] Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich signed a law Thursday that
] will greatly reduce penalties for disease sufferers who
] use marijuana to relieve pain.
]
] The new law sets a maximum fine of $100 for "medical
] marijuana" users who have less than an ounce of the leaf.
] It makes Maryland the 10th state since 1996 to ease or
] eliminate sanctions for medical use of the herb, which
] gained wide use during the 1960s because of its euphoric
] effects.
]
] Maryland's move is a setback for the Bush administration,
] which had called on Ehrlich, a fellow Republican, to
] reject the measure.
]
] The White House has made marijuana a particular target of
] its anti-drug efforts, arguing that users often move on
] to more dangerous drugs. It has campaigned against
] medical marijuana proposals in several states, prosecuted
] distributors and growers of medical pot in California,
] and urged Canadian officials to reject a plan to
] eliminate criminal penalties for most marijuana users in
] that country.
]
] Despite those efforts, lawmakers in states across the
] nation have shown a willingness to separate marijuana
] from other banned drugs. That's largely because of claims
] by scientists and patients that the drug's most active
] ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), can ease pain and
] nausea and improve the appetites of those suffering from
] AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other ailments.

It’s a step in the right direction, but as long as it remains a "controlled substance" (an oxymoron if ever there was one) with fines for possession, the illegal drug trade will continue to profit. C'mon folks - quit being so damn wishy-washy on decriminalization. It's gotta be all or nothing.

Attitudes ease toward medical marijuana

] Welcome to the most respected, domesticated penguin
] dealer on the Internet! Relax and take a look around our
] site where you can find information on our company, our
] products, and what goes into the care of a penguin.
] Penguin Warehouse, Inc. sells certified purebred
] penguins, useful penguin books, and many other items to
] make you and your new pet happy.

Penguin Warehouse, Inc. - Buy a Pet Penguin Today

so as you may or may not know the author of this article is the author and distributor of a few open source projects, one most notable project is the Airjack project...this is a tool (a driver actually) for raw 802.11 frame injection and the sort, its what i used to break things for my blackhat lecture...

i no longer actively maintain this project, but i still distribute it, and ill give help on it...and if someone has a really good question i really help and sometimes expand functionality...

anyways, i get email all the time about it, most of it them are asking for support on some level, most are actually polite, respectful, ie, dont piss me off...

every now and then i get a gem, one that is in leet speak, from the most vial script kiddie that has ever picked up a keyboard...id like to share some of the anger and frustration with you, the anonymous internet goer, in the hopes that i can somehow cathartically dispell these feelings...

----

ok first thing you need to know is this...if you are asking a stranger for free software that they spent time to write and make useful, then you are asking them for a favor...believe me there are many projects i work on and very very very few i make public...so if you have any troubles with it, go about things as you would when asking a stranger for a favor...

i cant begin to tell you how often i get people upset because i didnt help them adiquitely in their eyes, or because i wont add a feature, or because it is hard to install, ive even been accused of embedding malicious viruses in my OPEN SOURCE code (something very untrue, its open source for god's sake)...

some ground rules before you ever email a free software project maintainer...

1) know what the program/tool is, that includes what its supposed to do, the general type of program it is (driver, user space application, command line, x app, etc), what os it runs on, what os it doesnt run on...and again, what its supposed to do...you'd think that would be a prerequisite for even wanting a thing, but nope, later you'll see its not...

2) if you have trouble installing the program, this is not my problem...i clearly already have this installed and sence i owe you nothing, i have no obligation to help you install it...that said i made it public because i wanted to share, so i am more than happy to help you install it...

3) i dont write documentation because i like writing documentation...so if i have any, documentation, i have it there to help you, not me, i already know how it works...so read the documentation and dont ask me to paste it to you in email...the documentation is faster and bothers me less...

4) if you find a bug, its not my problem, i might fix it, i might not, your bug is your problem, not mine, if it works for me then im happy...thats not to say that i wont fix the bug, what that means is i have no obligation to fix the bug...believe me 99 times out of 100 im mo... [ Read More (2.3k in body) ]

They're only frequently asked questions because no-one reads the FAQ

] A single cog sets off a chain reaction that sets
] component parts of a Honda Accord in elaborate and
] orchestrated motion. Quite unlike any car commercial
] you've likely seen.

This is a _very_cool_ car commercial.

'boards - Screening Room - QuickTime

] In August, Buena Vista Home Entertainment--Disney's home
] video unit--will begin a pilot program using technology
] that renders discs useless 48 hours after being removed
] from packaging and exposed to oxygen, Reuters reported.
]
] The DVDs will play perfectly during the two-day period,
] Flexplay Technologies, which developed the technology,
] told Reuters.
]
] The discs cannot be hacked after 48 hours because the
] technology is based on chemicals and not computers, it
] was reported. But the disc can be copied before it
] oxidizes.
]
] The move allows Buena Vista to expand its market by
] "renting" movies from almost anywhere without having to
] provide a return point for the discs, Reuters said.

This is moronic. My first thought is, "Oh great, disposable DVDs. Wonder how much waste that will cause?" Well, my question was answered later in the article:

"Self-destructing DVDs would create considerable waste. A study conducted for Flexplay by environmental policy expert Jonathan Koomey found that if disposable DVDs made up 10 percent of all U.S. video rentals, an additional 350 million DVDs would be discarded, creating 5,600 metric tons of solid waste annually."

I'm glad Disney is so concerned about our world.

Also in the article is this tidbit of market research:

"The technology can also work on music CDs and software CD-ROMs, according to SpectraDisc, but movies are the target, since people generally buy music and software to keep."

Who are they talking about? I buy movies to keep, and so does everyone else I know. This is going to get mauled by the "video on demand" development going on in the cable industry.

Warning: This DVD will self-destruct in 2 days

] TO have any chance of making easy money on the Internet,
] computer geek Howard Carmack knew he had to send more
] than a million junk e-mails every day.
]
] And to avoid being detected by Internet companies that
] try to block the nuisance messages, he needed to become
] devious.
]
] So to keep his annoying spam flowing across the Web and
] into the in-boxes of hundreds of thousands of e-mail
] users, the 36-year-old stole the identities of strangers
] and hacked into their e-mail accounts, investigators have
] learned - and he also betrayed members of his own family.
]
] Carmack not only stole his uncle Joseph's identity; his
] mentally disabled brother, James Jr., was also a victim,
] according to court papers.

Ooh, this guy is a real winner.

NYPOST.COM Regional News: SPAMMER GETS MESSAGE By DAVID TOBENKIN

pR00f j00 dU kN0t Kn3Ed t0 b33 4 h4x0R t0 c0mMiT Cyb0rCr1m3z

CNN.com - Feds nab 135 in cybercrime sweep - May. 16, 2003

] A new global study concludes that 90 percent of all large
] fishes have disappeared from the world's oceans in the
] past half century, the devastating result of industrial
] fishing.
]
] The study, which took 10 years to complete and was
] published in the international journal Nature this week,
] paints a grim picture of the Earth's current populations
] of such species as sharks, swordfish, tuna and marlin.
]
] The authors used data going back 47 years from nine
] oceanic and four continental shelf systems, ranging from
] the tropics to the Antarctic. Whether off the coast of
] Newfoundland, Canada, or in the Gulf of Thailand, the
] findings were dire, according to the authors.
]
] "I think the point is there is nowhere left in the ocean
] not overfished," said Ransom Myers, a fisheries biologist
] at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia

SNIP

This is bad. This is really bad. "Eat mor chikin"

CNN.com - Study: Only 10 percent of big ocean fish remain - May. 14, 2003

] The music industry's antipiracy efforts took an
] embarrassing turn Tuesday when the Recording Industry
] Association of America acknowledged that it has
] erroneously sent dozens of copyright infringement
] notices.
]
] The RIAA said Tuesday that a temporary worker was
] responsible for firing off legal notifications last week
] that invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act without
] confirming that any copyrighted files were actually being
] offered for download. "We have sent two dozen withdrawal
] notices--all appear related to this particular temp," the
] RIAA said in a statement. "We apologize for any
] inconvenience this may have caused."

When all else fails, blame it on the temp.

RIAA apologizes for erroneous letters | CNET News.com

] AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Three Democrats returned to the
] Capitol on Tuesday, but more than 50 remained on the lam
] in Oklahoma, frustrating Republican efforts to push
] through a plan to redraw the state's congressional
] districts.
]
] The rebellious Democrats were holed up at a hotel in
] Ardmore, Okla. They sneaked out of Austin on Sunday after
] spending several days discussing ways to derail a GOP
] plan to redraw the districts that seeks to increase the
] number of Republican seats.
]
] With 58 Democrats gone on Monday, the 150-member House
] was unable to muster the two-thirds quorum needed to
] conduct business. House Speaker Tom Craddick called the
] House to order Tuesday morning but even with the return
] of three Democrats, there still were enough missing to
] block any House business.
]
] The three returning Democrats were welcomed back into the
] House chamber with hugs and supportive words from their
] Republican colleagues. One Democrat, Rep. Helen Giddings,
] fought back tears as she stated her desire to stop the
] redistricting plan.
]
] The defiant Democrats in Oklahoma said they would stay
] away until Republicans agreed to drop the redistricting
] plan.
]
] "It's totally up to Craddick, and he has been so
] advised," one of the Democrats told The Associated Press
] on the condition of anonymity. "If he'll get
] redistricting off the calendar, we'll be right there
] bright and early."

Only in Texas

Texas Dems skip session