Thank God Microsoft Made A Bid On Yahoo!

Now maybe I’ll have something else to read about besides The Second Coming Of Christ (known to us common folk as the release of the MacBook Air)!

Seriously, if I have to wade through another Blue Million posts in Google Reader about how Apple’s latest offering is the best thing since sliced bread (or even the flipside, that it amounts to a $2k Frisbee) I’m going to cancel all of my feeds except boingboing! For crying out loud, we get it already! It’s a really really thin laptop. And expensive. And did I mention that it’s, well, really really thin? News Flash: It’s a computer, not the end of world hunger! May we please move along?

Now if only someone, anyone, would write about Microsoft and Yahoo!.

IP addresses and personal information Part 2

A couple of days ago I posted an article about the drive in Europe to classify IP addresses as personal information. While I certainly understand the desire to keep ones personal information, well, personal, one also has to keep in mind that we’re dealing with the Internet here where, unless your surfing with Tor or some other IP blocker, your IP address is readily available to anyone and everyone. (I’ve never tried to block my IP address using any available method so I can’t speak as to how well they do or do not work, or even if they work at all.)

But here’s something that needs to be kept in mind when talking about IP addresses and personal information: In a very real and perhaps very important way (as we shall see shortly) the IP address identifies individual computers not the individual user(s)! (Note the plural of that last word!) This is the point being made by the defendant in a Copyright Infringement suit filed by the RIAA. A computer has been identified not a user!

Now this may seem like the finest of lines, a razor’s edge if ever there was one, but that only serves to underscore the importance of the issue. In the above mentioned case as it stands right now, all the RIAA can prove is that a certain, very particular computer was used to transfer copyrighted material. Period. They cannot prove who did the uploading and downloading, nor is it possible for them to know. However, if the IP address is claimed as personal information then the dynamic shifts dramatically. In this particular case it shifts in the RIAA’s favor. They have an IP address assigned to a specific computer, that is being claimed by a specific person as personal information, that was used to illegally download/upload copyrighted material. Since the law was broken the idea of personal information gets thrown out the window and it becomes usable in court. (Check out my post from yesterday, “Is that a cellphone in your pocket?” and follow the link.)

Every time you open up your browser and surf the Web your computer’s IP address gets logged. Ever click on a Google ad? Your IP address is logged. Sign into a chat client? Your IP address is logged. Do you belong to any forums, chat rooms, BBs? Do you blog? Your IP address is logged. It’s readily available and traceable. Welcome to the Internet!

So what does all of this mean? Do we really want to treat the IP address as we do medical records? Is it important in the same way as, say, keeping one’s SSN or bank account information private is important? And if so, how do we go about doing that? Thoughts, anyone?

My favorite Martian

Some very very cool pictures , taken by one of the Mars Rovers, of a rock formation that maybe, perhaps, almost looks like some sort of creature. It isn’t, though, because everybody knows that we Earth-dwellers are all there is. Right?

Sleeping well?

It seems that using a cell phone right before going to bed can disrupt your sleeping pattern. This could explain a lot, actually. What I want to know is this: Can this be used as a disability claim?

IP adresses and personal information

An interesting article over at Ars Technica about a push in Europe to make IP addresses regarded as personal information. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Thoughts?

The article can be found here.

Data here, data there…

Cory Doctorow over at boingboing has an article about database leaks and their potential to wreak havoc on all of us for a very very long time. A highly interesting (not to mention, frightening) read!

Google: It’s not just for searching!

Google not only improves ones quality of life by laying a veritable boatload of software and productivity tools at your feet, it can also make you fantastically wealthy!

Oh. for a thousand shares!

Yeah, but will Yahoo! still suck?

I just found this over at The New York Times and was wondering: Will Yahoo! ever be able to revamp its product in such a way as to pull me (and a lot of other folks) away from Google?

Curb Your Lust (For Gadgets)

I just read an interesting article over at Lifehacker about ways to avoid buying the latest-and-greatest gadget as soon as it’s released. For me (and one of Lifehacker’s readers) the trick is to research, research, research! It may be new, it may be cool, but that doesn’t make it good, at least not in its initial release. Give the manufacturer time to work out the bugs and kinks (the article recommends a year) and for the price to drop, then pounce.

Who knows, in the meantime a tried and true product may come to your attention, win your affection and part you from your money in a way that makes you feel better for having waited.

To Touch, or not to Touch?

Sprint may be in trouble, but it won’t keep me from renewing my contract with them on February 1st. I do have a dilemma, however: Do I really want the HTC Touch, or the HTC Mogul?

Decisions, decisions.