28 Feb 2003
Scared of M$

This is scary stuff:

Windows Update keeps tabs on all system software. Spy on the wire [The Register]

I'm concerned about the potential for abuse by Software Update as well. Any system that 'phones home' without your knowledge or intervention has the potential to send information you may not want distributed.

Worse is the potential for such as system to be abused by the legal process. Microsoft wants to stamp out piracy. Suppose an automated updater simply does what the BSA recent did and confuses 'Open'Office with M$ Office? According to the terms of the new Microsoft EULA they could disable your workstation until you proved you weren't pirating their product!

What happens when some crusading congresscritter get ahold of the idea to scan users systems for something really obnoxious, say, child porn? Is that file 'nekkid_kid.jpg' kiddie porn? Or is it your wife giving your month old a bath in the kitchen sink? You can tell, and even the local prosecutor could tell (eventually, after they seized your entire computer and went thru every file over the course of several weeks) but could an automated update tell? Given the marginal performance of various web filters, I don't think so.

Perhaps Orwell had in wrong - perhaps the new slogan won't be 'Big Brother is Watching' but rather, 'Big Brother is Scanning' .....

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Holocaust on Your Plate

OK, this got the rant juices flowing....

Holocaust on Your Plate from our national village idiots at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) compares eating meat to being a Nazi participant in the Holocaust!

Such so-called 'ethical vegetarians' are just STUPID. In the most literal sense of the word. Little Cindy Vegan's carrot salad is just as drenched in animal blood as Johnny Omnivore's steak sandwich. Do these people have any idea what really goes on in farming: any kind of farming, even organic, earth friendly farming? Have any of them ever talked with any farmer?

When I plant a vegatable garden (or a field of grain) do I just sit back and let the native wildlife feast off my labors? Uh, NO! I do everything in my power (in my case, short of using chemicals) to stop my crop from being devoured by anything but myself and my customers!

This includes keeping barn cats, which love to eat them mousies! It includes encouraging hawks and owls. Crows must see me as a veritable terrorist by setting up those scary dolls to terrify their young! How could I be so awful? Why, I've even been known to shoot a coyote or two for menacing my horses and sheep! Butchery!

Do I stop my plough and carefully navigate around all the little bunny warrens? No. Think of all the bugs I murder! It's a Holocaust! I've even murdered Bambi's little brothers and sisters for munching my cornfields to nubbins! Can you believe it?!!! And all so my little vegetarian cousins can have their organic peppers and corn tortillas .... while wearing their organic wool sweaters, of course.

These people have no idea what organic means: "of or relating to living matter". They don't stop to consider what comes at the end of every life: death! No conception of how the world works at all - I guess that without us humans eating them, every animal would live forever in peace and harmony! Tell that to the sheep!

These are the kind of people who believe that food just springs from the Earth, crunchy and ready to eat! I can only hope that when they complain about the "brutality of agriculture" they have the good graces not to do it with their mouth full!

They show no understanding at all of the cycle of life and death - no idea that death is part of life, and life is part of death. They're aren't "friendly to the enviroment" - they are the most hostile and virulent foes the Earth has ever known! They would upset the balance utterly, destroying countless eons of evolution for the sake of their own, misguided (and I'm being kind here) feel good, fluffy-bunny philosophy.

If they really care about the Earth, about human society and creating a sustainable future for the whole planet, I would suggest they read anything by Wendell Berry, a rational, even tempered voice of sanity crying in the wilderness of factory farming and animal rights nuts!

I can only hope they all join The Church Of Euthanasia and practice what they preach!

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Agreeing with Nader

It was bound to happen someday, I suppose. I actually agree with Ralph Nader (well, at least in his new role of 'Patent Buster').

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Using the DMCA

I'm positive this is exactly when Congress had in mind when they passed the DMCA in the first place. (uh, NOT!)

Lexmark Wins Injunction in Toner Cartridge Suit [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Feb 2003
Been there, done that

Been there: TechTV Screen Savers Host Tries "The Switch" [Slashdot]

done that.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Fred Rogers, RIP

Some things are just sad: Fred Rogers 1928-2003

I grew up watching him, my kids grew up watching him. It's too bad that only one of my grandkids was old enough to really get Mr. Rogers Neighborhood .... he will be missed.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

26 Feb 2003
Cracker Comedy

The latest spate of so-called "reality" shows turn my stomach - but I guess worse is on the way!

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Engineering corn to control rootworm

Well, we are genetically engineering corn to control rootworm ... gosh, progress!

Of course, we could also follow the time-honored practices of crop rotation, pasturage and sensible land management to achieve the same goals, but I guess that's just too much work for the mega corps that run American farming today.

I know I just can't wait to have a corn tortilla with insecticide built right in ....

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Amendment #1
[from the 1st Amendment]

Congress shall make no law ... abridging

the freedom of speech, or of the press ...

What part of this doesn't Congress get?

New Child Porn Law

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

25 Feb 2003
Baking pans and Prescriptions.....

This is all over the place, here:

U.S. Says It Has Cut Off Supplies of Drug Paraphernalia. Federal officials said today that they had shut down the major suppliers in the U.S. in a series of nationwide raids. By Eric Lichtblau. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

and here:

Feds weed out drug paraphernalia sites. Operation Pipe Dreams represents the federal government's boldest attempt yet to shutter Web sites that sell drug paraphernalia. [CNET News.com]

I thought this was mighty strange - I mean, what are the Feds gonna do? Bust everybody who sells brownie pans? Raid the kitchen department at Nordstroms?

In case they haven't figured it out, if you want to ingest illegal drugs, you'll probably find a way. To borrow a phrase from the NRA, these stores cause drug abuse like flies cause garbage.

But then, just when I thought the nuttiness had reached a peak, along comes this gem:

'It's medicinal' vies against 'It's illegal'. California has become the epicenter of a states vs. feds battle over marijuana use. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

Note that the jury in this poor schmucks Federal trial were not allowed to hear why he sold pot - and when they found out after returning a conviction they came out swinging, feeling duped. Well duh!

Unless and until we adapt the rather common sense notion that adults can make sensible decisions about their own live, what to ingest, what to smoke, whom to sleep with, we'll witness this constantly cascading crescendo of craziness .....

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Data Loss as Trauma

Oh my! Cry me a river! You want some counseling after a disk crash? Here: MAKE A BACKUP YOU IDIOT!

Psychologist Consoles Data Loss Victims [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Bluetooth IS Useful

Finally, a real use for Bluetooth

Sony-Ericcson Clicker

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Audioblogging

Being in the telephony business (and keeping a blog) this is pretty fascinating.... hmmmmm

Dialing for bloggers. The latest Web-log trend is audioblogging, the posting of audio clips instead of or alongside text entries, which is inspiring software developers to raise a new crop of tools. [CNET News.com]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Versioning Patented

Wonder if these guys ever heard of CVS?

Interwoven Patents Code Versioning [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Feb 2003
XP Update

It's not really as bad as I expected, I must say. Once I got the UI down to the way I like it, I can hardly tell the difference. Except it hasn't crashed yet - and that's a good difference.

I found a great site that's really helped alot: TweakXP has been a godsend.

A couple of strange things. My HP Scanjet 7400 c required a new driver download (50 MB) to get it to install correctly, even though it said it installed correctly using the install CD. And Visual dBase went into multi-user mode, which effectively locked me out and forced me to reinstall. You see, running on Win98 I'd never set up an admin account or password for it, and without that you can't get into it in multiuser mode! No big deal, really, I hardly ever use it anymore, but it will be needed to maintain some legacy database code we still have in the wild.

But all in all I've been pretty pleased with it. And surprised that it does seem to add a signifigent amount of stability to the platform.

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link