The Null Device
2001/3/13
Mass desertion in the War On Drugs: As the U.S. and Australia intensify their respective anti-drug crusades, European states are following the Dutch lead and decriminalising possession. Even Britain is recommending that police do nothing when faced with incidents of aggravated dope smoking. Only Sweden and Greece are keeping the faith in the possible eradication of the drug menace.
Pat Cadigan on how cyberpunk literature influenced technology:
Cyberpunk was really a reaction against old boy sci-fi which was about white guys in space who would come up with some kind of technological thing.
Your next computer will be a trusted client: The latest great white hope for the content industry is known as InTether. Based on military security technologies, InTether is a Windows-based universal copy control system, which takes control of the operating system and can disable software such as screen grabbers. What's more, it can detect attempts at tampering and shut down the computer, or self-destruct, taking all secured content with it.
To begin with, Friedman says, the system incorporates 11 layers of security defenses. ''All have to be successfully navigated'' in order to hack the system. ''But one piece does nothing but check continually the integrity of the other pieces,'' he says. ''If you could disable a certain piece, within milliseconds our system would know.''
Could this be a real-life "black ice"? Bruce Schneier, for one, is skeptical.
Seen in my SpamCop spam filter:
[5554103] affiliates@nudegirlcasino.com (we'd like to do business)
held Tuesday, March 13, 2001 16:07:34 +1100 (isp score:20
(postmaster@freestart.hu, postmaster@dial.freestart.hu))
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Nothing quite like a name like Nude Girl Casino to inspire confidence in a business proposal, is there? (Even better; tack a '.com' onto the end of that for that extra touch of credibility.)
Communists at the BBC: Liberal-appointed ABC directors planned a cull of Labor sympathisers. Or so claims a candidate for the job of Managing Director who lost out to a former Liberal Party member.