Veterans Day
"And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable,
are they brave, are they capable of victory? Their story is known to all
of you; it is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him
was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never
changed. I regarded him then as I regard him now - as one of the world's
noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters but
also as one of the most stainless. His name and fame are the birthright
of every American citizen. In his youth and strength, his love and
loyalty he gave - all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me
or from any other man."
- Douglas McArthur, Address
to the Corps of Cadets accepting the Thayer Award.
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contributed by Evil Wench
Today the US House of Representatives will debate the creation a huge
federal database to track and identify Americans citizens who default
on student loans or who should not be receiving unemployment benefits.
The database would require the Department of Health and Human Services
to track the name, address, Social Security Number and employment
status of people who are believed to be defrauding the government. It
will then force employers to verify an applicants status with the
database. (And you wonder why the government is so against privacy
laws? Because shit like this would be illegal.)
Wired
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contributed by Space Rogue
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) disconnected the dorm room access of
71 students after the systems where scanned and found to have MP3 files
on them. CMU claims they where pressured into the scan by RIAA
(Recording Industry Association of America), who denies the accusation.
Details are sketchy as to how the school actually performed the scan or
if they illegally broke into the systems to gather the information. No
warnings about the search was given to students which may have violated
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. It is unclear whether the
school verified the legal status of each MP3 file. Some students had
posted their own music and not pirated materials. (If this was done
by a simple web crawler a robot.txt file should take care of it.)
MP3.com
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contributed by no0ne
"Enonymous Advisor" is a free internet utility that kicks in when a one
opens a web page that requests personal information. It shows the web
site's rating, which is based on Enonymous' evaluation of the site's
privacy policies, with regards to consumer privacy. (Big whoop. The
problem is that there are no laws. Companies are free to write one
thing in the policy and then do another, or change the policy at
anytime without notifying users.)
Star
Tribune
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contributed by Brian Oblivion
The next physical meeting of the San Francisco Bay Area Cypherpunks
will feature Echelon, the almost mythical global eavesdropping network.
The meeting will feature a presentation by Duncan Campbell,who is
considered by many to be the civilian expert on this topic. The
meeting will be held on November 13, 1999. It is free and is open to
the public
CypherPunks
Meeting
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contributed by marena
Australia's largest ISP, Cable and Wireless Optus, suffered what they
called "an unauthorized intrusion" and proceeded to file charges
against seven people who had viewed user names and passwords on their
site. The Web surfers claimed that there was no intrusion and that they
had accidentally stumbled across an insecure web page. A page that had
been left available to the public since last February.
Australian
Broadcasting Company
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contributed by scores
By viewing this new virus, named Bubbleboy, on the inbox screen of
Microsoft's Outlook Express or other web based email clients a user
will become infected. It is no longer necessary to open an attachment.
Network Associates has posted a new virus definition that stops the
virus. (This virus has not yet been reported as infecting anyone, is
not destructive, has a patch available and it has been given a low
threat rating. But one new feature and it makes all the news sites.
Hmmmm, sensational?)
C|Net
MSNBC
Nando
Times
ZD
Net
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contributed by Alkivar
James Bond Still In The Can
Yesterday HNN posted a story originally from the London Sunday Times
claiming that the new James Bond Movie, The World Is Not Enough has
already made it onto the internet a week before release. Today we have
received email claiming that this is not true. That the London Sunday
Times was inaccurate. That while pirated Internet movie sites may have
a directory for the James Bond Movie there is in fact no movie in them.
The Video CD Release group iGN claims that this is all a hoax
perpetrated by them.
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