Our jurisprudence system assumes that someone is innocent until proven guilty. We can thank George Mason of Virginia for inspiring the Bill of Rights, and for lobbying for its inclusion in our Constitution. As a new nation, free of the tyranny of a king, it is revealing that Mason felt a declaration of the rights of man were necessary. He had the foresight to recognize that monarchy is not the sole source of tyranny, and that tyranny is often one the basest forms of human nature.

Our legal structure requires recognition that the rights of the individual are paramount to the needs of society. Politically, however, the debate has no rules. We are able to argue the good and bad, and define good and evil, freely. The laws we make constantly breech and are sometimes repelled by Constitutional interpretation, and our social customs are a continuous moral disagreement.

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Computing is way cool, huh? Got to love it. All the great new technology and devices. Things are mostly sweet on the computer, but only if you use a Mac. What a great time to be alive!

People say that all our data, all our music, our pictures, and even our home movies are going to last on their new CD medium for a hundred years or more. We can be proud that our grandkids and even their kids will be able to see us and read or watch what we do today as we live our lives at the beginning of a brand new millennium.

Fact is, there is a dirty little secret about computing that almost no one ever talks about.

The secret is that the medium we store all our beloved data on won’t last out the decade. Let alone last to the next century.

Huh?

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