Eh, I am on a Drupal kick, and might as well bookmark some nerd things. (I have been adding quite a bit to my del.icio.us bookmarks too, lately, be sure to look @ the top of the page for those).

More tech items: I was impressed to find BetaNews | Inside Information; Unreleased Products

BetaNews | Google continues to mete out privacy features
BetaNews | Google adds fuel to Canada's BitTorrent throttling fracas
BetaNews | Angry YouTube users boycott, Viacom seems to respond
BetaNews | Google releases its data encoding format to compete with XML
Google Open Source Blog: Protocol Buffers: Google's Data Interchange Format

how it works! Developer Guide - Protocol Buffers - Google Code

The Associated Press: `Public' online spaces don't carry speech, rights
As Web Traffic Grows, Crashes Take Bigger Toll - NYTimes.com

Slashdot: Google Open Sources Its Data Interchange Format

Slashdot: Massive, Coordinated Patch To the DNS Released

Hmmm... MediaShift Idea Lab . Still Seeking Coders Interested in Journalism | PBS

more here, there was hax0rs in t3h DNS lulz: Dan Kaminsky Discovers Fundamental Issue In DNS: Massive Multivendor Patch Released | securosis.com!

Fixes Released for Massive Internet Security Issue

On July 8th, technology vendors from across the industry will simultaneously release patches for their products to close a major vulnerability in the underpinnings of the Internet. While most home users will be automatically updated, it’s important for all businesses to immediately update their networks. This is the largest synchronized security update in the history of the Internet, and is the result of hard work and dedication across dozens of organizations.

Earlier this year, professional security research Dan Kaminsky discovered a major issue in how Internet addresses are managed (Domain Name System, or DNS). This issue was in the design of DNS and not limited to any single product. DNS is used by every computer on the Internet to know where to find other computers. Using this issue, an attacker could easily take over portions of the Internet and redirect users to arbitrary, and malicious, locations. For example, an attacker could target an Internet Service Provider (ISP), replacing the entire web — all search engines, social networks, banks, and other sites — with their own malicious content. Against corporate environments, an attacker could disrupt or monitor operations by rerouting network traffic traffic, capturing emails and other sensitive business data.

Mr. Kaminsky immediately reported the issue to major authorities, including the United States Computer Emergency Response Team (part of the Department of Homeland Security), and began working on a coordinated fix. Engineers from major technology vendors around the world converged on the Microsoft campus in March to coordinate their response. All of the vendors began repairing their products and agreed that a synchronized release, on a single day, would minimize the risk that malicious individuals could figure out the vulnerability before all vendors were able to offer secure versions of their products. The vulnerability is a complex issue, and there is no evidence to suggest that anyone with malicious intent knows how it works.

Slashdot: Your Mashup Is Probably Legal

and Handling Flash Crowds From Your Garage which interestingly has a large section on "how to deal w your DNS when its fux0red, fulltext: Handling Flash Crowds from your Garage

Drupal time now! Summer of Code 2008 Mid-term Results wherein the Big G puts up some money to get the kiddos makin totally badass modules. Mostly these won't make a lot of sense to the outsiders among you, but they look good!

We are seeing a lot of these clever youngsters realizing that the 5.x modules were too specific, and it would be much better to write plugin module frameworks so that the redundant stuff can be minimized. So now fancy feature areas like Geographic bookmarking/plotting and WYSIWYG editors, two messy areas, would be streamlined as these projects mature.

Other cool modules: Google Client Geocoder and gProximity and Geo and location (API, module). CCK Node Menu, Smartqueue Per User, Gears, Wysiwyg.

Look at this! CCK GMap Address. Would look delicious! Wysiwyg looks like a needed fork of TinyMCE, and an abstraction.

More to be seen about this fun area here: Location and Mapping | groups.drupal.

Discussion of cool things:

sun's vision for handling embedded/inline content and Wysiwyg in Drupal

Better input format support in Drupal 7

Coder is pretty sweet for developing and here's a bit on Porting Drupal Modules from 5 into 6.

When does a new version of Drupal get released?

When needed, this is nice: Drupal Modules - Search, Rate, and Review Drupal Modules.

******

Sometimes we wonder how to assemble an F35 stealth fighter. But then we find out! Via here and here and Cryptome!

On a related note, they have the official shit list of the government! US Foreign Enemies List is impressive - all the individuals in the PLO, Kahanists, the very bad al-Tikriti family in Iraq...

I think I am getting into a tangent here...

In an epic battle, Minnesota Democrats and a small tribe of brave, rebellious, Republicans defeated Governor Pawlenty's perpetually stupid transportation policies, and put forth a really good plan to save this whole metro area from a perpetually crappy future. Toll roads and privatization are banned (with some loopholes), the license tab caps enacted under Ventura have been removed, and a ton of money will get put into transit. MnDOT is also directed to make nice with the feds and develop a complete metro-wide transportation plan.

The metro area gets a huge block of new money, much of which will go right into transit, the first time in ages that anything has come that way.

Meanwhile local areas can vote to enact small sales taxes to cover various projects, which will be handed out by new joint boards. Or something along those lines. While it seems like a big slam of money, there is also a small gasoline tax refund for lower brackets.

Also they have to report the state of all the bridges every year. In all, it is a model bill for a troubled metro area such as ours, and should really catch notice within months. It also couldn't come soon enough: the municipal bond market is all screwed up now, so it is going to be hard to borrow money.

TPaw sheds some crocodile tears for the defeat of his hardline friends. Once again, he gets off the hook!

1.1A bill for an act


1.2 relating to transportation finance; appropriating money for transportation

1.3activities; providing funding for highway maintenance, debt service, and local

1.4roads; appropriating funds for emergency relief related to the I-35W bridge

1.5collapse; establishing a trunk highway bridge improvement program; requiring

1.6a study of value capture to reduce the public costs of large transportation

1.7infrastructure investment; authorizing sale and issuance of bonds; modifying

1.8motor vehicle registration and motor fuel taxes; establishing annual surcharge on

1.9motor fuel taxes; creating a motor fuels tax credit; allocating motor vehicle lease

1.10tax revenues; providing for local transportation sales taxes; modifying county

1.11state-aid highway fund revenue allocation; prohibiting tolling or privatization

1.12of existing transportation facilities; establishing bridge improvement program;

1.13modifying driver's license reinstatement fee provisions; regulating certain transit

1.14funding activities; modifying provisions related to various transportation-related

1.15funds and accounts; establishing a task force; requiring reports;amending

1.16Minnesota Statutes 2006, sections 160.84, subdivision 1; 161.081, subdivision 3;

1.17162.06; 162.07, subdivision 1, by adding subdivisions; 168.013, subdivision 1a;

1.18171.29, subdivision 2; 290.06, by adding a subdivision; 296A.07, subdivision

1.193; 296A.08, subdivision 2; 297A.64, subdivision 2; 297A.815, by adding a

1.20subdivision; 297A.99, subdivision 1; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota

1.21Statutes, chapters 160; 165; 296A; 297A; 398A.

1.22BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

.... huzzah (and there was much rejoicing) ..... TPaw blamed someone else, and all was well in the land.... BE IT ENACTED!

See, you not only have to be a good coder to create a system like Linux, you have to be a sneaky bastard too.
--Linus Torvalds- via Detroit Wireless Project

Ok I just saw the first few minutes of this one, but clearly it looks pretty damn cool. Steal This Film: hosted on GoogleVideo:

Steal This Film - Part 1 and the official website: Steal This Film II.

The background seems to change upon reload, conveying "JAWS" and "The Godfather" ... intellectual properties - or disk images. downloadables: Steal This Film II available in many languages!

Documenting the steadfast movement against intellectual property, Part 1 of Steal This Film takes account of the prominent players in the Swedish piracy (copyright infringement) culture: The Pirate Bay, Piratbyrån (Piracy Bureau), and The Pirate Party. This includes a critical analysis of the regulatory capture asserted by Hollywood film industry to leverage economic sanctions by the United States government on Sweden through the WTO to pressure Swedish police into conducting an illegal search and seizure for the purpose of disrupting a competitive distribution channel: The Pirate Bay tracker for P2P Internet filesharing with the BitTorrent protocol.

Also i found this very interesting: a blog noted of Second Skin - Feature-length Documentary about Virtual Worlds. Here's the official site: Second Skin - a Pure West Documentary. [And accurately enough, my remark is in the context of someone else noticing it. That's really meta people. And thus, fundamentally boring. {way to go}]

Meanwhile in the Establishment: Google To Be Innovation Provider For GOP Convention. That's here, people.

Nerds will like this: CMS Report's Front Page News | CMS Report
I thought that Mashable.com was exceedingly interesting! Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:BitTorrent Developers Pledge To Subvert Comcast Filters
Politics Online Conference 2008: Focus on Privacy
Social Networking: Risks vs. Rewards
and naturally this site is run by Drupal and will be on Drupal 6: Drupal Version Six Released
Which in turn led me to some new things: Searchles | Home - search plus circles. some kinds of social integration thingy.
Why teach journalism students Dreamweaver? | Martin Stabe I really recommend checking out how the interface of tools, internets and Journalism with a capital J fit together. It's a big deal.
Samsung's See'N'Search set-top TV / Internet box demo video - Engadget
Are Social Networks Responsible for Teen Suicides? | CenterNetworks
Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

check out teh Wired Journalists NING social network thingy!! NING lets you make your own social network sites.
Looking for teh opensource? don't forget good ol freshmeat.net: Welcome to freshmeat.net. I remember checking freshmeat all the damn time in high school senior year. a good 8 years ago and the site still looks EXACTLY the same. That's quality.
Schools going to Linux save tons of money: Techlearning > > Linux Makes the Grade > November 2007. And I'm sure everyone is really sad to be missing the Vista Experience.
Meanwhile is the Associated Press doomed? Down On The Wire - Forbes.comI saw the good old macalester activist wiki is still being used: Main Page - MPKB
When you need a global wireless network syndicate of networks, you need global.freifunk.net | syndicating the free wireless communities and blogs of the world and where is the news of Minnesota, people? (drupal powered, as is their blog: Freifunkblog | Freie Netzwerke, freies WLAN und freie (Funk-)Netze im deutschsprachigen Raum) and here's another German/English site about techs/Drupal/etc: perspektive 89 | Internationale Perspektive aus Berlin
Local lunatic: Slanderous Kook: I'm a Slander Victim - February 14, 2008
....And that's all for this random yet interesting enough post......

Some misc bits for you. First check the Google Zeitgeist, the global popular search phrase listing.

First the Econ: Agonist.org has a bunch of economic stories up today (and most Mondays) to get you thinking seriously. The total value of derivatives rose nearly 40% to a whopping $415,000,000,000,000, which of course dwarfs the national debt and national economy. More on that here. The 1929 Stock Market's got nothing on Modern America!! Who needs to worry about margin calls when you can just make up some more devious debt instruments until next quarter? Real America's economy sucks, but in pretend derivatives-world it's all gravy.

Amazingly, a funny article about adjustable mortgages. Lying cheerleaders on CNBC blame the recent Sarbanes-Oxley for everything - bullshit! This guy thinks that bubbles are good because after they Pop, they leave infrastructure behind. Seems dumb to me.

Hearts and minds:

Supporting the security and justice systems in Iraq is one of the main challenges that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confronts to help the Iraqi government develop the infrastructure countrywide.

According to Rick Mers, a project engineer with the Gulf Region South District the New An Nasiriyah Maximum Security Correctional Facility, which is built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the Dhi Qar Province, is considered to be the biggest prison in the south of Iraq. "The project is a new maximum security correctional facility located near the city of Nasiriyah. The prison will hold up to 800 inmates and includes holding areas, laundry, dining facilities, and administrative offices," he said.

Michael Osborne, a resident engineer with Gulf Region South, said that the prison will help to provide employment for security personnel, medical personnel and support staff. It will also improve the quality of security correctional facilities south of Iraq.

Meanwhile the Turks and Kurds are gearing up to kill each other across northern Iraq:

While President Bush's new strategy in Iraq focuses on stopping the violence in Baghdad, trouble threatens to boil over in Iraq's Kurdish region to the north, which the administration frequently holds up as an island of stability and a model for the future.

The long dispute between Turkey and Iraq over renegade Kurdish fighters camped on the Iraqi side of their shared border reached new heights last month. When the head of Iraq's Kurdish regional government threatened to provoke an uprising among Turkish Kurds, Turkey responded with warnings of direct military action and an angry complaint to Washington.

Ankara has massed thousands of soldiers on its side of the border and has warned it will dismantle the camps in Iraq if the U.S. military will not use some of its nearly 150,000 troops in Iraq to do it.

.....On the Iraq side of the seam, there is wide concern that the administration has already given Turkey a green light to act in northern Iraq, one State Department official said, although others insist that Washington has urged restraint.

Looming over the conflict is the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The postwar Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum in December to determine if the population wants to become part of the Kurdish region. Turkey has made clear it would view that as a direct threat to the rights of Kirkuk's large minority of ethnic Turkmen.

Turkey believes that "if the Kurds get Kirkuk, it will mean an independent Kurdish state," said Qubad Talibani, the son of Iraqi President Jalal Talibani and the Kurdish regional government's spokesman in Washington. "We've seen Turkish groups lobbying quite actively" against the referendum.

Alleged Turkish interference over Kirkuk sparked a flare-up last month when Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish regional government in Iraq, threatened retaliation if Turkey continued "interfering" in Iraqi affairs. It would be easy, he warned, for Iraqi Kurds to stir up their 30 million ethnic brethren in southeastern Turkey.

Turkey's military chief, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, responded with a warning of a cross-border attack, and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul demanded that the United States restrain Barzani. Ankara sent sharply worded notes to Baghdad and Washington, and Erdogan said publicly that Barzani would be "crushed under his words."

An old story, but interesting: a guy found MS Word documents from the old Coalition Provisional Authority, then used the Track Changes feature to reveal secret material from 2004. The secret material proves the CPA were a seriously dumb bunch of gringos. In particular they said that a healthy dose of violence would intimidate foolish Arabs - a classic racist stereotype that has carried America far.

One of the American outlying patrol outposts got overrun by Iraqi guerillas at 0400, and the media termed it an "ambush" even though the American forces were stationary. Is this intentional spin or just journalistic ignorance, Pat Lang asks.

Chalmers Johnson is the scholar of the current global American empire, especially the military base structure that underpins everything. He's concerned the military-industrial complex is going to bankrupt America. Check out "Ending the Empire" for the problems today, and how to shutdown the military-industrial complex.

John Bolton shrewdly advises bombing the fuck out of Iran immediately. This guy's one long-term thinker. He sucks as someone on the Internets managed to point out.

Chinese wheat gluten is contaminated with melamine, just one situation among many. Huge setback for Chinese agriculture.

Old school spy angle: Phil Giraldi, an old CIA hand, enumerates the way Tenet has been lying about his record.

The so-called Class Action Fairness Act is gonna screw regular people. Sweet.

Freight rail works. I agree. You can get a ton of cargo 400 miles on a gallon of fuel - that's what we need right now. Auto manufacturers conspired to kill rail back in the day, blah blah blah...

The War Czar may be illegal. Where's Congress?

Lobbying reform might not work as Dems sink into the Beltway swamp.

Major strategy writer Andrew Bacevich's son, also named Andrew, was killed serving in Iraq. Our condolences to the family. The father's book "The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War" is excellent! Even handles the eschatology of the military-industrial complex and evangelicals.

Bridges to Money from Nowhere: Alaska Senator Ted "Shut Up! It's a series of tubes" Stevens has more corrupt friends still trying to get bridges to their property holdings.

Once there was a joke called the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, who can't release their own reports without political hacks scratching out the bad stuff.

Feel sorry for the Schloz: another doomed gremlin in the Department of Justice, Bradley Schlozman, is pretty much screwed. Schloz is the kind of lawyer you send when you need to get more black people kicked off the voter rolls in Missouri. Good times in Purple America. Fox "News" features only black people in stock footage suggesting illegal voting. Nothing new, just visual shorthand for what they always say.

Murdoch trying to take over Wall Street Journal: A WSJ China specialist talks about how Murdoch would sugarcoat China news to help his own bottom line. More on this.

Justice has been blatantly compromised by international politics and diplomacy in a way that would be deplored in any other arena.

--The Australian newspaper editorial (April 2)

I agree that I will not communicate with the media in any way regarding the illegal conduct alleged in the charge and the specifications or about the circumstances surrounding my capture and detention as an unlawful enemy combatant for a period of one (1) year. I agree that this includes any direct or indirect communication made by me, my family members, my assigns, or any other third party made on my behalf......

i. I have never been illegally treated by any person or persons while in the custody and control of the United States. This includes the period after my capture and transfer to US custody in Afghanistan in December 2001, through the entire period of my detention by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I agree that this agreement puts to rest any claims of mistreatment by the United States.

j. I further understand and agree that the entire period of detention as an unlawful enemy combatant is based upon my capture during armed conflict, has been lawful pursuant to the law of armed conflict and is not associated with, or in anticipation of, any criminal proceedings against me.

4. In exchange for the undertakings made by the United States in entering this Pretrial Agreement, I voluntarily and expressly waive all rights to appeal or collaterally attack my conviction, sentence, or any other matter relating to this prosecution whether such a right to appeal or collateral attack arises under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, or any other provision of United States or Australian law. In addition, I voluntarily and expressly agree not to make, participate in, or support any claim, and not to undertake, participate in, or support any litigation, in any forum against the United States or any of its officials, whether uniformed or civilian, in their personal or official capacities with regard to my capture, treatment, detention, or prosecution.

--The David Matthew Hicks pre-trial agreement - 26 March 2007 (fulltext)

Our first example of how sordid Guantanamo military tribunals are used as political theatre, and slanted for Bush-favored international politicians. In this case, Hicks, a young Australian captured and accused of Taliban ties finally got a plea bargain and a short prison sentence to be carried out in Australia, to which he may return at once.

Interestingly, the plea bargain states that he has to disclaim his earlier claims of torture at the hands of Guantanamo prison wardens, and he is also gagged from speaking to the media for an additional several months after he's released. Down under, it smells like Bullshit!

"I can accept the imposition of a no-profit clause. But not being able to speak to the media for a year? You've got to question what's going to be achieved by gagging him for that length of time," said Geoff Holland of the the University of Technology, Sydney, an expert on freedom of speech. "If it's something he could say that would compromise Australian security, then one would expect the gag would be ongoing."

Greens leader Bob Brown claimed the gag had been sought by the Howard Government. "It's a fix," Senator Brown said. "The message has gone very clearly from Canberra to Washington to Guantanamo Bay: 'Don't allow Hicks to be released until after the elections and certainly don't allow him to speak'.

"It's tawdry, it's despicable, it's a political fix overriding what should have been an Australian justice matter right from the outset." Senator Brown said such a gag would have been illegal in the US, where citizens are guaranteed freedom of speech under the constitution.

In a complete coincidence, the controversial conservative (and Bush-allied) Prime Minister Howard is up for election - a couple months before the Gitmo-imposed Media gag expires. A total coincidence!! Convenience and silence, in one handy package!!!

On some site I forget, they note this is the 21st century's version of cutting out your tongue. Fair enough.

What would really round out this fine exercise in international electioneering cashing in on the Terrorist War Coin?

How about press reports indicating that the plea bargain was never even negotiated with the "prosecution" in Gitmo's kangaroo courts. Rather it got worked out with the officers overseeing the farce, who apparently were in touch with the Howard government. It's pretty goddamn obvious and "disturbing" according to The Australian paper editorial:

Editorial: Plea bargain is less than perfect justice April 02, 2007

THE more that is known about the terms of the plea bargain agreed to by confessed terror trainee David Hicks, and the way it was concluded, the more disturbing it becomes. While the arrangement may serve the purposes of the US and Australian governments and ensure Hicks gets out of prison quickly, it does little to dispel complaints that the process was riddled with political interference. As Geoff Elliot reports in The Australian today, the prosecution, judge and jury were kept out of the loop. Hicks's US defence lawyer, Major Michael Mori, went over their heads to Washington where he negotiated directly with the head of the Convening Authority for US military commissions, Susan Crawford. While not a political figure in her own right, Ms Crawford has had a long working association with US Vice-President Dick Cheney. At the end of negotiations, the eight-member panel of the military commission in Guantanamo Bay was presented with a done deal. This is at odds with the version of events given by John Howard, who said the plea bargain was negotiated between the military prosecution and Mr Hicks's lawyers.

There is an unmistakable stench of political expediency to the terms of the plea bargain, in particular the extraordinary 12-month gag order that prevents Hicks from speaking publicly about the actions to which he has pleaded guilty or the circumstances surrounding his capture, interrogation and detention. The gag also silences family members and any third party. While no one would suggest Hicks should not be allowed to sell his story, a blanket gag order that extends beyond the period of incarceration is a disturbing erosion of free speech. And the fact it is only in place for one year gives a clear impression its main purpose is to keep Hicks quiet until after the federal election.

This guy says he got off too light for what he was accused of, but the gag order damages the Aussie public's right to hear about the case. (also Hicks to arrive in secret)

I'm gonna steal a couple grafs from TalkingPointsMemo because basically it nails the case:

On the one hand, you have Hicks being held for five years without trial amidst allegations of torture and other mistreatment, fighting simply to get a fair hearing. His case has become an internationally known example of the Bush Administration's blatant disregard for basic human rights.

On the other hand, you have the outcome of the case determined not by conventional Anglo-American standards of due process, including evidence presented to an impartial fact-finder, but by the political considerations of the Bush Administration and its ally Howard. Or as a spokesperson for the military commissions candidly told the Post, "Like it or not, the detainees at Guantanamo are from different countries, and that sometimes is a factor."

It's another example of politics trumping the War on Terror when it suits the Bush Administration. While you might feel some relief that there is an end in sight to Hicks' Kafkaesque detention, you can't help but be left with niggling doubts. Was Hicks a true danger? Perhaps not. But prosecutors thought Hicks would have received a decades-long sentence if the case went to trial. Has Hicks been vindicated? Not at all. The able representation of Hicks by Maj. Dan Mori took advantage of the political situation in Australia to win his client's eventual release. Mori knew the game that was being played, and played it.

It is a deeply unsatisfying outcome.

That's the core truth here. The law is supposed to stabilize society and provide a platform for further developments. The Bush Adminstration has such a lazy, self-contradictory approach to building any kind of legal foundation for its activities, that political expediency -- bailing out Howard -- becomes preferable. All this military tribunal structure seems shoddy and worthless.

If the Nuremburg Trials were a house made brick upon brick, providing order and context to humanity, then the Guantanamo Tribunals are a crumpled pile of vinyl siding knocked down by Hurricane Katrina.