Gary Secondino's Weblog

Without harnessing the power of initiative, the wheel of innovation comes to a screeching halt. We all have a desire to "make a difference" or to make improvements in our lives, but for a variety of reasons, many people face challenges in regard to taking initiative in one form or another. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to enhance your power of initiative, and the payoffs are huge.

1. Give Yourself Permission to Decide for Yourself
Waiting for others to join you in your initiative can slow the wheels of innovation and drag out the process.

2. Make Choices and Act on Them
Keep in mind that you don't have to come up with the best possible decision, you just have to come up with one way that will work.

3. Don't Wait to Be Inspired; Get Inspired!
Take responsibility for feeding positive input into your mental process.

4. Increase Your Accountability
Practice increasing your initiative by stepping up to the plate and volunteering to lead projects.

5. Live By Your Word
Make a firm commitment to yourself that you will keep your promises, no matter what.

See the Tips for Awareness, Curiosity and Focus.  [Fast Company]

[To Talk of Many Things]

The enemy within. Almost daily, every American's right to privacy is reduced by our own over-reaching American bureaucrats.

Washington, DC - Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a (pdf) release announcing its new rule expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). The ruling is a reinterpretation of the scope of CALEA and will force Internet broadband providers and certain Voice-over-IP (VoIP) providers to build backdoors into their networks that make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap them. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has argued against this expansion of CALEA in several rounds of comments to the FCC on its proposed rule.

CALEA, a law passed in the early 1990s, mandated that all telephone providers build tappability into their networks, but expressly ruled out information services like broadband. Under the new ruling from the FCC, this tappability now extends to Internet broadband providers as well.

Practically, what this means is that the government will be asking broadband providers - as well as companies that manufacture devices used for broadband communications [^] to build insecure backdoors into their networks, imperiling the privacy and security of citizens on the Internet. It also hobbles technical innovation by forcing companies involved in broadband to redesign their products to meet government requirements.

"Expanding CALEA to the Internet is contrary to the statute and is a fundamentally flawed public policy," said Kurt Opsahl, EFF staff attorney. "This misguided tech mandate endangers the privacy of innocent people, stifles innovation, and risks the functionality of the Internet as a forum for free and open expression."

This is one of the many dark sides of a reactionary government that mandates secrecy and deception at all levels. Shouldn't the public have hearings and be able to speak their mind? Shouldn't something as precious our privacy be given a vote?