Will this become a “Best Practice?”

http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_231174740.html

Aug 19, 2006 2:21 pm US/Pacific

UC Students Get Crash Course In Internet Privacy

(AP) BERKELEY This Sunday thousands of University of California, Berkeley freshmen moving in to residence halls will not be able to use their computers until they attend a mandatory social networking workshop.

Is this a Tim Allen survival kit or a terrorist tool?

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000003.php

Tool Belt

Another way to have your tools "always on"

A carry-around tool that can pass through airports security (without me even taking it off) is the Tool Belt. It is designed for snowboarders but is useful all the time. The buckle can be disassembled easily (without removing the belt) and gives you a phillips, a flat head and 8, 10, and 11mm hex wrenches (which turn out to have handy standard equivalents). It's also a good tough and comfy belt which I have been wearing and using since 1999.

... Tool Belt $50 Available from Daddy's Board Shop Manufactured by 686 Enterprises

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.

http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdw/jdw060818_1_n.shtml

Opinion - Asymmetry and other fables

By Helmoed-Roemer Heitman JDW Correspondent 18 August 2006

Cape Town Today we are fascinated with asymmetric warfare, net-centric warfare and precision warfare and we are convinced that heavy forces and the tank (yet again) are passe.

Asymmetry works both ways. There is nothing quite as asymmetric as a tank driving over an infantryman.

Asymmetry is not new. It is as old as warfare: mounted knights totally outclassed foot soldiers until faced with new weapons and tactics. The crossbow reversed things and declaring it "unchristian" and attempting to ban it did not work too well. Both mounted and foot soldiers remain on the battlefield, however, despite the shifting advantage.

Guerrilla warfare is also hardly new and can be defeated by forcing the guerrillas to fight on unfavourable terms - asymmetrically. The South African Army, for example, used mechanised forces against guerrilla bases in Angola and light mechanised forces to track and defeat those guerrillas who did get across the border.

The reverse side saw South Vietnam conquered by conventional North Vietnamese forces of armour, infantry and artillery that rolled over the South Vietnamese Army without much difficulty. They were able to do so because the south was organised and armed primarily for operations against guerrillas. This is asymmetry at work.

Armies rushing to become lighter, more agile and more deployable - and more fragile - might want to ponder that example.

Asymmetry is real and can offer a real edge to those who recognise its potential in the particular situation and exploit it - in either direction.

246 of 1,032 words © 2006 Jane's Information Group [End of non-subscriber extract]

The first comment set off a DRM debate...

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/19/1838253&from=rss

Locking Up Linux, Creating a Cryptobook

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday August 19, @03:22PM from the operational-paranoia dept.

Tom's Hardware has a nice overview about some of the latest ways to secure your data looking specifically at open source solutions that wont lock down your credit card. Since many people presented performance issues for why they don't implement encryption there was also special attention given to how well your system will perform after implementation of encryption. From the article:

"At least where LUKS is concerned, performance is hardly an issue - one must expect to pay some penalty for additional encryption facilities that handle unencrypted data transparently. All of these solutions are simple to set up and use on a daily basis, but LUKS is portable across Windows and Linux platforms."

Video that does not say much about where the information comes from or how it is used. I wonder where Colorado's is?

http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6107497.html?part=rss&tag=6107497&subj=news

First U.S. government intelligence center opens

CNET News.com's Joris Evers gets inside the first Joint Regional Intelligence Center, whose workforce is drawn from the FBI, Homeland Security and regional agencies. Our camera was allowed in for a visit from Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Marginally interesting

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012178.html

August 18, 2006

National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism Annual Report 2006

National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism Annual Report 2006 (82 pages, PDF)

This is the probable future of all journals – free and online

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012182.html

August 18, 2006

International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law Available Free Online

International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law "...is ICNL's quarterly journal of analysis on global civil society. IJNL addresses legal topics as well as social, cultural, political and economic issues affecting the legal environment. Our readers include attorneys, government officials, grantmakers, scholars, and activists...IJNL is electronically distributed without charge to subscribers." [Lawsites]

Far be it for me (a great fan of governmental bureaucracies) to point out that this is hardly the logical approach. Wouldn't it be better to capture the data at the source? Should it take 70 years to complete ANY task?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012177.html

August 18, 2006

DHS Announces Establishment of Records Digitization Facility

Press release, August 17, 2006, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: "USCIS Announces Establishment of a Records Digitization Facility in Williamsburg, Ky., that will digitize more than one million UCIS Alien-Files (A-Files) during the first phase...[there are approximately 70 million immigration records]."

[From the press release:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today the establishment of a new Records Digitization Facility (RDF) in Williamsburg, Kentucky to digitize more than one million USCIS Alien-Files (A-Files) during the first phase of the inaugural project. While this is a relatively small percentage of the approximately 70 million immigration records, USCIS plans [i.e. They haven't even STARTED yet. Bob] to use the digitized files to begin the transformation of its business processes. Congress has provided dedicated funding for the digitization of approximately one million files per year. [Scheduled to be done in 2076 (except for all the new stuff) Bob]

Raw data for my database class...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/012188.html

August 19, 2006

Portal to Census 2000 Data

"CensusScope is an easy-to-use tool for investigating U.S. demographic trends, brought to you by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) at the University of Michigan. With eye-catching graphics and exportable trend data, CensusScope is designed for both generalists and specialists."