Rules warrantless domestic surveillance program unconstitutional
DETROIT - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government�s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency�s program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. More (offsite link)…

By Paula Rooney, CRN
17 August 2006 10:17 AEST

Red Hat’s no-show at LinuxWorld generated a lot of buzz on the show floor and had attendees scratching their heads about why the biggest Linux distributor didn’t exhibit at the biggest Linux show. More (offsite link)…

by Jack Schofield, The Guardian
Thursday August 17, 2006

Maybe it has, if you care about your privacy. There’s no doubt that Google does care about your privacy, and aims to protect it. Earlier this year, for example, it refused to release anonymous search data demanded by the US government for a study, even though other search engines meekly handed it over. But rather than protecting such data, you might well think Google shouldn’t collect it in the first place. More (offsite link)…

Does the sudden appearance of a Firefox crop circle imply which browser extraterrestrials prefer? We don’t know, but it was still fun to make! Constructed by local Firefox fans and the same team that created the Firefox mural from cornstarch and kool-aid and launched the Firefox weather balloon, the Firefox Crop Circle project shows that we have so much passion for Firefox that we want it to be visible from space! See it!! (offsite link)

Go netvibes!!! I use it. It is a nice little Ajax homepage thing with lots of widgets.

Netvibes will announce today that it’s received 15 million dollars of investment from venture capitalists. Go Netvibes!

More (offsite link)….

The Swedish Pirate Party has launched a commercial, high-capacity darknet, on an unprecedented scale and bandwidth. This service lets anybody send and receive files anonymously without being tracked or traced, and can pump data well over 10 megabits per second. More (offsite link)…