “harmful psychological outcomes.”  Does that mean feeling suicidal, or developing an emotional attachment to someone who’s only supposed to be your fuck buddy? There’s a big difference between the two, but they can both be considered harmful psychological outcomes, at least as far as I’m concerned.

Secondly, I don’t think we have enough data yet to prove one way or another if friends-with-benefits relationships are harmful or not.  Sure, maybe the twenty-somethings in this particular study are fine now, but check again in ten or twenty or thirty years, when these folks can’t have a serious committed relationship, and have issues with intimacy, trust and monogamy, and we’ll see what the damage is.  I may not have a Ph.D, but I don’t think you need one to see that, at least for some people, that is the road these casual relationships can lead us down.

The key to a successful friends-with-benefits relationship is a lack of intimacy, a detachment from emotions.  To make the relationship work, having sex has to be no more intimate than going to see a movie or having a beer together; one must put up a wall to keep platonic feelings from venturing into romantic territory.  Which is fine, for those who can do it (for those who can’t, there’s a whole host of other problems.)  But what about when one is ready to leave the world of friends-with-benefits behind for a committed, romantic relationship?  How does one go about disassembling that wall, and letting him or herself be vulnerable and intimate again?

The trouble with friends-with-benefits relationships, particularly for our generation, is that they add another tangle to the already twisted thread of sexuality we’ve been dealing with since we came out of the womb.  For human beings, as animals, our natural instinct is to have sex with whomever our hormones tell us is the strongest genetic mate, regardless of our emotions.  That instinct is born into us.  However, as we grow up, society tells us that sex and love and emotions are all tied up together, that sex is about much more than propagation of the species.  That concept is flipped on its head again when one finds him or herself in a friends-with-benefit situation, and it’s back to sex without love and emotion, sex for the sake of sex.  Any of these concepts are fine on their own, but it’s the back-and-forth, the push-and-pull that start to stretch the thread to its breaking point.  Emotions can’t be turned on and off like a faucet, and when one tries to do that, one risks losing all control, of living with a constant flood of emotions, or shutting down completely.

But sure, there’s no harm in that.

The latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser contains a bug that can enable serious security attacks against websites that are otherwise safe.

The flaw in IE 8 can be exploited to introduce XSS, or cross-site scripting, errors on webpages that are otherwise safe, according to two Register sources, who discussed the bug on the condition they not be identified. Microsoft was notified of the vulnerability a few months ago, they said.

Ironically, the flaw resides in a protection added by Microsoft developers to IE 8 that’s designed to prevent XSS attacks against sites. The feature works by rewriting vulnerable pages using a technique known as output encoding so that harmful characters and values are replaced with safer ones. A Google spokesman confirmed there is a “significant flaw” in the IE 8 feature but declined to provide specifics.

It’s not clear how the protections can cause XSS vulnerabilities in websites that are otherwise safe. Michael Coates – a senior application security engineer at Aspect Security who has closely studied the feature but was unaware of the vulnerability – speculates it may be possible to cause IE 8 to rewrite pages in such a way that the new values trigger an attack on a clean site.

If the attacker can figure out a flaw in the way IE 8 is actually doing that output encoding and then create a specific string the attacker will know will be transformed into an actual attack, they could use that to input a value … that actually results in an attack firing on the page.
This could be a way to introduce an attack into a page that didn’t have a vulnerability otherwise.

Late on Thursday afternoon, Microsoft told The Register: “Microsoft is investigating new public claims of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer. We’re currently unaware of any attacks trying to use the claimed vulnerability or of customer impact.”

Once its investigation is finished, the company will “take appropriate action,” including issuing a patch or guidance on how users can protect themselves against exploits.

When Microsoft introduced the protections, it also created a way for webmasters to override the feature (by adding the response header “X-XSS-Protection: 0″). A review of the top 50 most visited websites shows that only web properties owned by Google have actually opted to do so. The small number of sites blocking the protection calls into question how widespread the vulnerability is.

Source: Securityfocus.com

The reason for the abnormality in spelling of said collider, is that the largest thing built ever, the Large Hadron Collider has been tested and is deemed working, and the science community is practically jizzing themselves just talking about it. Everyone from the BBC to the New York Times to Al-Jazeera to Scumbag Style have reported on this thing, which is meant to recreate the Big Bang and definitively prove the existence of the elusive Higgs-boson.

Said Professor Peter Higgs, the scientist whom the theoretical particle is named after, in regards to the costly delays when the LHC was fired up fourteen months ago, to the Irish Times:

“I am relieved . . . It has really been delayed,” and in stating the obvious even further, “I know they are going to be very cautious to avoid any problems so I am keeping my fingers crossed that there isn’t going to be any more accidents.”

The delays were caused by an electrical fault that dumped liquid helium into the tunnel only nine days after the system first went online in September of last year. Now the problems have been fixed, new equipment and software has been installed, and the system was fired up on Friday, to much celebration from the staff who worked over-time getting the system ready.

Now, the Large Hadron Collider might be involved with finding the Higgs boson and Strange Matter, but according to The Register that’s not all they’re looking for. At least Director for Research and Scientific Computing at CERN, Sergio Bertolucci, seems to think that the collision might open an extra-dimensional portal, which from “Out of this door might come something, or we might send something through it.” Talk about a geek hard-on; this is the stuff of science fiction, man!

Granted, the portal would only be open for “a very tiny lapse of time, 10 (to the -26 power) seconds, [but] during that infinitesimal amount of time we would be able to peer into this open door, either by getting something out of it or sending something into it.” What could possibly be lurking for us beyond the scope of space and time? What could perchance make the leap into our dimension? Probably something from our deepest, darkest fears, which lurks in the pits of despair.

Yep...Probably Something Just Like That.

Didysis hadronų kolaideris (DHK) vis pakliūva į bėdą. Pirmiausiai sugedo elektromagnetai. Po to DHK pakartotinas įjungimas buvo atidėtas, kad būtų galima papildomai įdiegti tam tikrų saugiklių. O šįkart dalelių greitintuvą sustabdė praskrendantis mažas paukštukas. Tikrąja to žodžio prasme. Teigiama, jog paukštis skrisdamas numetė batono ant išorinių greitintuvo įrenginių, dėl ko įvyko sistemos perkaitimas ir ji nustojo veikti.

Apie tai rašo pvz., „Popular Science“, „The Register“. O kita pusė nė žodžiu neužsimena apie paukštį, o informuoja, jog DHK ruošiamas pilnam dalelių paleidimui.

Oficialiame CERN (Europos branduolinių tyrimų organizacija) tinklapyje skelbiama, jog pasirengimas dalelių paleidimui greitintuve vyksta sklandžiai, 6 iš 8 sektorių jau paruošti. Kiti bus pajungti kitą savaitę. Lapkričio pirmą savaitę jau buvo užfiksuotas ir dalelių srauto judėjimas priešinga kryptimi dalimi DHK tunelio apskritimo.

Jei viskas vyks pagal planą, jau po savaitės dalelių srautai pilnai bus paleisti, ir netrukus po to bus pirmas nestiprus dalelių srauto susidūrimas.  

Taigi nežinia, ar paskleista informacija apie batoną yra tik pletkas, ar CERN tiesiog nenori užsiminti apie gėdingą gedimą.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is today expected to announce an end to “self-certification” loans, where borrowers are not required to prove their income.

The FSA’s plan is to toughen rules on mortgage lending and includes a number of different measures which includes bringing an end to self-certification loans. The industry will have until 30 January 2010 to comment on the plans.

This measure will affect all self-employed workers including contractors and freelancers who are looking to take out a mortgage. The FSA want to ensure banks only lend to those who can afford repayments. As many self-employed contractors and freelancers often have varying incomes, self-certified mortgages were usually the preferred choice.

However, these loans made up nearly half of all the mortgages being offered at the peak of the housing boom, but have been at the centre of a number of mortgage fraud inquiries, when incomes were allegedly inflated by rogue brokers looking for higher commissions.

If the ban now comes in, lenders will be able to look at the tax returns of self-employed people – who have often used self-certification loans – for evidence of their income, the FSA said. Income certification typically requires three years of audited accounts, something that will be difficult for recent entrants to the contractor industry to produce.

The Register commented, ‘the proposals on self-cert mortgages would have an immediate effect on contractors, particularly those who have only recently become self-employed – as a result of the financial crisis, for example.’

The Federation of Small Businesses have urged the FSA not to penalise self-employed workers.

Yesterday Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) used SNW USA to release information on their proposed cloud strategy, referred to as “Agile Cloud”.  Everyone believes they need a cloud story and clearly Hitachi are no different.

Taken from the presentation I was given last week, is the following picture.  This pretty much sums up Hitachi’s approach; make a virtue of the technology they have today around virtualisation and revamp their Content Archive Platform as a generic content platform – HCP.

Most of the things you’d expect are there – multi-tenancy, consistent name spaces, security, data tiering, REST interface to the HCP platform, but one or two differences stuck out for me.  Firstly Hitachi are not about to get into the business of being a cloud services provider (CSP), like EMC, Microsoft, Amazon et al, but rather are making their technology available to other service providers to take up this challenge.  Second, they are not betting on commodity solutions for data storage (e.g. Atmos) but are assuming Enterprise customers will want the same level of reliability they currently enjoy on existing Hitachi hardware.

With stories in The Press regarding data loss in cloud offerings ringing in everyone’s ears, there’s sure to be an increased focus on transparency regarding data security – not from an access point of view but on the use of technologies like RAID, backup and other methodologies cloud providers will implement to ensure data loss doesn’t occur.  It’s also an opening for increasing the price and breadth of service offerings – a tiered approach to cloud storage provision as clearly one size/protection level doesn’t fit all.

De acuerdo al articulo tecnológico publicado por el periódico “El país” de Barcelona España :

“Los buscadores suministran en su lista de enlaces millones de direcciones que albergan código malicioso, que se instala en el ordenador del usuario y accede a su control remoto. Según The Register, un experto de la Universidad de Alabama, Gary Warner, asegura que Google suministra unos 3,2 millones de enlaces que dirigen a sitios contaminados”.

para acceder al articulo:

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/tecnologia/buscadores/enlazan/millones/webs/contaminadas/programas/maliciosos/elpeputec/20091002elpeputec_5/Tes

Estas son paginas mal configuradas que han sido infectadas por un programa malicioso y esto ocasiona que  el computador se contagie al aplicar el remitente

“Un representante de Google afirmo que es importante tener en cuenta que los buscadores reflejan el contenido y la información que hay en la Red”.

La empresas de la Web  tiene sus mecanismos de defensa pero los ”cibercriminales” renuevan sus técnicas para burlarlos: por lo cual Microsoft incluye un sistema de avisos cuando los detecta enlaces maliciosos.

Para mas información:

Les presento el acceso al articulo original de The Register donde se toma la información  para que puedan leer la noticia de alerta  sombreé; “dos fraudes en curso estaban engañando a Google y otros motores de búsqueda en un lugar destacado(mencionados en el articulo enlazado) mostrando millones de páginas Web en peligro de que intentaran secuestrar los ordenadores de los usuarios finales o robar sus números de tarjeta de crédito según lo expresan los investigadores en el articulo”.
Para acceder al articulo de The Register :

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/mass_compromise_google_results/

Para aprender a proteger tu computadora contra estos ataques; te exhortó a visitar mi Bookmarks sobre ” Como actuar contra el Spam” y así asegurando tu correo electronico.

http://internet-y-ordenadores.practicopedia.com/como-actuar-contra-el-spam-2348

Update: I got my invite and am going to be riding the wave real soon!

Update on top of an update: Someone has put a bid on a Google Wave invite on Ebay.

Do you have an opinion on that?

Update: Today is the big day; Google Wave is having the preview of the product by 100,000 people.

 But if you didn’t get an invite don’t feel bad there is still a chance you can check it out before next year.

I went to Google Wave Preview  and signed up to get an invite, hopefully I can get a chance to check it out. Another way to get into the preview circle and ride the Wave is if a friend, who did receive an invite, invites you.

According to an article I read on, The Register, there are some issues that need to be addressed before the release to the general public. That is why this is a beta product and Google needs the public’s help.

Well, Google really doesn’t like the testing period to be called beta they want it to be called a preview. I don’t know why; maybe they want the public to think that the Wave is almost complete and that there is not that much more needed to be done to make it complete, but according to the article above there could be some melt downs and tweaks needed here or there to complete the product.

I’m sure I will have some updates over the next couple of days about what is going on with the Wave.

If you have been splashing around in the Wave itself, let me know how it is. And if you have been wading around the outside, on the coattails of a friend, let me know how that is going too.

In September of 1987, Keith traveled to Lawrence, Kansas to visit William Burroughs. While there he spray-painted a skateboard ramp.

Ramp designed "For Kansas"

Selon le site The Register, HTC aurait choisi l’OS Android pour son futur smartphone Touch HD 2 alors que le premier modèle tourne sous Windows Mobile 6.1.

C’est au salon IFA de Berlin que HTC aurait informé The Register que le Touch HD 2 embarquerait Android comme OS. Une décision surprenante puisque le premier Touch HD, sorti il y a un an, tourne sous Windows Mobiles 6.1. Pour son successeur, on pouvait donc logiquement s’attendre à le voir évoluer avec Windows Mobile 6.5 qui sort le 6 octobre.

Mais justement, HTC souhaiterait équilibrer sa gamme de smartphones. The Register affirme en outre que le Touch HD 2 disposera d’un processeur plus rapide, un Qualcomm 628 MHz ; il conservera le même écran tactile 3,8 pouces avec une résolution de 480×800 pixels.

HTC n’a pour le moment pas indiqué la date de lancement du Touch HD 2. (Eureka Presse)

Source : BusinessMobile

A propos de la solution TooFAX® :

TooFAX® est une solution moderne et innovante de Fax dématérialisé, vous permettant l’envoi, la réception, et la sauvegarde de Fax par Internet et ou par e-mail. Depuis votre ordinateur de bureau ou portable, votre PDA, etc, TooFAX® vous permet de faxer par mail sur les 5 continents.

TooFAX® est la synthèse entre les atouts du Fax (rapidité, valeur juridique) et l’aspect pratique de l’e-mail.

Actualité de TooFAX® :

- Site internet : http://www.toofax.com

- Site du service : http://www.service.toofax.com

- Vidéos de démonstration : http://www.video.toofax.com

- Groupe Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/toofax

- Club des utilisateurs de la solution : http://www.club.toofax.com

- Actualités en ligne des services TooFAX® :  http://twitter.com/toofax

- Blog  officiel de la gamme de services TooFAX® : http://toofax.wordpress.com/

- Base de données gratuite de n° de fax pour vos opérations de faxing : http://www.toofaxdata.com

Canonical, l’entité commerciale derrière la distribution Linux Ubuntu, vient d’annoncer une nouvelle offre de support à destination des clients entreprise : Premium Service Engineer (PSE).

Ce nouveau service consiste à mettre à disposition du client un expert de Canonical chargé d’assurer un support technique personnalisé, un technicien dont la compétence découlera de la connaissance des spécificités du SI de l’entreprise cliente.

Sur son site, Canonical présente le PSE comme des ingénieurs habilités à intervenir sur les systèmes existants aussi bien que sur les déploiements et migrations, en particulier dans les environnements complexes.

Karmic Koala attendu pour le 22 octobre

Cette interface unique entre l’éditeur et la société cliente aura également pour mission de gérer les tickets de support, et sera pour cela en relation avec les développeurs et ingénieurs de Canonical. Le PSE ouvre de plus le droit à des sessions de formation pour les équipes internes.

Ce service de support a néanmoins un coût. The Register avance le prix de 50 000 euros par an, pour à la fois la mise à disposition de l’ingénieur et l’accès à d’autres services de support et de résolution d’incidents.

Par ailleurs, la prochaine version d’Ubuntu est désormais en Alpha 5. Karmic Koala intègre notamment la bêta 2 de Gnome 2.28 et le noyau Linux  2.6.31-9.29. La dernière version Alpha est attendue pour le 17 septembre et la Release Candidate le 22 octobre… date de sortie de Windows 7.

Source : ZDNet

A propos de la solution TooFAX® :

TooFAX® est une solution moderne et innovante de Fax dématérialisé, vous permettant l’envoi, la réception, et la sauvegarde de Fax par Internet et ou par e-mail. Depuis votre ordinateur de bureau ou portable, votre PDA, etc, TooFAX® vous permet de faxer par mail sur les 5 continents.

TooFAX® est la synthèse entre les atouts du Fax (rapidité, valeur juridique) et l’aspect pratique de l’e-mail.

- Site internet : http://www.toofax.com

- Site du service : http://www.service.toofax.com

- Vidéos de démonstration : http://www.video.toofax.com

- Groupe Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/toofax

- Club des utilisateurs de la solution : http://www.club.toofax.com

- Actualités en ligne des services TooFAX® :  http://twitter.com/toofax

- Blog  officiel de la gamme de services TooFAX® : http://toofax.wordpress.com/

- Base de données gratuite de n° de fax pour vos opérations de faxing : http://www.toofaxdata.com

An interesting feature on the Register. IBM are offering less-well-off (the report used the term threadbare) councils off-the-peg data analysis. John Ozimek, the author, reviewing the history of similar approaches, gets my support for his challenging comment that:

“Without exception, evaluation of ratepayer/customer satisfaction was carried out on the basis of how far these schemes met internally set targets, as opposed to actual customer needs. The danger, therefore, of the IBM initiative is that it will provide the Public Sector with a formidable array of tools that will enable them to grapple with their client base more efficiently – but unless this is accomplished by a change in overall culture, they will not do so more effectively.”

Also, I suspect that in the time-honoured fashion that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”, IBM will be expecting to sell a shed load of disk space to store all this data upon!

***Last chance***Last chance***Last chance***Last chance***Last chance

Survey finishes 31st August 2009

If you are interested and, preferably,  in UK local government please complete the survey, it doesn’t take long at all.

*********************************************************************

Last weekend, when I checked my Twitter account, I found this tweet:

@KaraGoucher: This is not the real Kara Goucher. It has been an exercise in new media. Shame on @RunnersWorld for not verifying its sources.

I thought I had been following this outstanding runner for a couple of weeks, but it turned out that I had been had – along with a bunch of other fans.

She can join a long list of others who have been set up by Twitter imposters, including Miley Cyrus, her dad Billy Ray Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Vanessa Hudgens, Kanye West, Keith Olbermann, Tony La Russa, and the Dalai Lama.

Though Twitter has stated in the past that impersonation strictly violates its Terms of Service, it didn’t seem to stop people from trying to create a fake account in the first place. I could give a good rant as to why, and I’m not buying the “exercise in new media” rationale. It’s just plain ol’ lame immature mischief matched by an utter lack of character – that and perhaps too much time on one’s hands. According the British IT news website, The Register, some of these well publicized impersonation cases have originated from the jail cell of former music producer, current convicted murderer Phil Spector.

The celebrities and their fans alike were not happy with Twitter for being enablers of this activity. So Twitter has added a new Verified Accounts feature that will incorporate a seal that authenticates the person or organization is who he/she/it claims to be. This service, which ironically they call “an experiment,” will be available to public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes, and other well-known individuals. You can read more details of their plans here. I’m sure Kara will race right over to sign up for it.

Happy as a ‘greedy rock pig’ in mud
By Kelly Fiveash @theregister.co.uk

Posted in Music and Media, 20th July 2009 14:35 GMT

Metallica drummer and pro-copyright mouthpiece Lars Ulrich is “proud” he helped wipe out internet file-sharing site Napster.

Speaking to Kerrang! magazine, Ulrich added he wasn’t wallowing in “glory” following his band’s crucial role in the downfall of Napster.

The heavy metal sticksman insisted in the latest issue of the rock and metal bible that Metallica had done the right thing in helping bring down Napster.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/20/metallica_napster_proud_of_downfall/

I was quite chuffed to find that my first freelance piece for The Register was featured on the front page.  The piece is a 17 minute podcast and accompanying intro article that covers the conversation I had with XML co-developer and really smart guy, Tim Bray.

Tim was a great interview.  Not only is he very knowledgeable but he answers questions very lucidly.   Take a listen and see for yourself.

>> Listen (17:24)  mp3 version | ogg version

Why's Tim so jazzed about a 20 year-old Swedish Telco language (other than the cool graphics)?

Some of the topics Tim tackles:

• The state of the web today.
• The evolution of Twitter: Ruby on Rails + Scala + ?
• Dynamic languages that rock Tim’s world:  PHP? Python? Ruby on Rails?  Closure?
• And speaking of dark horses, what about Erlang?  dealing with wider CPUs and concurrency.
• Is Google’s Wave the next Twitter or the next Lotus Notes?
• What’s happening in browser land?  And what about HTML5 (video and canvas)?
• Opera’s recent announcement and the value of web hooks.
• Tim’s been “Kindled.”  What other web business models are working out there?
• What most rock’s Tim’s world: 1) Databases duking it out – what’s the right way to persist data at scale and 2) Mobile platforms: Android, iPhone, Palm Pre — all very different approaches.

Shout outs: To Terri Molini for setting this up and Paul Bonser of X-team for introducing me, over beers, to Erlang.

Pau for now…

I cannot stress how mind-expanding this whole Murphy-Goode wine gig has been for me.  I have noticed great gaps in my seo’s, rediscovered the art of ping, been on the brink of taking my first sip of that fermented grape stuff and meet a whole group of some pretty amazing people out there.  You have inspired me, entertained me, educated me.  I have laughed, chewed my fingernails, hopped up and down with envy.  And someone has even stumped me.

Shaun.

He stumped me.

Here is the reason why:

********************

Opinion’s Matter (with budget wines)

It’s all pretty straightforward tech: stick a bit of nosh in front of the robogourmet’s infrared spectrometer and it analyzes the reflected light to determine the chemical composition of the sample. A nice trick, although it can only be programmed to accurately identify a few dozen wines.
-The Register, 10th November 2006

The damn thing is broken!  Not that it doesn’t work, but fundamentally “broken.”  I can’t seem to get an accurate description of the 2007 Clos de los Siete.  The machine takes absolutely no note of the superb bouquet of toasty oak, violets, mineral, black currant, blueberry or black cherry.  This is the final straw.  I could forgive it for missing the cherry and rose petal scents of the Chandon Etoile and it probably didn’t even bother to mention the licorice and graphite notes of the 2005 Lonko, but this has gone on too long!  Just a couple more bottles.  I have to give the thing a chance to catch up.

The wires are flickering, the gears are turning, everything is working as promised.  Still, I can’t shake the feeling that it is broken.  I mean, who could miss so much.  Five unidentified bottles in and I am starting to think the machine is mocking me.

The alcohol is having a much greater effect on me than on my mechanical drinking buddy.  The robot displays a few of the characteristics of your average drunk.  A blank stare, wide grin, no sudden movements, but its “mind” remains as sharp as a whip.  One more bottle couldn’t hurt.

He got it right!  Shit!  IT got it right.  Well, a little slip, but a one for seven record probably should warrant the machine a single personal pronoun.  Now I am waiting for something more.  It got the Chateau St Jean part right.  Now an opinion!  Speak to the ripe olive!  The herb!  The black cherry fer chissake!  I have to sit down.

I don’t enjoy getting worked up like this.  The robot continues to stare at me.  Did it just wink?  Did I?

The connoisseur is a funny creature.  It is not enough to know the vintage.  Even a wino knows what he drinks half the time.  It isn’t even enough to enjoy the wine.  The wino certainly enjoys his drink.  The connoisseur has to know the wine.  Some call it pretentious.

Does the robot call me pretentious?  Can it know the wine and refuse to expound on it’s knowledge?

It is still staring at me.  I found the ripe olive.  I found the toasty oak.  I found the rose petal.  The machine didn’t find shit!  Why am I the one lying drunk on the floor?

I can’t explain to the robot how strong I feel about wine.  I guess it is hard to feel strongly about anything when you haven’t been programmed to feel.  The best critic explains the subject and lets the audience judge for themselves.

Shaun, you have really brought it home to me:  I am soooo far away from a) American culture and b) Wine culture… I had to read your text three times to “get” it… LOL, yes, I am slow !

I want to let you know that I actually don’t usually have a hard time understanding your texts, Shaun.  In fact, a lot really rocks and let’s the bells ring when I hop about on your blog, for example:

Be a nice person and interact with other nice people as much as possible. You will need them eventually and, certainly, they will need you!  (from What do we do with all this?)

You have to be by far the most “diverse” guy I have posting here so far — at least from what I have seen in writing style .

Thank you so much for taking the time to offer my readers you thoughts, Shaun!

To my readers I can only say:  I just know that once you have seen the video, you will be better able to understand Shaun’s article above… I know it helped me heaps:

You can go vote for Shaun here.

And here is how you can connect with Shaun:

• Twitter:  @shildner
• Blog:  Shaun 2.0

A recent survey from internet security consultancy, Cryptohippie, suggests that the UK is setting the pace in at least one area – though being classified as the West’s most repressive regime when it comes to electronic surveillance might not be a title that this government is entirely happy to wear.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 

This result emerges from Cryptohippie’s recently published Electronic Police State 2008 (pdf). This is the first in what are intended to be a series of annual reports that will audit the “State use of electronic technologies to record, organize, search and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens”.

The audit focusses on 17 factors, ranging from requirement to produce documents on demand, through to the extent to which states force ISP’s and phone companies to retain data, the blurring of boundaries between police and intelligence work and ultimately the breakdown of the principles of habeas corpus.

URL to article: http://www.infowars.com/britain-leads-world-in-police-state-survey/

ist es jetzt so weit: Nach fast 3 Jahren Vorbereitung könnnen ab 01.06.2009 Alle die nicht schwedische Staatsbürger sind, aber in Schweden ein ständiges Aufenthaltsrecht und eine Personennummer haben, eine nationale ID-Card, das schwedische Äquivalent zum deutschen Personalausweis, beantragen und erhalten.

Wer jemals den Stress erlebt hat zb. beim Abholen eines einfachen Postpacketes den Leuten zu erklären das man eine Personennummer hat und das das komische Plastikding eine echtes deutsches Dokument ist, nur um sein Paket zu erhalten, wird das zu Würdigen wissen.

Eine guten Artikel zum Thema gibt es in Englisch bei The Register.

Die Internetseite zur neuen ID-Card, die beim Skatteverket zu beantragen ist, ist hier zu finden.

Eine ausführliche Informationsschrift findet sich in in den jeweiligen Sprachen hier (/ PDF jeweils rund 8 MB ) :

• Englisch
• Französich
• Spanisch
• Bosnisch, Kroatisch, Slowenisch
• Somalisch
• Arabisch
• Persich

Have fun