Omniquity

Yesterday the US Supreme Court ruled that tracking a car for 28 days with a GPS device is a “search” for Fourth Amendment purposes, thus requiring the police to get a warrant before undertaking that type of activity. The grounds for decision were somewhat narrow, but comments by a few justices indicate they are prepared to apply 21st-century principles, not just “18th-century legal concepts[,] to 21st-century technologies.”

Thus there is a glimmer of hope that the Fourth Amendment still has meaning in the face of American law enforcement’s unrelenting assault on this aspect of citizens’ rights. Of late, law enforcement’s motto seems to be “if it’s possible it must be legal”. Fortunately, the Constitution is still interpreted to disagree. There is much in this line of jurisprudence yet to play out, but this is unquestionably a positive result.

(Source: The New York Times)

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“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”

—Christopher Dodd, Chairman of the MPAA

OK, we all know this is how it works, but there is something especially unseemly about making it so blatant.

See the link below for more details.

(Source: CNET)

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Just wanted to put this fix on the record. Trying to reconfigure a D-Link DAP-1360 access point as a repeater. Couldn’t even get to the configuration screens with a cable connected directly to my computer. Searched the tech BBSes and finally found this recommendation for configuring my computer:

Bingo!

(There’s another recommendation to set the computer’s IP address to 192.168.0.99, which I didn’t try.)

Now, tell me why D-Link itself doesn’t document this somewhere? And why do they make this so freaking difficult? Inexcusable.

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A quick note to recommend a nifty utility for Mac called TotalFinder.

http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/

It doesn’t do much, but what it does it does well. It’s a plug-in for Finder—yes, that’s right, the boring little program you use to manage your files. TotalFinder has two killer features that make it worth the $18 license fee:

1. Tabbed browsing - as convenient for your files as it is for your webpages

2. Dual mode - easily drag and drop files from one folder to another

The 30 day trial is free. If you’re a Mac user and like to manage your files directly, take a look!

Permalink: http://tumblr.com/Zk0w2xElIqRh

The US House of Representatives provides dispositive evidence that money is pervasively corrupting in American politics. [Click NYT link below for the story.]

Of course pizza is a vegetable. Otherwise it would have been regulated more harshly in school lunch programs.

“It’s an important victory,” said Corey Henry, spokesman for the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI). ”Our concern is that the standards would force companies in many respects to change their products in a way that would make them unpalatable to students.”

How does that guy sleep at night, or look at himself in the mirror in the morning when he gets up? More importantly, how do the “representatives” who voted for this piece of garbage legislation sleep at night? Oh yeah, their nests are feathered with cash from the AFFI. A nice wad of bills is always conducive to a good night’s rest.

By this logic, I am expecting the purveyors of bloody marys to have their beverage classified as a vegetable for school lunch purposes. Tomato juice, celery, and a little spice, right? Send the kids back to class with a buzz and they’ll be much easier to control. Of course, if the teacher partakes as well it will be a very pleasant afternoon for everyone.

What seems to have been lost in American politics is the notion that our elected representatives represent us, the people, not the corporations who lobby with cash and gifts. Corporations are not in any sense representative, and to interpose them as an intermediary between the people and their elected officials is a perversion of the whole philosophy of representative government. We have to find a way to severely curtail the influence of corporations and their corrupting money from our government.

(Source: The New York Times)

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It is almost inconceivable to me that our government even considers proposals like this.

The Justice Department has gotten the message from journalists, interest groups and government watchdogs and has decided to withdraw its proposal to allow federal agencies to lie to people seeking sensitive documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

The US government somehow acts as if it is separate and distinct from the American people. (It is far from being the only government that thinks this way.) It’s time to get back to “of the people, by the people, and for the people”.

By the way, any “law and order” Republican administration would be far worse.

(Source: MSN)

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I’ve been using the Mac Mini for about a month now. I definitely give it a thumb’s up. I have not once longed for my laptop since transitioning to the Mini.

Aside from the expected boost in speed from the latest processor, here are the pluses:

• Absolutely silent, and runs much cooler than the MBP. Intensive disk operations will heat it up noticeably, but with ordinary operation it’s barely warm to the touch
• The smaller footprint is nice, and it’s a beautiful piece of industrial design in any case
• The four USB ports on the back reduce the need for an external expander and/or cable swapping (the Dell monitor I use also has USB ports built in, so between the two I’ve got plenty of USB capacity)
• The ability to pinch the screen to expand or contract it (like on an iPad) is a great feature for my poor eyes
• Lion is great on start up—it’s quick and it will bring you back to the same point when you shut down: same browser tabs are opened, same apps are open
• Lion is also much faster when shutting down

I have but one complaint:

• The external disk drive takes up some of the footprint saved by the Mini itself, plus it could use a slightly longer USB cable for more flexibility in placement

This doesn’t seem like much, but given the pain usually associated with migrating to a new computer, the highest praise I can give to the Mini is that the migration was virtually painless and operation since has been flawless (I don’t think there’s been a single crash of an app, let alone the OS).

If you don’t need the massive power of a true desktop and you have other mobile devices to relieve you of the need for a laptop, the Mini is a perfect choice.

(Source: tumblr.com)

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