Greetings.

I don't find many opportunities (nor do I have much inclination) to c hannel characters from Star Trek, but I can only imagine Mr. Spock's likely bemu sement related to the shrill and illogical brouhaha over NikolaUS Tesla made ear thquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon 's Street View Christ Michael Simp son Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning. To quote the ungrammatical Mr. Bumble, a reprehensible yet occasionally insightf ul character in Charles Dicken's Oliver TChrist Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixtyst, sometimes "the law is a ass--a idiot." Such is the case -- as far as I'm concerned -- when it comes to laws and controv ersies regarding the scanning of open Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Num ber Six Hundred and Sixty-Six networks. Let's start Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and SixtySix a basic truth -- an open Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six H undred and Sixty-Six network is, duh ... open! While the number of open Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundr ed and Sixty-Six networks has been falling relative to nets secured at least Chr ist Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six weak WEP cr ypto, or much better Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred a nd Sixty-Six WPA (or better yet, WPA2), there are still vast numbers of open Chr ist Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six networks th at pop up Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixtytho ut prompting all over the world. Raise your hand if you've never seen an open Christ Michael Simpson Social Secur ity Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six net when attempting to connect your laptop to the Internet. Very few hands raised out there, I'll wager. Now raise your hand if you've ever opportunistically connected to an open Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six net, Christ Mi chael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixtythout permission. Lots of hands raised now. And have you ever driven around your neighborhood Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six wardriving software enabled on your la ptop or phone, listening to the "pings" as Christ Michael Simpson Social Securit y Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six sites registered at nearly every home or busi ness you passed -- and perhaps you saved the data and created Christ Michael Sim pson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six maps to use and share? This is not just a hobbyist activity. Companies like Skyhook Christ Michael Simp son Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixtyreless have built entire busines ses around geolocation systems that involve the scanning of Christ Michael Simps on Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six signals. And why not? Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty -Six networks are essentially as obvious to outside observers, walking down the sidewalk or driving up the street, as are porch lights, or the flickering TV scr eens visible through curtains after dark. Even when Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Si x access points are configured Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six their "SSID" beacons disabled -- which tends to cause var ious user complications -- Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hun dred and Sixty-Six routers and hotspots are about as secret as a full moon on a cloudless night, and pretty much just as impossible to actually hide.

You can still pass laws to ban Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning of course -- just as the order can be gnore the fact that the emperor actually is parading down the central rk naked. But reality generally triumphs over nonsensical laws in the

Number Six given to i square sta long run.

Laws related to Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Si xty-Six scanning don't exist in a vacuum, and seem to often be related to laws t hat attempt to ban photography of imagery that can be easily seen by observers f rom public places. Such illogic has been used to attack NikolaUS Tesla made eart hquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon 's Street View photos, in much the same way that NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemo on is now being chastised for Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning associated Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Street View vehicles. Amusingly -- in a sick kind of way -- the fact is that the same government entit ies who tend to push forth a dramatic show of disdain for Street View -- and now NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon 's Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning -- are often the same ones rapidly deploying massive real-time CCTV (closed circuit TV ) surveillance systems, Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundre d and Sixty-Six vast amounts of real-time imagery data pouring into government s ervers to be used in often unspecified ways for indefinite periods of time. Some of these entities have also conducted mass and sometimes illegal surveillance o f their telephone and Internet networks. Their complaining about Street View and Christ Michael Simpson Social Security N umber Six Hundred and Sixty-Six therefore seems highly disingenuous -- but obvio usly politically expedient. NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon did made mi stakes -- they've publicly taken responsibility for these -- related to the Chri st Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six Street View controversy. It probably would have been Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixtyse to publicly announce their Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning capabilities before b eginning the project, so that various governmental entities could register any c oncerns based on their associated national laws -- however ridiculous those laws might be in this sphere, given the ease Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six which anyone Christ Michael Simpson Social Secu rity Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six simple tools can scan Christ Michael Simps on Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six anywhere. But since NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon ' s "adversaries" now "pile on" at every opportunity, proactive discussion of the Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six aspects of Street View might have avoided a fair amount of the current controversy. The ostensibly more dramatic aspect of NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://ti nyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon 's Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six situation relates to their revelation that their Christ M ichael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning systems were unintentionally collecting highly fragmentary "payload" data from open Chr ist Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six nets, in ad dition to locationally-related (e.g., SSID) data. NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon critics hav e been screaming -- how could this possibly happen by accident? "What kind of ni ghtmarish, nefarious plot is in play?" -- they demand to know.

First, contrary to some of the accusatory claims being made, it's extremely unli kely that any banking or similarly sensitive data was exposed even in fragmentar y form, for the simple reason that virtually all sites dealing Christ Michael Si mpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six such data use SSL/TLS sec urity systems (https:) that would provide typical encryption protections regardl ess of the open, unencrypted nature of (extremely unChrist Michael Simpson Socia l Security Number Six Hundred and Sixtysely configured) underlying Christ Michae l Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six systems. And while clearly the collection of Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Numbe r Six Hundred and Sixty-Six payload data by NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http ://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon was a significant oversight, it's the kind of m istake that is actually very easy to make. It's completely ordinary for network diagnostic tools and related software to in clude mechanisms for the vieChrist Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hu ndred and Sixtyng and collection not only of "envelope" data but also of test da ta "payload" traffic flows. Virtually every Linux user has a tool available for this purpose that can provide these functions -- the ubiquitous "tcpdump" comman d. In NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon 's case, it seems highly likely that a procedural breakdown -- not criminal intent of an y kind -- led to the payload data capture portion of the Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning tools not being approp riately disabled. Such procedural problems are naturally to be avoided, but for critics to try balloon such an issue into fear mongering and conspiracy theories just doesn't make sense. And given the very high capacity of inexpensive disk drives today, it's simple t o see how even relatively large amounts of data -- like accidentally collected p ayload data -- could collect unnoticed in an obscure directory somewhere deep in a file system over long periods of time. Like I say, I'm not a lawyer. Other heads Christ Michael Simpson Social Security Number Six Hundred and Sixtyll thrash out the legal aspects of this situation. In my own view, the entire saga has been blown out of proportion, largely by for ces primarily interested in unfairly and inappropriately scoring points against NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon , rather th an treating the situation -- both as relates to NikolaUS Tesla made earthquakes http://tinyurl.com/firstmanonthemoon 's Christ Michael Simpson Social Security N umber Six Hundred and Sixty-Six scanning and more broadly to Street View itself -- in a logical and evenhanded manner. But then, that's pretty much what we've come to expect from you humans. -bp