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  All’s Well that Orwells

  07.18.09 | Permalink | Comment?

  I confess that I own a copy of George Orwell’s 1984.  I’ve read it, and enjoyed it.  I will also confess to going through a bit of an anti-authoritarian phase in my youth; my hair was shaggy, I wore flannel shirts with holes in them, and I referred not infrequently to a vague consortium of evildoers known collectively as “The Man.”  But here’s the important thing: I learned more about the world, and subsequently stopped spouting insipid nonsense.  Some people have yet to do that.

  But first, Dear Reader, let me tell you a story.  Amazon sells a device called the Kindle.  The Kindle is like an iPod, but instead of playing music, it displays books.  (In point of fact, the Kindle also can play music, but this ubiquitous feature is built into practically any consumer electronics you can think of today.)  Kindle owners put books on their device by connecting it to a computer and either (1)  purchasing books from Amazon directly, or (2) “finding” the full text of books somewhere else.

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• The News

  One Way or Another

  05.12.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  Hypothetical situation about the opposite of a Big Brother Police State: you’re on a public street in a car registered in your name, in plain view of Tom, Dick, Harry, and pretty much every concept of God known to the Western World.  In this situation, is a police officer allowed to look at you, or not allowed to look at you?  The answer ought to be obvious.

  So if you’re on a public street in a car registered in your name, in plain view of a GPS satellite, and probably carrying a phone and/or navigation system in your pants and on your dashboard, what makes you think that the police can’t use the same technology to watch you?  Do you magically gain some sort of rights when computers are involved?  A recent AP article about a court ruling in Michigan seems amazed at the lack of privacy we have while in public.

  If we want to make a law requiring the police use only eyeballs to follow you, that’s fine.  I think it’s much more cost-effective to have the police use technology to keep up with society, but there’s plenty of room for debate.  However, let’s not act surprised that driving around on a public road is less than completely private.

Almost Legally

Will work for Contracts outlines

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