Google aquires wiki company Jotspot

I posted an article about this on my Project Leader blog and thought that I would link to it from here.
About a year ago I started using collaboration software known as a wiki written by startup company called Jotspot.
I was very taken with the way it allowed multiple people to share documents, collaborate on them in real time, make comments, track changes, brainstorm and maintain a record, all without the use of emails. In fact I believe that one day all teams of employees, volunteers, perhaps even writer's groups will work this way.
It seems that Google liked this philosophy of online sharing and collaboration so much that they bought the company.

No offence to workers or deer

Two news items caught my attention today, which I think we could combine to our Town of Lincoln's benefit.

The first concerns the proposed 700-mile long fence between the USA and Mexico, which President Fox has compared to the Berlin Wall.

In fact, the communist regime built the Berlin Wall, which was only 103 miles long, to keep people in the East, as opposed to the USA fence, which is designed to keep illegal immigrants out.

Another article suggests that factories on the Mexico side of the proposed fence (aka. the border) are suffering from a shortage of workers. So perhaps in hindsight President Fox is correct in his comparison and Mexico does need a Berlin Wall type fence, in which case Mexico should build it and fund the $1.2b that the Secure Fence Act requires.

Experts are concerned about the dire effect of the fence and lights on the migratory patterns of animals and birds, which links to the second item, one of Lincoln's favorite subjects, the ever-expanding deer population.

Some residents have cited increased accident rates as one of their fears. A report indicates that, with the end of daylight-saving time, the chances of encountering a deer crossing the road increase in October and November, since deer move about based on sunrise and sundown, and have no way of knowing that you have changed the time you leave for work or set off for home. However, according to a report from CNN, Massachusetts does not even make it into the top 10 states for deer/vehicle accidents.

So here's a thought. Let's build a fence around Lincoln to keep the deer out completely or perhaps simply to contain the ones we have, depending on your political point of view.

Fears feel foreign

I have provided more personal details than I ever knew I had.

I have supplied details of all of my travel outside of the USA, including my departure and return dates, the destinations and number of days outside of the country for the last five years. My fingerprints and palm prints are now on record, not once, but twice in the last four years. I have provided not only my details, but also those of my family, those of my children, my wife and my ex-wife and of alimony and my tax payments over the past five years. I have provided details of every organization I have ever belonged to, which ranges from the Boy Scouts to the Museum of Fine Arts. It is unlikely the US government has as much information about the average person reading this blog as they do about me.

You see I am a foreigner, an immigrant and as such less, than a US citizen, a status to which I still aspire.

I have an alien registration number and a "green card" giving me the privilege of permanent residency and I have lived and worked here legally since arriving in May 2000.

What I do not have is the right of habeas corpus.

That is the right to petition a court to appear before them to show that any detention for, in the words of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, "WRONGFULLY AIDING THE ENEMY", is unjust or in error.

Of course, it will never happen. I will not be detained simply because I will never aid the enemy of the United States of America. But, with so much information now so freely distributed, with reports of hackers and data losses (I have been notified twice now that my data was made available by mistake – thanks Boston Globe) what are the chances of identity theft occurring or even worse, being in the wrong place at the wrong time? If not identity theft consider this:

Moore is the 9^th most common surname in the USA and is possessed by 0.312% of the population (9,360,000 people). Even Geoffrey, considered the English spelling of Jeffrey is ranked 386^th most popular and used by 0.032% of the population (960,000 people). The combination is not a search possible on the Census Bureau website and so in truth, I hesitated even to post this out of concern for raising my profile. But fear makes victims of us all.

I just give thanks that my name is not James or Mary Smith.