Friday, January 13, 2006

Legal Affairs blog - Cool Tools For Tyrants: The latest American technology helps the Chinese government and other repressive regimes clamp down. [unmediated] 6:09:14 PM    comment []

LEED On A Budget. Oregon developers Interface Engineering managed to design and build the Center for Health and Healing at the Oregon Health and Science University to meet (and even exceed in some respects) LEED Platinum standards -- and do it on a budget no greater than that required for a conventional building. Moreover, they've decided to make the details available, for free. The 48-page Engineering A Sustainable World tells the story of the building project, and provides insights into how to create and build environmentally-friendly structures on a limited budget. The book can be ordered through the Interface Engineering website; unfortunately, they apparently have decided not to make it available as a PDF download (which, frankly, would have been the ecologically-friendlier approach). (Via Treehugger) [WorldChanging: Another World Is Here] 6:08:33 PM    comment []

Stephen Baker on the dilemma of being a blogger/journalist working on a story he couldn't blog about. Steve writes: "I've been leading a secret life on this blog. For months and months I worked on this math cover story. I was talking to mathematicians and people who use math, and it was dominating my thinking. It was in many ways the most interesting thing going on--and I couldn't blab about it in the blog." [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog] 6:08:01 PM    comment []

file-swap.com Give one file - get one free! [unmediated] 6:07:46 PM    comment []

REAL ID Harder Than Legislators Thought. According to the Associated Press: State motor vehicle officials nationwide who will have to carry out the Real ID Act say its authors grossly underestimated its logistical, technological and financial demands. In a comprehensive survey obtained by The Associated Press and in follow-up interviews, officials cast doubt on the states' ability to comply with the law on time and fretted that it will be a budget buster. I've already written about REAL ID, including the obscene costs: REAL ID is expensive. It's an unfunded mandate: the federal government is forcing the states to spend their own money to comply with the act. I've seen estimates that the cost to the states of complying with REAL ID will be $120 million. That's $120 million that can't be spent on actual security. According to the AP, I was way off: Pennsylvania alone estimated a hit of up to $85 million. Washington state projected at least $46 million annually in the first several years. Separately, a December report to Virginia's governor pegged the potential price tag for that state as high as $169 million, with $63 million annually in successive years. Of the initial cost, $33 million would be just to redesign computing systems. See also the ACLU's site on REAL ID. [Schneier on Security] 6:07:45 PM    comment []