November 2003 Archives
We bring you this brief reprise in order to warn you that you need to either delete of chmod -x mt-send-entry.cgi. It can be used as a sort of open relay for spam. Thanks for the b-link Mark.
Cool stuff in this weeks EFFector. If you don't subscribe, you really should.
- Los Alamos Pulls Plug on E-Voting Purchase: The community that brought us the atom bomb is scared of e-voting machines. Anyone else nervous?
- Too Quick to Copyright (PDF): Legal Times article pointing out the hypocrisy of corporations accusing file sharers of a lack of respect for copyright law when they themselves routinely flout it - by laying claim to material that is free for everyone to use
- Australian Court Gives Students Jail Time for Violating Music Copyrights : Two students were sentenced to 18 months in prison for copyright violations - but because of their youth and the fact they never profited from the infringement, the sentences have been suspended
- Rep. Kucinich Speaks Out on E-Voting: He blasts Diebold's copyright claims, calls for increased e-voting security and supports the Holt bill. Kucinich should start a voting machine company if he doesn't become the next president
- Sharing Music the Old Fashioned Way: Some Apple iPod owners are stopping each other on the street, wordlessly exchanging headphone jacks, and then proceeding on to their destinations
- Sad Day for Music Lovers: MP3.com to Destroy Library: MP3.com, digital music pioneer, will delete from its servers hundreds of thousands of songs and destroy the original tapes, CD-ROMs, and other media
- Gold Records, Glass Houses: A survey of Australian music professionals reveals that 45% download music from the Internet - and half never pay for it
- Three Republicans Sign E-Voting Bill: The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act has 74 co-sponsors, but it didn't have any Republican support until now. We hope the dam is breaking
- U.S. Fails in Hemisphere-Wide Push for Restrictive IP Policy: And instead chooses to pick off Central and South American countries one-by-one, using smaller, nastier treaties (NYT; registration unfortunately required.)
They also have some cool new banner/web sticker images ( and even gasp flash ones too) you can litter your pages with.
WB most likely decided that since a lot of people had ordered the Euro version that had been available for over a year, that they would need to add something to get those hard core folks to fork over even more hard earned cash for something they already had. Or maybe they just wanted to reward those that were patient. Or...whatever. There is a disc full of extras.
Most of it is a self-congratulatory Sorkin worship. Which is funny, you see, because he's gone now. Ha ha on us! The best stuff is what you might call "bloopers" even though nobody takes a shot to the groin. Although, with all the talk of running into cameras and walls, I'm sure there is a groin-shot on a reel somewhere that the head of Dick Clark will introduce on America's Funniest Bloopers in the year 2146.
Of course, in all the Sorkin gushing, we see why the current season is so lacking. Even though it's been pointed out, in excruciating detail, by others.
So the big talk in the world of web wonks in the very nice re-tooling of slashdot with non-ghetto HTML and CSS. Now the problem, and it's not a new problem by the way, is that people are calling on slashdot to reform their nested table, font tag ways.
The response since the day slashcode was launched was "sign up and start patching code." It's even in the FAQ. That's right, in typical open source fashion, the feature request was placed right back on the plate of the requester. This isn't a bad thing per se, but it's not really what most people want to hear.
Also, asking a site that hasn't even bothered to change it's look and feel for, what is it...7 years now, to go through a major presentation revamp seems a bit daft. For all the work that went into the fabulous retooling, the only did the main page. To really sell them it might have helped to do a page with 500+ comments. A separate version for each style of comment display as well. Those are the really ugly pages. The miles of nested tables with background colors. Those are the pages that will stress tables-less layouts to and past the breaking point.
But like Rob said, the code is there. Patch it yourself.
Update: As of Sun Nov 23 07:36:52 PST 2003 'wwwonk' was a googlewhack.
Secretary of State Shelley Announces Electronic Voting Machine Requirement
"Secretary of State Shelley has taken a courageous and important step in response to the growing public concern about the security of voting machines," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Paper audit trails are currently the best way to prevent anyone from bungling or stealing our elections."
This is great news. Never assume that "technology" will solve more problems than it creates unless you really pay attention to the technology. While that may sound like "common sense," you and I both know that there really isn't such a beast.
I've never really had too many original ideas when it comes to the structure of this weblog. I've always relied, and borrowed, heavily from others. Some might say I don't have to many original posts either. Luckily I'm not alone in either category.
Anyways, I've trimmed down the number of posts on the front page to 5 full, and 5 more with excerpts. Now I have to stay on top writing excerpts. I also nuked a bunch of crud from the side. I'll probably need to make a single page where I can collect crud. And when I say "crud" I don't mean that it sucked, just that I was tired of it lying around on the page. Also, the introduction of a "quick link" blog will happen RealSoonNow®.
Bush Says Turkey New Front in 'War on Terror'
President Bush said on Friday Turkey had become a battleground in the "war on terror" as police made their first arrests in deadly truck bomb attacks on British targets in Istanbul.
Heads up Istanbul...Constantinople you're in the clear. For now...
Amazon has more, but these are the two I ordered.
They could use your help to run ads that counter GOP ads that claim "some are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists."
Umm. Yeah. That's what I'm doing everytime I say Bush is "wrong." Just as I would be wrong to question a doctor that would cure a patient with clogged arteries by removing his appendix.
A friend has some Dell servers that aren't feeling well. I took a peek and I think I found the problem...
The "More Gratitude Please" post at Eschaton had a comment post about replacing Instapundit with a robot, which linked to the craziest thing I've seen all day, the Warbot.
"I have a few questions I'd like to ask about this," says Susan Sarandon. If she hates America so much, maybe she should move to Basra. Just what was Valerie Plame trying to say yesterday? "What kind of a skeeza is Condoleeza?" she said. I suppose she'd rather invite Saddam Hussein over and hold a sensitivity training session.
Isn't Ann Coulter a more fitting recipient for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Wow. That's impressive stuff. The people who wrote the bot even claim an "unofficial" pass of the Turing Test. But on a satire site...grain of salt...nuff said.
Talking Points Memo: "Something pretty big is coming down the pike tomorrow apparently. The world of Astroturf organizing may be shaken all the way down to its phony-baloney roots."
This could be interesting.
As a Pixar shareholder I'm very pleased to see that Finding Nemo is the #1 selling DVD of all time. After just 14 days on the shelves no less.
Hot off the e-mail presses.
- Pardon Me, Sir - You Left Your Ethics in the Limo
Free concert tickets, pool parties and lobster bakes - election officials are reportedly getting star treatment from the e-voting machine companies competing for your tax dollars - La Regle du Jeu
A fellow Sims player has publicly insulted you. Can you sue for defamation? So asks "The State of Play," a conference exploring the gap between real law and virtual reality - Patent Busters Bankrolled
Innovation, competition and even human health suffer when patents are granted indiscriminately. Enter the newly flush Public Patent Foundation - Hollywood Cracks Knuckles, Glowers at Public
LA Times article in which film industry representatives discuss plans to bring lawsuits against individual file sharers - including contemplating "the size of the coffin" - It's Ten O'Clock. Do You Know Where Your Privacy Is?
To save money, major credit agencies are outsourcing the handling of your Social Security number and credit history to firms overseas - where U.S. privacy laws cannot be enforced - Sony to Offer Use-Limited CDs with Extras
Rule of Marketing #783: Distract the buyer from the inferior product by padding it with filler - ART Aims at Movie Pirates, Misses
A new bill targeting pre-release movie piracy focuses on P2P file sharers, not the major source of Hollywood movies onto the Internet - the leaks from inside the studios themselves - Michael Moore Speaks Out on E-Voting
The normally soft-spoken, timid documentary filmmaker shocked British audiences by openly questioning the wisdom of e-voting machines sold by partisan fund raisers - Rock the Vote - No, Really
The rock band Railer is touring North America - and stumping for a bill that would require e-voting machines to have voter verifiable paper receipts - Toronto Airport Pi**ed Over Urinal Photo Site
An odd public urinal photo website is threatened by odd legal claims from the Greater Toronto Airport Authority - MyTunes Turns iTunes into P2P Application
Like iCommune, this Windows app adds a feature to iTunes bound to make Mr. Jobs very unhappy - Caught in the (Digital Millennium Copyright) Act
The Washington Post on the unintended consequences of the DMCA - Don't Look Now, But the Dean Is Watching
Under pressure by the feds and the record labels, campus administrators are spying on students now more than ever (Ad view nonsense required.)
Of course, if you know Cory Doctorow and read his stuff, you already follow boingboing. If you follow boingboing you already know that he has an article in this weeks NYT Magazine.
So, there it is.
I have obtained a leaked copy of a letter sent from the US Supreme Court to, now former, Alabama chief justice Roy S. Moore.
Dude, you are sooooo fired. Sorry we couldn't help.
Love, SCOTUS
You know they would have loved to help old Roy out, but with no real legal standing they declined to hear it. I know, I know...it's not like it didn't stop them before. But I think old Roy didn't have enough pull to get his wish granted.
I admit it. The headline "ITunes Undermines Social Security" grabbed me. I mean, what tactic hasn't the RIAA tried? But iTunes is a RIAA approved service. Once I got into reading the actual article the utter lameness became obvious.
The ability to examine the music collections of co-workers, neighbors or fellow students is akin to peering into their souls: Someone who appears cool and interesting from the outside is revealed as a cultural nincompoop through the poor sap's terrible taste in music.
This is a joke, right? The idea that college students will judge you based on your playlists seems rather daft to me. I never lived in the dorms, but in my rare visits there were hardly ever any closed doors and everybody had their CD collection on their shelf, out in plain view. Sure, this is putting a catalog of your collection up on the net, but neither is iTunes sharing. The sharing is limited to people on your subnet, which is probably pretty small.
Anyway, back to the music thing. Everybody has at least one CD that they aren't exactly proud of having, but are never able to get rid of. It's always up on the shelf with all the "hey I'm cool" CDs.
Of course I'm old now, and maybe I just don't understand "kids these days." Or maybe I was just as shallow then and have suppressed those memories.
Who knows...
[The following is from Ben Kite.]
Here are some reasons why "The Matrix" was good and "The Matrix Reloaded" was not-as-good (or, if you will, candy crap):
I started signing most1 of my e-mail. Why? Nobody else will bother to check the signature. I don't send anything "important" via e-mail. What is the point?
I guess it's become a matter of principle. I am who I say I am, and I can get fairly close to proving it. If you want to check, you can verify who I say I am. All that and it's become really easy.
Why not sign your e-mail?
1 Most usually being to people who won't freak out when they see the GPG signature in the e-mail.
So I'm watching Temple of Doom from the Indiana Jones DVD box set and I swear that I see Dan Aykroyd. Naw, I'm seeing things. Better check with IMDb.
Yup. It's him. Heh.
I honestly didn't mean to imply anything bad about John Edwards when I sent the photo off to Warren Ellis. I just thought that the resemblance was uncanny... I know the picture wasn't produced by the Edwards campaign and it's not a bad picture. I was just sayin' is all...
"Sure Apple's iPod is really nice, but too much good has been said about it, so I present to you the five most obvious things that are wrong with it even though some don't really count, but I had to have a list of five..."
This is one of those articles that people like to write about popular things to stir up excitement about an article. I'm sure the poor dude will get lots of e-mail from hardcore Apple Bigots™, who like to make sure that never is a discouraging word about Apple typed without being thoroughly punished.
I understand that Buskirk is just doing his job. With the exception of one "reason," everything he writes is 100% true. But I'm sure you want to hear my take on it anyway.
<Nelson>Ha ha!</Nelson>
It's too easy these days. Even jwz is in on the fun.
I'm just happy that Bragg is on tour here in the US again!
"You could argue that the goal of this tour is to discover why a majority of the American people believe that Saddam Hussein was in some way responsible for 9/11," Bragg told IPS.
I ♥ Billy Bragg.
Here we go:
Q Has the White House taken any move to restrict or put some information on its website out of reach of search engines like Google? And can you tell us whether the White House has -- makes any effort to go in and change documents that are already out there, for instance, press releases, statements on Iraq?
MR. McCLELLAN: I heard some of those reports, and I was somewhat puzzled by them. Every page on our website is searchable. All information regarding Iraq is searchable. We would encourage people to come to visit our website and look for that information. We want the website to continue to be fully accessible and open to all people who wish to visit it.
Ah, the thin line of truth. Searchable, as long as you use their search engine. Their robots.txt file tells google, and all other nice spiders/bots, to not index certain directories. In that file are 745 instances of "Iraq" or "iraq" and 18 instances of "911." There might be a good reason for these entries. Although, I would love to hear the explanation from the webmaster.
Q The stories on the -- that are making their way around the Internet are that there are some new protocols in place which makes it hard to get to reach some of the Iraq and September 11th information if you go through a search engine, not if you come straight in through the White House website. The implication, they say, is that you are making some material captive only to your own restrictions and you can go in and change, for instance, the word "major combat" on the headlines of the President's speech from March 1st -- I mean, May 1st.
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know who the individuals are that are making some of these allegations, but all subjects available -- are available on the White House website, including on Iraq. And they're completely accessible to all Internet users. And that's the way we want it to be. All this information is searchable, it's all available there on our website. And that's what it will -- it will continue to be.
True? Yes. The site does not block access to these pages to people, just automated robots trying to archive information. The spirit of accessibility though is broken.
Q It's not your policy to go back in and change the --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, do you have a specific instance you want me to look into to? I will be glad to. But that's the bottom line on our website; it's all there, it's all searchable, and please come visit it. It's WhiteHouse.gov.
Yes, actually we do have a specific instance we would like you to look at.
Sometimes, democracy sucks.
Wow. As with the others, I will have to see it again to fully appreciate the scope of the movie. But, wow. A satisfying conclusion -- to a very cool interpretation -- of an old story.
"It is done."
Update:
Wow, it's getting totally panned at Rotten Tomatoes and it's only pulling in a B+ at Yahoo! Movies.
Update 2:
Forbes piles on. Slate piles on. I stand by my review. I can't wait to see it again. With so many negative reviews, I almost expected Salon to like it...but hey, they don't like anything.
Update 3:
Yeah, Doug hated it. A lot.
"To put it in agonizingly inane MATRIX-speak, it sucks because it sucks."
Damn.
"The FCC today has taken a step that will shape the future of television," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "Sadly, this represents a step in the wrong direction, a step that will undermine innovation, fair use, and competition."
The struggle of "Death" v. "Life" in Florida has some interesting facts behind the scenes. The most glaring one is that the father, who is now the 700 Club poster-boy of the week, killed pulled the plug on his own mother. Hat tip to Atrios.
My brain hurts from trying to sort out all of the rationalization, twisting of logic and abuse of faith that is going on here. But I'm sure it can be summed up into "do as we say, not as we do."
Even if you detest Flash and hate all the stupid little movies people create with it, you should check out The End of the World. It's a hoot...
Oh, and if the link ever dies I have a secret mirror that I'm kinda not telling you about just yet.
Compare and contrast time:
Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford Law Clinic Sue Electronic Voting Company
Kick ass! Anything that brings attention to this sham is welcome.
"Diebold's blanket cease-and-desist notices are a blatant abuse of copyright law," said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. "Publication of the Diebold documents is clear fair use because of their importance to the public debate over the accuracy of electronic voting machines."
Man, you do not want to be on the wrong side of Wendy Seltzer. Especially if you took the last cup of coffee from the pot... Note to Diebold, be smart and surrender now.
More: NPR -- Activist Group to Sue E-Voting Firm
Straight from the EFFector to me to you:
- The MATRIX: Total Information Awareness Reloaded
The ACLU takes aim at a TIA-like, state-level surveillance program called "MATRIX." Yes, that's really what it's called. No, we don't know what they were thinking. - Patently Ridiculous
The FTC wants better patent law before the USPTO grants protection for the process of using "letters" to spell "words". - Movie Studios Say DVDs Are Easier to Copy than Tapes. Huh?
Hollywood's compromise over pre-Academy Awards "screeners"? It will use VHS tapes instead of "easily copied DVDs". - Gray Hats Ride the Brazilian Frontier
How do you spell "0wnz0r3d" in Portuguese?. - Salon on the Broadcast Flag
Farhad Manjoo provides an accessible overview of the broadcast flag controversy. - Online Music Business, Neither Quick Nor Sure
NYT piece capturing the compromise and deflation that characterize today's music-downloading landscape. - No Wonder My Brain Hurts
UC Berkeley reports that humans created 5 "exabytes" of information in 2002. - Brilliant Copyright Hack
Copyright law means that college kids can't have on-demand digital music. Or does it? At MIT, the Library Access to Music Project (LAMP) takes advantage of existing music licenses to offer an innovative lawsuit-free service. - Or Maybe Not
Recording industry representatives now claim that Loudeye, the company that provided music to LAMP, didn't have the right to do so. - Diebold Deja Vu
Software code used in Sequoia Voting Systems has been leaked on the Internet, raising concern that the systems have been compromised by criminal intruders. - Verifiable Voting in Maryland
A grassroots effort aims to get paper audit trails for Maryland elections. - DMCA v. Democratic Speech
Ed Foster on the frightening ease with which copyright law can be used to silence legitimate speech. - SunnComm v. Halderman Recap
USA Today puts a human face on the CD copy-protection "shift key" story from a few weeks back.
