Monday, April 07, 2003

Privacy Activism Website Privacyactivism is a non-profit organization whose goal is to enable people to make well-informed decisions about the importance of privacy on both a personal and societal level. When people understand the real-world implications of privacy losses or invasions, there is plenty of evidence that they care passionately about the issues. The problem is that privacy is too often discussed in technical and legal jargon which makes the issues seem abstract. We intend to make the discussion more concrete and relevant by helping people understand the ramifications of the choices that they make in everyday life. We will take novel approaches such as using graphics, videos, games, and stories to communicate the issues. To accomplish this, our staff and volunteers include not only the usual suspects (lawyers, technologists) but also graphic designers, artists, and writers. Our initial focus is to inform the public about their privacy rights and the short- and long-term consequences of losing them - either inadvertently, or by explicitly trading them away for the perception of security or convenience. Ultimately, through a mixture of education and activism, we hope to show the importance of privacy as a fundamental human right, not a commodity to be bought and sold. 3:44:16 PM    comment [] Public Knowledge Public Knowledge is a new public-interest advocacy organization dedicated to fortifying and defending a vibrant information commons. This Washington, D.C. based group works with wide spectrum of stakeholders - libraries, educators, scientists, artists, musicians, journalists, consumers, software programmers, civic groups and enlightened businesses - to promote the core conviction that some fundamental democratic principles and cultural values - openness, access, and the capacity to create and compete -- must be given new embodiment in the digital age. 3:39:36 PM    comment [] Geek Chic: Too Much Free Software The plethora of Free Software applications available today, none working perfectly, is a problem which stands in the way of major adoption of Linux on the desktop. In order to conquer the desktop, we have to stand united. Useful article on freshmeat (thanx /. For the link) lists some of the major contenders for best of breed in LinuxLand, and points out some weak spots. The article is followed by a lengthy discussion. Much grist for the mill here. 2:26:17 PM    comment [] Geek Chic: Guide to Multi-Booting In a perfect world, you could just run one good operating system for all you computational needs. Unfortunately, in order to run certain software or be compatible with co-workers and other assorted riff-raff you must also run one of Microsoft's operating systems. This tutorial teaches you how more than one OS can reside on your PC, so you can attain true nerdvana. The way I have designed the tutorial is a step-by-step recipe for creating a system that can boot 4 different operating systems. I start off by explaining how I would setup a brand new system to become a multi-booting system, from a blank HD, to a finished product. Now, many of you will only want to setup 2 operating systems and have already got an operating system loaded that you do not want to delete. For those of you, I have written steps at the end on how to keep the OS you have, and install another one. 12:46:12 PM    comment [] Geek Chic: War Gadgets (Gizmodo) In case you missed them, here's a roundup of all the war-related posts from the past week: The Phraselator Watching in the dark Patriotic cellphone standards? PDAs go to war How tech is changing war reporting Get your own satellite phone Arabic in, English out Gizmodo is also featuring an Internet-enabled toilet roll. Say what? 12:28:49 PM    comment [] Geek Chic: Why Mozilla Rules Words and screenshots that will convince fools and unbelievers of the Mozilla browser's superiority over Internet Explorer. Every time I am forced to use IE, I am always stunned by the number of popup ads I am bombarded with. I NEVER SEE THEM when I use Mozilla, and I forget how pervasive they are. It's faster, it's customizable, it's standards-compliant. Tabbed browsing, integrated search, and sidebars -- which I use less often but others swear by -- round out some of the other desirable features of this totally FREE open source browser. 12:06:49 PM    comment []

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