February 2008
Nightmares →
Aida Edemariam talks to author Joseph Stiglitz... →
RIAA Keeps Settlement Money, Artists May Sue →
Despite collecting an estimated several hundred million dollars in P2P related settlements from the likes of Napster, KaZaA and Bolt, prominent artists’ managers are complaining that so far, they…
Isn't It Better To Keep Smart Foreign Workers In... →
It’s amazing how short-sighted some people can be on the immigration question. Rep. Zoe Lofgren has a wonderful idea, suggesting that we make it much easier for skilled foreign workers to establish…
“One phenomenon stands out: terrorists are rarely caught in the act during the...”
– Schneier on Security: Why Some Terrorist Attacks Succeed and Others Fail
*Censored* Wikileaks - Wikileaks →
Luella →
Orson Restaurant & Bar - Edgy California Cuisine →
Hard Knox Cafe - 415-648-3770 →
Public Domain Donor →
Thrushes Up Close on Flickr - Photo Sharing! →
via http://www.flickr.com/photos/booknero/1804337713/
peter&wendy - graphic design studio - Paris →
via http://www.peter-wendy.com/browse_personnal.php?work_id=15
GitHub →
Secure Git hosting and collaborative development —... →
iphone-haptics - Google Code →
Senate Looks To Outlaw Phishing, Even Though It's... →
As the saying goes, when your only tool is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. The folks in Congress sure do an awful lot of whacking at various nails these days. The latest is a new bill in the Senate that seeks to outlaw phishing. One tiny point is important here: phishing is already illegal. So, really all this bill does is allow these politicians to claim that they took a stand to...
Keeping Time →
Nashville copyright bill protest this Weds →
Chris sez, “This Wednesday we are going to protest at the State Capitol in Nashville against a Bill restricting the exchange of information at all institutions of higher learning. (Please help us spread the word to others!)”
Summary: Requires every public institution of higher learning to, by
January 15 of each year: (a) develop and enforce a policy defining
computer and network...
UPDATE: Comcast paid for people to fill seats at... →
Nicholas from Miro says, This is pretty unbelievable—- there was an FCC hearing about Net Neutrality in Harvard yesterday where we had a booth. Comcast was PAYING PEOPLE TO FILL UP SEATS AND CHEER FOR THEM. Tons of folks, including reporters, got turned away. For people that still have a hard time wrapping their heads around what net neutrality is, this about sums up what’s happening.
...
Comcast Hires People Off The Street To Fill Seats... →
We pretty much ignored yesterday’s FCC hearing concerning Comcast’s traffic shaping activities, as the whole thing seemed like a bit of grandstanding. However, it’s fairly stunning to find out that Comcast has admitted to hiring people off the street to fill seats at the hearing, blocking out many Comcast critics who were turned away once the room was full. Comcast claims that...
Forensic Printer Codes May Be Illegal in Europe →
I’ve already written about secret forensic codes embedded in color laser printers. Seems like these codes may breach European privacy laws.
WatchThe Torture Playlist
We Need A Broadband Competition Act, Not A Net... →
Andy Kessler has put together a fantastic editorial for the Wall Street Journal explaining why Markey’s attempt at legislating Net Neutrality won’t do any good. As we pointed out when Markey first announced it, this plan seems to be focused on the symptoms, not the real problem (and, no, just having the FCC step in to slap the wrists of neutrality violators doesn’t help either)....
Why Don't The French Get As Fat As Americans?... →
Another Court Rejects RIAA's 'Making Available'... →
Yet another court has rejected the RIAA’s “making available” theory of copyright infringement. As a central part to most RIAA cases against individuals for file sharing, the record labels have insisted that merely making an unauthorized music file “available” for file sharing is the equivalent of copyright infringement. Others have pointed out that the law is pretty...
Dear ABC, You Don't Compete With TiVo By Making A... →
About a year and a half ago, an executive at Disney-owned ABC-TV talked about how the network was experimenting with ways to block people from fast forwarding through commercials. The exec in question even claimed that commercial-skipping wasn’t even a very important feature for most DVR-owners. Despite the widespread criticism of this statement, it appears that ABC is now preparing to test...
How depression makes you stronger | Society | The... →
Depression may seem like unrelieved misery to its sufferers, but the author of a controversial new book insists the condition is highly beneficial to the human species and can ultimately lead to great achievements.
"Intellectual property" is a silly euphemism |... →
“Intellectual property” is one of those ideologically loaded terms that can cause an argument just by being uttered. The term wasn’t in widespread use until the 1960s, when it was adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization, a trade body that
Hn:An acceptable goatse →
edrabbit posted a photo:
After posting an email address that receives photos for automatic
display on my chumby, I get this thanks to sfslim.
Record company profits aren't more important... →
John Naughton’s Observer column last Sunday lit into the music industry, chasing the statement by the head of the British Phonographic Institute (the UK’s RIAA) that “For years, ISPs have built a business on other people’s music.” This is part of the music industry’s blustering demands for ISPs to censor and monitor the Internet to protect the record...
RubyForge: Rdoc Ajax Template: Project Info →
Republicans Block FISA Talks →
FISA legislation is stalled in the House. After walking out of meetings last week, House Republicans refused on Thursday to meet with congressional Democrats to discuss hammering out differences between the Senate and House bills. The message from the Republicans is clear: Absolutely no compromise, especially on the crucial question of retroactive immunity for telecoms.
House Majority Leader...
Kostant on E8 →
A physicist, Garrett Lisi, has published a highly controversial, but fascinating, paper purporting to go beyond the Standard Model in that it unifies all 4 forces of nature by using as gauge group the exceptional Lie group E8. My talk, strictly mathematic
A Giant Cyber-Worm Tries to Hide in the Ottawa... →
Want to know how you would withstand a hurricane? This wind tunnel at the Canadian Research Council’s research facility in Ottawa can test what happens to an object (or a person) when water drops are smashed into them at 150 km/hour. Let’s get a little closer to those wind blades.
Images by George Kourounis [via Oobject]. NRC Aerospace Lab
Record company profits aren't more important than... →
John Naughton’s Observer column last Sunday lit into the music industry, chasing the statement by the head of the British Phonographic Institute (the UK’s RIAA) that “For years, ISPs have built a business on other people’s music.” This is part of the music industry’s blustering demands for ISPs to censor and monitor the Internet to protect the record...