] Sony and Toppan Printing are making a new mark on Blu-ray
] disc technology.
]
] The two companies have been working for about a year on
] printing data onto Blu-ray discs made mostly of paper.
] The companies are aiming to produce lower-cost discs and
] expand the use of the technology.

[ Neat, if they can be made reliable... -k]

Sony pushes paper Blu-ray disc | CNET News.com

(U:) Upon further consideration it occurs to me that those of you who are trying to figure out what you think about Bush could do worse then to pay close attention to this situation. Bush is not an intellectual. He likes to shoot from the hip. Regardless of how rational the conclusions here are, the WAY in which they were reached provides actual substance to the paranoid delusion that the U.S. supports Israeli expansionism. It is that paranoia that fuels much of the terrorist violence in the middle east, and its something we need to be combatting, not re-enforcing. It seems clear that this decision was counter to United States interests. Even conservative commentators seem to be scratching their heads on this one.

inignoct wrote:
] ] Informed of Palestinians' reaction, Sharon was quoted by
] ] two well-informed Israeli columnists covering his White
] ] House visit as saying: "They have a better understanding
] ] of the significance of (Bush's) letter than most
] ] Israelis. I said that we were going to deal them a lethal
] ] blow, and they were dealt a lethal blow."
] ]
] ] Over decades of Republican and Democratic
] ] administrations, the United States had officially viewed
] ] Israeli settlements implanted since the occupation of the
] ] West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war as an
] ] obstacle to peace.

On the one hand, Bush is mostly right. Those settlements aren't going away. He is saying that the Palestinians should have a contiguous state. Furthermore, Isreal is retreating from some of it's holdings.

Emotionally, however, there are serious problems with this. Mostly the fact that Sharon and Bush are sitting around making decisions about the Palestinian territories without any Palestinians at the table. Furthermore, Isreal gets to walk away with official recognition of formerly illegal settlements.

This kind of stuff dumps fuel in the general middle east fire about American fairness toward Arab interests. Most commentators seem to agree that its not a good time to be doing that.

RE: Palestinians Urge World to Challenge Bush Policy

] Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and
] radioactive materials are being taken out of the country,
] the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency reported after
] reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned
] up in European scrapyards.

[ Awesome. I mean, i'm sure nothing *really* dangerous was in there. And, like, I'm positive none of those terrorists would want any radioactive materials anyway... what would they do with it?

I think everything's fine, and now that we're *officially* best pals with Israel, we're gonna make sure ALL the arabs like us. The middle east is gonna rule from now on. -k]

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Probe Shows Iraq Nuke Facilities Unguarded

] MUNICH COURT GRANTS PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION FOR INFRINGING
] USE OF GPL LICENSED SOFTWARE

[ Not in the US of course, but still a validation of GPL... always nice to see. -k]

netfilter/iptables project homepage - netfilter project was granted a preliminary injunction against Sitecom GmbH

] To use the music recognition service, users dial a
] three-digit code, then must hold their mobile phone for
] about 15 seconds near a speaker playing the tune that
] they want to identify. Moments later, the service sends a
] text message to the users' mobile phone indicating the
] title of the song and the name of the recording artist.

Interesting. But how extensive could the database be? And is this really worth $.99?

[ Very interesting. You may all know that the Neuros audio player (an mp3/etc. player with some pretty advanced features) had a similar function, which would record a snippet of audio like that, and then, later, when connected to your computer and a network, ID the audio over the web and tell you what it was.

This seems to cut to the chase, though it seems pricey... 25 cent might be more realistic. Also, I think it's gonna become less relevant as satelite radio increases in popularity... which I think will occur.

Maybe though... I'm sure if i had it, i'd use it from time to time. Of course, usually I don't know i need an ID until after the song is over and the jackass DJ fails to inform me of anything he just played. -k]

Yahoo! News - AT&T Wireless Launches Music Service

] IRS polls suggest that the share of Americans who think
] it is acceptable to cheat has risen from 11 percent in
] 1999 to 17 percent in 2003. At the same time, the IRS has
] been starved of the resources it needs to go after
] evaders.

[ This is nonetheless a serious problem that must be addressed. Certainly, making it easier to file taxes, such as with eFile and simplifying some regulations can go a long way towards increasing people's participation, but the apparent decline in people's willingness to pay their share is troubling.

The article suggests that part of the reason for this stems from our leaders demonizing taxation. To be honest, I can't disagree... for many people, the "taxes are bad" rhetoric sinks in to a subconcious level and they start feeling like it's ok for them to cheat. I don't think that's the whole story, certainly... few things have a single explanation.

At any rate, I'd like to see the administration come out on this issue, but taxes are such a political landmine, I imagine they'll let the IRS keep bitching and stay far away from it. -k]

Taxes and 'Terror' (washingtonpost.com)

] The difference between God and Larry Ellison is that on
] Monday afternoon and again last night, Ellison caught
] Barry Bonds' historic 660th and his 661st home run.

Right. Because Larry Ellison needed giveaways from the Giants.

Amusing, though, that he got them by camping in the cove in a kayak. He's pretty intense, whatever you think of him.

[ Er, may not be the guy you're thinking of... this dude was a random sales manager, not a billionaire.

Interestingly, it may not be a particular boon to have acquired that baseball... there are some pretty crazy laws regarding valuation and the tax implications could be pretty devastating for a regular guy. There were all kinds of shenanigans resulting from a ball back during the McGuire/Sosa shootout... almost ended in total ruin for the guy. It's all fun and games until you catch a ball worth a million dollars and then get smacked with a few hundred grand in taxes. -k]

Rugged Elegance: San Francisco: Giant Barry Bonds Tells 660 Home Run Catcher, Larry Ellison

] Informed of Palestinians' reaction, Sharon was quoted by
] two well-informed Israeli columnists covering his White
] House visit as saying: "They have a better understanding
] of the significance of (Bush's) letter than most
] Israelis. I said that we were going to deal them a lethal
] blow, and they were dealt a lethal blow."
]
] Over decades of Republican and Democratic
] administrations, the United States had officially viewed
] Israeli settlements implanted since the occupation of the
] West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war as an
] obstacle to peace.

[ For better or worse, Bush picked sides yesterday, and the U.S. may well be stuck with that choice. In some ways, it's not a big change, since I think lots of people saw the official non-commitment as a facade anyway, covering the US' support for Israeli interests.

Still though, this isn't gonna foster peace, no matter what Bush said in his letter to Sharon. This is going to piss of a whole bunch of palestinians and might reinforce the impression that the US is anti-arab, which can't be good.

The cynic in me thinks this just might be politically oportunistic - drumming up support from some in the Jewish communities as other numbers dwindle.

Anyway, John Kerry has, perhaps surprisingly, kinda sorta supported the prez on this one, so it's not likely to be a campaign issue, though it may impact the numbers if palestinians respond violently.

Obviously things are complex over there, but this is a mildly surprising commitment considering our traditional handling of the situation.

p.s. for those not reading the story, the EU has said they won't recognize any border not agreed upon by both sides, and the UN has spoken against the decision, so the world stage, which we've spent plenty of time ignoring already, isn't behind us.

Palestinians Urge World to Challenge Bush Policy

] "Why is Steve afraid of opening up the iPod?" he asked in
] a telephone interview. "Steve is showing a high level of
] fear that I don't understand."

[ Or maybe Steve realized that Real is a marginal brand these days, and that his plans have been working just fine to date without making the iPod a general purpose media player. We all know the strategy. iTunes Store sells iPods which sell Macs. It may not work, but I don't think Real content is gonna help either way. Am I just being a snob? Do people still care about Real? -k]

RealNetworks Seeks a Musical Alliance With Apple (or Else!)

knockd is a port-knock server. It listens to all traffic on an ethernet interface, looking for special "knock" sequences of port-hits. A client makes these port-hits by sending a TCP (or UDP) packet to a port on the server. This port need not be open -- since knockd listens at the link-layer level, it sees all traffic even if it's destined for a closed port. When the server detects a specific sequence of port-hits, it runs a command defined in its configuration file. This can be used to open up holes in a firewall for quick access.

[ This got memed a while back... I thought it sounded neat, but got my ass handed to me by the actual security nerds on the site, to whom weak security is a worse sin than no security. I shrug. It's a cool idea, if only as a curiosity. -k]

knock - a port-knocking implementation