Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | Threat Level | Wired.com. <from the article> There is no cyberwar and we are not losing it. The only war going on is one for the soul of the internet. But if journalists, bloggers and the security industry continue to let self-interested exaggerators dominate our nation’s discourse about online security, we will lose that war — and the open internet will be its biggest casualty.
March 2, 2010
March 1, 2010
Open Source Law Office | LSNTAP
Open Source Law Office | LSNTAP. Okay! Here is the updated announcement about our open source law office on the Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project. These are folks committed to using free code to make the economy and the justice system more fair. I’m paraphrasing their mission I expect, but I’ve done so in the spirit of charity!
February 28, 2010
UK Digital Economy Bill will wipe out indie WiFi hotspots in libraries, unis, cafes Boing Boing
UK Digital Economy Bill will wipe out indie WiFi hotspots in libraries, unis, cafes Boing Boing. Author Cory Doctorow monitors this sort of mirror universe trend for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and on boingboing and his own site, craphound. Witness “free market” advocates who press for government regulation burdening public access to the internet over Wi-Fi connections offered by small businesses, libraries and others. Why not laissez-faire … laissez-passer?
February 27, 2010
Using Drupal
More than one low-budget or no-budget Montana organization has a website built with Drupal. The Drupal content management system is free and used for well known sites like The White House, the New York Observer, Amnesty International and The Onion.
But the learning curve is steep, and Montana cities do not always have a network of Drupal-literate coders available to assist with administration and updating of sites.
If this situation sounds familiar, get Using Drupal.
This uncommonly well written book may immediately remedy the familiar Montana problem of the “missing webmaster” by unlocking the community-based power of a Drupal website. The book includes lucid descriptions of key website administration concepts combined with practical step-by-step remedies for typical organizational goals.
And if you live in Montana but despise books of this nature, remember that Drupal coder communities are growing daily. In Montana, the Western Montana Drupal Group is another good place to seek affordable help.
February 23, 2010
Top 5 Best Linux Firewalls
This is a link to a geek survey of the Top 5 Best Linux Firewalls. It was posted by the learned Mr. Natarajan, whose clear articles are indispensable for professionals migrating to a linux-based office.
February 20, 2010
Op-Ed Contributor – Have Keyboard, Will Travel – NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Contributor – Have Keyboard, Will Travel – NYTimes.com. Applies to lawyers too?
May 17, 2009
This BBC story explores the history of packet-switching:
. . . The problem with human speech is that most of it is made up of silence – be that the pauses between words, time taken to breathe or gaps when one person waits for another to speak.
Using most of a telephone network to transmit silence is not a very efficient use of that resource. Far better would be to find a way to fill the blank spots with the moments from others calls when those folk were speaking. . . . .
Ubuntu Geek Found Fix For Atheros Wifi Problem
My work box is a Lenovo Thinkpad T42p I bought from Emperor Linux in 2006 — maybe earlier than that. I don’t remember. There’s a receipt somewhere. It ran on Ubuntu Linux (Breezy Badger? Dapper Drake?) which I’ve dutifully upgraded. Its running on 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) now.
When the Thinkpad arrived, it had a special “empkernel” which made all the hardware run. When I upgraded, the empkernel was left behind. Ubuntu mostly kept the hardware running fine though.
Some exceptions . . . . This month, when I upgraded to Jaunty, the Atheros wireless card stopped talking to the OS. Horrors! I need that card. On the other hand, I had a new excuse to play with the bash shell. I dug out an old ethernet cable to get back on the net and began googling for solutions. Not much luck at first. . . .
Then I found Ubuntu Geek. Problems over. The wireless card problem?
Fixed here: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/new-madwifi-now-supports-ar2425-in-madwifi-trunk-branch.html
But wait! My wpa encryption support still isn’t fixed! No. Ubuntu Geek had that covered too . . .
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/enable-wpa-wireless-access-point-in-ubuntu.html
So. If you’re sort of a newbie like me to Ubuntu and spend waaayyy too much time googling around and not finding stuff, and you like using the command line, then my suggestion is to start with Ubuntu Geek next time.
April 18, 2009
Concise History of Alligator Wrestling? I Can’t Look Away . . . .
Maggie Koerth-Baker* reports for Boing-Boing:
Why It’s Hard to Find Good Gator Wrestling Help These Days?
In 2000, members of the Seminole tribe near Hollywood, Florida put an ad in the local paper. They were looking for a new alligator wrestler. Mano-y-gator conflict is nothing new to the Seminole. Hand-caught gators were a traditional food source. But it was only in the 21st century that the tribe had hard luck finding people willing to jump in there (i.e., the swamp) and go for it (i.e., pin several-hundred-pound, sharp-toothed creatures to the ground with only their soft and presumably tasty bodies). This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Wrestling alligators for the benefit of white tourists used to be one of the few Seminole-friendly job markets in Florida. Improved access to higher education–and the fact that, today, Seminole are more likely to actually own the tourist trap, rather than just work there–meant fewer tribe members willing to risk life and limb for a poorly paying job. And thus, the newspaper ad.
*Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental floss magazine.
EFF Argues Against Proxy Server Use as Basis for Federal Sentencing Enhancement
Hugh D’Andrade reports for Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Last month, the US Sentencing Commission considered new sentencing guidelines that would classify the use of proxy servers as “sophisticated means” when used in the commission of a crime, thus requiring extra prison time. EFF spoke out against these guidelines, sending Staff Technologist Seth Schoen to appear before the Commission to argue (PDF) that the use of anonymizing technologies is a widespread practice that requires no special knowledge or skills.
Happily, it appears the Commission has decided, at least for now, not to classify the use of proxies as a sign of sophistication.
As Schoen told the Commission, “While proxies may be an advanced technology, using a proxy is often no more difficult than using Microsoft Word. Many kinds of people use proxies for all sorts of legitimate purposes, so only a court can reliably assess which uses are truly employed as a ’sophisticated means’ of committing a crime and which are for privacy, free speech or some other innocent purpose.”
EFF is not declaring victory on this issue just yet. We look forward to hearing the reasoning behind the Comission’s ruling, and to seeing what revisions to the amendment they plan to propose. Today’s ruling is undoubtedly a step forward, and we applaud the Commission for their decision.
This is just one area where we’re watching closely to ensure that common Internet practices are not regarded as criminal by the government. EFF’s work is ongoing in a case in which Boston College Campus Police cited a student’s computer skills as evidence of wrongdoing.
March 23, 2009
Word Press in Missoula Courtroom for Grace Trial
The law school and the journalism school are helping report on the U.S. Attorney’s prosecution of W.R. Grace and five officials for criminal offenses.
I understand but have not personally confirmed that U.S. District Judge Molloy gave permission (rare) for reporters inside the courtroom to keep their cell phones and/or laptops turned on so twittering may occur.
Here’s one news story among many describing the revolutionary coverage of this federal trial:
http://www.newwest.net/city/article/um_journalists_cover_wr_grace_trial_in_real_time/C8/L8/
Here’s a link to the blog itself:
http://blog.umt.edu/gracecase/
Still no Creative Commons license for the content, but change comes slow. This is still an amazing use of Word Press.
March 22, 2009
Half A Dozen Linux Lawyer Problems Solved
1. Description. OpenOffice files unreadable from shell.
Solution. odt2txt unreadable_file | less
2. Description. File on remote server unreadable from local host.
Solution. mkdir /mnt/stuff
sudo sshfs user@userserver.no-ip.info:/home/user/Desktop/matters /mnt/stuff
cd /mnt/stuff
ls -l
fusermount -u /mnt/stuff
3. Description. eGroupWare calendar and contacts unreadable from local host.
Solution. ssh -L 4444:192.168.0.65:80 user@userserver.no-ip.info
firefox
http://localhost:4444
4. Description. Unable to read or write file.
Solution. sudo chmod 0777 unreadable_file
5. Description. Missing an executable.
Solution. sudo apt-get install missing_executable
6. Description. Need to reboot from shell.
Solution. sudo shutdown -r now.