Click here if you can’t see the video.

From Slashdot:

The Department of Homeland Security’s Real ID program has a real challenge on its hands from California. DHS had said it will only grant extensions from the Real ID rules taking effect on May 11 to states that apply by March 31 and promise to implement Real ID by 2010. California requested an extension but would not make the latter promise. DHS buckled and said, in effect, “Good enough.” Perhaps they realized that trying to slap giant California around is qualitatively different than doing the same to New Hampshire.

Click here for the full article.

You hear it all the time: We must have the Federal Reserve in order to keep prices stable.

This is a graph of the Consumer Price Index from 1800 to 2007:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which part of this is more stable.

Don’t get suckered into paying $20, $30, or even $70 per month for nationwide wireless internet. If you’re a T-Mobile customer, you can do it with their $6 T-zones plan just by making a minor change on your laptop. Here’s how:

Table of Contents

1. Instructions for Mac OS X, Linux, or *BSD
2. Instructions for Windows
3. How it Works

Instructions for Mac OS X, Linux, or *BSD

1. Add T-Zones to your calling plan, if you haven’t already.
2. Sign up for a free shell account at SilenceisDefeat.org (instant activation is a one-time fee of $1)
3. Setup tethering, if you haven’t already.
4. From a terminal, issue the following command:
   ssh -p 143 -D localhost:1080 username@ssh.silenceisdefeat.org
   Of course, you need to replace “username” with the username you picked in Step 2. The password to use was emailed to you when you completed Step 2. If there are any problems, check the support channel.
5. You can change your default password by using the psswd command once you’ve logged in. You now have a local SOCKS5 proxy with no restrictions. Just configure your browser to use it. For Firefox, (Click Edit > Preference > Advanced > Network > Settings > Manual proxy configuration; At SOCKS Host put in localhost and for the port, use 1080.)

Enjoy the freedom!

Instructions for Windows

1. Add T-Zones to your calling plan, if you haven’t already.
2. Sign up for a free shell account at SilenceisDefeat.org (instant activation is a one-time fee of $1)
3. Setup tethering, if you haven’t already.
4. Download and run PuTTY
5. For hostname, enter ssh.silenceisdefeat.org. For Port, enter 143, like this:
   
6. On the left site, in the Category box, click over to Connection > SSH > Tunnels. Click the second check box, enter 1080 for the Source Port, click the Dynamic radio button, and click Add. Make sure it looks like this before you click Add:
   
7. Now go back to the Session screen (at the very top in the Category box), under Saved Sessions, type “Silence is Defeat” without quotes, and click Save. This will allow you to re-use these settings in the future without having to enter them again.
8. Now click “Open” to start the session. You’ll be prompted for a password, which should have been emailed to you when you completed Step 2. If there are any problems, check the support channel.
9. You can change your default password by using the psswd command once you’ve logged in.
   You now have a local SOCKS5 proxy with no restrictions! Just configure
   your browser to use it. For Firefox, (Click Tools > Options >
   Advanced > Network > Settings > Manual proxy configuration; At
   SOCKS Host put in localhost and for the port, use 1080.)

Enjoy the freedom!

How it Works

The T-Zones APN, wap.voicestream.com, has a proxy available at 216.155.165.50 on port 8080 that used to allow most HTTP traffic to any server, but as of late it blocks normal websites. However, the APN still allows unrestricted traffic on ports 25, 110, 143, 465, 587, 993, 995, and 8080 for various reasons. ssh.silenceisdefeat.org accepts SSH connections on ports 80, 143, 465, 443, and 587. So, we’re just connecting to Silence is Defeat on port 143 and then tunneling all of the traffic from our local SOCKS proxy to Silence is Defeat, where there are no traffic restrictions. This can be used for the web, IRC, instant messaging, and just about anything else.

If you like this trick, please consider donating to Silence is Defeat via paypal at sdpaus@gmail.com, as they are footing the bill for the bandwidth required to do this. Also, check out their chat room. Enjoy!

From the article:

Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain’s most senior police forensics expert.

Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.

From the article:

THE US economy lost the title of “world’s biggest” to the euro zone this week as the value of the US dollar slumped in currency markets.
Taking the gross domestic product of both economies in 2007, the combined GDP of the 15 countries which use the euro overtook that of the US when the European currency surged to a record high of more than $1.56 per euro overnight.

“The curious outcome of breaching this latest milestone is that the size of the euro zone’s annual output has now exceeded that of the US,” the economics department of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, said in a note to clients.

Taking official estimates of 2007 GDP, $US13,843,800 billion ($14,726,000) for the United States and 8,847,889.1 billion euros for the euro zone, the economy of the latter passed the US once converted into US dollars, shortly after the euro topped $1.56.

The US dollar sank to $1.5688 per euro late in European trading hours overnight, at which rate the euro zone’s 2007 GDP equates to $13,880,568.4 billion.

The 2007 GDP estimates are as published by the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and provided to Reuters on request for the euro zone by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office.

This is an excellent must-read article by John Bloom about the history of Juries. You should read it.

Exposed of being a Ron Paul Republican who will stand up for civil liberties, that is.

Opponent: “You know what? If you support Ron Paul, then you need to support my young primary opponent. Because he’s a Ron Paul Libertarian, 100%! Go to his webpage, and everything he stands for is right there! I call him Ron Paul Jr. because that’s what he is.”

He’s talking about B.J. Lawson, congressional candidate in North Carolina’s 4th congressional district. Dr. Lawson, a medical doctor turned entrepreneur has been inspired by Ron Paul to defend our rights, but he can only do it with your help.

So back in June, Apple came out with their iPhone.  I’ve always liked how it looks, but given that there are so many features missing from it, I decided to keep my unlocked Sony Ericsson W810i.  However, as of late, I’ve been given the opportunity to acquire a free iPhone.  So, for the purpose of deciding which one to use, I’m going to outline the advantages and disadvantages of the $400 iPhone as compared to my two-year-old W810i.

Disadvantages:

• It’s much bigger
• No MMS (picture messaging)
• No third-party app support and no Java - you’re stuck with the software that came with it
• No voice recording
• No video recording
• No cut-and-paste
• Can’t assign personal music tones
• No AIM/iChat
• No voice tags for voice dialing
• Semi-difficult to unlock
• No memory card slot

Advantages:

• It looks pretty
• Better browser
• Wi-Fi (but since there’s no support for third-party applications, there’s no way to run Skype or VoIP)

As far as the iPhone’s other claims to fame — MP3/video player, Google Maps, a working web browser, and YouTube — that stuff existed in other phones long before the iPhone came out.  Frankly, I think the reason it sold so well is that it looks really cool and Americans were largely unaware of what cell phones could already do.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not criticizing Apple for coming out with it, I just wish they incorporated some basic cell phone features.

I’ll give the iPhone a shot, but it’s hard to imagine going without some of these standard features.

Although I’m not a very eloquent writer, I’ve tried to stress the importance of voting machines running on Open Source software, instead of Closed Source software.

Please understand: There is no point in having elections when the voting machine source code is a secret (aka. Closed-Source).  No point whatsoever.

How much faith would you have in a system where everyone passed their ballots under the door of a dark closet where one man is trusted to announce the results at the end?

Would that make sense to you?  Would you trust that man to be honest?  Would you still bother voting?

Of course not.

However, this is exactly what closed-source voting machines are.  There are a handful of guys who write the code and then keep it a secret.  That code is then used to tabulate the results, and then we just trust whatever it says.

Doesn’t anyone realize how bat-shit-insane that is?!?

Think I’m nuts?  Watch this video:

Want to watch someone actually rig a random voting machine? Watch the last half of Hacking Democracy:

Here’s a short clip about a different Diebold model, although it’s not documented as well as the video above: