Freedom to Tinker

For those interested in more on Edward Felten, he sends the link to his own blog, Freedom To Tinker subtitled "...is your freedom to understand, discuss, repair, and modify the technological devices you own." I will definitely be adding Felten's site to my Amphetadesk using his XML link.

On the 27th Felten posted a very interesing note on the Berman-Coble hearings -- hearings to discuss the possibility of giving companies a legal right to attack your home computers under the pretense of disrupting "illegal" P2P networks.

Worthwhile reading throughout.

Where it matters most, globalization thrives

A thoughtful piece by Thomas L. Friedman, writing for the New York Times and reprinted here in the International Herald Tribune, Friedman argues that in places like India and China globalization has been a success. He also writes that September 11th has taught us that:

...terrorists originated from the least globalized, least open, least integrated corners of the world: namely, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. Countries that don't trade in goods and services also tend not to trade in ideas, pluralism or tolerance."

The debate will go in, but Friedman's point is that it is often people from the rich West who wonder whether globalization is doing harm or good, while the developing world has experienced improved standards of living and social mobility as a result of these policies. Young people in Bangalore, for example are not protesting against Silicon Valley firms spending money on Indian software engineers.

Web Surfers can Follow U.S. Buildup

So writes the International Herald Tribune last week, pointing out that commercial satellite photography is available of Iraq and U.S. facilities in the Gulf at Globalsecurity.org a "military watchdog group." The byline is from Eric Umansky of the New York Times. According to the article, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld isn't so happy with the existence of this public access to military information, saying "I wish we didn't have to live with it." According to the article, a 1992 US law allows the government to declare any part of the earth off-limits to American commercial satellites to "meet significant national security or significant foreign policy concerns." Here is a link to the original article on the New York Times website, although you'd have to be a member and pay to read... The article doesn't appear in the IHT archives -- I guess because it was re-printed from NYT.