Now I guess it makes sense why Bram wanted to “buy all rights” from the other quasi-silent BT devs, in particular the protocol design. Shame, Bram. You should’ve been honest.

UPDATE 8/10: After a couple days to ponder this more, I’m even more disappointed than I was. While a large proponent of open source, I don’t much care what Bram does with it. The source code to BT isn’t where the value is, it’s the protocol. Closing a protocol, is like telling someone they’re not allowed to talk your language anymore. It would be the Bush Administration saying “Cubans are evil, so we’re not going to allow them to speak English anymore.” Given the historical ignorance of this White House, I’d have expected that BEFORE I expected Bram to close the BT protocol.

A protocol is a culture embedded in technology: It defines etiquette between systems; it defines grammar and speech; it defines nouns and verbs. You learn a lot about humanity when you read well-written protocols: It’s not like learning a new language, it’s like being immersed in a new culture. That culture has been taken to a private island, and no one is allowed to experience it unless you’re declared fit by the czar.

On the plus side, this will spur some new innovations. BT has some serious flaws: flaws that have been well known and accepted on the grounds of ease-of-coding and portability. The paradigm can change, the flaws fixed, and a new format can be created and in a Darwinistic dual, we’ll see which succeeds. Of course, this assumes that the czar doesn’t unleash the lawyer-hounds.

Protocols should never be exclusive. Never. They should be the most open parts of our technological society.

Really, I promise. STOP CLICKING on links in e-mails. Just… don’t. Pretend every link will be the end of the world. Pretend Armageddon will follow the release of the mouse on every e-mailed link. You don’t have to be afraid, just be skeptical. You don’t have to be a computer genius, just apply common rules of sense. If you got a ticking package in the “normal” mail with a return address of “your neighbor”, would you open it?!

STOP. CLICKING. EVERYTHING.

Remember back when the Internet was open? Back when the only ones with firewalls were government, banks and the paranoid? Back when you didn’t get looked at strange when you said “We don’t filter what our users can do on the Internet, at all”? I am a staunch access advocate. Yes, we do block incoming traffics: One must in order to protect users from uninitiated attacks. But we do not- and hopefully as long as I live- will not prevent our network users from accessing anything on the Internet. It’s not about academic freedom, it’s about freedom of information.

I’ve been involved in information security on campus for a long time, spearheading various initiatives, pushing for changes when necessary, doing incident response, campus liasion to REN-ISAC, CERT, etc. and was appointed Information Security Officer (ISO) earlier this year. Since then, I’ve been privvy to information from other ISOs, and today was told point blank “you’re a new ISO, you’ll change your ways soon” with regard to my views on information freedom. Of course, I bristled.

My role and responsibility as ISO is to protect information assets, not to restrict access to the Internet. The information security on campus doesn’t increase because a campus blocks Skype, or disallows the use of other webmail services available. Information security is not enhanced by banning instant messaging programs, or filtering content capriciously. Are we China? Do we feel so Holy that we prevent grown adults from obtaining information and communicating freely?

Are these applications vectors for security incidents? Sure are. So is you browser, and your e-mail program – Even moreso perhaps, yet I don’t see a surge in banning those. To go off the deep-end, let’s just ban the Internet. Who needs it anyhow?

I’m sure I’ve riled and offended a lot of my colleagues. But maybe, just maybe, they’ll introspect and figure out why they’re participating in this censorship. Maybe they’ll see through their own lines of “we shouldn’t be helping fund private businesses” (hiya, ever go to Google?) and “it can be used to commit copyright violations” (hiya, so can your web-browser) and “it may have a security hole” (hiya, so may your operating system).

Controlling what information we expose is our job. Controlling who can access OUR information is our job. Assessing threats and risks to that information is our job. Not banning Facebook because it makes college administration people nervous. Not banning MySpace because you heard that cyberpredators use it. Nope, sorry, that’s someone else’s job – that’s someone else’s information. We’ve got enough to do controlling our own.

I’ll end with some of my favorite quotes on the topic:

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

“The Internet treats censorship as a defect and routes around it.” – John Gilmore

“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” – Mark Twain

I went in to work on Saturday morning to get my laptop, and on my way out a little girl- maybe 4- and her father are leaving from a function. She asks him “Can I play in the snow, daddy?” on a balmy, sunny, fresh-snow morning… “No, we have to get you to ballet”, he replies. “How about after that?” “No, then you’ve got painting”.

WHAT THE FUCK?! What is more important than having a little fun in the snow with your daughter? Ballet? Painting? I think not. I know I’m a little different on this topic. In my house, we ate meals together every night, we played board games together, and my father made damn certain that he would not be the Cat’s in the Cradle father. We went sledding, and had snowball fightsish, and what not. A LOT. Our whole family spent a lot of time together, and on many occasion we’d just go do something random- Together.

Carpe diem.

Boston is stupid. I’ve been saying it for years. Unplanned sprawl of a city, stupid tunnel thing, and idiots NOT ONLY scared of Lite Brites, but getting all legally vicious because they don’t like being made afool. Ugh.

… because my toothpaste and deoderant were siezed by TSA. Yup… Can’t have more than 3.2 ounces per gel or liquid product. Mind you, I could have 40,000 tubes of 3.2 ounce toothpaste tubes filled with semtex or nitro, but don’t have one 16ounce tube of Colgate. Fuck no. That’s bad.

Anyone who knows anything about my mouth knows that there is one kind of toothpaste IN THE WORLD I can use. It’s not even sold in the US anymore, I have to go to Canada to get the Canadian version of it. So I’m stuck using nasty shit that’s causing sores to break out in my mouth, so that passengers on all of my flights feel safer knowing that I don’t have more than 3.2 ounces of explosive in any one tube.

Nevermind the TSA never noticed I had 60 AA batteries (that I forgot I had) in my camera case… Enough explosive power there to blow out a window or a cabin door lock.

At least they found my toothpaste.

Seymour Hersh asks “Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?“… The answer, is more. The Bush Administration is likely to push this button sooner-rather-than-later as they know that when a Democrat is elected President, there will be no action on that front: And the neocons WANT action. They lust for the Holy War. That’s why we’re in Iraq. That’s why we’re fucking with Iran. They want to dance. They want to get the blood pumping. They don’t want a diplomatic solution. They want to toss more rebuilding contracts to Halliburton. They want to secure our “energy future”. They want to “make the world safer” [for themselves].

Iran is not a threat to a secular, rational United States. Iran is not a threat to anyone that doesn’t fuck with it. The neocons are scared of Iran because they WANT to fuck with it. They WANT to fight the Holy War. They’re afraid that if Iran has a deterrent force that they won’t be allowed to. How would Congress approve an invasion of a nuclear-armed country?

Vipers strike when cornered.

UPDATE 11/20: SEEE???? Neocons!!! Ugh!!!

After 3 months of sliding, the GOP attempt to buy votes with cheap fuel failed, and prices are back up for no real market reason, just as the price dropped steadily leading up to the election for no real market reason.

There are Americans that can be bought with stupid tricks. Thankfully they’re not in the majority anymore.

*soapbox*

Black and white. Yin and Yang. Sweet and salty. Good and evil. Cheese and crackers. Steak and potatoes. Balance.

Some of those don’t really smack of balance, but they are. It’s like life: A lot of people don’t see where there needs to be balance because things aren’t obvious. No one smacks you over the head and says “you’re doing too much X, do some Y as well”. Mom doesn’t hold your hand and make sure you eat a well-balanced meal.

Being able to spot imbalance on-demand takes a lot of time being imbalanced yourself… introspecting… self-actualizing… rinse repeat. Balance, oddly enough, is the key: It’s the key to self-actualizing.

The lionshare of people don’t even want to obtain a modicum of their potential. Most would rather goof off or play with the cool kids or sit around. That’s fine, we need those people too. And to be fair, when properly balanced an actualized individual can do those things too: Although generally not play with the cool kids, because the cool kids really don’t like being around people who can (and do) do anything they put their mind to- it makes them feel inferior and trips all sorts of [masculinity|femininity] issues for them.

Another key balancing point is Learning vs. Teaching. The number of times I hear someone put down a “newbie”- someone who is new to something- is staggering. These people are missing out on an opportunity: An opportunity to share their knowledge and ability; An opportunity to teach; An opportunity to provide the other end of the balance; An opportunity to stop CONSUMING experiences but to CONTRIBUTE. It would amaze them how much they would learn about themselves and their environment if they did. On the other side, one must be humble enough to recognize opportunities to learn from others as there are always others to learn from.

But no, knowledge is an exclusive club for some. Those who have it want to believe that anyone who obtained it after them, or less than them, is inferior. Instead of raising the bar of humanity they prefer to keep things status quo. Instead of balance, they prefer superiority.

*end soapbox*

1. 1. Do something disgustingly, horrendously stupid
2. 2. Enter rehab
3. 3. Blame others (people or things) for #1
4. 4. Claim you’re all better
5. 5. Goto 3

It’s not just “the kids” these days who can’t take responsibility for their actions, it’s “the grown-ups” too. We are a country of litigation-happy, blame redirecting, irresponsible tools. The priest made me do it. The bottle made me do it. The drugs made me do it. My work made me do it. I’m out of rehab so I’m all better now.

Spending 30 days or so in rehab is in vogue right now. It’s how these people make it look like they’ve admitted a problem and are seeking help, when in reality they’re just using it as a political tool to hopefully fend off career-enders. After all, how can we hate someone who has said “I have a problem” and sought treatment? Our optimistic instict says “good, they’re getting the help they need” when in reality they’re not. 30 days in a DC dry superclub won’t cure anyone, but it looks really good.

I can’t wait to hear someone say “I fucked up. I’ve had a great life, and can’t blame a soul for what I did. I’m not Catholic. I don’t drink or do drugs. I simply fucked up. I’m sorry.”