How Not To Blog ?

I'm not sure that 'legislators' have thought this one through well enough.

1) The REAL ID act nationalizes the process of issuing driver's licenses and state IDs, essentially creating a national ID. (National IDs disguised as state IDs and driver's licenses, go figure.)

2) Unite disparate statewide databases into one massive nationwide database containing personal information on every American.

3) Homeland Security will have the ability to add biometric identifiers to the ID in the future

The last part is where I think, logistically speaking, they may screw up.

You will probably need this ID for any kind of transaction, authentication, or access in the police state of 2007. We live in a fearful society, and this is one of those tools that will provide our society with the 'security fix' that our new habit needs.

The lengthy authentication process is supposed to verify that your social security number, address, name, birth date, and photo are what you say they are. State agencies will handle the responsibility of verifying that the data you provided is accurate. (If you should lose the ID, must you start the whole process over again? This would be a tremendous waste of government resources, especially considering that so many people end up losing their original ID before it expires.)

Additionally, the card will also have "physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes".

But what's to prevent someone else from taking that little plastic card and assuming your (now complete) identity? Judging by their draft specs, it wouldn't be hard to hack personal information out of the ID. I'm sure that even corner liquor stores will be able to access your address information in 2007 with the scanners.

The verification is done for the owner of the card. In theory, this should be you. But what measures would be taken to assure that the possessor of the card is the one whose identity rests on it? Aside from the photo, how is anyone supposed to know that you are who your ID claims you to be? Biometric readers such as retinal scans are expensive to implement and maintain. I can't imagine any store having one.

This is where I think implantable RFID chips like VeriChip will come in. A store or a school could easily install an ID reader and RFID chip reader.

ID authentication would come in two parts. One part is the ID card with all of your information on it. The other part is the RFID chip, implanted under your hand for easy swiping, that authenticates your ownership of that card and, thus, your identification. It also contains your most important personal information. People that are not "authenticated" via the chip will probably receive greater scrutiny and more extensive security screening procedures. (It's all just BS, of course.)

The ideal scenario would be that the ID cannot be read if it is not receiving the low-frequency RFID signal that the chip gives out. (Or, only the most basic information is then discovered.)

There's no good solution to the identification/authentication issue. Someone could easily steal your national ID if they really wanted to, or even dig into your hand for your VeriChip if they're desperate enough.

I'm against any form of national ID card tied to a massive national database. There's no way that we can be a free people and live in The Matrix at the same time. And there would be a tremendous amount of room for abuse from those with easy access to personal information.

VeriChip is pushing the "get chipped" slogan for its line of RFID products. But I think the idea of "getting authenticated" will be the issue that really gets under peoples' skin.

As many blogs as there are that don't credit the other blogs they steal stories from (including this one), why would you want to treat a big media company like CNet any different?

Why? well like many bloggers I?m sick and tired of scoops and other stories being stolen from blogs by big media. It not only happens occasionally, it happens all the time. As a meta-blogger I monitor most of the big media sites on blogging related stories, and there has been one regular site that has the ability to run stories, without credit, from a number of blogs including the Blog Herald.

Who cares? A story is a story. You didn't invent the story. Why make a big deal over what amounts to nothing?

I steal, you steal, we all steal. Sometimes we credit when we feel like it, sometimes we don't.

...the blogosphere will not be messed with...

Big media don't credit one-another, either, in case you haven't noticed.

Stupid elitist bloggers with their cocks in each-other's asses.

I can think of a few of the popular blogs that 'stole' a story (as if I owned it) from HNTB and didn't credit me, probably because they don't want anyone else to know they read HNTB. As long as they don't cut and paste the text, what do I care?

Stealing images is just as easy. If it's not specifically copyrighted, it's free pickins. If you don't want your images all over the internet, don't post them.

Hypocritical nitwits.

The Solipsis P2P Virtual World project aims to set up a massively shared virtual world on using your PC.

Looks boring thus far. But the best thing about the project, of course, is that it's open source. It could evolve into just about anything.

[See an article about it from CNET]

Am I the only one who gets horny over images from space like these?

Greasemonkey!

I know you've been jacking off to my porn stash. Just don't touch my grass.

"The new digital divide" is bullshit. You can't assume that a small, small internet population using "all the latest toys" are causing a divide. That's like someone with 95% ass on the left cheek saying the divide is up the crack and opening the floor up to solutions.

Sometimes I put some of that K-Y jelly stuff on my legs to soothe my arthritis. Might as well use it for something.

Do you honest believe the US's war with the world will ever end? It's the only way we can survive.

Wind turbines suck. They take up too much room. Stick it on my roof.

Make some good movies and stop complaining about the box office.

Lessons in critical thinking.

Michelle, why write stories when you can just make them up?

I need to smack someone on the back of the head, quick.

Get rid of the bitch. Blair and his cronies should be given a swift kick in the arse.

Is 2006 here yet? I'm getting bored.

Are we really going to see another outbreak of polio? I thought we wiped that out years ago. C'mon people.

Pizza be good, pizza be bad.

Is it so hard to learn from history and put fascism behind us?

Go, go, go, USA Today! I'm surprised. Now do some real investigative journalism and stop talking about longer DMV lines.

Kids today. A little older than kids yesterday.