dreadedmonkeygod . net

I'm not sure I'll ever let my life be completely "point driven", but I'm a huge believer in tight feedback loops. So I'm trying out a couple of tools to give me very quick feedback on my financial situation.

At the moment, my brain just sees Starbucks now vs. smaller bank balance later, so the concrete temptation of an immediate, tasty caffeine hit tends to trump my desire to save money.

I'm hoping I can set things up so that I can more strongly trigger my loss aversion circuits, and create a feedback system where my brain will naturally try to save money.

I'm all for self-discipline, but I'll also take all the help I can get.

Well, looks like the spammers are back. I'm seeing a whole pile of spammy comments trapped in the filter, and a few that are getting through.

The good news is that the comments that have gotten past the filter haven't been too horrifying, and deleting them has been a ten-second process.

So, I'm just here to say gracias, spammers, for helping me test my software.

So, the Lower Merion School District in Philadelphia gave out laptops equipped with webcams to students. And then they diciplined a student for "inappropriate behavior at home", citing a photo taken with the webcam as evidence.

The student has sued the school district for invasion of privacy.

Lower Merion School District Superintendent Dr. Christopher W. McGinly has admitted that the laptops given to students are equipped with a webcam that can be activated remotely to help locate a laptop, "in the event it was reported lost, missing or stolen so that the laptop could be returned to the student."

The extent to which the cameras were used remains unknown.

I'm sure that any minute now the school district will produce the paper trail indicating that the laptop had been reported lost, missing, or stolen, and that the technical staff had been authorized to activate the webcam in order to help locate it.

I'm not holding my breath.

The best part here is that the district cited the student for "inappropriate behavior at home" because they thought they'd caught him taking illegal drugs. Two problems with this: first, the "pills" were Mike and Ikes. Second, if the Lower Merion School District had evidence that a student was in posession of illegal drugs, isn't that a matter for the police?

Of course, going to the cops might lead to awkward questions like, "Why are you using webcams to spy on underage kids at home?"

The best place to follow the developing story is Wikipedia, and the FBI is now investigating the matter.