Circuit Rider - Version 3.8
By Jim Scheef

A Seminal Event

Each year, the December general meeting is also the club’s annual meeting. The primary business is the election of the directors who actually run the club. This year’s election went very smoothly, so smoothly in fact that no one noticed that Marc Cohen is no longer on the board. This might not seem like a big deal, but Marc has been on the board longer than anyone. Marc has been a club member longer than anyone. Marc is not just a founding member, he is THE founding member.

Way back in the early 80’s, Marc bought an Osborn portable computer. It came with a bunch of software. To get some help in learning to use his new computer and software, Marc called Osborn Computers out in California and asked for the names of other Osborn owners in the area. They sent him a list. (Can you imagine the security and privacy implications of doing this today?) After a few phone calls, the first meeting of the Danbury Osborn Group (DOG) took place at a local diner. Since then, Marc has always been involved in the club–and not just watching from the sidelines. Whatever needs to be done, Marc has been there to help. In all likelihood, the newsletter you are reading was addressed by Marc.

In the interest of not allowing any good deed to go unpunished, I propose that the club create the position of Director Emeritus to honor Marc and his many, many contributions to DACS.

The Patriot Act – Yet again

Last month I suggested that you call your Congresspeople and ask that they protect your civil liberties in the final version of the renewal of the incredibly misnamed USA Patriot Act. Well, our Congresspeople have surprised me once again by not (yet) renewing the Patriot Act. Much of the act is already permanent. Congress made only the most controversial sixteen sections expire after four years. So here we are, four years later discussing these draconian provisions once again. Only this time we have had the opportunity to do something about them.

The most controversial part of the act is Section 215, often called the library section. So what is so controversial about library records? Well, the truth is that the section covers more than just libraries. Section 215 allows the search of just about ANY records in matters involving national security. There are any number of problems here, but the biggest is that all the FBI needs to do to conduct such a search is to say they want to conduct the search; there is no opportunity for review, and even the person asked to provide the records is forbidden from telling anyone. Since questioning the request involves talking about the request, they are between a rock and a hard place from the get-go.

So, if you’ve been telling yourself that you don’t need to worry about this because you don’t use the library, well think again. “All records” includes credit card, medical, travel, any business records, and stuff none of us have thought of.

Librarians as a group have been one of the most vocal in opposing the act. While your local public librarian might think twice about providing the FBI with the fact that you wanted to read a book on Islam, your health insurance company, your credit card company (I hesitate to call them banks), even your employer, will all give you up in a heartbeat. If you use one of the national internet service providers, I would expect that your web viewing history and email correspondents are also obtainable by the FBI with little more than a mouse click.

Republican senator, John Sununu (N.H.) said, “Those that would give up essential liberties in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.” (He almost managed to quote Benjamin Franklin correctly.) The growing concern from Republican senators means that there is a fighting chance that we could emerge from this debate with some part of our civil liberties still intact. Once again, I ask that you step up to the plate and call our senators and tell them how you feel–even if you don’t agree with me.

More on Firefox
This past month I upgraded to Firefox 1.5, the current version, on both Windows and Linux. In the process I discovered that almost all of the extensions run on both operating systems and probably work on the Mac as well. This is really cool, because Firefox is pretty anemic by itself; the extensions are what let you customize Firefox to suit your needs.

If you haven’t discovered the extensions, click on the Tools menu and then pick Extensions. A special Firefox web site will open where you can choose from literally hundreds of extensions. I find the biggest problem is figuring out what is available. After installing some extension and continuing to browse through the list, I sometimes find another one that does the same thing, only better.

Extensions are little programs (often less than 100k) that add some feature to Firefox. For example, one of my favorite extensions is called PlainOldFavorites. This little gem allows Firefox to use all of your Internet Explorer “Favorites” (aka: bookmarks) directly without any conversion whatever. You can even add a new favorite in Firefox, and then use it later from Internet Explorer. Since both browsers are using the same favorites, there is nothing to synchronize.

Another good one is NoScript which allows you to control which web sites can execute JavaScript on your machine. This is one of those programs that can be rather annoying in operation. You will be amazed to learn that some web sites run scripts from four or even five domains. You’ve always known that lots of web sites get their advertising from DoubleClick. With NoScript installed, you will see how pervasive DoubleClick really is—unless you allow it, of course—but then what’s the point? [There is an easy way to rid yourself of DoubleClick advertising if you are running a DNS server (easy on Linux), but that’s another story.] Look at the extensions, and have fun adding features to Firefox.

Version numbers
I was asked a few weeks ago if I could come up with something more imaginative for these columns than a simple version number. Ok, here’s the story. The version number counts these columns from when I first started after becoming DACS president. I continued the count when I moved to IPP (immediate past president). As any programmer knows, indexes should be zero-based, so my first column was version 0.0. The end of my first year was 0.11. If you don’t understand, I really don’t care – the numbers stay!

Hopefully, you have all enjoyed the holiday traditions of your religious persuasion. If you have no religious persuasion, I hope you were not bothered by those who do (credit to Bruce Preston).