we moved. latest posts below:

10.24.2009

Yippie - I'm invited to test Google Wave

Google Wave is:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document.
A wave is shared.
A wave is live.


Whitehouse.gov goes open source !

Congrats to Drupal, an open source content management system [CMS]!

From Personal Democracy Forum:

The great Drupal switch came about after the Obama new media team, with a few months of executive branch service (and tweaking of WhiteHouse.gov) under their belts, decided they needed a more malleable development environment for the White House web presence. They wanted to be able to more quickly, easily, and gracefully build out their vision of interactive government.

10.23.2009

Publishing social security numbers online is a 1st Amendment right

I love how this woman has used the rule of law, the Constitution & FOIA, on what you would think would be common sense - that is - government protecting their citizens from publishing social security numbers online.

From ComputerWorld.com:

A fight by the Virginia government to stop a privacy advocate from republishing Social Security numbers obtained legally from public records on government sites on her Web site is attracting the attention of some privacy heavyweights.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a friend of the court brief asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to uphold privacy advocate Betty Ostergren's First Amendment right to publish the numbers.

- - -

Largely in response to her campaign, Virginia lawmakers passed legislation in 2008 that prohibits the dissemination of any records that contain Social Security numbers, no matter how the records were obtained.

10.22.2009

Lala la - Where music plays for a dime

Sing it Muddy!


Lala.com for more.

There's an app for that - by the end of the year. Check it at Wired.com story.

How several local judges are holding Wall Street's securitaztions accountable using the rule of law

Hopefully this will get a lot of press as it certainly appears that using the rule of law - the little guy will get to protect themselves from banks who take short cuts and who want their cake, have you pay for it, and get to eat it too.

Background:

Your mortgage is "packaged" with other mortgages into a financial instrument. This process is called securitization. It seems the investors who own these new securities - called mortgage backed securities [MBS] do not file the appropriate paper work for deed transfers.

From counter punch:

Three plain talking judges, in state courts in Massachusetts and Kansas, and a Federal Court in Ohio, have drilled down to the “straw man” aspect of securitization. The judges’ decisions have raised serious questions as to the legality of hundreds of thousands of foreclosures that have transpired as well as the legal standing of the subsequent purchasers of those homes, who are more and more frequently the Wall Street banks themselves.

10.21.2009

Can you name the 12-million-digit prime number?

You read that right. It's a new prime number just found and the finder won $100k.

More from EFF.org.

Google pink fingers

Ya know how Google is scanning every book ever made and is posting them online?

The person at Google doing it has pink fingers.
Hat tip kottke.org.

10.20.2009

Green chile cheese burgers from the land of enchantment

Note: I am a vegitarian 100% of the time between meals.

OMG, do not watch this hungeree.

Link to vid about New Mexico's chile cheese burgers.
New Mexico's Green Chile Cheese Burger Trail.

The warning about your life savings

New Frontline doc The Warning from PBS.

A quote from The Warning:

That's how the business has grown from nothing in 1980 to $600 trillion of contracts today. ~ Mark Brickell Chair, International Swaps and Derivatives Association (1988-1992)
From a Slate article to put $600T in perspective:
By contrast, the value of the world's financial assets—including all stock, bonds, and bank deposits—was pegged at $167 trillion last year by McKinsey.



This market is not only hidden off company's balance sheets to a great extent. This market is almost 100% hidden - that is, not transparent. And most importantly - this market is still completely unregulated.

There is maximum pressure from companies, that we bailed out with trillions by the way, not to regulate this market. These companies, who we gave our money to, are paying lobbyists hundreds of millions to lobby against "us".

If you believe "everything will come back" with your IRA's, 401(k)s etc without regulation, you are as foolish as someone who jumps out of an airplane without a parachute and expects the outcome to be ok.

If you choose to do nothing to fix this, like contacting your elected officials demanding regulations, you are as liable for the outcome as someone who doesn't help their next door neighbor whose house is on fire and is threatening your own.

What are you working on changing?

About Change.org:

Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and education to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working for change but lack the information and opportunities necessary to translate their interest into effective action.
Learn more about Changemakers like Andy Abrahams Wilson and the Changemakers Network:
The Changemakers initiative aims to identify and engage the leading activists, elected officials, authors, bloggers, actors, musicians and thought leaders who have the greatest capacity to spark change on issues of importance.
From Mr. Wilson:



Learn more about the movie Under My Skin.