My wife and I are fostering a wonderful dog that was abandoned at the dog park. He is very well-behaved and has eyes that would make a Fremen proud. Behold Boon, the atomic dog…

I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new phone. This message and image were created using the phone. I’ll follow up with a more detailed review tomorrow…

This morning I was reading my usual RSS feeds when I was reminded of the Real ID Act: that, among other things, mandates the information that states must include/require on/for drivers licenses and requires the linking of state drivers license databases. Some would argue that the act turns state drivers licenses into national ID cards… And I would agree with them. However, I don’t think opponents to the act are making the right argument.

You see it everywhere, “It is a violation of civil liberties.” But the truth is that a national ID card in itself doesn’t violate civil liberties. It is how and when the card data is used that creates the problem. Instead of banning national ID cards altogether, I think it would be better to turn this into an opportunity to create laws that specify how and when private citizen information may be accessed and also legislate more power into the hands of citizens when it comes to protecting and ensuring the accuracy of what is essentially their data.

What we need is a Privacy Bill of Rights. When the government looks up my information in a national database, I want to know about it… And I want a justification. I also want the ability to challenge it so that future violations of my privacy don’t happen again. There are ways to do this that balance the ability of law enforcement to protect the citizenry while at the same time ensuring that private citizen data is not so easily searched and seized.

click the title to read my proposed legislation

I was just reading a post on Slashdot regarding Total Information Awareness and was impressed with a number of interesting comments. One person made some very insightful commentary regarding the Bush administration’s track record of ignoring (read: “reinterpreting”) the law. Every day there’s something new to piss me off so it is easy to forget just what has occurred in the past. Here’s a rundown (with links if you’re in denial):

1. They’ve seized American citizens and imprisoned them in foreign countries without charging them, incommunicado, for indefinite terms, without a court order or judicial review.
2. They’ve been wiretapping American citizens without a warrant, without judicial oversight, and without public debate or review.
3. They’ve risked national security by leaking classified information in order to discredit/attack dissenters.
4. They’ve been torturing people suspected of terrorism-related crimes via international flights.
5. They don’t believe that the law banning torture applies to them.
6. They’ve been kidnapping foreign citizens in their home countries without notifying their respective governments (Italy). They then purposefully appropriated misinformation (lied) to mislead the local authorities… Creating an certain amount of distrust among U.S. allies and lowering the United States reputation globally.
7. They’ve been spying on peaceful protesters (also without a warrant) because they were critical of the administration’s policies
8. The Senate ordered the largest (illegal) domestic spying program in the history of the world shut down (Total Information Awareness) in 2003… The Bush administration didn’t shut it down and possibly used it to spy on John Kerry and his campaign staff before the election.

1. They may have wiretapped a CNN reporter who leaked the story on Bush’s wiretapping

   Last time I checked, the President wasn’t above the law. So why hasn’t he been impeached? Can the Republican party really be that partisan? Are they just corrupt? Do they fear retribution from a president that very likely could have been spying on them and collecting every one of their dirty little secrets?

   Where did our freedom go?

Just wanted to announce that I’ve setup an online store to sell T-shirts. I have T-shirt ideas all the time so I needed an outlet =)

http://www.cafepress.com/wickedhacker

Let me know what you think of my designs!

Update: I changed my store name and link.

I might be posting some ideas regarding the Federal Budget in the coming days, so I figured that before I do that I should at least provide the facts. Here’s the 2007 (proposed by The President a few weeks ago) Federal Budget ($2.7 trillion):

Broken down by percentage

• Social Security: 21%
• Medicare/Medicaid: 21%
• Military: 19%
• Discretionary spending (non-military): 18%
• Other: 12%

• Interest on National Debt: 9%

  Where it (historically) comes from

• 48% Citizen Income Taxes
• 34% Social Security
• 10% Corporate Income Taxes
• 4% Other

• 4% Excise Tax

  There’s no way to know the exact percentages for 2007 yet. These percentages are from the 2004 budget.

I just dugg this story on how touch screen systems have replaced cashiers at one Taco Bell/KFC combo restaurant. I’ve been wanting this for YEARS! However, just from looking at the picture I already see major problems with the implementation.

In this article I’m going to complain about the current state of ordering and payment technologies we all use every day. Enjoy!

Read about it | Digg story

This project took me nearly a month and a half, but it is finally complete…

The problem:

• Vehicles were regularly running over the sprinkler heads along the edge of the driveway, breaking the buried PVC pipes (since the sprinkler heads were directly screwed into the T-fittings). This essentially rendered that whole sprinkler zone useless.

• The well pump was regularly turning on when the sprinkler system was not running indicating a leak somewhere in the buried pipes (pressure loss).

  The plan:

• Dig up the PVC pipes along the driveway and replace them with flexible PVC (hose).
• Use flexible/shock-absorbing risers for the sprinkler heads to reduce potential pressure on the buried PVC.

• Find the leak and repair it. (more…)

I just want to say thanks to Solid for helping me install a new water heater yesterday. He has a black belt in “house fu” and wields the tools of this ancient art like a seventh-kyu Okinawan “Master of the pipe”.

We finished around midnight last night (started late around 7-ish and had a 1.5 hour break for dinner at 9) and after about 20 minutes of waiting the water coming out of the hot tap was considerably warmer than the water coming out of the cold tap so we assumed success. Solid went home and I went to bed. Needless to say, I washed away any stress I had about the new water heater with my hot shower this morning.

My trials and tribulations of swapping out a propane water heater with an electric one can be found in the rest of this post (along with lots of statistical info, prices, and wisdom).

click the title to read the whole story (more…)

Umm… Way to be discreet: After publishing an article reporting corruption in the local police force, Wu Xianghu was beaten to death by FIFTY police officers. Obviously the problem of corruption isn’t limited to a few individuals. What were the police accused of? Charging “illegal bicycle fees”. Obviously the police have a bit more to answer for now.

I’d say, “Don’t let the Man get you down.” but it appears it is too late. THIS is the country we’re sending all our money to?