Of course you wouldn't, but why would you then pay protection money to network providers so that your TCP/IP packets get delivered as expected?
Dan Kaminsky has written an excellent article on net neutrality issues in Computerworld.
-TPP
Dickishness is my favorite word (can you tell?).
It's the perfect word to describe what the Republicans just did to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that was designed to guarantee Republicans^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hracist bigots wouldn't manage to keep minority voters (blacks) out of the polls come election day.
The act is set to expire next year unless it's renewed.
Speaker Dennis Hastert was to introduce the renewal, but he was overrun by his fellow Republicans, who refused to support the renewal, because, apparently, it would encourage hispanic voting.
The Republicans couldn't have said it any clearer: Republicans don't want any brown people in the US.
And, if by any chance all of them illegal immigrants manage to con the US Government to give them US citizenship, by God, it'd be quite awful, if they all voted. They wouldn't vote for us racist bigots, that's for damn sure. So let's make sure we don't lift a finger to help making voting easier for Spanish speaking voters.
Democracy! Ah, such a wonderful thing.
-TPP
Watch the most brilliant Daily Show segment ever.
Main Entry: dick-ish-ness
Pronunciation: 'dik-ish-n&s
Function: noun
: usually vulgar : an aura eminating from someone being a particularly dickheaded dick
-TPP
The US Congress has been busy fighting important issues lately.
Jon Stewart ran a pretty insightfully insulting segment on the Daily Show about their War on Video Games.
Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA) takes the cake though. He comes on at around at the 4:10 mark. Protect us from the ghetto kids!!!
-TPP
A 16-year old diva from Corona, Queens "finds" a Sidekick cellphone in a taxi, decides to keep it and snaps a whole bunch of pictures of herself and her family.
Little does she know Sidekicks send a copy of all pictures taken with it to a T-Mobile web account where the owner can view them later. That's exactly what the rightful owner of the Sidekick did.
The owner found out the AIM screen name of the thief, and IMed her asking her to return the phone. She told the owner, in a particularly nice way to shove it. That's the first thing she did wrong. The second thing she did wrong was to ask her brother serving in the military to threaten the owner. Apparently that's quite a big no-no for military personnel. The third thing she did wrong was to ask the owner to pay her to get the phone back.
The amateur thief has now been arrested for possession of stolen property. Way to go! Next time be more stupid and maybe you'll evolve from misdemeanors to felonies and go to jail for a long time.
A friend of the owner of the Sidekick set up a website to document all of this:
http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/
-TPP
AT&T gets sued for violating their own privacy policy and disclosing confidential information about their customers and their usage records to 3rd parties.
What does AT&T do to rectify the situation? Apologize and vow to protect customers' privacy better in the future? Naah, that wouldn't be Big Corp (tm) enough.
Instead AT&T rewrites its privacy policy to state, in no uncertain terms, that AT&T customers have no privacy whatsoever and AT&T can do whatever the hell they please with your data. Excellent!
Customers to AT&T: No. Fuck you.
-TPP
Pizza Hut is sponsoring the Cyberathlete Professional League and they've used Gorbachev in their marketing before:
Pizza Hut ad w/ M.S. Gorbachev
Come'on guys! Give me a call. It's a win-win situation. I already like your pizzas, I am a pretty effective communicator and I excel at (certain types of) video games. What more is there to talk about?
LET'S DOOOOEEEE IIIIT!
-TPP
Wow. The ex-CEO of RIAA has this to say about RIAA's current legal warfare against consumers:
But for the record, I do share a concern that the lawsuits have outlived most of their usefulness and that the record companies need to work harder to implemnt a strategy that legitimizes more p2p sites and expands the download and subscription pool by working harder with the tech community to get devices and music services to work better together.
A federal judge in Florida orders two lawyers, who are unable to agree on a location for a meeting, to settle their dispute with one game of rock, paper and scissors.
Simple and cost-effective. Brilliant!
-TPP
Vladimir Putin just acquired an interesting opponent in his war against free speech and human rights when Mikhail Gorbachev and a Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev bought a 49% stake in the only major Russian newspaper that's openly criticizing Putin's dictatorship.
Novaya Gazeta is a newspaper whose staff consists largely of journalists fired from other media outlets by Putin and his cronies because of the journalists' critical coverage of Putin's dictatorship.
The newspaper has gained a powerul ally in Mikhail Gorbachev. It's unlikely the Putin dictatorship dare meddle with the newspaper that has him as a financial backer.
I've written about the Russian human rights violations before:
The IHF issues a stinging report on human rights situation in the Republic of Mari El
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia
The people of Mari being systematically persecuted by Russians
-TPP
Lou Dobbs rips the (pseudo-)conservative Republicans a new one over the idiotic pandering constitutional amendment initiative to ban gay marriage. He says:
It's an insult to the intelligence of every voter, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative.
Got hoons? Barry Manilow to the rescue!
Copa. . Copacabana
Copa Copacabana Copacabana, ahh ahh ahh ahh
Ahh ahh ahh ahh Copa Copacabana
-TPP
Heidi Hautala, she's female, btw, caused a somewhat of a scandal earlier today in Finland when she spoke during Parliament's centenary session as a representative of the Green Party.
She riled against the current Russian administration saying the Russian Duma has reverted to the tsar-dominated pre-1905 situation. She also encouraged Russia to honor basic human rights, rule of law and democratic values.
Too bad the speech didn't come from some of the representatives of parties currently in power in Finland. They were, as usual, too busy apologizing to the Russians for what Ms. Hautala had said.
Helsingin Sanomat, the leading newspaper in Finland, reports on Heidi Hautala's speech.
Given all that's happening to Finno-Ugric people in Russia, I say this speech was long overdue and should've been given at the Russian Duma.
I've written about the Russian human rights violations before:
The IHF issues a stinging report on human rights situation in the Republic of Mari El
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia
The people of Mari being systematically persecuted by Russians
-TPP
