The Mad Finn

paananen.fi is live!

2006-12-29T13:44:00.000-05:00

Hosting has been arranged for the next 2 years.

Nerd power!

DNS settings are still propagating, but it looks like at least the US part of the Intertubes is already well aware of the awesomeness that is paananen.fi.

-TPP aka madfinn (at) paananen.fi

It's finally ours!

2006-12-27T17:21:00.000-05:00

Checking server [whois.ficora.fi]
Results:

domain: paananen.fi
descr: Kerkko Paananen
status: Granted
created: 28.12.2006
expires: 28.12.2009
nserver: ns1.dnsexit.com [OK]
nserver: ns2.dnsexit.com [OK]

More information is available at https://domain.ficora.fi/
Copyright (c) Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority

And there was much rejoicing among the nerds of the Paananen family.

The domain has been unavailable for the past three years and just came available again 25 minutes ago.

-TPP

Oh, the irony

2006-12-27T15:43:00.000-05:00

A company that has built part of the fence between Mexico and USA has been found knowingly employing illegal immigrants.

-TPP

The Godfather of Soul is dead

2006-12-25T12:25:00.000-05:00

The sound of a funky drummer has been silenced.

-TPP

Congressional aide to U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) commits a felony crime

2006-12-22T15:30:00.000-05:00

Todd Shriber, 28-year-old communications director for Representative Denny Rehberg (R-MT), has been exposed to have solicited two computer hackers to commit felony crimes.

It appears Mr. Shriber felt his college grades weren't good enough and engaged two well known operators of the website attrition.org in an email conversation about hacking into the computer system of Mr. Shriber's College to alter his grades. The school he went to: Texas Christian University. Thou shalt not steal, Mr. Shriber?

What Mr. Shriber didn't know is that attrition.org operators are white-hat hackers and had no intention of going through with the plan. Instead they strung him along and finally posted the entire Email conversation on their website. A reporter investigating the story then found out Mr. Shriber's true identity.

Mr. Shriber was fired from his congressional aide position.

There is no word, as of yet, on any possible arrest warrant issued for him. Soliciting someone to commit a felony crime is a crime in itself. Federal guidelines state soliciting felony crimes should be punishable by half the sentence of the crime being solicited.

The email conversation is posted on attrition.org website.

More links to the press coverage on the story:
Talking Points Memo

-TPP

Virtual New York City

2006-12-13T11:14:00.000-05:00

New York City Journals is documenting one person's project to replicate New York City in Sim City 4.

This thing is indrecible. It is extremely well done. The amount of work gone into it already must be ridiculous.

-TPP

New York City 2030

2006-12-12T17:34:00.000-05:00

New York City Mayor Bloomberg has revealed his long term development plan for New York City.

It's a great read of the problems New York City will face during the next 25 years, and how the city is preparing to tackle them.

One can only wish Bloomberg's successor(s) will also be looking into the future beoynd their term limits.

-TPP

1-800-454-9078

2006-12-07T12:38:00.000-05:00

Update: Looks like it really was Chase who called me. Damn phishers making everyone paranoid.

Today I've received two calls on my cellphone supposedly from 1-800-454-9078.

The automated call claims to be from Fraud Center at Chase and is asking me to verify information regarding my Chase PriorityClub credit card. The caller has my cellphone number and the last four digits of my credit card. I can only imagine what the caller wants to do with the data.

I use this credit card very seldom. In fact, I haven't used it for months before yesterday. Someone, somewhere swiped my credit card information yesterday. Very interesting. I used the credit card on two online stores yesterday. Both supposedly VERY reputable. Either they, their credit card processing company of my PC have been hacked.

I don't think it's my PC, because I make purchases from it using other credit cards all the time, and I haven't received similar phonecalls about my other credit cards before.

Let's see what kind of payments will start appearing on my credit card this week.

-TPP

Russia controlled by nationalist zealots

2006-11-25T00:21:00.000-05:00

Andrei Nekrasov, a Russian film maker and an outspoken critic of the Putin dictatorship, has sent an open letter to Helsingin Sanomat, the leading newspaper in Finland.

The letter was sent from the deathbed of the former KGB spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who died this Saturday after being poisoned with radioactive poison earlier in the month. Mr. Litvinenko was a friend of Mr. Nekrasov's. Before he died Mr. Litvinenko claimed he was poisoned by orders of Vladimir Putin.

The letter by Mr. Nekrasov is one of the most direct and outspoken criticism directed towards the power elite of Moscow. It's a must read for anyone interested in the decline of democracy in Russia. Mr. Nekrasov is saying Russian democracy has regressed back to Stalin's ideas for democracy.

Mr. Nekrasov is a brave man. Critics of Putin and his cronies have had a habit of dieing lately. And yet the European Union, under the leadership of Finland, is still talking with Russia about a new partnership agreement between EU and Russia. Politics as usual, I suppose. Money trumps little problems like murdering dissidents.

-TPP

The coolest thing ever

2006-11-22T23:40:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine posted about a live video feed of a African watering hole on the Internet a day or two ago. I've been mesmerized since (yes, I'm a geek).

Africam has set up the first live video feed, with audio, filming a watering hole in South Africa. The video stream is active 24/7 and its video and audio quality is excellent. The video feed is coming from Nkorho Pan, which is a natural water hole in the prestigious Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, in South Africa. Nkorho pan is named after Nkorho bush Lodge which gets it name from the Shangaan derivative for the call of the yellow-billed hornbill, a common and unusual looking bird from this area.

The camera is apparently operated by someone pretty much around the clock as it pans and zooms around following the wildlife around the watering hole. The audio really makes you feel like you're almost there. The cricket noise at night is ear piercing and the bird noises and a pack of hyenas laughing is really cool.

At the time of writing this post, I'm watching about 10 zebras, a dozen giraffes and maybe 20 antilopes having breakfast together in the grasslands surrounding the watering hole.

It may not be edited as nicely as Animal Planet documentaries, but it's LIVE. Everything you see on your screen is happening right at the same time half way across the world. It's truly amazing. I'm not someone easily impressed by technology, but this thing is just great.

-TPP

Up yours, spammer scum

2006-11-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

Christopher "Rizzler" Smith has been found guilty of conspiracy and illegal distribution of prescription medications.

I believe he still has to stand trial for trying to arrange threatening and/or killing witnesses in this trial. Nobody ever said spammers are smart.

May you rot in jail forever, Rizzler!

-TPP

Online gaming to be the first casualty if net neutrality is scrapped

2006-11-22T16:28:00.000-05:00

RampRate.com has published an excellent paper on the likely impact of lack of net neutrality on online gaming.

The paper argues online gaming will be killed, if net neutrality is not enforced. The argument made in the paper says unlike for practically all other low latency services over the Internet, online gaming has no other alternatives, so it will be effectively killed, if ISPs start charging premium fees for online gaming packets.

-TPP

Screw the Customer - Reality Life Show - The Video Game Episode

2006-11-15T11:16:00.000-05:00

This week is big in the video gaming industry. There are two new video game consoles coming out in the US this week. The Sony PlayStation3 (PS3) is getting released this Friday, and the Nintendo Wii this Sunday. The demand is expected to be high, and the supply, especially for the PS3, is expected to be low.

Nobody really was surprised to see scalpers (*spit*) crawling out of everywhere and reselling PS3 and Wii pre-orders on eBay for more than 100% profit. What people didn't really expect is to see mostly reputable retailers getting in on the act and royally screwing up their customers.

Let's start with our first contestant: CompUSA

CompUSA has decided it doesn't want to just sell the PS3 (at $600 + games and accessories) to customers. No, no, $600 is way to little money to spend on a gaming system. Instead they're bundling their PS3 with a 40" Sony HDTV. If you don't order the 40" TV, which has a 15% restocking fee in case you decide to return it, you can not buy a PS3 from CompUSA. How brilliant is that?

Our second contestant is Fry's Electronics.

Fry's wants you to REALLY enjoy the PS3, so they have you buy 8 games for your PS3 (see upper right corner of the ad). What makes this forced bundling really interesting is that there are only 13 games available for the PS3 at launch. Furthermore BestBuy got into a LOT of trouble with forcing bundles on their customers when the XBox 360 was launched. You'd think retailers would've learned from their mistakes. I guess not.

Our third contestant is NovaDataCom, a "network technology warehouse" (aka technology product distributor).

NovaDataCom is holding a PS3 launch party at a dance club called Ultra Bar in Washington DC this Thursday night. Each party goer has the privilege of buying one of the 1,000 PS3s available through NovaDataCom for the low, low price of $1,200 (MSRP is $600). Way to go NovaDataCom!

Our fourth contestant is GameStop / EB Games.

Their chances of winning the contest are somewhat difficult as they got some help from Sony on this one. Just like with the pre-orders for the XBox 360, GameStop recently announced that a lot of people who pre-ordered a PS3 from them are not getting one on the first day as promised. It turns out Sony cut the shipment quantities quite dramatically earlier this week. Still, you can't help but wonder what exactly did GameStop learn from their mistakes during the XBox 360 launch. I have friends who waited for four months for their pre-ordered XBox 360 from EB Games.

Our fifth, and final, contestant is Toys'R'Us.

Toys'R'Us was wooing potential Nintendo Wii buyers with some attractive offers for free games and other goodies. Well, they changed their minds. No more free games for you, our valued customer. Go Toys'R'Us!

Who will the winner be? Will we get new contestants? Who knows, but we do know, the customer always gets screwed.

[Update 1, 11/15/2006 4:22pm]

We have a new contestant! I'm so excited!

Our sixth contestant is an enterprising scalper scum from Inwood/Washington Heights in NYC.

He's selling his spot on the PS3 purchase line for a mere $2,000. He's not selling a PS3 that he owns, or a pre-ordered PS3...he's selling his spot on the line to buy a PS3. For $2,000. You still gotta pay the $600 to actually buy the PS3. The thing is...he's 30th in line at this retailer. Very few retailers are getting that many units to sell on Thursday. There is absolutely no way in hell whoever buys his spot is getting a PS3 at this location. Consider this Craigslist ad gone as soon as the content cops at Craigslist get to it.

[Update 2, 11/15/2006 4:34pm]

That was quick. The Craigslist ad is now gone.

[Update 3, 11/19/2006 9:35pm]

Another new contestant, FYE.

FYE is running a classic bait-and-switch scam on Nintendo Wii pre-orders. When people who ordered a Nintendo Wii try and pick up their system, the retailer is forcing them to buy accesories and games with the system bringing the total price of the package from $250 to about $400. No mention of the bundling was made at the time of the pre-order. Scamalicious!

-TPP

Kontrol Freek - reprieve for gamers' thumbs

2006-11-14T18:28:00.000-05:00

If you play a lot of video games, you're undoubtedly familiar with what the controllers do to your thumbs. Marathon sessions in games that require a lot of lateral movement (e.g. racing games and tennis games) will completely destroy your thumbs. Your thumbs will literally hurt after a few hours, and they will continue hurting well into the next day. It's very uncomfortable.

A friend of mine has a great little product that almost completely eliminates the soreness. It's a little U-shaped add-on that attaches itself on top of the thumbstick. It'll allow you to control the thumbsticks with less pressure and force. It works with the "S" controller for the XBox and the XBox 360 controllers.

I beta tested the product for my friend and found it doing exactly what it was designed to do.

His company is called Kontrol Freek and the product is called U-150. Go take a look and pre-order one, if you like what you see.

You can also read a review on IGN.com.

-TPP

Politkovskaya's Murder Was a Stark Message to Putin

2006-11-10T11:33:00.000-05:00

[by Kerkko Paananen, originally in Finnish]

Novaya Gazeta's reporter, Ms Anna Politkovskaya, was shot in Moscow on President Vladimir Putin's 50th birthday on 7 October 2006. Anyone responsible for the murder was fully aware of this.

About a week before her death, Ms Politkovskaya appeared on Radio Svoboda's talk show, where she expressed her wish to see Chechnya's Prime Minister and strongman, Mr Ramzan Kadyrov, stand in front of a judge accused of war crimes on his 30th birthday.

Ms Politkovskaya called Ramzan a "coward armed to the teeth", a brutish torturer, and the "Chechen Stalin". Ramzan needs to be very worried about his own life, given the number of Chechens he has killed, Ms Politkovskaya added.

It is wrong to assume that because Ramzan is Chechnya's Prime Minister, i.e., holds a high public office, that he would be capable or even willing to act like a statesman; that he would be above these sort of personal insults.

The Russian Union of Journalists has an audio tape of Ramzan directing threats against Ms Politkovskaya after Radio Svoboda's talk show. Any serious criminal investigator would certainly be interested in such a tape.

Moscow has succeeded in Chechnya where the US failed in Vietnam: Russia has "Chechenised" the war.

The civil conflict and terror are now directed by Chechen groups against each other and their civilian backers. The role of federal troops remains to prevent the war from spreading outside Chechnya.

The central government has almost no political role in Chechnya; it has no real possibilities to influence the political situation inside Chechnya; its influence is purely military.

Ramzan's armed militia has shown time and again that he is Chechnya's real ruler, not Moscow's puppet. His militia has repeatedly kidnapped federal soldiers for ransom and killed them just "for fun".

Mr Vadim Rechkalov, a reporter who appeared on Radio Svoboda together with Ms Politkovskaya, said Ramzan is stronger in the whole of Russia's Northern Caucasus than Mr Putin is in Russia. Ramzan is a product of Mr Putin's weakness.

Chechnya is being ruled by several criminal groups, who have formed a loose alliance, and whose principal source of revenue is criminal activity: large-scale embezzlement of state funds, illegal oil trade, kidnappings for ransom, slave trade, and trade in narcotics.

The relationship between the central government and Ramzan is not one of mutual trust; it is a tactical alliance between two criminal organisations that are, in fact, the closest enemies.

Moscow's biggest enemy in Chechnya are not the guerilla fighters (there are very few left), but its main ally, Ramzan, since he is the only one with the power and ability to oppose the central government.

The central government lost Chechnya when it decided to "Chechenise" the war after the death of Ramzan's father, Akhmat Kadyrov: by doing so, the central government gave up on its goal of "winning" this war, which cannot be won militarily.

Russia is politically weak in Chechnya, and the only means for it to influence events is through violence, i.e., militarily. Now even this option is melting away. Chechnya has ceased to be part of the Russian Federation a long time ago.

Ramzan turned 30 on 5 October 2006, just two days before Ms Politkovskaya's murder. Under Chechnya's constitution, Ramzan is now eligible to be elected President of Chechnya.

If Mr Putin refuses to appoint Ramzan as President of Chechnya, Ramzan either takes power himself or Mr Putin orders him killed. This will not, however, alter the situation in Chechnya one way or the other: Russia has lost Chechnya for good a long time ago.

See:

Politkovskaya's last article in Novaya Gazeta (28 Sep 2006)
Politkovskaya's last appearance on Radio Svoboda (05.10.2006)

-KJP

Israel let off the hook for murdering UN peacekeepers

2006-11-10T10:47:00.000-05:00

An expert group assembled to investigate the murder of Finnish peacekeeper Jarno Tapio Mäkinen in Khiam, Lebanon on July 25th 2006 has completed its report and handed it over to the Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen today.

They concluded the attack on the United Nations base did result from an error and that there is no evidence of it being done intentionally.

The expert group asked followup questions from both the United Nations and Israel. None of the questions were answered.

One has to assume one of those questions would've been why did Israel continue shelling the UN base after the United Nations repeatedly asked them to stop. In fact reports indicate they continued shelling the area even when a separate United Nations group came in to recover the bodies from the bunker.

Apparently the root cause for the error was errors in manually entered target coordinates and outdated or missing information about the location of the UN base in the area.

Before the precision guided bomb hit the base, the peacekeepers in the base had reported Israeli grenade launchers had four direct hits on the base. The information was relayed to the Israelis, but they continued shelling the area eventually leading into the release of the precision guided bomb that hit the base.

I've written about the Khiam murders before:
Israel murders Jarno Tapio Mäkinen, a Finnish UN peacekeeper, in Khiam, Lebanon

-TPP

Three years too late

2006-11-08T13:12:00.000-05:00

Rumsfeld is gone. Long live the New Rumsfeld.

He should've, of course, been fired almost four years ago when he made his infamous "Old Europe" comment at the time the United States was busy trying to build the alliances to attack Iraq. Typical Rumsfeld, always the diplomat. Not.

-TPP

Dirty politics - who else but the Republicans

2006-11-06T17:02:00.000-05:00

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was running a robo-dialing campaign that had purposedly designed the automated messages to sound like they were coming from the Democratic candidates. The robo-dialing was done in such an obnoxious manner (sometimes calling as many as 18 times in a row) it was probably designed to make the recipients annoyed at the Democratic candidate whose name was mentioned at the beginning of the message.

NRCC's defense: "We did nothing illegal". That's right. Politicians, in their infinite wizdom, have made themselves exempt from many of the anti-annoyance laws they've passed over the years. They can spam, while nobody else can. And they can robo-dial to their hearts content.

I'm not sure how all this jives with the Family Values campaign the Republicans are running though. I wonder if the Family Values according to Republicans include deceipt, unethical campaigning and annoying others as they please?

Update: Washington Post picked up the story as well.

-TPP

FBI bullying phishers

2006-11-06T15:21:00.000-05:00

The FBI and Polish police have arrested several people in the United States and 11 people in Poland in connection to phishing and dealing stolen credit card information.

It's good to know something's being done about the organized credit card theft. It's the fastest growing crime out there today.

-TPP

He'll look great in orange

2006-11-03T18:05:00.000-05:00

Tiiiiiiimbeeeeeeer!

Bob Ney (R-Oh) resigns on his way to prison for his role in the Abrahamoff corruption scandal.

And right before the elections, too. Eeeeeexcellent.

-TPP

Joe Lieberman bullies the elderly

2006-11-03T17:34:00.000-05:00

Way to go Mr. "Independent". Scum is as scum does.

More on the Empire Zone blog.

-TPP

Jack Thompson makes up with Bully

2006-10-30T19:06:00.000-05:00

Video gamers' favorite lawyer, Mr. Jack "Thumper" Thompson, has been caught schmoozing with the main character from the video game Bully.

We're eagerly anticipating further developments in this breaking story.

-TPP

How the online gambling bill came to be

2006-10-25T18:25:00.000-04:00

Way to go Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)! You must be one proud asshole having successfully blackmailed the entire legislative branch to get a pork barrel bill added to the Port Security bill at the last minute and guaranteeing nobody would ever read it before voting on it.

C|Net and Politech's Declan McCullagh has more on similar sneaky senate tactics.

Somehow I don't think this is exactly the way the founding fathers imagined the process when they came up with it.

-TPP

The beginning of the end for allofmp3.com?

2006-10-19T10:57:00.000-04:00

Visa has stopped processing credit card payments for allofmp3.com.

Looks like the US is pulling no punches trying to get the site shut down.

-TPP

Just say no to EA

2006-10-17T12:43:00.000-04:00

You know, every time I start thinking EA might've done the right thing and I'm considering taking them off my shitlist, they do something so completely boneheaded you have to wonder if all their people have sold their souls to the devil.

This time, instead of f***ing their employees, they're f***ing their customers. That's not really new to EA, but the way they're doing it this time is pretty incredible.

Battlefield 2142, a new shooter game from EA, is accompanied by a piece of spyware that scans your PC for your browsing activity and "other computing habits", whatever the hell that means, and then send all that data to EA. You can not play the game without installing that piece of software on your computer.

-TPP

The Banker to the Poor wins 2006 Nobel Peace Prize

2006-10-13T08:42:00.000-04:00

That prize couldn't have gone to a more deserving person.

Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh is the founder of Grameen Bank, a bank that's pioneered using microloans in 3rd world countries to rid the world of poverty. It's been a phenomenal success in every way, including financially.

You can read more about him and his bank from his excellent autobiographical book Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty.

-TPP

The Gizmondo story

2006-10-11T15:51:00.000-04:00

Wired has an excellent article about the rise and fall of Stefan Eriksson, a one-time organized crime boss in Uppsala, Sweden.

Mr. Eriksson was first convicted of a crime when he was 19. He tried robbing an armored van. He continued progressing on his criminal career until 1993 when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud and trying to spread counterfit currency in Sweden. He got out at 2000 and dissappeared for a year or two.

He joined Gizmondo, a manufacturer of a portable video gaming device, with some of his fellow criminals soon after his release from prison. His compensation in this startup that had no revenue was almost $3M in 2004. Interesting way to run a startup. Not surprisingly Gizmondo filed for bankruptcy soon after it became apparent their portable gaming device would never be able to compete with the Nintendo DS and Sony Playstation Portable. The creditors' accounting people are now wondering how did this company manage to spend nearly $400M USD in three years while generating little or no revenue. One can only assume the several luxury cars and over-the-top compensation of the company directors has something to do with it.

The downfall of Mr. Eriksson begun when he crashed his (stolen) Enzo Ferrari in Malibu last February. The police thinks he was driving the Enzo at more than 160mph at the time of the crash. Some estimates even say the speed of the vehicle might've been as high as 190mph. Mr. Eriksson first tried lying about who was driving the vehicle. He told the police at the accident scene a man named Dietrich had been driving and he had fled to the surrounding hills. Too bad the driver's side airbag in the car had Mr. Eriksson's blood on it. That's not the only thing his blood revealed...his blood alcohol level was .09. The legal limit in California is .08.

That would've made the accident pretty routine, although expensive and high speed, DUI, but that's not all that happened on that highway. Soon after the accident two vehicles stopped and two people stepped out. They flashed some official looking badges and identified themselves to the police as DHS officials and demanded they speak with Mr. Eriksson immediately. The following morning, a motorist who had stopped to help found out that a revolver had found itself under the front seat of his car. Apparently Mr. Eriksson's associate who had come to the accident scene had dumped the gun under the seat while borrowing his cellphone.

The police investigation that followed soon found out that most of the Eriksson's associates, incl. the two "DHS officials" were members of a police force for a local bus company, which owned not a fleet of buses, but one bus. Everyone was puzzled as to why a bus company operating a single bus would need a police force. It turns out Mr. Eriksson had made a business arrangement with the owner of the bus company. In exchange of installing free security equipment in the bus company's premises, the owner of the bus company agreed to hire Mr. Eriksson and his former crime buddies as his police force. California state law allows bus companies to operate their own security forces and gives them some of the same powers than regular police forces have. Specifically it is easier for the members of such security forces to acquire guns, which is apparently why Mr. Eriksson and his buddies were attracted to the idea of becoming police officers. Several guns were confiscated from his and his associates' homes. Some of the people involved are now charged with impersonating police officers.

As if that wasn't quite enough, it turns out the Enzo Mr. Eriksson crashed wasn't owned by him, but a bank in United Kingdom, which leased it to him. Mr. Eriksson had smuggled the Enzo, along with a second Enzo and a McLaren SLR, to United States when he moved there. His leasing agreement prohibited that, and additionally he had stopped making car payments, so all cars techincally belonged to the banks. One of the cars was, in fact, had already been reported as stolen by the bank financing it.

As a result Mr. Eriksson is now looking at seven felony and two misdemeanor charges.

Fascinating story of high life, crime and video games.

-TPP

Free speech is death in Russia

2006-10-07T21:02:00.000-04:00

Anna Politkovskaya, an award winning journalist and vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and other corrupt Russian leaders, was murdered in Moscow this evening. She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building.

Let's see who's found to be responsible, if anyone.

-TPP

You probably didn't know Mark Foley was a Democrat

2006-10-06T12:36:00.000-04:00

So Fox News reports on the Mark Foley scandal, and runs a ticker underneath stating Mark Foley is D-FL.

Malicious mudslinging or a revelation of the subconscious of Fox News producers? Who knows.

They claim that it was a honest mistake, of course. But how on earth could you make a mistake about that? It's IMPOSSIBLE to not know he's a Republican.

-TPP

Torture good, online poker bad

2006-10-02T15:09:00.000-04:00

The US Congress passes a bill that requires financial institutions to monitor and block financial transactions to and from online gambling businesses. The bill also requires ISPs to respond to "takedown notices" from the US Government to remove any links to online gambling businesses from websites hosted with them.

The bill was passed as a rider in the Safe Port Act of 2006.

Rider bills are so much fun.

Online gambling phobition will be enacted as soon as George W. Bush signs the Safe Port Act of 2006. Let's see how "creatively" this prohibition gets circumvented.

-TPP

Lou Dobbs delivers a sermon

2006-09-27T17:32:00.000-04:00

Keep religion out of politics, Lou Dobbs writes. I couldn't agree more.

Mr. Dobbs' sermon on immigration (does he ever talk about anything else?) begins so well. How could he be so right and so wrong at the same time, though?

He's talking about churches' involvement in politics, and offers examples of various churches embracing illegal immigrants. He's, on purpose, I think, politicizing an issue that has nothing to with politics. Churches have always throughout history taken care of immigrants, refugees and other humanitarian causes.

However much Lou Dobbs wishes he could just dump all these illegal aliens on the other side of the border (there's only one border he's talking about...), there are good reasons why churches across the US are using their powers to protect some of the illegal aliens from further harm. It's got nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with humanitarian aid.

Keep the politics out of religion, I say.

-TPP

There's nothing like the USCIS bureucracy

2006-09-21T14:50:00.000-04:00

In roughly 4 months I will be forever done with the USCIS (unless I apply for US citizenship). That will be one of the happiest days of my life. No longer will I have to worry that some paperpushing assmaggot loses my paperwork (been there, done that), sends me the wrong forms causing undue delays in processing (been there, done that) or simply pushes me around just for the hell of it (been there, done that).

What little trouble I've had with this Government office is nothing compared to the problems Mohammad Sarfaraz Hussain has had with the USCIS. Mohammad is unfortunately Pakistani, so his paperwork is probably flagged to be strip searched every time it changes hands at the USCIS. He came into the US when he was 8 years old, 13 years ago. He's as American as they come.

He's being deported, again, despite a judge having already once dismissed his deportation case in 2003. I guess the USCIS gets to try deporting people multiple times. Remember, non-citizens have no rights.

Since he's unable to stay in the country without getting deported, he's now applying for asylum because he fears if he gets deported to Pakistan, he will become a target of the anti-americanism in the country. Pretty ingenius. Let's see if the USCIS wants to kill him or not.

Update: Mohammad got his asylum despite heavy opposition from DHS/USCIS.

-TPP

Charge Nancy Grace with murder

2006-09-15T07:56:00.000-04:00

Melinda Duckett, a mother of a missing two-year-old, was interviewed by Nancy Grace, one of the attack hounds pretending to be TV journalists. Within 24 hours of the interview Melinda Duckett committed suicide. In the interview Ms. Grace came inches short of actually accusing her of killing her baby. In her usual style Ms. Grace was presuming her interviewee was guilty, just because Ms. Grace thought she was.

Melinda Duckett might've very well killed her baby, who knows. However, when an interviewer knows her interviewee has a history of suicide attempts and is already distressed, would it be wise to push as hard as Ms. Grace did?

It probably wouldn't, but then Ms. Grace never has cared for anything other than her ratings, so it doesn't really come as a great surprise to me she would recklessly endanger the life of Melinda Duckett.

I suppose she thinks she did a great service to the mankind for what she did. I'm sure she also thinks the guilty deserve anything they got coming to them. Too bad Melinda Duckett wasn't found guilty by anyone else than Ms. Grace at this point.

Take Nancy Grace off the air, and arrest her for murdering Melinda Duckett.

Update: Melinda Duckett's family is sueing CNN and Nancy Grace

-TPP

In Soviet US - you are a terrorist

2006-09-14T10:34:00.000-04:00

Yay for warrantless wiretaps. Hip hip hurray!

-TPP

How to stop the press from interviewing your citizens - Soviet style

2006-09-11T17:52:00.000-04:00

A reporter for Helsingin Sanomat, the most important Finnish newspaper, visited Mari-El in October 2005 and tried interviewing local Mari-El activists. The interviews of the most prominent activists weren't exactly successful due to the active harrassment from President Leonid Markelov's goons.

The article describes how three of the interviews the reporter was able to secure were interrupted Gestapo style by the local (Russian) officials. From fabricated criminal charges to eviction procedures that just had to be scheduled at the same time with the interview.

If you want to oppress your people, couldn't you find something slightly less transparent than harrassing them when a foreign reporter is visiting? I mean, you can't possibly harrass the foreign reporter when he's back in his home country to stop him from writing about it.

How about paying neo nazis to beat the living daylights out of whoever you want beaten? Oh, wait, Markelov's been there and done that, too.

The Russians clamoring for old the Soviet era must truly be happy these days. At least the authoritarian dictatorship is well established again.

-TPP

CAN SPAM Act sponsor spams

2006-09-09T17:46:00.000-04:00

Congressman Richard Pombo doesn't seem to think there's nothing wrong with spam and is spamming his attack ads on an opposing candidate to his constituents.

He's the same Richard Pombo who 3 years ago was all about stopping spam by sponsoring the CAN SPAM Act.

So is he a flip-flopper (naah, he's a Republican and we all know only Democrats can be flip-floppers, right?), a hypocrite or a garden variety jackass?

I vote for "all of the above".

-TPP

Kimi Räikkönen going to Ferrari

2006-09-08T17:01:00.000-04:00

Formula 1 Championship, here we come!

Kimi's been robbed of one championship already by McLaren's reliability problems. Forza Ferrari!

-TPP

Up yours, spammer scum

2006-09-08T11:15:00.000-04:00

Jeremy Jaynes aka Gaven Stubberfield, which was the alias he used when spamming, is going to prison for 9 years after The Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld his earlier conviction.

Up yours, spammer scum. Hope you enjoy the rest of your life scumbag.

-TPP

Vladimir Kozlov, a Mari-El activist, illegally held inside Russia

2006-09-06T11:16:00.000-04:00

The news article on the Information Center of Finno-Ugric Peoples website continues to document the persecution of Mari-El activists in Russia.

The latest trouble leaves Vladimir Kozlov unable to leave Russia. The Russian authorities have purposedly delayed issuing a new passport for Mr. Kozlov to replace the one that was torn by Russian border officials the last time he tried leaving the country. This is unconstitutional in the new "democratic" Russia.

I've written about Vladimir Kozlov's troubles with the Russian dictatorship before:
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia

English translation of the Estonian language news article appended.

-TPP

Mari opposition leader barred exit from Russia

Russian authorities are refusing to issue a new passport to Mr Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the Mari Congress ("Mari Ushem") -- principal opposition force in the Republic of Mari-El, -- thus preventing him from attending an international conference on minority rights in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, over the weekend.

Mr Kozlov's problems with his passport began in May 2006, when Russian border guards in Vyborg removed him from a train bound for Helsinki, Finland, where he was to attend a summer course for museum workers. The official reason for the move was that Mr Kozlov's passport was torn. Russian border officials had ripped two pages off Mr Kozlov's passport, thus rendering the document invalid.

After this incident, Mr Kozlov has failed to obtain a new passport, despite several attempts. Under Russian law, the maximum period for issuing passports is one month. Russia retains a two-passport system, in which an "internal passport" is required in dealings with officials within Russia and a "foreign passport" for travel outside Russia. Refusing foreign passports was a common practice in the Soviet Union for preventing undesired individuals from establishing contacts abroad.

Mari national leader barred from taking part in minority rights seminar Finno-Ugric Peoples' Information Centre/ Tallinn, 06 Sep 2006

The Today Show covers Steve Irwin's death

2006-09-04T15:50:00.000-04:00

The Crocodile Hunter Mr. Steve Irwin was killed earlier today while filming an underwater documentary. He'll be missed.

There's nobody who's more enthuasiastic and passionate about wildlife and nature conservation than him. He was always great fun to watch even if you were terrified of the creatures he was wrestling with.

That's what you would've expected to perhaps see in the news coverage of his death. How sadly mistaken I was. I briefly caught the morning news shows covering the news. I was disgusted by what I saw.

Pretty much all the major networks had decided to cover his death in the following manner:

20 second blurb stating he'd died and how. No elaboration, nothing, no word on how his family was doing or that he'd died doing what he loved.

The next few minutes were devoted not to telling about his lifework and his achievements. Naah, that would've apparently been much too boring. Instead all the major networks went onto showing people how Mr. Irwin in 2004 took his baby in an alligator pit while feeding the alligators. This was covered in length, as if it was the defining moment of his life. The Today Show went as far as to show almost the entire interview of Steve Irwin by Matt Lauer. In the interview Matt Lauer is practically ripping Mr. Irwin a new asshole. It was very confrontational.

Where is the respect, humility and decency in that?? Utterly despicable.

One wonders at what point did the NBC producers stop being human beings in favor of the neverending chase for ratings.

-TPP

Fabricated criminal charges Russia's latest weapon against Mari-El activists

2006-09-03T12:22:00.000-04:00

The Russian Federation and its little dictator wannabe, Leonid Markelov, are once again persecuting Mari-El activists. As if directly from the Oppression 101 text book by Stalin and Hitler, the oppression proceeds in a truly predictable way.

Last year it was near fatal beat downs, and today it's using the judicial system with fabricated criminal charges. I wonder when (if) the trial starts, if Markelov decides to dress the guilty, um, defendants in oversized clothing. It's also in the same Oppression 101 text book.

Vitaly Tanakov and Nina Maksimova are both charged with "incitement to ethnic, racial or religious enmity". Apparently promoting Mari-El culture and cultural events is streng verboten. Human rights organization are all saying there is no justification in bringing up charges against Mr. Tanakov and Ms. Maksimova.

The Markelov dictatorship is also stepping up the garden variety kind of harrassment of Mari-El activists. Anonymous phone calls, interrogations and harrassing relatives and children of Mari-El activists have been common place in recent times.

I guess one should be "happy" the recent terror campaign hasn't involved the use of violence towards Mari-El activists, but that's just a matter of time, again.

Putin is all talk when it comes to human rights. The two-faced lieing bastard lets his henchmen crack down on ethnic minorities in lesser states like Mari-El while he can prance around in Moscow introducing smoke and mirror PR statements pretending to be the patron saint of human rights in Russia making friends with western countries.

I hope the western countries are not so easily deceived.

Update: The news made it to USInfo as well: usinfo.state.gov

I've written about Russia's human rights violations against Mari-El activists before:
The IHF issues a stinging report on human rights situation in the Republic of Mari El
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia
The people of Mari being systematically persecuted by Russians

-TPP

The Virtual President

2006-09-01T16:39:00.000-04:00

Mark Warner, former Governor of Virginia, had an interview in Second Life, a virtual world game (kind of like MMORPG, but without leveling and fighting), earlier today.

He's the first politician in the US, and possibly in the world, to hold a political event in a virtual environment. The interview is a precursor to a virtual town meeting he's holding in Second Life later this year.

Governor Warner was interviewed by James Wagner Au (aka Hamlet) of New World Notes (NWN). NWN has the transcript of the interview.

It's certainly an encouraging event when most politicians seem to be more interested in scoring family-value points by scapegoating video games and social media for all the sins in the world.

The Washington Post also has an article about the interview. Looks like there're a few things they might want to sort out before the town hall meeting.

-TPP

Evolution Schmevolution

2006-08-24T14:55:00.000-04:00

The New York Times is reporting that evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students.

The Department of Education says the removal was accidental and it'll be relisted. Others find the explanation somewhat suspect.

-TPP

Shut up Tony Avella

2006-08-18T12:58:00.000-04:00

Tony Avella is the New York City Councilman in the district I live in. He'd be my councilman, if I was a citizen.

He's been in the limelight recently for some "unfortunate" statements regarding a vicious attack on four Asian college kids by two guidos in Douglaston. One of the scum even decided it'd be a great idea, if he fought with the police who caught up with them after the attack. Bright kids these two.

Mr. Avella, undoubtedly playing with the home court advantage in his predominantly white district, said racial tensions in the neighborhood have been increasing, because the Asian immigrants, who own stores in the area, have been putting up Korean or Chinese language signs on their storefronts. Apparently, according to Mr. Avella, this is making the whites in the area feel unwelcome. And according to Mr. Avella that might be causing racial tension in the area.

What a load of bullshit.

Maybe Mr. Avella and his constituents might want to move beyond their prejudices and step inside one of these stores and look around (and leave the baseball bat behind). Not only will you be completely welcome, but you'll also quite likely find the stores cheaper than the American competitors. You'll also find merchandise you can not get anywhere else. Experiencing something like that might cure the area whites of their bigotry. That is, if it's not inbred into them. Like the case is with the two assholes in Douglaston.

Next time Mr. Avella is up for re-election, let's hope the (Asian) immigrant population in his area exceeds the number of whites in the area. It's high time this apologist gets voted off the City Council.

-TPP

PS. Before any white person from Bayside or Douglaston gets too upset at me, let's just remind everyone that I'm quite white. In fact, I'm probably much whiter than the average Queens whitey, since I come from one of the blondest countries in the world. You can't get any more pale than me.

The US President violated the US Constitution

2006-08-17T13:44:00.000-04:00

A Federal Judge has ruled the NSA warrantless wiretapping unconstitutional and snapped President Bush on the fingers by stating:

The president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders.

Not even Emperor Bush is above the law.

-TPP

My friend has published a CD

2006-08-16T12:43:00.000-04:00

Go check it out.

Rock'n'Roll Jamie!

-TPP

I ain't no stinkin' monkey! Hallelujah! Say Americans

2006-08-15T15:48:00.000-04:00

Allow me to climb a tree and scratch my nuts while I ponder on the following chart.

-TPP

What would the Republicans be without immigrants

2006-08-15T12:44:00.000-04:00

These bigoted asses in the Republican party just can't keep their mouths shut, can they?

It's good that they can use us immigrants as a wedge issue and all, but Virginia Senator George Allen probably wished he hadn't had the press there when he called a person of Indian ethnicity a monkey. It's good to know we have people like him representing us in the US Senate.

After all, there're way too many brown and yellow people in the country already. Right Mr. Bigot?

-TPP

What would the Republicans be without the terrorists

2006-08-15T10:01:00.000-04:00

Ned Lamont, who is against the Iraq war, won the Democratic party primary for the Connecticut State Senator seat recently. His opponent was a fence sitter Joe Lieberman, who supports the war.

The Vice President felt compelled to comment on the primary results with the following:

The thing that's partly disturbing about it is the fact that, the standpoint of our adversaries, if you will, in this conflict, and the al Qaeda types, they clearly are betting on the proposition that ultimately they can break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task.

It must be very stressful to constantly lie to the American public. No wonder the lying sack of shit has had multiple heart attacks.

The Washington Post has an excellent discussion on Cheney's orchestrated propaganda campaign.

William Greiger writes in his blog:

An evil symbiosis does exist between Muslim terrorists and American politicians, but it is not the one Republicans describe. The jihadists need George W. Bush to sustain their cause. His bloody crusade in the Middle East bolsters their accusation that America is out to destroy Islam. The president has unwittingly made himself the lead recruiter of willing young martyrs.

More to the point, it is equally true that Bush desperately needs the terrorists. They are his last frail hope for political survival. They divert public attention, at least momentarily, from his disastrous war in Iraq and his shameful abuses of the Constitution. The "news" of terror--whether real or fantasized--reduces American politics to its most primitive impulses, the realm of fear-and-smear where George Bush is at his best.

Paul Krugman writes in New York Times:

We now know that from the very beginning, the Bush administration and its allies in Congress saw the terrorist threat not as a problem to be solved, but as a political opportunity to be exploited.

-TPP

RIAA gangs up on dead man's family

2006-08-14T11:27:00.000-04:00

RIAA sues man. Man dies before case is over. RIAA goes after the estate. RIAA wants to depose the dead man's family.

But RIAA graciously allows 60 days for grieving.

The law firm litigating this case for RIAA is Soble Rowe Kirchbaum LLP. The asshole running the show is "Mr." Kirchbaum:

What a delightful man. Looks so happy go lucky in that picture, too. Too bad he's a necrophiliac.

Update: RIAA is dropping the case against Mr. Scantleberry. RIAA's public relations release over the matter says:

Out of an abundance of sensitivity, we have elected to drop this particular case.

BoingBoing.net's response really says it all.

-TPP

CEA joins in to gang up on RIAA

2006-08-11T13:17:00.000-04:00

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has released a statement regarding RIAA's audio broadcast flag demands.

The statement feels like a smackdown. It's like an adult putting down a petulant child in front of all his classmates.

It hasn't been a good week for RIAA. First they got spanked by every civil liberties / free speech advocacy organization in the country, and now they're getting chewed on by an organization they NEED as a partner to get the boneheaded audio broadcast flag into tomorrow's radios.

-TPP

EFF, AALL, ACLU and Public Citizen gang up on RIAA

2006-08-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

I guess RIAA's just been called out. The acronym combination is kind of like the royal flush of free speech / civil liberties advocates in the US. I wonder if such a combination has ever joined together against an organization such as RIAA before.

EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), AALL (American Association of Law Libraries), ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and Public Citizen have filed an amicus brief in favor of Deborah Foster's motion to have RIAA pay for her legal fees.

RIAA sued Ms. Foster claiming she was sharing copyrighted content on a P2P network. RIAA withdrew the case after dragging the case for months when they already knew Ms. Foster wasn't guilty (her daughter was).

The brief is fascinating reading and outlines in plain english RIAA's legal tactics.

EFF's press release and the brief about the brief can be found at EFF's website.

-TPP

Is there fire under the smoke? Usually there is.

2006-08-08T11:25:00.000-04:00

The US Department of Justice has threatened to sue the State of Maine, if the Public Utilities Commission there proceeds with an investigation on whether Verizon broke the law and handed over customer records to the US Government.

Ask yourself why would the US DOJ bother doing that, if there wasn't anything to the allegations that the phone companies have been feeding the US Government customer data for years?

-TPP

Al Gore and the Penguin Army

2006-08-07T04:59:00.000-04:00

Looks like the Big Oil can't really discredit Al Gore's message about global warming, so they decided to attack his character instead in a classic ad hominem style by creating a YouTube video piece.

That would've probably been just ok, if they also would've been upfront about producing the video. But that would've been way too honest for companies, who are making more money than any other company in the history of mankind while still begging for money from the US Government claiming they can't afford to fund research, because hurricane Katrina has negatively affected their profits.

So they didn't disclose producing the video. Instead the video was claimed to have been produced by toutsmith. Who the fuck is "toutsmith"? According to Wall Sreet Journal, he is an employee of DCI Group, a well known propaganda company, whose clients include just about every big corporation and political party in the country.

When you can't attack the message, attack the messenger?

-TPP

Out-of-touch, insane jackasses in Minnesota

2006-08-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday a Federal District Court Judge James M. Rosenbaum ruled that the Minnesota Restricted Video Games Act is unconstitutional. Specifically the judge ruled that the State of Minnesota has not proven violent video games lead to violent behavior. Here are some quotes from the ruling:

The State’s concerns are inchoate. It is impossible to determine from the data presented whether violent video games cause violence, or whether violent individuals are attracted to violent video games.

Further, there is no showing whatsoever that video games, in the absence of other violent media, cause even the slightest injury to children.

GamePolitics.com reports (via St. Paul Pioneer-Press) on the reaction to that ruling from various Minnesota legislators.

State Senator Sandy Pappas (D) had this to say about the ruling:

"The whole ruling defied common sense. I am so disappointed. The federal court said we don't have a right to protect our children, but we protect our children from other things. We don't let them smoke or buy liquor. You score points (in video games) for how many women you rape, how many cops you kill. How could that not affect them psychologically?"

Say what?

She's, of course, talking about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the current favorite whipping boy of politicians and insane lawyers from Miami. The problem is that's not what the game is about. You don't get more points for raping women or killing cops. In fact, you get into quite a lot of trouble (in the GTA game world) for killing cops. Furthermore smoking and alcohol have known and PROVEN negative effects to the well being of children. Somehow she failed to notice the part of the ruling that stated there is no evidence that says video games are harmful to kids.

Maybe the good Senator would like to also introduce bills protecting children from the baby-eating monsters that live under every child's bed. They are, after all, just as real as the video games she's trying to protect children from.

-TPP

Israel murders Jarno Tapio Mäkinen, a Finnish UN peacekeeper, in Khiam, Lebanon

2006-07-27T08:16:00.000-04:00

The Israeli army murdered 4 UN peacekeepers on Tuesday July 25th in Khiam, Lebanon by dropping a precision-guided bomb on their bunker. Before dropping the lethal bomb on their heads, the Israelis had been shelling their area for more than six hours getting closer and closer to the UN post the peacekeepers were occupying. The post had been there for years making it impossible for the Israelis not to have known it was there.

The Israeli artillery was firing within 150 metres of the UN post while the UN peacekeepers were calling the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) repeatedly informing the IDF they were firing upon UN peacekeepers and asking them to stop. The killing blow came from a precision-guided bomb, which by definition had to have been targeting the very bunker the UN peacekeepers were in despite knowing the UN peacekeepes were in it.

The Israelis say Hezbollah has been using the Khiam area to launch rockets into Israel justifying shelling the entire area into smithereens. The Israeli policy is apparently to carpet bomb areas where Hezbollah is operating from without consideration of who else is inhabiting said areas. No wonder people outside of Israel (and US) are not too keen on the latest Israeli offensive against Lebanon.

The Israeli response to the attack has been two-fold. While Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed "deep regret" over the attack, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni basically stated (paraphrased) "tough cookies, people die in a war".

As expected, the United States backed Israel by blocking a UN Security Council resolution condemning the attack.

One of the UN peacekeepers killed in the attack is a 29-year old Finnish lieutenant captain Jarno Tapio Mäkinen from Turku.

-TPP

Spam as art

2006-07-26T11:05:00.000-04:00

Alex Dragulescu is producing computer generated images out of spam messages. He's written algorithms that produce plant/flower-like images based on the sender, send time and keywords in the message.

He's got more sample images up on his Spam Plants project website.

-TPP

Today's best bad idea pt II

2006-07-26T10:13:00.000-04:00

Not content on charging gamers $60 every 12 months for a roster update, EA Sports and ESPN are putting up a preview video of their upcoming Madden 07 video game on pay-per-view TV for $20 per pop.

That's, like, so rad kewl.

If anyone who's not stoned or underage or both is willing to pay for watching a 60-minute advertisement, I'd be very surprised. But you can't fault EA for trying. After all Greed Is Good (tm).

-TPP

Today's best bad idea

2006-07-25T12:16:00.000-04:00

Parker Brothers, makers of the board game Monopoly, have decided they're going to get rid of the paper money from the game and replace it with fake debit/credit cards. They're phasing out the paper money version in favor of a version that comes with a fake card reader/calculator that keeps track of everyone's money. Parker Brothers is explaining the move by saying the game is moving on with the times, as less and less people are using paper money to pay for their (real) purchases.

Earth to Parker Brothers: games are not real life.

That's not really what happened though. This is what really happened.

Visa, whose brand is going to get plastered all over the fake cards and readers, contacted Parker Brothers and said: "Hey dudes, how swell would it be if we paid you a god awful lot of money to get rid of that unbranded paper money, and instead provided you with all this newmangled technology so that we could brainwash all Monopoly players that Visa is where the credit's at? We here at Visa have done some market research and we figure the younger we catch our marks, the more they're gonna be using our products. What better way to increase our marketshare than infiltrate kids' games with our brand."

Looks like Parker Brothers got bought out and forgot what Monopoly is really about. It's about waving your thick wad of cash in front of your younger brother's face, it's about teaming against your cousins and lending money to your brother so that he doesn't go bankrupt, it's about arguing about who cheated and how much and it's about learning money management by actually having to count how much money you have. All that stuff is going away when all you've got is the same fake credit card no matter how much or how little play money you've got.

Shame on you Parker Brothers for going for greed.

-TPP

Customers pissed and retailers screwed

2006-07-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

IHL Consulting Group, a research company serving the retail industry, has done a study on the effects of self-service checkout lines. The study concludes that customers going through self-service checkout are not buying as many impulse purchases as the customers waiting on line for a cashier. Weekly World News is likely to be rather upset about that.

I don't know about everyone else, but I'd rather see the self-service checkout lines gone for good. It's not my idea of a pleasurable shopping experience when at the end of it I have to inspect every can and box to figure out where the hell the barcode is. Hopefully the retailers can't figure out how to increase impulse buying with the self-service checkout lines and are losing so much revenue it'd be more cost effective to go back to using good old-fashioned cashiers.

-TPP

RIAA can not prove illegal file sharing in the courts

2006-07-20T15:15:00.000-04:00

It looks like RIAA's war on soccer moms is all based on bluffing.

Debbie Foster from Oklahoma basically asked RIAA to present their evidence against her. For whatever reason RIAA failed to do so and Ms. Foster filed a motion for summary judgment in her favor and the judge did so.

It looks like RIAA is using the US courts to intimidate and blackmail people. They certainly don't seem to have any evidence against these people that would withstand even the most elementary legal challenge. How hard would it have been for RIAA to answer the request for evidence if they did have it?

-TPP

Net Neutrality: Would you pay to not have your kneecaps broken?

2006-06-29T11:23:00.000-04:00

Of course you wouldn't, but why would you then pay protection money to network providers so that your TCP/IP packets get delivered as expected?

Dan Kaminsky has written an excellent article on net neutrality issues in Computerworld.

-TPP

Dickishness aplenty

2006-06-23T18:25:00.000-04:00

Dickishness is my favorite word (can you tell?).

It's the perfect word to describe what the Republicans just did to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that was designed to guarantee Republicans^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hracist bigots wouldn't manage to keep minority voters (blacks) out of the polls come election day.

The act is set to expire next year unless it's renewed.

Speaker Dennis Hastert was to introduce the renewal, but he was overrun by his fellow Republicans, who refused to support the renewal, because, apparently, it would encourage hispanic voting.

The Republicans couldn't have said it any clearer: Republicans don't want any brown people in the US.

And, if by any chance all of them illegal immigrants manage to con the US Government to give them US citizenship, by God, it'd be quite awful, if they all voted. They wouldn't vote for us racist bigots, that's for damn sure. So let's make sure we don't lift a finger to help making voting easier for Spanish speaking voters.

Democracy! Ah, such a wonderful thing.

-TPP

dickishness - dick-ish-ness

2006-06-22T22:02:00.000-04:00

Watch the most brilliant Daily Show segment ever.

Main Entry: dick-ish-ness
Pronunciation: 'dik-ish-n&s
Function: noun
: usually vulgar : an aura eminating from someone being a particularly dickheaded dick

-TPP

Out of touch jackasses leave a whiff of dickishness behind them

2006-06-22T16:03:00.000-04:00

The US Congress has been busy fighting important issues lately.

Jon Stewart ran a pretty insightfully insulting segment on the Daily Show about their War on Video Games.

Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA) takes the cake though. He comes on at around at the 4:10 mark. Protect us from the ghetto kids!!!

-TPP

If you want to be a thief, don't be a dumb thief

2006-06-21T16:49:00.000-04:00

A 16-year old diva from Corona, Queens "finds" a Sidekick cellphone in a taxi, decides to keep it and snaps a whole bunch of pictures of herself and her family.

Little does she know Sidekicks send a copy of all pictures taken with it to a T-Mobile web account where the owner can view them later. That's exactly what the rightful owner of the Sidekick did.

The owner found out the AIM screen name of the thief, and IMed her asking her to return the phone. She told the owner, in a particularly nice way to shove it. That's the first thing she did wrong. The second thing she did wrong was to ask her brother serving in the military to threaten the owner. Apparently that's quite a big no-no for military personnel. The third thing she did wrong was to ask the owner to pay her to get the phone back.

The amateur thief has now been arrested for possession of stolen property. Way to go! Next time be more stupid and maybe you'll evolve from misdemeanors to felonies and go to jail for a long time.

A friend of the owner of the Sidekick set up a website to document all of this:

http://www.evanwashere.com/StolenSidekick/

-TPP

AT&T to customers: Fuck your privacy

2006-06-21T15:22:00.000-04:00

AT&T gets sued for violating their own privacy policy and disclosing confidential information about their customers and their usage records to 3rd parties.

What does AT&T do to rectify the situation? Apologize and vow to protect customers' privacy better in the future? Naah, that wouldn't be Big Corp ^(tm) enough.

Instead AT&T rewrites its privacy policy to state, in no uncertain terms, that AT&T customers have no privacy whatsoever and AT&T can do whatever the hell they please with your data. Excellent!

Customers to AT&T: No. Fuck you.

-TPP

Pizza Hut - we gotta talk

2006-06-12T11:29:00.000-04:00

Pizza Hut is sponsoring the Cyberathlete Professional League and they've used Gorbachev in their marketing before:

Pizza Hut ad w/ M.S. Gorbachev

Come'on guys! Give me a call. It's a win-win situation. I already like your pizzas, I am a pretty effective communicator and I excel at (certain types of) video games. What more is there to talk about?

LET'S DOOOOEEEE IIIIT!

-TPP

Pigs are flying - Hillary Rosen thinks RIAA's lawsuits are useless

2006-06-10T13:02:00.000-04:00

Wow. The ex-CEO of RIAA has this to say about RIAA's current legal warfare against consumers:

But for the record, I do share a concern that the lawsuits have outlived most of their usefulness and that the record companies need to work harder to implemnt a strategy that legitimizes more p2p sites and expands the download and subscription pool by working harder with the tech community to get devices and music services to work better together.

Has she become a spokesperson for some consumer electronics industry lobbying group?

-TPP

Rock, paper and scissors as an alternative dispute resolution tool

2006-06-08T08:20:00.000-04:00

A federal judge in Florida orders two lawyers, who are unable to agree on a location for a meeting, to settle their dispute with one game of rock, paper and scissors.

Simple and cost-effective. Brilliant!

-TPP

Gorbachev to the rescue

2006-06-07T21:57:00.000-04:00

Vladimir Putin just acquired an interesting opponent in his war against free speech and human rights when Mikhail Gorbachev and a Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev bought a 49% stake in the only major Russian newspaper that's openly criticizing Putin's dictatorship.

Novaya Gazeta is a newspaper whose staff consists largely of journalists fired from other media outlets by Putin and his cronies because of the journalists' critical coverage of Putin's dictatorship.

The newspaper has gained a powerul ally in Mikhail Gorbachev. It's unlikely the Putin dictatorship dare meddle with the newspaper that has him as a financial backer.

I've written about the Russian human rights violations before:
The IHF issues a stinging report on human rights situation in the Republic of Mari El
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia
The people of Mari being systematically persecuted by Russians

-TPP

Hell freezes over - I agree with Lou Dobbs on something

2006-06-07T12:22:00.000-04:00

Lou Dobbs rips the (pseudo-)conservative Republicans a new one over the idiotic pandering constitutional amendment initiative to ban gay marriage. He says:

It's an insult to the intelligence of every voter, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative.

Couldn't agree more.

-TPP

Barry Manilow gets unusual airtime in Aussieland

2006-06-07T09:37:00.000-04:00

Got hoons? Barry Manilow to the rescue!

Copa. . Copacabana
Copa Copacabana Copacabana, ahh ahh ahh ahh
Ahh ahh ahh ahh Copa Copacabana

-TPP

At least someone in the Finnish Parliament has balls

2006-06-01T11:49:00.000-04:00

Heidi Hautala, she's female, btw, caused a somewhat of a scandal earlier today in Finland when she spoke during Parliament's centenary session as a representative of the Green Party.

She riled against the current Russian administration saying the Russian Duma has reverted to the tsar-dominated pre-1905 situation. She also encouraged Russia to honor basic human rights, rule of law and democratic values.

Too bad the speech didn't come from some of the representatives of parties currently in power in Finland. They were, as usual, too busy apologizing to the Russians for what Ms. Hautala had said.

Helsingin Sanomat, the leading newspaper in Finland, reports on Heidi Hautala's speech.

Given all that's happening to Finno-Ugric people in Russia, I say this speech was long overdue and should've been given at the Russian Duma.

I've written about the Russian human rights violations before:
The IHF issues a stinging report on human rights situation in the Republic of Mari El
Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia
The people of Mari being systematically persecuted by Russians

-TPP

MPAA sued by TorrentSpy.com

2006-05-25T13:44:00.000-04:00

Valence Media, the parent company which owns TorrentSpy.com, has sued MPAA claiming they hired someone for $15,000 USD to hack into TorrentSpy.com servers and steal confidential information about TorrentSpy.com. Financial records, internal Email correspondence and IT infrastructure documents are among the information Valence Media claims to have been stolen.

What I don't understand is why Valence Media is going about this with a civil suit. Unauthorized computer access and industrial espionage are criminal offenses.

MPAA, meet kettle. It's black alright.

-TPP

AT&T's illegal Internet traffic wiretapping details are public

2006-05-22T12:47:00.000-04:00

Wired has published the evidence against AT&T in the class action lawsuit filed by EFF.

The evidence suggests AT&T has installed cable splitters on its backbone optic fibre cables to "copy" Internet traffic.

The evidence shows that not only are splitters in place on AT&T's own network, but even more seriously on the backbone that routes traffic from/to AT&T's peering partners. AT&T is illegally tapping its competitors network traffic effectively allowing whoever is in the receiving end of that data to wiretap all US Internet traffic.

Ingenius AT&T.

Let's see...accomplish in illegal wiretapping, violating peering contracts, violating their own customers' privacy, violating the privacy of AT&T's competitors'.

If I had a peering contract with AT&T, I'd be on the phone with AT&T right about now informing AT&T that all peering agreements with AT&T are void as of 5 minutes ago. I'd cut all peer connections to AT&T (after arranging alternative ones) and then I'd sue AT&T for damages.

The individual court documents are available at:

Study Group 3, LGX/Splitter Wiring, San Francisco - describes AT&T's planning of installing the cable splitters
SIMS, Splitter Cut-In and Test Procedure - describes the procedures to install the cable splitters
Cut-In and Test Procedure - describes the procedures to install and test the cable splitters

-TPP

Lordi wins!

2006-05-20T20:19:00.000-04:00

The Finnish entry for the Eurovision song contest by a flamboyant heavy metal band Lordi decimated the competition today.

They received an all-time record number of votes in an Eurovision contest: 292.

Go Finland! :)

-TPP

Trademarking smells?

2006-05-20T12:23:00.000-04:00

A Lithunian pizzeria chain Cilija wants to trademark the smell of pizza.

They're claiming the local population associate pizza scent mostly with the restaurant and want to trademark the pizza scent for use in advertising. Since smelloads haven't been invented yet Cilija only plans on mentioning how pizzalicious their food smells. No other restaurant would be able to do that if the trademark is granted to Cilija.

I think the whole thing stinks.

-TPP

Mari-El activists still persecuted in Russia

2006-05-17T08:03:00.000-04:00

Vladimir Kozlov, the editor of the Mari newspaper Kudo+Kodu and Chairman of the Mari Council, was denied entry to Finland for attending a seminar of ethnic museum leaders.

The Finnish Embassy in Moscow had granted him a visa, but when Mr. Kozlov tried to leave Russia, the Russian border officials claimed his passport had all of its even numbered pages missing.

One can only guess how the pages went missing after Mr. Kozlov handed the passport to the officials.

Mr. Kozlov was badly beaten in February 2005 by "unknown" assailants. Nobody has been arrested, charged or convicted for his near fatal beating.

-TPP

In Soviet US the Government spies on journalists

2006-05-15T16:14:00.000-04:00

Yay for liberty, freedom and illegal wiretaps.

-TPP

In Soviet US the Government spies on you, pt II

2006-05-11T11:44:00.000-04:00

USA Today has managed to find out more about NSA's domestic spying program.

Turns out our fearless leader, Chairman George Bush, lied to us again. In his radio address last December he said he'd authorized the NSA to capture international communication between terrorist suspects. He specifically said only international communication, i.e. calls coming in from abroad or going abroad, are spied on, as if that makes spying on your own citizens any better. He also implied that the spying program was only listening in on terrorist suspects.

Either his definition of terrorist suspect is a little vague, and includes every US resident, NSA went outside of their mandate or Bush is lying through his teeth.

As the USA Today information reveals the NSA has been collecting information about EVERY phonecall made in the United States. All calls. Not just international calls or calls made or received by terrorist suspects. Every single call.

With the help of telecommunications companies the NSA has been collecting information about US residents' phonecalls for years. Citing legal implications only QWest has refused to comply with NSA's request to hand over call information. AT&T, Verizon and Bellsouth are happily letting the Government spy on you with no warrants in sight.

When will the Government stop lying to you? After the next election?

-TPP

Jeanson James Ancheta goes to jail for 57 months

2006-05-09T12:01:00.000-04:00

Jeanson James Ancheta has been sentenced to 57 month prison sentence for his botmaster activities. He ran a zombie network that was used to attack several DOD computers, which is probably why he's in the slammer for such a long time.

He was basically selling timeshares on his zombie network to whoever had a need for a DDOS, hack-by-proxy or spam activities.

-TPP

My PGR3 Tournament elimination round 1 race video

2006-05-05T23:54:00.000-04:00

Here's the video capture of the race. Lots of bumping going on. The first few corners are just impossible.

It was close, but I made a bunch of mistakes that cost me the race, including the big crash at the end.

-TPP

PGR3 Tournament elimination round 1 completed

2006-05-05T01:20:00.000-04:00

7 racers showed up for the 3-lap race. I came in 6th and got eliminated.

Here's how the race went from my perspective.

I started at last place on the inside. I went into the first corner taking an inside lane and then cars just started coming in from all directions. I'm sure I hit my fair share of cars as well. I use the in-car view when racing, so visibility is pretty bad. I don't even know how I ended up on the 3rd place after the 2nd corner.

I approach the 4th corner side by side with the 2nd place car. He is slightly in front so I slow down to take the line behind him. The 4th place car catches up on me, bumps me, then starts swerving and falls behind. I'm in the third place and stay there until midway through the second lap.

I scrape an inside wall on a chicane, and the 4th place car gets ahead of me and I fall back to 4th. The 5th place car is WAY back. The race is pretty much in the bag at this point.

That all changed in the first corner of the final lap, however. The 2nd place car screws up the corner pretty badly and I basically get stuck behind him while the 5th place car catches up on us and overtakes me.

We race right at each others' bumpers until the 3rd last corner where I'm feeling pretty good at my chances of overtaking these two guys. Bad idea...

I go into the corner with way too much speed and collide with the 3rd place car. The 4th place car somehow manages to avoid the brunt of the crash. The 6th place car catches up on us and overtakes me to come in 5th. I finish 6th.

Thankfully my boneheaded move didn't affect the race results as the 3rd and 4th place cars end up finishing at those positions.

I'll post videos of the race later. Here's The Crash footage as an appetizer:

The Crash from Sackamonjaro's viewpoint

It's a good one! :)

-TPP

PGR3 Tournament elimination races tonight

2006-05-04T14:21:00.000-04:00

I'll be racing at 12:20am tonight.

All the races are broadcast in PGR3's Gotham TV Tournament Channel. If you own PGR3, tune in and watch me make a complete fool out of myself racing against all these pros.

-TPP

The Mad Finn as a pro-gamer?

2006-05-02T21:39:00.000-04:00

Bizarre Creations, Global Gaming League, Inc. and Microsoft are running a worldwide tournament in Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3), a racing game for the XBox 360.

Top 64 qualifiers in each of the three regions - North America, Europe and Asia - make it to the elimination rounds for their region. There're four elimination rounds using a bracket of 64 competitors. Top 4 racers in each elimination race move onto the next round. The top 4 racers of each region are going to the Finals run at the Lamborghini factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy.

The qualifying was run using a Lamborghini Gallardo on Tokyo Nishigushi Short track. Unlimited amount of laps, best lap time counts.

The qualifying ended last night and I made it to the top 64 in North America!! My best lap time was 53.62 secs in 43rd position with the last qualifier having a time o 53.67 secs. Overall I came in at 149th position of 9,397 total competitors.

I've always been good at racing and sports games, but I never imagined I'd be able to compete as evenly as I did with the very best of PGR3. Some of the top qualifiers do this sort of thing professionally and they're freakishly talented.

Before the tournament begun I thought I'd have a small chance in making the top 64, if some of the top racers wouldn't participate. But everyone turned up, and the competition was simply fierce, especially in Europe. Not in my wildest dreams did I think I'd make it as high as top 50 among all these great racers.

The elimination rounds begin this Thursday evening and continue every evening until this Sunday. Let's see what happens. I don't think I'll make it very far. I'll be lucky, if I make it through the first round.

But it's been an absolute blast so far. I can't wait till the real competition starts.

-TPP

Aetna stores your data on laptops

2006-04-28T11:59:00.000-04:00

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

Why do copyright holders and US legislators assume people are guilty until proven innocent?

2006-04-27T19:29:00.000-04:00

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:

Please also read the press release associated with CEA's campaign against RIAA/MPAA. Awesome!

-TPP

Finding correlation where there is none

2006-04-21T12:43:00.000-04:00

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.

What the fuck did video games have to do with this?

As the editorial about the news on a gaming blog, Joystiq.com, says:

Now understand, about 110% of male teenagers in America play "violent" video games, so what's the real connection?

Indeed. It seems the mere fact that these boys happened to play violent video games, just like roughly every other boy of the same age, discounts anything else these boys might've been up to.

It Just Must Have Been The Video Games, right?

-TPP

The White House credibility problem

2006-04-19T11:24:00.000-04:00

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

Assat.com crashes after the overtime win

2006-04-18T15:24:00.000-04:00

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

Ässät WINS!

2006-04-18T14:23:00.000-04:00

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

Ässät kick ass!

2006-04-18T14:03:00.000-04:00

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

Did we come here to talk or drink?!

2006-04-18T13:16:00.000-04:00

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

RIAA says the US President is a criminal

2006-04-17T17:04:00.000-04:00

I can hardly wait till RIAA sues George Bush.

Pitting George Bush against the RIAA Settlement Support Center folks would be very entertaining.

-TPP

EFF has published a paper on the unintended consequences of DMCA

2006-04-13T17:29:00.000-04:00

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

Ässät!! Ässät!! Ässät!! Ässät!!

2006-04-11T14:21:00.000-04:00

WE ARE GOING TO THE FINALS!!!

I wonder if Ässät sells package deals for the finals with flights from New York :)

-TPP

Ässät - so close!

2006-04-11T13:03:00.000-04:00

4th semi-final game is 3 - 1 for Ässät after 2 periods.

20 more minutes!

-TPP

Culture War - or how everything good is bad for kids

2006-04-07T18:02:00.000-04:00

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

Ässät from victory to victory

2006-04-07T14:50:00.000-04:00

Two wins! Next win takes Ässät to the finals.

-TPP