tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70324332009-11-07T09:42:01.438-05:00<p>This blog is now closed. </p>Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1457125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-60078481044848664642009-07-23T11:50:00.002-04:002009-11-02T10:17:30.973-05:00

I haven't done much with this blog in a long time, but I am now officially closing it, and will not make any new posts. I'm thinking of moving my other blogs as well. Update: I no longer have any active blogs on blogspot. To find out why I'm ending it at this time, read what Google did to this blog. You'll have to click through Google's flag warning you that it's vile and evil. The vileness and

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-3620900029537397372009-07-05T06:04:00.003-04:002009-07-05T06:24:28.579-04:00

Thomas Van Flein, an attorney for Alaska's resigned governor Sarah Palin, has attempted legal intimidation against bloggers and major newspapers: To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as 'fact' that Governor Palin resigned because she is 'under federal investigation' for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-13110573982896476002009-04-29T19:07:00.004-04:002009-04-29T19:30:50.076-04:00

Today I got a call from one of the auto warranty scammers, with a caller ID of 516-858-7142. This is the first time these crooks have hit my home phone number. (I'm on the Do Not Call list and unlisted.) I've filed a report. A comment on whocallsme.com says that these people demand that victims provide their name, address, and social security number to be removed from their list. This simply

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-3038222428417844352009-04-16T19:16:00.003-04:002009-04-16T19:32:52.681-04:00

I'm not really using this blog any more, but it's a convenient place to leave my warranty-scam reports for whoever may find them with a web search. An extended-warranty scammer left a message on my cell-phone voicemail telling me that this was the "last" message I would receive from them (I can only hope I'm so lucky, but the experience of others suggests they'll be calling my phone incessantly

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-39471407499885328852009-01-14T14:02:00.004-05:002009-03-07T20:15:48.394-05:00

Postcard received today from Dealership Warranties, 12131 Dorsett Rd., Maryland Heights, MO 63043. In big letters: MOTOR VEHICLE WARRANTY NOTIFICATION Below it is a meaningless "Registration identification number" and the phone number 1-866-533-9966. The message: VEHICLE SERVICE NOTIFICATION  Dear Gary McGath:   This notification is to inform you that your factory warranty has expired or is

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-58927918211731150382008-12-19T20:23:00.004-05:002008-12-19T20:27:18.583-05:00

This blog is basically inactive, but in case anyone still drops by, I'd like to mention my new blog, Taking License. This is a one-subject blog, on user licenses which you agree to by opening a package or clicking a button, and which you might not even read. Some of those licenses have really nasty features, and I'll be reporting on them.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-40868109514185399652008-09-06T10:07:00.003-04:002008-10-30T14:26:48.038-04:00

As long as I'm posting about scams today, in the hope that someone will find these posts with a web search and not be duped: reunion.com is the latest of the rogue "social networking" sites that asks users to give them their webmail passwords, and then of course spams everyone in their address book. The spam impersonates the owner of the account and tries to get the victim to sign up. Any web

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-40961856351159264442008-09-06T07:34:00.004-04:002008-09-06T08:08:14.871-04:00

Yesterday I received yet another automobile warranty scam postcard: FINAL WARRANTY NOTICE Call 1-888-963-6723 This is to inform you that this is your FINAL NOTICE to extend the warranty coverage on your vehicle. Call us immediately with your exact miles and VIN# to take advantage of this final offer. You have been pre-selected for this exclusive program.   Additional 20% discount off the already

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-24483250609229125352008-08-28T16:49:00.003-04:002008-08-28T16:56:30.528-04:00

I'm not using this blog regularly any more, but will occasionally use it to post items which someone might find with a web search, but aren't permanent enough to go on my regular web site. I've been getting considerable spam at my work address for the past few months from the MIT Alumni Association. Since they take in money, they're allowed to get away with it. Much of the spam was sent through

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-16528756973306242052008-08-21T13:36:00.001-04:002008-08-21T13:39:03.168-04:00

The only handwritten letters I get these days are from people in jail, it seems. The letter I just got from Cory Maye was a surprise; I hadn't written to him in well over a year. He mentions that his direct appeal is due September 25 and hopes his attorneys will have everything completed on time. The Mississippi Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal, giving it over to the Courts of Appeals;

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-12468977910284970772008-08-19T06:22:00.002-04:002008-08-19T09:49:45.237-04:00

"Libertarian" presidential candidate Bob Barr attempted to get a court order forcing Saddleback Church to include him in its forum with McCain and Obama. The judge properly ruled against Barr, though the article implies that he did so for the wrong reasons, not because the church had the right to decide whom to invite. Barr is a conservative in libertarian clothing, with no respect for private

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-13779103728973045032008-08-17T07:42:00.003-04:002008-08-17T08:18:14.946-04:00

People who expect Barack Obama to be a firm defender of abortion rights may be disappointed. In a joint appearance by him and John McCain at the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, he said he doesn't have the competency to answer a question on when a human first has rights: "I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade. ... not because I am pro-abortion ... but because, ultimately, I

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-35864286344027115862008-08-16T08:14:00.003-04:002008-08-16T08:21:25.063-04:00

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-48337027684585088732008-08-16T06:29:00.004-04:002008-08-16T08:08:57.491-04:00

The CASPIAN mailing list recently mentioned a protest which was held against a conference on RFID in clothing. The controversial aspect of the conference is the proposal to uniquely tag individual items ("item-level tagging"), which has potential for serious post-sale privacy problems. In most existing tagging schemes, all equivalent items have the same tag code, and tracking of an individual

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-81125416078925774642008-08-15T20:55:00.006-04:002008-08-15T21:40:21.845-04:00

Universal Hub has posted the MBTA's latest filing (PDF) against the MIT students, in an effort to keep its restraining order in effect. It pushes hard on the problems which I mentioned in my earlier post; the slide show implied that the people who heard the talk would leave knowing how to do illegal things to the MBTA's fare system. If the MBTA claimed simply that distributing the information

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-34237641012872289052008-08-15T06:02:00.003-04:002008-08-15T06:21:45.669-04:00

Wendy McElroy reports that RightBias has offered a (mostly) new set of cartoons on Islam. One of my favorites has a group of bearded men with shocked expressions looking at a letter that says "To the Taliban: Give us Osama Bin Laden or we'll send your women to college." Two of the Jyllands-Posten cartoons are included. So are four items which clearly aren't cartoons. Whatever you think of the

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-73333297079451335022008-08-12T07:01:00.001-04:002008-08-12T10:11:09.618-04:00

The Internet and Democracy Project at Harvard reports that the Russian invasion of Georgia has been accompanied by denial of service attacks on official Georgian websites, including the President’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Defense. In addition, I've noticed that Russia has loosed its most fearsome weapon of cyberwarfare: Internet trolls! A number of low-volume

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-20627900562582379672008-08-10T06:20:00.005-04:002008-08-11T20:04:53.643-04:00

The MBTA obtained a restraining order against three MIT students, preventing them from giving a talk on weaknesses in the T's "Charlie Card" system. My initial knee-jerk reaction was that this was a typical case of using lawsuits to keep people from realizing what a bad job someone had done with security; but as I read more, it looks as if the students went beyond reasonable bounds. There is a

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-89606169443945335922008-08-09T13:07:00.004-04:002008-08-09T18:27:03.834-04:00

Thanks to the Institute for Justice, I've read of numerous laws which create legal cartels, artificially limiting the people who are allowed to perform certain kinds of work; but this takes the cake. In Texas, it is illegal to do many kinds of data analysis on a computer without a private investigator's license. According to the printed article in Liberty & Law: The Texas Private Security

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-29009547068193075882008-08-09T08:36:00.005-04:002008-08-09T08:54:56.766-04:00

"Net neutrality" bloggers are thrilled not only because the FCC ruled against Comcast, but because of the arbitrary nature of its decision. Ed Felten writes, under the title "Comcast Gets Slapped, But the FCC Wisely Leaves its Options Open": "But the majority, despite technical competence, avoided a bright line rule—and that might itself turn out to be great policy." He understands fully what the

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-47256654473410092592008-08-08T06:32:00.002-04:002008-08-08T06:43:06.227-04:00

The US Olympic Committee has rebuked American athletes for not wanting to choke on Beijing's smog. China revoked Joey Cheek's visa for speaking out -- about Darfur. China rebuked Bush for timidly suggesting the Chinese people should have a little more freedom. It's Munich 1936 all over again.

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-62844853266721629452008-08-06T12:14:00.004-04:002008-08-08T06:24:23.332-04:00

The idea of the above is to raise a large amount of money all on one day -- August 8 -- for a "moneybomb" for a left-right coalition PAC opposed to "rampant presidential lawbreaking and a limitless surveillance state." I haven't made a decision yet on whether to provide financial support; that depends in large part on how reliable and secure their online payment mechanism looks. But I like the

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-83451134241959089642008-08-04T06:13:00.005-04:002008-08-04T06:46:07.752-04:00

Sometimes complaint sites are themselves abusive. I've received comments with links to pissedconsumer.com on three or four of my scam-reporting posts. The accounts from which they're submitted vary, but they're all from the same boilerplate: Hello. I think your blog is great. Recently, I have read a lot about [company I posted about]. The most useful information came from

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-20321345532343166022008-08-03T06:52:00.001-04:002008-08-03T06:54:35.658-04:00

The blogosphere is choking from unoriginality. Search for any topic, and most of what you'll find is material recycled from someone else, with no more than a line or two of original commentary. That's not counting the outright spam. So to help find a bit of authentic material, here's a roundup of links to thoughtful articles on issues I've posted about. I'm focusing here on lesser-known blogs,

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032433.post-79522747769285688092008-08-02T09:04:00.002-04:002008-08-02T09:27:06.619-04:00

In the name of "national security," the Department of Homeland Security has announced that customs officials can take people's computers without cause, keep them as long as they deem necessary to snoop through them, and share whatever they find with other governmental or private entities. DHS claims that this is necessary to "prevent terrorism." CNet has links to the policy text. This isn't

Gary McGathnoreply@blogger.com0