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::: Wednesday, July 31 ::: |
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::: Friday, July 26 ::: |
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Uhm, no: Music Bill Is Bully on IMs
"The current landscape for online music is dangerously one-sided, with the peer-to-peer pirates enjoying an unfair advantage," said Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. "It makes sense to clarify existing laws to ensure that copyright owners -- those who actually take the time and effort to create an artistic work -- are at least able to defend their works from mass piracy."
Ms. Rosen is clearly a gifted thinker. No one could argue with the above statement. What I do take exception to, however, is that she is seeking this extension of power for the RIAA and other distributors rather than for the actual artists themselves.
The RIAA has proven time and time again that securing fair compensation for and protecting the rights of their artists is clearly a "back burner" issue. Like any other monopoly they are mainly striving to maintain the status quo. That old adage about death and taxes could have easily included "change" as well... a fact with which the RIAA should probably get acquainted.
9:49 AM CST ::
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::: Thursday, July 25 ::: |
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::: Monday, July 22 ::: |
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::: Friday, July 19 ::: |
Amen: Free downloads play sweet music
Seventies folk legend, Janis Ian preaches to the choir. I love the fact that the RIAA et al were so interested in shutting her up before she even set pen to paper. It shows just exactly how desperate they are getting.
1:35 PM CST ::
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::: Thursday, July 18 ::: |
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::: Wednesday, July 17 ::: |
Uhm: GOP Grouchy Over HIV Muppet
"Ironically, one of the few morality mavens coming out in support of the HIV-positive Muppet was none other than the Reverend Jerry Falwell. Falwell, who notoriously tried to out Teletubby Tinky Winky, says he believes the new Muppet will have a positive effect, as long as there is no discussion of its sexuality."
Putting aside the fact that our government should have more important things to do than worry about what PBS is or is not doing in other countries, I think it's incredibly offensive that Fawell feels that it's cool to talk about dying of a terminal disease as long as you don't mention your sexual preference. What's worse is I doubt very much that he is at all lonely in that particular school of thought.
I wish that I could be watching from afar when the neo-puritanical notions of our society ends up producing adults with sexual identities so radically fuxored by generation after generation of repression that the entire country collapses in a heap of non-smoking, book burning, DRM loving, media censoring, corporate sponsored, political correctness. If the planet gets really lucky maybe, just maybe, the US-lifestyle© will have infiltrated the cultures of the rest of the world to the point that the human race will end up extinct. Whatever rises up to replace us certainly couldn't do a worse job of running things.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
[thanks to Nari for the link]
3:57 PM CST ::
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Sweet: Microsoft polishes Windows 2000 fixes
It's about time. I know it will never happen, but I would love to see a day when every hotfix is optionally distributed as a rollup. It's next to impossible to track which hotfixes have and haven't been loaded and whether you might have accidentally invalidated the hotfix by loading something as mundane as a print driver.
I suppose Windows Update could be considered the ultimate solution, but then you have to trust Microsoft not to be peeking in places where it has no business. And I don't.
8:43 AM CST ::
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Yeah right: MS white paper says Palladium open, clean, not DRM
Microsoft takes time from its looting and pillaging License 6.0 rollout to reprimand us all for misunderstanding what Palladium is and what it is expected to mean for consumers. You'll have to excuse me if I treat this with a grain of salt. I have no doubts that, for the most part, the code-monkeys at MS are decent and moral individuals. The problem lies in the fact that at some point during a products evolution the suits notice and set to mucking things up.
8:14 AM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, July 16 ::: |
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::: Thursday, July 11 ::: |
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Uhm: U.S. to Vaccinate 500,000 Workers Against Smallpox
"The government is also laying the groundwork to carry out mass vaccinations of the public - a policy abandoned 30 years ago - if there is a large outbreak."
Is it just me or is our goverment suddenly falling all over themselves to close the barn door after the cattle are long gone? There's an old adage which reasons that a ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I think there's a lot of truth in that.
Unfortunately, our goverment considers us far too ignorant to decide if we want a Smallpox vaccination for ourselves or our families. Prevention be damned.
2:23 PM CST ::
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Wow: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-035
This is completely ridiculous. What kind of programmer would write an install routine that stored Administrator passwords in plain text in an unprotected location? Better yet, why the hell didn't sombody notice prior to Service Pack 4? SQL Server 7.0 has been around for years.
Trustworthy Computing strikes again.
9:50 AM CST ::
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::: Monday, July 8 ::: |
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Amen: It's time for ICANN to go
John Gilmore of the EFF talks about where ICANN went wrong and, better yet, some possible reasons why. I didn't have a very good opinion of Verisign (aka Network Solutions) anyway, but this SAIC stuff reeks to high heaven.
8:49 AM CST ::
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::: Tuesday, July 2 ::: |
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::: Monday, July 1 ::: |
Yep: I, Cringely (6/27/02)
"This is NOT about making things better for the user. This is about removing the ability for the end user to make decisions about how his or her computer functions."
11:06 AM CST ::
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Heh: Climbing in Alaska
Campaigns to bearproof all garbage containers in wild areas have been difficult, because as one biologist put it, "There is a considerable overlap between the intelligence levels of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."
I think that statement applies to a lot more than bear-proof trash cans.
10:26 AM CST ::
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dinoneil[at]newdream[dot]net
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