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In the “more reasons not to be running Windows” department, it seems that Microsoft has given a tool to law enforcement that:

“…contains 150 commands that can dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence, which is becoming more important in real-world crime, as well as cybercrime. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer’s Internet activity, as well as data stored in the computer.

It also eliminates the need to seize a computer itself, which typically involves disconnecting from a network, turning off the power and potentially losing data. Instead, the investigator can scan for evidence on site.”

As a person who does computer forensics for a living, Read more

A Federal appeals court has said that Customs can do whatever they want with your electronic files when you cross the border.  The ruling extends to all electronics: laptop, cell phone, digital camera, calculator - you name it - if it’s got a file system, it’s fair game.

Update:  It will come as no surprise that millions of dollars of military expenditure is simply wasted.

Alternet has an excellent story on how “60 years of enormous military spending is taking a dramatic toll on the rest of the economy“.  It goes through several points, all of them excellently detailed with numbers, showing how our defense spending is simply crippling us.  We are spending more on defense than the rest of the world combined, a feat certainly unsustainable, but mostly ridiculous when you actually stop and think about it.    Here’s the chart they use:

The article is a long one, but well worth the read!

While it may not be an immediate prelude to an actual fight, it seems that the US is drawing up plans on how to go to war with Iran.  As if spending 12 BILLION dollars a week in Afghanistan and Iraq weren’t enough, they are now making contingency plans for attacking yet another country that’s never attacked us.  There is speculation that General Petraeus’s promotion may be because he favours the hard-line, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs isn’t helping matters.

 Update:  The New York Sun has a similar story.

With the clearest numbers yet, we can see the ugly toll that inflation is taking on this country.  As the government continues to print money (with nothing backing it) the value of the dollars that exist continues to go down, and prices go up.  Here are the figures from the Wall Street Journal, who are urging Americans to stock up on food:

“And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They’re all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.” Read more

These deaths continue to happen, but as cops only get put on paid administrative leave for killing people, there’s probably no end in sight.  A young Chicago man who happens to be the son of a retired police officer was tasered by a cop after he ignored warnings to stop fighting.  Certainly the young man should have heeded the warnings, but when did the penalty for ignoring a cop become incapacitating electric shocks and/or death?  As cops get lazier and continue to rely on tasings, more people continue to die.  It’s a tragedy that’s easily preventable; cops were successful in apprehending people long before tasers were invented.

From the CNBC article: “The Bank of England is offering to exchange government securities for a range of high quality bank assets, including mortgages.” They further write: It is being guaranteed by the British Treasury but has been designed to avoid the public sector taking on the risk of potential losses.” Also see this article from the BBC.

Can someone explain to me the logic of how using using tax money will “avoid the public sector taking on the risk of potential losses”?

The New York Times is running a story about the global rise in food prices, and how it is affecting people and governments the world over.  There have already been food riots that have forced government changes in Haiti, and the Times correctly attributes some of the cause to “from strong demand for food from emerging economies like China’s to rising oil prices to the diversion of food resources to make biofuels”.

While these are important causes, one that is not discussed is rampant inflation.  Prices rise through increased demand and lack of supply; no one will deny that.  However, for them to have been “spiking as much as 45 percent since the end of 2006″ means that something else must be going on.  If prices have gone up almost 50% in a year, then that means if nothing changes, they’re likely to have gone up almost 100% in two years.  A doubling of food prices in two years is astonishing, and Read more

Well, it seems that you can put anything through Congress as long as you’re doing it to protect children, as the DOJ wants more money for monitoring P2P networks. Granted, while going after child predators is certainly necessary and worthwhile:

“Recent revelations about the FBI’s honeypot scheme for catching possible child porn traders do give some cause for concern over the lack of detail on how the system works, a concern that’s only likely to grow as the system itself grows. There’s no doubt that child exploitation ruins lives, but so could the high number of false positives associated with computer-automated surveillance and tracking systems, especially when combined with Read more

From the PC World article:  “The Greater Manchester Police force is looking for friends — on Facebook.It has created a Facebook application to collect leads for investigations, marking the first use of the social networking site by U.K. law enforcement.

The application delivers a real-time feed of police news and appeals for information. Next to that content is a feature to share a particular story with other friends in a person’s network, as well as post comments.”

One of the recent updates is an appeal asking for information about four men, one of whom was armed with an axe, who robbed a betting shop.

A “Submit Intelligence” link takes a Facebook user to the police Web site where they can anonymously submit tips. Another link leads to the videos on YouTube featuring information on the police force, ongoing investigations and other advisories. Read more

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