This should get the Ron Paulies in an uproar. But beware: these are MORMONS!!!

Very nice.

If you care about global warming policies, this will be helpful come 2008.

Today's "duh!" moment.

A chapter that was removed from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. As depressing as that novel is, this is even worse.

My wife just reminded me of a fortune cookie we received at lunch during our trip last year to find a place to live in California. We were moving from Chicago in about two weeks.

The fortune read: "You are heading for a land of sunshine."

And that's the definition of "coincidence."

The Diggsters show their compassion. Read the comments.

Funny, the underaged, hormone-driven dweebs that populate Digg were probably the first to download Paris Hilton's sex video. Now that she's in prison, however, they can't pile on enough.

Scrappleface on Paris Hilton. "What's bad for Paris Hilton is good for America."

It might seem like I'm picking on Techdirt, but I'm not, really. There's just a surplus of posts in my RSS reader, and I'm just now cleaning out my Techdirt folder. Nevertheless...

This post says "While we're generally suspicoius of vendor-funded surveys..." I wonder why. Are they equally suspicious of government-funded surveys, or NGO-sponsored surveys, or tech group-sponsored surveys? Most surveys are funded by some entitity with an agenda, whether it's obvious or not. It shows Techdirt's anti-business bias that they only mention vendors in this context.

The word "free" in "free trade" just throws some people, Techdirt among them. They simply can't understand that free markets require government protection of things like contracts, agreements and, yes, intellectual property. It would be fascinating to hear how trade could go on between nations without the protection of such things.

I suppose the Techdirt types imagine everyone will just play nicely, and share.

It's an open question as to whether our embassies should be promoting American culture. I don't really think that's a legitimate government responsibility. But the anti-American bile apparent in this Techdirt post is of more interest.

Techdirt often says it's not "political." Maybe, but it's certainly philosophical. And I used to think the site was about technology.

A particularly effective Cox and Forkum cartoon, courtesy of Little Green Footballs.

Update: The above LGF links might not work at the moment. They're apparently having some database problems.

Here's Boing Boing breaking trust with a film producer who's made their film available on YouTube. Boing Boing is recommending the use of the "Democracy Player" to pull the video off of YouTube for easier playing.

Perhaps the producer would have no problem with this, but it changes the game a bit. Rather than playing the film in the somewhat unwieldy and limited YouTube player, one can now play in a much more convenient player. Thus, one might be just that much less inclined to buy the "super high quality" formats available on the producer's site.

The film is an indy production called "Four Eyed Monsters," and I'm not a fan of indy films. But I am a fan of intellectual property and the creator's right to control it. Boing Boing, as usual, isn't.

This is pretty cool. Hum that unknown tune that's driving you crazy, and this site purports to tell you what song it's from.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Not only does Google maintain extensive information on our individual Internet activities, but it also has a tendency to be cavalier with intellectual property in general. The problem for the IT Left is that Google has long been their darling, acting as a foil against the company they really consider evil, Microsoft.

Will they accept privacy concerns with Google that they would accept from no other company? It remains to be seen which will take precedence, their hatred of Microsoft or their inherent dislike of business in general. I have no illusions, of course, that they'll be at all concerned about intellectual property.

Note that I'm not convinced that there are general "privacy" concerns in what Google is doing. Once my activities leave my computer, I'm not sure that they're any longer under my control. What happens on my computer should remain private, but that has as much to do with how I use my computer and what software I run.

If Google is going to dominate the world through sheer mastery of technology, then why does it need to engage in antitrust allegations against Microsoft?

I must admit, I do miss Chicago.

This is good advice. We have probably about 75% of our important documents scanned and saved in a variety of places, including on DVD in a fireproof safe. I like the idea of saving to online storage--not so much for the redundancy, but to make it readily available from any Internet-connected computer. Although I always dream of grabbing one of my notebooks in case of a fire or other disaster, it probably wouldn't happen.

I think I'd grab my kids first.

Some thoughts on terror and the Koran...

I love this: "pitting dog and cat lovers against animal rights activists."

Huh?

We used to call it "playing doctor." Seriously. Violence is one thing. Messing around is something we all did, or wanted to do, and is another thing completely. I think we're criminalizing what we once saw as mere curiosity.

This lays things on the line: vote Democrat to end the war. It'll be interesting to see how that theme plays out.

Wanna know which movie critics to trust? Go here.

Skull and Bones! Illuminati! Bilderbergers! Freemasons! Trilateral Commission! Priory of Sion! Reptilian Humanoids! Elders of Zion! Shadow Government! Council on Foreign Relations! New World Order! Military-Industrial Complex! The World Bank! Big Pharma! Big Oil! Big Banking!

It's amazing that anything gets done with so many competing interests.

A snowball in Hell? I'm not sure I remember a prominent UN figure, other than the US Ambassador, expressing support of Israel...

This is fascinating, if maybe a little depressingly predictable: a game called Bioshock that seems to incorporate Ayn Rand's philosophy in its background story. I'm guessing that it's hardly correct, although I'll reserve judgement given this review's use of such libels as the alleged "dog-eat-dog" aspect of Objectivism. I'm hoping that the game publisher knows Objectivism a little better than the reviewer, although I'm not that hopeful.

I'll likely buy and play the game, just to see what it's all about. Read the linked story if you have any interest in Ayn Rand and Objectivism.

Update: More here.

Is Putin crazy like a fox, or just plain crazy? I think the verdict's still out.

Nyah nyah nyah.

Very, very cool. With a name like "scramjet," it must be powerful.

If nuking Iran were on the Republican agenda, it would raise their stock quite a bit with me. Of course, Ron Paul is the only one who wouldn't.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at a 3929 Diggs, is about the world's biggest digger. It's a nice picture of a feat of mechanical engineering that I bet most Diggers can't really appreciate. Because, you know, it's like, physical.

Well, they should know...

Taking a former KGB agent at his word requires a bit of a leap of faith, or something like it. If true, though, this certainly wouldn't surprise me.

This should be required viewing for anyone who gives presentations.

I can't agree that the G8 Summit is just another "sales meeting." It's more so an opportunity for mixed-economy leaders to get together an figure out new ways to inject force into what should be free transactions between individuals, and to confiscate wealth for political purposes.

I'm a big fan of treaty organizations like NATO the provide for common defense among free nations (or, semi-free, of course, but that's beside the point). But I find the G8 to highlight the dangers of the mixed economy.

The reason we have safeguards against things like illegal search and seizure is because government is the greater threat against our freedoms, not individual criminals. By making such tactics in pursuing even legitimate convictions fruitless, in other words by throwing out cases where such tactics are used, government is less likely to use them for illegitimate purposes. Thus, we are safer from government intrusion.

That's why this kind of thing gets such scrutiny. I don't find it inappropriate, necessarily, but I do see how it stretches the bounds of acceptability.

From this MEMRI account, it appears that our journalistic openness provides great intelligence to the enemy. That might be one of the inherent weaknesses of a free society, or maybe it's just bad decision-making on the part of our mainstream media. Either way, it hurts us terribly in our efforts to enhance our security.

If one believes that Google's book-scanning project constitutes copyright infringement, then this guy was making a valid point. Boing Boing, of course, makes a whole host of assumptions, such as that the guy "misunderstands copyright," which is in the title but never supported in the story, and that Google's project is necessarily "laudable."

I hardly think it's a foregone conclusion that scanning books and placing their contents online is not copyright infringement. Personally, I wonder. And, such a project would require extreme methods of digital rights management (DRM) to avoid infringing, even if it's possible, while Boing Boing has historically been anti-DRM of any kind.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at 5418 Diggs, is about Paris Hilton's return to jail. The comments in this one are pretty harsh. I don't like her either, but then again, I don't really care.

I have some experience with this sort of thing at my son's after school program. The problem with the issue of porn and school computers is terribly exacerbated by misspelled Web sites, where a kid accidentally connects to a site that downloads all sorts of nasty stuff. I'm really not sure how any teacher could be prosecuted for this stuff.

All that this points out is that removing state sponsors of groups like al Qaida is the only way to make a meaningful impact on their activities.

A more rational treatment of intellectual property issues, which does tend to point out their complexity. This is from Edward Cline posting at the Rule of Reason blog.

Space-based energy? I like it. It does, though, walk that fine line as to what's legitimate for government. The Pentagon has to do things to maintain our military advantages, and so this might just be a necessary evil.

As much as I dislike Apple politically (or, maybe just Apple devotees), they do make some interesting stuff.

More from Boing Boing on stealing intellectual propert.

What exactly does it mean that Putin has agreed to put missile defense technology in Azerbaijan? Or, I should say, to suggest doing so, since I believe Azerbaijan is a sovereign nation. I haven't kept up on the whole former Soviet bloc nation thing, to know what the actual political relationship might be.

Some information on the Creation Museum, linked without comment.

Celebrity Report: I'm not surprised that Will Smith and Bruce Willis are friends, nor that Smith has doled out some good advice.

Here's Kasparov on Putin and Russia. As Ayn Rand said, evil requires the sanction of the good to prosper, and nowhere is that more clear than with Russia and the West.

A one-minute case against environmentalism.

Bill Gates has always been poor philosophically, but this is pretty disappointing even for him.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at a brisk 8203 Diggs, is a story about Paris Hilton's sudden release from prison. If the story is true, it would appear that the five days she spent behind bars (not three as indicated in the Digg headline) is typical for the crime. So, just the typical misleading Digg hyperbole.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Those wacky ancient Peruvians!!!

I thought deja vu was caused by transitory timing glitches between each eye. I guess I was wrong, and this explanation makes more sense anyways. It's also sort of freaky.

While I'm a fierce proponent of intellectual property protections, both patents and copyrights, I do believe that advances in technology might require additional reform of the patent system. Amazon.com's "one-click" patent and, apparently, its cousin, seems to support this notion.

I'm not a patent law expert, though, and so I would rather err on the side of protecting intellectual property. The sooner such things get resolved, though, the better, I think.

Here's another chapter in the US government's on-going war against the evil corporation. In an age of increasing global competition, what we really need is for our government to do everything in its power to make the American economy less competitive.

The money sentence in this story: "There doesn't seem to be an easy way for the RIAA to monetize their problems." "Monetize" their "problems"? Is this a euphamism for "get paid for their products"?

Read the whole thing for the context.

This isn't such a new concept. I remember getting Atari fever back in the day, and Commodore 64osis, which was always quite painful.

While we were playing Space Invaders and Joust, our collectivist enemies were playing strangly nondescript games like "pass." Yes, that would be a driving game, which apparently was the most common video game of the Soviet Empire. Obviously, the proletariat was jonesing for the automobile, big time.

Update: Here's more information. Apparently, the Soviets were way ahead of us in the self-esteem movement--no high scores.

Freedom to steal intellectual property. Freedom to exploit children for sex.

The Pirate Bay. The darling cause of the IT Left.

I don't pretend to understand this quantum mechanics stuff. I also have an inherent distrust of it. I'm not sure how transmitting "information" across a distance can be the same thing as transmitting matter. I'm not sure anyone really does.

Well, this is good news, I supposed. I only wish Fox had listened to the browncoats, and resurrected Firefly.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at 5949 Diggs, is the worst sort of Digg misinformation. Here, Guiliani allegedly had some "journalist" arrested merely for asking a question. That's not how I see the video, and note that this was a private GOP event.

And, these were Truthers. Enough said, I think. Read the comments if you want a good laugh.

If you're so inclined, here's Scott Adams latest controversy honeypot. Chime in if you want to join the rabid pack.

Yegads. And this guy's running for President.

Ask.com has a new look. Check it out. It's a tad slower than Google, but it provides more compelling results in that they're also categorized. I can't say that the results are more pertinent; only additional testing will flesh that out one way or the other--and how has time for that?

This is a little techie, but I wonder: is Google just replaying the old "centralized vs. decentralized" game in a different way? After all, people wanted their own computers with their own applications and data for reasons. What makes the Web so different than the old legacy mainframes? And, once Google applications start running on the client, they're no different than Microsoft applications--and, they'll probably start being held to the same standard.

I think people accept Google's simplicity because it works for Web apps, and people appreciate their Web applications being quick and snappy. The same isn't true for client applications--people expect those to be robust and feature-rich. Sure, I might only typically use 1% of Microsoft Word's capabilities, but when I want that other 99%, I want it. I use Word because it has a very deep feature set, even if I don't use it most of the time.

The next few years should be interesting. I think some poeple are writing Microsoft off far too quickly.

I agree with most of this. When I write, I find myself using about 1% of Micrsoft Word's capabilities. I could probably write as well in Notepad--maybe better, because there are fewer distractions. I like technology, even complex technology, as long as it doesn't get in its own way.

This is as close to political as I've seen Dilbert get, and I even like it.

Would Boing Boing find a graphic novel about the Nazis "gripping, savage, and thoughtful," and in a good way? After all, the Nazi's were on the "Other Side" as well... Maybe the author will put out something on al Qaida next, perhaps showing the bliss experienced by the martyrs as the planes slammed into the buildings and they ascended in an instant to paradise.

This Boing Boing post contains a reference to likely the most popular error made about intellectual property and digital rights management (DRM): that DRM "(adds) restriction on what can be done with something (people have) paid for." A purchase is a two way transaction, between a purchaser and a seller. Both have terms that define the transaction. For example, in the case of media such as CD's and DVD's, the seller's terms are clearly laid out on the packaging: no unauthorized copies are to be made, which in practice means no copies, because none are authorized by the seller.

DRM actually only applies to materials sold in purely digital form (hence the name) and to which DRM has been attached. By definition, DRM can't hamper one's right to "do something" with what he's "purchased," because the DRMed product is specifically what was sold. Implicit in this sale (and, I'm sure, laid out clearly in the sales agreement with whatever online store sold the material) is the idea that the DRM will remain in place and will dictate the product's use. The purchasers right, if he doesn't like those terms, is to simply not purchase the product.

Only if one asserts that a sale is an open-ended transaction for the purchaser, with no rights allowed to the seller and with the right to do anything he wants allowed to the purchaser, can one make the claim that DRM somehow stops the purchaser from using a product appropriately. Instead, DRM actually defines quite cleary what the purchaser is buying: that is, a digital product with certain inherent restrictions.

The fact that DRM is circumvented does not mitigate its appropriateness. Many people know how to circumvent automobile security, but there are no calls claiming that the inability to protect an automobile from theft means that it should no longer be subject to protection. Rather, automobile manufacturers continue to develop new and better ways to protect them.

The same should be done with intellectual property. Some sellers have given up on DRM, and are selling unprotected materials. That's their right, of course. It's a great evil, however, that they do so primarily because they see no other choice.

Intellectual property protection remains a misunderstood and misconceived notion. I personally don't know a single soul who knows or cares about DRM; it's mainly a core group of Left-leaning, technologically savvy elites who make all the noise on the issue. Like the typical Leftist anti-globalization and anti-industrial (read, anti-capitalist) "rallies," the anti-DRM movement is not made up of typical people (i.e., you and me).

Some day, people will have a real reason to keep pet mice.

Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at 5440 Diggs, is about... a picture. "The Most Awesome Pic EVER!"

Um, okay.

And, more evidence that Ahmadinejad's a crazy bastard.

And I'm sure that this is just being taken out of context like all of Ahmadinejad's other comments.

It looks like the cozy relationship between the Iranian and Venezualen crazies is bearing some rotten fruit.

Is this the first step to Putin remaining in power? If so, I can't say I'd be surprised.

Celebrity Report 2: In a real bit of celebrity goodness (and, a bit of a shocker, as well), we have Jack Nicholson thanking the troops at the MTV Music Awards. (!) I'm surprised because I didn't think of Nicholson this way, and never expected this sort of thing at any event even marginally associated with MTV.

Good for him.

Celebrity Report: Bruce Willis seems to really embrace technology. Here he is in Second Life promoting Die Hard 4.

Is it just me, or is there a real surplus lately of loony national leaders?

Ama.. Amj... Ami... the guy from Iran. The little bastard from North Korea. Chavez in Venezuala. Putin. The list seems endless.

I'm not sure I completely understand this story, but whatever it's saying, the author says Ayn Rand predicted it. I think it's saying that regulations have driven the cost of producing tangible goods so far beyond the costs of producing intangible (and presumably less regulated) goods that we're facing a collapse of the "tangible goods" market.

I would agree with that, except I'm not sure it's true that "intangibles" are any less regulated. And, our economy continues to show remarkable resiliency, and I don't see Atlas Shrugged happening anytime soon. We're likely to continue limping into the foreseeable future.

Still, worth a quick glance.

I still say: if your toothpaste is made in China, toss it and buy another brand. I've been told by Crest that it's toothpaste is made in North America.

The juxtaposition of this Businessweek story, about learning to drive more slowly, as just preceding this one in my blog reader borders on ironic.

I want a BMW M5. And, it's not to drive slowly. 500 horses, an 8250 RPM redline, and 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. That's making my Infiniti G35 seem downright pedestrian.

Of course, my G35 didn't cost over $80K.

I'll take two! Seriously, though, a PC is a tool, and I wonder just how much one could accomplish with this model from Asus. Linux aside (and Linux is fine, for people who can use Linux), I wonder what else one gives up with something like this.

I've spent $189 for a notebook battery by itself. How long does this thing run on battery, 20 minutes?

Ironically, selling drugs is (by itself) a victimless crime. Stealing intellectual property isn't. And yet, some complain that the latter is being treated as seriously as the former.

If you want to steal video content, here's your tool: The Democracy Player! This isn't new, but it's coming out of beta and so presumably will be more widely accessible. I'll have to play with it and see how it stops me from stealing other people's property.

I'm sure it's ironclad. This is via the People's Republic of Boing Boing, of course.

If these were private ventures, the measure of success and failure would be clear and incontrovertible. They would also be moral, by requiring those who use such wireless Internet services to pay for them directly and by not providing an unearned benefit to those who don't.

And so it all continues: more content on YouTube. I don't understand the whole thing--YouTube has horrible quality, and it's not particularly convenient. But, at least it's by virtue of some sort of voluntary agreement.

I used to jones for one of these big-time. It wasn't until I was able to purchase a Timex Sinclair 1000, however, for $99, that I experienced computer ownership for the first time.

As I ponder the issue of racism, what sometimes strikes me is the historical gyrations that some go through to both make their own race look good, and another race look bad. For example, I remember a documentary from a few years back about Egypt, which included a black activist's complaint about Elizabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra in the movie by the same name.

The complaint was centered around the fact that Egyptians were Africans, and thus presumably black. Casting white actors to represent Egyptians was therefore a form of white supremacism. It's not my point here to debate the true ethnicity of the Egyptians, nor the question of how historical figures should be represented.

Rather, my point is that this same activist, later in the documentary, could be heard lamenting white slaveowners as evil men. However, if the Egyptians were indeed black, then they were some of the most notorious slaveowners in history. Many blacks are religious, and so must be well aware of the story of Moses and the Jews--and, they must believe it, or renounce their faith.

And so, one must wonder at how people can so easily compartmentalize historical facts to support their own positions, even when these facts are contradictory and yet must be actively held at essentially the same time. Certainly, this isn't unique to the issue of racism, but it certainly applies in that context.

Well, even if they did get here first, they didn't do much about it.

I think scientists are finding many more species than they're demonstrating are actually going extinct.

Light blogging day, incidentally. Personal stuff to take care of.

Good.

This is tragic, but I don't think they can blame it on the Republicans...

This Digg story takes some things a bit out of context, I think. But then, that wouldn't be a surprise.

Cox and Forkum's (as usual) on-target take on the Russian response to the European missile shield.

Idiot Alert: Man tases self.

If Ray Bradbury says Fahrenheit 451 is not about government censorship, then I think we have to take his word for it. In this story, he's talking about television, but I think the Internet is even more on point for what he's saying about the on-going destruction of the attention span.