8:15 am, Hiroshima, Japan
Month: August 2007
Another Victory for the End User.
The response of the record distributors to digital music has been punative and stupid, and they’ve just been slapped down by a Court in Germany.
They refused to force an ISP to turn over data of file sharers.
Under the European privacy regulations, this is typically restricted to criminal, not civil, matters:
The ruling follows the publication two weeks ago of an Advocate-General’s opinion prepared for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which said that countries whose law restricted the handing over of identifying data to criminal cases only were compliant with EU Directives.
Advocate-General Juliane Kokott produced advice for the ECJ on a Spanish case in which a copyright holders’ group wanted ISP Telefonica to hand over subscriber details to it.
Kokott said that details did not have to be handed over in civil cases such as Telefonica’s, and that they only had to be handed over in criminal cases. The ECJ does not have to follow an Advocate-General’s advice, but does so in over three-quarters of cases.
Another German authority had made a similar decision earlier this year, according to Heise Online. The chief prosecutor’s office in Celle refused to offer a handover because it said that substantial damage had not been shown, and that it doubted that music industry representatives would use the evidence to bring a criminal case.
It would be nice if the US weren’t the 3rd world of privacy rights.
NBC Producer Owned at Def Con.
It appears that an overzealous, and quite frankly not very bright Producer for the NBC program Dateline, Michelle Madigan, got outed at Def Con, the hackers convention.
Reporters are allowed, they are supposed to wear a press badge, and not to photograph or record without the subject’s consent.
Def Con is a bit of an odd bird, it resembles those “Christmas Truces” during the first world war, with white hats, black hats, and law enforcement all mingling in relative peace.
There is a hacking contest, and numerous demonstrations of security holes and hacking tools, which is why law enforcement shows up. This is just as useful to them as it is to the Nigerian spammers who attempt to get you to give them your bank account information.
It appears that the hopefully soon to be unemployed Ms. Madigan was attempting to create a bogus story about law enforcement folks being there.
While probably not factually false, it’s an attempt to create a scandal where none exists. Def Con is as valuable an asset to people combating hackers as it is for hackers, and any security professional who gets his undies in a bunch about people attending should not be in the field.
There is a description, with photos and video, of Ms. Madigan’s flight once she was outed here.
It appears that she was chased from the show by reporters looking for pictures and video once she was outed.
I love the irony.
This Needs to Work. Let the Israelis Design It.
They have the nuclear warhead experience.
I don’t trust NASA to make a reliable asteroid intercept system, or the sort to intercept Apophis* (It’s due to pass inside the orbits of geostationary satellites in 2029) type asteroids that might strike the earth.
*Am I the only one who thinks that NASA has some fans of the Stargate TV series?
Boeing, US Air Force Attempt to Rig Tanker Competition
There has been a long history of Boeing and the Department of Defense attempting to cut a deal to avoid competition on this program. In fact, a DOD official went to jail over this.
They have now jointly come out with a statement that the tanker order should not be split, claiming that the logistics and development duplication would be prohibitive.
This is a lie. There are numerous airlines that operate both the B-767 and the A-330.
As to development costs, both manufacturers are making flying these tankers in preparation of delivery overseas customers.
What is true is that it would completely politically untenable to shut Boeing out of this deal, and by adding this sort of requirement, you make Boeing the only choice.
Japan Starts Toward Abolishing Pacifism in its Constitution
Aviation Week has an article indicating that Japan’s interest in the F-22 is being driven by an turn toward a far more aggressive military policy.(subscription required)
If they just needed normal cruise missile defense, upgrading F-15 radars would do the job. The idea that that they want to acquire a large, long range, supercruising, and stealthy platform implies that they want to make preemptive strikes against cruise missile sites an integral part of this defense.
An air force must at least be able to attack the launch sites “to put an offensive ballistic missile capability at risk,” a senior U.S. Air Force official involved in the debate says. “You’ve got to get out in front of [cruise and ballistic] missile launches. Otherwise, some are going to get through.”
Of course, Scuds and their derivative (North Korea) are already mobile, and hence hard to strike and hard to hit, as evidenced by the problems in Desert Storm, when there was no threat to aircraft doing Scud hunting, and they could not reliably find the launchers.
But officials now say the fiscal 2008 budget may provide money for more upgrades. The reason is that the technology is a path to the world of network-centric warfare that has already been used by the U.S. Air Force. USAF first adopted the (v)1 radar but then upgraded it with a 21st century emitter and antenna—the 1,000-element, active electronically scanned array (AESA). That improvement, designated the APG-63(v)3, produces a radar with the ability to see small targets, such as cruise missiles, or to identify tactical ballistic missile launchers in their radar-generated ground maps. The radar also can transmit large files of imagery, electronically attack enemy sensors through jamming and insertion of false targets, and provide two-way digital connectivity to other aircraft and sensors in the battlespace.
“The Japanese could make that shift to (v)3 at any time,” the industry official says.
That shift would add another option to the decision about a new fighter for the Japanese air force. F-15s equipped with AESA would have a larger radar aperture than the F-22. As a result, in the defensive, anti-cruise missile role, the Eagle would have an advantage in detecting smaller objects at longer range because of its additional power and size. While attacking missile launch sites with the F-22 is a “strategically solid concept” for the long term, buying interim, AESA-equipped F-15Es or F/A-18E/Fs might be attractive to Japanese defense planners. So far, they have rejected the idea of a bridge aircraft.
This is the key phrase.
Aperture is the size of the antenna, and because the F-15 is non-stealthy, it has a larger antenna. The laws of physics dictate that the F-22 is inferior to the F-15 in this role.
When juxtaposed by the growing number militarist groups in Japan, and an increasing tendency toward those groups engaging in violence toward critics, this is a very troubling development.
Additionally, any problems in North Korea would handled by a the US Military, possibly with with F-22 sorties from either Korea or Japan, or F-35 sorties from a carrier.
This is intended to strike China.
Japan has never come to terms with the atrocities committed, including the only use of bio-warfare in modern military history, during its period of empire building, which is arguably the the worst of the 20th century.
Unlike Europe, where the militarism has largely been driven out of the public consciousness, in Japan it has been placed in a closet for later use.
JSF Program Management “A Debacle”
In the Aviation Week “News Breaks” Section (Sub required), it appears that the Pentagon is looking at options to rebuild their program management reserve for development.
They are looking at a number of ways to reduce costs, including cutting test aircraft, which seems to indicate that there are some very real budget problems there.
An source calls the situation a “debacle”.
Abstenance Only Education Spreads AIDS
The Republican Party and the Religious Right: Giving your Children Aids since 1996.
BTW, thank you Bill Clinton for signing this into law in the first place.
Bear Stearns downgraded by S&P, stock falls – Aug. 3, 2007
Remember when I daid that Bear Stearns would be closed or bought out in a year? The avalanche is beginning, as S&P just downgraded their stock to negative from stable.
Someone is going to buy this company for a few dozen magic beans.
So Now the Indians are Outsourcing to Ohio.
I hadn’t realized that the labor market was so weak in Ohio.
Tata, the Mumbai based conglomerate, has opened a call center for Expedia in Reno, Ohio.
I’m not sure whether to be heartened, or appalled.
Christian Fundies Think That Jesus is a soft-on-crime Pinko
Well it looks like the wacko fundamentalists have decided that all that stuff about casting the first stone is some sort of communist secular humanist plot.
They are now sending “court watchers” out to make sure that judges are sufficiently punitive. Teaching a man to fish is just too pinko.
…. Yet, she added that she doesn’t feel pressured by the presence of Court Watch participants.
Let me guess…elected judges…nope…no pressure there. The independent judiciary, yet another bastion of modern thought opposed by the Talibaptists.
Neither does Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle, who said, “Some judges probably feel they are there to intimidate him. If the judge is intimidated, that’s his fault.”
I just had to note….Circuit Judge R. Cletus Maricle????? There is not one “hillbilly” joke that could be funnier that that reality.
House Minority Leader Boehner and Fox News Conspire to Leak Classified Information for Political Gain
Well, it looks like John Boehner and the employess of Fox News are filthy traitors who whould be locked away foir the rest of their life. I expect the administration to pursue this investigation with all diligewnce that it did the leaking of the name of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame.
A federal intelligence court judge earlier this year secretly declared a key element of the Bush administration’s wiretapping efforts illegal, according to a lawmaker and government sources, providing a previously unstated rationale for fevered efforts by congressional lawmakers this week to expand the president’s spying powers.
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) disclosed elements of the court’s decision in remarks Tuesday to Fox News as he was promoting the administration-backed wiretapping legislation. Boehner has denied revealing classified information, but two government officials privy to the details confirmed that his remarks concerned classified information.
I keep forgetting, it’s OK if you are a Republican.
It’s be a bit less serious if those pig felchers called the “blue dog coalition” didn’t fold like a bunch of overcooked broccoli this weekend to give Bush and his evil minions™ everything that they wanted.
We can now all be spied on at Abu Gonzalez’s say so.
Bush Admin Wants Official Secrets Act
Bush and his evil minions™ at the department of justice are using the threat of prosecution under the espionage act to attempt to create a US version of the Official Secrets Act.
The espionage statutes concerning classified information could be employed against journalists who publish such information without authorization, a Justice Department official told Congress recently, elaborating on remarks made last year by Attorney General Gonzales.
These people have American freedoms, and they are doing their level best to destroy them.
Impeach Dick Cheney Today. Impeach George W. Bush Tomorrow.
Normally, I’m Against the Death Penalty, But In His Case, I’ll Make an Exception
Notorious spammer Christopher “Rizler” Smith was sentenced to 30 years in prison. There is a part of me, the lizard brain, which was hopint for the death penalty.
Between dealing Hydrocodone and Viagra, and threatening the children of a witness, he’s going to be in jail for a very long time.
Ironically, because of his efforts, his cell mates will have easy access to Viagra and Cialis.
OOPS!!!
Love at First Fry
Or actually grilling…
It’s Chefmate® Reversible Griddle.
It fits perfectly over two burners, and this Sunday did grilled cheese for Charlie and me, and scrambled eggs for Natalie and Sharon*.
Damn, they turned out good. I loves cast iron.
*Love of my life, light of the cosmos, SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED, my wife.
Google: Kill all the patent trolls | The Register
It appears that Google has gotten religion on patent abuse.
This is something that has been true for over 20 years.
When the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit was established, software, business plans, and species were specifically not patentable, and the law is fairly clear that they should not be.
The wiggle room was that while free standing software is “tangible” because it required a computer to run on…Where they got business plans…I’m not sure.
Unfortunately, this court resembles a man with just a nail, and so has increasingly seen everything as a nail, which is why this court was recently slapped down by the Supreme Court.
Congress Gives Bush a Win
Thankfully, it’s only for 6 months.
These folks do not need any additional police power. It’s clear that at every level, the political wing dominates the agenda of Bush and his evil minions™, and giving him anything is a bad idea.
At the very least, a 6 month extension of SCHIP should have been attached.
Neocons are to Journalism as Ebola is to French Kissing
This is a very interesting article describing why everyone at the Jerusalem Post views Conrad Black’s conviction on fraud with the same glee as HPers did over Fiorina’s departure.
Larry Derfner puts it nicely:
THERE’S ONE other misconception about him that ought to be cleared up – that he was a friend of Israel. Maybe in his words he was, but in his deeds? In his deeds he went as far as he could to gut an Israeli newspaper that’s been around for 75 years, one that’s very important to this country and the Diaspora.
Furthermore, he fired hundreds of Israelis, he destabilized hundreds of Israeli families, for nothing but his own greed. He had more money than even his wife could spend, yet for 14 years he fired as many Jerusalem Post employees as he could manage.
No, Lord Black of Crossharbour isn’t a friend of Israel; he’s as contemptuous of Israelis as he is of anybody else.
He’s due to be sentenced on November 30. He could get up to 35 years in prison for fraud and obstruction of justice. I wish the Post would throw a party that day and invite all the hundreds of people Black pushed out of here to come to the newsroom and wait for news of the verdict. I guess it’s just a fantasy.
But reality ought to be festive enough. There will be dozens of current Post employees, many of them Hollinger survivors, in the newsroom on the day of Black’s sentencing. All will be newspapermen and newspaperwomen, all of them pro-Israel – right-wingers, left-wingers and centrists, religious and secular, all sharing the same hope or prayer.
And on that day, God willing, when a roar of exultation is suddenly heard from the old Jerusalem Post building on Yermiyahu Street, it will mean that there is still some justice in the world.
A Very Interesting Analysis of The Lebanon War.
Defense and Technology Tnternational has a very interesting analysis of the Israel-Lebanon war of last summer.
Their conclusion is that the Israeli military has become too dependent on hight tech precision strike at the expense of their traditional strength, maneuver warfare.
The money quote is, “In asymmetric warfare as in classic combat operations, fire is meant to support battlefield maneuvers – a battlefield cannot be secured by fire alone.”
It should be noted that the military that buys into this concept, standoff firepower operations (SF0) to the greatest degree, is the US military, and may be contributing to real problems in Afghanistan, where our allies clearly see us as bomb happy, and Iraq.
Republican Are For Rules for Everyone Else
The New Yorker has an interesting comment on a little piece of Republithug rule gaming.
Two weeks ago, one of the most important Republican lawyers in Sacramento quietly filed a ballot initiative that would end the practice of granting all fifty-five of California’s electoral votes to the statewide winner. Instead, it would award two of them to the statewide winner and the rest, one by one, to the winner in each congressional district. Nineteen of the fifty-three districts are represented by Republicans, but Bush carried twenty-two districts in 2004. The bottom line is that the initiative, if passed, would spot the Republican ticket something in the neighborhood of twenty electoral votes—votes that it wouldn’t get under the rules prevailing in every other sizable state in the Union.
These were the same people who were screaming that a lost (stolen) election in 2000 had to be played under the rules that were there.
Hendrik Herzberg’s final words on this are definitive:
It’s the lotusland equivalent of Tom DeLay’s 2003 midterm redistricting in Texas, except with a sweeter smell, a better disguise, and larger stakes. And the only way Californians will reject it is if they have a chance to think about it first.