slashdot roundup

There's been some interesting stuff making the rounds of slashdot recently, and I thought I'd share some if it with y'all. But first, a warning and a query.

WTF is the deal with Facebook? I can't tell if I'm getting too old for this social networking nonsense, or maybe I just don't like to see companies cross the line. I mean, I have a myspace page which I haven't been on in like a month, but Facebook is like Myspace's twin that got picked on too much as a kid and decided to go into law enforcement. One of Facebook's "features" is something called Beacon - it tells your friends what you're up to, what websites you're visiting, etc. And it tells this to all sorts of third parties who try to sell you stuff based on what sites you visit and whatnot. It's just...creepy. And I'm pretty sure I posted on this topic before, but Future Tense this morning got me thinking about it again.

Also, pretty kick-ass night for Barack, though I still think if Super Tuesday was a week later, he'd have cleaned the floor. But he's got the momentum, he's got some money, and I'm really hoping he does well during the next few primaries. Larry Lessig has an excellent powerpoint-type thing (except it's not boring) on why he's voting for Obama over Clinton.

Also by Larry Lessig: this talk at TED on how creativity is being strangled by the law. It's only 20 minutes long, and is pretty insightful...

...and it dovetails nicely with this video from Public Knowledge, regarding the RIAA's attempts to install "content filters" on all computers. slashy comments

Bruce Schneier has a great article on vendor lock-in and consumer rights. I've bought 2 of his books in the last month. This article was a bit of a re-hash for me, since I had watched a great talk that he gave not too long ago. slashy comments

I have more, but it's time for lunch...maybe there'll be a part II...