Curiouser and Curiouser!

RFID tags: Is nothing simple any more?

RFID Chips Are Here. Your privacy is at stake [The Register]

I think it is quite reasonable to insist that:

• any item with an RFID tag should be clearly identified as such
• there should be a way to permanently disable the RFID tag in any item you purchase

I think that is should also be optional as to whether an RFID is enabled in:

• money you hold
• your passport
• your drivers license

I might very well want the RFID to work in my passport if that speeds me through customs & imigration.  But I want to be able to turn it on and off to suit me.

Don grounds into a double play... too far off base

Destroy Majar Al-Kabir.

Stories about the six British soldiers massacred in Majar Al-Kabir upset me.  It reminded me of the Alamo.  Soldiers just doing their duty and getting killed by a crazy mob.  If Ghengis Kahn was in charge of the British forces, he would have destroyed the town with everything in it.

Since this is the modern age and Ghengis Kahn is long dead, I think the British forces should vacate the town and then completely destroy it to prevent similar thing from happening again in the future.  Letting them go about their daily lives without such a severe punishment will just get more soldiers killed.  I know this will be harsh to innocent townfolks but I don't think anything short of this level of response will work over the long term.

[Don Park's Blog]

Enough's enough.  Normally I think Don is right on but this is so not it's almost off the scale.

• Destroying a town because it contains criminals?

Well it's justified isn't it?  And we all know that escalating violence bring peace right?  I mean you only have to look at Israel bulldozers destroying palestinians settlements to see what a good policy it is.

For the sake of argument though: what if destroying their town doesn't stop people seeing this as an unwanted force of occupation.  What if it doesn't bring the correct long term response?

Well of course you could go one better couldn't you?  Destroy a city next time.  Just to make sure they know you really mean business.

And of course, there are one or two people killed whilst "just doing their duty" in US cities.  I can't wait to see this policy employed back home!

Or maybe you'd like to think this one through again?

Pretty boy aggregators... where's the beef?

FeedDemon Beta.

Nick Bradbury has released a beta version of FeedDemon, an RSS aggregation tool. I'l be trying this out.

[High Context]

Hmm... it fails the first test of ease of use for me.  Opening it for the first time I expected it to ask me:

• Are you already using a news aggregator?  Would you like me to import your subscriptions?

instead I get presented with the stock list and left to fend for myself.  Which firstly involves removing all the stock subscriptions and understanding the difference between removing a channel altogether, and just from a listing.

After going through that I figure out what the listings are.  There are a whole set of 'em: Amazon, Blogs & Blogging, Lockergnome, the list goes on.  How do I get rid of all this shit?  I already have enough of my own!  Okay, I have to through and delete every listing.  Boring.  Oh and I still don't have my own feeds yet.  Have to go hunting for the import option.

Okay and what am I buying?  Another pretty interface.  But other than a news paper style and the fact that it's obviously got a very attractive UI what differentiates this from the raft of other pretty boy aggregators?

I'm sorry, I think I may still be a little heated from Don's Al-Kabir post...

Finally I can join an organisation which is going somewhere!

Biggest Game of the Decade Released.

"I am feeling woozy, Wookie."

Star Wars Galaxies was released quietly today.  I predict that this multiplayer online game will be the biggest, longest running commercial multiplayer online game for at least a decade.  EverQuest and others will not come anywhere near its popularity.

[Don Park's Blog]

Does this mean I can finally join the Empire?

I've only been practising saying "you rebel scum!" for about 20 years!

Not a happy citizen!

Secret 'Justice' a Grotesque Notion. Jeff Jarvis, whom I greatly admire, takes me to task for this recent posting in which I pointed at this... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

I've been doing some thinking about citizens vs. the state lately which, in my mind, dovetails neatly with the issues Dan is raising.

Something I have an increasingly hard time with is this:

• By what right does the state keep secrets, any secrets, from the people from whom it derives a mandate to exist?

I find it impossible to sit here an be another happy citizen when the state acts without consideration for my feelings or interests beyond what it thinks will persuade me to it's agenda.  And don't tell me to vote for someone else because the politicians aren't the problem.

I feel that politics today is a symptom and not a cause of my unhappiness.  As a child growing up under Thatcher I grew to hate the Tories and their me! me! value system.  When I got the chance I voted New Labour and rousted them from office.  Am I happy now?

The government I elected (twice) is now eager to:

• ignore peoples voice on Identity cards [I know they didn't in the end, but they had to be forced]
• support two wars I still do not support (you know Iraq and that other one)
• support the expansion of secret state powers
• limit freedom of information

and so on.  But they didn't seem to eager before they got into office.  Are they just two-faced, chicken-hearted, backstabbers?  Or is something else going on?

I think the problem is that, in Britain and the US, the revolving door between corporate business & the beauracracy has delivered something new.  Politics is the show, like the waving of the stage magicians hands, the dirty business is going on out back.

This is why voter turnouts diminish year on year:  Changing the politician doesn't change the policy.  Collectively we are suffering the principle of learned helplessness.

I want to do something about all this, but I don't know what.