Big Brother has poked you

From Wired: US Intelligence services will now be doing more data-mining about what you post on your blog or tweet. .

No need to cry out just yet - they are just speeding up what could be done before - this engine parses public tools, such as blogs and tweeter, but not closed social networks. So, yet another reason to think twice before blogging - unless you want government reading your thoughts.

Running a file

Double-click an executable file...
"You seem to want to run this  program - are you sure?"
"Yes"
"Really?"
"Yes"
"Like, totally, really sure?"
"Yes"
"Are you sure you dont want to delete it instead?"
"No, just run it, please"
"You know that this little programmy thingy can hurt you, right? You wouldn't want to have a boo-boo"
"Yes, i know, I am also sure it will not, i've ran it many times"
"But you never know. There are many things out there in the big and scary Internet, why don't you stick around with the small and cosy world of our company?"
"Ok, how about this - i've been doing this stuff for NN years, i know what i want, just run the program?"
"Would you like this little cute puppy on your screen?"
"No. just run the damn program!"
"Hey, no need to be defensive i just want to let you know that our company also has this great suite of flashy software that does all the same stuff this program and does also offers counseling and hand-holding. Want to try this one instead?"
"No. Could you please, start the program?"
"Look at that puppy, look at him! Isn't he adorable? I used to have another cute pet - it was a paper clip. It loved to ask questions and offer help... Some people didn't get it though, I guess. He was sent to recycling... Life is a funny thing, you know... I remember this one time I was updating myself and ... "
"Ok, how about this - we are just going to just forget that I ever double-clicked anything, ok?"
"Ok, just for you and just today. By the way, there is this offer for this security software our company produces - it will make sure that you will not start any bad software on your computer"
"Oh... thanks. Awesome. Really... Yeah"
"And, btw, i already started that program you double-clicked 20 minutes ago"
"Huh?"
"Yeah. It was asking a lot of questions, so i just said Yes, so that it wouldn't distract you from our conversation. I also changed the default e-mail client back to our flashy client. It came in the bundle, so if you are using the other programs from that bundle, I know you really want to use that one instead of your old one, right?"
"Ok. just whatever. Nice talking to you"
"Yeah! Any time! Hey, could you do me a favor - restart me please? See, you moved your mouse, you need to restart your computer for changes to take effect"

Nobel Hope Prize

President Barack Obama was awarded Nobel Peace Prize
This supposedly puts him in the same league as these people:
Henry Dunant (1901)
Woodrow Wilson (1919)
Emily Greene Balch (1946)Ralph Bunche (1950)
Martin Luther King Jr. (1964)
Andrei Sakharov (1975)
Mother Theresa (1979)
Jodi Williams (1997)
(see here)
.. and many others who have, indeed, made contributions to "a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts, and arms control."

This puzzles me - what has our president done that elevates him to the level of these people and organizations? I guess the Nobel Peace Prize Committee needs to re-evaluate their criteria and stop playing favoritism. As far as I can see, so far our President has only been talking.

Big Brother is watching

Via Bruce Schneier's Blog :

What DHS knows about you
That's a lot of information stored in one place. I really really really hope they safeguard it well. I mean, they are the government, right... they have super-duper stuff that protects this kind of data, right? right?...