Did
you make it to the October general meeting? The three people
who won the door prizes were certainly glad they did. Lisa Leifels
took home a copy of Microsoft Office Pro 2003. Tim Purdy chose
the ViewSonic Pocket PC (yes, really!) and Richard Castonguay
got a copy of Microsoft FrontPage 2003. I cant promise
that well always have door prizes like these, but sure
can pay to attend the meetings.
How are you doing with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
for Windows XP? The industry predictions of doom dont seem
to have materialized. Ive applied SP2 to three machines
all without any problems, so far. Hows your mileage?
Do your digital rights
need managing?
I just love the terminology here. If you
have the right to fair use of copyrighted material, then why
do those rights need managing? The trend seems to be toward systems
that restrict your ability to use digital material but offer
to sell those privileges back to you for a fee. If you buy a
song on Apple iTunes should you be able to listen to that song
on any computer or just on your iPod? If you buy a DVD should
you be able to make a backup of that disk before it falls on
the floor and the kids walk on it? What if you buy a DVD and
then want to copy it to your hard drive so you can watch the
movie on your next plane flight.
Security versus Trust Privacy versus
Anonymity
Some food for thought: If your computer
is secure, does that mean that you can trust it? When you visit
your banks web site, how do you know that youre actually
connecting to the banks computers and not someone pretending
to be the bank? On the other hand, how does that bank know that
its you on the other end throughout a series of transactions?
If its so difficult to maintain our privacy online, then
why is it so difficult to be anonymous?
Microsoft, Intel and others are working very hard on technology
software and hardware to make computers trustworthy.
The next question of course is, trustworthy by whom? My guess
is that the goal is to make your computer trustworthy to the
movie industry. Will this make it any easier to copy a movie
from a DVD to your Pocket PC? Well... maybe for a fee.
The general election
This newsletter should arrive just before
Election Day (and our November general meeting). This election
is perhaps the most critical election ever for our country. Ive
been told I cant endorse specific candidates here and we
are a computer club after all. So I will just suggest that you
look at the record of each candidate in protecting your privacy,
your civil liberties and your digital rights. Then vote for the
candidate who will best support and defend your freedoms
digital and otherwise.
DACS Elections
One last thing, remember that the DACS
elections are coming in December, just a month after the general
elections. So far, one person has offered to be a candidate for
the DACS Board of Directors. We dont have a formal nominating
committee. If you are interested in this club and would like
to help move it forward, please contact me or any director.
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