The wiretapping law has gone through, it is now a reality.

I'm very disappointed.

I'm disappointed because of the whole circus around it. It's obvious that some wanted this to go through no matter what. In spite of massive protests from all sides of the political spectrum (I can't recall when I last saw people from the left, right and center unite as I have seen a couple of days ago). The law was rushed through.

I'm disappointed with the politicians who were clearly against but let the party line decide. I feel betrayed, even though I haven't voted for them.
Only one stands out, (Camilla Lindberg (fp))[http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_1387439.svd]. That's one who seems to have a spine. No matter what I might think of her opinions otherwise, she's a hero today and has my respect.

Added:
I just read a (blog entry)[http://minamoderatakarameller.blogspot.com/2008/06/sluta-mobba-enskilda-personer-nu.html] that reminds me not to kick on people that couldn't stand against the pressure, and that the real problem is with the establishment that will try to force people to go against their own opinion. Xe's right, and it's true, I've an issue with that. It's disrespectful.

After weeks of small articles in the middle of the newspapers, the major media in Sweden has finally started reacting to what's happening in Sweden right now.

In short, the National Defence Radio Establishment (Försvarets Radioanstalt - FRA) has proposed a modernisation of the Swedish laws on tapping communication to include e-mail, fax and SMS. The word is that they will only controll communication that passes the Swedish border.

That sounds all sweet and dandy but as all computer nerds know, just because you're e-mailing to another Swedish address doesn't mean the message stays within the country, it's very likely it will make a trip through servers standing in another country (there are cases when e-mail has made a trip around the globe before reaching destination). And then we have all swedes with an e-mail account at Google (gmail), Microsoft (hotmail) and other foreign e-mail services, they will automatically be part of the flow that gets filtered.

A lot of people have reacted and there are a number of sites and lists where this is discussed, protest signature are collected and so on. Some polititians are hard pressed to follow party lines (and vote for the law) on one hand and their voters (who have protested the law) on the other. I feel for them, mostly with pity, and I hope they will have the courage to make the right choice!

In the mean time, should this law come through and get implemented, I'm making myself ready to make FRA's job as hard as possible, by strongly encrypting my e-mail if possible (hey, you, if you're a known recipient, get yourself a PGP or X.509 key and cert and gimme the public part, mmm'kay?), include random words or randomly encrypted strings to trigger their machinery, and generally be as much a pain in the nether regions as possible. As far as I know, I won't be alone doing this.

Links to articles and discussions:

http://www.stoppafralagen.nu/
http://www.thelocal.se/12428/20080613/ (for english speakers) http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=2502&a=794124
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article2692498.ab
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/1.1200063/080616-stoppa-fra-lagen
http://www.expressen.se/debatt/1.1200067/fra-lagen-hindrar-fria-forskningen (shows how the proposed law can inhibit research)
http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_1369317.svd

Let's just hope this law doesn't come through...

Just for kicks, I took the same test as I've done already, just for kicks. It's fun to see how things change:

The Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

Authoritarian
Left		Right
Libertarian

Seems like I am moving more and more to the left and libertarian.

This is actually an interesting one, a political compass, and it ended up indicating that I probably am exactly where I suspected, leaning on the left with libertarian thoughts.

To begin with, the scale used is quite interesting, not quite the classic communism(left)<->fascism(right), but rather divides it in social and economic scales, and see for yourself what happens!

Interesting, huh? The political compass site explains it here

Anyway, so my result was this:

The Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.95

Authoritarian
Left		Right
Libertarian

And if you compare it to the international chart, you can see what kind of company I keep:

Now, your turn, you go take the test

I stumble upon it a little now and then, more often lately through talking with more diverse groups: gender-neutral pronouns. That varying inventions go from somewhat elegant to fairly clumsy, but I must say that this is the first time I got to see one that I find plain ugly!

I'm quite a bit ambivalent about the use of gender-neutral pronouns myself. Sure, I can understand that it's practical, but it also strips us from one not so small thing in the tapestry of what makes us all special and beautiful, our gender.

Sometimes, I wonder if those advocating gender-neutral pronouns do it from a perspective of personal wounds for having been subjected to the stigma that some assign to the gender itself (what's better, a man or a woman? The never ending discussion or attitude (see the typical salary differences in some professions as an example), and complete bollocks if you ask me). I do understand the hurt, but I feel just as hurt if someone wants to strip me of something that is very much part of who I am, and would feel quite offended if anyone referred to me as "xe" in any way in anything but formal text. And it doesn't really help anyone, except for practical purposes when you're tired of writing "he or she", "his or her" and so on.

In the end, I guess it's up to everyone how he or she wants to do things, and this sentence should make my preference quite clear :-).

Here I am, reading about one particular detail about GPLv3 at ZDnet, how GPLv3 is closing down a loophole. The loophole is supposedly that companies can use GPLed software to offer services over the web...

Well, d'uh!

The suggested solution is to have those pieces of software include a command to be used specifically to offer it's own source code. At least, that's how I understand what's written in the article.

Let's see, I'm sure there's a GPLed FTP server somewhere out there, probably even a GNU one (no, I haven't looked). Does that mean that everyone using that for their FTP server now will have to hold it's source in some repository?

If what's written at ZDNet is accurate, I think the GPL has passed the line of absurdity. Sorry, Richard. I love your quest for software freedom and I totally support it. However, I think this step just doesn't take it in the right direction.

I wonder how all those people who license their software with terms like the following will think about this new GPL:

licensed to the public under the terms of the GNU GPL (>= 2)

are they ready to uphold GPLv3? I've been worried about the way the GPL has been refered to for a long time. ">= 2", right... Do all these people really know how to predict the future, because if they do, I'd love for them to share the secret with, as I'm seriously lacking in that department!

As of today, it's clear war is not avoidable, and it probably never was.

I'm worried. I'm worried because the ramblings of Mr. Bush and friends isn't so far from the calls to war back in the vicinity of 1938. I'm worried because there's no telling what a war in Iraq will actually bring on, including terrorist type war in the entire world. I'm worried because of the rumors that Bush & friends would like to do more than just invade Iraq. I'm worried because there's a possibility that I'd be drawn into this war, and I have definitely not asked to be involved in that manner.

These are scary days...