Wow, todays headline news was quite something.

It was just the free copy of the metro i've looked at, but even that with it's mediocre news reporting told me enough to get me thinking what sort of world are we living in! The two main news stories being the trial of Saddam Hussein and the news that computer printers were issueing a secret tracking code on every sheet printed.

Ok, the Saddam trial seems fairly straightforward. We know he has committed atrocities, and is essentialy guilty of many crimes. Certainly there should be evidence to prove it also, all we need do is check through some of our old receipts and we'll see that we probably sold him torture equipment. Should be an open and shut case. But you have to wonder at the gall we have when he's being tried for a 1982 massacre of Shia. It's not like we didn't know and given that he was given the enthusiastic support of the US during that time it seems a touch hypocritical now to censure him for that. Still the guy is really due whats coming to him, so who is really going to care? I'm just bitter because i'm convinced Bus hand Blair are war criminals and should also be in the dock.

The news about printers having a secret code that enables those who know what to look for to track a print out back to the printer that printed via it's serial code however is absolutely outrageous. Well done to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for cracking the code and letting it be known. As the headline was quick to point out, talk about "big brother is watching you" it's an outrageous violation of civil liberties and the fact that companies like Xerox, Brother, Hewlett Packard and Canon have allowed the US government to implement such a scheme sickens me. As EFF lawyer Lee Tien said, "What else has been made to ensure our technology rats on us?"