These are usually... not very clever. Oh well!

posted by 00k at 11:23 AM

 
Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!

It's Christmas. I had a really good Christmas... the best I can remember in a long time actually. Enjoyed all the time I spent with my family. Got a lot of really great gifts that I don't particularly deserve. I'm happy. What else can I say that could be as important! Oh... I'm going to get my second computer up and running soon now that I have all the parts I need (and some that I don't) thanks to the boyfriend. That's super-good news in 00kville. Going to buy a switch also so my brother can't use all the bandwidth in our sad little home network. Life is just genuinely good. It's almost like someone gave me a bunch of wishes and they all came true. I'm just a lucky girl today.

posted by 00k at 1:00 AM

 
It's silly how when you mess with blog templates, to get the results to show you have to add an entry. So I guess that means they regenerate the code everytime you update. That seems a bit unnecessary. I don't care for blogger... when I stop being lazy I'm certainly going to scrap it. I wanted to add blue to this page somehow, but it's got awfully complicated. Drawing the scrapping of blogger all the more near! Templates aren't easier for people that don't use them very often and go the hard way every time.
posted by 00k at 1:53 AM

 
It's funny... I keep not making picture galleries even though I want them because they're a lot of work. It's funny because it's an automated process that Adobe Photoshop can do. I'm that lazy. I'd kill for some of that youthful motivation I used to have. But if I killed for it, I'd go to jail. Then it wouldn't really do me any good. Well maybe it would, I bet I'd learn a lot in jail. What else is there to do after all but read. Hard to say. I guess I'd be better off in jail and motivated than free and crying about lack of motivation. That's inspiring, I'm motivated now to make my life out of jail more productive that it would be in jail.

I've got goals!
posted by 00k at 4:45 PM

 
Lawsuits are how things get done these days I suppose. The ACLU just sues people all day long... a list of their press releases makes that pretty obvious: http://www.aclu-co.org/news/2002news.htm . Good for them. Suing may be costly but when you think about it, the decision can set a precedent, and one everyone has to pay attention to. It's a good way to get publicity and hopefully your way if your case is justified. And then you get a bunch of money when you win. How cool is that. Now I don't support that dumb bitch that was pouring hot coffee over her lap, spilled it, and threw out her back from the shock of spilling hot coffee on her lap. She should be the butt of every joke, forever. I wish they'd publicize her face so much that everywhere she went people would laugh at her because she was a retard. She doesn't deserve money... she deserves a kick in the teeth. But good for the people that are willing to sue because they got screwed over. Those are the people that are making things better for everyone. I wonder how many people named Sue ever become lawyers. I'd sure get a kick out of that... I hope a lot of them do.

This dog's name is Sue for some reason:

posted by 00k at 11:34 AM

 
"Watching the watchers"

http://wearcam.org/wsd.htm

Now here's a fun idea. People like me that are worried about the amount of surveillance being conducted in public places do a little something back. Watch the watchers they say, December 24th. December 24th at noon your local time, go take pictures of the people that are taking pictures of you. I like this idea. They say you should start by taking pictures of a camera that's pointed at you, and that should bring forth a live model for you to photograph - of the security variety :) I think I'll spend the rest of the month thinking of who I should "shoot". Should be fun. I hate surveillance.
posted by 00k at 3:33 AM

 
This is pretty interesting. Who knows what's going on here...

PHOTOGRAPHER ARRESTED FOR TAKING PICTURES OF VICE PRESIDENT'S HOTEL
Posted 5 Dec 2002 06:03:48 UTC

An amateur photographer named Mike Maginnis was arrested on Tuesday in his home city of Denver - for simply taking pictures of buildings in an area where Vice President Cheney was residing. Maginnis told his story on Wednesday's edition of Off The Hook.

Maginnis's morning commute took him past the Adams Mark Hotel on Court Place. Maginnis, who says he always carried his camera wherever he went, snapped about 30 pictures of the hotel and the surrounding area - which included Denver police, Army rangers, and rooftop snipers. Maginnis, who works in information technology, frequently photographs such subjects as corporate buildings and communications equipment.

The following is Maginnis's account of what transpired:

As he was putting his camera away, Maginnis found himself confronted by a Denver police officer who demanded that he hand over his film and camera. When he refused to give up his Nikon F2, the officer pushed him to the ground and arrested him.

After being brought to the District 1 police station on Decatur Street, Maginnis was made to wait alone in an interrogation room. Two hours later, a Secret Service agent arrived, who identified himself as Special Agent "Willse."

The agent told Maginnis that his "suspicious activities" made him a threat to national security, and that he would be charged as a terrorist under the USA-PATRIOT act. The Secret Service agent tried to make Maginnis admit that he was taking the photographs to analyze weaknesses in the Vice President's security entourage and "cause terror and mayhem."

When Maginnis refused to admit to being any sort of terrorist, the Secret Service agent called him a "raghead collaborator" and a "dirty pinko faggot."

After approximately an hour of interrogation, Maginnis was allowed to make a telephone call. Rather than contacting a lawyer, he called the Denver Post and asked for the news desk. This was immediately overheard by the desk sergeant, who hung up the phone and placed Maginnis in a holding cell.

Three hours later, Maginnis was finally released, but with no explanation. He received no copy of an arrest report, and no receipt for his confiscated possessions. He was told that he would probably not get his camera back, as it was being held as evidence.

Maginnis's lawyer contacted the Denver Police Department for an explanation of the day's events, but the police denied ever having Maginnis - or anyone matching his description - in custody. At press time, the Denver PD's Press Information Office did not return telephone messages left by 2600.

The new police powers introduced by the USA-PATRIOT act, in the name of fighting terrorism, have been frightening in their apparent potential for abuse. Mike Maginnis's experience on Tuesday is a poignant example of how this abuse is beginning to occur. It suggests that a wide range of activities which might be considered "suspicious" could be suddenly labeled a prelude to terrorism, and be grounds for arrest.

We will continue to post updates to this story as we learn them.

Source
posted by 00k at 2:14 PM

 
Went to a Kevin Mitnick book signing tonight for his new book "The Art of Deception". It really is an art... and Kevin Mitnick was an artist. I'm glad to have met him. I guess January 21st he's allowed internet access again. Should be a good day.

http://www.defensivethinking.com
posted by 00k at 10:51 PM

 
And on the previous note... EPIC.org is a fine site (Electronic Privacy Information Center) with a lot of good material to it.
posted by 00k at 6:30 PM

 
Taken from:
Advocates for Self Government - TheAdvocates.org

Federal Computer Database to Spy on All Americans

Alarming new federal government plans for spying on all
Americans are straight out of George Orwell's 1984.

The feds are busily creating a massive database that will
create files on virtually every American from cradle to
grave. The Pentagon's creepy new Office of Information
Awareness is building a system called "Total Information
Awareness." Total Information Awareness will, among other
things, monitor virtually every purchase and financial
transaction made by American citizens to seek "patterns
indicative of terrorist activity." This consumer information
will be merged with government database information including
visa records, passports, arrest records or reports of
"suspicious activity" previously given to law enforcement
agencies. The program will also pursue development of
biometric technology to enable the further identification and
tracking of individuals.

According to federal spokesmen, such things as large cash
withdrawals, or the purchase of one-way airline tickets or
firearms, could trigger investigations via the Total
Information Awareness database. The database will know your
reading habits, phone and Internet use (thus creating a First
Amendment chilling effect), know when you buy a gun (thus
creating de facto national gun registration), and so on. No
warrant, no suspicion of criminal activity is required for
this information-gathering.

According to the ACLU, Total Information Awareness will
"effectively provide government officials with immediate
access to our personal information: all of our communications
(phone calls, emails and web searches), financial records,
purchases, prescriptions, school records, medical records and
travel history....Under this program, our entire lives would
be catalogued and available to government officials."

The Office of Information Awareness's unbelievable logo seems
to flaunt the Orwellian nature of the agency: a huge eye atop
a pyramid scanning the globe, with the Latin motto "Knowledge
is Power."

See it for yourself at:

http://www.reason.com/0210/artifact.shtml

As Reason Magazine noted: "If you wanted to play on the fears
of every paranoiac in the country, you couldn't do much
better than the Office of Information Awareness's logo." Of
course, given the unprecedented nature of the Total
Information Awareness program, it's hardly paranoid to be
alarmed by this sinister agency.

If that wasn't enough to set you shivering, the Total
Information Awareness program was conceived by, and is headed
by, the notorious John Poindexter, the former national
security adviser to President Reagan who was convicted on
five counts of misleading Congress and making false
statements during the Iran-Contra investigation.

"John has a real passion for this project," one government
official told Fox News. (Why aren't we surprised?)

Total Information Awareness is a police-state measure, pure
and simple. It violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the
Constitution and Bill of Rights, and it will mean a society
in which federal agents are constantly monitoring every move
of every citizen.

The government -- of course -- defends Total Information
Awareness as a necessary tool to fight terrorism. British
statesman William Pitt (1759-1806) had the proper response to
that:

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human
freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of
slaves."

Increasingly it seems the biggest threat to American
liberties isn't from terrorists, but rather from government
officials intent on doing to our Constitutional liberties
what the 9-11 terrorists did to the World Trade Center.

(Sources:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70992,00.html
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11323&c=130
http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/#resources
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/pena-021122.html
posted by 00k at 6:24 PM

 
Customize.org has a lot of really good stuff... nice wallpapers and themes and whatnot.
posted by 00k at 11:37 PM

Double-O