Charles R. Smith: FBI v. CIA: Battle in Cyberspace

The U.S. government is struggling to rebuild its image after it failed to discover the plot to attack America on Sept. 11.

The FBI and CIA, two agencies charged with law enforcement and intelligence operations, have taken the most heat for the failure. Both agencies had few areas of cooperation prior to Sept. 11.

Now the FBI and CIA have suddenly discovered conflicting roles inside cyberspace.

The FBI recently was forced to reveal another part of its Cyber-Knight project, an effort by the agency to monitor all Internet communications…

Yet, as the FBI struggles to introduce its new system to monitor the Internet, the CIA is working to develop a software program that thwarts government monitoring.

The CIA is a major sponsor of SafeWeb, a company that distributes a free program called Triangle Boy. Triangle Boy allows users to surf the Web anonymously. Citizens inside dictatorships are using the program to avoid monitoring by the oppressive regimes. NewsMax

Boong-Ga Boong-Ga: a Japanese arcade game that has to be seen to be believed. The Register

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” said Arthur C. Clarke. ‘It’ is revealed. Reinventing the Wheel

“Just lean forward,” Kamen commands, so I do, and instantly I start rolling across the concrete right at him.

“Now, stop,” Kamen says. How? This thing has no brakes. “Just think about stopping.” Staring into the middle distance, I conjure an image of a red stop sign–and just like that, Ginger and I come to a halt.

“Now think about backing up.” Once again, I follow instructions, and soon I glide in reverse to where I started. With a twist of the wrist, I pirouette in place, and no matter which way I lean or how hard, Ginger refuses to let me fall over. What’s going on here is all perfectly explicable–the machine is sensing and reacting to subtle shifts in my balance–but for the moment I am slack-jawed, baffled. Time [thanks to boing boing]