inside the man

Friday, November 26, 2004

Germany gains Shaolin fighting monks

The largest Shaolin temple outside of China has opened in Berlin. Weisswurst, a stein of beer, and kung fu!

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Sex is OK during Grey Cup week

Mike Pinball Clemens, coach of the Argos, said it best,

Personally speaking, this game is of such great magnitude that far be it from me to interrupt what may be a player's normal course of action for readying himself for a game.


Tuesday, November 16, 2004

New US copyright legislation under discussion

A bill labeled HR2391 is under discussion in Washington which would clarify a number of points of concern for the Big Media lobby. One example,

The bill would "would criminally punish a person who 'infringes a copyright by ... offering for distribution to the public by electronic means, with reckless disregard of the risk of further infringement.'"

My single greatest concern is will this lead to prosecution of American public libraries for recklessly breaking down barriers to electronic and other copyrighted materials?
You can help change the world

The World Community Grid is live. What should we think of this? Is it simply an IBM marketing front? Will it make the world a better place? Should I hook up my idle workstation cycles?
The Faith-Based Encyclopedia

Former Editor-In-Chief of Encyclopedia Britannica Robert McHenry shares his thoughts on Wikipedia at TCS. Here's a good quote:

The user who visits Wikipedia to learn about some subject, to confirm some matter of fact, is rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may be obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Alleged corporate espionage in Canada

Calgary based WestJet Airlines is now the target of two lawsuits alleging corporate espionage. One lawsuit filed last month by Jetsgo for CAD$50 million alleged that senior WestJet executives stole private data in order to gain a competitive advantage. Now a CAD$220 million lawsuit has been filed by Air Canada claiming that WestJet accessed an Air Canada employee web site nearly a quarter million times to gain operating data.

A Canadian Press story has WestJet CEO Clive Beddoe all but admitting guilt with respect to Air Canada's claims, referencing the resignation of WestJet VP Mark Hill in July over this matter. Beddoe's defense seems to be limited to the fact that the information that WestJet received from the Air Canada web site was widely available from other sources.

I find this news personally validating as I have been told time and time again by IT managers in my neck of the woods that espionage is not a valid risk in Canada. Time to revisit the risk analysis, my friends!

About Me

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Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Returned to working as a Management Consultant, specializing in risk, security, and regulatory compliance, with Fujitsu Canada after running the IT shop in the largest library in the South Pacific.

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