] HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of protesters
] took to Hong Kong's streets on Tuesday to denounce the
] government and its planned anti-subversion law in the
] city's biggest demonstration since the 1989 Tiananmen
] Square massacre.

Hong Kong breaks into protest

] "I would guess that you would then see stories about the
] family faced with economic ruin and the cost of having to
] hire defense counsel, settling for $10,000 or $20,000,
] and the money they were saving for Timmy's college
] education now has to go to Kid Rock," said Philip S.
] Corwin, a lobbyist in Washington for Sharman Networks,
] distributor of the Kazaa file-sharing software.
]
] "That's the kind of stuff that would scare a politician."

Labels May Face Risk in Piracy Suits

T-spigot now has CDs selling on Amazon. These are some friends of mine from the bay area. Frequently featured on somafm. The "Trip to Booker" track has samples I gave them from a whacky indy film that our tivo grabbed one night. If you like the stuff on somafm, you should buy this CD.

Amazon.com: Music: Experiments in the Hypnotic Production of Crime

] No. Placing your number on the National Do Not Call
] Registry will stop most, but not all, telemarketing
] calls. Some businesses are exempt from the national
] registry and still can call you even if you place your
] number on it. Exempt businesses include:
]
] * long-distance phone companies
] * airlines
] * banks and credit unions; and
] * the business of insurance, to the extent that it is
] regulated by state law.
]
] However, many telemarketing calls are placed by
] professional telemarketing companies, and even if the
] company whose goods or services are being sold is exempt,
] the telemarketing company may be covered.
]
] You may still receive calls from political organizations,
] charities, telephone surveyors or companies with which
] you have an existing business relationship.

Hrm. See, I got fairly excited about this thing... Then, after being woken up at 9 AM on Saturday Morning by the F.O.P., I decided to really look at it. Turns out, its basically useless. MOST of the telemarketing calls I receive are:

1. Surveys.
2. Charities.
3. Long Distance Services.
4. Credit Services.

All of these things are exempt. Thank you government, for yet again appearing to do something without doing anything at all.

- Decius

National Do Not Call Registry: Not all its cracked up to be

] A group of Xbox security researchers say they have found
] a way to run Linux on the Xbox game console without a
] so-called mod chip and will go public with the technique
] if Microsoft won't talk to them about releasing an
] official Linux boot loader.

] Muir says the release of the claimed series of exploits,
] one of which is in the Xbox Dashboard utility, factory-
] installed on the Xbox hard drive, could be disastrous for
] games companies intent on preventing piracy. If genuine,
] the exploits would let anyone with even a slight technical
] knowledge "reflash" the Xbox BIOS, allowing users to
] pirate games. The only hardware modification necessary is
] a dollop of solder on the write-enable pads on the
] motherboard.

Very interesting..

This is a nightmare situation for Microsoft. If they do nothing, exploits will be released enabling mass-piracy of their games. If they release a Linux bootloader, then they have allowed Linux onto their platform. They sell these consoles at below cost and make their money on games. Razors and blades. From an economic standpoint, either presented option is totally unacceptable.

Also, if Microsoft plays along, there is no guarantee that the exploits will not get released, or more likely, discovered by others.. Infact, I believe they are only being baited, and these exploits will be released anyway. I can't envision Microsoft giving into any demands, of any type, let alone a signed linux bootloader for the XBox..

Expect Microsoft to create a third option. Expect lawsuits. Expect someone to get arrested. The DMCA will play an obvious role. I could see them attacking Huang just for drill.. This will be a developing story..

Group claims Linux advance on Xbox | CNET News.com

] Is there an Artificial God?
]
] Douglas Adams' speech at Digital Biota 2, Cambridge U.K.
]
] September 1998

Interesting Read

Douglas Adams' speech at Digital Biota 2

] Public Knowledge had arranged the meetings, with members
] and their staff from both sides of Congress, and both
] sides of the isle. We met with the staffs of Senators
] Cantwell, McCain and Leahy, then met with Congressman
] Cannon and Boucher. And — at her request — we met with
] Congresswoman Bono.

Lessig's efforts to get the Public Domain Enhancement Act moving are picking up steam.

Lawrence Lessig | the day in DC

] In the age of the leak and the blog, of evidence
] extraction and link discovery, truths will either out or
] be outed, later if not sooner. This is something I would
] bring to the attention of every diplomat, politician and
] corporate leader: the future, eventually, will find you
] out. The future, wielding unimaginable tools of
] transparency, will have its way with you. In the end, you
] will be seen to have done that which you did.

William Gibson on Orwell.

NY Times | The Road to Oceania

Interesting read on how Google certainly has become a very influential entity and why more and more people are beginning to be disgruntled with it.

Is Google's growth provoking a backlash? Industry observers are beginning to think so. A few years ago, they note, it was difficult to find anyone who didn't worship Google, but now many people have a beef with the firm. Some of the complaints are obviously self-serving and maybe even dismissible -- such as those from the Chinese government, say, or the Church of Scientology. But the ire of other groups has more heft. In recent months, the question of how Google should index blogs has become a hot topic online. Google has been attacked by some critics who say the search engine gives blogs too much weight, and others who say it's not giving blogs their due. Then there are webmasters and people in the "search engine optimization" industry, folks whose livelihoods depend on ranking well in Google. With so much riding on the whims of one firm, these people are constantly, pedantically, obsessed with and irritated at Google, sometimes, as in Massa's case, to the point of litigation.

As a side note, this article cites the 15th as having been the point where the funkness with Google's index went back to the way it had been.. I _fully_ agree. The difference in traffic coming from Google before and after the 15th is night and day. Enough to effect MemeStreams overall stats by almost 50%. (Based on our unique visitor count for the week 9-13 vs 16-20) This was the first month in MemeStream's history our traffic was down.. Of course, post the 15th, its back to normal, and climbing every day. Clearly Google has one hell of an effect on sites like this one.

The Google Backlash

The design and strength of all key lengths of the AES algorithm (i.e., 128, 192 and 256) are sufficient to protect classified information up to the SECRET level. TOP SECRET information will require use of either the 192 or 256 key lengths.

This essentially means that AES as at least as good as the algorithms the NSA develops for this purpose. Very impressive.

Policy Says AES OK for National Security Info