Verizon Valkyrie

I’ve moved into my new apartment. It’s in Brooklyn. It’s nice. It’s in a very orthodox Jewish neighborhood. I get a big room all to myself. Funny thing though…no furniture. I lie, I have two bookshelves and a dresser. Of course my books need some place to go. It’s not home till I unpack them. I sleep on a mat on the floor. Luckily, I was already sleeping on a yoga mat for two weeks back in Geneva. A week here was no problem. Actually, I like sleeping on the floor, and I refuse to get a bed. I’m practicing for my new life abroad in Southeast Asia.

The only problem, despite furniture since the small dresser is full, and I still have boxes to unpack, is that there is no internet. I called last week, and I have been waiting since the 16th for it. Hence why I also haven’t been updating.

Not having internet really sucks. I’m fine not checking my email for weeks or whatever if I’m backpacking or trekking. I think what gets to me is the fact that I should have it in the apartment, and I don’t. In the woods, I wouldn’t have it, and so it never bothered me to lack it. I suppose that’s common for a lot of things. I remember reading a book, it might have been Machiavelli’s Prince, and there was a section that mentioned that a ruler should not take away what he has given the people. It will make them rebel if they lose that freedom or privilege, but they won’t, to a point, if they never had it in the first place.

Anyway, the real reason I wanted to post an entry was to illustrate the way my brain works.

Today is the day that I am supposed to have wireless. I can connect to the modem, but nothing…does anything. So I call and I’m on hold for a while, going from tech support to everything else. Finally they tell me that they are sending a dispatch to the central office to fix the wiring. Then they put me on hold.

The music that came on was Ride of the Valkyries.

So all I could imagine was this dude in overalls, running in slow motion to this background music. Keys, pants, cell phone, blubber all jiggling wildly and slowly as he sprints towards the central office to wrestle with wires on my behalf. His face contorting and puffing, spittle slowly leaving the corner of his mouth. Go, man, go! I had a whole dream sequence…before I got taken off hold and told to have a nice day.

Hopefully I’ll be connected by 6pm tonight.

Is the sacrifice worth it?

I miss writing about technology, privacy and security.

During WWII people gave up so much (silk and such) for the war effort in order to fight a semi-tangible enemy (at least one that had a specific geo-political border). I guess it’s only fair to give up something intangible for something intangible (Terror, Drugs…).

Yet how do you know when the war is over? When do the rations stop?

Addictions

Former Addict? Stay Away from Facebook

Addictions expert David Smallwood claims that Facebook can fuel insecurity in users, can cause something he calls “friendship addiction,” and should generally be avoided by people with addiction issues.

“Acquisition of friends is like any other fix but it’s competitive you judge yourself by how many friends you have online. You go out of your way to amass friends and that means people bend out of shape and become something they are not. To appear successful, you go and put yourself in credit card debt by buying clothes and handbags. I see patients who are on Facebook and my response is ‘get yourself off it’,” Smallwood claims..

Smallwood also mentions the potential negative consequences of being rejected by Facebook users. You have to request friendship; if you get turned down, this can “increase feelings of rejection.” I don’t want to appear insensitive, but if getting rejected on a friend request by someone on Facebook is an issue, then Facebook is the least of your worries.

Facebook is a very versatile communication tool; people use it in very different ways. The fact that some people tend to amass thousands of friends doesn’t mean it’s flawed; just like the phone is not to blame for someone’s compulsive middle-of-the-night calls.

Branded ecstasy pills.

Streams of Contention

Class observations 9.18.08

1.-Anything that the producer which brought us technology (technology is a good thing that we like), thus, anything else that they do must be good as well. Even surveillance.

2.-Students ask someone to justify why they want privacy – rather than ask themselves, or others, why companies have the right to see your private information?

It is illegal to read mail, why is alright for other information to be public?

3.-The problem is who the information is sold to. Between you and gmail is okay – but you have no idea who else knows–who Google is sharing with. Who they are giving your information to. Foreign companies?

How do companies interpret your data? How are you marketed to other companies or government?

They can manipulate data – they can change what you’ve said – re-writing history.

They can blackmail and condemn you. They can fabricate evidence. “Here! You said this then!!”

While we are not there yet, it is not a far cry. It is like someone forging your signature on a terrorist letter.

4.-Why can’t the internet be a private zone? Does it all have to be public? Things can change. What are the boundaries of privacy? Are there any? Should there be any?

It is a false choice in being able to avoid digital enclosure. You have to be privatized and owned before you can participate. You are forced to “have access,” and thus be controlled and manipulated. You get publicly ostracized by people. This is what is known as self-policing. We are personally corralling ourselves into private enclosures that we have no rights, no privacy and very little power or information in. We are doing the job for the companies. We are marketing ourselves.

Digital enclosure means privatization. You cannot opt out. The farmers did not have a choice in the industrial era, just like we do now. The difference is the lack of physical temporal space that is making us slower to realize the power that we are giving out.

“To escape the cage, you must first be able to see the bars” (adapted from Ishmael, a novel by Daniel Quinn).

On an unrelated note; I wonder if the people who make the arguement “I have nothing to hide, I’m not a freak, look at everything I am doing”–I wonder if they have some true weird exhibitionist fetish. The rest of us with normal kinks and fetishes want them to be private, and they are supposedly the freaky perverted ones, but what if the “I’m open to all! Look at me!..I mean..I’m innocent and sweet and have nothing to hide”–what if they are the super perverted ones? The ones that get off on people, lots of anonymous, and (maybe with a daddy complex) corporations, government and other authority figures looking over them and monitoring them…watching and knowing everything about them?