Cindy Sheehan / NEW NET Issues List for 29 May 2007

Cindy Sheehan, on Memorial Day 2007, resigned as one of the public leaders of the US anti-war movement which is working to get American troops withdrawn from Iraq. In her post on the Daily Kos, she says:

"I've tried ever since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing....killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think....Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."

There is more worth reading in her 28 May 2007 Daily Kos post for people who have open minds.

It would be good to see the American people, the American politicians and the American media spend more time and energy on reaching agreement about how to resolve (end) the war in Iraq than they do on American Idol, Anna Nicole Smith or any other single person or issue that doesn't involve thousands of people dying. And there are other issues, like Darfur, that are unquestionably more important than American Idol. I don't know why America is like that, and I certainly don't know enough about people to even hazard a guess about how to 'fix' things. It seems part of the problem is America's division into two equal and opposite camps who use a political label (Democrat or Republican) to determine where they stand on an issue and what should be done about that issue. Because the issues are so complicated, these people tend to adopt the general views of their chosen political party and not worry about facts or changes in the situation.

I have yet to read about or hear about a cohesive plan from either party for withdrawal from Iraq. Surely the Democrats realize that if they don't develop a reasonable plan for withdrawal, then American troops will remain mired in the quagmire in which they currently find themselves, otherwise known as Vietnam. If the Republicans don't develop a reasonable plan for withdrawal, then the American troops will remain mired in the quagmire in which they currently find themselves, also otherwise known as Vietnam. And every so often the American people will approve another $100 billion or $500 billion to continue doing whatever it is that we're doing in Iraq other than getting precious American sons and daughters killed.

Sorry for the political rant. This isn't a political blog. But Cindy Sheehan's comments resonated so strongly that the mini-rant just wouldn't remain unvoiced.

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Below is the final list of issues for the TUESDAY, 29 May 02007, NEW NET (Northeast Wisconsin Network for Economy and Technology) 7:00 - 9:00 pm weekly gathering upstairs at Tom's Drive In, 501 N Westhill Blvd, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

The ‘net

1. Pandora Music Now Available on Sprint Phones http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20070524/tc_nf/52531
2. Q&A With Seth Godin http://searchengineland.com/070523-093411.php
3. E-mail to bypass phone charges http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070523/wr_nm/phones_jangl_dc
4. E-Mail Bankruptcy http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402258.html
5. Yahoo Creates Home Values Meta Search http://searchengineland.com/070525-104303.php

Security, Privacy & Digital Controls

1. Cogneto: to identity and beyond! http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070525/tc_infoworld/88836
2. Congress starts examining NSA surveillance http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070525-congress-discovers-spine-starts-examining-nsa-surveillance.html
3. Cyber Crooks Hijack Activities of Large Web-Hosting Firm http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2007/05/cyber_crooks_hijack_activities_1.html
4. New software can identify you from your online habits http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg19426046.400&feedId=being-human_rss20
5. Proposed National Database Raises Privacy Concerns http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2135233,00.asp
6. Keylogging Trojan Dodges Anti-virus Detection http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20070524/tc_zd/208279
7. Skype Worm Jumps to ICQ, MSN http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20070524/tc_pcworld/132230
8. Panda Unveils New Web-Based Malware Detector http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20070525/tc_cmp/199701972
9. Wi-fi and RFID used for tracking http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6691139.stm

Mobile Computing & Communicating

1. WeFi Finds Friends from Their WiFi http://mashable.com/2007/05/23/wefi/
2. No such thing as a free download http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2086165,00.html
3. Verizon to Reveal iPhone Competitor This Summer http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7418
4. Michigan man arrested for using cafe's free WiFi from his car http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070522-michigan-man-arrested-for-using-cafes-free-wifi-from-his-car.html
5. 1-800-GOOG-411: Freedom With Speech http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/05/1-800-goog-411-freedom-with-speech.html

Open Source

1. VA Software becomes Sourceforge Inc. http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070525/tc_infoworld/88837
2. Dell Ubuntu Linux has arrived http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=318
3. 10 Open Source Apps You Can't Live Without http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200705/ij_05_25_07a.html

SkyNet

1. $100 Million Payday: Google Buying Feedburner http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/23/100-million-payday-for-feedburner-this-deal-is-confirmed/
2. The Final Days of Google http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070524_002134.html
3. Google Launches Security Blog http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20070523/tc_zd/208114
4. Google: Found in Translation http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117997041379112887.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
5. Google Calendar Goes Mobile http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/004484.html
6. Bigger attachments in Gmail http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/bigger-attachments-in-gmail.html

General Technology

1. Closing the book on Apple's Mac mini http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/05/24/closing_the_book_on_apples_mac_mini.html
2. USP Lasers: The Next Big Thing? http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_23/b4037063.htm
3. Intel: Software needs to heed Moore's Law http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6186765.html
4. $99 Zero-Emission, Linux Computer That's "as simple to use as a Mac" http://www.whatsnextblog.com/archives/2007/05/post_98.asp

Leisure & Entertainment

1. `Super Paper Mario' is super http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070523/ap_en_ot/games_super_paper_mario
2. Exclusive Geometry Wars Wii Interview http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=164788

Economy and Technology

1. House OKs bill to curb gas gouging http://www.washtimes.com/business/20070524-121323-8807r.htm
2. Legislature should look to Wisconsin's natural energy advantages http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=3943

Civilian Aerospace

1. Will Work for Spaceflight http://www.space.com/adastra/070524_adastra_space.html
2. National Space Society Conference Kicks Off in Dallas http://www.space.com/adastra/070524_isdc_intro.html
3. Space Venture Symposium Highlights Industry Diversity http://www.space.com/adastra/070525_spaceventurefinance.html

Supercomputing & GPUs

1. GPGPU Looks For Respect http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1582455.html
2. Nvidia Preps CUDA Software for June Release http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2136264,00.asp
3. New Supercomputer at UNM Makes Teaching Nanoscience Easier http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/001974.html
4. Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Gets New SGI Cluster http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1580475.html
5. NVIDIA's CUDA turns GPUs into high-powered CPUs http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/25/nvidias-cuda-turns-gpus-into-high-powered-cpus/
6. 'Not So Fast, Supercomputers,' Say Software Programmers http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1579050.html

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