] "This is something you have on the shelf," said
] Hoofnagle. "You wait for an opportune moment, like going
] to war, to introduce it. They call this a draft, but this
] bill is definitely close to final and gives a good road
] map of what the Justice Department wants."

I wonder how long the patriot act was on the shelf before September 11th. This is fairly reasonable evidence that these acts are a general effort at widening powers rather then a specific effort to enable the investigation of specific crimes.

Wired News: A Chilly Response to 'Patriot II'

] Benjamin Curtis, better known as "Steven," the Dell
] Computer pitchman, was arrested Sunday night for
] marijuana possession, a misdemeanor, according to New
] York City police.

Dell Dude Busted for Pot

] Iraq will chair the United Nations' most important
] disarmament negotiating forum during the panel's May
] session.
] At the rules-minded United Nations, it's not a country's
] status with international weapons inspectors, but the
] letters in its name that determine which member state
] chairs the Conference on Disarmament.
] "The irony is overwhelming," a U.S. diplomat said.

Iraq to chair U.N. disarmament conference

"I'm Steve, and I'm a Supervillain..."

Switch to Linux

] Government officials and communications experts are
] assessing the public safety and security implications of
] a newly posted online article that provides directions
] for making cheap devices that can jam Global Positioning
] System (GPS) signals.

Classic Bill Joy moment here. The availability of that article is not what creates the risk associated with relying on GPS. Its the insecurity of the system that creates the risk. If that article was published in scientific american instead of phrack the wording of this article would be tremendously different.

Notice how the author goes around to different subject matter experts searching for someone who is willing to say "this is bad." Each expert says "this has no effect on my space, but it might cause problems in that space over there." The author then asks someone who works in that space, and is told the same thing over again. Basically, yes the authorities know this is a risk and they mitigate it like any other risk.

Homemade GPS jammers raise concerns - Computerworld

] "Says cinematographer Bill Pope: “It’s going to make ‘The Fast and the Furious’ look like ‘The Slow and the Dimwitted’.”

Excellent read! Can't wait!

Make a mental note: 2003 is going to be the year of “The Matrix.”

] "Sun Microsystems Inc. (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news) won a major
] antitrust victory against Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT
] - news) on Monday when a federal judge ordered Microsoft
] to distribute Sun's Java programming language in its
] Windows operating system.

While definitely good, this is just a prelim injunction, which primarily means that the damage done to Sun if they ultimately win by not having Java included during the trial process would be worse then the damage done to Microsoft if THEY ultimately win by having to include it. Given that the trial process is going to last several years, this much should be obvious.

Sun Wins, Microsoft Ordered to Carry Java

] "The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring
] Internet service providers to help build a centralized
] system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and,
] potentially, surveillance of its users."

This is the big story of the day. This is the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act 2.0... Unlike the streets, where people seem to be meek, on the net this sort of thing never flies. They have people howling all over the place and the report hasn't even been released yet! :)

Bush Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet

] "Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has declined to
] cite a single specific case in which the consent decree
] hindered a police investigation."

Local guys want the same leeway their big brothers got last year.

Police push for domestic spying

Yesterday, five major studios — Universal, Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros., and MGM — unveiled Movielink, a joint venture that, for the first time, allows customers to download a large assortment of studio films. Movielink’s initial library contains about 175 movies — new and old, from Jimmy Neutron to Last Tango in Paris. They range in price from $1.99 to $4.99 for a 24-hour rental. It’s a cool service, attractively priced. It’s also going to be a flop on the order of The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

The next big Internet flop