12 Jun 2006
BlogBursting?

A friend sent this notice some time ago: I found it as I was reviewing the contents of my inbox this morning. But it's a worthy "heads up" - it seems as though a relatively new syndication service called BlogBurst is making some interesting claims regarding the content of your blog should you sign up for their "service". You can read all the details at BitchPhD.

Which just goes to show that copywrongs aren't limited to DRM and other technical measures: the good old-fashioned con games are alive and well!

08:57 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Psychopharm Going 'Mainstream' In Schools?

Will the War on Some Drugs expand it's front lines? Will scholars be held to the same standards as athletes? Will Jeopardy require drug tests for contestants? Will the next big drug craze be the Odyssey instead of the Ecstasy? Will the next poet emeritus get busted for buying sonnet pills from a dealer named Willie the Shake? Stay tuned - there's a Brave New World right around the corner!

Back in the day, college was a place where a lot of kids tried recreational drugs. Now the world's more competitive, psychopharmaceuticals are better targeted, and millions of students are routinely using drugs to work better and longer. Stimulants developed for attention deficit and narcolepsy are giving mentally healthy students an edge like athletes get from steroids or human growth hormone. These psychotropics seem fairly safe, but should they be banned in the interest of fairness, perhaps with enforcement by urine tests before exams? Or do we tell our kids that, if they want to compete in this brave new world, they better find some Adderall and jack their brains up like their classmates'.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:22 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Online Remark Can Now Sink Job Candidate

To some extent this has always been the case in small towns - everybody knows everybody else's' business, and acts accordingly. But just because it's happened in "meat space" doesn't make it right. And with the growth of the "global village", it's probably a perfectly natural extension for folks to extend their noses into more other peoples business than ever before. But that still doesn't make it right.

It's one thing to search public databases for a prospective employees criminal record, and it's quite another to surf for his political opinions or party pranks. Kudos to Sylvania and the other companies mentioned who don't engage in this kind of pre-employment screening.

Companies are looking up job applicants on social networking sites like MySpace.

(link) [New York Times]

07:13 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Microsoft Misrepresenting WGA's Functionality?

This is as bad as the Sony rootkit fiasco a few months back. I have got to figure out a way to get this thing off my only remaining Winbox... or failing that, buy another Mac. I'm am so over these idiots monkeying around with security that I just can't stand it anymore.

According to an article on Groklaw, Microsoft is misrepresenting what the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) tool is to pressure people into installing it. It comes with no uninstall, it fails to disclose many pieces of information it provides to Microsoft, and it misrepresents itself as a 'critical update' when it does not address any security vulnerability, although it remains to be seen if it can create one. ZDNet has a series of screenshots so that you can see exactly how badly it misrepresents itself. Oh, and it also checks for updates, so Microsoft can presumably execute arbitrary code on any machine with it installed, merely by making that code part of a WGA update.

(link) [Slashdot]

07:04 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link