Soapbox style rants
In a move that shows that some corporations are more powerful then governments, Microsoft had Cryptome shut down. Well, we all get to see there Global Criminal Compliance Handbook after all. With shenanigans like that, it’s probably getting more press then EVER!
read story here: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/microsoft-cryptome/
Network Solutions are you just doing favors for microsoft? i’m glad they don’t have any of my domains.
Read all about it and check the list:
http://deadpeasantinsurance.com/which-employers-bought-policies-on-the-lives-of-employees/
(I wouldn’t have a problem if they shared the earnings with the families)
After watching their superbowl ad, i started searching for something i was very interested in. Me. I’ve had an internet presence since before altavista.digital.com. I’m not hard to find, so i don’t imagine many people googling for me, but i was curious to what i would find.
it made me wonder, what does google really know? They’ve been indexing the internet all day every day for who know’s how long. . . just this week, you’ve visited my website 2400 times (that’s right, more robots then people read this). When i googled myself, i found my twitter profile on top (not entirely surprised), followed by my be3n.com site “under construction” for years. standard. after that, what did i find? Number three on google? Any of my countless profiles on countless websites? Any of my blog posts from here? nah? that’s too easy. google hands you a 3 year old comment i left on a photograph from panoramio.
That comment is listed before any of my more active profiles. It eventually lists my wikipedia user page and my last.fm profile, but that’s later. somethingdotsomething.com barely makes the 2nd page. Only after posts of leetspeak, Even though it is the most frequently updated site i’m involved with. does google prefer consistency to freshness? let me know what you think.
Why would BMO—the organizer of an “an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance”—undermine speech and creativity like this? BMO claims that the terms in the Burning Man ticket agreement are necessary to protect Black Rock City’s unique culture and the privacy of its participants. Furthermore, BMO points out that the limitations are rarely enforced and they only claim copyright if the photos are used in a way BMO doesn’t authorize. By claiming copyright in all photographs taken at the event, BMO can use the streamlined “notice and takedown” process enshrined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to quickly remove unapproved photos from the Internet.
In another example of steller business practices, paypal has started bouncing payments too and from indian users. No explanation, just a lot of outrage!
full story <was> here:
http://todayskhabor.com/2010/02/06/paypal-india-payments-reversed-no-payments-to-or-from-india/
i like that NASA is going to contract out manned space travel to private contractors. Applied Composites, I’m looking in your direction. I’ll admit that NASA can land a probe anywhere they want, but the shuttle was a bad idea even 20 years ago. Who thought it was a good idea to haul a huge gas tank *almost* into space, just to send it hurtling back to earth. It’s not like we can use that for a space station or moon base.
This article describes an upbringing with computers that in addition to being quite similar to my own almost certainly will ring true with many readers. It talks of apple’s beginnings. In those days in order to make anything your own you had to tinker. Many computers at the start shipped not only with a basic interpreter in place of an operating system, but with schematics as well. Unfortunately for some, times have changed. If modern apple continues on the path they have clearly laid it means an end to the tinkerers lifestyle.
When DVD Jon was arrested after breaking the CSS encryption algorithm, he was charged with “unauthorized computer trespassing.” That led his lawyers to ask the obvious question, “On whose computer did he trespass?” The prosecutor’s answer: “his own.”
Apple is trying to do the same with their touch devices. iPhone, iPod Touch, and the new iPad require serious hacking before any tinkering can be done. If apple has their way, they will have jailbreaking void more then just your warranty and your service contract. You’ve come a long way from your hacker roots Apple. Your design is amazing, but PLEASE remember your pledge with OS X to be “Open for Business.” From what i have seen, apple is no more open then they are required to be by all the licences they themselves are using.
Read the entire article here: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2010/01/29/tinkerers-sunset
tonight i finally installed linux on my ps3. i did this in preparation for an os upgrade in which they REMOVED the feature! nice upgrade guys! well, at least they let you keep it if you already installed it. i laugh now to think that i had ever thought that sony was opening up to open source and open standards.
As if I haven’t already learned my lesson, i continue to tempt fate. just yesterday i skated by on my data recovery skills and pure luck when i nearly lost 200GB of personally encoded tested and tagged dvds! i can only imagine how many hours of man and machine work to went into that collection. i’ll only have to redo a handful of movies. lets hope they haven’t wondered off, that they are in their cases, and all the horrible things that drove me to encode them all in the first place. if you care about it, back it up. storage is so cheap now. there is no reason not to just back everything up!
or maybe it’s just my syndication script. either way, my last post was hyperminimalist for facebook.