Day: December 5, 2005

I made comment earlier today that most of my readers seem to be from the right side of the bell curve (in terms of “g” potential), and in fact, I suspect that a goodly many are a tad further right of center than I am on that old debil IQ score. So, I have a lil non-scientific test for ya. View the video below and ascertain what you think the nature of the interaction is between

a.) the questioners and Donald Rumsfeld

b.) Donald Rumsfeld and General Pace (the other person answering reporters’ questions).

Then CLICK HERE and read material quoted in the report that accompanied the video on the site where I found the video and answer the questions found at the link back here in comments.

Yeh, I know it’s overly cumbersome. That’s part of the “test” silly… 🙂

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Shamelessly promoted at Committees of Correspondence.

This from a reader/correspondent at Chaos Manor:

According to the research firm The Gartner Group:

“What makes the Sony BMG incident even more unfortunate is that the DRM technology can be defeated easily. Gartner has identified one simple technique: The user simply applies a fingernail-sized piece of opaque tape to the outer edge of the disc, rendering session 2 – which contains the self-loading DRM software – unreadable. The PC then treats the CD as an ordinary single-session music CD, and the commonly used CD “rip” programs continue to work as usual. (Note: Gartner does not recommend or endorse this technique.) Moreover, even without the tape, common CD-copying programs readily duplicate the copy-protected disc in its entirety.”

Please note that under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, this makes a “fingernail-sized piece of opaque tape” an illegal circumvention device, and under the Act, possession of this device is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and up to five years in jail!

Anarcho-tyranny: We are all criminals. Note that the activity the DMCA and Sony’s DRM copy-protection scheme are mdesigned to prevent is perfectly legitimate use for say, tapes of music or videotapes of shows and was-up intil DMCA-perfectly legitimate use of CDs, etc.: the archiving of legally-owned copies of music or video, or the trtansfer of their contents for use on other devices. This whole “let’s make criminals of people for fair use of copyrighted material they have paid to use” ploy is a violation of our legitimate use of property designed… to make crimiinals of us all.

Ferdy has a post, “Notes from Ferdy – The Sony Question,” that touches on this as well. What are YOUR thoughts?

Shamelessly flogged* at: Is it Just Me?, Macstansbury, Bloggin’ Outloud and NIF

(*To avert those who’ve been exposed to recent pejorations of the term from gasping in dismay: flog-Informal. To publicize aggressively: flogging a new book. 🙂

Responding to an email from someone very obviously on the left end of the bell curve, Jerry Pournelle said,

“I presume that just about all of my readership is on the right hand side of the bell curve, although I sometimes get messages indicating that is not an absolutely justifiable assumption.”

I have justifiable reason to assume much the same, at least based on comments and the growing number of visitors who are non-Internet Exploder users. *s*

But, yeh, I’ve had to deal with one or two folks dropping in here from the left (sometimes called the “low”) end of the bell curve. Gotta love ’em. Cos they aren’t smart enough to know when they’re stupid, of course.

😉

(Of course, I’m somewhere toward the left end of Chaos Manor readers, but given the quality of his usual correspondents, that’s quite a good group to be in.)

Do pop on over and read the whole thing. You’ll have to page down a ways to get to the commentary and the e- that inspired it. Worth the time and effort, though.

Just so this isn’t just another reminder to head over to Romeocat’s Cathouse Chat for her daily Advent post, here’s a little instrumental accompaniment to go along with the lyrics to the song she quotes today. Feel free to sing along. The music’s already started below (just CLICk to stop/restart if you want), and the words are here.

Do consider submitting something to Adam’s Carnival of Christmas, too.

Note, for quicker loading, this time I chose a midi file. The quality of the reproduction will depend entirely—apart from your speakers :-)—on your synth/patches. This midi file was originally written as a demo of Roland’s Soundcanvas products.

Adverts at Bloggin’ Outloud and NIF

OK, what a mishmash. 🙂

Open Post. If you know what to do, do it, and I’ll try to do a roundup later. If you don’t know aht I’m talking about, see here.

Featured blog? I mentioned over the weekend that All Things Beautiful had a significant (and very long, detailed) post “The Jihad Apocalypse” that is more than simply worth reading; it is an important read. But All Things Beautiful is also more than just one or two great posts. It is one very good post after another with exceptional posts liberally distributed among other worthwhile reads. Going in my Regular Reads section as soon as I get A Round Toit. DO drop over and spend some time. You’ll be very glad you did. But plan on spending time. It’s a very content-rich blog. Fluff? Need not apply at All Things Beautiful.

Playing catchup: I missed this exchange between Jerry Pournelle and a Marine Colonel who served as Governor of Wasit Province, Iraq. It makes a good complement to “The Jihad Apocalypse“. My very minor observation: It’s sad that they both seem to agree that exporting America’s “slacker” culture is probably one of the best long-term methods of defeating Islamic jihadism… since by the time that’s accomplished, slacker culture may have allowed the Chinese to overcome us…

Stuck on Stupid found an interesting story: WW2 Vet Awarded Medals 60 Years Later. Man! That’s worse than the line at the DMV!

Freedom Folks has a chuckle in A Jury Of Thier Peers. heh

Ar Cathouse Chat, Romeocat continues her daily Advent posts. Seasonal must-reads, IMO. Today’s post will have me searching for an appropriate mp3, again.

Guard the Borders later today will feature a tip I got in email. Gotta love sharp readers.

Oh, and have you visited iHillary recently? Lotsa good Photoshop snark. Check out the “Dr. Soros” book. *snirk* And “Donkeysaurus”? heh

Outside the blogosphere, two very different pieces of news: Seven League Boots? And Kimchi defeats asian bird flu? Finally, a use for kimchi. Wonders never cease.

🙂

Link to this post and trackback.

Plugged at NIF_2_ (heh), Bloggin’ Outloud and maybe others later, if I make the time.