Ron Rack just posted a gorgeous Quicktime VR scene of West Virginia’s New River Gorge Bridge. Here’s another rather extraordinary VR Scene: Denis Gliksman’s Bretagne Rocky Coast. This VR scene includes a video layer (the ocean lapping the rocks).
Sun Prairie Cornfest
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More on the cornfest. I avoided the butter, but did speak to a couple of the students who were seeking college funds. One had her eyes on Michigan State while the other is seemingly UC-Berkeley bound.
IRS: 4.6 Billion Disclosures of Tax Return Information in 2004
The report reveals that the IRS made 4.6 billion disclosures of tax return information to federal and state agencies. Here are the Top 5 recipients of taxpayer information:
Request Your Right to Travel Records from the TSA
In direct violation of the Privacy Act, TSA has collected over 100 million records from commercial data providers to test Secure Flight. If your records are contained in this database, you have a right to obtain them. What would happen if thousands of people requested their TSA travel records every day?
You can request your travel and commercial records under the Privacy Act, but you better do it before TSA destroys the information. TSA spokeswoman Deirdre O’Sullivan told Wired News that the TSA has only destroyed some passenger name records (PNR) from airlines and travel agents, but not information TSA gathered from commercial data bases. You can request both your PNR and commercial data with a Privacy Act request.
More on Municipal WiFi – Intel
Intel along with several large firms announced a project with communities around the world to make municipal WiFi a reality:
Cleveland, Ohio; Corpus Christi, Texas; Philadelphia; Portland, Ore.; Duesseldorf, Germany; Jerusalem, Israel; Taipei, Taiwan, are among the urban communities participating in Intel’s project. Other participants are Mangaratiba, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Gyor, Hungary; Principality of Monaco; Seoul, South Korea; Osaka, Japan; and Westminster in London.
TomatoFest
This is interesting…
Germans make Madison presentation on sustainable environmental policies & transportation
Environmental leaders from Freiburg, Germany will give a presentation at the MATC Downtown Education Center from 7:30 to 9:30 am on Friday, August 26. Dr. Dieter Woerner, Director of Freiburg’s Environmental Department, will give a talk on sustainable environmental policy and Andreas Hildebrandt of Verkehrs-AG will discuss the regional transportation system. Freiburg has developed sustainable environmental policies including extensive use of solar energy, bike trails and mass transit, recycling and urban planning. In 1992, Freiburg was awarded the title “German Environmental Capital” in a nationwide competition.
More information about Freiburg and other German sustainable development efforts visit: http://madisonfreiburg.org/sustainablecity.htm, http://www.solarregion.freiburg.de, http://www.wi-ei.org/germanymission.pdf and http://www.greentierwi.info/green.html
This event is sponsored by the Madison-Freiburg Sister City Committee, Sustain Dane, UWEX/SHWEC, and MATC.
Four Internet Freedoms
Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell discussed his views on four internet freedoms:
- Freedom to Access Content
- Freedom to Use Applications
- Freedom to Attach Personal Devices
- Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information
Here’s a PDF of his February, 2004 speech. Via David Isenberg.
VOIP Users Soar
The number of consumers bypassing the traditional phone network and opting for Internet voice service is soaring beyond expectations.
An analysis by the TeleGeography research group found 2.7 million subscribers nationwide in the second quarter, compared with just 440,000 a year earlier.
I’ve used Packet8 for a couple of years – quite successfully.
One More Ephraim (Door County) Sunset Photo
Click to view a larger version.