Recovering.

Since v0.5b of Byzantium Linux hit the Net, all of us have been taking the opportunity to get a little R&R before proceeding to the fifth and final milestone, which is writing up everything that happened in the previous six months. That's going to be a lot of stuff, but we've got good notes, a bunch of blog posts, and no shortage of lessons learned through the development process. I think when we sit down and get to work, we'll get it knocked out, edited, and published in not a very much time. I'll also be in a rush to get some material together because I'll be going back on the conference circuit in a few weeks, and even though it's technically an unconference, I find that I still operate better when I have a handful of bullet points to hang stuff off of. For what it's worth, I'm taking a couple of days off to recuperate before I pick up where I left off. I ran myself into the ground with the last two milestones (the amateur radio project was much harder than any of us predicted, and two weeks to incorporate a bunch of new stuff to get another release together was, in hindsight, not a good idea) and a few of us are getting over being sick as a result. I'm more or less back on my feet but dealing with a persistent headache that's made concentration difficult. I'm also dealing with worsened chronic pain that's been both distracting me as well as keeping me awake at night. I'm planning out a couple of lifestyle changes that I hope will get the pain back under control. I'm also going to make some more progress on the sewing project I have on deck, namely the plushie for my little nephew, whom I'll be meeting for the first time next weekend. Also, the implications of the latest net.scandal - Edward Snowden leaking a large volume of classified documents from the National Security Agency - have hit me hard. In point of fact, every time I sit down to write something on this site (and that's easily been two dozen times in the past two weeks) I stop and consider whether or not what I may write, or what I've written in the past will be used against me. Every time, I deleted the post because it was a risk that I wasn't willing to take. Let me preface this by saying that I haven't read any of the original documents. Leaked or not, whistleblower or not, classified material is classified material and the penalties for possessing or gaining access to such are steep. Too steep, I think, in light of recent developments. What I have read, however, are analyses from second and third parties who have whom I have reason to trust due to their published work in the past five to ten years as well as their professional credentials. People who have actually read and understood the laws and statues in question and don't throw terms like "terrorist" or "traitor" around, like most of the people weighing in on this matter. So, for those of you who keep asking me friendly questions, I don't have them, never have, and I'm not going to, so stop freaking asking me. NSA whistleblower William Binney said the first time this scandal broke (that's right, this isn't the first time) that we are not far from living in a turnkey surveillance state. Well, the key has turned. There is evidence that the PRISM surveillance programme may have influenced the political process. Last week the Fourth Circuit Court (whose sphere of influence are matters of state) decreed that there is no such thing as journalistic protection, which means that journalists can be prosecuted for what they write about even though it's covered by the First Amendment. On the same day James Risen, a journalist working for the New York Times was ordered to testify in a court of law about classified information he recieved from a source at the Central Intelligence Agency. So, whether you're a blogger or a talking head on an international news network, if you bring the news to the people you can be prosecuted for doing so. I give you three guesses what that's going to do to investigative journalism, and Geraldo Rivera doesn't count. Over a dozen companies, from Skype (before it was bought out) to Microsoft have been caught in lies. They say publically that they're not providing surveillance information to anyone for any reason, but evidence keeps getting out that they're working with the NSA to provide as much usable information as possible. So, as I've said time and time again, if it'