Repost Redux: Special SXSW Edition

Having read a few additional commentaries, I began to think some more on two issues I posted about earlier.

Greg Abbott vs. The County Clerks
Mordaxus at Emergent Chaos says we need to chill, which made me wonder if there was less to this issue than I previously thought. The more I think of it, thought, the less appealing the whole mess appears. The clerks routinely sell the data in their charge to data brokers. The Open Records Act (Texas' FOIA) allows the clerks to charge for the records. By redacting the confidential parts, the data would be less attractive to the brokers, and the clerks revenue stream might dry up.
The clerks are digitizing and distributing information on the Internet beyond the scope of its original purpose, and counter to Texas law. I don't have a problem holding these folks accountable to the law and their duty as custodians of the data. I will be having a beer or three at SXSW, though, probably at the Yard Dog and at Woody's.

The Hacker vs. The Corporation
Both Emergent Chaos and ArsTechnica have things to say about the study I posted about yesterday. EC posted a link to the study, but after reading it, I don't think I've changed my mind. I am, in fact, more confused about the purpose of the study than before. The distinction between "hacker" and "corporate malfeasance" does not strike me as interesting as the distinction between "stolen" and "lost." The question for me as a consumer remains a question of risk. Am I more likely to suffer damage to my reputation or finances if my personal data is "lost" or if it is "hacked"? No doubt frequency is part of the equation, but so are the capabilities and intention of the threat.

Photo of the Casting Couch in action by me.

Grackles in a Pancake Mine!

This morning, city officials decided to shut down a significant portion
of Austin's central business district due to the discovery of a covey of
dead birds.

Meanwhile, Gotham panics when confronted with a strange pancake smell.

I'm not going to second guess the response to the pile of avian rats on
Congress Ave. Nor will I try to determine which eldritch spell summoned
from the Permian Basin was used to extinguish these fowl lives.

I will however, try to figure out under what circumstances a bunch of
dead birds would require the closing of a central business district.
What sort of risk assessment process went on here?

1. PANDEMIC! O.k., the birds may have had a virulent version of avian
cedar fever. Some of the carcasses have been sent to our Aggie brethren
to be tested for bird flu. We'll get the results in a week or so. Then
we will close Congress Ave. again? If the folks in the hazmat outfits
scooped up the carcasses, pureed them, placed them in 3 oz bottles and placed them in one quart zip top bags, what is the risk?

2. NERVE GAS ATTACK! Then these truly were the grackles in the
coalmine, who gave their lives for us. Only the bad guys released the
gas at 3:00 am on a Monday morning. He should at least wait until the
Lege is in session, so as to terminate some Bees as well as birds.

3. A DISTURBING MESSAGE IS BEING SENT! - Homeland Security necromancers
find an ancient passage in the code of federal regulations that speaks
ominously of the scents of phantom flapjacks aligning with the mass
suicide of capital city trash birds. Maple Alert!

4. JUST ANOTHER GRACKLE MUNDY - My just-don't-have-to-work day.

5. YUPPIE TERROR - Rich fella or fellette from out-of-state, encountering the foul stench of grackle fecal splatter, sets out a Williams-Sonoma bowl of hand-tooled Vermont pigeon poison. Problem solved. (A real Austinite, or any grad of University of Texas would use a shotgun, just like the pros.)

So what did we learn? I'll have to think on that some more.

photo courtesy of Ikayama