While campaigning in New Hampshire, General Wesley Clark issued press releases on two topics recently making the news, disability rights and open access to government documents. For reference, see High Court Weighs State Liability Over Lack of Access for Disabled and Wesley Clark Releases Financial Data. Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: January 2004
House Democrats Issue Report Appraising Status of Homeland Security
From the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, Democratic Office: Press Release America at Risk: The State of Homeland Security Continue Reading
Survey of Digital Library Aggregation Services
A Survey of Digital Library Aggregation Services by Martha L. Brogan, Digital Library Federation, Council on Library and Information Resources, Washington DC, December 2003. From the Executive Summary: “This reports provides an overview of a diverse set of more than thirty digital library aggregation services, organizes them into functional clusters and then evaluates them more… Continue Reading
Microsoft to Appeal Browser Patent Decision
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler is quoted in this Internet.com article in response to yesterday’s patent infringement decision (1:99-cv-626), “We feel very good about our prospects on appeal. We remain steadfast in our belief that the Eolas patent is not valid. While the judge did not grant all our post trial motions, the court did accept… Continue Reading
GAO Report on Federal Public Key Infrastructure Initiatives
Information Security: Status of Federal Public Key Infrastructure Activities at Major Departments and Agencies. GAO-04-157, December 15. From the Highlights: “PKI implementation continues to pose major challenges for agencies…” “Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is IT infrastructure that enables users of a basically unsecure public network (such as the Internet) to securely and privately exchange data… Continue Reading
Book on Business Research
Strauss’ Handbook of Business of Business Information: A Guide for Librarians, Students, and Researchers, by Rita W. Moss. Recommended by Marydee Ojala. Continue Reading
Terror Alert System Under Seige
From Newsweek: “U.S. Homeland Security officials are coming under increasing political pressure to overhaul, if not eliminate, their color-coded terror alerts as concern mounts that the current system has become so dysfunctional that it may actually be increasing the country’s vulnerability to attack.” See also Lawmaker Wants Terror Alert System Refined Continue Reading
E-Voting Manufacturer Used Uncertified Software in California
More news on problems with Diebold’s e-voting technology, this time in California, where an audit by the California Voter Foundation (CVF) ascertained that the company “had installed uncertified versions of software or firmware in all 17 counties it services” in the state. Continue Reading
Rep. Waxman Requests Investigation into Release of “Sensitive” Gov’t Docs
In a January 14 letter to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Rep. Henry Waxman, Ranking Minority Member of the Committee on Government Reform requested “information regarding apparent inconsistencies in how the Administration handles allegations regarding the release of sensitive information.” References and context: Treasury Dept. Urges Probe Over O’Neill Paper in response to former Treasury… Continue Reading
A Quintet of Articles on Electronic Discovery Issues
From law.com: The Discovery Dance Data Collection Standards Can Your Old Files Come Back to Life? The Dilemma of Duplicates Raves for Two New EDD Books Continue Reading
U.S. Still Lacks Consolidated Terror Watch List
Federal Computer Week reports that the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center has yet to create a single, unified database comprising the dozen terror watch lists created by various government agencies, missing the December 1, 2003 deadline to complete the task. See also Terror Watch List Buried in Bureaucratic Mess, which states that according to Rep. Jim… Continue Reading
Browser Patent Claim Upheld Against Microsoft
This afternoon, Judge James B. Zagel, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago), refused to overturn a $521 million verdict against Microsoft, ruling in favor of Eolas Technologies Inc. in their web patent infringment dispute. The patent at issue is number 5,838,906, and is titled “Distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing… Continue Reading
