Living in Alabama, I don't often have the opportunity to walk through fresh snow. Fortunately, mud tells many of the same stories. After a good rain, a hiking trail or dirt road becomes a record of everyone who has passed that way. Every boot and every tire leaves an impression. Some tracks are deep enough … Continue reading Becoming the Gray Man in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Category: Digital Rights
Reflections on the legal and cultural principles that protect freedom, creativity, and privacy in the digital age. These essays explore topics such as fair use, intellectual property, online speech, and the evolving rights of individuals in a networked world.
Zero Trust Civilization
There is a moment now, familiar in its repetition, that would have been difficult to imagine not long ago. You log in, confirm a code, approve a prompt on another device, and wait briefly while the system decides. Nothing about the process feels remarkable. It is quick, often invisible, and usually successful. Over time, it … Continue reading Zero Trust Civilization
The Machines That Verify Us
There was a time when finding your way required more than a signal. In the early years of my military service, I used a PLGR, a Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver. The name suggested something more refined than the device itself. It was large, deliberate, and slow to orient. Acquiring a signal could take time, and … Continue reading The Machines That Verify Us
Never Trust, Always Verify
There is a phrase in cybersecurity that, once heard, is difficult to ignore. Never trust. Always verify. It is presented as a principle of good design, a response to hostile networks and persistent threats. But like many such principles, it carries with it a quiet assumption, that trust, as a default posture, is no longer … Continue reading Never Trust, Always Verify
The Age of Authentication
There is a quiet shift underway in how we are expected to exist online. It does not announce itself with the force of a new technology, nor with the clarity of a single policy. It appears instead as a requirement, a small prompt during account creation, a field to be filled, a box to be … Continue reading The Age of Authentication
Blog Commentary and Fair Use
You wouldn't be able to tell it from my utter lack of fashion sense, but I read a couple fashion blogs (manly fashion blogs, have you) and the post below stirred me to post on a topic that affects the way I pull a lot of content into my site: Friday Question: U Mad?: Senior … Continue reading Blog Commentary and Fair Use
Another reason why paper maps are superior to GPS
Over the past several years I have developed some fairly strong anachronistic views on the overuse of technology, with GPSes being one in particular. Given, I own hiking and auto GPSes, I find them no substitute for actual navigational and geo-positional savvy (i.e. knowing where you are, where you want to go, and how to … Continue reading Another reason why paper maps are superior to GPS
