IT at the South Pole!

A Computerworld Interview with the IT director of the science installation at the South Pole! The thing that I found most surprising was the altitude at the South Pole: 12,000 feet! Wow. That's some serious oxygen deprivation. And the story of the 300 degree temperature shifts are interesting.

Have you heard about Amazon's ebook device, the Kindle?

Here's a amalgamation of quotes by Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, where he would say one thing and the Kindle Terms of Service would say another. For example:

Act I: The act of buying

When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this.

Jeff Bezos, Open letter to Author’s Guild, 2002

You may not sell, rent, lease, distribute, broadcast, sublicense or otherwise assign any rights to the Digital Content or any portion of it to any third party, and you may not remove any proprietary notices or labels on the Digital Content. In addition, you may not, and you will not encourage, assist or authorize any other person to, bypass, modify, defeat or circumvent security features that protect the Digital Content.

Amazon, Kindle Terms of Service, 2007

http://diveintomark.org/archives/2007/11/19/the-future-of-reading

The Kindle is an interesting device, though I haven't handled one. But it's loaded with gobbs of DRM crap, apparently can't handle graphics (as in web comics) very well, and I think the case is pretty ugly. I love the Sony ebook reader, but like the Kindle, they're over-priced IMO. Bring one in at $200, let me upload and download to it, get rid of the WiFi AFAIC, and I'd be happy.

Vermont judge rules defendant can't be forced to divulge PGP key under 5th amendment

http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html

Interesting stuff. Basically the defendant admitted that he downloaded kiddie porn and border agents allegedly saw images on his laptop. Then his laptop was closed and left alone for a while. In doing so, the laptop closed the PGP drive and it now requires a PGP key to open it. The judge says that forcing him to reveal the key is tantamount to self-incrimination.