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Remember when we talked about the importance of privacy waaaaaay back in August? An article over at Wired Blogs reminded me of that little chat tonight:

NSA Whistleblower: Wiretaps Were Combined with Credit Card Records of U.S. Citizens

I think it’s reasonable to say we all conduct our lives with a certain expectation of privacy… When we’re on the phone, we expect we’re only on the phone with the person on the other end of the line. When we surf the web, we expect our travels are nobody’s business but ours. When we shop at Amazon, or swipe our credit card at the local Blockbuster, we expect the only place those transactions are going are to our bank. As it turns out, those expectations might be a little misplaced:

“This [information] could sit there for ten years and then potentially it marries up with something else and ten years from now they get put on a no-fly list and they, of course, won’t have a clue why,” Tice said.

In most cases, the person would have no discernible link to terrorist organizations that would justify the initial data mining or their inclusion in the database.

“This is garnered from algorithms that have been put together to try to just dream-up scenarios that might be information that is associated with how a terrorist could operate,” Tice said. “And once that information gets to the NSA, and they start to put it through the filters there . . . and they start looking for word-recognition, if someone just talked about the daily news and mentioned something about the Middle East they could easily be brought to the forefront of having that little flag put by their name that says ‘potential terrorist’.”

I’m not about to go cut up my credit cards, smash my cell phone or throw my Thruway E-Z Pass into the briny depths of the Genesee anytime soon. But news like this should make us all think a bit about the kind of digital signature we leave behind, and explore ways we can enhance our privacy without compromising the connected lives we so often take for granted.

Given the sorry state of my office this week (it’s time for some cleanin’), the pile of bills waiting in my inbox to be paid, and the fact that I only got about 4 hours’ sleep, this week’s edition of Saturday Morning Tuneage is going to be a short one.

If you noticed the countdown in the nav bar anytime in the last two months, you probably already know that I checked out Teagan and the Tweeds, the Katy Wright Band, and Teressa Wilcox at Lovin’ Cup last night, along with Kelly and a couple of good friends. Between the great covers (highlights included Janis Joplin, Sara Bareilles and K T Tunstall, just to start) and plenty of originals in every set, every song they rocked out was a crowd-pleaser.

Aside from my personal favorite, Don’t Walk Away, The Tweeds got everyone on their feet and clapping when they broke out Janis Joplin’s Mercedes Benz, and they gave us a taste of what happens when they crank up the soul with their take on Nothing but the Water by Grace Potter and the Noctournals.

Aside from the music, the venue was a winner, too. It was our first visit, and we tried out the food, the coffee, the hot cocoa and some nothing-short-of-kickass chai. Obviously set up for live music, the layout is just what you’d imagine for an ideal “intimate concert” setting – sit-down booths on the outer edges flank high-top tables, all of which surrounds a well-lit rounded stage. The front row sits about ten feet from the musicians, and no one is far enough away to feel disconnected from the show. It reminded me a lot of seeing John Mayer perform tracks from Inside Wants Out at the now-defunct Milestones Music Room – along with a whopping 200-or-so other fans – long before his rise to superstardom.

If you didn’t make it to last night’s show, you can still check out Teagan Ward on Tuesday nights at the Beale Street Cafe on South Avenue. And for those with more “classical” tastes, there is some excellent local music yet to be heard this month: The Eastman Philharmonia – a student ensemble at the world-renowned Eastman School of Music – will be playing works by Elgar and Rismky-Korsakov this coming Friday night (January 30th) from 8-10PM at the Eastman Theater.

Hmm…so much for keeping it short this week!

What is it they always say… “People rise to the level of their incompetence”, right? Well, I know a few very competent CIOs that would probably find some trouble in a claim that CIO Magazine made in an article yesterday: Open-Source Mobile Telephony Goes Legit. Give it a read:

It previously could be argued that handset movement toward open source could amount to nothing in the end, given U.S. carriers’ ironclad hold on which handsets and features actually make it to users’ hands. But that argument dissolves in the face of Verizon’s recent bid to open its cellular network to compatible and certified devices. That play potentially breaks the locked device environment permanently. “If Android gets certified on the Verizon network, any phone that runs Android could complete calls on Verizon,” says Gary Zimmerman, director of product marketing at Avotus. “So the switch between carriers no longer requires a swap of equipment.” (emphasis mine –DR)

Maybe someone unified the world’s wireless carriers while we all slept on Tuesday night, but the last time I checked, phones with CDMA radios don’t work on GSM networks. And if GSM phones (like the T-Mobile G1, which runs Android) worked on CDMA networks (like Verizon’s) you can bet I’d already have one there.

So we’re left with a breakdown. Obviously, Garry Zimmerman has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to cell networks and interoperability. Android is, for lack of a simpler term, an operating system. It doesn’t care what kind of radio connects it to the cell towers, but unless someone some genius comes out with an Android phone with CDMA, GSM, UMTS, AMPS, W-CDMA, iDEN and PCS radios in it, it’s not going to be crowned “carrier agnostic” amid trumpets and fanfare. Oh, and by the way, it’s the hardware – not the operating system – that gets “certified on Verizon”.

But is that really Garry’s fault? I mean, he may not have a clue what he’s talking about technically, but he’s still got an impressive title, right? So that must mean Pam Baker doesn’t need to check his sound bites. In actuality, anyone with the word “reporter” on their business card should know to fact-check a claim as fantastic as this one. Funny, I remember hearing someone else comment on this recently, too!

As I prepared this most-recent new-year’s eve post a few weeks ago, I figured an easy way to take stock in 2008 would be to cruise through the digital photos we took through the year. Pointing Dolphin into the server’s image directory, however, was disappointing … while I expected to see more folders full of photos than I could possibly review, I found only 29. Granted, they marked big things, but I felt like someone who purports to be an incorrigible shutterbug should have shot more than this.

After new year’s, when we all headed back to work, a colleague asked me if I’d made any resolutions. To be honest, I hadn’t thought of any, but as we chatted, my behind-the-lens disappointment resurfaced. So I resolved on-the-fly: 2009 will be more photographic. Fortunately, a week later, one of these came along:

Secondhand? Yes. Well-loved? By many. But it was a bargain, and my 20D loves it. Between it and the EF 35mm prime that Dad gave me a year-or-so ago, I’ve already added six new folders to “the vault”. That’s six new events – and by this time last year, I’d only taken six photos total.

I’d say we’re on track with this resolution, so far! Now let’s hope it doesn’t go the way of the diet plans and swear jars in so many other households…

After reading a nice (albeit sparse) review (hat tip: Linux Today) of the new incarnation of Linux Mint – version 6, “Felicia” – I decided to take this purportedly-polished, evidently-elegant OS for a spin. By sheer coincidence, I happened to have an “older” (yes, everything is relative) P4-powered Dell Dimension set up anyway, so a moderately resource-constrained testbed was ready and waiting.

But before I even got around to popping in the Mint install disc – or even burning it for that matter – I was struck by one of the largely-unsung positive aspects of Linux: the sheer ease and speed by which you can find it on your digital doorstep.

If I wanted to put a copy of Windows Vista on my computer – legally, mind you – I’d have to drive down to the local big box store (which is closing, by the way) and hope they have a boxed copy of whichever among the six editions that I actually want. Even using every one of my Saab’s 250 horses (so much for “legally”), I couldn’t even make it there and back in the time it took me to download Linux Mint, let alone wade through the salespeople and the checkout line.

23 minutes, 15 seconds. That’s how long it took to pull down a Linux Mint disc ISO through my crumby DSL connection. Even if you add on another (rather generous) five minutes to burn the disc, it’s still faster than buying a boxed copy of Windows. And let’s not even discuss mail-order, whether it’s for a box-o-software, a preloaded PC, or a copy of Windows XP (which is only available by snail-mail).

I’ll admit, when most folks are ready to reload their operating system, procurement speed isn’t exactly the first thing on their minds – which is surprising in a society where people get pouty and start to twitch if their $7 latte isn’t prepared quickly enough. But it is something to consider: if you’re getting ready to format that hard drive, why fossil-fuel your way to CompuMart or wait days for the postal service, when you can have the latest new OS ready to install in less time than it takes to get a pizza delivered?!

It’s a new year, and this year that means a new tradition, the brainchild of my parents: The Rea Family Pizza Challenge. Each couple (the Parents, my brother Andy and his girlfriend, along with Kelly and me) prepares a pizza, then we chow down and judge the entries.

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As we ate, each family member was given a ballot and a pen – Andy came up with a weighted system where points were awarded for flavor, appearance and creativity. We munched, chatted and graded each-other’s pies, and then I headed for Dad’s office to compile the scores.

In the end, Andy and his girlfriend’s Muffuletta pizza – a New Orleans-style blend of olive salad, cured meat and provolone cheese – took first place. In second, the parents’ vegetarian Italian-style pie blended shiitake mushrooms with artichokes, olives and peppers. Kelly and I brought up the rear, with a blue-cheesy Buffalo chicken wing pizza. It won big points for flavor, but our low creativity scores were what ultimately did us in. Either way, times like this are a perfect example of how food and cooking can bring families together.

We’ve already dreamed up our next pizza challenge: everyone makes a pie based on the same theme, but each team offers a different interpretation. The big question is: what kind should it be? Nothing is off the table, so think about it: If you were going to be a judge at our next throwdown, what kind of pizza would you want?

Apparently this is what happens when one of your posts is featured on LinuxToday:

Thanks to everyone who checked out Installing FlyCast on Ubuntu Linux; hopefully a few visitors tried it out!

Catching up on my Android news this morning, I caught this post over at AndroidGuys that describes a new streaming radio service called FlyCast. It seems to be targeted at WiFi- and 3G-enabled smartphones, but they also offer a desktop client. For Windows and Mac users.

Initially I was disappointed, but then I noticed that FlyCast runs under Adobe Air. And since Adobe recently released an Air runtime for Linux…could it be that easy?! It turns out it is, so here’s how you can try out FlyCast yourself on Ubuntu Linux (I run 8.04, “Hardy Heron”):

1) Download the Adobe Air Runtime. As of this writing, it’s at Version 1.5.

2) Install Air. To do so, open a command line window, navigate to the downloaded installer (AdobeAIRInstaller.bin) and run the following two commands:

chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

This will open up a little installer window; follow the prompts, and within a few seconds Air will be installed.

3) Download the FlyCast air file. I think the easiest way to do it is on the command line, where you can type:

wget http://www.flycast.fm/air/badge/versions/FlyCast-1.air

4) Install the FlyCast client, by launching the “Adobe AIR Application Installer” (I found it under the “Utilities” section of the K menu) and selecting the file (FlyCast-1.air) you just downloaded.

From there, you can run FlyCast and start streaming. There doesn’t seem to be a registration or login required, though there is a place to do so if you have an account. So far, most of the channels I’ve checked out have been pretty damn sweet, though occasionally it seems FlyCast is just a frontend for streams that are already out there. I’ve noticed a few hiccups in the music, and one more-major complaint is that I can’t seem to figure out how to display Artist and Track information, or skip songs (FlyCast advertises unlimited song-skip as a feature). All told, though, it rocks enough to be worth checking out…

Update: After doing some more exploring tonight, I’ve noticed that song skipping seems to be on a per-channel basis; some allow it, some don’t. I’ve also confirmed my suspicion that the majority of FlyCast channels just pass through to streams already available elsewhere on the ‘net. To that end, I wish they’d offer some manner of submitting station suggestions – because it’d be pretty sweet if they had WBER‘s streams listed among the Rochester, NY channels…