Mike Pirnat

Pursuant to this article about AT&T;’s new privacy policies, it may be in your best interests to watch whatever you say if over the phone, or in fact to not have phone service of any kind.

From the article:

The new policy says that AT&T; — not customers — owns customers’ confidential info and can use it “to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.”

The policy also indicates that AT&T; will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service — something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

Moreover, AT&T; (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service — a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers’ recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.

And:

AT&T;’s new and former privacy policies both state that “conducting business ethically and ensuring privacy is critical to maintaining the public’s trust and achieving success in a dynamic and competitive business climate.”

Both also state that “privacy responsibility” extends “to the privacy of conversations and to the flow of information in data form.” As such, both say that “the trust of our customers necessitates vigilant, responsible privacy protections.”

The 2004 policy, though, went one step further. It said AT&T; realizes “that privacy is an important issue for our customers and members.”

The new policy makes no such acknowledgment.

I for one welcome our new Orwellian older sibling overlords! USA! USA!

current-events, politics, psa

Well! Another February 14 draws to a close, and (luckily, thankfully) it’s been a very, very good one thus far.

On the work front: we weathered the storm with aplomb, our site never faltering under the onslaught of the greetings industry’s biggest day, while our competitors dropped like flies. W00t! A side benefit of today’s success is that David Stanek and I won’t look like idiots at PyCon next week when we promote the idea that Python plays nicely in the enterprise; the metaphorical egg is nowhere even close to our faces, and that’s a great feeling.

I wasn’t assigned to any particular monitoring shift today, so I had a few hours to tinker… and ended up cobbling together some Twisted magic to create an HTTP-to-AIM/IRC bot that would allow us to plug our monitoring scripts directly into our internal chatrooms. I had to fix a bug in Twisted’s Oscar library (for talking with AIM) in order to get it to work; hopefully the maintainer will accept my (very) simple patch. It’s working out well so far, so I think that as I get the chance, I’ll be cleaning it up and extending it to provide all kinds of other functionality for us. It should be pretty cool.

Meanwhile! Liz demonstrates her thorough and complete awesomeness yet again: first by dragging me to last night’s Spanish wine dinner at Mallorca, second by hooking me up with tasty Christmas ale and insanely good chocolates, third by picking up takeout dinner from Moosehead (mmm, wild buffalo rolls…), fourth for making sure I stay up to date on Dick Cheney’s Bogus Journey, and, above all else, for putting up with my deranged little self. This woman has the patience of a saint, not to mention smarts galore, and dare I say it–mad hotness!

Now the trick will be to get back into a normal rhythm after all the craziness…

current-events, food, holidays, liz, python, twisted, wine, work

Well, I never saw this one coming: the Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible.

books, current-events, links

09-02-05_0918
Originally uploaded by mikepirnat.

The little dashboard light came on this morning to complain about fuel, so I was off to the pump for the most expensive tank of gas of my life thus far, more than twice as much as I was paying a year ago. A small price to pay, though, as I at least still have a home, a job, and a city.

Still, I wish I had filled up the other morning when it was still below $3 per gallon, though I’m sure I did better by filling up now than by waiting until after the weekend; it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Can’t seem to tear myself away from the news, the blogs, the images of the week. Simply terrifying.

cars, current-events

Dear London,

So very sorry to hear your sad news today. We were all quite happy for you yesterday with the Olympics and all, and it was so nice to see you turn out for Live8 over the weekend.

You seem to be handling everything okay, so I think you will be all right once you get things cleaned up and address your wounds. It’s heartening to see you so courageous and graceful on such an awful day.

Our condolences go out to those injured and killed; they did not deserve what fate thrust upon them. Do not dwell too long in your grief, but remember those that were lost with fondness and joy.

Hang in there, okay?

Hugs,

Mike

current-events, thoughts

Just got done watching the webcast of Pink Floyd’s set for Live8… WOW. It’s really amazing to see the originals all back together again; as one hand-made sign read “Pink Floyd Reunited: Pigs Have Flown!” It stuns me how a tiny little WMV stream can bring me right back to seeing them in Denver in 1993, and the raw, overwhelming joy of the experience.

The setlist:

• “Breathe” (including the verse from the reprise at the end of “Time”)
• “Money”
• “Wish You Were Here” (beautiful, heartwrenching, perfect performance)
• “Comfortably Numb” (absolutely scorching, fantastic)

While I was delighted to hear anything performed at all, I was a bit disappointed by the absence of some would-be uncannily appropriate songs, such as “On the Turning Away”, “High Hopes”, or Roger Waters’ “The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)”. Of course, all of these songs were written after Waters had split from the band, so the setlist definitely reflects an attempt to minimize conflict between band members. And of course any of those would have been dead giveaways and possibly bordering on cheese. But still.

I would have preferred a longer set as well, but you can’t have everything, now can you? I guess I’ll just have to pray my heart out for a reunion tour.

…

I never watched any of the original Live Aid concerts when I was a child, and now I feel a strange mix of hope and cynicism. The blue state dreamer in me hopes that this mass of humanity coming together through music has some positive effect on the upcoming G8 summit, but the jaded cynic thinks that the most powerful leaders of the world don’t really give a rat’s ass about a bunch of people putting on a big concert.

Still, it’s a good cause, and I hope something will come of it all.

concerts, current-events, music, politics

Well, I’ve managed to break, fix, break, and fix (and break and fix, and break and fix, and…) a whole lot of stuff today. It’s basically been rather like tap-dancing in a minefield, all day long.

I guess I shouldn’t complain too loudly… I’m not the only one who’s having a bad day.

current-events, work

This just in from those lovable liberal loonies at MoveOn.org… I don’t pass along much of their chatter, but I hadn’t realized that this was coming to a vote so soon. Please read what they have to say, and act with your conscience, whatever your opinion.

Congress is about to vote on amending the U.S. Constitution to deny marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Never before has our Constitution been amended to take away anyone’s rights. Yet our Senators will vote on this amendment in the next 48 hours.

It’s urgent that we speak up now. This hateful divisiveness has no place in America. Please join me in saying so, at:

http://www.moveon.org/unitednotdivided/

Equality in marriage is the civil rights issue of our generation. We can’t let anyone, or any group, be singled out for discrimination based on who they are or who they love.

Thank you.

current-events, politics

Two bottles of not-so-tasty wine on Friday night eventually led to one that was happy, which ended up paired with grilled brats and Return of the King.

Slept in far past our originally planned time, then discovered that our lack of hot water on Friday morning was not a fluke, as the shower would only briefly flirt with being mildly tepid before producing nothing but ice water. Showered very, very quickly. It turns out that some of the collection of random wires which the electrician did not attach to the new electrical box were the circuit for the water heater. Whoops! So I think he and our general contractor will be having a little conversation at some point soon…

Dealing with the water took up much of the afternoon. Liz had a bit of a nap, then we were off to the pseudo-going-away festivities (I say “pseudo” because it was a fairly laid-back affair of casual conversation and good times that never really even touched on ayb2’s departure). The meal was tasty, and a good time was had by all–save, of course, for Ronald Reagan and Smarty Jones, who appear to have both had a jolly rotten day.

Zipped on down to the theatres at Valley View for Harry Potter, which was much better than the first two films. Lots of subplots and details got dropped in order to service the taut main storyline, but I was okay with most of the omissions. The end credit sequence was also quite fun and worth paying attention to. I’m very glad to see the films improve as the books did (though the second one is still my least favorite, in either medium).

Hung out at Champp’s after the movie for a bit to nosh and have a drink and chatter some more. Saw the end of the hockey game. Whee, hockey. Realized that I’m really going to miss Angie, but that I’m still overflowing with happiness for her. Whee, life.

The photos from Thursday’s Food Forum outing to Carrie Cerino’s are now online; mad props to Joel for his excellent work, and for allowing me to host them for him.

Hmf. It is way, way too late for me to be awake if I am serious about doing some work on Sunday. I wonder if I’m really that serious. Hmf. Perhaps mildly. I’ll have to see how I feel after some much-deserved sleeeeeeeeeeep.

current-events, food, friends, harry-potter, house, kitchen, liz, lord-of-the-rings, movies, weekends, wine

President Bush wants to defend marriage through a Constitutional amendment? That says that not all men are created equal, that refutes the tenet that all citizens should have equal protection under the law?

If he really wants to protect the institution of marriage, then why don’t we drop all the discriminatory rhetoric and do something that will actually get the job done. It would be far more effective to simply outlaw divorce or make adultery a federal crime.

And exactly whose marriage is at risk if two people of the same gender want to spend their lives within the bond of a commited, loving, stable relationship? Is the Gay Marriage Enforcer Squad going to come and take you away from your spouse and press you into kinky gay servitude? If two other people’s loving, monogamous relationship threatens your marriage, then you and your spouse are probably (over)due for some counseling.

In a hundred years, history will look back on the “marriage defenders” the way we now look back on those that would deny women the vote, or that would enslave those with different skin. The President’s pursuit of the Constitutional process on this issue is reckless and foolhardy, and will cement his tenure in the White House as a time of shame for our nation.

current-events, politics, rants, thoughts