CNN describes the rise of “frak” as a curse word, and not just with Battlestar Galactica fans.
Personally folks, I hate the word (and “felgercarb”, as well as all-star hated-phrases like “tater tots”.) In this case, there’s nothing like the real thing.
Still, an interesting lesson on how televised science fiction, at least, is reaching a broader audience than ever.
The dickering between the “Sneaky Chef” and Jessica Seinfeld, wife to Jerry, over their similar books about how to “hide healthy vegetables into foods kids love” is pretty funny. Did it stray into classic TV territory? Well, only because “Seinfeld” is still a very funny show that will be loved for years to come — even though members of its core cast seem to have lost touch with, oh, basic manners. Recently, Jerry opined that the “Sneaky Chef” was a “wacko” on the Letterman show – see the video here. (Attention: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, please don’t do anything embarrassing in public. I enjoy watching you too much.)
I only occasionally read food blogs, so I had no idea how much this had been debated, (or that Seinfeld’s agent was the same one who had repped Kaavya Viswanathan, the young Harvard undergrad whose novel turned out to be plagiarized). Barbara Fisher’s food blog Tigers and Strawberries has the lowdown on the entire kit n’ hidden kibble in the kaboodle.
Well, like everyone, I’ve been watching Hurricane Dean on the news — remembering my participation in the “largest parking lot in the world”, during the evacuation of Hurricane Rita!
However, I’m not unduly worried … yet … about Dean heading for Texas, even with the flooding we’ve experienced recently, thanks to Tropical Storm Erin. Reason? The excellent blog “SciGuy” hosted over at the Houston Chronicle website, written by Eric Berger. Doesn’t matter if you enjoy science or not, this is a great resource that explains some of the current projection modeling, and other weather facts, clearly and concisely…plus with extra detail for the geek set. You can and should still check out the government’s National Hurricane Center website, which has graphics showing the “cone of uncertainty” and projected wind strength. But the SciGuy blog is a great resource to explain all the data.
If you’re in the Southwest, or Mid-South, and a fan of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, slipstream) in all its forms, you might want to give ApolloCon a whirl. Between the Saturday night masquerade and costume contest, the writers workshop based on Clarion, panels and a 48 hour “Iron Director” indie film project, there are a lot of thrills here for your moolah.
Also, the conference doesn’t discriminate between literature, comics, anime, and favorite movies and TV science fiction, like Battlestar Galactica or Star Wars. Which guarantees a fascinating mix of people, for the panels, discussion and all-important con parties.
For more information, check out the website, or friend the con at http://myspace.com/apollocon.
(Backstory: In a tiny Western Michigan town, a man was prosecuted for checking his email outside a coffee shop, using an open wifi signal. He was threatened with up to five years in prison, a felony record, and up to a $10,000 fine – even though the store owner was not aware that a crime was committed! Slashdot and ZDNet have some interesting discussions about it – as one commenter argues, “According to the FCC, it’s perfectly legal to receive ANY BROADCAST TRANSMISSION.”
Even though it would have been polite and good manners for the man to grab a cup of coffee inside, the network was open and unsecured, and thus something he could pick up, sitting in his car. This “piggybacking” is increasingly common, and not just for businesses – as this recent New York Times article explains. An ethically grey area, avoided if the business owner had just encrypted the wifi connection. After all, there are some who deliberately make their wifi clouds accessible to all. Yet it appears that the police chief of this town went out of his way to find a reason to prosecute – even though at the time, he was unclear about actual computer access laws.)
Dear Sparta Village President,
Does the Village Council of Sparta have any idea how backward the town looks, because of the prosecution of your “wifi bandit”?
Granted, the man should have gotten access by buying a cup of coffee inside, but why didn’t the cafe properly install their wifi to limit outside access? Obviously the coffee shop was broadcasting an unsecured wifi signal in a public space. Most coffee shops that limit access (because others don’t put any restrictions on access) change their passwords daily, and encrypt the wifi signal – because the signal goes into public space. It sounds like someone was more interested in using taxpayer money to prosecute, than to suggest new business practices or discuss this rationally with the “bandit”.
This event just made your town a lot less attractive as a pit stop for travelers – the very same business and personal travelers who do their work from the road with laptops, and have disposable income to spend in your town.
In what universe does it make sense to threaten a five year felony for using a public, unsecured wifi cloud? In the Grand Rapids news video I saw, the police spokesman/chief stated that he felt that a law had been broken, but didn’t know what – and then did not issue a ticket when he spoke to the “bandit”. Maybe the police force doesn’t have enough to do — hey, Houston PD is hiring, if they’d like to do more than chase skateboarders and catch wifi thieves.
I’m a business owner who works on the internet. Moving across the country from Washington to Texas a few years ago, my husband and I often would pull into a parking lot for a restaurant or coffee shop with wifi, buy a cup of coffee, and return to our car to get directions off the web, to register a hotel room or to continue doing business. We did the same thing when we were fleeing Hurricane Rita in 2005. None of the hamlets sent their police forces after us, for sitting in a parking lot and using our laptop. No one ever accused us of doing anything wrong.
Though, I’m sure that the Electronic Frontier Foundation will look more closely into this case – especially a police chief digging up a 1970s law that’s supposed to stop crackers from breaking into computers, and applying it to an open wifi cloud. Since there’s a good chance that neither the police chief or many people in the town government fully understand wireless networking, the law might have been misinterpreted… which might mean later lawsuits. At the very least, visitors will be very nervous about using wifi in your town — perhaps going somewhere more amenable to them.
This is a bad precedent set, not only for wifi users, but for Sparta. Believe me, news is spreading of this case all over the web. Perhaps the Village Council needs to think about the very loud message you’re sending to the rest of the country, and adjust town laws and public relations accordingly.
Sincerely,
Patience Wieland