July 27, 2006 - All alone and Clickin' Dirty
Well it may be old news for some, I was recently catching up on the news and came across an interesting article about close friendships are endangered. As someone with at least one close friend and a quaint social network of people I really appreciate, its hard for me to balance time between them all. Although some people I know, with far larger social networks although seem to have a higher frequency of contact with them seem to not have a specific person they confide in. The article is worth a read for anyone with remote social curiosity. Conclusion only touched on possible causes for the demising confidants, although broadly factored in technology.
As I have previously stated I am continually decreasing fan of MySpace and its social impacts. I would certainly look to online social networks like MySpace, FaceBook, and others as a cause for the continuing social decline. This is not to detour from the Internet and the social infirmities of modern technology.
I'll continue to dislike MySpace and the popular social sites that seem to have staked their claim in the current online social market. To continue with my rant about this social slum, the US politicians continue to obsfuct the line between big brother and what should be the government’s true form of helping and providing for its people. Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat and someone I used to have a bit more respect for, has decided it necessary to introduce a bill requiring 'provider of Internet access services' to retain access logs in order to identify subscribers for a period of one year. Like I said, I used to have more respect for DeGette.
Having been nearly embedded in the Internet since AOL 1.0 (around '95) and having worked at multiple ISP's I have a hardy understanding of how the Internet works. Most ISP's do retain a fair amount of information on their own to help trace users who might be trying to deface or otherwise cause harm to the company.
I remember sitting down at one of the servers of an ISP I used to work for and tracing through DNS, Authentication and modem pool logs, when we were bored. I don't need to go in to much detail, however it wasn't hard to recreate when and where a user when in a 20 minute session. The fact that a Representative introduces such a bill continues to show our societies ignorance towards technology and the fact they rarely act in the interest of ‘the people’ anymore.
At the same time I am finishing this post, I am compiling a letter to the Colorado Rep. regarding this bill. I am more interested in a response as to the justification for writing this bill. One thought is the move, though simple, would gain her political ground, thus respect from peers regarding intent and leverage on other issues.
-Hap
"You'll never need it, unless your television thought of it."
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