[Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., on telecom immunity:]

“I’m not here to say that the government is always right, but when the government tells you to do something, I’m sure you would all agree that I think you all recognize that is something you need to do,” Bond said.

Jawohl, mein Fuhrer!

And to think it was a Republican president (Reagan) that said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”

Thanks, Jim!

[Quote:]

Automated passenger profiling is rubbish, the Home Office has conceded in an amusing – and we presume inadvertent – blurt. “Attempts at automated profiling have been used in trial operations [at UK ports of entry] and has proved [sic] that the systems and technology available are of limited use,” says home secretary Jacqui Smith in her response to Lord Carlile’s latest terror legislation review.

Furthermore, when the security services stopped trying to let the machines figure out who was a threat and went back to traditional “inituitive” stops, they were more effective. “Intelligence improved during the trials when officers reverted to the traditional intuitive methods, albeit applied in the context of intelligence provided by the security service,” says Smith. “It is likely that with more effective use of intelligence, and possibly some behavioural analysis training the quality of intelligence retrieved from persons of interest will improve and the number of people stopped will decrease.”

The Home Office’s belated discovery that human beings acting on sound intelligence make for better policing does however raise questions about the future operation of its E-Borders programme. This is intended to track people in and out of the country, and to operate in conjunction with Advanced Passenger Data (API) and Passenger Name Records (PNR) collected via Project Semaphore. As Home Office minister Joan Ryan told Parliament in March of last year, “In January 2007 23 successes were recorded by Project Semaphore as a result of automated profiling based on passenger data.”

23. Out of how many thousands of travelers profiled they dare not say, nor do they say how many of those 23 were for unpaid parking tickets and the like.

Yep, crap alright.

[Quote:]

The UK’s streets are today a safer place for kiddies and decorated war veterans after public and police hostility forced a Gloucestershire bus-spotter to give up his lifelong hobby of snapping interesting examples of road-based public transport, the Evening Standard reports.

Rob McCaffrey, 50, had apparently over 40 years built up an impressive 30,000 pics of buses, coaches and trams from across the globe, but has now put the lens cap on for good because he “keeps being mistaken for a terrorist and paedophile”.

He explained: “Since the 9/11 attacks there has been a crackdown on security and it seems everyone with a camera is now regarded as a potential criminal. The past two years have absolutely been the worst. I have had the most appalling abuse from the public, drivers and police over-exercising their authority.

[Quote:]

Nokia has bought up the bits of Symbian it didn’t already own and is chucking the OS into an open-source foundation along with the S60 UI layer, accompanied by Sony Ericsson and DoCoMo, who are throwing in UIQ and MOAP(S) respectively.

[..]

Those members will have to cough up at least $1,500 a year, but that’s chicken feed to companies such as AT&T and Vodafone, which have come on board to endorse the more open Symbian platform.

Good move. Let’s hope it works out. Apple could use the competition.

[Quote:]

“At any instant, KaZaA users are likely to have thousands of sources for these particular songs to choose from and no reason to choose Ms. Thomas’ computer over any other. And while KaZaA users may engage in a prodigious amount of infringing activity, that tells us nothing about the crucial issue in this case: whether this Defendant transmitted any of these 24 songs during the relevant time period. Testimony from an investigator that he or she downloaded a song simply cannot bridge the chasm between “making
available” and “actual dissemination” to anyone other than Plaintiffs’ authorized agents.
Plaintiffs may complain that they cannot overcome this evidentiary hurdle. But Plaintiffs include some of the largest companies in the recording industry, with nearly
limitless resources when compared to Ms. Thomas. It is Plaintiffs who have threatened litigation against over 30,000 people, many whom are unprepared for the unfamiliar (to a layperson) demands of discovery. It is Plaintiffs who have chosen to target noncommercial activities that occur in the privacy of the home, thereby injecting themselves “behind closed doors” where factual investigation can be difficult. Having put themselves in this position, Plaintiffs should not complain that proving their distribution claims poses evidentiary challenges.”

(thanks, dré!)

[Quote:]

But, just for fun, let’s say you bought an 8 GB iPhone the day they were released for $599. Months later you got an Apple Store gift certificate for $100 when the price was cut, meaning you’re effectively out only $499 (yes, assuming you were going to buy something from the Apple Store anyway). Now, you turn around and sell it on eBay for $400.

Your total cost for that 8 GB iPhone?

$99 plus tax.

The Macalope doesn’t know about you, but he’s trying really hard to feel like a sucker and it’s just not working.

Maybe he’s doing it wrong.