Yet another data theft, and yet another company that's completely failed to protect your confidential information.
Will Aetna get in trouble for this as they should? Of course not, just like with any other company that mishandles your data, there will be no consequences to Aetna, except a little egg in their face.
-TPP
Yet another bill making copyright violations incrementally more serious hit the news today.
Entertainment industry lackeys Senators Feinstein and Graham have introduced a new bill that would effectively ban devices that record streamed digital music, primarily through satellite radio.
Then there's the new super-DMCA introduced by Conressman Lamar Smith, someone who is so completely in the pocket of the entertainment industry that he probably doesn't even fart without asking them if he is allowed to do that. This bill is something else. Among other things it would make posting copyrighted material on the net exceeding a value of $1,000 punishable by a 10 - 20 year prison sentence. You gotta be fucking kidding me! I can kill someone and get a lower sentence. Be sure to check the working draft of this bill that reveals the kind of edits done to it before its introduction. It's amazing.
When the fuck did the US legislators start assuming every US citizen is a criminal and therefore not to be trusted with such awful gadgets as satellite radio receivers with recording capability? And I'm not even going to go into the way copyrights have been extended so that the original work is basically covered until hell freezes over.
Why is the tech industry sitting with their thumbs up their ass and basically letting the entertainment industry dictate the direction of technological innovation? (Update: read below...)
With the introduction of such concepts as the Broadcast Flag it's clear the entertainment industry doesn't want the consumers to record anything digital. Not even if you legally own it. They don't want you to back it up or transfer it to another device so that you can listen to it while jogging. And the reason for it is not so that you'd have to buy it sevral times (although that's a consequence), but because if they allow it, then all of us criminals will be distributing digital content wholesale. And there's where the assumption of guilt until proven innocent comes in. Why are the US legislators buying into this sort of thinking? It goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for.
Why are organizations such as the EFF the only ones that keep making any noise about these issues?
Just north of the border, there's a revolution going on in the music industry. Six leading Canadian record labels left CRIA, The Canadian Recording Industry Association, over disagreements on how CRIA handles copyright issues. It has left some wondering just how Canadian the CRIA is, as it seems it's more interested in protecting the "rights" of their southern comrades than advancing Canadian artists' interests.
Fuck'em. Just fuck all of them. Simple as that.
Update: Right on cue, CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) has upped the ante:
Yesterday we get news of a foiled Columbine-style shooting.
Five teenagers were planning on a shooting rampage at Riverton High School on 4/20, which is Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
Sheriff Steve Norman has this to say about the boys:
"I think there was probably some bullying, name calling, chastising," he said. He also said investigators had learned the suspects were computer buffs who liked violent video games.
Now understand, about 110% of male teenagers in America play "violent" video games, so what's the real connection?
Here we go. Scott McClellan "resigns", Karl Rove is reassigned.
Sure, both of them had a credibility problem outside of the White House, but at least in the case of Scott McClellan, he was forced into that position by his boss.
Too bad you can't reassign the president or the vice president. That's where the credibility problems stem from after all.
-TPP
This is what I'm getting trying to access the official website for Pori Ässät at the moment:
500 Servlet Exception
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
Resin-3.0.17 (built Thu, 22 Dec 2005 12:11:34 PST)
-TPP
At 2:03 in the first overtime, Ässät scores the winning goal!!!
Incredible!!! Listening at the radio broadcast, the hockey rink went absolutely wild after the goal.
Now, let's take the home game advantage away in the next game!
-TPP
2nd game in the finals series.
HPK, the opposing team, scores a goal to take a one-goal lead at 1:10 to go in the final period. Game is done.
Not so quick! Ässät comes back and scores a goal to tie the game at 4 - 4 at 34 seconds to go in the game.
FUCKING AYE!
The game is going into overtime right now.
Let's go Ässät!!! Let's go Ässät!!! Let's go Ässät!!!
-TPP
A great collection of Finnish jokes along the same line as the following:
Mika and Peppe hadn't seen each other for ages, so they decided to get together for "one" beer. At the end of the first pint Peppe says "How have you been?" Mika just grunts in reply.
At the end of the second pint Peppe asks "So how's your family?" Again, Mika just grunts in reply.
After three pints Peppe asks "How's work going?" Mika suddenly stands up and shouts
"Perkele! Did we come here to talk or drink?!"
-TPP
I can hardly wait till RIAA sues George Bush.
Pitting George Bush against the RIAA Settlement Support Center folks would be very entertaining.
-TPP
The EFF paper is a great collection of DMCA horror stories.
I'm pretty sure the copyright owners see the list as a collection of their greatest moments though.
-TPP
WE ARE GOING TO THE FINALS!!!
I wonder if Ässät sells package deals for the finals with flights from New York :)
-TPP
One wonders how kids ever survive among this sea of corruptive influences. By God, as early as 1790 they were getting corrupted by romance novels! There is no hope for any of us!
Hmm...kids must be a little smarter than they're given credit for.
Hear that Hillary Clinton?
-TPP
EFF has filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T claiming AT&T has been secretly, and illegally, giving NSA access to all of AT&T's cellphone calls data and all Internet traffic flowing through its networks.
Of note about this is that the Internet traffic flowing through AT&T's networks is not necessarily sent from or to AT&T, as AT&T operates one of the backbone networks that route traffic from provider to provider. Essentially this means that the NSA has been illegally wiretapping, with AT&T's active participation, a large percentage of all Internet traffic in the United States.
Update: Here's some information about exactly what the NSA is listening. Great stuff.
-TPP
My hometown hockey team is kicking ass for the first time in years!
The first semi-final game was against the defending champions at their home arena, and the visiting team, the allmighty Porin Ässät won 3 - 1!!!!
Two more wins and Ässät are in the finals!
-TPP
The pro-russian propaganda site news12.ru is back as news12.info.
Looks like Vladimir Jashmetov from New Torial, Mari-El decided to resurrect the anti-Mari site after it dissappeared last February. news12.info has been registered on Feb 24th, immediately after news12.ru dissappeared. That lends credibility to the theory that the site was becoming a political liability, and the site owners were commanded to move it away from the .ru domain.
Here're the domain registration records for news12.info:
Domain ID:D12193850-LRMS
Domain Name:NEWS12.INFO
Created On:24-Feb-2006 08:28:09 UTC
Last Updated On:25-Feb-2006 17:06:08 UTC
Expiration Date:24-Feb-2007 08:28:09 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R139-LRMS)
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:tuyryRijJHJIUlpG
Registrant Name:Vladimir Jashmetov
Registrant Organization:none
Registrant Street1:st. Mehanizatorov, 14-2
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:New Torial
Registrant State/Province:Mary El
Registrant Postal Code:424001
Registrant Country:RU
Registrant Phone:+7.8362631212
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:vladimiryg@rambler.ru
Admin ID:tuyryRijJHJIUlpG
Admin Name:Vladimir Jashmetov
Admin Organization:none
Admin Street1:st. Mehanizatorov, 14-2
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:New Torial
Admin State/Province:Mary El
Admin Postal Code:424001
Admin Country:RU
Admin Phone:+7.8362631212
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:vladimiryg@rambler.ru
Billing ID:tuyryRijJHJIUlpG
Billing Name:Vladimir Jashmetov
Billing Organization:none
Billing Street1:st. Mehanizatorov, 14-2
Billing Street2:
Billing Street3:
Billing City:New Torial
Billing State/Province:Mary El
Billing Postal Code:424001
Billing Country:RU
Billing Phone:+7.8362631212
Billing Phone Ext.:
Billing FAX:
Billing FAX Ext.:
Billing Email:vladimiryg@rambler.ru
Tech ID:tuyryRijJHJIUlpG
Tech Name:Vladimir Jashmetov
Tech Organization:none
Tech Street1:st. Mehanizatorov, 14-2
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:New Torial
Tech State/Province:Mary El
Tech Postal Code:424001
Tech Country:RU
Tech Phone:+7.8362631212
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:vladimiryg@rambler.ru
Name Server:NS3.DNS-MEGABAIT.COM
Name Server:NS4.DNS-MEGABAIT.COM
-TPP
Here a terrorist
There a terrorist
Everywhere a boom boom
Old McDonald had a scare
Ee i ee i o
High Scores:
Osama Bin Laden 12,000 pts
Ravenna, Ohio 0 pts
Immigration (illegal and legal) has been on the news a lot lately. New bills are being introduced at Federal and State levels, it seems, every week.
The solutions introduced by these bills range from cold war era wall building to xenophobic, oppressive and inhumane to kumbaya-like let's all have a hug type of programs.
The more viable solutions seem to have two things in common, more or less. They all suggest a guest worker program of some sorts either with amnesty for illegal immigrants currently in the country or not. All of them also suggest we shut down the flow of illegal immigrants by increasing border security.
All of that stuff is academic. Sure, a law or two might get passed, but there is absolutely no way they'll get effectively enforced. Here's why.
A guest worker program of some sort would sic millions of temporary guest worker applications onto the USCIS. The backlogs created by those applications would make the current backlogs dwarf in comparison. The processing of those applications will take forever. What would be the incentive for an illegal immigrant already in the country to apply for one, if the application processing time was 2 years, and there's a chance it would be denied resulting in immediate deportation? The guest worker program would only be benefitial for people still outside of the United States and would do nothing or very little to address the problem of illegal immigrants already in the country.
Securing the US borders is another academic debate. Sounds like a great idea, but who's paying for it? The current administration is more interested in spending their money on fighting the global war on terror/islamic radicalism/whatever than addressing domestic problems such as healthcare, social security, education, homeland security or disaster recovery. There's a reason why groups like the Minutemen, however despicable they may be, exist.
Both of these initiatives will fail because of lack of resources. That's a given considering the priorities of the current administration.
-TPP
