Thursday, July 28, 2005

VMTN ( Old news ) You can spend countless hours installing application server or Oracle db trials and then, on completion, trying to extricate all the client tools, config file modification and registry entries that stubbornly refuse to go away and make your Windows install _slow_ to a crawl. You can spend more countless hours debating the merits and dependency resolution of distro packaging system x. You can spend more time migrating all these packages from your aging desktop to your brand new laptop (or give up because you've decided to change OS's and it's hopeless). You can do all that. Or, you can just download a file. When you're done, you delete the file. When you buy a new laptop, you move the file. VMTN has arrived. I will definitely be demo'ing Spikesource via VMNT, if/when I have a chance to look it over Update: Typos fixed thanks to Dossy. 10:27:54 AM      comment []  trackback []

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Wholesale database-backed gov't surveillance alters the balance of power between law enforcement and law-abiding citizen's privacy, and is surging ahead of 20th century accountability mechanisms. It's important to highlight a counter-example to this trend, which is data mining aimed at curbing abuse of power. The link above discussed a $35M data mining system aimed at detecting rogue police officers in LA. This is normally the kind of safeguard that unions are good at scuppering, on the basis of somewhat compelling privacy arguments. Things must have been pretty bad in LA for that to not have worked. These examples are sadly so rare, but it's at least some consolation that they exist at all. Anyone know of other programs on a similar scale? 10:23:06 AM      comment []  trackback []