freshmeat.net: Project details for Project Observer
Project Observer is an autodiscovering network management system focused primarily on Cisco and Linux networks. It is capable of automatically generating network diagrams. Networks are automatically discovered based on CDP data collected via SNMP.

Pope Benedict, in a new encyclical released on Friday, said atheism was responsible for some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” in history.

The 75-page “Spe Salvi”, which takes its Latin title from a quote by St Paul (in hope we were saved), is an appeal to a pessimistic world to find strength in Christian hope.

Papal encyclical attacks atheism, promises hope | International | Reuters

Sometime Wednesday night,Time magazine quietly corrected its correction to a Joe Klein column but the silent edit still failed to fix the egregious story that falsely stated Democrats wanted to extended the full protection of the Constitution to all foreign terrorists,

For one, the new correction still misstates the very name of the bill passed by the House.

More importantly, the second correction fails to correct the central premise of Klein’s column, turning what might have been unintentional, but dangerous misstatements in the original into a lie supported by Time’s top editors.

Time Edits Wiretapping Correction, Still Wrong | Threat Level from Wired.com

More than just a radiation detector, the NukAlert™ is a patented personal radiation meter, monitor and alarm. Small enough to attach to a key chain, the device operates non-stop, 24/7 and will promptly warn you of the presence of unseen, but acutely dangerous levels of radiation.

Used nationwide by federal, state and local first responders, law enforcement and the Dept. of Defense, the device is the ideal solution for increasing individual security and awareness of radiological threats. It will be very reassuring to know, with confidence, when you and your family are out of the worst danger.

NukAlert™ Radiation Detector, Meter, Monitor and Alarm
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I wouldn’t mind having one of these on my backpack - but I’d probably get hassled when getting on planes with it.

If you see a lost/abandoned bag someplace, don’t look, don’t touch, just leave.

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Nine months ago, a similar police decoy program called Operation Lucky Bag was effectively shut down by prosecutors and judges who were concerned that it was sweeping up the civic-minded alongside those bent on larceny. Shopping bags, backpacks and purses were left around the subway system, then stealthily watched by undercover officers. They arrested anyone who took the items and walked past a police officer in uniform without reporting the discovery.

Now, a new version of the operation has started to catch people in public places outside the subways, and at much higher stakes, Criminal Court records show.

Unlike the initial program, in which the props were worth at most a few hundred dollars, the bags are now salted with real American Express cards, issued under pseudonyms to the Police Department.

Because the theft of a credit card is grand larceny, a Class E felony, those convicted could face sentences of up to four years. The charges in the first round of Operation Lucky Bag were nearly all petty larceny, a misdemeanor, with a maximum penalty of one year in jail.

Dragnet That Ensnares Good Samaritans, Too - New York Times

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity…but who is watching the watchmen?

The film based on the graphic novel is being directed by Zack Snyder (300) and produced by Lawrence Gordon (Die Hard), Lloyd Levin (United 93) and Deborah Snyder (300), with Herbert W. Gains serving as executive producer.

Playing the film’s core group of “masks,” the masked adventurers at the center of the story, are Malin Akerman (upcoming The Heartbreak Kid) as Laurie Juspeczyk, aka Silk Spectre; Billy Crudup (The Good Shepherd) as Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan; Matthew Goode (Match Point) as Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias; Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) as Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach; Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy) as Edward Blake, aka the Comedian; and Patrick Wilson (Little Children) as Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl.

Watchmen was originally published by DC comics as a 12-comic book series between 1986 and 1987, before subsequently being collected into a trade paperback. It is the only graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award or to be named among Time magazine’s “100 Best English Language Novels from 1923 to the Present.”

Watchmen

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I’m really psyched about this movie.

heh, and look what the internets found me.

“Things haven’t changed all that much where George W. Bush comes from. Houston is a cruel and crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It’s a shabby sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West — which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch. ”
- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004 October 20th, 2004

Luckily, my band’s recently released album, “Oh No,” escaped copy control, but only narrowly. When our album came out, our label’s parent company, EMI, was testing protective software and thought we were a good candidate for it. Record company executives reasoned that because we appeal to college students who have the high-bandwidth connections necessary for getting access to peer-to-peer networks, we’re the kind of band that gets traded instead of bought.

That may be true, but we are also the sort of band that hasn’t yet gotten the full attention of MTV and major commercial radio stations, so those college students are our only window onto the world. They are our best chance for success, and we desperately need them to be listening to us, talking about us, coming to our shows and yes, trading us.

New York Times