Amazing how a single day can change so much, and yet change so little. I turned down the new client yesterday, after deciding that we wouldn’t be able to meet his deadline and stay sane through the Saints pennant race. I’m already feeling there’s going to be a time-crunch coming this month, and didn’t want to make things worse.
And then just before heading out to the game yesterday, I got word of another bug in our code for the client I mentioned on Tuesday. This one’s severe enough that we might need to crack open the release and make a fix. I’ll be finding out today, but it turned today from a “go sit in meetings” kind of day to one in which some serious work has to happen in addition to sitting in meetings.
Then there’s the weather. It was downright chilly last night (well, in the 60s, but there was a 20mph wind blowing, too), and today promises to be even colder. If I had more time, I’d probably do a batch of chili for the tailgating tonight, but with the work happening, I’m not sure if I’m going to have the time for that. I still need to figure out something hearty for dinner, but it may end up coming from Boston Market, depending on how the day goes.
- I guess it’s not surprising that Public, security experts’ e-voting views differ sharply, with the general public being much more trusting of e-voting, but the size of the difference is interesting. Only 17% of the public is worried, whereas over sixty percent of the
experts
(BlackHat and Defcon attendees) expressed serious concerns. Then again, the general public doesn’t read slashdot and other sites that have been talking about the insecurities of the existing e-voting systems. [slashdot] - Bill linked to What Happened In Oshkosh? And Why Should Gun Owners Care? last week. I’ve avoided linking to it until the story became more clear, but it appears as though after an Oshkosh police officer was shot, police cordoned off an area, and went through all the houses confiscating guns without the nicety of any search warrants. Again, the details are still sketchy, but if that’s what actually happened, that seems pretty darned wrong. [endwar]
- In Right of Publicity, jr talks about
realistic privacy
. Basically, if you don’t walk the general public knowing something about you, it’s probably best not to post it on a website. [jr] - But it goes farther than just posting things on a website. It’s no real surprise to me that Big Business [is] Becoming Big Brother. Heck, since the government isn’t allowed to keep as close of an eye on us as some want, it only makes sense to contract it out. That’s one of the reasons I make noise about things like CAPPS II. The government gets shot down every time they try to issue a national ID card, but look into what can be found based on your social security number in private databases sometime. [claire]
- There are people out there saying it’s Claire Wolfe time, meaning time to shoot the bastards, taken from her quote that
America’s at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.
I don’t know if we’re there yet or not, but the fact that I’ve read this sort of thing more often recently is more than a bit discouraging. Or as Claire says,Why must anyone be squeezed into making that choice in America, of all places? Nothing is more heartbreaking. Why the hell can’t government’s just get out of our way and let ordinary people go about their business unmolested?
[endwar] - In a tiny push for some freedom, a Minneapolis Group seeks pot vote, allowing Minneapolis to set up distribution centers for medical marijuana as soon as state law allows it. [press-patch]
- Stay calm everyone, there’s Prozac in the drinking water in the U.K. Apparently from the waste products of the 24 million or so people who have had it prescribed for them. There are detectable levels in the groundwater and streams from which the drinking water is pulled. [fark!]