Friday, December 30, 2005


Just added a links section.

Patient's Progress:

"Based on how the system actually works today, the major players agree on four things: that those with the most money should get the best care; that companies in the health-care business should make tons of money; that everything should be based on who pays, how, and how much; and that health care should be as complicated and as rules-ridden as possible."

broadband ? SWBell DSL FAQ 1.1 Ordering

Patient's Progress

Sunday, December 25, 2005










Church



More of Dee's work at church.

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Friday, December 23, 2005

One man company fixes PDAs

One man company fixes PDAs

Skeptic: 2005 July–September

Skeptic: 2005 July–September

eSkeptic: December 20th, 2005

"This is a stunning blow against Intelligent Design and creationism, but we are not surprised by it given how the trial unfolded. The first handicap that ID advocates had to deal with was the zeal of the law firm representing them. The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), founded by conservative Catholic businessman Tom Monaghan and former Kevorkian prosecutor Richard Thompson, was itching for a fight with the ACLU from the time of its formation in 1999. Declaring themselves the “sword and shield for people of faith” and the “Christian Answer to the ACLU,” TMLC sought out confrontations with the ACLU on a number of fronts, from public nativity and Ten Commandment displays to gay marriage and pornography. But the fight they really wanted, it seems, was over evolution in public school science classrooms, a fight that would take five years to occur."

Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Intelligent Design case

Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Intelligent Design case

Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District

Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District

Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

New Scientist Breaking News - Fossil protein breakthrough will probe evolution

New Scientist Breaking News - Fossil protein breakthrough will probe evolution:

"The first complete sequencing of protein from a fossil bone suggests that proteins can survive for millions of years - long enough to probe the evolution of many extinct species, including the ancestors of modern humans."

New Scientist Breaking News - Oldest DNA exposes ancient ecosystems

New Scientist Breaking News - Oldest DNA exposes ancient ecosystems:

"The permafrost contained DNA from eight species of mammals including woolly mammoth, steppe bison and musk ox, dating back 30,000 years, as well as 28 families of trees, shrubs, mosses and herbs, some of which lived 300,000 to 400,000 years ago.

By drilling at widely spaced locations, and at different depths, the team could recreate ancient landscapes and watch them evolve. 'From just two grams of soil, you can obtain a meaningful sample of the ecosystem,' says Willerslev."

Welcome to StarrySkies.com

Welcome to StarrySkies.com

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Extinct mammoth DNA decoded

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Extinct mammoth DNA decoded: "The 5,000 DNA letters spell out a large chunk of the genetic code of its mitochondria, the structures in the cell that generate energy.

The research, published in the online edition of Nature, gives an insight into the elephant family tree.

It shows that the mammoth was most closely related to the Asian rather than the African elephant."

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Pharyngula::Panderichthys rhombolepis

Pharyngula::Panderichthys rhombolepis

The Panda's Thumb

The Panda's Thumb: "Strosacker Hall on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, 7-9 pm January 3, with Ken Miller to represent the “Darwinist” position. We plan to webcast the event: details will follow as we have them. Miller will be there regardless of details."

Talk To Action | The Bush Family and the Moon Family

Talk To Action | The Bush Family and the Moon Family

I am reminded of this today, because Journalist John Gorenfeld has an important article on AlterNet that deserves far greater attention than it has received. It details the apparent business relationship between President Bush's brother Neil Bush and the Moon organization.

Rachel

These photos are from my lunch with Rachel.







Secular Web: Atheism, Agnosticism, Naturalism, Skepticism and Secularism

Secular Web: Atheism, Agnosticism, Naturalism, Skepticism and Secularism

Secular Web Library: Essays on Atheism and Religious Disbelief

Secular Web Library: Essays on Atheism and Religious Disbelief

Saladin-Gish Debate II

Saladin-Gish Debate II

Science/AAAS | Table of Contents: 23 December 2005; 310 (5756)

Science/AAAS | Table of Contents: 23 December 2005; 310 (5756)

Ruling on 'intelligent design' is one for the history books - Yahoo! News

Ruling on 'intelligent design' is one for the history books - Yahoo! News: "Jones' decision should give fortitude to school boards across the USA under pressure from ID advocates who maintain that evolution vs. intelligent design is a matter of opinion and, as such, teaching both sides is only fair.

The problem with comparing evolution with intelligent design is that ID is a matter of faith, not science. It can't be tested. Evolution, by contrast, is backed by overwhelming scientific evidence."

The Panda's Thumb: Remarkable Kitzmiller reactions

The Panda's Thumb: Remarkable Kitzmiller reactions: " Despite the judge’s ruling, Bonsell maintained his opinion about intelligent design.

“Intelligent design is science, most definitely,” he said after reading the summary of the judge’s ruling. “It should be appealed to the next level.”

Bonsell said he disagreed with the judge that the board provided a disservice to the public and that members lied to cover their tracks.

This is the same Alan Bonsell who delivered a check for purchasing copies of Of Pandas and People from Buckingham to Bonsell’s father, then denied under oath knowing anything about the source of funding for the books.

May Bonsell and Buckingham both be tried for perjury."

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Cheeta




Sunday, December 18, 2005








Dee putting up Christmas decorations at St. Als.

Saturday, December 17, 2005

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Bush 'backed spying on Americans'

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Bush 'backed spying on Americans': "President Bush allowed security agents to eavesdrop on people inside the US without court approval after 9/11, the New York Times has reported."

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

InstantRailsWiki: Instant Rails

InstantRailsWiki: Instant Rails

RubyInstallerWiki: RubyInstaller

RubyInstallerWiki: RubyInstaller

ONLamp.com: Rolling with Ruby on Rails

ONLamp.com: Rolling with Ruby on Rails

try ruby! (in your browser)

try ruby! (in your browser)

Election man resigns

Election man resigns: "THE MAKER of election voting gear who promised to give the State of Ohio to President Bush during the last election has quit after reports of fraud and litigation.

Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell offered to clean out his desk days after BradBlog.com claimed that the company was facing imminent securities fraud litigation surrounding charges of insider trading. It also comes after a Diebold insider, revealed that the company may have mishandled elections in Georgia and Ohio."

Google

Google

Schneier on Security: Titan Rain

Schneier on Security: Titan Rain

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Holocaust a myth, says Iranian president

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Holocaust a myth, says Iranian president: "Iran's president said today that the Holocaust was a 'myth', prompting strong condemnation from Israel, Germany and the European Commission.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the comments to thousands of people during a speech in Iran's south-eastern city of Zahedan.

They follow the international outcry his remarks caused in October when he said that Israel should be 'wiped off the map'.

Germany's foreign minister warned that the 'shocking and unacceptable' comments would influence coming nuclear talks between Europe and Iran."

Schneier on Security: Titan Rain

Schneier on Security: Titan Rain: "Titan Rain

There seems to be a well-organized Chinese military hacking effort against the U.S. military. The U.S. code name for the effort is 'Titan Rain.' The news reports are spotty, and more than a little sensationalist, but I know people involved in this investigation -- the attackers are very well-organized."

ESA Portal - ESA accelerates towards a new space thruster

ESA Portal - ESA accelerates towards a new space thruster

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

One Earth Adventures

One Earth Adventures

Renata Chlumska - Around America Adventure

Renata Chlumska - Around America Adventure

Keron 3 GT

Keron 3 GT

Leupold’s New VX-L Riflescopes

Leupold’s New VX-L Riflescopes: "They have a 3.5 to 10 power scope with a 50mm objective lens that can be mounted anywhere that a 33mm lens will fit! They do this by forming a small concave section into the bottom of the objective lens so that it may be mounted lower and still clear the barrel. "

Saturday, December 10, 2005

North Carolina faces lawsuit over voting machine certification

North Carolina faces lawsuit over voting machine certification: "North Carolina established strict new voting machine requirements after system failure led to the loss of 4,000 votes in an election last year. The Public Confidence in Elections bill requires that all voting machine manufacturers disclose their proprietary source code for review by government technology experts. When Diebold was given an exemption last month, the EFF took the matter to court, where Diebold lost. The government of North Carolina proceeded to certify Diebold anyway, despite revocation of the exemption. Certification of technology that fails to meet the legal requirements established by the Public Confidence in Elections bill is essentially illegal, and the EFF wants the government to be held accountable for their disregard of a critical law."

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

SWAT Report

SWAT Report: "Purpose. The Small Arms Assessment Team was formed to support Project Manager Soldier Weapons (PMSW) assessment of small arms performance during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Tasks were to assess the current state of weapons, ammunition and accessories directly managed by PMSW: M9 Pistol to MK 19 AGL and determine what worked well and what did not."

GlobalSecurity.org - Reliable Security Information

GlobalSecurity.org - Reliable Security Information

Educational Technology & Society (ISSN 1436-4522) 5(1) ) January 20021

Educational Technology & Society (ISSN 1436-4522) 5(1) ) January 20021

OzHug

OzHug

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'New mammal' seen in Borneo woods

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'New mammal' seen in Borneo woods

Square Wheel Car Propels Itself by Shifting Weight - Possible MEMS Locomotion

Square Wheel Car Propels Itself by Shifting Weight - Possible MEMS Locomotion

Friday, December 02, 2005

Kansas University's course about Intelligent Design designed to mock Christian fundamentalists

Kansas University's course about Intelligent Design designed to mock Christian fundamentalists: "“Doing my part to upset the religious right' is already a bumper sticker. Seen it in southern New Hampshire... "

Free Republic | latest articles

Free Republic | latest articles

The Panda's Thumb: Apparent End of Dover School Board Reign of Error

The Panda's Thumb: Apparent End of Dover School Board Reign of Error:

"1. Do you know who the current school board members are in YOUR school district, or at least where the board stands on science vs pseudo-science?

2. Do you know who was elected yesterday to your local school board, and where they stand?

3. Are you reasonably confident that a stealth Creationist campaign did not take over your school board yesterday, while you were looking the other way?

If you read PT because you care about science education, you must be able to answer YES to these questions. The lesson from Dover is: PAY ATTENTION. Because when people pay attention, they choose science.

Think about it: you may have woken up in Kansas this morning, without even knowing it."

Prions popping up all over the place - Aetiology

Prions popping up all over the place - Aetiology More scary stuff.

Dogged Blog: Tangled Bank Number 42

Dogged Blog: Tangled Bank Number 42

Mike the Mad Biologist: Krauthammer: We Are All Popperians Now?

Mike the Mad Biologist: Krauthammer: We Are All Popperians Now?

The Bonehead Compendium: Vol. 69, Teaching or Preaching?

The Bonehead Compendium: Vol. 69, Teaching or Preaching?

The Austin Chronicle: News: Alcoa, von Gonten Family Reach Settlement in Legal Fight

The Austin Chronicle: News: Alcoa, von Gonten Family Reach Settlement in Legal Fight

Ending what many considered an effort to intimidate and silence its critics, Alcoa Inc., operator of a massive aluminum smelter and coal-fired power plant in Rockdale, about 60 miles northeast of Austin, inked a settlement in Milam County Court last Tuesday after filing a motion in September seeking more than $550,000 in legal fees from the von Gonten family, whose members sued the company in 2003 for area air pollution and for dumping coal combustion waste on their property without their consent. Alcoa sought fees and sanctions against the family's lawyer, Michelle McFaddin – a frequent Alcoa opponent representing community groups in environmental cases – for filing a frivolous lawsuit. "This has all the markings of a SLAPP suit [activist lingo meaning 'strategic lawsuits against public participation'], with Alcoa's goal being to discourage citizens from taking action when the company pollutes their property or damages their health," said Travis Brown, energy policy director of consumer-advocate group Public Citizen.

Alcoa backfilled a pipeline easement on the von Gonten family's property in 1992 with coal bottom ash from a TXU plant the company uses to power its smelter. The ash is known to contain varying amounts of toxic heavy metals. The family's suit was dropped last summer due to waning funds, as well as discrepancies over ownership of the property among family members who were plaintiffs in the suit, according to McFaddin.

The Austin Chronicle: News: AG on Sony Spyware: 'Cloak-and-Dagger Deceit'

The Austin Chronicle: News: AG on Sony Spyware: 'Cloak-and-Dagger Deceit': "

BY JORDAN SMITH
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott last week filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment, alleging the company secretly installed an invisible 'spyware' program onto millions of music CDs, in violation of state law, leaving consumers and their computers vulnerable to identity thieves, hackers, and viruses. 'Sony has engaged in a technological version of cloak-and-dagger deceit,' Abbott said. He filed suit under the state's new Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act of 2005, which went into effect in September and bans concealed tracking software. The software – reportedly intended as an anti-piracy measure – was installed on 4.7 million CDs released by Sony under 52 different titles. The CDs are designed so that they will not play through a computer until the user acknowledges a user agreement, which, when accepted, causes the surreptitious installation of undetectable spyware tracking files."

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Assayer

The Assayer

USATODAY.com - A false Wikipedia 'biography'

USATODAY.com - A false Wikipedia 'biography'

Slashdot | Diebold Threatens to Pull Out of North Carolina

Slashdot | Diebold Threatens to Pull Out of North Carolina

[Rant]
I am a Citizen and an Elector (member of the Electorate) in the US. That puts me at the TOP of the pyramid in the election process. In the US, the Electorate is Sovereign. Where does Diebold or any other corporate entity get off trying to dictate how elections are held? They act like they have some god-given right to make money off of the process. Fuck that! They have a right to come grovelling, hat in hand, and ASK if maybe, just maybe, we might want to use some equipment they want to sell. We get to set the rules about how elections are held, not them.

My county uses optical scan ballots and ballot box readers. If a precinct shows some sort of wierd result, the elections commissioner, in the company of plenty of witnesses, pops that sucker open and looks at the ballots. End of problem.

I frankly don't give a damn if results aren't available until Wednesday morning, or even Friday. They aren't certified official for weeks, anyway. The only difference early results make is who gets hammered for what reason at what post-election party.

There is nothing more important than the election process. All legitimacy of the government flows directly from it. Diebold has no fucking place dictating any damn thing about that. Paper ballots work. If they are slow and more costly, that is a small fucking price to pay for legitimacy.
[/Rant]

Cold War International History Project's Cold War Files

Cold War International History Project's Cold War Files

Slashdot | Diebold Threatens to Pull Out of North Carolina

Slashdot | Diebold Threatens to Pull Out of North Carolina: "Compare that with the things like the 2000 presidential elections in the USA, where the supreme court ruled that a vote recount was *not* legal - how can you *ever* justify a decision like that? Vote recounts should always be possible."

George HW Bush

George HW Bush: "When reporters asked him whether he still believed Reagan's stimulus plan for the economy amounted to 'voodoo economics,' Bush denied ever having said it. CBS news quickly settled the matter when they ran footage of him saying exactly that in 1980."

George HW Bush

George HW Bush

The Duplicity of the War on Drugs

The Duplicity of the War on Drugs Scary.

The intent of this essay is to demonstrate that the War on Drugs [under the Reagan/Bush administrations] was America's first great psy-war campaign perpetrated against its own people and that such abuse of power is likely to happen again. To demonstrate that psychological warfare techniques were employed requires understanding subtle sequences of disparate, but related, events. It involves asking questions as to the motivations, skill, expertise and knowledge of those involved.

At the height of the war on drugs, President George Bush held up a bag of cocaine in his first televised speech to the nation in September 1989. In December 1989, George Bush ordered the invasion of Panama to overthrow its narco-militarist dictator, Gen. Manuel Noriega. In the July 16, 1990 Newsweek, the scope of the war on drugs seemed ready to expand from Panama into future military actions against the powerful Colombian drug cartels. At face value, indeed the war on drugs seemed to be stemming the flow of cocaine into the United States. However, as a matter of fact, for the whole decade of the 1980's, casual and popular use of cocaine fell out of favor, and overall use steadily decreased. Yet as overall American consumption of cocaine in the mid '80's dwindled, the Reagan and Bush administrations were calling for an escalation in fighting drugs, declaring that America was awash in illegal drugs. The 1980's was a remarkable decade in international events: the Cold War was coming to an end, and the U.S. military-industrial complex was facing spending cuts, with myriad economic ramifications. The U.S. had gone through its longest period of peace since the end of World War I, and many Americans were calling for a Peace Dividend. While it may seem coincidental that the war on drugs was contemporaneous with the end of the Cold War and was punctuated by the Iran-Contra affair, a closer look at the war on drugs reveals disturbing patterns.

Critics of the Cold War have long pointed out that the Cold War was a convenient vehicle for the military-industrial complex to acquire an increasing share of the federal budget, regardless of the decline in threat posed by the Soviet Union. The war on drugs, it has been noted, arrives with all the familiar rubrics of constant threat and ceaseless terror. The difference being it is an internal war.

Peace, non-violence, The Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace

Peace, non-violence, The Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace

moyersvideo

moyersvideo

The CIA: A Brief History

The CIA: A Brief History

Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Nanotech maths discovery could have radical implications | Science Blog

Nanotech maths discovery could have radical implications | Science Blog

"In a sense this would allow you to play God, because the method creates, on the computer, new types of particles whose interactions are tuned precisely so as to yield a desired structure," said Pablo Debenedetti, a professor of chemical engineering at Princeton.

Main Page - Glass Elevator Summaries

Glass Elevator Summaries

BATTERIES AMERICA

BATTERIES AMERICA

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

The Evangelical Atheist ? Blog Archive ? Penn Jillette on NPR

The Evangelical Atheist ? Blog Archive ? Penn Jillette on NPR

Discovery Channel :: News :: Mysterious Ocean Sound Identified

Discovery Channel :: News :: Mysterious Ocean Sound Identified

Pharyngula::Evolution of the jaw

Pharyngula::Evolution of the jaw Wow.

Fanatical Apathy

Fanatical Apathy

The Talent Show

The Talent Show: "What people like the George W. Bush don't understand is that capitalism is not a one-way street. When the demand for workers is high and the supply of laborers is low, the rational solution would be for employers to raise wages, increase benefits, or both to ensure that supply catches up to demand. But that would mean actually spending more money, and we can't have that.

Instead, employers have found a way to get around their obligations by employing 'undocumented' workers (and thus creating a demand for illegal labor)."

The Talent Show: Oh! So This Is How The World Is Going To End....

The Talent Show: Oh! So This Is How The World Is Going To End....: "This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang but a Bush.
..."

The Talent Show: Oh! So This Is How The World Is Going To End....

The Talent Show: Oh! So This Is How The World Is Going To End....

Olduvai George

Olduvai George

Holographic storage punishes DVD dalliance - ZDNet UK Comment

Holographic storage punishes DVD dalliance - ZDNet UK Comment

Main Page - The AMANDA Wiki (Beta)

Main Page - The AMANDA Wiki (Beta)

Security.ITHub.com - Internet Security

Security.ITHub.com - Internet SecurityNice site.

Skype's Security Gaffe

Skype's Security Gaffe

Unpatched IE Flaw Is Worse Than Expected

Unpatched IE Flaw Is Worse Than Expected: "By Larry Loeb
November 28, 2005
Last week was shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday, and it seemed the malware guys took it off as well. There was not much going on of recent origin, and the biggest blip on the security radar was the realization by the security community that an Internet Explorer problem first identified six months ago was a lot worse than it appeared.

The realization caused Secunia to issue a rare 'Extremely Critical' advisory. Once thought just to be a DoS vulnerability, it turns out that it also allows execution of arbitrary code.

Benjamin Tobias Franz figured out the original problem in March of this year, which can be summarized thusly: IE fails to correctly initialize the JavaScript 'Window()' function, when used in conjunction with a event. This means that Internet Explorer encounters an exception when trying to call a dereferenced 32-bit address located in ECX."

BIOS: The Quality Tech Guide

BIOS: The Quality Tech Guide

? if (Windows Rules) then (Linux fails) | Paul Murphy | ZDNet.com

? if (Windows Rules) then (Linux fails) | Paul Murphy | ZDNet.com

Think Secret - Road to Expo: Reborn Mac mini set to take over the living room

Think Secret - Road to Expo: Reborn Mac mini set to take over the living room

:: Stephy ::

A very impressive site design.

~* ...vulnerable... *~

~* ...vulnerable... *~

Elder of Ziyon

Elder of Ziyon

Warning: You have clicked on the blog of a Midol addict.

Warning: You have clicked on the blog of a Midol addict.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

lebuzz's Xanga Site

lebuzz's Xanga Site: Very impressive.

"The improvements to the Zeta media kit are even better than I thought. The other day, I did a test in which I accessed the sound card's line input using three programs simultaneously. I was able to relay live audio through TuneTracker/SoundPlay while also recording straight to MP3 format in the TimeTracker program, and also record to SoundRecorder, all at the same time. And while all that was going on, we were also broadcasting over two different bitrate streams on BeOSRADIO. I'm tellin' you, Zeta is not only stable and solid, but it's also getting more media friendly by the day."

bezilla - Community Info

bezilla - Community Info

Living photos use bacteria as pixels | Science Blog

Living photos use bacteria as pixels | Science Blog

Regeneration: University of Utah News Release: November 24, 2005

Regeneration: University of Utah News Release: November 24, 2005: "Elimination of smedwi-2 not only leads to an inability to mount a regenerative response after amputation, but also to the eventual demise of unamputated animals along a reproducible series of events, that is, regression of the head tip, curling of the body and tissue disintegration. These defects are very similar to what is observed after the planarian stem cells are destroyed by lethal doses of irradiation. The key difference, however, is that the irradiation-like defects observed in animals devoid of smedwi-2 occur even though the stem cells are still present in the organism."

Saturday, November 26, 2005

SINTERCAST COMPACTED GRAPHITE IRON (CGI) TO BE USED IN NEW AUDI V8 TDI DIESEL ENGINE

SINTERCAST COMPACTED GRAPHITE IRON (CGI) TO BE USED IN NEW AUDI V8 TDI DIESEL ENGINE

The Kneeslider ? Star Twin responds to Thunder Star questions

The Kneeslider ? Star Twin responds to Thunder Star questions

Planet Geek!: The Ongoing Golf TDi Diesel debate

Planet Geek!: The Ongoing Golf TDi Diesel debate

LXer: Linux News: Does Microsoft's Monopoly Power Extend to Government and Media?

LXer: Linux News: Does Microsoft's Monopoly Power Extend to Government and Media?: "OK. This has finally gotten out of hand. We're way past the tolerance level. I don't care how many of you detest counter-media figures like Bill O'Reilly and Wolf Blitzer, but it's time to email them. They will respond to your email. They see massive email and they respond.

This stuff has to get into the major media and we have to do it. I won't tell you what to write, but I will suggest that you ask them to investigate the link between Microsoft and the recent decisions in Massachusetts regarding the Open Document Format. Tell the story as best you can. Below are ways to write these guys.

Additionally, please post names and email addresses of other media people who can't afford to miss a story like this. It will take a lot of emails, so please make sure you chose National Media figures with significant followings."

Federico Mena Quintero - November 2005 Activity Log

Federico Mena Quintero - November 2005 Activity Log

LXer: Linux Desktops will get killed by Microsoft this Christmas

LXer: Linux Desktops will get killed by Microsoft this Christmas

Why Dell will have to take the AMD route

Why Dell will have to take the AMD route

Libranet GNU/Linux: Main

Libranet GNU/Linux: Main

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

File Hippo - Free Software Downloads

File Hippo - Free Software DownloadsLots of files.

CCleaner - Crap Cleaner free software download - Spyware FREE

CCleaner - Crap Cleaner free software download - Spyware FREE

MVKTech - WickedLasers Starphaser Giveaway!

MVKTech - WickedLasers Starphaser Giveaway!

New RISC OS machine coming soon

New RISC OS machine coming soon

Optics and Materials Considerations for a Laser-propelled Lightsail

Optics and Materials Considerations for a Laser-propelled Lightsail

Wikicities - Wikicities

Wikicities - Wikicities

Quantum Mechanics - PhysicsWiki

Quantum Mechanics - PhysicsWiki

Advanced Physics Forum

Advanced Physics Forum

MKaku.org | Articles | “The Physics of Extra-Terrestrial Civilizations”

MKaku.org | Articles | “The Physics of Extra-Terrestrial Civilizations”

AIAA - Aerospace America Online - REFOCUSING DEEP SPACE 1 - Many new technologies were tested during DS1’s initial tour, and problem-solving is at the

AIAA - Aerospace America Online - REFOCUSING DEEP SPACE 1 - Many new technologies were tested during DS1’s initial tour, and problem-solving is at the forefront of its bonus science mission.

AF2025 v2c5-6 | Spacelift 2025: The Supporting Pillar... | (Appendix A)

AF2025 v2c5-6 | Spacelift 2025: The Supporting Pillar... | (Appendix A)

NIAC FR

NIAC FR

Federation of American Scientists

Federation of American Scientists

Encyclopedia Astronautica

Encyclopedia Astronautica

Atomic Rocket: Engine List

Atomic Rocket: Engine List

C:\DOCUME~1\BRYANY~1\Desktop\SPACER~1\technologies.html

C:\DOCUME~1\BRYANY~1\Desktop\SPACER~1\technologies.html

Monday, November 21, 2005

Miranda Instant Messenger

Miranda Instant Messenger

TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows XP/2000 and Linux

TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows XP/2000 and Linux

.:F L U X B O X:. - Welcome to fluxbox

.:F L U X B O X:. - Welcome to fluxbox

Main Page - Glass Elevator Summaries

Main Page - Glass Elevator Summaries: "This site is home to a small effort to summarise all the great ideas generated over the last few years by the Haiku OS (http://haiku-os.org/) team's future directions mailing list, Glass Elevator (http://www.bug-br.org.br/mailman/listinfo/glasselevator-talk). Note that this project is not designed to create content but to organise the material discussed previously so as to make it easier to digest (rather than reading the entire mailing list end to end). All ideas from the large to the small will eventually be summarised, the practical to the imaginative."

Garden Bits Index

Garden Bits Index

Main Page - Haiku Wiki Community

Main Page - Haiku Wiki Community

Dave's Garden: Welcome home, eav!

Dave's Garden: Welcome home, eav!

PlantFiles: Detailed information on Root Beer Plant, Hoja Santa (Piper auritum)

PlantFiles: Detailed information on Root Beer Plant, Hoja Santa (Piper auritum)

TIER: Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions

TIER: Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions

Sony talks to INQ about DRM

Sony talks to INQ about DRMLooks like Sony is doing the right thing. I guess Sony stuff is back on my buy list. To bad I already got my camera.

IOL: Mirrors shed light as winter grips small town

IOL: Mirrors shed light as winter grips small town

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

maj.com

maj.com

Bathsheba Grossman Sculpting Geometry

Bathsheba Grossman Sculpting Geometry

Escher for Real

Escher for Real

TaskLED Home

TaskLED Home

Flashlight Forums

Flashlight Forums

Sunday, November 20, 2005

David Brin's Official Web Site

David Brin's Official Web Site

Sun opens ZFS source code

Sun opens ZFS source code: "ZFS has many compelling features that make it one of the best filesystems ever designed. Engineered from the ground up for superior performance, reliability, and ease of administration, ZFS boldly goes where no filesystem has gone before. A unique pooled storage model effectively eliminates the need for partitioning, support for copy-on-write transactions eliminates the need for fsck-ing while automatically ensuring optimal data integrity, and the built-in compression algorithms can reduce space usage by up to three times while actually improving I/O performance. To put it simply, ZFS kicks some serious ass. The pooled storage model is particularly impressive, and of significant value to system administrators:"

Living on Earth: August 5, 1994

Living on Earth: August 5, 1994

BushGreenwatch - tracking environmental misdeeds

BushGreenwatch - tracking environmental misdeeds: "November 01, 2005 | Back Issues
EPA Proposes Reducing Information on Toxics Release

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to significantly roll back reporting of toxic pollution under the agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI program, which tracks the amount of toxic chemicals manufacturing facilities release into the environment, has been a widely used measurement for protecting public health and the environment.

According to EPA's own data, the simple act of reporting and disclosing these releases has prompted corporations to cut toxic pollution nearly in half. Despite this success, EPA is proposing to significantly roll back the program's reporting requirements in order to reduce the paperwork burden on corporations.

The reporting changes have met with strong opposition from community groups, public interest watchdogs and members of Congress."

BushGreenwatch - tracking environmental misdeeds

BushGreenwatch - tracking environmental misdeeds

Dick Russell – Author and Environmental Journalist

Dick Russell – Author and Environmental Journalist

Dick Russell - Articles

Dick Russell - Articles

Volkswagen Selects Corning DuraTrap Filters for Clean-Diesel Passenger Cars

Volkswagen Selects Corning DuraTrap Filters for Clean-Diesel Passenger Cars: "Corning Incorporated has announced that Volkswagen AG is equipping selected European-market diesel passenger cars with a new, advanced diesel particulate filter from Corning Incorporated. This represents the first application of the new Corning DuraTrap? AT filter announced earlier this year.

The Corning DuraTrap? AT filter will be used in an advanced aftertreatment system available as an option on Golf, Golf Plus and Touran vehicles with a 2.0 TDI (103kW/140PS) engine. Production of vehicles with this advanced particulate filter system commenced in the fourth quarter of 2005. Corning is producing the filter at its manufacturing facilities in Erwin, N.Y."

MakeZine.com:

MakeZine.com:

Welcome to Be, Inc.

Welcome to Be, Inc.

back.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

back.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

lastlook.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

lastlook.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

Haiku weblog of Michael Lotz

Haiku weblog of Michael Lotz

beunited.org - Open Standards BeOS-compatible Operating Systems

beunited.org - Open Standards BeOS-compatible Operating Systems

RubyForge: Welcome

RubyForge: Welcome

R:O:S - Ruby Operating System

R:O:S - Ruby Operating System

The Amiga "Walker"

The Amiga "Walker"

TinyOS Community Forum || An open-source OS for the networked sensor regime.

TinyOS Community Forum || An open-source OS for the networked sensor regime.

? Top national advocate for the disabled sets terms for endorsement of OpenDocument Format | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

? Top national advocate for the disabled sets terms for endorsement of OpenDocument Format | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com: "Microsoft Office is currently the productivity suite of choice for most of the state's employees. But Microsoft's choice not to support ODF means that both it and its proprietary file formats will be off limits once the state's ODF policy goes into effect. MA ITD's plan calls for implementation of the ODF standard to start on January 1, 2007. But, ODF as a file format is barely six months old. Even worse, of the applications that support it — of which there are hardly any — none are in the same league as Microsoft Office-based solutions when it comes to accessibility for PWDs (thanks in large part to expensive third party accessibility add-ons like JAWS that are designed specifically to work with Office)."

Building The Next Generation, Part 2: The OS - OSNews.com

Building The Next Generation, Part 2: The OS - OSNews.com

Saturday, November 19, 2005

plazes.beta

plazes.beta: "Plazes is a grassroot approach to location-aware interaction, using the local network you are connected to as location reference. Plazes allows you to share your location with the people you know and to discover people and plazes around you. It's the navigation system for your social life and it's absolutely free."

Haiku :: View Forum - Feature Requests

Haiku :: View Forum - Feature Requests

New Sony CD risk identified | Tech News on ZDNet

New Sony CD risk identified | Tech News on ZDNet: "In each case, Princeton University computer science professor Edward Felten and researcher Alex Halderman found that the uninstall programs responded to commands from their creators' Web sites, but would also respond to malicious instructions from other Web sites."

Did Sony 'rootkit' pluck from open source? | Tech News on ZDNet

Did Sony 'rootkit' pluck from open source? | Tech News on ZDNet: "The XCP program will installs itself on Windows-operated personal computers when consumers play one of 49 CDs from Sony BMG. The program forces consumers to use a music player that comes with the program.

This music player contains components from an open-source project, an MP3 player called LAME, it has emerged.

'Multiple software components on the CD have references to the LAME open-source MP3 code,' "

Ethnologue Fourteenth Edition, Web Version

Ethnologue Fourteenth Edition, Web Version

The Panda's Thumb: Behe Disproves Irreducible Complexity

The Panda's Thumb: Behe Disproves Irreducible Complexity: "A number of herpetologists have remarked on the observation that rattlesnakes today seem far less likely to rattle when encountered than they did previously (an impression that I also got from my years of snake-watching in Pennsylvania and in Florida).

The reason would seem to be obvious ——- the snakes that rattle when approached, usually get whacked with a shovel or chopped with a hoe. The snakes that don’t rattle, aren’t seen, and therefore live to pass on those genes.

Natural selection at its finest."

Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District ? 2. Trial Schedule and Transcripts

Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District ? 2. Trial Schedule and Transcripts

Friday, November 18, 2005

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

GROKLAW

GROKLAW

Does it get any uglier than what we are witnessing in Massachusetts? Serial killers are worse, I grant you. But watching the politicos in Massachusetts try to kill off OpenDocument Format is surely Top Ten ugly.

Guess what they are now trying? I'll refer you to Andy Updegrove's blog, where he gives us the latest icky chapter. It seems opponents of ODF have come up with a new amendment to a new bill, since they couldn't get S 2256 passed this session, and ODF has become a political football in an old-fashioned power play. Think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Let's follow the bouncing ball.

Updegrove:

That brings us up to today, when a new amendment was introduced by Senator Michael W. Morrissey in lieu of the amendment he had earlier submitted. I am told by what I believe to be a reliable source that the swap was at the suggestion of Secretary Galvin, because the first version was "slanted too heavily in favor of the Governor." And the new amendment? It shifts power dramatically, and I bet you can guess in whose direction it shifts.

Here's a summary of what the new amendment would do in contrast to the original:

1) Reduces the number of appointees given to the Governor from 4 to 2

2) Designates the CIO of ITD as a permanent appointee to the Task Force

3) Eliminates the appointees by the State Treasurer and State Auditor

4) Mandates that the Supervisor of Public Records (who reports to the Secretary of State) serve as Chair of the Task Force; previous version had the Chair elected by the appointees

5) Mandates that the State Archivist (also reports to the Secretary of State) serve as Secretary of the Task Force

6) Emphasizes that no agency, department or municipality shall adopt technology policy, practices or standards without a majority vote of the Task Force; previous version listed only executive branch agencies or departments as subject to the decisions of the Task Force

[You can find the full text of the new amendment at the end of this post]

As you can see, with the exception of making the state CIO a permanent member of a 7-person task force, all other changes solidly increase the power of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and even expand the power of the task force beyond that originally contemplated by the ITD's proposal.

In fact, the new amendment enables exactly the type of situation that the anti-ODF FUDists had claimed Quinn was out to require, but in fact was not: requiring that citizens of the Commonwealth could only interrelate with their own government if they owned software that supported a standard mandated by public officials.

Can you guess what these movers and shakers expect that standard should be? After reading the transcript of the hearing, I believe I can. Can they get away with it and kill off ODF? I can't see how. Maybe in a movie about the Mob. But this is the Internet age. Back-room deals end up headlines, and that tends to undermine effectiveness. About all I can see that Microsoft can get out of these machinations is a black eye. The overarching message is that if you don't want to use their software, you'll be sat on by goons or the political equivalent. Frankly, that doesn't make me want to use their software. This is America, is it not?

Meanwhile, on the disabilities front, do read David Berlind's blog on his interaction with Curtis Chong, president of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science, who ends up saying he'd be happy to support ODF if his needs are met. That is the headline. Chong thinks the 2007 deadline is unrealistic, but if there is one thing I feel I can say with confidence from all I know and am hearing, it's that the deadline will be met. But even if it wasn't, when Massachusetts announced their choice of ODF, they stated that if the disabled needed to stay with Microsoft products because of third-party solutions designed for accessibility, they could until a better solution was available. So what is the issue? Just politics, really.

Not that Microsoft is lifting a finger to help the disabled, by the way. Let's be real. They could solve the issue for the disabled by just announcing that Microsoft will support ODF. ODF is a standard, so proprietary software can and does support it. It's not just Open Source that can support it.

Because Microsoft isn't willing to support ODF, or haven't to date, it's clear to me they don't care a bit about the disabled, and are happy to use them for their own business advantage.

They don't, as Berlind points out in his letter to Chong, write disability software like JAWS, and in fact they hinder its functionality. Berlind pointedly asks Chong why no representative for the disabled at the hearing mentioned the problems the disabled have with Microsoft's software:

A few of your points would have been very relevant and I'm certain that those who spoke at the hearing were aware of them. For example, the point you [are] making about the precarious balance that exists between the specialized accessibility software and Microsoft Office was never mentioned. Nor was the fact that every time Microsoft upgrades it's software, the accessibility software must be completely re-engineered to keep up. I'm sure that each time the cat catches its tail, only to have the tail eventually slip away, that it's the work of a few heroic people that catch the tail again. But isn't there a point at which the tail catchers realize that this is a futile effort that stands in the way of true innovation in accessibility? I've been a technology journalist for 15 years now. In that time, it didn't matter who the vendor was: if a vendor came out with a product that wasn't backwards compatible with the ones before it, they were hammered out of the market. The fact that Microsoft keeps breaking backward compatibility and forcing heroic developers to creatively exploit both documented and undocumented interfaces suggests to me that the company hasn't looked at continuity in accessibility as a problem that it's responsible for solving.


What I don't think the disabled have clued in on yet is that with ODF, they can just hire someone to code what they need. No. Really. That's the beauty of it. You don't need to beg Microsoft or third-party companies to please write what you need. You can hire a programmer and do it yourself. In this case, they don't even need to. Some of the most powerful sofware companies in the world have dedicated resources to the task. But the power of open standards and Open Source (note they are not the same thing, but they are both desirable) is that you are never stuck or dependent on any vendor. Think about it.

Another development: Linda Hamel, General Counsel for ITD, has sent the Senate a brief [PDF], answering the legal questions Senator Marc Pacheco asked at the hearing on October 31. Here's the summary from the brief.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Sony's XCP DRM

Sony's XCP DRM: "Muzzy's research about Sony's XCP DRM system"

Is Sony in violation of the LGPL? - Part II - Programming stuff

Is Sony in violation of the LGPL? - Part II - Programming stuff: "It uses LAME code (and code from at least one other LGPL library)."

Slyck News - Damage Runs Deep With Sony-BMG Fiasco

Slyck News - Damage Runs Deep With Sony-BMG Fiasco: "Trying to gauge the damage caused by Sony-BMG’s rootkit DRM will take years to comprehend. The gaping wound caused by Sony-BMG exists well beyond infected computers, security problems, and a tarnished reputation. The record label’s entire philosophy on P2P networking, Internet piracy and DRM has been effectively destroyed."

The copyright industry has attempted to persuade P2P users back into the record stores by exploiting a largely overblown claim that file-sharing networks expose risks to malicious software. On June 14, 2004, MPAA CEO Dan Glickman made the following statement.

"While these P2P services would have users believe they simply offer an easy way to download movies and music, they really do much more. It is well-documented that using these services can lead to user’s computers being infected with spy ware and viruses. Often, unwitting users have their most sensitive, private information exposed to unfriendly eyes around the world. Further, P2P systems have been used by pornographers as an easy avenue to reach children."

This argument by the copyright industry has been annihilated. Computer Associates labeled Sony-BMG’s rootkit as both spyware and a trojan horse. Minimum estimates suggest as many as 500,000 individuals have Sony-BMG’s rootkit DRM installed – far exceeding any infections caused by P2P networking.

Even without an official label by Computer Associates, the public perception of Sony-BMG’s rootkit is that of distrust. In an ironic twist of fate, computers infected with Sony-BMG’s DRM software run the serious risk of being exposed to malicious software. Considering the files Sony-BMG use are hidden from anti-virus and anti-spyware applications, any virus writer can write an identically named file and exploit an untold number of computers.

The copyright industry has also preached from a moral standpoint. Believing there is a parallel between downloading a file from the Internet and physically stealing a CD from a music store, both the music and movie industry have accused file-traders of moral corruption.

"This is not just about online versus offline," said Hilary Rosen, former president and CEO of the RIAA. "Most in the online business community recognize that what Napster is doing threatens legitimate e-commerce models - and is legally and morally wrong."

Much like the virus argument, the “moral” argument has also been vanquished. The reason why Sony-BMG found itself in so much trouble is because they hid information – otherwise known as deception – and thought they could get away with it. The specifics of Sony-BMG’s rootkit were never disclosed in the EULA, and they certainly did not disclose the consequences of its removal. Whatever moral standpoint the copyright industry had was effectively nullified when Sony-BMG and First4Internet inked their deal.

Although Sony-BMG succeeded in negating the music and movies industry anti-P2P argument in one swift stroke, that’s not the extent of the damage. The music and movie industry’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) campaign – once shrouded in secrecy – has also suffered irreparable harm.

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a blanket term used to describe copy protection on any digital medium. The protection can be simple, such as blocking unlicensed search terms, or very complex, such as First4Interent’s XCP (extended copy protection.) The deployment of DRM can be considered secretive because very few individuals are actually aware of it.

During a recent anti-DRM protest in New York City, a wide majority of individuals were unaware that such copy protection even existed.

Sony-BMG managed to change all of that.

GROKLAW

GROKLAW: "Just how deep does this betrayal of customers go? F-Secure, who was not part of the complicit agreement apparently and discovered the rootkit independently, according to Russinovich, explained on November 4 on their blog why rootkits are a security problem:

A member of our IT security team pointed out quite chilling thought about what might happen if record companies continue adding rootkit based copy protection into their CDs.

In order to hide from the system a rootkit must interface with the OS on very low level and in those areas theres no room for error.

It is hard enough to program something on that level, without having to worry about any other programs trying to do something with same parts of the OS.

Thus if there would be two DRM rootkits on the same system trying to hook same APIs, the results would be highly unpredictable. Or actually, a system crash is quite predictable result in such situation.

So imagine a situation where Joe Customer buys CD from label A and another CD from label B. Label A uses third party DRM from company X and Label B uses from company Y.

Then our user first plays one of the CDs in his PC, and everything works fine. But after he starts playing the second CD, his computer crashes and wont boot again. This is something I would not like to associate with buying legal CDs.

The Department of Homeland Security agrees. This IP protection is now threatening our security. How did everyone lose their sense of proportion? I earlier put a link to the audio of Stewart Baker, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy, in News Picks, but what he said is so important, I wish to repeat it here:

'It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property -- it's not your computer. And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days.

'If we have an avian flu outbreak here and it is even half as bad as the 1918 flu, we will be enormously dependent on being able to get remote access for a large number of people, and keeping the infrastructure functioning is going to be a matter of life and death and we take it very seriously as well.' - DHS Ass't Sec'y on Policy Stewart Baker

Copyright infringement is important to companies like Sony, of course, but if, when enforcing their rights, they end up exceeding their actual rights and endanger our lives in their quest to protect mere money, something is seriously out of balance. I also most sincerely hope that the DHS realizes the security value of the GNU/Linux operating system, as well as MacOSX. If the Department is relying exclusively on Windows, I am frankly terrified."

Wired News: Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit

Wired News: Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit: "On Oct. 31, Mark Russinovich broke the story in his blog: Sony BMG Music Entertainment distributed a copy-protection scheme with music CDs that secretly installed a rootkit on computers. This software tool is run without your knowledge or consent -- if it's loaded on your computer with a CD, a hacker can gain and maintain access to your system and you wouldn't know it."

The Sony code modifies Windows so you can't tell it's there, a process called "cloaking" in the hacker world. It acts as spyware, surreptitiously sending information about you to Sony. And it can't be removed; trying to get rid of it damages Windows.

This story was picked up by other blogs (including mine), followed by the computer press. Finally, the mainstream media took it up.

The outcry was so great that on Nov. 11, Sony announced it was temporarily halting production of that copy-protection scheme. That still wasn't enough -- on Nov. 14 the company announced it was pulling copy-protected CDs from store shelves and offered to replace customers' infected CDs for free.

But that's not the real story here.

It's a tale of extreme hubris. Sony rolled out this incredibly invasive copy-protection scheme without ever publicly discussing its details, confident that its profits were worth modifying its customers' computers. When its actions were first discovered, Sony offered a "fix" that didn't remove the rootkit, just the cloaking.

Sony claimed the rootkit didn't phone home when it did. On Nov. 4, Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's president of global digital business, demonstrated the company's disdain for its customers when he said, "Most people don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" in an NPR interview. Even Sony's apology only admits that its rootkit "includes a feature that may make a user's computer susceptible to a virus written specifically to target the software."

And Microsoft is known for watching out for its business interests at the expense of those of its customers.

Hard drives to be integrated into chips. Soon.

Hard drives to be integrated into chips. Soon.

Sony pulls infected CDs from shelves

Sony pulls infected CDs from shelves: "With multiple filed lawsuits, and more pending, this is a liability limiting run for cover. It makes an attempt at saying: 'We are not selling things after we knew they were harming people' for the sake of the legal system. Again, third grade logic makes you question why they sold these things for the past two weeks, I personally told them about the exploits late last week."

White LED doubles efficiency

White LED doubles efficiency

Raw Measurements /// Internet Traffic Report

Raw Measurements /// Internet Traffic Report

AMD shows off Socket F at Supercomputing

AMD shows off Socket F at Supercomputing

Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes | Linux Journal

Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes | Linux Journal: "Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes
By Doc Searls on Wed, 2005-11-16 02:00. Industry News"

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Blog Software Smackdown: The Big 3 Reviewed [Site Planning]

Blog Software Smackdown: The Big 3 Reviewed [Site Planning]

Giant ape lived along-side humans

Giant ape lived along-side humans: "Hamilton, ON - A gigantic ape, measuring about 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds, co-existed alongside humans, a geochronologist at McMaster University has discovered.

Using a high-precision absolute-dating method (techniques involving electron spin resonance and uranium series), Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago. This was known as the Pleistocene period, by which time humans had already existed for a million years."

Slashdot | Sony Rootkit Allegedly Contains LGPL Software

Slashdot | Sony Rootkit Allegedly Contains LGPL Software: "Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday November 15, @08:19AM
from the this-keeps-getting-funnier dept.
GNU is Not Unix Media
Deaths Hand writes 'According to this Dutch article the Sony DRM software (or rootkit, if you may prefer) contains code from the LAME MP3 encoder project, which is licensed under the LGPL. However, the source code has not also been distrbuted, hence breaching the license. Here is an english translation of the page.' So apparently Sony violates your privacy to create a backdoor onto your machine using code that violates an Open Source license. This story just keeps getting stranger.

Sony Rootkit Al"

DoxPara Research

DoxPara Research



Sunday, November 13, 2005

Edison Opto targets 100 W white LED development (November 2005) - News - LEDs Magazine

Edison Opto targets 100 W white LED development (November 2005) - News - LEDs Magazine: "Edison Opto Corporation, a Taiwan-based high-power LED manufacturer, has recently been awarded government funding to develop a 100 W LED."

Saturday, November 12, 2005

X-Men Character Bios: A-B

X-Men Character Bios: A-B

IBM 3D TV

IBM 3D TV: "International Business Machines, a worldwide leader in technology innovation, has announced a new and affordable 3D video system that works with normal DLP (Digital Light Processing) televisions. Before now, 3D video systems would set you back at least $1,800 while the price of IBM’s new system is expected to be only $1000 – if only a grand sounds cheap to you."

Friday, November 11, 2005

Angkor

Angkor

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Sony BMG sued over rootkit (again), Sony sued over Playstation, PSP

Sony BMG sued over rootkit (again), Sony sued over Playstation, PSP: "A BLIZZARD of lawsuits appears to be facing Sony in its different guises after Mark Russinovich revealed copy protection software installed rootkits on people's machines.

The US Electronic Frontier Foundation is also collecting information on the case.

But Sony is also being sued by a firm which alleges it has breached multiple patents with its Playstation and PSP.

We reported a law case against Sony BMG had started in Italy. Two separate class actions have started in the USA. The EFF in the US confirmed our earlier story that a number of titles are infected by the rootkit, and gives a partial list on its site.

Despite repeated attempts to contact Sony BMG for comment over the last week, the INQ has received no reply to the questions it has asked."

First Trojan using Sony DRM spotted | The Register

No Sony CD's for me.

First Trojan using Sony DRM spotted | The Register: "By John Leyden
Published Thursday 10th November 2005 13:25 GMT
Get breaking Security news straight to your desktop - click here to find out how

Virus writers have begun taking advantage of Sony-BMG's use of rootkit technology in DRM software bundled with its music CDs.

Sony-BMG's rootkit DRM technology masks files whose filenames start with '$sys$'. A newly-discovered variant of of the Breplibot Trojan takes advantage of this to drop the file '$sys$drv.exe' in the Windows system directory.

'This means, that for systems infected by the Sony DRM rootkit technology, the dropped file is entirely invisible to the user. It will not be found in any process and file listing. Only rootkit scanners, such as the free utility RootkitRevealer, can unmask the culprit,' warns Ivan Macalintal, a senior threat analyst at security firm Trend Micro"

IPv6 Still Hotly Debated

IPv6 Still Hotly Debated: "And herein lies the problem. DSL ISPs like Speakeasy have to contend with the fact that the telco monopolies own the last-mile distribution networks, and they have to lease them from the telcos at whatever rates the telcos wish to charge.

Normally, a vigilant FCC would keep tight rein on the telcos and force them to lease the lines at competitive rates. But the problem we have now is that our government is no longer interested in preserving competition, and thinks it would be better for consumers, and more efficient, to eliminate any such regulation on the telcos.

"

Computerworld | Experts at odds over relevance of IPv6

Computerworld | Experts at odds over relevance of IPv6: "A significant stumbling block to IPv6 adoption may be the IPv4 loyalists who are keen to keep the protocol in preference to the 'new improved' version.

Geoff Huston, senior Internet research scientist from Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (Apnic), belongs to the IPv4 camp.

'We happen to work in an industry that survives on complexity, address scarcity and insecurity,' Geoff Huston, senior Internet research scientist at Apnic, said. 'This is where the margins come from, and we are not innovators in this industry any more. We've learnt that optimism doesn't create a business case. All those people disappeared along with the dotcom boom,' he said.

Internet Protocol Version 6 is a backwards-compatible replacement for the current Internet protocol, and which boasts inbuilt mobility, quality, manageability and security. Its main selling point is that it will increase available address space from about 4 x 109 to 3 x 1038 unique IP addresses, allowing for nearly unlimited numbers of systems and networks."

Marvel Chronology Project - Main

Marvel Chronology Project - Main

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Main Page - MarvelDatabase

Main Page - MarvelDatabase

Mark Bernstein

Mark Bernstein

Lunch at Olive Garden

Lunch at live Garden

I met Dee and some of her co-workers at Olive Garden today. It was in celebration of Tina and Sue's birthdays. The food was good. Warren was just back from Italy. He was not impressed, saying that he would not go back. He was in Rome the same day a terrerist was captured there. Also the drivers were on strike so the only way to get around was to walk.

Sake-Drenched Postcards - In the Belly of the Whale

Sake-Drenched Postcards - In the Belly of the Whale

TMA's vertical axis wind turbine introduces competitive advantage

TMA's vertical axis wind turbine introduces competitive advantage


Today's screencapture.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Main Page - Comixpedia.org

Main Page - Comixpedia.org

Squeak: Squeak

Squeak: Squeak: "Squeak is a modern, open source, highly portable, fast and full-featured implementation of the powerful Smalltalk programming language and environment. "

New Scientist News - Anonymous sperm donor traced on internet

New Scientist News - Anonymous sperm donor traced on internet: "LATE last year, a 15-year-old boy rubbed a swab along the inside of his cheek, popped it into a vial and sent it off to an online genealogy DNA-testing service. But unlike most people who contact the service, he was not interested in sketching the far reaches of his family tree. His mother had conceived using donor sperm and he wanted to track down his genetic father.

That the boy succeeded using only the DNA test, genealogical records and some internet searches has huge implications for the hundreds of thousands of people who were conceived using donor sperm. "

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Corporate Crime Reporter

Corporate Crime Reporter:

"Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the Decade
by Russell Mokhiber "

Knowmore.org

Knowmore.org: "That's $110 million a day, and more net income than any company has ever made in a quarter. It's also a stunning 69 percent increase over the same period a year ago and a 34 percent jump from the $7.6 billion Exxon made just last quarter.

'Do you realize President Bush has just given a tax break to ExxonMobil?'' thundered Rep. Ed Markey (D-Malden). 'Of all the companies in the history of the world that needed a tax break, this month, ExxonMobil should be at the bottom of the list.''"

Knowmore.org

Knowmore.org: The people's corporation watch project.

toptenprosecutors081304

toptenprosecutors081304

The top prosecutors (in alphabetical order) are:



Christopher Christie, U.S. Attorney, New Jersey
James Comey, Deputy Attorney General, Justice Department, Washington, D.C.
Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney, Chicago
David Kelley, U.S. Attorney, Manhattan
Alice Martin, U.S. Attorney, Birmingham, Alabama

Patrick Meehan, U.S. Attorney, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Robert Morgenthau, District Attorney, Manhattan
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General, New York
Michael Sullivan, U.S. Attorney, Boston, Massachusetts
Debra Yang, U.S. Attorney, Los Angeles, California.

The prosecutors were chosen for their consistent emphasis on high profile corporate and white collar crime cases.

BALLE - Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

BALLE - Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

A 2002 case study in Austin, Texas showed that for every $100 in consumer spending at a national bookstore in Austin, Texas the local economic impact was only $13. The same amount spent at locally based bookstores yielded $45, or more than three times the local economic impact. (Civic Economics, Austin Unchained October 2003)

bsr110305

bsr110305: "After being forced out of BSR, Hammel continued to organize local BSR chapters around the country.

Back then, the local chapters still had a voice in the national.

“But in 2000, the national BSR sent us a letter. There was no discussion. They just said – we are eliminating all local chapters,” Hammel said. “They told us that BSR was going to spend all of its time on big corporations.”

Hammel has gone on help jump start a new organization – the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (www.livingeconomies.org).

The message – buy local, buy independent. “When I first formed BSR, I thought all businesses had the same interests in common,” Hammel said. “Then I realized that big corporations didn’t want to be with us. And we realized that our interests were different.”

“The first allegiance of big public companies is to their stockholders,” Hammel said. “Most of these big companies have to cater to the whims of the stockholders. That puts them in conflict with the consumer, community and the environment. Very few big companies can buck that stockholder dictatorship.”

“Second is – where do you live? Are you locally owned? If yes, then you are connected to the community,” Hammel said. “Companies like Starbucks (a BSR member) are creating a homogenized culture. They are homogenizing cultures all over the world. We want to see locally owned coffee shops.”

“We have done several studies showing that for every $100 spent at a local independent company – $45 goes to the community,” Hammel said. “If you spend the $100 at the corporate chain like Starbucks, only $13 goes to the community.”

The last BSR conference that Hammel attended was in 2001 in Seattle.

This was ten years after he founded BSR as his dream.

“I sat down at a table and noticed three guys with name tags that said Philip Morris and Company,” Hammel said.

“I asked these guys – you are not with the cigarette company, are you? And they said – ‘yes, we are with the holding company.’”

“I said to myself – these guys are members of BSR? They make products that kill people. What is this?”

That was the last conference he attended."

CBS Poll Finds Public Takes Plamegate Seriously

CBS Poll Finds Public Takes Plamegate Seriously:

Valerie Plame scandal has a higher ranking with the US public than the Monica Lewinsky, Whitewater or Iran/Contra scandals, and almost as high as Watergate.

"Some 51% said it is already of 'great importance,' with 35% choosing 'some importance' and 12% 'little or not importance.' Here are comparable numbers for other notable scandals in recent years, along with the month and year the poll was taken:


--Clinton-Lewinsky (1/98)

Great importance - 41%
Some importance - 21%
Little/no importance - 37%

--Whitewater (3/94)

Great importance - 20%
Some importance - 29%
Little/no importance - 45%

--Iran-Contra (2/87)

Great importance - 48%
Some importance - 33%
Little/no importance - 19%

--Watergate (5/73; Gallup Poll)

Great importance - 53%
Some importance - 25%
Little/no importance - 22% "

World of Warcraft hackers using Sony BMG rootkit

World of Warcraft hackers using Sony BMG rootkit: "Despite making a patch available on Wednesday to consumers to amend its copy protection software's behavior, Sony BMG and First 4 Internet, the maker of the content protection technology, have both disputed claims that their system could harm the security of a Windows system. Yet, other software makers that rely on the integrity of the operating system are finding that hidden code makes security impossible."

Home hacks? | Ask MetaFilter

Home hacks? | Ask MetaFilter

Solar powered Air Conditioning

Solar powered Air Conditioning

Ruby Home Page

Ruby Home Page

S5 Presents - An open-source web-based slideshow application

S5 Presents - An open-source web-based slideshow application

Hieraki - Trac

Hieraki - Trac: "Hieraki 1.1 - Developer Beta (0.0.9)

New Upcoming Release (Hieraki 1.1) - Beta is out for developers (/trunk). Please note that no migration is provided at this stage of development. Do NOT use this release unless you are a developer.

Two new big features:

* Everthing-is-a-page (TM) ...even attachments or internal links are pages ... The net effect is that everything is under version control (e.g. folders as well)
* Hieraki 1.1 uses B-Prime Trees. Check out the ActiveRecord::Acts::BPrimeTree module that I wrote. It allows moving entire branches as well (which is for example missing in ActiveRecord?::Acts::NestedSet?).

The 1.1 release is going to be shipped with Rails 1.0. An upgrade script from 1.0.2 to 1.1 will be provided."

bravenewlinda on 43 People

bravenewlinda on 43 People

Frequently Asked Questions on 43 Things

Frequently Asked Questions on 43 Things

Friday, November 04, 2005

xG Technology, LLC - Better technology by better thinking. xMax radio modulation and encoding technology.

xG Technology, LLC - Better technology by better thinking. xMax radio modulation and encoding technology.

Techworld.com - xMax sparks low power wireless revolution

Techworld.com - xMax sparks low power wireless revolution: "By Peter Judge, Techworld

A little-known start-up has demonstrated wireless broadband 1000 times more efficient than WiMax – and claims the technique could also make wireless LANs that will run for years on watch batteries."

Cheeta



I'm ready for my closeup.

Thursday, November 03, 2005


This is a test. Screencapture using IrfanView, imported to my blog using Picasa.

Learn to Program, by Chris Pine

Learn to Program, by Chris Pine: "A Tutorial for the Future Programmer"

Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails

Dino Blood Redux

Dino Blood Redux

Bush's risky flu pandemic plan - The Boston Globe

Bush's risky flu pandemic plan - The Boston Globe: "By George J. Annas | October 8, 2005

WHENEVER THE world is not to his liking, President Bush has a tendency to turn to the military to make it better. The most prominent example is the country's response to 9/11, complete with wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. After Hurricane Katrina, Bush belatedly called on the military to assist in securing New Orleans, and has since suggested that Congress should consider empowering the military to be the ''first responders' in any national disaster.

On Tuesday, the president suggested that the United States should confront the risk of a bird flu pandemic by giving him the power to use the US military to quarantine ''part[s] of the country' experiencing an ''outbreak.' So we have moved quickly in the past month, at least metaphorically, from the global war on terror to a proposed war on hurricanes, to a proposed war on the bird flu.

Of all these proposals, the use of the military to attempt to contain a flu pandemic on US soil is the most dangerous. Bush says he got the idea by reading John Barry's excellent account of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, ''The Great Influenza.' Although quarantine was used successfully in that pandemic, on the island of American Samoa, Barry in his afterword suggests (sensibly) that we need a national plan to deal with a future influenza pandemic. He said last week that his other suggestions were the only ones he hoped public health officials and ethicists would consider, but they read like policy recommendations to me and apparently the president. Barry writes, for example, ''if there is any chance to limit the geographical spread of the disease, officials must have in place the legal power to take extreme quarantine measures.' This recommendation comes shortly after his praise for countries that ''moved rapidly and ruthlessly to quarantine and isolate anyone with or exposed to' SARS.

Planning makes sense. But planning for ''brutal' or ''extreme' quarantine of large numbers or areas of the United States would create many more problems than it could solve.

First, historically mass quarantines of healthy people who may have been exposed to a pathogen have never worked to control a pandemic, and have almost always done more harm than good because they usually involve vicious discrimination against classes of people (like immigrants or Asians) who are seen as ''diseased' and dangerous."

TomPaine.com - Maxed Out

TomPaine.com - Maxed Out: "Today the new bankruptcy laws take effect, the product of an eight-year, multimillion dollar lobbying effort by the credit card industry. With the rhetoric peeled away, the new law, at its essence, will force any family with household income above their state median to commit all their disposable income to paying off credit card companies. Proponents of the law claimed their goal was to crack down on deadbeat debtors—irresponsible spendthrifts who run up thousands of dollars—then cut and run on paying the bill. This is not an uncommon perception about credit card debt, but it is a myth—one that’s given the status of fact—in our popular culture. Carrie Bradshaw wouldn’t own a single pair of Manolos if it wasn’t for plastic. Another example comes from a commercial that gets a lot of airtime. It features an upper middle-class, white, suburban father proudly showcasing his material accomplishments: membership to the golf club, a beautiful, big house and a nice car. How did he achieve this success? In the spot, he proclaims, “I’m in debt up to my eyeballs. Somebody please help me.” "

dieseldilemma_fullreport.pdf (application/pdf Object)

dieseldilemma_fullreport.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Environmental News and Humor | Grist Magazine | 03 Nov 2005

Environmental News and Humor | Grist Magazine | 03 Nov 2005

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has enviros worried | By Amanda Griscom Little | Grist Magazine | Muckraker | 01 Nov 2005

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has enviros worried | By Amanda Griscom Little | Grist Magazine | Muckraker | 01 Nov 2005: "Enviro advocates in D.C. have spent the last 24 hours digging through Samuel Alito's extensive paper trail for clues as to how he might vote on environmental cases were he confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

A staunchly conservative judge who's served on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for 15 years, Alito was nominated by President Bush yesterday to fill the slot being vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor. He's already a hit with Republican senators as well as Bush's right-wing base, which squelched the candidacy of Harriet Miers.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, are joining many progressives and Democrats in crying foul over the nomination.
"

TomPaine.com - Why Would Libby Lie?

TomPaine.com - Why Would Libby Lie?: "If Libby lied, why would he? The prosecutor unknowingly answered that question at his press conference. He said, if the reporters testified when they were issued subpoenas in August 2004, “we would have been here [holding a press conference] in October 2004 instead of October 2005.”

October 2004 was a mere month before the presidential election on Nov. 2, 2004. Amazingly, in all the timelines of the leak investigations, there is no mention of the presidential election in November 2004 or that the basis for the war in Iraq was a key issue in that election.

Whether the charges in the indictment are true and whether Libby or anyone else is ever convicted, such a press conference on the eve of the presidential election in October 2004 would have dramatically affected that election. The reason that press conference was not held in October of 2004 is because the prosecutor had to waste a year fighting all the way to the Supreme Court to get information from reporters. "

Edward A. Villarreal. Powered by Blogger.

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