Category Archives: Web

Mass. Sen. Will Brownsberger to co-sponsor social networking privacy bill

I have just been informed by a member of Massachusetts Senator Will Brownsberger’s staff that he “will be co-sponsoring a piece of legislation that will, among other things, prevent employers from asking job applicants for their social networking passwords.” This issue has been raised in previous sessions of the Massachusetts legislature, but it has not… Read More: Mass. Sen. Will Brownsberger to co-sponsor social networking privacy bill »

Comics added to aggregator

By popular demand, I’ve added Mallard Fillmore, Prickly City, Broom Hilda, Calvin and Hobbes, Beetle Bailey, and The Born Loser to the comics aggregator. As always, feel free to show your appreciation. 🙂  

Have you enabled do-not-track?

For a while now, the web browser vendors and major purveyors of targeted internet advertising have been working on a proposal for allowing users to prevent web sites from tracking their online activity and using it to “customize their web browsing experience,” a.k.a., displaying targeted advertisements which are, theoretically, tailored to the person viewing them.… Read More: Have you enabled do-not-track? »

PayPal adding mandatory arbitration to user agreement, but you can (and should!) opt out

UPDATE: The Consumerist has posted a template you can use for your opt-out letter. Furthermore, the Consumerist article says that eBay just did the same thing as PayPal, and you need to send a letter to opt out of that one as well. There’s a link in the article to a template for the eBay… Read More: PayPal adding mandatory arbitration to user agreement, but you can… »

Pittsfield judge orders local blogger to stop writing about the news

Ken at Popehat reports on Pittsfield judge Bethzaida Sanabria-Vega ordering a local blogger not only to stop writing about the daughter of a local public official who was the perpetrator of a hit-and-run accident which nearly killed someone and got off virtually scott-free after the courts “lost” some of the paperwork related to her case,… Read More: Pittsfield judge orders local blogger to stop writing about the… »

Comics added to aggregator

By popular demand (i.e., somebody asked), the following comics have been added to my comics aggregator: Banana Triangle Birdbrains Dog Eat Doug F Minus Ink Pen Luann The Other Coast Overboard Pluggers Rubes Scary Gary Strange Brew Enjoy! P.S. If you find the aggregator useful, please consider making a donation. Thanks!  

“Jew” is not a bad word

Someone forwarded me a chain letter today about how offensive it is that a blatantly antisemitic web site, JewWatch, shows up at or near the top of the search results when you Google the word “Jew”. Here’s my response: http://blog.kamens.us/jew-is-not-a-bad-word/.  

Post-mortem of security breach on my Linux server

On the afternoon of September 15, I started getting some strange email messages from cron on my Linux server, which hosts my email, blog, DNS, and several web sites for various non-profit organizations I’m involved with. (Background: One of the web sites, an old Drupal installation, handles scheduled tasks through a cron job that periodically… Read More: Post-mortem of security breach on my Linux server »