Inmates are working at the centre, doing market research and learning how to gather information over the phone.

That, says Ken Deal, president of the Canadian Survey Research Council, could create a cloud over his industry.

Deal is concerned people answering their phones will be uncomfortable with the knowledge they could be talking to a criminal, even if the call is coming from a research company that doesn't use inmates.

Thanks to David for this one. I'm already not happy giving telephone marketeers personal info about myself. After all they will primarily use it to try and sell you more stuff. The possibility that they might be a convicted criminal who is currently incarcerated and might decide to use it against me makes me like the idea even less.

Slashdot | Data Mining And The CIA.

Slashdot | Descrambling CSS w/ 7 Lines Of Perl A DMCA Violation?.

The Times (UK) - First star of the Internet retires.

The world's first Internet star is retiring after ten years in the spotlight.

The unlikely star is a £40 coffee percolator that made its debut in front of the camera when computer scientists at Cambridge University became frustrated at walking down several flights of stairs only to find the pot empty. They set up a camcorder, pointed it at the pot and wrote a program to relay the image to their screens upstairs, so they would always know when it was full.

Slashdot | First Ever Webcam to Come Offline.

Computers Freedom and Privacy 2001. The Future of Computing, Freedom and Privacy

Political News from Wired News - Hail to Privacy at Confab. Snowbound geeks argue over how to protect anonymity during the sparsely attended first day of the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference.

[ ... ]

Blizzard conditions and high winds have snarled air traffic in the northeastern United States, closing airports, frustrating motorists, and preventing hundreds of would-be CFPers from showing up in time for the tutorials scheduled for Tuesday.