I think this is a very well written column by John W. Dean, Why the State Secrets Privilege Shouldn’t Stop the Lawsuit Challenging Warrant-less Telephone Surveillance of Americans
Dear NSA web site
A link in the latest EFF newsletter led me to a funny web site: Dear NSA. Check it out for a laugh.
Blog Alerts fixed
The Blog Alerts box at the bottom of the right side menu has been fixed. The Committee to Protect Bloggers had to change their URL’s so, if you need to fix your own site go to the “Add BlogAlert to Your Site” page to get the corrected URL’s.
April Fool
I was made an April fool three times this year! First WBRU got me with an elaborate one covering three days, details here. Then my oldest niece (a true angel) got me and finally the EFF got me with a fake Action Alerts e-mail. Thank you all for making me laugh, I love a good prank even when it’s on me.
I will be back
I have not had free time to post anything to my blog since before the year end holidays. Between work, the holidays and moving I’ve been swamped. Hopefully I’ll get back to posting soon.
Record year for product safety recalls
This article in Conformity magazine points out that 2005 has set the record for most product safety recalls according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
There is also an article highlighting the latest recalls.
One item they don’t mention, they probably don’t know, is that at least some of the replacement PS2 AC adaptors have also been recalled. I know this because my brothers adapter was subject to the recall. He promptly received the replacement adapter and, then received a second replacement from Sony because they needed to recall the first replacement, Doh!
With the apparent incompetence on the part of Sony regarding the rootkit DRM (see previous post for details) and now botching the PS2 adapter’s I’m beginning to wonder if Sony is being managed by Homer Simpson. ๐
Problems from too much outsourcing
This EETimes.com article summarizes the results of a survey by Industry Directions.
As one who works in electronics and, has been involved in outsourcing, these results are no surprise to me.
Iranian bloggers and free speech
Mojtaba Saminejad and Omid Sheikhan are bloggers living in Iran. They are being punished for speaking their minds in blogs.
Read the details of their cases and sign the petitions to help Mojtaba Saminejad and Omid Sheikhan.
I am a firm believer in all peoples right to freedom of speech. Only under very limited and special circumstances do I think speech should be limited e.g. you canยt shout fire in a crowded theater. To stay up to date on internet free speech issues Iยve added a Blog Alert box from The Committee to Protect Bloggers and the EFF’s Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech icon on the sidebar. These items will be automatically updated by the sponsor organizations.
Got WordPress Installed
Hello Everyone,
I just setup WordPress on my site and it was very easy!
My web hosting provider, AK Web Hosting had everything preset on their servers so, it took just a couple clicks to install it for my domain.
Paul Hutchinson's Blog 