Slashdot had an interview with Wil Wheaton, where he talks about life, being a geek hated by geeks, and his new website. He must be a geek- who else would go on celebrity Weakest Link and choose the EFF as his charity?

I'm writing this article comfortably resting on my couch, with my laptop actually on my lap, but I could just as easily write from anywhere in my apartment ... all thanks to Lucent (and Apple).

There hasn't been a *BSD posting for some time now, but I came across an excellent interview with Matt Dillon at OSNews that has a lot of really good information about the future of FreeBSD and *BSD in general.

I have to say that my favorite new features are (softupdate) snapshots, which allow for really groovy things, like intra-day backups, (!) something that was previously only implemented on NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices from Network Appliance. I also really liked Matt's #1 and #2 feature wishes for FreeBSD: process migration (never interrupt users, even when taking down a system!) and native filesystem replication (woo! I can automagically replicate my files all over the world...in combination with snapshots, this could totally eliminate the need for backups!).

Check it out.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the executive branch has been pushing for new law enforcement powers to combat terrorism. The latest: the sweeping "Anti-Terrorist Act" expands the definition of terrorism to include assassination, violence at international airports, bombings, and hacking. The Act would allow hackers to be prosecuted for computer crimes even decades old, with a maximum penalty of life inprisonment without the possibility of parole.

It's a truly frightening prospect. Given the government's history of demonizing hackers, (Kevin Mitnick) prosecuting security professionals (Max Vison, Scott Moulton, and others) and general fear of the unknown, if the Act passed as written, we could end up with prisons full of suburban adolescent white males and security types. Classifying computer crimes as terrorist acts is an insult to the victims of real terrorism.

Securityfocus' Scott Poulson has written a commentary on the proposed law, and there's also an article at newsfactor. Bruce Schnier's comments on the attack, while not directly related, offer a reasoned analysis of other threats to civil liberties.

DCMA, again:

A salon.com reporter's broadband service gets cancelled.

Hollywood Loves SSSCA. (no surprise there)

JP sent me an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The article reports on a new innovative MN program to partner with local businesses in order to develop new apartment complexes and single-family homes. Businesses get involved to help provide housing for their employees that is affordable and close to work.

Pretty cool program. Check it out.

A photo (from CNN.com) showing the collapse of the World Trade Center tower:

CNN.com coverage of the attack.

A dark day for America. I offer my sympathy and condolences to the victims of this terrible attack in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania. I have been to New York and seen the WTC; it is still difficult to believe that the twin towers are gone.

All is well here in Minneapolis, although the IDS building downtown, the World Trade Center in St Paul, and the Mall of America all shut down late this morning. A number of downtown businesses were shut down, yet local and state government remained open.

Let us not forget the message of Mayor Giuliani and others: New York, and America, are stronger than these terrorists, and we will prevail.

If you thought DCMA was bad, just wait for SSSCA. More restrictive, more sweeping, and more insane. I can't even imagine all of the terrible consequences if this actually became law.

Wired has a good article on SSSCA, and additional details can be found on politech.

I'm still in shock. I can't believe that Sen. Hollings (or anyone beyond the media companies) thinks that this is a good idea.

It seems that Texas Christian University joins the ranks of those who would use technology to "solve" a social problem.

This is interesting. I stumbled across an old wired.com article dating back to May 24. I'm somewhat surprised I hadn't heard about it earlier -- Max was (and still is) a respected member of the security community; the ArachNIDS database of network attack signatures at www.whitehats.com is the best publicly available signature database on the web, and is better and more current than many commercial products. It's true that he's done much to help keep computers secure.