How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In

By Cory Doctorow, Information Week

Vista is the first operating system to begin to use the features of the Trusted Computing Module, though for now, Microsoft is eschewing the use of "Remote Attestation" where software is verified over a network (they've made no promise about doing this forever, of course). No company has spent more time and money on preventing its competitors from reading its documents: remember the fight at the Massachusetts state-house over the proposal to require that government documents be kept in open file-formats?

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Captitol Crimes: Bill Moyers explains the Jack Abramoff scandal

Originally broadcast on PBS in October as part of the Bill Moyers on America specials, this two-hour report is still available on the web, and is as absorbing as any movie. Besides Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, the definitive Republican scandal involves Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, and to a lesser extent, Karl Rove and the Dubya itself.


In October, 2005, Tom DeLay was indicted in Texas for conspiracy to violate the state's campaign finance laws. Two weeks later, he flew to Houston in a corporate jet provided by R. J. Reynolds, a company that had once contributed to the U.S. Family Network, and surrendered to the authorities. "I said a little prayer before I did the fingerprint thing and the picture," DeLay said. "My prayer was basically, 'let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.

"Capitol Crimes" homepage with links to streaming webcast and transcript.

mp3 audio podcast version

Iraq Study Group: Bush policies failed

One hundred years from now, this will be the picture of epic cluelessness.

WASHINGTON -
President Bush's war policies have failed in almost every regard, the bipartisan
Iraq Study Group concluded Wednesday, and it warned of dwindling chances to change course before crisis turns to chaos with dire implications for terrorism, war in the Middle East and higher oil prices around the world.

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Link to complete report.

I hate second life!

I just started a new blog, about the whole hyped-up-the-ass Second Life virtual world thing. If my new blog goes anywhere, (and most of them don't) I hope that it'll be part satire, part news, with a bias toward preserving a reality-based internet. I'm not saying that this isn't the future of the net, as some have suggested. I'm just saying: please shoot me when that happens!

http://www.ihatesecondlife.blogspot.com

There's a contact page featuring information about where reasonably courteous participants of any point of view whill be able to post directly to the site via email, at least if I understand how the new blogger beta works.

I have posted a kind of manifesto entitled "I'm not out to ruin anybody's fun"-- and honest, I'm really not... unless it will ruin your fun to have me laugh at your silly cybergoth avatar ... in which case, sorry, you're screwed.