CAT | Random
This, on top of announcing a partnership with Yahoo gives clear indication where TiVo is going. No longer will living room IPTV be confined to MythTV & savvy Windows users, but now it is being delivered to the masses. The Yahoo partnership allows TiVo users to schedule recordings from Yahoo’s website. A neat little trick, but that is just the tip of the iceberg on what we can only speculate the end goal is at this point. Now that you have the ability to schedule recordings remotely, and download video via an internet connection, the possibilities are virtually endless with regards to internet media. Click a banner or any ordinary link, and seconds later a related file is being sent to your living room all automagically.
TiVo once again appears to have an edge over its cable counterparts, which is something it will need to stay in business as we’ve already found out. Could only be a matter of time before the Yahoo > TiVo buyout begins.
Two announcements today….
- Microsoft will treat & remove the Sony/XCP rootkit like the malware that it is.
- Bush Administration to Sony: It’s your intellectual property — it’s not your computer.
When you have both the Bush administration & Microsoft telling you your latest shenanigans are up to no good…. that’s saying something.
Yahoo has an article about how three trojan horse viruses have been found that exploit the massive serurity hole left by Sony’s rootkit. It also reports a class action lawsuit has already been filed, and the EFF is looking into filing another. As I blogged earlier, it is in their EULA that they can install whatever they want, but EULAs have been shot down in court before, so let’s hope this one is as well.
UPDATE: Somewhat UELA related story on TechDirt. Can Malware Firms Use EULAs To Ban Security Firms From Stopping Spyware?
Paul Roberts reports on EWeek that Microsoft is considering ‘taking action’ against Sony with regards to its rootkit that has been all over the news recently. This comes on top of Microsoft claiming Sony’s next-gen DVD format (Blu-Ray) is “Anti-Consumer.” Anti-consumer? Pot, meet kettle. How many anti-trust lawsuits has Microsoft had slapped against them in the last few decades? Still, I’m totally with them. The Blu-Ray DRM is waaaaaay over the top.
“Bricking” your Blu-Ray player for tinkering with it?
Dynamically updated copy protection schemes
Discs locked in to one specific Blu-Ray player making it even “borrow-proof” between friends?
I’m not going to sit here and defend anyone’s right to copy intellectual property, but I’m not going to defend a companies right to have a monopoly over innovation, break my analog equipment (here also), and make the process of being entertained by watching a movie a nightmare of making sure my Blu-Ray player is hooked up to the internet before I am able to watch a movie so it can download the latest copy protection schemes, and renting a copy of a movie I already own just so I can watch it at a friends house.
Maybe it is just the geek in me, but watching Microsoft v. Sony throwdown would be entertaining as hell. People seem to think Microsoft is a mindless power & money hungry corporation, but Sony is 10 times worse. When was the last time you heard about Microsoft suing people for pirating their $200-$300 software? Ok, now when was the last time you heard about Sony & the RIAA suing people for pirating $.99 songs? Oh wait, $.99 is too little now for the RIAA .
9
“This is the week that Sony declared war on the consumer”
0 Comments | Posted by Derek in Random
In a scathing attack on Sony, CNet editor Molly Wood calls this last week as the beginning of a war the media content companies have waged on its own consumers. How did that happen? In one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever seen by a technology company, Sony somehow though it was acceptable to force the user to install a rootkit in order to listen to some albums under their record label. Have a listen to this NPR report for more breifing on this situation. By the way, someone needs to tell Ari Schwartz, Associate Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, who was interviewed by NPR that the “root” part of the term is not derived because “it’s at the root of the computer” but rather because by having “root” access on a unix/linux based system means you have super-admin access. It’s really not that big of a deal, except for his occupation as a Washington DC technology lobbyist. I would have hoped he knew what he was talking about.
How about this comment from the story as well… the President of Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business stated “Most people, I think, do not even know what a Rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” How unbelievable is that?!?! Ignorance is bliss I guess Mr. Hessa. I just couldn’t believe a Sony exec would say such a thing, basically saying that what you don’t know doesn’t concern you, even though it is on your personal computer.
Anyways… Sony’s latest attempt is just a a natural evolution of the media/software/technology companies attempts at preventing people from doing perfectly legal things with products they buy (CD “Ripping” falls under fair use laws). Molly Wood gives a great description of what we are facing now days and how absurd it is getting.
No, we ain’t gonna take it
This is an unacceptable development in digital rights enforcement. I don’t know how to put this any more clearly. Don’t get me wrong--we’ve long since crossed the line. It’s utterly absurd that we accept paying for music that will play on only one or two digital audio players, at best. It’s absolutely insane that anyone ever tried to put out a CD that couldn’t be ripped to a PC at all. It’s a complete joke that we’re sitting around anticipating the day when TiVo comes along to tell us when we have to watch a recorded show, and that it will choose when a recorded show might be deleted. I can’t even believe cell phone carriers think it’s OK to cripple cell phone features in order to protect their own moneymaking propositions. And Hollywood’s proposed new Analog Hole legislation, which would criminalize nearly every digital video activity you can think of, is another column unto itself, and it’s going to be a long one.But this--using the tactics of criminals to invade our PCs without our knowledge and to expose us to further attack, just so you can keep us from, say, burning a mix CD and giving it to our friends--this is beyond the pale. And as many news sources are beginning to point out, there’s some reason to think it might also be illegal, under the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Ever ask yourself questions about the birth of RSS, XML, online advertising, O’Rielly Publishing, Archive.org, or even the internet in general? Well, I just recently discovered NerdTV, an IPTV show (meaning… internet only TV show) done by tech writer Robert X Cringley (the same guy who has done numerous other PBS technology specials. Go Netflix Triumph of the Nerds). In each episode of NerdTV, Cringley brings you a 1 hour, unedited interview with the innovators, the movers, and the shakers in the computer industry over the last 20 years.
I can’t say it is for everyone because if you are not familiar with those terms mentioned above and you aren’t particularly interested in learning, NerdTV might not be for you. However, if the stories telling the birth of computing and the technologies that rule our lives today interest you, then odds are you will find these interviews wildly fascinating.
So far, Cringley has brought the following interviews…
Dan Drake – Autodesk Co-founder
Dave Winer – Father of RSS and Web Logging
Tim O’Reilly – Open Source Publishing Pioneer
Brewster Kahle – Internet Archive Founder
Bill Joy – Sun Microsystems Co-founder
Max Levchin – Co-founder of PayPal
Andy Hertzfeld – The first Macintosh programmer…ever
Even if you are merely interested in the business side of technology (not necessarily the technology behind the businesses), the interview with 29 year old Levchin (who is now worth ~$500 Million) was very compelling. Take him back 35 years to the days when the PC was born, and it would be him running Microsoft today, not Bill Gates. He’s that imaginative, that business savvy, and that determined. As Gates has shown, an engineer with business skills, and a drive to succeed at everything he tries can be a lethal combination. Here is a (not so) brief excerpt on selecting the “Next Big Thing” in technology to demonstrate the value in listening to this guy.
Now, so how do you select a new wave? What do you look for?
Max Levchin: I think the thing you do is you sort of try to keep track of what’s going on. And you try to learn about or take in the trends that are going on. So I think to take the metaphor further, there are tremors in the ocean floor that are trends of things. Like people watch less TV and use more computers. And people have digital cameras now that cost them nothing because they come with their phones. And these are not really waves, they’re just sort of truths about bandwidth being cheaper, etc. And they shake the ocean floor and a wave starts.
And then a wave turns out to be something like everyone needs to share images, cause they’re making so much more of them. And everyone needs to do something more than just stare into their computer for Excel and Word, because they’re really staring a lot. And everyone needs a better search engine, because they have more time and more bandwidth to spend through their computers. So you sometimes watch those waves emerge and you go, oh, man, that’s a big one. As you watch, some company synthesized those trends into a wave, and sometimes, if you’re smart and lucky, you say oh, this is – the shaking is going on. I think there’ll be a wave over there.
And you get your surfboard out and you paddle, and probably most of the time you realize that you’re going exactly the opposite way from wherever you want to be, and you lick your wounds and you go back to the ocean floor watching. But on occasion if you’re persistent enough you probably find yourself on top of a wave, or at least somewhere on the crest, and you try to stand on the board. I’ve beaten the surfing metaphor to death, but I like it.
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It very well could be the interviews Cringley has chosen thus far, but the more of these stories you listen to, the more common themes develop, and the more you notice personality trends throughout these industry leaders. You can of course pick out the obvious in that they are all nerds, but look a bit deeper and you’ll see a strange mix of wild imagination, and both competitiveness and generosity. Don’t be shocked… this is the same trait you see throughout the history of the computer industry. Remember, the computer was born in 1970s by the social outcasts who were often times in line with the “share everything” hippy movement. Software programs were not initially sold, but rather shown off as a badge of pride in saying “Look what I did and you couldn’t do.” That is a stark contrast to where we are today. The thing that fuels their motivation isn’t money (Bill Gates), ego (Steve Jobs), or power (Gates & Jobs), it does include those, but it also includes the aspect of being proud of your work, your ideas, and sharing them with the world.
In watching the NerdTV interviews and Cringley’s other specials, you see the exact same people making the industry happen, and for what reason? In their words… “to change the world.” You hear that bold reason in nearly every interview. Why? Well… there’s a reason, and due to it’s length it will likely another post at some point. But it is also the same reason that exists today and is a prime motivating factor driving the revolution of Open Source Software, which quite honestly is unlike anything you see in other industries. It is millions of programmers, writing code, and donating it to the world, for what in return? Nothing. Sure it is possible to get high paying consulting jobs, doing what you love, with some of the best companies in the industry (see: Firefox & Gaim developers now working for Google). But to me, that is the beauty of programming and the computer industry today. One person, with one good idea, can in fact change the world, and these people realized that decades ago. There are currently products being developed right now that will have the same impact that Windows did, that VisiCalc did, and Bulletin Board software did. Where and what are they? Who knows. In a recent podcast from Dave Winer (Morning Coffee Talk: Sept. 30th), he said the times we are in now are just like the times 20 years ago when he was in the thick of the software revolution. It is his opinion that users & developers are once again, working together, to create historic ideas, which in the end can change the landscape of the computing industry. Should be fun. =)
One top of all the other bad decisions and the PR nightmare Sony has created for themselves… the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has a great write-up of the more unbelievable terms in the 3,000 word UELA you agree to when you purchase Sony CDs.
Some of my favorite ones…
“Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to “enforce their rights” against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this “self help” crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.”
“If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.”
“If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That’s because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.”
“If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids “export” outside the country where you reside.”
A product better be reeaaaalllly damn cool if I am going to give my money to Sony ever again.
How many Web 2.0 keywords can you cram into one company?
My new company is “Meebodibo” and we specialize in “rss-based collaborative document editing via Ruby on Rails.” Awesome!
Brad Neuberg has published an article on O’Rielly’s OnJava.com. In this, he presents a solution that has long hampered AJAX web development. When using GMail, ever accidently click the back/forward button out of habit only to leave the gmail site? It is quite an annoying reality that we’ve had to live with because nobody had been able to fix how to navigate around abstract applications like Gmail. Well now, at least one solution has been presented. In quickly looking through the code, everything appears to make sense, but it seems like it might be a bit tricky to implement. Check out two of the demos here and here.
This is interesting because just last night I was listening to one of the recent Web 2.0 podcasts and one of the hosts or the interviewee (a Flock developer) said the AJAX/history button problem lied a bit further upstream and was something the browser developers would have to fix. While that would be optimal as it would not require use to code the hack, I wouldn’t even know how they could begin fixing that issue.
Let the true web applications begin!
Gotta run. Time to head to Lawrence to watch my Jayhawks kick a little Tiger tail in a few hours.
What do you get when you combine EBay, Craigslist, upcoming.org, monster.com, match.com, and many others? It appears to be Google Base. It hasn’t officially launched yet, so those services are merely speculation. However, the likes of those services has been the buzz lately.
Now it is becoming more clear as to why EBay bought Skype, because Google now has everything EBay has (and a ton more). They will both have VoIP (GoogleTalk & Skype), Auctions (Base & Ebay), Classifieds (Base & Craigslist which Ebay owns part of/Half.com), and a payment system (Paypal & soon to be released Google Wallet).
The difference between the two? Google = free. As long as Google has eyeballs looking at their ads, they’ll release every one of their products for free. Base won’t need it’s own revenue stream. Ebay on the other hand has no revenue stream if they don’t charge for postings.
This should also be interesting with the hyped Google Calendar that was talked about months ago that still has yet to launch. Base will have events, so… log in and Calendar them. They will likely also be sending out RSS feeds for listings, so…. throw them in the recently launched RSS Reader. Want to talk to a listing poster? Google Talk or GMail ‘em. Then of course… want another product like the one you are looking at? Look on the right side of the screen for those “Ads by Google.”
The next few should be a huge couple months for Google. Now that they have pretty much all the basic services, time to kick it in full gear. Next up… Google’s entry into media (Google Video is just the beginning), Google Office, Google WiFi, GMail 2.0 (they are about to be killed by Yahoo & Microsoft’s new email apps), Google Online (after they buy AOL & give away internet access) & then the king of them all… Google OS, your new web based operating system that can run from any computer in the world.
Meet your new Overlord.
UPDATE: Screenshots
Time to get those mashups rollin.
http://www.programmableweb.com/apis
14
When tossing around your expensive digital camera is actually a good thing
0 Comments | Posted by Derek in Random
These are what you get when you set your camera at a low shutter speed, and throw it up in the air. Welcome to the Flickr CameraToss Group.
No, GoogleJet isn’t Google’s latest venture, but rather a personal playtoy for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The ~$150 Million Boeing 767’s interior is currently being customized for their needs. Let me guess, a few linux clusters, a PlayStation 2, and a rotating bed with velvet sheets. Nice. Looks like it is only going to cost them $7,000/hour. Only.
Yes, I did that in MS Paint
(12/31/05) Edit: Does someone want to explain to me why this article gets thousands of hits per month from mostly spanish speaking countries? I’m a bit baffled.
Here are two more clips that depict the incompetence of FEMA. Turning away food, water, disabling vital communications networks, ignoring the pleas for help. The first is Aaron Broussard, President of Jefferson Parish.
The guy who runs this building I’m in, Emergency Management, he’s responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?” and he said, “Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you.” Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday… and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing] Nobody’s coming to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us…
The second being Anderson Cooper, once again attacking a politician for not doing what it takes to fix this situation. It appears that Sen. Trent Lott is happy with the federal response that arrived about 5 days too late?
Cooper: So you’re pleased with the Federal government’s response?
Lott: I AM pleased with the federal government’s response…this is not a time for complaining…I am really shocked at the comments that are coming.
If these two clips don’t absolutely infuriate you, I don’t know what will.
With criticism comes praise, so after posting harsh words about her yesterday, congrats to Sen. Mary Landrieu for finally getting a spine.
“If one person criticizes them or says one more thing – including the president of the United States – he will hear from me,” she said on the ABC program. “One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him. Literally.”
She burst into tears as she looked at a broken levee. “The President could have funded it,” she said. “He cut it out of the budget. Is that the most pitiful sight you have ever seen in your life? One little crane.”
She also referred angrily to comments Bush had made Friday at the New Orleans airport about the fun he had in her city in his younger days.
“Our infrastructure is devastated, lives have been shattered,” Landrieu said. “Would the president please stop taking photo-ops?”
There isn’t a person down there who doesn’t feel awful about what happened, and isn’t trying to correct the situation, but the way certain leaders and politicians have gone about getting aid has been ridiculous. Lesson learned, attack those who aren’t doing their jobs, don’t waste time praising those who are.
After the outpouring of help for the tsunami victims last winter, a similiar effort may be coming to New Orleans.
Is a dying city actually going to see that? Maybe, maybe not. Even though many countries are graciously offering their assistance and specifically stating what they will provide, Bush refuses to accept their offers at this point. He has already turned away Canadian & Jamaican assistance and we’ll see if the administration follows suit with these offers as well. Why? I’m sure they’ll claim security reasons and use the buzzword of the century (terrorism), which is a pathetic excuse.
This is just a continuance of what has amounted to a man-made natural disaster. The natural disaster part was of course the hurricane, but the damages incurred were only magnified by human neglect before, and after the hurricane. Last Sunday, the National Geographic Channel aired a few hours of natural disaster programs, showing not only what has happened, but what can happen. During one of these segments, they used the tsunami to jump into a “What-if” scenario in New Orleans. What if a hurricane or tidal wave broke the levee and flooded the city? I was shocked at the scenario and stunned to learn that it would infact happen if a class 5 (possibly even class 4) hurricane made a direct hit on New Orleans. Well, the next day it happened.
President bush stated on Good Morning America
“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will.”
Sorry, the worst case scenario was considered and prepared for. FEMA started stockpiling food & water in strategic locations in New Orleans days before (allegedly). Hell, even the lump of clay Mr. Bill knew this was inevitable.
Speaking of FEMA, how can this entire situation be handled so poorly when plans & scenarios for this specific catastrophe have already been thought up, and exercises conducted? Listen to NPR’s Robert Siegel tear Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff a new one as to why FEMA’s efforts have been so abysmal (link).
Another reason why could be the organization’s director Michael Brown has shown in his incompetence in running FEMA. Rep. Robert Wexler urged President Bush to fire Brown in January for improperly handing out $30 million to Dade County for Hurricane Frances damages. Well, Hurricane Frances didn’t even hit Dade country, but rather 100 miles away. It turns out Brown doesn’t have the greatest track record in the world. His last position was director of the International Arabian Horse Association where his performance was “An unmitigated, total fucking disaster. I was shocked as hell when captain clueless put him in charge of FEMA a couple of years ago.” (link). Glad to know a regions fate and countless lives lie in the hands of his ability, or inability, to mobilize the rescue efforts.
Watching Fox News today (CNN was at commercial), they decided to take this opportunity to push their “Destroy the Alaska Wildlife Refuge so we Can Drive our Hummers” agenda by bringing on panelists to debate the topic. Of course they bring in lobbyists and oil execs to face off against a nobody conservationist who Neil Cavuto discredited anything that came out of her mouth. So, with Fox News always good for entertainment, there have been a few clips surface on the internet of the media’s take of this whole fiasco. One of them being Geraldo and Shepard Smith being dumbfounded as to why this whole situation is being handled so poorly.
Another clip that I came across was Anderson Cooper tearing into Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu on her political back patting and the government’s lack of effort. I found it quite entertaining and Cooper has been one of the more vocal members of the media about how appalling this whole situation is. I, along with the rest of the people with actual hearts, thank him for it.
There isn’t one person down there helping out that isn’t giving their best effort, and they’ve already saved countless lives. The problem here lies with the management and their inability to properly lead these rescue efforts. Herding people into the dome and the convention center through the hurricane was a good idea. Forcing them to stay there for 6 days with little or no food or water while garbage, human waste, and unfortunately human corpses, piled up was not. Reports say that much of the New Orleans police force just gave up and left the city because there was little or no communication or leadership in telling them what they should be doing.
Many people fall back to the argument that there is a time and a place to point fingers and play the blame game, and it isn’t now. Well guess what? If nobody speaks out, if Geraldo in typical Geraldo fashion doesn’t over-dramatically hold a crying baby in his arms, if Cooper doesn’t attack a political leader in her home state and hopefully motivates her to do more, if the blogosphere doesn’t explode with these stories, and we sit on our hands waiting for this man-made disaster to stabilize, more people will suffer and more people will die. Hopefully with the airlift out of the convention center occurring today, 4 days too late I might add, the worst is over and these people can begin an attempt at piecing back together their shattered lives.
I recieved an email from Richard Lawrence, the Avantslash author, and apparently his webhost wiped his account which deleted among many things, the Avantslash 3.1 script. Being #2 when googling “Avantslash”, I’ve been getting a number of people either emailing me asking if I have a copy of 3.0 or 3.1, and unfortunately I don’t. But being, the internet, I believe it has to be out there somewhere, so I’m hoping this message will be read by someone who can help out.
If you have the script, you can me an email and I’ll pass it along. As a programmer, I know how awful it would be to lose a project that you’ve spent so much time on, and people out there really love, so dig through your hard-drives people. The filename will likely be avantslash.zip.
In the meantime, if you are looking for a running avantslash page for your cellphone/pda/whatever, you can either google “avantify.cgi” and find a number of them. Or, I’ve been using http://meanbusiness.com/cgi-bin/avantify.cgi. Enjoy
Aside from that, I’ve finally moved into my new place and have had zero time lately for any new posts, but soon…. soon.
***UPDATE***
Richard emailed to let me know that a number of people have found the script and have sent it to him. Good work people, so don’t worry about emailing the files anymore, just send him a thank you email telling him how awesome Avantslash is. =)
If you have never used bittorrent before, go grab this program, Azureus to open the torrent file.
Has a nice ring to it eh? Well the Star reports today that Howard Baldwin (former owner of two NHL franchises) has expressed interest in buying the recently up for sale St. Louis Blues. Can’t say that I’m that big of a fan of hockey, in fact… I’ve enjoyed this last season more than most. However, considering St. Louis stealing all the money for the east side of the state in recent years for new stadium after new stadium, I would have to say that stealing their hockey team in return would be great!
However, for that to happen, it’s also noted that the lease to the Savvis Center would have to be bought as well, bringing the franchise pricetag to ~$140 Million. Didn’t the Mighty Ducks just sell for ~$80 Million? With Pittsburgh and a few other teams on the market, I can’t say the chances of this happening are likely, but damn it would be sweet! =)
I’ve mentioned it before on here, but AvantSlash is one of my favorite web apps and now it appears Slashdot doesn’t quite approve of it’s place in the world wide web, so they banned it’s IP. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, if you want to visit Slashdot on your low-resolution browser (PDA or cell phone), it’s great because it strips out all the pictures, ads, unnecesary links, etc… All it gives you is what you want, the stories and the discussion, perfectly formatted. While Slashdot does have their own “lite” version (link), it is pretty sub-par with it’s limited stories per page, 5 comments, etc…
Other websites have done similiar things before and sometimes limit the content of their RSS feeds (i.e. Slashdot doesn’t include the latest story with feeds), because after all, they own the content, and I’m fine with that. However, for the bastion of open-source and creative sharing on the internet, it seems rather hipocritical to take an action like this. Especially considering their stance on their stories (only posting “unedited” stories from users) and comments (“Comments are owned by the Poster”) it doesn’t seem right to now ban people from reading stories which you claim not to own or have any control over in the first place. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Luckily, you can still download the source code to running on your own server.
Gotta say, I’m a bit dissapointed.
Update: It appears that the ban has been lifted. I’m guessing that it was unintentional to begin with as they do ban users for hammering their rss feed. No exect word on what happened, but the avantslash site does say this…
“Two severe bugs crept into the 3.0 release relating to the way that AvantSlash handles requests for out-of-date pages and caching. Use of version 3.0 will generate excessive requests to the Slashdot server and get your IP banned. As such, it is highly recommended to update to v3.1 which resolves these issues.”
