Or, rather, the Army — which is preparing to call up retired and discharged troops for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yearly Archives: 2004
In Which Engadget Helps You Out
In a delightful feature, Engadget’s Phillip Torrone walks us through something we geeks have known for a long time: Windows defaults to allowing any inserted CD to run whatever it wants when inserted. This is an enormous security hole, and in fact will be disabled in the next version/patch of XP. This article will allow you to get ahead of the game and disable the behavior — called “autorun” — for yourself. Everyone using a Windows computer should do this.
That disabling autorun also disables most kinds of CD copy protection is not a coincidence; for those DRM tools to work, they have to install software on your computer that explicitly prevents you from, say, copying the CD to your hard drive to listen to at work. Such software is always installed on the sly, of course, because few of us would allow the installation if they were honest with us. Because such DRM programs are unwelcome payloads installing and executing without our permission, they fall into exactly the same category as all sorts of other spy programs and malware, and consequently are blocked by precisely the same security measure. Remember, it’s your computer, and your CD.
(“But wait!” you must be thinking. “Aren’t the DRM folks and record labels smarter than this? Surely, Mr Heathen, they’re not this stupid.” I’m afraid they are, gentle reader; in fact, the author of one DRM system — the one used on the aforementioned Velvet Revolver disc — were going to sue a Princeton student for $10 million when he wrote a paper noting that pressing the shift key at the right time (which temporarily disables autorun) bypassed their system.
Politics vs. Science Yet Again
According to the LA Times (registration required; see below):
The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency. A top official from the Health and Human Services Department in April asked the WHO to begin routing requests for participation in its meetings to the department’s secretary for review, rather than directly invite individual scientists, as has long been the case.
So far, WHO has refused to play along, saying it could compromise scientific independence. One scientist, Dr. D. A. Henderson, said he could not recall ever needing to go through such a step in 11 years working for WHO, except in the cases of some “small, Eastern European countries.” For their part, the Administration says the WHO’s longstanding policy has “not always resulted in the most appropriate selections;” presumably, we should trust politicians for that selection over the scientific community.
As for registration, use BugMeNot.com, which will give you a username of “registrationsuxxx” and a password of “regsux” for the LA Times. They’ve got logins for everywhere. The Heathen love BugMeNot.
What happens when actual journalists interview Bush
Irish RTE correspondent Carole Coleman submitted her questions three days in advance, and then got this interview. Bush faired predictably poorly, as you can see (8mb Real file).
The White House responded to this interview by lodging a complaint with the Irish embassy over Coleman’s “rudeness,” which in this case means “actually being a reporter who tries to get actual answers instead of the pablum US officials are used to providing.” RTE (Coleman’s employer) stands by their reporter.
At one point, we had real journalists who asked hard questions of officials in our country. Apparently, they’ve all moved to Ireland.
(More commentary at Madison’s Capital Times as well as at lies.com.)
We suppose this was in some way inevitable
Heathen endorses neither Klown Erotica nor Stop Clown Porn Now!, instead preferring to sit on the sidelines and let them duke it out. Join us. Have a beer. It should be interesting.
Don’t worry, Dubya, Jeb’s on the case
Florida, which purged many eligable voters from its rolls in 2000’s overzealous felon-zapping process, is doing it again, and refusing to let anyone see or verify the list first.
Yeah, nothing to worry about there, I’m sure. Christ.
Orrin Hatch wants to make iPods illegal
No, really. The INDUCE act is pretty broad in language, and I think we’ve learned at this point to NEVER believe bill authors who say “but we’ll only use this in special context XYZ, so you don’t have to worry! Of course, there’s no need to codify that in the bill! Trust us!”
There’s more coverage of Congress’ coddling of the RIAA/MPAA cabal at Wired. Not all these proposed laws are scary, but many are way out there. The PIRATE act will open the door for the Justice Department to file copyright infringement lawsuits, theoretically freeing the RIAA from the time and expense of suing all those 12-year-olds and grandmothers. Pay attention!
Update: there’s also an obsessively annotated version of the INDUCE act online, natch.
Pay attention. The computer you save could be your own.
There is now an Internet Explorer based virus that is so dangerous and virulent that the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), a division (since 9/11) of the Department of Homeland Security, is formally suggesting that “Explorer users consider other browsers that are not affected by the attack, such as Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and Opera.”
You can easily download Mozilla, or its browser-only sibling, Firefox, from Mozilla.org. Do so. They’re free.
Because they’re, you know, all about Family Values and shit
Two items:
- Illinois pretty boy and GOP senatorial candiate Jack “Not the Tom Clancy One” Ryan has had a bad week, as a media lawsuit to open his divorce record released statements from his ex-wife, Jeri “7 of 9” Ryan, complaining that he’d taken her to sex clubs in New York, New Orleans, and Paris and pressured her to “perform” with him in front of other people. We’re all about getting our freak on here at Heathen, but we’re also pretty sure the platform Ryan supports doesn’t include doing so in sex clubs. The only way this story would be better would be if he’d pulled these stunts at Trekkie conventions.
- Watch for Cheney’s poeple to spin this one like mad, but yesterday on the Senate floor our esteemed Veep suggested to Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont that he should “fuck himself” after Leahy took Cheney to task for war profiteering through Halliburton and for calling Leahy a “bad Catholic” for maintaining a pro-Choice position. Classy move, Dick, and yet another example of the fine Family Values exemplified by the GOP.
The sheer quantity of available wisecracks here has paralyzed us
Former Van Halen frontman and (let’s face it) frequent butt of jokes David Lee Roth has been training as a New York City Emergency Medical Technician, even temporarily relocating from his Pasadena estate to a New York apartment for the duration.
This is probably funnier if you speak German
But it’s pretty funny even if you don’t.
It seems to us that these categories aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but mileage varies
Q: When is sovereignty not sovereign?
A: When what you can and can’t do is explicitly controlled by another power.
Surely Jupiter can do better than this
We covered Cory Doctorow’s DRM talk here last week. It’s clear, well-reasoned, and covers a lot of ground. It’s also structured in such a way that both experts and neophytes can follow his analysis.
That industry people with stakes in DRM disagree with Cory is hardly surprising. What is surprising is the amazingly half-assed way in which Jupiter Research’s Michael Gartenberg did so. Without saying how Cory is wrong about DRM’s fundamental conceptual problems, he insists that nevertheless Cory IS wrong, and that he’ll be happy to explain why to paying customers (he also positions his pseudo-argument in a “what customers will put up with” way, which says an awful lot).
Er, right, Michael. Of course, given that way the music industry seems content to buy snake oil, maybe this is all the sales pitch they need.
Merits? Who gives a rat’s ass about merits?
The GOP is seeking to quash Chris Bell’s ethics complaints against Tom DeLay on a technicality rather than, say, judging them on their merits. DeLay is under criminal investigation in Austin as well; I wonder if they can quash that, too?
In which we point you at Whiskey Bar
Billmon covers the Hayes-touted AQ/Saddam “connection” very, very well. If it sounds like bullshit, well, that’s because it probably is.
We now praise other blogs
Today, The Minor Fall, The Major Lift hits one out of the park. Wow. Wow. Wow.
More Stuff Erin Will Dig
How ’bout some neat clocks?
This, however, is
A coalition of tech heavyweights — including Intel, Sun, Verizon, SBC, BellSouth, and others — are supporting a proposal by Virgina Representative Rick Boucher to substantially defang the anti-circumvention provisions of the much-maligned, anti-Fair-Use Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The DMCA is the law that makes it illegal to bypass copy protection for any reason, even if the goal is something traditionally protected by the doctrine of Fair Use, such as copying a CD for use on your computer (or, in an earlier era, dubbing CDs to tape for use in the car). The anti-circumvention provisions are the sort of thing that give Jack Valenti wood, but they’re terrible for consumers — and for innovation.
CNET’s coverage is well worth reading.
This is in no way encouraging
Well, with McCain out, he’s clearly the logical choice
Scan through this content-free article to the end, and you’ll find a gem:
While in Colorado, Kerry made a quick stop in Aspen for a $500,000 fund-raiser at the home of Michael Goldberg, president of Miami-based airline leasing company Aerolease International. Kerry invited Aspen resident and writer Hunter S. Thompson to ride in his motorcade and brought three copies of Thompson’s book about the 1972 presidential race, “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail” for autographs. “Just to put your minds all at ease, I have four words for you that I know will relieve you greatly,” Kerry told the fund-raiser. “How does this sound — Vice President Hunter Thompson.”
Via jwz.
We just want to see the Indian J. Jonah Jameson
This is the sort of thing we can’t believe didn’t happen already. Marvel and Gotham Comics are launching an “Indian-ized” Spiderman for the subcontinent. He looks pretty cool.
Dick Cheney is a Big, Fat, Shameless Liar
And our press corps SUCKS. Administration officials are lying with confidence that they won’t be called on it. See the discussion at Daily Howler (about halfway down to the BORGER’S RETREAT headline) or at Fair.org of his appearance on MSNBC with Gloria Borger. To summarize, here’s a bit:
Borger: Well, let’s get to Mohamed Atta for a minute because you mentioned him as well. You have said in the past that it was, quote, “pretty well confirmed.” Cheney: No, I never said that. Borger: OK. Cheney: I never said that. Borger: I think that is . . . Cheney: Absolutely not. (…)
Of course, there’s also this from his appearance on Meet the Press on 12/9/2001:
What we now have s developed since you and I last talked, Tim [Russert], of course, was that report that — it’s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack.
And we impeach people for lying about blow jobs? Christ.
As a matter of fact, we DO live in a “papers please” society
The case of Dudley Hiibel, discussed here back in February, has been decided by the SCOTUS.
The justices ruled 5-4 (interestingly, precisely the same 5-4 that gave us GWB) that citizens must identify themselves to law enforcement. So much for that “right to remain silent” stuff, I reckon.
More on Velvet Revolver
Professor Felton has a few bits to say on the subject over at Freedom to Tinker.
Also, I’ll note that there is actually a way to get the tracks onto an iPod: buy the album in compressed, digital format from the iTunes Music Store. However, this gives you what is obviously an inferior copy, and the issues associated with Apple’s DRM are the same fundamental problems any such system faces.
In other news, it appears that the Beastie Boys have fallen into the same trap, making their new record another one I’d buy but for the DRM, particularly given reports that the disc installs software without asking upon being loaded in the owner’s computer (and this time, it’s true of both Windows and Macs).
“Etics. It’s what separates us from the animals, the beasts of burden, beasts of prey.”
Remember that “GOP aide steals Democratic memos” problem a while back that finally resulted in someone being forced to resign?
The guy who resigned — Manuel Miranda — has been named the president of the new Ethics in Nominations Project, the group whose job it will be to prevent such unethical behavior in the future.
I think Mike’s reaction is about right.
In which we find ourselves in an ethical quandry
BMG has released the eagerly anticipated — at least by me — Velvet Revolver CD with some goofball DRM on it which purports to prevent ripping to MP3. Instead, the CD has a CD-ROM area on it with some Windows Media format files on it, for use on computers and some portable devices.
Leaving behind for a moment how wholly wrongheaded DRM schemes are — see the other post, on Cory Doctorow’s speach, for more on this — the Windows files are useless to me and to anyone else who uses the most popular digital audio player, Apple’s iPod, which doesn’t play Microsoft’s format (big surprise).
The other point is even weirder: the DRM scheme in question (Sunncomm’s) is hopelessly broken. Much was made of it a few months back, especially when it surfaced that you could circumvent their “copy protection” by holding down the shift key at the right moment. Of course, doing so for any reason is technically illegal under the DMCA, even if your goal — say, putting the Velvet Revolver tracks on your iPod — is completely within the realm of fair use. (That’s what DRM is really about: limiting your choices as a consumer. No DRM yet exists, or can exist, that will stop truly motivated pirates — by this, I mean folks who seek to make money from the counterfeited goods; remember, if the content owners had had their way in the early days of the VCR, it would have been dead on arrival.)
So here’s the issue: I’m steadfastly opposed to any such DRM. I agree with Cory; I think it’s wrong and stupid, and it treats your customers like thieves. Do I stand on principle and refuse to buy the CD for this reason, or do I buy it and rip it anyway, since I know the DRM in place is a paper tiger?
And a bit more on Digital Rights Managment
SF author and EFF evangelist Cory Doctorow gave this talk at Microsoft discussing why DRM is a bad idea. His main points:
- That DRM systems don’t work
- That DRM systems are bad for society
- That DRM systems are bad for business
- That DRM systems are bad for artists
- That DRM is a bad business-move for MSFT
Read the piece. Really. Pay particular attention to the first point: there’s a very simple reason why DRM cannot work as advertised, and he makes this point very, very clear.
Dept. of Upsetting News
Punk pioneer Johnny Ramone may not be long for this earth; CNN reports his battle with prostate cancer is going very poorly.
Damn.
What we get for jumping the gun
I don’t usually like Neal Pollack
He’s smarmy and too-clever-by-half most of the time. But this time, he’s on to something with this piece about the creeping fundamentalism of George W. Bush.
It’s official: Earth is not flat
The 9/11 commission has confirmed precisely what most seasoned intelligence analysts have been saying for nearly three years: there is no credible evidence connecting Iraq and the 9/11 plot. (More NYT coverage here.)
Of course, Cheney still insists he was right. Can this administration simply not admit an error?
Maybe this is an example of what Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change are talking about, eh?
For Developers Only
Joel over at Joel on Software has published a fantastic piece called How Microsoft Lost the API War. If you code, read this.
Dept. of Corrections
Due to a configuration error, this memento from the Ray Chalres obit post would not play until now. Heathen regrets the error, and encourages you to check it out.
yes I said yes I will yes
Today is the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place in 1904 Dublin.
We had long planned to be IN Dublin today, but certain financial realities prevented such travel; as a substitute, we will certainly be enjoying a few pints of Guinness in an establishment of Irish theme here in that most un-Joycean of cities, Houston.
We forget where we found this, but it’s grand
The Naked Maja has a fantastic appreciation of Ray Charles. Read it.
ACLU 1, Gov’t 0
Deus Meus! Securis in capite meo est.
Can’t understand us? They can translate for you here.
Geek-Hop
How about some lo-fi hip-hop done with a Commodore 64?
Society has officially collapsed
INXS is seeking to fill their 7-year-old lead singer opening with a reality show.
Sure, but can it drink beer afterwards?
Scientists have created a rock-climbing robot. (See also video thereof.)
It may climb, but I’m damn sure not letting it belay.
Is “stalkeriffic” a word?
Because if it is, we’re pretty sure it applies to BloodyFingerMail.com.
Keep watching these bastards. There’s no telling what they’ll do.
Like, say, slip deeply scary Patriot II provisions into an appropriations bill.
Dept. of Strange Bedfellows
This may be the only time you hear us say this, but “way to go, Jon Bon Jovi!”
In which we notice that we’ve been geeks for a long, long time
On another online forum, someone noted that they felt terribly old when visiting a computing museum, as some of the software displayed in glass cases included code they’d written. Ouch.
I’ve not been around quite that long, but the comment did make me realize that my first computer — 16KB of RAM, 6502-based, no disk drive — is almost certainly the single most primitive piece of electronics in my home, exceeded in all meaningful capacities by such heavyweights as my Tivo, our new stove, the toaster, various calculators, what-passes-for-a-Walkman-these-days, and who knows what else. That our phones are smarter is no surprise, either; my handhelds have exceeded its meager profile for years (the new one sports 20MB or so of internal RAM, plus an expansion card of 256MB).
A slightly more amusing development is that you may now get watches and pens with more memory than that computer by several orders of magnitude (for the watch, the difference is 32,000x). Of course, since those are two areas where I prefer simple mechanical devices, the old TRS-80 is spared at least that humiliation.
What Heathen Central’s Street Looked Like Yesterday
That’s Associate Heathen Elf’s car on the right. At its peak, the water was about 18 inches in places, and left a highwater mark 4 or so feet up the driveway. Allison, in 2001, produced a similar phenomenon, but came about twice as far up the driveway, and ruined cars parked on Drew.
About 20 minutes after the rain stopped, the water was gone.
What a frightened GOP establishment looks like
With the President’s numbers dropping and the war in Iraq fast becoming a quagmire, the last thing the CREEP needs is Michael Moore asking embarrassing questions. They thought they might get a break when Disney refused to distribute the film, but the Weinstein brothers took care of that. Now, if this effort is any indication, the film must be very damning indeed.
In short, it’s one of those astroturf initiatives. And the guy running it is the same fellow behind the campaign to kill CBS’ biopic of Reagan, which was deemed unsufficiently hagiographic. His site here is more of the same; the film is “anti-American,” and Moore hates America and our troops, etc., so why would anyone want to see this movie? They’re up front about wanting to “stop Michael Moore,” which has a somewhat disturbing ring to it for anyone who’s read the Bill of Rights; that providing a critique of policy might be a duty of a free nation’s citizenry appears to escape this particular portion of the right.
I’m typically no big fan of Moore, but I’m looking forward to this film.
In which we point out what nutbirds the Texas GOP are
Salon’s article on the platform of the Texas GOP would be hilarious if it weren’t for the actual platform. They call for the abolition of, amoung other programs, the Department of Education, and insists on the repeal of laws making voter registration easier (such as Motor Voter laws). Oh, and they affirm that the US is a “Christian nation,” contrary to the ideals of the Founders, natch.
Remember what you’re voting for when you vote for these clowns. Fortunately, there’s more than enough infighting this year to cause ’em some internal strife; keep your fingers crossed.
As if being a Netscape millionaire and net.celeb weren’t enough
JWZ posts the best pix.
Apparently the dog told him to blog, too.
David Berkowitz has been denied parole for the second time on Wednesday. The board gave no reason beyond, I suppose, Berkowitz being batshit crazy.
In a related — and disturbing — bit of news, it seems ol’ Son of Sam has a blog.