This is cool. From Boing Boing, the Library of Congress is now posting photos at Flickr so citizens can tag and describe them. I find this encouraging. It's great to see a government agency embracing the wisdom of crowds.

Network Solutions has been caught front-running domain names. Front running is the process whereby a domain name that has been searched for by a potential domain purchaser is purchased by the registrar, thereby preventing a registrant from purchasing the domain at any other registrar. Network Solutions' front running activities were discussed on /. today. Now, Network Solutions has issued a response. To my mind it's one of the lamest corporate responses ever. Basically, Network Solutions says, "Yes, we're front running, but we're doing it for your good because we don't want someone else to take the domain name." Oh yes! I'm sure this will improve their standing in the tech community.

Bruce Schneier asks Is Sears Engaging in Criminal Hacking Behavior? Sears.com is distributing spyware that tracks all of your internet usage, including banking, purchases and anything else. All you have to do is sign up for My SHC Community. The fact that they are spying on you is somewhat obscurely described in the EULA, but it's certainly not going to be obvious to most users. As Schneier points out if a kid with a scary hacker name did this sort of thing, he'd be arrested, but this is Sears. In other Sears news, if you register for Sears' managemyhome.com, you can look up major purchases for any address, not just your own. A goldmine for Sears' competitors as well as nosy neighbors. Someone in Sears' top management needs to buy a clue, but they probably won't find it in the clue department at Sears.

Followup: It looks like Sears has fixed the managemyhome.com hole.