Slashdot stories
Three interesting stories today on Slashdot.
Firstly, MySpace will offer a program for parents to track thir kids’ profiles.
Parents who install the monitoring software on their home computers would be able to find out what name, age and location their children are using to represent themselves on MySpace. The software doesn’t enable parents to read their child’s e-mail or see the child’s profile page and children would be alerted that their information was being shared. The program would continue to send updates about changes in the child’s name, age and location, even when the child logs on from other computers.
The only suprise here is that Rupert Murdoch waited for 18 months before selling out his users (after all, my scientific research shows that 93% of MySpace users are under 13). Will this spell the end for the popular site? I say yes.
Secondly, political bloggers in the grand old US of A could soon be forced to register their details with the Ministry of Truth, or face a gaol sentence.
Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big K Street lobbyists. Section 220
would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. For the first time in history, critics of Congress will need to register and report with Congress itself.The bill would require reporting of ‘paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying,’ but defines ‘paid’ merely as communications to 500 or more members of the public, with no other qualifiers.
On January 9, the Senate passed Amendment 7 to S. 1, to create criminal penalties, including up to one year in jail, if someone ‘knowingly and willingly fails to file or report.’
Scary stuff. Hopefully this time Mr Howard won’t feel the need to follow the lead of his closest ally.
And finally, my favourite story, again from the US (hey, as far as I can tell, 97% of the internet population live there, so it’s hard to escape). The US Navy Surface Warfare Center has successfully fired an 8 MJ rail gun!
For those of you who don’t know what a rail gun is, here’s a demonstration from my favourite actor of all time.
These things are good. The next step is to develop a 64 megajoule version, capable of firing over 460 km. The projectiles actually leave the atmosphere at maximum trajectory, reaching an altitude of over 150 km. Reagan’s Star Wars system lives on!
January 18, 2007 9:56 pm 5 Comments
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By Joel
, January 18, 2007 @ 10:09 pm
image is missing stu
By foster the imposter
, January 19, 2007 @ 9:27 am
gaol?
its jail, idjit
i hate the australian spelling…
By stu
, January 19, 2007 @ 9:38 am
And I suppose I should start using miles, fahrenheit, and gallons, and “zedinize” all my words too?
Damn you to hell.
Oh sorry, that should be:
Darn you to heck.
By Joel
, January 19, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Foster, come clean, you just want to be a Texan.
By foster the imposter
, January 24, 2007 @ 4:45 pm
CORRECTION: I Want to be IN a Texan
that accent….