The NSA: another candidate for coals in the stocking

Boing Boing: NSA stops using web cookies on NSA.gov after privacy protests. This after news that whitehouse.gov also drops cookies, these from a third party tracking site. Both actions are in violation of federal directives banning the use of persistent cookies.

Especially juicy quote from security consultant Richard M. Smith of Cambridge, who reportedly “questioned whether persistent cookies would even be of much use to the security agency. They are great for news sites and others with repeat visitors, Mr. Smith said, but the agency’s site does not appear to have enough fresh content to warrant more than occasional visits.” Heh.

Interesting, btw, how many times Richard M. Smith drops a choice quote for stories like these (see his comments on the DMCA and on Sony BMG). He’s becoming the Larry Sabato of computer security stories.

New mix: “steal the crumbs”

My latest mix, Steal the crumbs, has been posted at Art of the Mix. I may post it to the iTunes Music Store but will need to spend time finding a bunch of the tracks, since only about half of them showed up when I posted it earlier.

The mix is a response to Fury’s food mix of several months ago, More Spice Than the Frugal Gourmet. Esta has indicated that she’ll be making a food mix as well. Maybe we should make a chain and see how many different CD-length food mixes we can make without repeating a song.