Funding for TIA All But Dead
According to this Wired News report, "The Senate inserts a provision to a key bill that denies all funding to the Terrorist Information Awareness effort. It's a move that would make it much more difficult for the Pentagon to try to establish its massive data-mining spy network." Big Brother loses one, amazing.

Cell Phone Calls Flying High
According to this Wired News report, "A Colorado company is working on a device that would let airline passengers use their cell phones during flight. But, as on the ground, cell-phone calls in yet one more public place could ruffle feathers. By Elisa Batista." Buck would use this all the time I bet.

New Kind of Snooping Arrives at the Office
According to this New York Times report, "Employers have stepped up their surveillance of employees, often using stealth techniques to peer deep into their computer use. :: I looked into this some time ago and found that this is all perfectly legal, you should assume that you have no privacy at all in the workplace. Many people use their office computers for personal business because the connections are often faster than what you have at home. What you need to realize is that your company IT manager is probably keeping a log of all employee Internet activity. This includes e-mail as well as sites visited. So, you can see, that if companies can do this in the United States, how much more can governments hostile to the spread of the gospel (like China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria, etc.) do to monitor the Internet activity of citizens. It is only a matter of having the righty spyware.

Evangelistic tool gaining popularity
With its own Web site at www.evangecube.org, the Evangecube has become so popular that Sheets said it "will be the primary evangelistic tool used to share the gospel with people at next summer's Olympics in Athens, Greece. Sheets' goal is to go to 100 countries. In each country, he hopes to visit 1,000 churches and in each church train 100 Christians to share the gospel, thereby equipping 10 million Christians with the Evangecube, who will in turn give one billion people a chance to hear the story.

Start-up streamlines e-mail encryption
ZDNet Tech News offers this report on a service no Trib Force team should do without: "Voltage's method offers a slight twist on current practices: The public key derives from the sender's e-mail address, eliminating a step in a sometimes daunting process." This approach sounds like it may be easier to use than PGP. Of course, PGP is still free and this will be a fee based service, so perhaps only those more financially blessed TF's will use it.

Another Tool for Big Brother?
Here is an interesting report from Wired News: "A surveillance camera that can track and analyze the movement of individual vehicles in a crowded city is being developed for the Pentagon. Despite assurances that the camera is meant only to protect troops in the field, civilian authorities will probably want to use it, too."

Disorganized Resistance?
"Organized resistance has many drawbacks. These drawbacks have seldom been
discussed by the opposition. We believe that the only effective resistance is a
completely disorganized, decentralized, and leaderless opposition." So, is this what Buck and the gang were up to? I think they were more organized, or at least they tried to be.

Urban Tracking
According to USA Today: "WASHINGTON ?The Pentagon is developing an urban surveillance system that would use computers and thousands of cameras to track, record and analyze the movement of every vehicle in a foreign city." Well, I guess Big Brother really is watching.

Iran Blocks Reform, Porn Web Sites
Here is another report on Iran's effort to control what their people see on the Web, this from CBS News: SciTech.

Iran blocking access to sex sites on Web
This CNN - World report provides yet another example of how a government can control the Internet. It makes me wonder if the GC could have blocked Tsion's web site.

Wireless Net may aid poor nations - CNN & Reuters
Wireless Internet technology may help poor nations leapfrog into the future if they can get assistance to harness the new technology, said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Wireless Internet access has "a key role to play everywhere, but especially in developing countries and countries with economies in transition," Annan said on Thursday in a message to a U.N. conference on the rapidly growing phenomenon known as Wi-Fi. :: TF members operating in poor countries should be prepared to help local believers establish wireless networks and take full advantage of the new communication tools.

Urgent Prayer for North Korea Requested in Wake of Nuclear Threat
A special day of prayer for North Korea is being organized by AsiaLink Ministries and a number of other ministries including Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors (UK), Jubilee Campaign, and Release International. "Our desire is to see thousands of churches and believers around the world impacting one of the world most closed and repressive regimes -- communist North Korea -- in a worldwide Day of Prayer on Sunday, June 29, 2003," said Rev. Dale Hiscock, executive director, AsiaLink Ministries. "The communist government has sought to decimate the church and repress Christianity with great ruthlessness. As a result of a lack of information, the situation of the church has remained a mystery and the church worldwide, outside Korea, has forgotten the need to pray for these most persecuted of our brothers and sisters.”

HOW TO PRAY FOR IRAQI CHRISTIANS
Open Doors Ministry recently had opportunity to encourage Iraqi Christians and assure them of the prayers of millions of Western Christians in the war aftermath. A Chaldean Catholic nun, Sister Margaret, said, "Your prayers have made all the difference for us." This ASSIST News Service report also includes prayer needs from the Iraqi Christians. Pray for the swift stabilization of the country; for wise administration; for the safety of visiting Christians; for hope, revival and a new moral culture. Pray against a spirit of fear, Shiite extremism, identity wars, and other desperate needs. Open Doors, founded in 1955 by Brother Andrew, faithfully serves the Persecuted Church; visit its Web site to review the ministry now reaching out to approximately 200 million persecuted Christians worldwide.

Should Christians Convert Muslims?
This weeks edition of Time Magazine examines the question of evangelism efforts directed at Muslims, this is a must read for your TF: Not for a century has the idea of evangelizing Islam awakened such fervor in conservative Christians. Touched by Muslims' material and spiritual needs, convinced that they are one of the great "unreached megapeoples" who must hear the Gospel before Christ's eventual return, Evangelicals have been rushing to what has become the latest hot missions field. Figures from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, suggest that the number of missionaries to Islamic countries nearly doubled between 1982 and 2001—from more than 15,000 to somewhere in excess of 27,000.

Palm Sunday?
Lend a hand and put the gospel in your palm, your Palm Pilot that is. Bible+ bible reading software for Palm OS PDAs, announces the immediate availability of The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language for Bible+. "I'm honored to receive rights to distribute The Message," said Yih-Chun Hu. "Peterson's lucid translation is very readable, and makes you want to read on and on." This is exactly what Eugene Peterson was aiming for when he wrote this contemporary translation: "I hope that when readers find the poetry, the stories, the prayers, the songs in this Book in their language---the sort of language in which it was written---they will read it from cover to cover, nonstop," says Peterson. The Message for Bible+ is licensed through PalmGear for only $15, a $25 print value. You are encourged to try before you buy: the translation can be browsed on BibleGateway, and Bible+ is freely available on PalmGear.

Students flock to cyber cafes
This Express India report is a reminder that even in countries with a small Christian population, the Internet can still be a powerful means of reaching and teaching.

Software simplifies e-mail encryption — somewhat
So, let's say your trib force sends a lot of e-mail. How do you know that your communication is secure? Could hostile GC agents be intercepting your e-mail? This USA Today report suggests that one simple way to secure your e-mail is to use a program like PGP. If you are not doing this already, it's time to start.

Writing a PDA Friendly Web Site
This About.Com report suggests that with the Palm VII wireless Internet, cell phones that offer Web access, and other pocket sized computers, it is getting more and more important to think about how your Web site displays on the palm sized computers and internet devices.

Alarm at Pentagon's Email Snooping
This report from The Guardian suggests that the age if Big Brother is here and about to get a lot more intrusive. It makes me wonder how well a trib force could really evade GC forces in the modern world of 21st Century government surveillance?

A Question for All Bloggers
Jim at Right Thoughts blog has an idea for protective web hosting. He explains it better than I can, but the idea is simple enough, if you are the type that might run afoul of the PC police and their lawyers, he promises not to cave. In his words, "My pledge will be simple: I will not shut you down on any threat of a lawsuit. I will not regulate your content. If the lawyers come a'knockin, I will "accidentally" lose all your personal information with one click of the delete key. In short, I will be a human digital shield, only I won't run away when they start shooting." He is looking for input from the blogosphere on this idea. Ever wonder who Tsion's ISP was? How come the GC couldn't just force the ISP to shut him down? Maybe he had protective web hosting.