In a bid demanding that the greatest time wasting, useless silliness at airports not come from the TSA, the FDA has ruled that it is to impound all penile sex toys due to safety concerns. We are talking about penis pumps, cock rings, etc.

Yes, this article has the mandatory OMG I can’t believe he’s on the watchlist cast of characters, but what’s more interesting is the two other points the article makes: 1) there is paperwork to get off the watchlist, but at 3 years and counting it’s still not being processed 2) people have now been on Read more about terror ‘watch list’ newness?[…]

The UK government has put up a site detailing what it thinks are the largest risks to the UK. Surprisingly, terrorism and other general fear mongering isn’t really up there – it’s more about natural events, which sounds realistic to me.

And in pretty astounding news, Steve Jobs has confirmed that the iphone has a kill switch for applications Apple doesn’t want you to have. The list has nothing to do with allowing access to some kernel core as some people have conjectured.

Google has released a way updated version of Google Trends, namely Google Insights for Search. Insights allows you to compare search query popularity over regions (globally, continents, countries, counties, etc), show you what each search term is used for within context and allows you to specify time ranges. It doesn’t have an export to csv Read more about Google Insights for Search[…]

The US Dept. of Homeland Security has just elucidated their policy: We can seize, keep your laptop without cause. Actually, they can seize any electronic device without cause.

In the drive for total control over the internet, ISP’s have got together to outright block any “child porn” they may find. This of course sounds like a nice plan, but the problem is that it sets a precendence in that the ISPs have the power (and the responsibilty?) – both of which should be Read more about Again – using child porn as an excuse[…]

US Congress has been having a go at NebuAd, a company that tracks all of your web surfing habits from within the ISP, for not telling consumers that they’re being tracked or having any form of opt-in. Just like in the UK, your privacy belongs to big business.

Because the record companies insist on following a dramatically failing business model, the EU now wants to encourage their incompetence. They want to raise the period that a rightsholder has rights to their performance (of any song, not necessarily one their own) from 50 years to 95 years, like in the US. One of the Read more about EU to protect singers for 95 years[…]

I went Apple for a few months with a G4 Powerbook, but rapidly ran into the piles of proprietary junk Apple has all over the place. Apple is Evil and no matter how cool their kit looks, Apple is an uber-Borg on the make. The FSF agrees and here’s why you should not get an Read more about Apple is Evil (duh)[…]

Then they’re going to smoke outdoors. So as this looks like loitering, what do you do? Make the smokers walk up and down the streets, catching colds and littering their cigarette butts all over the place. Seriously though, what did these anti-smoking idiots really think was going to happen?

Well, they have them that heat you up and now they have them that use microwaves to install voices in your head. With high enough intensity it will kill you. This one’s called MEDUSA – Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio. This means that covering your ears won’t help against it.

And not in a good way. They want to allow companies to install malware and spyware on your PC. They also want to have an automatic three strikes out rule for downloaders: If you’re caught your ISP cuts you off. Jawohl mein fuhrer, hier ist mein ausweiss. Sieg heil!

No idea what the why of it is, but AVG antivirus is faking Internet Explorer User Agents and is flooding the internet with it. Ah, El Reg reports that it’s because AVG 8 vets websites / search engine results before you click on them, making nuts traffic over all our pipes! Apparently some people are Read more about AVG Floods the Internet[…]

the judge granted a Viacom motion that records of every video watched by YouTube users, including their login names and IP addresses, be turned over to the entertainment giant Holy fuck! YouTube privacy at risk in Google-Viacom ruling | Tech news blog – CNET News.com

It looks like the EU has not learned a thing from the outrage of giving away flight data and swift financial data to the US, and is now agreeing to give all data the US wants as long as it is ‘adequately protected’. What that level of protection is, isn’t defined, so if the US Read more about EU selling out private data to the US[…]

Yes, from our nannying UK – in order to be in touch with any children you don’t own, you need a government CRB check, declaring you ‘safe’ to be in contact with children. Most of the comments in the article register outrage, a few tiny small minority come out with the inane ‘if you’re not Read more about People banned from Contact with Children[…]

Now anyone with his dog can get one! Gief mine! NB About time – using the dot god infrastructure was a no go, Open Root Server cost too much and Namespace was too obscure (see here)

The problem with surveillance is not primarily that some bored officer might learn about some embarrassing private detail (although this is a problem as well). The fundamental problem with surveillance is that it changes people. People under surveillance behave differently than people who are not monitored – differently than free people. Unfortunately, this fundamental problem Read more about Data Retention Effectively Changes the Behavior of Citizens in Germany[…]

.. no, actually. Sorry. These are Network Operation Centers. But don’t you just see Bond walking into one of these while battling SPECTRE minions? NOC gallery

Not only can they search them, they can copy whatever they like – your phone record, your email, whatever! And they can keep them for as long as they feel like. Not mentioned in this article is that if it was encrypted, they can force you to give up the encryption password too. And we Read more about US Customs Searching Laptops and Mobile phones[…]

There are a couple of sites out there which give you a good look at the global spam trending. Most of the links in here I found in the following site: Spam Links – spam stats Messagelabs has a weekly overview of virusses, spam and phishing Commtouch Spam lab has a nice graph with 30 Read more about SPAM![…]

The UK Government is refusing to investigate well grounded claims that BT together with Phorm electronically eavesdropped on hunderds of thousands of ISP users without a legal reason to do so. It seems the UK Home Office stance is that since they’re companies they don’t need to be brought to account, which means basically they’re Read more about BT’s and Phorm eavesdrop and get away with it[…]

OpenID is the open source single sign on system for websites: ie. sites using OpenID will all allow you to log in using one username / password combination. It’s something the Porn industry has been chasing for years, but is very very difficult indeed to achieve due to payment / trust issues – who gets Read more about OpenID – might actually happen[…]

Not just fingerprint data from the guilty, not just DNA from anyone entering the USA (I guess they’re guilty of that), but now more biometrics for more people! Irises, face shapes, scars, whatever the FB can think up they’ll be storing. And everybody will be in it. And everyone (well, OK, not everyone, but huge Read more about FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics[…]