outside

http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/security/data-control/news/index.cfm?newsid=6198

"There are nearly half a million database servers exposed on the Internet, without firewall protection according to UK-based security researcher David Litchfield.

"Litchfield took a look at just over 1 million randomly generated Internet Protocol [IP] addresses, checking them to see if he could access them on the IP ports reserved for Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle's database.

"He found 157 SQL servers and 53 Oracle servers. Litchfield then relied on known estimates of the number of systems on the Internet to arrive at his conclusion: "There are approximately 368,000 Microsoft SQl Servers... and about 124,000 Oracle database servers directly accessible on the Internet," he wrote in his report, due to be made public next week."

Failure Phone

Here we have the sad, and common, story of a company investing heavily in developing a product and missing it's mark so badly that it leaves one wondering how on earth it could happen. This story as all too common. Microsoft's crippled wireless feature in the Zune for example. And a long (and growing) list of Sony attempts. Here's a phone that was intended to compete with the iPhone. And might have. But some place along the way they forget everything they were trying to do. Stupidity takes over, and the phone ends up going wrong everything that the Apple does right.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/technology/personaltech/08pogue.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

"There you have it: the Shadow, one of the least expensive smartphones on the market, loaded with features, feeling luxurious and looking stunning in your hand. For once, you don.t have to be jealous of the much cooler phones available in Europe.

"But then you turn the thing on.

"Unfortunately, after they did such a great job designing the hardware, T-Mobile's chief executive and his ex-Apple designer punted on the software. They equipped this phone with Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6. As it turns out, that decision is just as much an impediment to the Shadow's greatness as AT&T exclusivity is to the iPhone.

"Frankly, Windows Mobile 6 is a mess. Common features require an infinitude of taps and clicks, and the ones you need most are buried in menus. Apparently the Windows Mobile 6 team learned absolutely nothing from Windows Mobile 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

"And lest you think I don't have Microsoft's best interests at heart, here's a list of helpful suggestions. At no charge.

First of all, a cellphone should not display a .wait. cursor. Ever. And definitely not almost every time you change screens, as on the Shadow."

Read on at the link above. It's a text book case of failure.

Yet Another One

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/02/catholic_school_principal_cross_dress/

A Kentucky Catholic school principal is on "personal leave" from his post after being discovered by cops sitting in his car "wearing an all-black, leather, woman's outfit, fishnet stockings and women's black plastic breasts" in a Louisville neighbourhood "known for prostitution and narcotics".

...

Schum wasn't arrested, but must appear in court on 27 November on a misdemeanor prostitution rap. He is head at Bethlehem High School in Bardstown, described as a "Christ-centered, college preparatory, co-educational high school that challenges students to develop spiritually, academically, socially, and morally in the Catholic tradition".

Criminal?

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/11/washington_lawmaker_embroiled.html

"I am not the criminal here," he told Brancaccio, according to a report in this morning's edition.

Curtis represented portions of Clark and Cowlitz county in the Washington Legislature for three years. He resigned after public disclosures of a sexual tryst with a 26-year-old male gay porn model. Curtis alleges the man attempted to extort money from him after their encounter.

Oh that clears it up. So.... Who's the criminal?

Shocking News!

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9054178

"Microsoft Corp. has warned Windows Home Server users not to edit files stored on their backup systems with several of its programs, including Vista Photo Gallery and Office's OneNote and Outlook, as well as files generated by popular finance software such as Quicken and QuickBooks.

"When you use certain programs to edit files on a home computer that uses Windows Home Server, the files may become corrupted when you save them to the home server," Microsoft said in a support document posted last week."

What's this? A Microsoft product doesn't work? How could this be? Shocking! Just shocking!

Microsoft doesn't have to worry. People are stupid. They have used, and will continue to use, Microsoft products no matter how many times they lose their data, no matter the reboots, no matter the loss of private information, no matter the spam... No matter what, nothing. That's been well proven.

Got Security? Nope

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071220195648.htm

"There is no solid evidence that the huge amounts of money spent on airport security screening measures since September 11th are effective..."

Surprise, surprise... Airport security can not be shown to be effective in preventing danger. Of course it is good for promoting fear and discomfort and the idea that "the government" is doing "something" when in fact it's doing little or nothing helpful.

Here's another good piece on this topic:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/12/airport_securit_11.html

The Known Known

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103103095.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

"In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to "keep elevating the threat," "link Iraq to Iran" and develop "bumper sticker statements" to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war."

We can only hope there's a special place in hell prepared for the likes of Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Working Dead

http://www.lifereboot.com/2007/the-working-dead/

"The young guy in the other cubicle next to me spent my first day voicing complaints about my squeaky chair. He switched it for a different one the first chance he got. I think he spent every day after that looking at porn.

"His behavior was not unique. My job involved fixing computer problems wherever they turned up, so I spent a lot of time walking around the facility. It was common for me to pass a series of cubicles and see something like: Solitaire. Solitaire. Solitaire. Porn. Solitaire. Solitaire. Solitaire. Porn."

This is the American way. It's not so much that"kids today" have no sense of (the myth of) getting ahead by hard work. People have been saying that about "kids today" since Og learned to make make a better stone tool than his father and as a result had more free time on the weekend for hobbies around the cave.

What's wrong with this picture is a culture of lazy habits. It's really the fact of how easy it is not to think for ones self. Why are there record foreclosures for example? Because so many people felt that they did not need to put forth the effort understand their mortgages. Just coast along...

Oh well, people are stupid. What can be done...

Zzzzz

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071022120219.htm

"They found that following sleep restriction to 4 hours per night, an individual's ability to perform complex tasks gradually decreased during the five days. Several changes in their immunological system were also recognized, e.g. increase in CRP (C-reactive protein), an indicator of defense reaction."

People spend a astonishing amount of effort and money on health. Yet they absolutely refuse to do the simplest things - especially if those things are free. People desire physical stress and discomfort, and that's why they push everything in their lives just past the comfortable level. Afterall, if they were comfortable, what would they have to complain about at work? What would they spend their money on?

Pete Stark not Censured

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/washington/23cnd-stark.html?ex=1350878400&en=24a6722372dd9e1f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

"By 196 to 173, the House voted to table a resolution to censure Mr. Stark, who is chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, for what he said as the House sustained President Bush.s veto of a bill to expand a children.s health insurance program.

"You don't have money to fund the war or children," Mr. Stark told Republicans last week. "But you.re going to spend it to blow up innocent people, if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

Interesting remarks. I wish more members of the House were as angry as Mr. Stark. They should be.

Digital Music News

Digital media may finally be hitting a critical mass that will hopefully dislodge the entrenched middlemen that are the RIAA.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1535184120071015?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"From November 13, Led Zeppelin, which disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham, will make its albums available for download from all online music retailers."

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1425810520071015?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"For Real Networks' Rhapsody digital music service, there's no place like home.

"The company has teamed with TiVo to bring subscription-based on-demand streaming music into the living room directly from Internet-connected TiVo digital video recorders."

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/10/12/universal/index.php

"Morris is looking to wrest some control back from Apple and change the way digital music is sold with a new service called Total Music, according to BusinessWeek. The plan is to get hardware makers to absorb the cost of a $5 monthly subscription, so that consumers would get their music essentially for free when they buy a new player, and the hardware industry
would be compensated by selling many more devices."

One Lone Whale, and Such

Here the sad story of the day...

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/20/184723/82?

"For the last 12 years, a single solitary whale whose vocalizations match no known living species has been tracked across the Northeast Pacific. Its wanderings match no known migratory patterns of any living whale species. Its vocalizations have also subtly deepened over the years, indicating that the whale is maturing and ageing. And, during the entire 12 year span that it has been tracked, it has been calling out for contact from others of its own kind.

"It has received no answer. Nor will it ever."

There's always a "last one" and as humans ever more rapidly end life on this planet there are sure to be more and more of these stories. Naturally the vast, vast majority will go unnoticed. Not that anyone would care, nor change their behavior in anyway... It's much too late anyhow.

***

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/northwest/story/262134.html

"Rep. Jim McDermott says he's no Grinch, even though he voted against Christmas.

"The veteran Seattle Democrat voted against a House resolution recognizing the importance of Christmas, but called it a protest against President Bush's veto of a children's health care bill.

"While the Republicans are passing a resolution celebrating Christmas, the president was vetoing health care for children. There's a little bit of irony going on around here," McDermott said Thursday."

***

http://alternet.org/story/52801/?page=entire

"In 1926, Justice Louis Brandeis explained the constitutional role of the separation of powers. He wrote, "The doctrine of the separation of powers was adopted by the convention of 1787 not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power. The purpose was not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy."

***

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Christmas-Stephen-Nissenbaum/dp/0679412239/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197651737&sr=1-32

"The Battle for Christmas" by Stephen Nissenbaum is yet another must read.

***

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/14/wii_attracts_cockroaches/

Does the Wii attract cock roaches? I very much doubt it.

Hijacking Catastrophe

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3320922145165829917&q=hijacking+catastrophe&total=47&start=0&num=10&so=3&type=search&plindex=9

"Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire examines how a radical fringe of the Republican Party used the trauma of ... all the 9/11 terror attacks to advance a pre-existing agenda to radically transform American foreign policy while rolling back civil liberties and social programs at home. The documentary places the Bush administration's false justifications for war in Iraq within the larger context of a two-decade struggle by neoconservatives to dramatically increase military spending in the wake of the Cold War, and to expand American power globally by means of military force."

http://www.google.com/search?q=disaster+capitalism&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Disaster Capitalism. Read about it.

Shame

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hr110-847

I guess this is the new thing to be outraged about: Christmas. Not the fact that our government has been running torture camps, and destroyed evidence there of. Not a war as costly as it is pointless. Not the destruction of Earth. Not declining value of the dollar. Not investment flight. Not economic drain of a failed healthcare system. No, none of those things. What our government is working on is shoving us one more step closer toward an Iranian-style religious state. That's what's really important. Yep, that's it.

Torture and Christians in the News

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/10/10/carter-america-tortures/

"Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday he is convinced the United States engages in torture that clearly breaches international law and told CNN President Bush creates his own definition of human rights to escape violating them.

"I don't think it. I know it, certainly." the former president told CNN's Wolf Blitzer when asked if he thinks the United States commits torture."

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/64873

"A study released last week by the Barna Group, a reputable Evangelical research and polling firm, found that under-30s -- both Christian and non-Christian -- are strikingly more critical of Christianity than their peers were just a decade ago. According to the summary report, Barna pollster David Kinnaman found that the opinions of non-Christians, in particular, had slid like a rock in that time frame. Ten years ago, "the vast majority" of non-Christians had generally favorable views of Christianity. Now, that number stands at just 16%. When asked specifically about Evangelicals, the number are even worse: only 3% of non-Christian Millennials have positive associations with Evangelicals. Among the Boomers, it's eight times higher."

LynKs

Close to a mudslide - real close...

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/forestry_worker_tapes_slide_as.html

"Moments before a landslide buried U.S. 30 near Clatskanie on Tuesday, Jason Hinkle of the Oregon Department of Forestry was standing near where the slide started. In the moments before the mud, rocks and water let go, Hinkle thought something was happening and started shooting this video."

***

File under "Duh":

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/forestry_worker_tapes_slide_as.html

"In 2004, health care software vendor McKesson Provider Technologies began focusing on ways to cut IT costs for customers, including hospitals and medical offices.

"The cure for IT cost bloat: moving many of McKesson's medical software applications to Linux, which could then be used on less expensive commodity hardware instead of expensive mainframes."

***

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7140443.stm

Here's childs review of the $100 laptop, XO. Which, somehow, shockingly, manages to run without Microsoft? Could be be? Really??

"I just seemed to work it out. It was rather easy. I didn't even need help." Surprise, surprise, his first discovery was a game. "I found Block Party. It's like Tetris. I'm now up to Level 7."

***

File this one under "B. S.":

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3991651

"It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'" said Shaheen, whose wife, Jeanne, is the state's former governor and is running for the U.S. Senate next year.

"There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It's hard to overcome," Shaheen said.

"Clinton's campaign said it had nothing to do with his comments, and Shaheen said later he regretted them.

"I deeply regret the comments I made today and they were not authorized by the campaign in any way," Bill Shaheen said in an e-mail released by the campaign."

B. S.

***

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2224694,00.html

'The overwhelming lesson teenagers are now learning from the world around them is that being "sexy" is the ultimate accolade, trumping intelligence, character and all other accomplishments at every stage of a woman's life,' said Liebau, a political analyst and the review's first female managing editor. 'The new female imperative is that it is only through promiscuity and sexual aggression that girls can achieve admiration and recognition.'

***

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/B/BALI_CLIMATE_CONFERENCE?SITE=WIRE&SECTI$

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who flew to Bali from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change.

"White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday Gore was wrong in blaming the United States for holding up progress. "I think he is incorrect," she said."

Oh well I guess that settles that. Nevermind then!

The Next Big Thing

Here's the next big thing in stupidity.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071213/wr_nm/russia_internet_dc

"A Russian website called CyberLover.ru is advertising a software tool that, it says, can simulate flirtatious chatroom exchanges. It boasts that it can chat up as many as 10 women at the same time and persuade them to hand over phone numbers."

Software is slowly getting good, really good, at somethings that people have imagined computers would someday do back in the 1950s. One of those things is impersonate a person. This comes in many forms from voice response systems to movies to video games, but scamers will be picking up soon enough. Look out, they will be good, very good.

See also...

http://www.loosewireblog.com/2007/12/meet-veronica-s.html

"Just in case you can't read that last bit, it reads:

'can't wait to get real nasty and show off :) IM REAL MISS WEB CAM!'

"Reply to the message and immediately you're asked to share your contact details (a la Skype.) I didn't risk having Veronica spam all my friends (not sure how that would work, but I've got some nice people on my list, and I'd hate for them to be upset.) But I did reply to her message, and her responses were quick, and, dare I say it, felt a trifle automated"

Shocking. You're shocked right? I rather like Skype. I'd hate to see it get annoying.

Doomed to Repeat History

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/10/iphone_windows

"With Apple's announcement Monday that it shipped 1.12 million iPhones in the three months after its launch, the gadget's apparent popularity rivals some PCs. That has security experts warning of trouble, following revelations that Apple built the iPhone's firmware on the same flawed security model that took rival Microsoft a decade to eliminate from Windows."

The design in question was actually well known to be bad even way back when Microsoft did it, at least among grown up engineers, in the UNIX world. I'm rather astonished that such errors would turn up again in this context. Apple has typically been smarter than that.

;drop

http://xkcd.com/327/

This comic is really very good.
There are sooo many web sites out there where you can type something like that into a form...

Rediculous

I am really beginning to hate this woman.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/12/20071211-7.html

MS. PERINO: I am saying that the United States does not torture. The President has been -- [...]

Q But when you have a former CIA officer, John Kiriakou, now saying that waterboarding was used -- since you're saying the interrogations were legal; he's saying on the record now, waterboarding was used in at least one case. You're saying waterboarding is legal?

MS. PERINO: Ed, I'm saying I'm not commenting on any specific technique. I'm not commenting on that gentleman's characteristics of any possible technique. I've given you a very general statement about interrogations being legal, limited and --

Q You just said it was legal.

MS. PERINO: I'm sorry?

Q You said it was within the legal framework.

MS. PERINO: Yes.

Q Everything that was done.

MS. PERINO: Yes.

Q So waterboarding is legal.

MS. PERINO: I'm not commenting on any specific techniques.

Credit Cards

http://consumerist.com/consumer/gross/walmart-junior-panties-suggest-that-your-genitals-are-better-than-credit-cards-332465.php

Here's some pink panties sized for teenage girls as available at Walmart. They are printed with the words "Who needs credit cards..."

Obviously this is more than a little strange. One would think Walmart, even Walmart, would think twice about a product like this. Then again perhaps more overt prostitution of low income teenage girls is all part of the coming New World Order.

Texas is Full of Idiots, Still

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/12/oregon_sues_texas_pharmacy_ove.html

"Oregon is suing the Texas pharmacy implicated in the deaths of three people in Oregon and Washington earlier this year.

"The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court alleges that ApotheCure Inc. and company owner Gary Osborn of Dallas, Tex., illegally sold the mislabeled prescription drug colchicine. Overdoses of the drug killed at least three people."

In The News Today

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/humans-evolving.html

"Look out, future, because here we come: scientists say the speed of human evolution increased rapidly during the last 40,000 years -- and it's only going to get faster.

"The findings, published today by a team of U.S. anthropologists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, overturn the theory that modern life's relative ease has slowed or even stopped human adaptation. Selective pressures are still at work; they just happen to be different than those faced by our distant ancestors."

In theory... Next thing these "scientists" will be telling us that the earth is getting warmer, or that the sun is the center of the solar systems or that blood letting doesn't really cure scurvy. Whatever...

It's Official

Doesn't matter much though... You can lie to the American public all day, be caught in the lies, beyond all doubt, and then simply lie about the lies. It'll only get you re-elected... People are stupid. They love to be lied to. They beg to be manipulated. They hate to be bored with facts and science - things that can be proved. No, give them a shouting match, and a raft of insults, hate, and fear any day. People will put bullets in their own brains if they're told to. They will never think. They will be question. Ever. Period.

All that is required to achieve power in the U.S. is to occasionally trot out and claim to oppose abortion. Simply do this, now and then, and the public will rubber stamp anything else without the slightest question - anything else.

http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071210101633.pdf

"For the past 16 months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration. During the course of this investigation, the Committee obtained over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Commerce Department, held two investigative hearings, and deposed or interviewed key officials. Much of the information made available to the Committee has never been publicly disclosed.

"This report presents the findings of the Committee.s investigation. The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming.

"In 1998, the American Petroleum Institute developed an internal "Communications Action Plan" that stated: "Victory will be achieved when ... average citizens 'understand' uncertainties in climate science . [and] recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the 'conventional wisdom'" The Bush Administration has acted as if the oil industry's communications plan were its mission statement. White House officials and political appointees in the agencies censored congressional testimony on the causes and impacts of global warming, controlled media access to government climate scientists, and edited federal scientific reports to inject unwarranted uncertainty into discussions of climate change and to minimize the threat to the environment and the economy."

Yet Another One

What is it with these people? One after another we find right-wing kooks turn out to be just what they've built lifetime reputations for bashing and hating. Ok now I'm sure that this is a minority, and I'm sure not all Christian fanatics, racists and gay-bashers are really closet homosexuals and pedophiles... I'm sure some are simply the fear and hate filled morons that they appear to be. Still, there does seem to be a trend doesn't there?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/us/07scoutmaster.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

"A scout leader who once sued the City of Berkeley for challenging a national Boy Scout ban on members who are gay or atheist has been arrested on felony charges that for at least five years he sexually abused young males in the troops he led.

"Evans, 64, a retired high school teacher and for 35 years leader of the Berkeley Sea Scouts, was arrested at his home in nearby Kensington on Tuesday after investigators identified four youths, ages 13 to 17, who said they had been sexually abused by him."

While previously...

"Mr. Evans sued the city in his role as a leader of the Sea Scouts, an affiliate program of the Boy Scouts. The city, after providing free berthing for a Sea Scouts boat for 60 years, said in 1998 that a Boy Scout policy barring gay scouts and atheists violated Berkeley's rules against discrimination. The city said the Scouts would have to leave the berth or pay $500 a month rent.

"Mr. Evans sued for discrimination and for violating the Scouts' First Amendment rights. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Berkeley."

Label-Free

I may have to become a bigger fan...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/burn/nine-inch-nails-dumps-record-labels-going-direct-to-fans-308409.php

"Hear that? It's the RIAA quaking in their diamond-coated boots as yet another A-list band gives labels the finger: Pretty hate machine Trent Reznor announced today that "as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label." Instead of futzing through the hapless middleman of an inept label, Trent's promising "a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate"

More Links

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071206/full/news.2007.358.html

"Most people tend to learn from their mistakes and avoid making the same blunder twice. Now research reveals a genetic mutation that helps to determine the extent to which certain people are doomed to repeat history."

***

http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2414535067.html

"Sometimes, several unrelated changes come to a head at the same time, with a result no one could have predicted. The PC market is at such a tipping point right now and the result will be millions of Linux-powered PCs in users' hands."

***

http://kara.allthingsd.com/20071207/venture-summit-has-the-internet-jumped-the-shark/

Has the Internet jumped the shark? I doubt it. But it does appear as though some things has simply run their course (Windows for example). Change is in the air. By 2010 things will be starting to look different as new ideas come to the fore.

***

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/07/First-Passport-now-fraud-ex-MS-employee-charged_1.html

"In another alleged scam, she is charged with convincing a Microsoft contractor, Marksmen Inc., to send checks to her attention at Microsoft, claiming they were being used to repay a Microsoft employee, G.M. Lossman, for transferring domain names into Microsoft's control. Those checks were cashed in Gudmundson's mother's account, according to the U.S. Department of Justice."

***

http://torrentfreak.com/50cent-file-sharing-doesnt-hurt-the-artists-071208/

"What is important for the music industry to understand is that this really doesn`t hurt the artists!"
...

"The advances in technology impacts everyone, and we all must adapt. Most of all hip-hop, a style of music dependent upon a youthful audience. This market consists of individuals embracing innovations faster than the fans of classical and jazz music." -- 50 Cent

***

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0933738520071209?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"The objective is to create a platform for engagement, so the artist can engage with the fan for both collaboration and financial support," O'Connell says. "It's our intention to create a way forward that is as sustainable and exciting for the audience as it is for the creator."

***

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/opinion_newdow

"Hollywood spent a mind-boggling $180 million to bring author Philip Pullman's celebrated anti-religious novel, The Golden Compass, to the silver screen, but essentially stripped the work of its devastating attack on organized religion."

***

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/10/radiohead_wartime_misery/

"Misery will be compulsory, if top rockers Radiohead have their way. The band have thrown their weight behind a "World War 2"-style programme of austerity measures: including restrictions on behaviour, and higher taxes.

"Last week, two newspaper columnists called for a return to the kind of social coercion only ever seen before in wartime. It's all for the sake of "the environment", but as we'll see - it's a very peculiar and selective version of environmentalism."

***

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3QR3AC2WXWHIT/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm/

Of pens...

Hot Links

For today, here's a random collection of links for your time-wasting
pleasure.

http://monolithic.com/domenews/2005/rmf-pic01.html

A radio station in Poland (or a secret alien base, possibly in Poland).

***

http://www.drewheffron.com/files/gimgs/13_funnyometer.gif

hAhA.

***

http://rename42nd.org/

Don't panic, mostly harmless.

***

http://www.woot.com

It's a woot-off today, must buy stuff now.

***

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/technology/personaltech/06pogue-email.html

"These are all actual Web sites that have hit the Web in the last year or
so: Doostang. Wufoo. Bliin. Thoof. Bebo. Meebo. Meemo. Kudit. Raketu.
Etelos. Iyogi. Oyogi. Qoop. Fark. Kijiji. Zixxo. Zoogmo."

Website names have jumped the shark.

***

http://www.mylittleponylive.net/

The world's biggest tea party - and you're invited!!

Dick

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.dailykos.com%2Fdailykos%2Findex.xml

"Vice President Cheney today predicted Iraq will be a self-governing democracy by the time he leaves office, calling the current U.S. surge strategy "a remarkable success story" that will be studied for years to come....

"I am fairly confident we'll have [Iraq] in a good place, where we'll be able to look back on it and say, 'That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq,'" Cheney told us [Politico] in a 40-minute White House interview."

Stupid

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/05/scarborough-bush-nie/

"We are left with only two options here. Either the President of the United States is lying to the American people about what happened during that meeting, or the President of the United States is stupid.

...

"Earlier on the show, Scarborough and Pat Buchanan called for congressional subpoenas of Bush.s advisors, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to determine when they knew about the latest NIE report."

Personally, I am getting close to the conclusion, in all seriousness, free of political hyperbole, the George W. Bush is insane. Taken as a whole, there's getting to be very little else that can be concluded from the actions, inactions and outrageous statements of this administration over the years.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/10/20071017.html

"...if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. And I take this very -- I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously." - G. W. Bush

And just today, this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWAT00853220071205

"It is clear from the latest NIE, that the Iranian government has more to explain about its nuclear intentions and past actions." - G. W. Bush

History

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/opinion/07meacham.html?em

"Thomas Jefferson said that his bill for religious liberty in Virginia was "meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination." When George Washington was inaugurated in New York in April 1789, Gershom Seixas, the hazan of Shearith Israel, was listed among the city's clergymen (there were 14 in New York at the time), a sign of acceptance and respect. The next year, Washington wrote the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I., saying, "happily the government of the United States ... gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance. ... Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid."

"Andrew Jackson resisted bids in the 1820s to form a "Christian party in politics." Abraham Lincoln buried a proposed "Christian amendment" to the Constitution to declare the nation's fealty to Jesus. Theodore Roosevelt defended William Howard Taft, a Unitarian, from religious attacks by supporters of William Jennings Bryan."

Today, Americans are stupider than ever. There is gross misinformation about America's history of religious tolerance, and its struggle for religiously neutral government. But history shows that this is nothing new. Indeed, the most natural form of human governance is the theological dictatorship. America's great experiment is to go a different direction. But it is a unending struggle. Citizens are fighting to give up freedoms, individuality and privacy, and to create a "Christian" police state in America. And it is an ironic price of freedom that they must be allowed to continue their struggle, just as others struggle against them. Preserving freedom is not easy in a nation founded on a principle of government by the people.

How True

http://www.testearly.com/2007/08/17/fire-your-best-peoplereward-the-lazy-ones/

Idiot

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071204/pl_afp/usirannuclearbush_071204153738

"The best diplomacy, effective diplomacy, is one in which all options are on the table," Bush said in a White House news conference.

"Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

...

"A US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), released on Monday, said that Iran halted its nuclear weapons drive in 2003 and that US charges about Tehran's atomic goals have been overblown for at least two years."

MS Bad Ideas

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7126902.stm

"Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints."

These sorts of things have always proved to be bad ideas in the end. They only hurt the honest customers. ALWAYS. And yet, companies continue to do this. They never, ever, ever learn. Never.

People are stupid.

GPL News

http://mjg59.livejournal.com/78590.html

"And yes, I did attempt to contact them by email and phone before resorting to the more obnoxious behaviour of contacting the ISP. No reply to my email, and the series of friendly receptionists I got bounced between had no idea who would be responsible but promised me someone would call back. No joy there, either."

The Golden Compass

http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bk-miller2dec02,0,1352215.story?coll=la-books-headlines

"Earlier this fall, many Catholics began to receive e-mail messages warning of the "agenda" behind a "new Children's movie out in December called 'The Golden Compass.' " The film, these e-mails claimed, was intended to serve as bait for the novel on which it is based, the first in a fantasy trilogy collectively titled "His Dark Materials." Kids intrigued by the film, the e-mails went on, would be tempted to read the trilogy and might thereby fall into the ideological clutches of its author, Philip Pullman, who seeks nothing less than "to bash Christianity and promote atheism."

...

What's really astonishing, and telling, is how long it's taken America's religious fear-mongers to notice Pullman. He's never hidden his skepticism about God or his rejection of organized religion. A quick Internet search turns up a 2004 essay he wrote deploring "theocracies" for a newspaper in his native Britain, and his own Web site states that he thinks it "perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it." "His Dark Materials" features a sympathetic character, an ex-nun, who describes Christianity as "a very powerful and convincing mistake," while "The Amber Spyglass" concludes with the two child heroes participating in the dissolution of "the Authority," a senile, pretender God who has falsely passed himself off as the creator of the universe."

File under "Same Old Thing."

Back in the '80s in the US, in the early days of the politicalization of the religious right as we have come to know it, there were loads of much hyped kitty stories of Satan's in influence
in everything from movies to soft drinks to all sorts of other perfectly normal, everyday cultural traditions and trends. Media loved it. Nothing works better toward consolidating political power than fear. A lot of what went on in those days was first class LOL material.

But now it's the end of 2007. Give it a rest already.

Sony's War on Music is Nearly Over

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6efb69eb2243cb842be35f0eab40082d

"The scope of a yearlong download promotion planned between Pepsi and Amazon, Billboard has learned, is among several developments forcing further consideration by Warner Music Group (WMG) and Sony BMG Music Entertainment to follow EMI and Universal Music Group's lead in distributing music in the MP3 format.

"News of the Pepsi promotion, which is expected to be announced Feb. 3 during the Super Bowl, coincides with an ultimatum from Wal-Mart asking major labels to supply walmart.com with their music in MP3, sources say. Labels, meanwhile, say they have been watching the success of an MP3 test UMG began in August; the major continues to allow the sale of 85% of its current catalog as MP3s. Sources say UMG is on the verge of permanently embracing that digital format. But a source close to the testing insists the decision is still up in the air while the company awaits conclusive results from the trial, which are due in mid-January."

Texas

Texas once again proves itself to more appropriately part of the third world.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/29/questioning-intelligent-design-in-texas-youre-fired/

"The state's director of science curriculum has resigned after being accused of creating the appearance of bias against teaching intelligent design.

"Comer was put on 30 days paid administrative leave shortly after she forwarded an e-mail in late October announcing a presentation being given by Barbara Forrest, author of "Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse," a book that says creationist politics are behind the movement to get intelligent design theory taught in public schools. Forrest was also a key witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case concerning the introduction of intelligent design in a Pennsylvania school district. Comer sent the e-mail to several individuals and a few online communities, saying, "FYI."

Intelligent Design

Stupidity, Republicans, Politics, Fundamentalism, The Dark Ages, Religion and Intelligent Design...

This diagram works so well it's uncanny!

http://saintgasoline.com/2007/03/12/politics-stupidity-religion/

Cobert

Cobert breaks character to talk about the election...

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Colbert_Not_running_for_President_running_1101.html

Colbert also noted with obvious approval that when the Constitution was written, "the theory was that if you had three equal branches of government, they'd be too busy fighting amongst themselves to oppress the people." But then -- moving for the moment back into his right-wing pundit persona -- he added that "while checks and balances are great in theory ... the Constitution is not a suicide pact. In a time of extraordinary danger, executive power must be extraordinary."

The writer's strike seemed to really stall Cobert's campaign though.

What is wrong with people?

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/eco-friendly/birds-real-estate-wall-461127

A glass wall around a neighborhood? Only in California could people be so shockingly insensitive and destructive. People are stupid. Really, really, really stupid...

America's Mayor

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/7073.html

"As New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons, according to previously undisclosed government records."

God's on Their Side

Score yet another moral victory for the religious righteous!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071128/ap_on_re_us/papa_pilgrim;_ylt=A0WTUdJ7CU1HfPkA5ACs0NUE

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A man who called himself "Papa Pilgrim" and took his family far from civilization to raise them according to his interpretation of the Bible was sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting a daughter.

A judge imposed the sentence Tuesday after Robert Hale's wife and many of their 15 children delivered statements that included intense stories of physical and mental abuse. Judge Donald Hopwood called it "one of the worst cases of domestic violence I've seen."

Worst

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/0,39029552,49293700-10,00.htm

The top ten worst consumer technology products... MSFT Vista comes in at number ten. Way to go Microsoft, Vista is the least bad of the very, very worst!

We're Number Ten!
We're Number Ten!
We're Number Ten!
...

This would just be funny except that this is the current flagship product from the company that's done more to hinder technologic progress than, well, anyone ever... And people still won't stop using their stuff!

Look at the other junk on this list! You wouldn't see that crap on woot!

Oh wait, this just in, on this list Microsoft is number one!

http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/features/0,1000002000,39291080-1,00.htm

The top ten things holding back technology. Ten nails on ten heads, starting with the number one thing holding back technology: Microsoft Windows.

Duh

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/26/wpad_vuln_investigated/

"Microsoft bug squashers are investigating reports of a serious security vulnerability in Windows operating systems that could allow attackers to take control of vast numbers of machines, particularly those located off US shores.

"A Microsoft spokesman had only minimal details about the investigation, which was prompted by a presentation last week by researcher Beau Butler at the Kiwicon security conference in New Zealand. According to this report in the Sydney Morning Herald, the flaw affects every version of Windows including Vista and is actually the continuation of an old vulnerability that Microsoft supposedly fixed years ago."

Fortunately for Microsoft, people are stupid. They will continue to shovel money at Microsoft no matter how poor the products are (apparently).

War

Just in case there could be any doubt that AT&T is getting ready for an ad war with Google:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/19/att-acquires-ingenio-and-their-pay-per-call-network/

"We haven't heard much from Silicon Valley based Ingenio lately. In 2006 the company launched Ether, a service that allows people to charge people for calls. Since then, nada.

"But today AT&T is announcing that they've acquired the company and plan to integrate it into its directory service and local search advertising portfolio (yellowpages.com, etc.). The Pay Per Call service will allow advertisers to reach potential leads."

Math

Texas style!

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/114296

"Reviewers have found 109,263 errors in sample copies of math textbooks to be used next fall in Texas.

"One second-grade math book, for example, has 4 plus 7 equaling 10, the San Antonio Express-News reported Friday."

It's OK, it's Texas... Jesus will will do their math for them.

Shocking News!

Vista isn't selling!

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/10/18/dsg_vista_profits_down/

I just can't believe it!

And there there's this item...

http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/infrastructure/applications/news/index.cfm?newsid=6258

"Ninety percent of 961 IT professionals surveyed said they have concerns about migrating to Vista and more than half said they have no plans to deploy Vista."

Is it possible that people are finally going to wake up and begin acting in their own best interest?

Probably not. Oh well, download a real operating system instead, one designed by grown ups more interested in functionality than lock-in (or lock-out as the case may be).

http://www.ubuntu.com/

The Latest

Here's the latest in the music middle-man industry's war on, well, music. This is almost too strange to believe.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7029892.stm

"A car repair firm has been taken to court accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work."

"The PRS claimed that Kwik-Fit mechanics routinely use personal radios while working at service centres across the UK and that music, protected by copyright, could be heard by colleagues and customers.

"It is maintained that amounts to the "playing" or "performance" of the music in public and renders the firm guilty of infringing copyright."

Sue

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/03/performance_pricing_sues_google_aol_yahoo_microsoft/

A Texas company has sued AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, claiming that all four web giants have infringed its patent "for conducting business transactions over the Internet".

Performance Pricing Inc. filed suit last week in the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, a popular place for patent infringement suits. The company insists that four of the biggest names on the net are stepping on its patent with their ad technologies, including Google AdWords, Microsoft adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and the Google-powered AOL Search Marketplace.

Here is the patent:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=3X8VAAAAEBAJ&dq=6978253

1) Stupidity and Fear, 2) Something, 3) Profits!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/24/schneier_security_theatre/

"Bruce Schneier, founder and chief technical officer of BT Counterpane, said many security products offered the feeling of being secure rather than actual security. Vendors can't be trusted to give a reliable precis of a product's capabilities, he warned.

"The field of information technology security is so complex that purchasing decisions are based on feelings and hunches rather than reality, a process that suppliers play into, in what Schneier described as "security theatre". Products sold through this process often either fail to live up to their promises or address a threat that is overstated."

Always present stupidity, plus occasional fear not only creates political opportunities, but business opportunities as well. Kepp this in mind around the office. It happens at all levels in a million little ways. Unless you're one of the stupid majority, in which case, better just do as they tell you. It's less confusing that way, and you don't want to have to think now do you?

A New Record

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071106/a_iranpoll06.art.htm

"Meanwhile, Bush reached an unwelcome record. By 64%-31%, Americans disapprove of the job he is doing. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50% say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48%, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974."

George W. Bush has done a staggering level of damage. But you have to blame the people that supported him. It was obvious what a sham administration this would be right from the beginning. People are horribly, horribly stupid...

America

http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/war_and_peace/every_day_diplomacy.php

This post is well worth reading. It shows clearly what sort of country the US is, the US of George W. Bush and the right-wing Republican fear and hate machine.

People frequently look back at history wonder how societies can lapse into fascist dictatorships. How to police states happen? Why do people go along? It seems strange to "modern" thinking. But read the above post and keep these questions in mind. It shows all to well how both ordinary people and authority figures will behave when, as they say, "orders must be obeyed at all times" and "your papers are not in order."

It's easy and comfortable. The dictatorship, the police state, is a warm, comfortable and natural place to people. It's freedom that's hard. It's freedom that scares them.

Grey Networks

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/24/facetime_survey/

"We used to call them peer-to-peer applications, downloaded apps that connect direct to other users to exchange messages and/or data, but apparently the hip moniker of Instant Messaging, VoIP and filesharing applications, is "greynet" these days.

"All this grey activity is providing a great conduit for malware, and IT managers report spending an average of $289,000 on fixing greynet-transported security breaches, compared to $130,000 last year."

I've been talking about this sort of thing for years. Many companies are spending a great deal of money and effort on "rules" to stop this. But all a rule does is allow HR cover when someone needs to be fired for abuse or other irresponsible behavior. A rule won't stop someone working for another company in your building from getting on your crappy Windows network when an employee plugs in some $20 WiFi USB device so his cube-mates can listen to some music. Damn kids with their "rock and roll"...

No this too dangerous to goof around with having a rule. A rule won't make it not happen, and you need it not to happen. What to do? Easy. Install a secure office WiFi network, with internet access. Install it before someone else does.

Bushism

"I believe that the questions he.s been asked are unfair," Mr. Bush said. "He's not been read into the program - he has been asked to give opinions of a program or techniques of a program on which he's not been briefed. I will make the case - and I strongly believe this is true - that Judge Mukasey is not being treated fairly."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/washington/02bush.html?ex=1351742400&en=69efe9a6b60a8705&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Um, except that Mukasey was not asked about a classified program. He was asked about "water boarding". Given a description of water boarding, which Mukasey said he understood, is water boarding torture? Mukasey refused to answer this simple and straightforward question.

I have an opinion on whether water boarding is torture and I haven't been briefed. I wonder if Mukasey could answer a question about whether kidnapping is illegal? How about shoplifting? Need a classified briefing for that? Is driving 20 MPH over the speed limit a violation of the law? Can't say?

This is also troubling:

At his confirmation hearings last week, Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush.s nominee for attorney general, was asked whether the president is required to obey federal statutes. Judge Mukasey replied, "That would have to depend on whether what goes outside the statute nonetheless lies within the authority of the president to defend the country."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/opinion/23rubenfeld.html

"Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal." -- Richard M. Nixon, 1974

http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/nixonview.html

That's the way Bush and Cheney see the executive role in government. Sound good?

Christians

Fear, hate and Christianity... They are frequently found together. And when mixed with staggering stupidity, you get something really astonishing, like these people...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/31/funeral.protests.ap/index.html

"A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals in the belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

...

"Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

...

"Church founder Fred Phelps held a sign reading "God is your enemy," while Shirley Phelps-Roper stood on an American flag and carried a sign that read "God hates fag enablers."

"Members of the group sang "God Hates America" to the tune of "God Bless America."

Although I've taken the liberty of quoting quite a bit here, I encourage folks to read the entire article.

It's too easy to feel good about the lawsuit. Unfortunately, it does not remedy the madness that is hate and religious. The sickness of these sociopaths and what they do is enough to make one believe that there are indeed forces of true evil in the nation. But that's not the cause. It's just us here. And unfortunately, people are just too stupid for our civilization to survive.

Cost

End game... We're coming to the end of the media companies' war on digital music. Judges are now better informed also, finally. This court case, currently in progress, is getting interesting.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071002-music-industry-exec-p2p-litigation-is-a-money-pit.html

"During an occasionally testy cross examination, a Sony executive said what many observers have suspected for a long time. The RIAA's four-year-old lawsuit campaign is costing the music industry millions of dollars and is a big money-loser for the record labels. The revelation came during the first day of Capitol Records v. Jammie Thomas, the first file-sharing case to go to trial (it was formerly known as Virgin v. Thomas, but the sole Virgin Records track was stricken from the complaint, making Capitol Records the lead plaintiff)."

...

"One of the biggest bombshells from the cross-examination was Pariser's admission that the RIAA's legal campaign isn't making the labels any money, and that, furthermore, the industry has no idea of the actual damages it suffers due to file-sharing."

Re: more iPhone

Ya, whatever Mr Jobs. I'm not sure what to make of the iPhone. I'm not sure what it means. For one thing, it's really a whole new application of technology. It's taken things to a new level in a better way than others have done, so far. It's also a whole new level of cost. I think I paid $12 for the first telephone I ever bought. The service and hardware for the iPhone are an order of magnitude higher than anything that's gone before. And it selling! If anyone were to prove right about this sort of thing it would be Jobs. Yet we all know it is impossible to prevent people from using hardware, that they purchase and own, in the way they want to. So where's it heading? I'm not sure.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/att-welcomes-programmers-for-all-phones-except-the-iphone/

AT&T Welcomes Programmers for All Phones Except the iPhone

"You dont want your phone to be an open platform, meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the providers network, says Jobs. You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesnt want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.

"That sounds reasonable until you realize that there are many millions of phones that run operating systems from Palm, Microsoft and others for which third-party applications are created all the time, and networks dont seem to be crashing as a result."

Owe

Don't understand why America is in so much trouble? It's simple, Americans are really, really, really, really stupid! Just take a look at this. Go ahead, I'll wait.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/consumers-gone-wild/the-mom-with-135000-in-credit-card-debt-who-spends-400-a-month-on-starbucks-313156.php

Back? Here's a couple of things about this. First of all, this is not all that unusual. In fact, it's not even extreme! This woman has simply been written up because of her demographic. Secondly, this is illustrative of the typical manner in which people are stupid. Specificly, a complete and utter unwillingness, and inability, to comprehend reality, leading to a complete breakdown of any decision process - and even the inability to recognize that a decision is in fact to be made! This doesn't just explain massive debt. It explains everything from the Iraq war to creationism to the resistance of the lower income brackets to progressive taxation scales.

Simply put, most people are incapible of acting in their own best interest.

News Media: If Not Dead, It's Nearly So

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/25/AR2007102502488.html

FEMA created a fake news conference on the fires in southern California to avoid being asked any difficult questions. No actual reporter took part, but the staged "briefing" was distributed as actual news.

The Republican right loves top do this sort of thing, and they are surfacing with increasing frequency. The general public is far too stupid to care - they can't be bothered with something that isn't spoon feed by a mega-church paster or some other non-authority authority figure. It's got to be about fear and/or hate, and it's got to be extremely simple or they'll tune out.

No doubt this works great. There's less and less difference between Fox news, the government and the overtly political groups all the time. The Republican party should probably just go ahead and hire actors for the roles of all the key positions. Maybe they already do. I'm not sure how we'd be able to tell.

And why isn't the "real" media reporting on FEMA's fake briefing? That question is answered above.

"Real" media... Good one. I crack myself up...

Still Crazy, After All These Years

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/25/windows_update_snafu/

Something seems to have gone horribly wrong in an untold number of IT departments on Wednesday after Microsoft installed a resource-hogging search application on machines company-wide, even though administrators had configured systems not to use the program.

"The admins at my place were in a flap this morning because Windows Desktop Search 3.01 had suddenly started installing itself on desktops throughout the company," a Reg reader by the name of Rob informs us. "The trouble is that once installed, the indexer kicks in and slows the
machines down."

Who in their right mind would buy products from Microsoft. News flash people! It's CRAP!! Stop buying it! Fortunately some problems take care of themselves. More and dysfunctional companies that have crippled themselves by being in the MS-camp with both feet year after year are being left in the dust.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Windows 3.1. Anyway, meanwhile...

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2007-10-24-leopard_N.htm

Leopard, Apple's new Mac operating system, hits all the right spots

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119326655774870521-_1guKieddydNBOHhvRYV4F1ZCe4_20081024.html

Leopard: Faster, Easier Than Vista

Personally, I'm not a member of the Church of Apple and I don't own a single while box with rounded corners. But Apple is clearly firing on all cylinders. Hats off to Steve Jobs, nice work!

Bush Jokes About Staying in Power

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/bush-quip-might.html

Reporter: Mr. President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there ...

Bush: I've been planning that myself.

Harty, har har. Sure, even an important public figure is entitled to joke, but in this case it really shows that Bush is just not very bright.

New! Yet Another MS-BadIdea!

Oh ya, sure, great... Let Microsoft manage and secure your medical history. Sounds about as good as letting Windows auto-pilot passenger jets. Super! Here's the latest for all you MS True Believers from Redmond's MS-Ruin-Your-Life department.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/technology/04nd-soft.html

"The company.s consumer health offering includes a personal health record, as well as Internet search tailored for health queries, under the name Microsoft HealthVault (www.healthvault.com).

"The personal information, Microsoft said, will be stored in a secure, encrypted database. Its privacy controls, the company said, are set entirely by the individual, including what information goes in and who gets to see it. The HealthVault searches are conducted anonymously, Microsoft said, and will not be linked to any personal information in a HealthVault personal health record."

And to make matter worse, the system will transfer data automatically!

"Microsoft does not expect most individuals to type in much of their own health information into the Web-based record. Instead, the company hopes that individuals will give doctors, clinics and hospitals permission to directly send into their HealthVault record information like medicines prescribed or, say, test results showing blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

"Such data transfers, Mr. Neupert said, would then be automatic, over the Internet, which is why the partnerships are so important."

Wow! This is nearly as bad an idea as MS-Wallet! 'Cause you know, when I think computer security, I think Microsoft! Just think of the fun everyone will have breaking in to this... I say "breaking in" but probably all you'll have to do to browse other people's data is backup over the URL and enter different paths, as has been the case with similar MSFT offerings. I think MS-Bob is in charge of product development.

People Are Stupid

Have I mentioned that? That people are stupid?

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN0129688420071001?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews

"Fully 87 percent of Americans polled said they had anti-virus software, 73 percent said they had a firewall and 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software, according to the survey by security software maker McAfee Inc and the National Cyber Security Alliance.

"But when pollsters asked to remotely scan the respondents' computers, the story turned out to be very different.

"While 94 percent of those polled had anti-virus software, just half had updated it in the past month, the survey showed. Eighty one percent had a firewall protecting private information, but just 64 percent had enabled it. And 70 percent said they had anti-spyware software, but only 55 percent had enabled it."

How's your computer? Checked lately? Running Windows? Better check...

TSA Again

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20071018/1a_lede18_dom.art.htm?

"Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.

"At Chicago O'Hare International Airport, screeners missed about 60% of hidden bomb materials that were packed in everyday carry-ons . including toiletry kits, briefcases and CD players. San Francisco International Airport screeners, who work for a private company instead of the TSA, missed about 20% of the bombs, the report shows. The TSA ran about 70 tests at Los Angeles, 75 at Chicago and 145 at San Francisco."

I don't have anything against the TSA. It's just that the publicly visable portion of what they are tasked to do is impractical, and is little more than theater for the fearful put on by the right in American polictics.

Lapped

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21030098/

"Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled an upgraded fuel-cell vehicle that successfully completed a 350-mile test run Friday, proving its ability to run a longer distance than its earlier model.

"The entire trip was completed with the air conditioner on and with no need to stop for refueling," Toyota said."

But in the US we're told that increasing fuel efficiency standards will destroy the automotive industry, cost jobs and ruin the economy. When you can't build a product that people want, you go out of business. That certainly costs jobs. Competitors are spending this time developing technologies for the future, while American companies spend their resources lobbying Congress. The eventual outcome of this is obvious.

Good Enough for Nixon, Good Enough for Bush

http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/nixonview.html

FROST: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST: By definition.

NIXON: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.

FROST: So, that in other words, really you were saying in that answer, really, between the burglary and murder, again, there's no subtle way to say that there was murder of a dissenter in this country because I don't know any evidence to that effect at all. But, the point is: just the dividing line, is that in fact, the dividing line is the president's judgment?

NIXON: Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate. We also have to have in mind, that a president has to get appropriations from the Congress. We have to have in mind, for example, that as far as the CIA's covert operations are concerned, as far as the FBI's covert operations are concerned, through the years, they have been disclosed on a very, very limited basis to trusted members of Congress. I don't know whether it can be done today or not.

v7.1

http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/10/ubuntu_gutsy

"On Thursday, Canonical, the London-based company which acts as Ubuntu's commercial sponsor, released version 7.10 of the software. This latest release, dubbed "Gutsy Gibbon," proves that Ubuntu Linux can compete with and, in some cases, trump Windows as an everyday desktop system when it comes to pure usability."

Download the fix for all your Windows problems here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/

MS-Me2

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/27/microsoft_unveils_major_update_to_live_search/

"With this update, the company now claims that - on the whole - its core search engine is better than Yahoo!'s and on par with Google's.

""In 2005, when we started, we were way behind," said Satya Nadella, corporate vice president for Microsoft's search and advertising platform group. "But after this release, we feel that our slope of innovation is so good that we can claim that we're as good as Google."

"Feel free to chuckle."

Indeed. Microsoft has become nearly irrelevant, and they continue to pour resources into rolling out things that have already been done. Every time we turn around it seems, Microsoft is announcing its version of something that has already been created and, frequently, already peaked. Nice "innovation" Microsoft... They always blow it too. They are so tied to the idea of platform lock-in that they are consistently unable to create a meaningful product.

And it's a 20 year old platform at that - the dedicated desktop PC and all-compiled-in O/S that locks in everything including the kitchen sink. The design is a recipe for exactly what's happened - viruses and crashing software.

When will Microsoft stop holding back technologically progress? No time time soon apparently.

Google (symbol GOOG) shares are approaching 700. It's quarterly earnings are reported today and are expected to be outstanding.

WWIII

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/washington/17cnd-prexy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

"President Bush warned today that Iran would be raising the risk of a 'World War III' if it came to possess nuclear weapons."

...

"If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it.d be a dangerous threat to world peace," Mr. Bush said. .So I told people that if you.re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

It really is time that something be done. Something has to give. A madman is running the United States.

Consider:

* Russia and China are extremely unhappy with what Bush is up to.
* N. Korean nuclear matters are NOT settled, not matter what it looks like this week.
* America's questionable nuclear agreement with India has broken down.
* Pakistan is on the brink of a serious political crisis, and maybe a civil war.
* Turkey is about to invade Iraq.
* A sitting US President with a track record of intense secrecy and complete disregard for Congress (and the law) is talking about world war.

Have a nice day.

Markets and Public Good

http://uk.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUKNOA63183020071016

"Societies should not rely on market forces to protect the environment or provide quality health care for all citizens, a winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for economics said on Monday.

...

"The market doesn't work very well when it comes to public goods," said Maskin, a slight, soft-spoken 57-year-old who lives in a house once occupied by Albert Einstein."

Market forces (ideally) seek local maxima of return vs costs. Returns and costs, in theory, can be quantified as units of, well, nearly anything from money to effort, to comfort to pain.

Unfortunately, there are many examples where market forces can not lead to the best outcome for the greatest number since the best outcome for the greatest number would require a scenario or action that the market would never take for reasons of its own definition.

Some of these things are obvious. For example, a national armed force, to be affective, must be a public resource operated by a government. Market forces alone have a very checkered record when it comes to creating agents of private violence. Market forces would never create a national army capable of activities that benefit the nation as a whole.

Another consideration is that governments do something well that market forces do not, and in fact that market players actually have an incentive not to do - standardize. Witness VHS vs Beta and Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD... Compare this this systems that have been developed in an environment where the playing field has been defined by a player not directly involved in the market setting a standard; the phone system, railroads, interstate highways, and the internet.

The USPS delivers mail throughout the US (and overseas military bases) for a set of flat rates. No privatized delivery service would ever do this. As a nation, as a group, we place a value on having one price to deliver a letter anyplace in the US in a more or less consistent time frame. Yet, those are exactly the variables that a market-based service would adjust in defining a business plan. Clearly the point of market efficiency (best service for the most people for the lowest price) would fall on a curve of price, speed, geographic location and other factors. That curve assures a variable experience and/or price among possible individual customers.
Not value of a uniform price and service, which is a collective value, has no value in such a cost-benefit analysis.

To adjust for this, an outside force must adjust the playing field to create a value in a configuration that would normally not be part of the equation, such as a requirement of uniform price, or a standardized address system. Then market forces work much better for everyone.

And besides, one of those guys lives in Albert Einstein's old house.

The Futures

http://finance.yahoo.com/charts#chart2:symbol=^tnx;range=1y;compare=^gspc;charttype=line;crosshair=on;logscale=on;source=undefined

Is cash that good?

I guess if you're terrified... Take oil for example, which is a physical thing. It's price should be a factor of supply and demand. Our problem is that futures have overshadowed supply and demand as the lead factor in the price. The rising price has nothing to do with the markets of actual oil. It's all futures! I seems to me that all our markets have become meta-tized one level out, at least one. Even markets that where already based on speculation, like currency markets, are now driven by speculation about future speculation. Everything you buy is really a future now.

Smoke

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,506730,00.html

"Health education campaigns costing millions of euros have nonetheless led to a decline in heart attacks over the last few years, at an annual rate of about 3 percent. But now it seems a miracle has happened: The number of heart attacks in Scotland has suddenly dropped by no less than 17 percent in a single year.

"What has happened? Have the Scots stopped eating red meat? Has the whole country started knocking back cholesterol medication? Are they all training for the marathon?

"No. The reason is much simpler: Scots are having fewer heart attacks because they are no longer inhaling other people's cigarette smoke when they sit in the pub, the train or the office."

Texas is Full of Idiots

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5210459.html

"The law mandates that schools turn public events, such as morning announcements and football games, into so-called .limited public forums.. Student speakers are then permitted to use those events to promote their own religious beliefs or even attempt to convert their fellow students."

...

"The principle at stake is not hard to understand. One member of Houston's legislative delegation has already demonstrated it.

"During the last legislative session, Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston walked off the Senate floor when a Muslim imam opened the day with a prayer. A Christian, Patrick claimed his presence would have implied an endorsement of religious beliefs he does not share."

Credit Squeeze

"The recent collapse of Ginko Financial, a "virtual investment bank" in Second Life, has spurred calls for more oversight, transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to business practices in the metaverse.

"Last week, Ginko Financial -- an unregulated bank that promised investors astronomical returns (in excess of 40 percent) and was run by a faceless owner whose identity is still a mystery -- announced it would no longer exist as a financial entity.

"The declared insolvency meant the bank would be unable to repay approximately 200,000,000 Lindens (U.S. $750,000) to Second Life residents who had invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence."

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2007/08/virtual_bank

Obviously we need to be desperately worried about spillover of this lending crisis into the broader economy. The NYSE will nose dive on this news. Sell! Sell! Sell! We need a government bail out to make everyone whole and avoid a global credit squeeze. The Fed need an immediate, emergency rate cut to shore up the nervous markets. What are the positions of the presidential candidates on this institutional default? Where's the White House? WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!?

Literally

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/24/literal_truth/

A teacher at a US community college in Red Oak, Iowa says he was fired after telling his students not to interpret the story of Adam and Eve as a literal account of events circa BC 4000.

...

According to the Des Moines Register, Bitterman said: "I'm just a little bit shocked myself that a college in good standing would back up students who insist that people who have been through college and have a master's degree, a couple actually, have to teach that there were such things as talking snakes or lose their job."

Don't forget the unicorns.

MS-Lawsuit, Unfood, Jenna Bush and Privitization

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071011205044141

If you can't compete, and you can't inovate, and customers don't want your product - sue!

"So in July one Microsoft executive arrives; then as of October 1, there is the second, a patent guy. October 9, IP Innovation, a subsidiary, sues Red Hat. And Novell. So much for being Microsoft's little buddy.

"I think SCO II has arrived. Except it won't be just one. It will be one after another, just like Ballmer predicted. Until Linux gives up the ghost. In their dreams. Here's how to fix it: fix the patent regime, as Ballmer calls it. Otherwise, it will destroy all innovation and you'll be stuck in Vista. Eek. Plus at this rate, I'll never get a vacation."

***

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=2439

"This cheese is a delicacy in Sardinia, where it is illegal. That's right. It is illegal in the only place where people actually want to eat it. If this does not communicate a very clear message, perhaps the larvae will, as they leap desperately toward your face in an effort to escape the putrescent horror of the only home they have ever known. Even the cheese itself is ashamed; when prodded, it weeps an odorous liquid called lagrima, Sardinian for "tears.""

We all try to by open minded, especially when it comes to cultural issues, but it seems that the may be things that simply should never be eaten by humans.

***

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/11/jenna-bush-its-not-eve_n_68043.html

Q: If the war in Iraq is so noble, why aren't you and your sister serving our country there?

Jenna Bush: I understand that point, but there are many ways to serve our country, and I think my skills are better suited for teaching and representing the U.S. in Latin America through unicef. I respect the men and women of our country who are over there fighting. It is an unbelievably selfless thing to do. But if people really thought about it, they would know it's not even a practical question.

***

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek/

"The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV."

In pre-Bush times America used soldiers to fight wars. Now it's all farmed out, off the books and off the record. This story isn't from any sort of remotely radical information source. It's from MSNBC. Why aren't people outraged? Well, for one they're too stupid.