Sunday, April 13, 2003

We know who you are... From [New York Times: Technology]: Some Search Results Hit Too Close to Home. "With Phonebook, Internet users can type a phone number into the Google search box and the name and address of the person to whom it belongs will appear. By Amy Harmon." I received an alarmist email about this from a relative last week. Maybe I'm just too close to the technology, but I am not alarmed. I've been doing this for over ten years, first with CD-based databases of names and addresses, for marketing and mailing projects, and then online. Reverse telephone lookup has always been possible, even if you have to read the phonebook to get there. This is what "public information" means - who you are, where you live, your phone number, your interactions with town hall, your statement at public meetings, quotes in the newspaper - these are all searchable. Is there a worry here that hasn't been here all along? 8:04:28 AM    comment []

Happy Birthday, Dad! Off traveling for the rest of the day, down to Massachusetts, to celebrate Steve's 21st and Dad's 70th birthday. 7:55:30 AM    comment []

Opera 7.1 for Linux Slashdot posts: "Opera 7.10 Released (First Opera 7.x For Linux)." Cool! I like the MDI interface of Opera on windows, I wonder how it will perform on Linux. Have to download a copy and try it out. 7:54:39 AM    comment []

Is my blog sputtering? Wow. Missed posting anything to the blog, as I spent most of the day troubleshotting our incoming cable modem connection. Half the house was Internet-less, while the other half (on the office DSL) surfed obliviously. Of course, lots of the mail and other items were configured for the downed line, so I spent most of the day trying to get it running. Probably just wet wires after the downpour we had yesterday. A day of troubleshooting, and an inconclusive end. 7:53:03 AM    comment []