Via William Gibson’s blog, William Schneier explains why RFID Passports are a bad idea: Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, the Bush administration–specifically, the Department of Homeland Security–has wanted the world to agree on a standard for machine-readable passports. Countries whose citizens currently do not have visa requirements to enter the United States will have to issue passports that conform to the standard or risk losing their nonvisa status. These future passports, currently being tested, will include an embedded computer chip. This chip will allow the passport to contain much more information than a simple machine-readable character font, and will …
Month: October 2004
Gaa with the SpamBlockers and all…
Okay, well, I have been finding that MT-Blacklist has been having some problems. I’m waiting to hear back from tech support about that, and to make sure my database isn’t damaged. But I’m planning on installing this software by James Seng, which confirms it’s a real person entering the comment. MT-Blacklist is great for automated spam deletion and blocking, as long as it works, but this solution seems just as good, to me… at least till I get the MT-Blacklist problem fixed. So expect a new panel checking for a little more input if you’re commenting next week.
Neal Stephenson Interviewed at Slashdot
Neal Stephenson is still cool. Thanks for the link, Marv.
Reality-Based Is Passe?
Marvin linked to this disturbing post that says a lot about the Bush Administration. No, no, wait, this is the scary article, by Ron Suskind! Plus some commentary on it at The Revealer. It ends wonderfully: ‘Where people often get lost is on this very point,” he said after a moment of thought. ”Real faith, you see, leads us to deeper reflection and not — not ever — to the thing we as humans so very much want.” And what is that? ”Easy certainty.”
On Iraq
As Ritu, who posted these links, said, nothing is new about this stuff except the sources. Here are over seven hundred scholars of international relations, history, foreign policy, and security who want you know how badly the Bush Administration screwed up on this Iraq thing. And here is an article on soldiers objecting to the war, including many who have been there. Interestingly, one of them reports that his commanding officer said, on his arrival in Kuwait in 2003, �You�re not going to make Iraq safe for democracy,?the sergeant said. �You are going for one reason alone: oil. But you�re …