A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
Topic: Technology
11:24 am EST, Jan 27, 2007
This document looks purely at the cost of the technical portions of Vista's content protection [Note B]. The political issues (under the heading of DRM) have been examined in exhaustive detail elsewhere and won't be commented on further, unless it's relevant to the cost analysis. However, one important point that must be kept in mind when reading this document is that in order to work, Vista's content protection must be able to violate the laws of physics, something that's unlikely to happen no matter how much the content industry wishes that it were possible [Note C].
Nicely put together article that avoids preaching most of the dogma around DRM.
Like looking to see if a rifle is loaded by peering down the barrel, your screen can turn from a breathtaking visage of insight into a Gatling Gun of mind-scarring infinity-pain within the literal blink of an eye.
Or, as they say: ONCE YOU CLICK, YOU CANNOT UNCLICK.
This is a very entertaining and well written adventure.
Consider, then, what was going on here. Myspace, a site which is being used by people who don't know how to host or design, ends up with a gaping ass provided by a design firm which can't understand the nature of hotlinking (or of spelling), who have written to someone who can host, design and spell but are doing so with a demand that this person take action.
And this, my friends, is ass.
I love the analogy Jason makes in the post about pilots, passengers, and users of the Internet. I'd argue that running a site like this is a little like being an air traffic controller, making sure things don't collide mid-air. Taste and security collide with things on a regular basis over at MySpace.
I (Fyodor) asked users from the nmap-hackers mailing list to share their favorite tools, and 3,243 people responded. This allowed me to expand the list to 100 tools, and even subdivide them into categories. Anyone in the security field would be well advised to go over the list and investigate tools they are unfamiliar with. I discovered several powerful new tools this way.
How can Illegal Immigration help our Homeless situation?
Topic: Society
11:49 am EDT, Apr 11, 2006
Now, on IRC I have stumbled, quite by accident, onto an radically simple idea.
We can help solve our immigration problems and our homeless problem in an easy to employ, national strategy.
Send all the Homeless to Mexico.
This would be a simple solution. We could give our homeless people some food, say a week or two's worth, in surplus rucksacks, put them on greyhound busses, and ship them to mexico. The can then live in harmony with their surroundings, knowing that freezing nights, and rich people that don't give a damn, aren't in their future anymore.
They can then be a drain on the Mexican economy, much like their illegal immigrants are a drain on the US economy. This program would be a benefit to both the US and the Homeless. The homeless wouldn't have to endure any long lines for soup in the freezing cold in the winter, as there aren't lines for soup, nor is there freezing cold in Mexico... unless you go to the mountains. (hint, tell the homeless to stick to the beaches...) As well, if these ex-patriated homeless people wish to come back to the US, they learn the Mexican Presidents plan of illegally crossing the border and getting a JOB. Then, OMG, they have learned a few important things.
1. How to speak a 2nd language - immediate employment opportunity in the southern US 2. To have a work ethic. Something they couldn't learn while getting handouts in the streets of America.
I think it's high time that we fight our illegal immigration problem with (yes, I'm gonna say it), homeless illegal immigrants.
Please let me know what we should name this program...
Joint raids by police in Belgium and Switzerland have shut down a popular file-sharing server. The Razorback2 server was part of the Edonkey file-sharing network and was used by a third of the system's users. The server held an index of 170 million pirated files, said the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). In the raids, the server's Swiss owner was arrested and the Razorback2 machines were seized from a Brussels-based hosting firm. It is unclear what effect the shutting down of the Razorback2 server will have on overall file-sharing figures. Studies of the different file-sharing networks show that the numbers of people using Edonkey is on the increase. It has become the dominant network in South Korea, Italy, Germany and Spain. However notes posted on discussion groups by Edonkey users following the raid show that the number of people on the Edonkey network was back to normal a few hours after the server was shut down. The following raids and shutdowns made many file-sharers simply move to other networks such as BitTorrent or have turned to older systems such as Usenet. Source: BBC News
Boing Boing: Fight Club trailer as a romantic comedy
Topic: Miscellaneous
11:24 pm EST, Feb 6, 2006
Someone has re-cut Fight Club as a romantic comedy. It turns out that practically any weighty or horrific film can be re-cut as a romantic comedy with enough jaunty "Meet so-and-so!" voice-over and uptempo brass-band background music.
