All New KTETCH.CO.UK

Ok, after 3 years here on Blogger, it's going bye-bye.

The terrible interface that Google has given the blogger back-end is the straw that broke the camels back.

Over the years, it's lost functionality, and become difficult to work with. it's slow, and sucks resources. And if I take more than an hour or two, it will consume VAST quantities of ram, and an entire cpu core.

Governance by Powerpoint

It wasn’t until I was perusing some videos online, which mentioned the death of Hugo Chavez, that I was made aware of his weekly program, Aló Presidente. While no comments on the content of the show, the idea is certainly one that needs to be embraced.

The problem is one that we have nowadays worldwide. Political leaders are treated like kings. While that might seem amusingly obvious, the underlying point is that political leaders often consider themselves so much better htan ‘the people’ that they’re in a constant bubble, afraid to interact regularly with the outside world. We end up with a political class that can’t think on its feet, and is ignorant to the realities facing those they represent and/or govern.

Libel Reform, And Why It Matters To Britain

The risk of libel reform failing is not one that any Briton should find acceptable. The damage our libel laws have caused over the decades is immeasurable, and has only increased since the advent of the internet.

CC-BY Soumyadeep Paul

Now the vastly overdue libel measures that would bring the UK out of the 19th Century, and into at least the 20th Century, are on hold and may falter, due to the intervention of Lord Puttnam, and his inclusion of statutory regulation of the press in the bill.

Scalia Hints at End for USA PATRIOT Act

During oral arguments over the Voting Rights Act, Justice Scalia indicated that there might be a justification for getting rid of the USA Patriot Act. During Oral arguments at the Supreme Court over the much lauded Voting Rights Act, hints were dropped as to how the wildly unpopular and overreaching anti-terrorist act could be dropped in a face-saving manner.

6 Strikes - Because the DMCA Wasn't One-Sided Enough

The debut of the 6-strikes system is now on us, and yet we have to wonder why it’s here in the first place. The US already has a robust court system for dealing with alleged infringers (and tens of thousands that have been targeted by it over the last few years can attest to that) as well as a notice-and-takedown system in the DMCA. So why do we need another system, this graduated response setup?

Cory Doctorow in Atlanta (full!)

Last week, blogger, activist, author and all-around nice guy stopped by in Atlanta on his tour to promote Homeland, his new book. I dragged my wife and eldest over to the talk, held at the surprisingly nice auditorium at the Decatur public library. Even arriving 15 minutes early, seats were hard to find, and so I was near the back.

Tesla Motors – Supercharged Supersnooping

The on-going feud the last week or two between New York Times columnist John Broder and Tesla Motors Elon Musk has highlighted at least one issue. Modern cars are going to be hell for privacy activists. In fact, the car you sit in could end up invalidating United States v Jones – the case requiring long-term GPS tracking have a warrant.