geekosystem

People still love taxes, right? That's what the Senate seems to think, because they just voted 75-to-24 in favor of a non-binding resolution that says they would support a bill introducing an Internet sales tax. Even though the resolution is non-binding, its overwhelming support could help support the bill as it School House Rocks its way to becoming a law. The Senate finally decides to get something done, and it's Internet sales tax? Great job, Senate.

In retaliation for the United States repeatedly blocking Antigua from hosting online gambling, the country now plans to launch a website that will sell music, movies, and software from U.S. content-makers without paying royalties to the content's U.S. copyright holders. It's not surprising that the Antinguan government denies that the site qualifies as "privacy," and it's even less surprising that the U.S. isn't happy about the site and will try to stop it.

Yesterday we covered the White House's response to the petition asking them to build a working Death Star. Sometimes though, people try to use the government's We the People petition program to try to accomplish things that might be possible. Anonymous has posted a petition to the site asking that the US Government officially declare Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks to be a form of protest, and not a crime. This stands about as much of a chance as the government building a Death Star, and the response probably won't be nearly as funny.

The United States' misinformed and eye roll-inducing war on violent video games marches ever onward in yet another show of using them as a scapegoat for violent tragedies. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has recently pulled particular arcade game titles deemed offensive from various rest stops along the Massachusetts Turnpike in light of the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting. Well never forget the lives lost in that tragic event, but the nation's insatiable habit of holding easy targets culpable instead of identifying the real problem is getting tediously grating at this point.

Way back in September we reported that the House of Representatives gave thumbs up to the FISA Amendments Act renewal -- allowing the National Security Agency (NSA) to continue to eavesdrop on the private conversations of American citizens without a warrant, granted the person in question is at least assumed to be involved in a foreign affair that could threaten national security. Essentially, the government can do as they please sifting through our email and phone calls. This week, after days of tenuous -- and largely fruitless -- debates and the shooting down of amendments drafted to rein in the unconstitutional nature of FISA, the Senate also gave their approval to the renewal of the act for another five years shortly before it was due to expire. Given the global sociopolitical barometer, flat out ignoring civil liberties seems to be the trendy thing to do these days.

Not too long ago, the Chinese government had been toying with the notion of approving a proposal requiring real-name registration for Internet users when working with service providers and similar vendors. This procured registration information would then be stored in a data system that could possibly be accessed by the authorities to monitor the online day-to-day activities of the general public. Many concerned citizens feared that this proposed controversial move would be an encroachment on the free speech online anonymity brings -- especially in a nation notorious for censorship crackdowns on those that dispense unpopular opinions against China's ruling body. It looks like those fears have been made real since the government has sanctioned the real-name registration proposal, putting the public's private affairs on shaky ground.

Farting while in the presence of others is an age-old tradition. Certain comedians have made a fair chunk of change off of similar comedic gestures. South Park wouldn't be what it is today without fart jokes. Still, letting one go with coworkers nearby is perhaps the worst kind of workplace sin. Nobody wants to smell what you ate, digested, and are preparing to "part" with. Federal employees are no exception. According to a letter dated December 10th, one federal worker for the Social Security Administration has been officially reprimanded for "uncontrollable flatulence." That's not the weirdest part.

Because berserk homeless people and the combined smell of the passengers' rancid body odor didn't make riding the bus enough of a horrible experience, government officials are currently in the process of installing surveillance devices to record any and all conversations during bus rides -- and we mean from everybody on board. The plan will be put into action in a number of major city transit hubs across the nation ranging from San Francisco, California to Baltimore, Maryland. Advocates say that this system of audio surveillance will aid in law enforcement and resolving service issues, but, frankly the public would probably rather not have the government hear their thoughts on last night's episode of American Horror Story.

Being the head of any government isn't exactly an easy job. When it comes down to it, leaders have to make decisions based on the best information they have available to them at the time. If that data proves to be faulty or somehow outdated, they can get reamed for making the wrong call. Thank goodness there's apparently an app for that. David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has been using an app on his iPad to keep track of real-time data on stuff like housing and jobs.

The FISA Amendments Act essentially allows the government to eavesdrop on Americans' email and phone calls without a warrant. There's just one stipulation: One of those involved must be "believed" to be from outside the United States. So, basically, they can conduct electronic surveillance on domestic targets so long as they suspect there might be some kind of foreign involvement. This is the act that the House of Representatives have agreed to reauthorize for five more years.

We've been worried about the government using security cameras and other devices to track our lives for a little while now. Well, what may have started as paranoia is rapidly becoming a serious concern: The FBI has announced that they plan to spend one billion dollars to build a new type of facial recognition database that will allow the agency to identify suspects and people of interest using security footage from public cameras.

The government is watching you. All the time. People have been saying it for years, and now we kinda, sorta, have proof. Files on TrapWire, a government-sponsored program that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to track people's movements using surveillance cameras, have surfaced with  the latest batch of Wikileaks documents. Some are saying that's why the site has been experiencing mass DDoS attacks: To keep this thing under wraps. Conspiracy theories abound.

Last Friday, ICE's Cyber Crimes Center proudly seized various domain names as part of "Operation Save Our Children," claiming the domains were involved with the distribution of child pornography. ICE managed to get a District Court judge sign a seizure warrant, then had the offending sites' doman registries make said offending sites point to the scary banner shown above. However, for whatever reason, a mistake was made and the domain, mooo.com, of a large DNS service provider, FreeDNS, was seized, causing around 84,000 innocent subdomains to be seized as well.

Yesterday evening, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved a bill that would allow the president to "shut down private sector or government networks" in the event of a cyber attack that threatened lives or other "major damage."

From The Hill:

"It's been frustrating to read some of the misrepresentations of our bill in the cybersphere," [Susan Collins, Republican Rep from Maine and co-sponsor of the bill] said, arguing the new bill actually circumscribes the president's existing authority and puts controls on its use. "I believe the substitute amendment we’re offering strengthens those protections even more."

Maybe that is because the objection is not against allowing the President to shut off the internet in certain circumstances, but allowing the President to shut off the internet at all.

Yes, we know Hoover wasn't British.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will announce a four year initiative to go paperless. That is, to make every possible interaction between British citizens and their government into something you can do online.

From the Times:

The aim is that within a year, everybody in the country should have a personalised website through which they would be able to find out about local services and do business with the Government. A unique identifier will allow citizens to apply for a place for their child at school, book a doctor’s appointment, claim benefits, get a new passport, pay council tax or register a car from their computer at home.

The savings on paper, postage, and physical government offices are expected to be in the billions.