paulproteus

There is a new law proposed to prevent the National Weather Service from publishing certain types of weather analysis. It's funded by the likes of AccuWeather, who don't want to compete with free-of-cost weather data. AccuWeather thrives on free government weather data. Join the EFF action alert.

Excuse my “so-so” writing in the middle.

My letter to Senators Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski follows:

Apr 29, 2005

Senator Paul Sarbanes
United States Senate
309 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-0001

Dear Senator Sarbanes,

I am an information security graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University. S.786 is abysmal public policy.

I am writing to voice my opposition to the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 (S.786). This bill would ban the National Weather Service (NWS) from “competing” with private entities by restricting its ability to communicate with the public. S.786 would make it unlawful for the agency to publish user-friendly weather data on its website because it might draw people away from the offerings of
companies like AccuWeather. S.786 would also bar NWS experts from granting one-on-one interviews with press organizations to offer analysis of weather data.

Calling it the “NWS Duties Act” is the kind of doublespeak George Orwell warned us about in 1984. Here, we mean to limit their duties - their “duty” is to give corporate entities a free ride over the public interest. Our free weather data is how the USA has the most THRIVING weather industry in the world. Freedom is what
has made American policy great in the past - for example, European database copyrights have dampened innovation across the pond. Our free-market approach has made more money for corporations and more data for consumers.

I believe these policy changes are contrary to our national interest. A valuable public service should not be dismantled simply to ensure that companies like AccuWeather make more money repackaging and reselling weather data to taxpayers, especially when we are the ones who funded its creation. As a constituent, I hope you will join me in opposing the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Mr. Asheesh Laroia
2630 N Charles St
Baltimore, MD 21218-4513

Siegel: “And you didn't mention masochists; I'm throwing them in the mix for fun.”

Today RMS commented on Larry McVoy and Bitkeeper. If you haven't been following the story, have someone else write you a synopsis.

The article was on Newsforge, which hosts a lot of trollish trash as articles, so I hoped that I could find the article on www.rms.org. Unfortunately, I couldn't. I did, however, find Richard M. Stallman's application to an ex-boyfriends list.

That was awesome. Thank you, RMS.

I should also make an RSS feed for his news section so I can subscribe.

Subject: Stimulate your sex life! centaur

Wendy Selzter reports on her brother's car hack:

“The conversion was a success, and he can now drive on french fry grease.”

Today I registered as a Linux user on the Linux Counter. I even have a little registration certificate; it's at least as hard to forge as my high school ID.

And I'm a registered member of the ACM. And the University and College Computing Services special interest group (wahoo!). My ACM membership number is 1320837.

I've been looking for this for a while now.

…being afraid to open the door because it might be stuck.

“Nothing succeeds like success.” If you're not already succeeding, the best thing to do is to start succeeding.