As I was saying...

NSA's Warrantless Wiretaps: How NSA Does It by Jerry Nelson

The Executive Branch has refused to tell very many Congressman very much about how the NSA system works. The secrecy seemed pointless to me, since any good technologist could figure it out. So I did. Not even your elected representatives could find out what I am about to tell you.

[...]

I leave you with one thought: neither God nor Nature owe the United States of America a democracy. If citizens give away all their freedoms, eventually they will have none. When the powerful have all the options and you have none, you are toast.

Democracies are not conquered. Democracies do not end when outsiders force them into subjugation. Democracies end when their citizens vote for a strongman who promises to protect them.

Here is how the National Security Agency is protecting you.

Remember what I've been saying about warrantless wiretaps? Nelson is saying it, too. Nothing new here, but it's thorough and well-written. As he says, "any good technologist could figure it out", but apparently not any politician. No surprise.

(Via cryptome)

Latvians clutch sides and cry 'fowl' over Microsoft Vista

Latvians laugh at Vista -- the Inquirer

Microsoft marketers are having a hell of a job establishing the super soaraway operating system in the pecking order in Latvia.

Apparently, whenever they ring up peddling Vista, Latvians burst out laughing because the name means "chicken" or "frumpy woman" in the local lingo.

(more here)

"Sure, the Microsoft people in the US cant be expected to understand all languages, but this really is funny," he said.

Arvis, an IT manager of a chain of casinos in Riga, was also chuckling about Microsoft Frump. Or Fowl. No, make that Vista.

(From a thread on groklaw.net)

Why am I suddenly reminded of the Chevy Nova ("No va" = "doesn't go" in Spanish)? Or, for that matter, Microsoft's Windows CE, universally pronounced "wince".

Legal precedent set for web accessibility

Legal Precedent Set for Web Accessibility: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- A federal district court judge ruled yesterday that a retailer may be sued if its website is inaccessible to the blind. The ruling was issued in a case brought by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corp. (Northern District of California Case No. C 06-01802 MHP) The suit charges that Target's website ( http://www.target.com ) is inaccessible to the blind, and therefore violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the California Unruh Civil Rights Act, and the California Disabled Persons Act. Target asked the court to dismiss the action by arguing that no law requires Target to make its website accessible. The Court denied Target's motion to dismiss and held that the federal and state civil rights laws do apply to a website such as target.com.

...and about bloody time!

I've been saying this for years: making your site accessible to the blind also makes it accessible to the nearsighted (like me), people using mobile phones and other handheld devices, and above all to search engines. Want to know what your site looks like to Google? Just look at it in Lynx.

(from Slashdot)