This article claims that a lawsuit was filed over a Philly high school allegedly activating student's webcams to spy on students at home. Scary.

School Issued Laptops Used to Spy on Students at Home

As many of you know, about two months ago TI sent me an email referencing the DMCA and demanding that I take down one of my blog posts. I complied at the time, but I also sent TI a response, requesting that they reconsider their position. They did not respond.

Two weeks ago Jennifer Granick at the Electronic Frontier Foundation sent TI an email on behalf of myself, and several other bloggers who received similar notices from TI. In that email Jennifer told TI that we would repost our censored blog posts today if TI did not respond and clarify their position. TI has not responded.

Therefore, the original blog post has been restored, and if you didn't read it before, you can read it now. Its hardly the best post I've ever written. It was jotted down at 9:30 in the morning while I was getting ready for work. I tend to shoot first on this blog and ask questions later, and that certainly leads to posts which are poorly articulated and easily misinterpreted. In a later post I did a much better job explaining the technical concept which drew my interest to this calculator key cracking effort in the first place.

I'd like to thank the EFF and particularly Jennifer Granick for working with me as well as the other bloggers in this case. My blog post is not important, but it is important that people have a right to blog without worrying about receiving legal threats when they haven't done anything wrong. Its important that people stand up for that right, and we're fortunate that there are people out there who are willing to do it. Thank you EFF.

The post TI censored has been reposted.

Follow-up:

Slate looks at how Obama can kill the death panel rumors.

PolitiFact debunks each fabrication of the crazies point-by-point.

The Kaiser Family Foundation compares each proposal side-by-side.

What a breath of fresh air after all the pollution of the town hall meetings!

-janelane

RE: Healthcare "debate"

As an ex-Brit, I’m well aware of the authorities’ love of surveillance and snooping, but even I, a pessimistic cynic, am amazed by the governments latest plan: to install Orwell’s telescreens in 20,000 homes.

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT

Britain To Put CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

... maybe

In ur quantum box

Me thinks this spam.

Spam

Can a head live without a body? The answer should be simple: yes, but only for a little while. Scientists say that the brain continues to function for about two minutes after the heart stops. But can a lopped off head continue to survive after being completely severed from the body?

Everyone should have an autojector.

How Russian Scientists Kept a Dog’s Severed Head Alive!

This is fun!

Craftzine.com blog : Fireworks Animation by PES

Actually, I sort of liked the look of the thing but it was everything else that I thought was a little off kilter. While far more detailed than the original series, I thought they did a good job of creating a look and feel for the time period which looks like it could be a plausible precursor to the next generation.

The premise for the movie was absolute crap. If it was spock's fault that this happened at all, why didn't he just kill his younger alternate to save vulcan? Or just plain just told him not to play with romulans... but noooo, instead we get some contrived bull shit explaining why the series is being reinvented to fit the continuity of the old series. I would have rather watch a reinvention without the dumb ass back story... I get it, a new version of the old star trek so there's obviously going to be differences but they really didn't need to waste the entire plot trying to justify this. They could have given it a real plotline.

And while I thought it was sort of cool to see nimoy pass the torch and reprise his role, making him be "spock from the future" had a tacked on feel. It ruins the character.

The new kirk seems like an asshole, the script was filled with obvious and painfully cheesy expected quotations, and what the hell is that ewok with eyestalks that they gave to scotty? Other than this I thought it was entertaining enough.

Stefanie wrote:
O.K., I finally saw the film. Spoiler time.

First off, the new USS Enterprise (the main character) really is that ugly (externally - see image in above post). The interior looks O.K., but the exterior looks like it's been pimped out. I could've sworn I saw the rims spinning in one scene. The Romulan ship is even uglier, but being a mining ship (like the USG Ishimura in Dead Space), it has an excuse. The original design of the Enterprise is beautiful. There's no need to keep tampering with it.

Regarding less important aspects of the film...

If you're looking for Star Trek, look elsewhere. In no way did this feel like Star Trek to me, nor did I ever buy that these new guys were Kirk, Spock, etc., although the actors did have some chemistry. Unless Shatner and Nimoy are cloned (or completely digitized), my strong bias in favor of the original series won't let me accept any new stories with a young Kirk and Spock. The old Star Trek gave me things to think and dream about. This new one just gave me pretty lights to stare at for a while.

On the other hand, if you're looking for an enjoyable two-hour action film with lots of excitement, fights, and explosions, this is about as good as anything that comes out of Hollywood... actually, a little better than average, in that regard. Some of it was pretty to look at (but not the ships), and the acting wasn't bad, but the story wasn't very good. The Star Trek franchise should leave time travel to the Dr. Who franchise. Still, non-fans who enjoy Hollywood action films should enjoy it.

I will say that this new film is better than anything else the franchise has offered since the original cast days. That's not saying much, though. I give the 2009 film 2.5/5 stars for shiny new entertainment, but there's not much in the way of depth or rewatchability.

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

Fortunately, the Blu-ray set of Season 1 of the original Star Trek series is incredible! Everything has been restored, and there are lots of cool special features. It's even better than the Blade Runner, Godfather, Matrix, and Dirty Harry Blu-ray sets, all of which are great. I highly recommend it.

RE: 'Star Trek': An exclusive first look at the Enterprise

Yes!!!

Man tries to pay bill with spider drawing