EDITOR
Josh Funk
OPINION
EDITOR
Mark Baldridge
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Lindsay Young
Jessica Fargen
Samuel McKewon
Cliff Hicks
Kimberly Sweet
, |
Our
VIEW
Listen up,
Big Brother
Echelon may be more
real than we know
Hello, Echelon, we know you’re listen
ing.
And did you enjoy the International Jam
Echelon Day we celebrated in October?
You see, we read some of the same peri
odicals you do.
Echelon - a previously half-mythical spy
organization with the power to eavesdrop on
every single phone call, fax or e-mail on the
planet, just lost some of its mythical quality
and became a little more solid.
The BBC came forward earlier this
month with confirmation from the
Australian Inspector General of Intelligence
and Security,
Bill Blick,
admitting that SoiTieOltC OUght
DrfenTsi^als t0 haVe told the
Directorate groWTl-UV MiSS
does form part
of the Echelon Grwidies of the
netTh*United A&4 that reading
Britain areThe Other people S
chief beneficia- mail iSTl’tpolite.”
ries of Echelon, ■■■. ■.
those giant golt balls (called radomes) -
examples of which dot the North Yorkshire
Moors - that listen to satellites in orbit far
above the earth.
The National Security Agency is impli
cated in using voice recognition software to
scan telephone conversations for key words
words which can be construed to relate to
America’s security interests.
Phrases like “thermo-nuclear device” or
'even “stock split” might be chosen as red
flags, and there has been a movement among
computer “hacktivists” (long aware of Big
Brother’s listening ear) to play with die limi
tations of the technology and “jam” the sys
tem with messages containing words likely
to be flagged.
This October 21st, an international effort
to spam Echelon met with an as-yet
unknown reaction, but we can tell you what
to think of all this:
We don’t need Echelon listening to us
talk about our babies or investments. We can
live without the snooping, thanks.
Besides being a breech of our right to pri
vacy, Echelon represents micromanagement
on die most grandiose scale: not even Uncle
Sam needs to poke a finger in every pie.
Not to mention the bad manners
involved; someone ought to have told the
grown-up Miss Grundies of the NS A that
reading other people’s mail isn’t polite.
- But what, exactly can we do about it,
except shame them - do we expect the con
stipated old boys of Echelon will heed our
words of advice?
Not likely.
But we know they’re listening.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Fall 1999 Daily Nebraskan. They do
not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Uncoln, its
employees, its student body or die
University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of its author.
The Board of Regents serves as publisher
of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The
UNL Publications Board, established by
the regents, supervises the production
of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student employees.
s'
letter Policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief
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but does not guarantee their publication.
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Submitted material becomes property of
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Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 20
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letters@.unl.edu.
, , Obermeyer’s
VIEW
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DN
LETTERS
Told You So
Jennifer Walker’s column
(11/5/99) listed the statistic that there
have been half a million sexual
assaults against women as a reference
to the “status” of women in America.
Gerard Harbison (Letters,
11/8/99) countered with his own
“Internet-based” obscene number of
only 200,000 as he lashed out at
the women’s studies programjbr pro
moting a disregard for the “facts.”
I checked the Justice Department
figures as well and found that in
1992, there were 500,000 sexual
assaults, and that in 1998, according
to the survey in question, one woman
in every 1,000 (age 12 and over) fell
victim to sexual assault.
And here’s the Lincoln Rape
Crisis Center’s information: for every
one reported sexual assault, nine go
unreported.
How many more women than the
100,000 Mr. Harbison “informs” us
were really raped last year?
Perhaps if Mr. Harbison could
spend more of his time in his depart
ment of expertise, chemistry, his con
tribution to “mankind” could become
more significant than
his contributions to the Daily
Nebraskan.
Michael Knisely
continuing
education
Window to the World
I am a Network/Customer Service
Engineer in the wonderful world of
computing.
The Microsoft verdict is very
amusing. After reading the “Our
View” section of the DN (Monday), I
can’t help but laugh at how wrong
you are.
Microsoft has been the dominant
operating system for the past 10
years. In fact, it is safe to say that
about 75% of the machines running
(both at home and work) are running
some version of Windows.
This is a VERY significant num
ber for the following reasons:
A: Windows is a GOOD operat
ing system. Now several people will
disagree with me, saying that Linux
or MacOS is more powerful.
However, most of these people are
“computer nerds” like myself and can
actually comprehend a more complex
operating system.
But regardless of what anyone
says, Windows is easily picked up by
anyone.
B: Why would anyone want to
switch? I mean, seriously.!!! I work
with banks that employ little old able in the computer world,
ladies who are forced into learning Now, I hate Bill Gates just
Windows NT or Windows 95. as much as the next guy or
Do you really think that gal. However, I do accept
the elderly population that this devil has brought
(and if you think it’s a life to the computer indus
small amount of try that no one else was
users, you are drasti- able to bring,
cally WRONG) The United States
wants to switch to needs to pull its head out
something else? of its ass and realize
Easy answer: we’re punishing the
NO. Whether we man whd has mUde
like it or not; life easier for us all.
___* -
XTAlVIV/JVll A tJ U (Alt
of all of our lives,
and to try to cast this
away would be like
asking Neal
Obermeyer to make
“politically correct”
editorial cartoons.
C: Gigalapse.
“Gigalapse” is a phrase
coined by the inventor
of Ethernet when he pre
dicted an Internet down
fall in 1996. It refers to a
BILLION lost user hours
because of machines or
operating systems not
working. Can any
one even BEGIN to
imagine the time
and effort that it
takes to put togeth
er an operating sys
tem that will be
supported by the
rest of the com
puter world ... and
acknowledged by
the public?
We’re again
taiKing aoout
something that has
taken Microsoft
YEARS to perfect.
Also take into considera
tion that companies that
write software have been
spending the past 10 years
writing software exclu
sively for WINDOWS.
What makes you think
that these companies are
going to want to spend MIL
LIONS of dollars both training
and implementing their soft
ware on another operating sys
tem?
\ If Microsoft were unable to
contintie^its quest* we would
have a lapse of time in which
our software wguld become
GROSSLY outdated
compared to our hard- j
ware. This is unaccept
Marcus
Graham,
former UNL
student
professional
• techno-weenie