Saturday, January 17, 2004

You are in deep(er) shit now.

Apparently so is Goatse man. I am supposed to morn his passing? Somehow I feel relieved although also upset because the Metafilter post made me view tubgirl again. Argh, urgh, bleaurgh.

Just don't. Not only is it NSFW it's just NOT SAFE. Ever. Trust me.
posted by alex_tea , 9:20 PM Þ 

Los Angeles -- In a forceful preview of the Bush administration's expansionist military policies in this election year, Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday painted a grim picture of what he said was the growing threat of a catastrophic terrorist attack in the United States and warned that the battle, like the Cold War, could last generations. [...]

SF Gate


Just imagine if no one co-operates with this insanity. There is another outrage. No one reacts. No one will volunteer up for war or agree to pay for it.

This predicion falls flat on its face.

If it does not fall flat on its face, then for certain, the second or third generation down the line will not know how it all started, and we will have arrived in Orwell's predicited state whose only purpose is to be at war.

I pledge not to join any army to fight in any war for any reason.
I pledge not to knowingly finance any war or preparation for war.

And you?

What this man is saying is, in effect, that the failure of this one administration is going to set the world alight for multiple generations. What absolute arrogance. The world's population will not have it however.

Take this pledge, and run with it, because it is the only way we are going to put these maniacs out of business.
posted by Irdial , 7:47 PM Þ 

On Wednesday our darling Iraqi Puppet Council decided that secular Iraqi family law would no longer be secular- it is now going to be according to Islamic Shari'a. Shari'a is Islamic law, whether from the Quran or quotes of the Prophet or interpretations of modern Islamic law by clerics and people who have dedicated their lives to studying Islam.

An Iraqui Blogger

You are in deep(er) shit now.
posted by Irdial , 7:41 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 6:17 PM Þ 

> I know you came along to $radiostation way back and did $presenters show and
> wondered if you might have some radio programs up your sleeve as we are
> moving things about and have some slots for the new year

Thanks for offering, ill keep it in mind just in case. I dont know if you have been reading the irdial weblog, if you had, you would know that right now for all of us the ship has sunk, there are only one or two lifeboats afloat and everyone is desperately clinging to one of those two boats. You know who they are.

If its your time to let go, its best to do it with dignity instead of hanging onto an illusion that the rescue ship will arrive from over the horizon and pick everyone up. The faces are too familiar. The noises too self similar. If there is a rescue ship, we vote to swim for it instead of gripping with our fingernails to the sides of an oarless rudderless life boat, doomed to have only 7 people left on it, old bedraggled and starving. If we swim in the wrong direction, then we go down trying, away from the smell of rotting flesh being cannibalized. If we swim in the /right/ direction, why, its cigars turkey and all the booze we drink. And we will be the /heroes/.

Now, how likely is that? One degree in 360. Only one way out. Only one correct path. If we dont make it we dissapear into the black. Better that than to become an emaciated cannibal sitting stock still in an unmoving lifeboat.
posted by Irdial , 1:55 PM Þ 



Milblogs. This makes me uneasy.

The wars since WW2 have not been about securing freedom of speech. That is simply a lie. To say that these soldiers are in Iraq and all the other places protecting freedom of speech is also a lie.

Soldiers can blog. They can say whatever they like within the guidelines set down by their commanders. What is disturbing about reading these blogs is the feeling that the civilian way of live is merging with the military way of life, so that you cannot tell where one begins and the other ends.

The military and its use, should be an ultimate last resort when a country is threatened by another. It should never be used pre-emptively, or as a tool of "regime change". Soldiers and their way of life should be completely separate from civilian life; what they do, taking life is so profoundly serious that the military should have the air of a monastery. Their lingo should not creep into everyday speech. They should not be portrayed as ordinary people. They are not. They are government killers, financed by the electorate, who bear the responsibility of their actions.

It is this collective responsibility that makes outrageous mass slaughter of civilians justified, since the military of high technology states are untouchable by the armies of non-technological states. The only way they can fight back against bullying is to hit the people who sent the soldiers; and it works. It has worked historically and in recent times.

Soldiering is serioius. By all means support your family members if they have joined the army, but the embracing of military culture, the fetishizing of military equipment is absolutely wrong, revolting and evil. We have all seen it; the salivating over statistics of what weapons can do, the obscene parades of soldiers giving greetings either side of commercial breaks. All of this makes the military more familiar, more of an option, like becoming a milkman or a bus driver. The military is alien to human nature, its purpose, to kill people, violence represents human failure at its most profound. We should hold the military and its culture at arms length.

Times ten.
posted by Irdial , 12:43 PM Þ 
Friday, January 16, 2004
posted by Irdial , 9:10 PM Þ 

CBS rejects anti Bush Advert. But it wont be enough to keep him in office you traitors!
posted by Irdial , 9:01 PM Þ 

yeah, this will catch on

karlheinz essl connection: isn't he the guy who wrote 'amazing maze', an installation piece, which autechre quote-unquote borrowed for one of their tracks by simply replacing the sound files? i believe they also provided no credit to essl on the recording.
posted by Ken , 8:34 PM Þ 

'i tried to talk to mingus,' recalls bill, 'but he wouldn't even look me in the eye, though his wife leaned across his belly and said: 'he liked it a lot'.'
posted by Josh Carr , 8:22 PM Þ 

Those posts are from the priceless Perversiontracker where there are many many more.
posted by Irdial , 7:43 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 7:16 PM Þ 



fLOW is an audio computer program running on Apple Macintosh machines. It generates an ever-changing and never repeating soundscape in real time that fills the space with flooding sounds that resemble - metaphorically - the timbres of water, fire, earth, and air. This ambient sound scape generator adjusts itself through various parameters and controllers that are represented in real time on your screen.

http://www.essl.at/works/flow/download.html
posted by Irdial , 7:05 PM Þ 



PLASTICOM is a computer software for pre-operative plastic surgery communication between the patient and the surgeon. The patient knows what he wants and the surgeon knows what he can do. PLASTICOM is the missing link, as it provides visual, interactive information to both of them at the same time.

http://www.ex-cinder.com/plasticom.html
posted by Irdial , 7:03 PM Þ 

Claus, did you know you can make telnet hyperlinks? Just use telnet://[user[:pass]@]machine.domain.name

So that StarWars link you posted could have been done like so: telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl. On OSX this will launch a new terminal window, not sure about windoze, my guess it that it will launch Hyperterminal or PuTTY if it's installed.
posted by alex_tea , 3:33 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 2:53 PM Þ 

Who made this one? I have a CD wrapped in paper that looks just like this!

posted by Mess Noone , 2:39 PM Þ 

posted by Mess Noone , 12:44 PM Þ 
posted by Alison , 12:09 PM Þ 

Why is freedom so hard to comprehend?
Because it CRAVES responsibility Alex!... yes craves

Besides that VERY interesting to read:
Consider freedom of speech. Hardly anyone actually supports unrestricted freedom to say what we want. Many of those defending Kilroy-Silk, for example, would be horrified by the extreme freedom of speech in Denmark, where pro-paedophile groups are allowed to speak with impunity. This would be a freedom too far.
Yeah in Denmark the subject of sex is very open, but trust me, that just makes Denmark an even bigger hypocracy... the subject of feelings and honesty are tabus, always a distance to it all - They call it irony... but frankly it is a shield
In denmark, one hardly says hello to ones neigbour, but drunk at 3.00 am, one can easliy have a fuck with a total stranger... free sex (but beeing a prostitute is still illigal, but you havde to pay taxes anyway), free porn, free free free - my ass!
Denmark is at these days in the state of hell
This bastard it our primeminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen

And This bitch is a demon (our right-wing politician Pia Kjaersgaard)
And I am seriously considering moving to another country, but where to move as a librarian?
posted by Alison , 11:23 AM Þ 

Some train companies may increase journey times to improve punctuality and "make the timetable look more realistic".

At first this seems just stupid but then goes plain bizarre:

If adopted, the initiative would involve five minutes being added to journeys of more than four-and-a-half hours and one minute for journeys up to 90 minutes.

What is the point of adding only five minutes? It must be to do with punctuality statistics and related funding, rather than 'improving' service.
posted by meau meau , 11:15 AM Þ 
posted by Claus Eggers , 9:16 AM Þ 

My dear old departed Nan taught me how to crochet once, but alas I have forgotten. I need to make covers like that for my new retro-geek acquisitions; a Philips Velo and an Epson HX-20.
posted by captain davros , 9:11 AM Þ 

35mm Camera joins a growing list of victims of technology - gramophones, VCRs and typewriters - that is above all concerned with the ascendance of ones and zeroes. For the first time in 2003 in the US, more digital cameras were bought than traditional film cameras.

What a bunch of fucking hacks. Why do people always go "everything's getting outdated OMFG!!@# SELL ALL YOUR OLD CRAP PROGRESS IT'S PROGRESS MAN"
My 35mm Canon A-1, which happens to be well over 20 years old, will take better pictures than ANY digital camera on the market. Actually, it will take better pictures than many modern SLRs because it is more adjustable. And that is a fact. My new turntable will play music better than any CD player anyone could possibly buy, because it plays real music. What people buy does not tell anyone anything about what's better, we all know this, why don't journalists comprehend this simple basic fact of life? Keep it analog.
Of course... this post is redundant.
posted by Barrie , 8:14 AM Þ 
posted by mary13 , 7:21 AM Þ 

Imagine an iPod with this.
posted by mary13 , 7:14 AM Þ 

Last March, I had the opportunity to meet Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, at his film complex in lush, green, otherworldly-looking Wellington, New Zealand. Jackson has done something unlikely in Wellington, an exciting, cosmopolitan city of 900,000, but not one previously considered a world cultural capital. He has built a permanent facility there, perhaps the world's most sophisticated filmmaking complex. He did it in New Zealand concertedly and by design. Jackson, a Wellington native, realized what many American cities discovered during the '90s: Paradigm-busting creative industries could single-handedly change the ways cities flourish and drive dynamic, widespread economic change. It took Jackson and his partners a while to raise the resources, but they purchased an abandoned paint factory that, in a singular example of adaptive reuse, emerged as the studio responsible for the most breathtaking trilogy of films ever made. He realized, he told me, that with the allure of the Rings trilogy, he could attract a diversely creative array of talent from all over the world to New Zealand; the best cinematographers, costume designers, sound technicians, computer graphic artists, model builders, editors, and animators.

When I visited, I met dozens of Americans from places like Berkeley and MIT working alongside talented filmmakers from Europe and Asia, the Americans asserting that they were ready to relinquish their citizenship. Many had begun the process of establishing residency in New Zealand. [...]

As other nations become more attractive to mobile immigrant talent, America is becoming less so. A recent study by the National Science Board found that the U.S. government issued 74,000 visas for immigrants to work in science and technology in 2002, down from 166,000 in 2001--an astonishing drop of 55 percent. This is matched by similar, though smaller-scale, declines in other categories of talented immigrants, from finance experts to entertainers. Part of this contraction is derived from what we hope are short-term security concerns--as federal agencies have restricted visas from certain countries after September 11. More disturbingly, we find indications that fewer educated foreigners are choosing to come to the United States. For instance, most of the decline in science and technology immigrants in the National Science Board study was due to a drop in applications. [...]

Youssou N'Dour, perhaps the globe's most famous music artist, cancelled his largest-ever U.S. tour last spring to protest the invasion of Iraq. [...]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0401.florida.html

Its started.

No one, especially anyone with an education, is going to put up with fascism american style. There are other countries, more civilized countries, and people are simply going to go to those places, meet in those places, and thats the end of the story.

All of this is so sad, so pointless and unnecessary...its heartbreaking. I spoke to some americans today, who did not know that Europeans are being fingerprinted when they enter the USA. They have no idea of what the us government is doing; its simply incredible.

I said it before, and ill say it again. If any country can stop on a dime and reverse its course its the USA. I hope to God that they do it.
posted by Irdial , 12:44 AM Þ 
Thursday, January 15, 2004

My crystal ball says you will become a Linux g00r00.
posted by Irdial , 11:35 PM Þ 

[] operator not supported for strings
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

php version conflicts driving me up the fucking wall !!! ............... amending session variables ( arrays ) works just lovely on localhost, which is running 4.3.3, and was working just fine before christmas on the live site, but now it won't have it ... the host did something on the 18th december, probably updated the php version; it's now 4.3.4 ...................... cannot see why why why why why why why whyw hwy whyw hwyw hwyw whwywhwhwywhwywhwywhwywy .......... too many chocolate coffee beans close to shutdown .... bastards bastards ............
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 9:06 PM Þ 

Somewhat like the developments of Betamax and VHS there are two conceptual approaches to the manner of use and these in turn govern:
a) the type of use: urination only or both urination and defecation and
b) standing and facing or backing on and squatting.

link

Work is so exciting: Sponsored links

posted by meau meau , 4:53 PM Þ 
posted by Claus Eggers , 4:21 PM Þ 

While it will still make film, for those who cling to fond traditions, the company also announced the passing of APS, its young offspring which had tried to broaden the company's horizons in the mid 90s.

35mm Camera joins a growing list of victims of technology - gramophones, VCRs and typewriters - that is above all concerned with the ascendance of ones and zeroes. For the first time in 2003 in the US, more digital cameras were bought than traditional film cameras.


While camera manufacturers still make digital cameras for those who cling to the latest technology I declaim that there is still a lack of equipment for the serious amateur compared to 35mm SLR systems, whilst CCD improvements have given acceptable results for snapshots there has been little improvement for SAs in terms of telephoto and macro photography and until such time as these intersts can be accommodated I shall be sticking to my 35mm cameras (all 2 of them).
posted by meau meau , 4:02 PM Þ 

Imagine an iPod with this.
posted by meau meau , 1:38 PM Þ 

Why is freedom so hard to comprehend?
posted by alex_tea , 1:27 PM Þ 

Article on Bleep at The Register focusing on DRM: "'At the moment labels have skirted around the whole issue of making their catalogue available, often introducing various poorly-supported formats and DRM (digital rights management) complications in the process. We wanted to be the first to take a big step in what we believe is a positive direction, and see what happens,' the company says in its FAQ."

What about A212? Huh?
posted by alex_tea , 12:15 PM Þ 

Did you eat the toast though?

I certainly did. And buttered it myself.

In future situations similar to this I advise you fix their gaze with your own and state, firmly, "In that case, I have no option but to call the police".

First bellylaugh of the day!!!!!!!!!
posted by Irdial , 11:37 AM Þ 

tell what status the column has in the real paper,

The Guardian are working on a pay service where the newspaper, as it appears in print , is the navigational aid. To me, this is insane. You can get the entire paper online for nothing. Using the papers real world layout as a navigation aid is simply avoiding the hard task of innovating a new and efficient navigation aid. You cant comment. Its pointless; they would be better off running Slash than doing this. Technically its brilliantly executed. This is what it looks like in Mozilla:



But then again, it all makes sense, given the two illiterate articles that we have just been exposed to.
posted by Irdial , 11:33 AM Þ 

Needless to say, after that appaling behaviour I never go there. Ever.

Did you eat the toast though?

In future situations similar to this I advise you fix their gaze with your own and state, firmly, "In that case, I have no option but to call the police".
posted by captain davros , 11:19 AM Þ 

WE=LL BE GLAD TO BUTTER YOUR TOAST UPON REQUEST.

Lovely


There is a place in London that I used to use for Breakfast. I ordered buttered toast. I waited. The food arrived, and the waitress said; "The Chef refuses to butter your toast".

Needless to say, after that appaling behaviour I never go there. Ever.
posted by Irdial , 11:02 AM Þ 

So if you don't want ID cards you don't want big government? [well actually I don't but it isn't a causal relationship] and therefore you want to destroy the health service???

I'm so very very sorry, brand my forehead and take me to A & E. It hurts and I want a lobotomy.

The trouble with online news is you can't tell what status the column has in the real paper, hopefully this was just a space filling exercise just befor the jobs pages.

-

WE=LL BE GLAD TO BUTTER YOUR TOAST UPON REQUEST.

Lovely

WE USE ONLY 100% OLIVE OIL ON ALL EGGS DONE ON THE GRILL.

I prefer duck fat personally

posted by meau meau , 10:36 AM Þ 

Which was really fun ...
what isn't when those odd little creatures are involved ???
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 10:23 AM Þ 

Its official; The Guardian has lost the plot:

"Anyone arguing that Britain shouldn't repair its railways because a
future regime might transport undesirables to death camps by train would
be dismissed as a nutter. Yet apparently intelligent people trot out the
same argument against proposals to repair the state's outdated data
infrastructure.

These self-appointed guardians say we should oppose the proposed
national population register because of the use to which a totalitarian
government might put it. Likewise identity cards and, with better reason
for concern, DNA databases [...]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1122844,00.html
posted by Irdial , 10:11 AM Þ 

Officials said the measure will give U.S. front-line agents the power to check Canadian residents -- citizens, immigrants, refugees or visitors -- driving into the U.S. at land crossings.
I am never visiting the United States ever again until this changes. I am going to tell my friends to never ever visit either. This is fucking outrageous. If the US thinks I'm a terrorist and that somehow my tax records are going to tell them where the bomb is omfg, I will tell them to go blow it out their ass. There's nothing interesting in the US anyway. I now consider that country an off-limits totalitarian regime. Of TERRUR.
I have very bad feelings about our new Prime Minister. I think he loves money too much, I think he loves American money too much. He is a brown-noser of the highest order. I wonder if GW's ass smells like rotting corpses, maybe Mr. Martin can tell us that now.

Also, does anyone else agree with me that GW's recent announcement about returning to the moon and then going to Mars is total horseshit? What is this guy on? WHERE IS THE MONEY, GEORGE? You've spent it all on bombs! Where are you going to get the money for a space program that not only under this plan requires much more jobs, but also new landers, new engines, and most of all new orbiters because your 20-year old shuttles will get you nowhere. Meanwhile a little bird says "domestic issues!" and George shoots it to death with his skeet shoota. What a dumbass. I can't think of a better way to kill one's election hopes though... so HOORAY!
I mean this guy wants a war on terrorism, a war on syria, a war on north korea, the implementation of a police state and now a massive space project? Man, I didn't know you could dig up money from a manure pile, even in America.
posted by Barrie , 6:52 AM Þ 
Wednesday, January 14, 2004
posted by mary13 , 9:46 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 8:13 PM Þ 

I think the world would be a far better place if we all bought locally regardless. Think of all the local talent you can support!
posted by mary13 , 7:43 PM Þ 

"About a quarter of American exports go to Canada. More than 85 per cent of Canada's exports go to the United States. Cripple that trade, and we create a major victory aggainst those who are at war against our values and our way of life."

Excerpt from Notes for remarks by Paul M. Tellier, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian National Railway Company, at the Traffic Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, October 11, 2001.

John, Mary $canadians: You know what to do!

posted by Irdial , 7:35 PM Þ 

The funny thing, there are thousands of miles un-patrolled border between Canada and the United States. Literally, you can hump over the hills to cross into either country. Just like in high school, when we wanted to go to a bush party and avoid the police block, we would put our illegal substances in our backpacks and go on a little trek. Which was really fun if you were on mushrooms ...
posted by mary13 , 7:27 PM Þ 

"Son of a Bush and his crew is at it again, because, we do not want 8 years run by a Colon, a Bush and a Dick."

http://www.drudgereport.com/mattmo3.htm
posted by Irdial , 7:27 PM Þ 
posted by mary13 , 7:27 PM Þ 
posted by mary13 , 7:24 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 7:23 PM Þ 



posted by mary13 , 6:53 PM Þ 

Playaround
Todays stupidest download. Dope.
posted by Claus Eggers , 6:09 PM Þ 

i've seen that i think, unless it's a new one. it's literally the whole movie in ascii format, is it not?
posted by Ken , 5:54 PM Þ 

Just paste in terminal...
posted by Claus Eggers , 5:40 PM Þ 

port username password?
posted by Irdial , 5:39 PM Þ 

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
posted by Claus Eggers , 5:37 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 5:25 PM Þ 

Where have I been? This is terrible news! I have sent out the feelers, will report back my findings ...
posted by mary13 , 4:58 PM Þ 

URLS URLS!
posted by Irdial , 4:56 PM Þ 

I've had two unrelated and not too obscure searches on Google today which have Blarchive material - whoops that should be hits - in the first ten.

So there!
posted by meau meau , 4:51 PM Þ 

Mary, John???

U.S. border agents will soon have access to the immigration and tax records of Canadian residents for use in nabbing terrorists before they cross the American border. U.S. officials said an impending merger of Canadian and U.S. immigration and customs databases will also help them intercept illegal aliens, criminals and fugitives.

Officials said the measure will give U.S. front-line agents the power to check Canadian residents -- citizens, immigrants, refugees or visitors -- driving into the U.S. at land crossings.

They said U.S. officers will have access to Revenue Canada files, which contain tax information on Canadians, including their work records, property owned and investments.

That information may lead to unemployed people being refused entry into the U.S., officers said.

The merging of databases is one of 32 points in a smart border action plan that has been in the works since 2002. [...]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/01/08/307878.html
posted by Irdial , 3:55 PM Þ 

I clicked on SMSPAY against one of the tracks and was not taken to a page where I could sign up

When not logged in, trying to buy a track/album via any means will bring up a log-in/sign-up page in the right hand panel. Once you've logged in you can set your preferences for your phone, etc.

You have to register with Warp/Bleep first before you can purchase anything. I guess this is a security measure.
posted by alex_tea , 3:50 PM Þ 
posted by meau meau , 3:47 PM Þ 

So far, open source has mainly continued Stallman's approach of cloning Unix and, more recently, Windows originals. This makes it relatively easy to unify developments among programmers who don't even know one another. But what will happen when they run out of things to clone?

Excuse me? "Windows Originals"??!?! Oh my, the Guardian has no quality control when it comes to this subject obviously! Windows Originals is an oxymoron.

The open source movement currently has no way of developing independent software architectures, or even of performing simple usability testing. And it shows.


Gnome is slick. KDE is hight polished. What this line shows is that the author is completely ignorant of what is out there. Fact checking;. Its a bore, but it makes you look smarter than you are. Try it! And as for usability testing, Gnome is doing this...cant you people READ?

And without a Stallman-style ideological commitment, it is hard to see why any bright young programmer with a brilliant idea should decide not to become a billionaire and give it all away. [...]

You mean like Linus Torvalds? The action that this one man took has changed everything. Its only hard to see if you are a blind Jackass.

Logically, open source will result in a software industry that is not just without significant profits but without the profit motive. It will be interesting to see if it works. [...]

Netcraft says Guardian websites are running on Apache Your email runs on sendmail. Looks like its working the world over.

OMG This is... a TROLL!!!
posted by Irdial , 3:26 PM Þ 

Thanks for that link meau2 I completely understand how reverse billing works; what I meant was, I clicked on SMSPAY against one of the tracks and was not taken to a page where I could sign up, neither could I find anything about it in the FAQ or the Help pages.

I researched Reverse Billing in 2002 for a set of projects; there are many providers of services, the coolest ones let you use a custom API to interface with whatever service you want to create. I wonder if straight SMS for content is going to catch on? There was a service in Germany that you had to pre charge with your credit card (useless, since you just want to be able to click "buy now", enter your number, be verified and then get the goods) that worked with SMS, but it folded.

The "problem" is that the SMS reverse billing ecosystem is not hetrogenous; it is made up of islands of users locked into the different providers. If you could do reverse billing of ALL GSM landers transparently, everything would change over nigh. You would have hundreds of millions of potential customers all inside a single system. It would be awesome.

There is also the problem of the artificial cap on how much can be reverse billed in a single message. You can get over this by sending multiple messages, but each of these costs the content provider 2p.
posted by Irdial , 3:13 PM Þ 

I cant find info on how the SMS pay works!
You register your mobile number and when you decided to pay via SMS you are sent a 'Premium Rate' SMS for the cost of that track (£1.50), this cost is added to your mobile phone bill or deducted from your Pay-as-you-go credit.
posted by alex_tea , 2:10 PM Þ 
posted by meau meau , 2:04 PM Þ 

I wonder how it will fare.

I cant find info on how the SMS pay works!
posted by Irdial , 12:36 PM Þ 
posted by alex_tea , 12:30 PM Þ 

Warp's MP3 paysite, BLEEP launched yesterday.

I wonder how it will fare.
posted by alex_tea , 12:24 PM Þ 

Ministers are known to be desperate for "good news" that they can spread about the railways before the general election rather than a brutally honest assessment like this.

-

An unfortunate overuse of the word will

-

Milk
posted by meau meau , 12:07 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 11:20 AM Þ 

Could this be the reason Grand Royal has gone Chapter 11?
posted by Irdial , 10:13 AM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 1:57 AM Þ 
Tuesday, January 13, 2004

wow, so 0 bids, 8 days left, huh...$10,000 could buy the label with the rights to the rad liquid liquid compilation...and, erm luscious jackson, jimmy eat world, and the propellerheads. ugh. no thanks.

at the drive in killed it for them. they banked on that band being huge, and they were crap, and they folded. whoops.

can you believe the beasties said that they were 'sorry' for the misogynist lyrics on paul's boutique? give me a break. also: that track they did about 9/11 was HILARIOUS(ly awful).
posted by Ken , 9:58 PM Þ 

I thought Grand Royal stopped functioning about two years ago?
posted by alex_tea , 8:46 PM Þ 

Grand Royal LLC record label for auction. Various master recordings, license agreements, recording agreements and misc. contracts available.

This is an excellent business opportunity!

For more information about this asset including the licensing agreements, recording agreements and master tapes, click on the due diligence tab above.

Copies of the actual licensing agreements and recording agreements are available by contacting service@bid4assets.com. Please provide your name, address and telephone number in your email request so that we can mail you the CD containing these agreements. [...]


Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
posted by Irdial , 8:42 PM Þ 

moveable type cms
interesting ... although what i build is even simpler, is really just a set of very basic html forms powered by php/mysql, the kind of interface that any scrote with the barest minimum of surfing experience can handle ... they're right about the "... doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars" point, of course, and we all know this .... i've seen a number of software cms products & they're horrific .....

was speaking to someone who is operational manager of a large regional hospital this evening; she was saying that all their admin is still nearly 100% paper-based, that their computers, the few that they have, are woefully inadequate ...
posted by a hymn in g to nann , 8:39 PM Þ 
posted by Claus Eggers , 8:30 PM Þ 
posted by Alison , 8:21 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 7:44 PM Þ 
posted by meau meau , 6:43 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 6:35 PM Þ 
posted by Ken , 6:23 PM Þ 

"One day some bright bean counter will realize that DRM and other anti-consumer technology creates a high-friction "diseconomy of scale"market.

The addition of complex security to each node of a network market (music) will produce an exponential slowdown of that market over time. "

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/34848.html

I Like it.®™
posted by Irdial , 6:04 PM Þ 

Swiss collar terrorists through their mobiles
silicon.com, January 12 2004
by Jo Best

A Swiss mobile operator has helped to crack an al-Qaeda cell linked to
terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia - by using their mobile phone numbers.


The provider, Swisscom, offers pay-as-you-go mobiles for which users
don't need to register their details and also offers coverage that spans
155 countries worldwide. Following the bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia in
May last year, Swiss police began monitoring pre-pay phone numbers that
they believed were linked to the attacks...

Later this year, a law passed by the Swiss parliament is expected to go
into effect which will prohibit the sale of SIM cards that can be used
without any details being registered.

Should we expect the UK to follow the Swiss example? It is unlikely,
according to a Vodafone spokeswoman, because it simply wouldn't stop
criminals... registering the details of shoppers buying pay-as-you-go
phones would be ineffective as criminals don't buy them themselves.
They're more likely to buy a resold phone...

http://www.silicon.com/networks/mobile/0,39024665,39117732,00.htm

Some common sense leaking through from Vodafone.

The Swiss police can catch anyone using a mobile number by tracking them down to the cell that they are in. They dont need ordinary citizens to give their details before buying a SIM to do this, in fact, its better that anyone can get a phone easily, it makes the bad guys lax.

Mobile providers know who the bad guys are by using traffic analysis; they can give the police the two end points of all calls, down to the cell every time. By building up a pattern of use, they can get the bad guys with a simple road block.

Once again, criminals have good ID. ID cant stop crime. ID cant stop ourages.

Deal witih it.
posted by Irdial , 5:26 PM Þ 

Speaking of France here's one for Alun
posted by meau meau , 3:50 PM Þ 

Speaking of boosting peoples positions, its now well known that website/blog popularity follows a power law function a simple "solution" to this problem would be for someone to create a popularity index which inverts the list so that the top blogs appear at the bottom of the list. In this way, the eternally popular sites would always be excluded, and the listed sites, would be a list of less inequally selected links.

Of course, if the list became popular, those "meat of the sandwich" sites would (may) become popular due to the power law asserting itself. They would naturally be pushed down out of sight.

The trick will be selecting the correct window on the curve preserving a list that shows what people are fiinding to be hot, cutting out the instapunks and the other usual suspects, whilst keeping away from the chaff at the bottom end. You would also have to keep this wiindow small, so that it was managable, and not a list of 200 sites.

Hmmmmmm!
posted by Irdial , 3:44 PM Þ 

The GALL of this man!

" I'd say that when you have no freedom and when you don't respect the individual, it can lead to slaughter. And the only way to respect the individual is to give him the freedom to decide for himself.

I'd say that you can't decide for others what they should be. When you try to centralize everything and when the state tries to help the people too much and to decide for them what is good, it doesn't work. It didn't work in China, it didn't work in Cuba, it didn't work in North Korea."

Perhaps there's hope for France, after all.

http://www.instapundit.com/archives/013488.php

You can cut and paste that if you want to go to instapunk; im not boosting that moron's Blogdex position.

Imagine a Google filtering script that s/terrorist/communist/ hmmm then it would all be put all this crazy talk into context. The idiots across the water are in the middle of a McCarthy haze of total confusion; terrorists under the bed, terrorists in the bodies of 6 year old girls - the level of insanity is identical to that which gripped the USA in the 1950's.

And none of them can see it!
posted by Irdial , 3:31 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 3:16 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 2:48 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 2:38 PM Þ 



One terabyte in a 5.25" form factor.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10118
posted by Irdial , 2:13 PM Þ 

God is here. Then comes this. Maybe.
posted by Irdial , 11:44 AM Þ 

PRIVACY MATTERS
By Jane Black
BusinessWeek, 8/1/04

Privacy Progress at Homeland Security

On Jan. 5, the Homeland Security Dept. launched the U.S. VISIT Program,
which will take digital fingerprints and photographs of foreign
nationals entering and exiting the country at 115 airports and popular
seaports. Pundits' reactions ranged from alarm to scorn: Terrorism
experts argued, correctly, that the program would do little to prevent
terrorists from entering the country, mostly because of 27 visa-waiver
countries -- Western Europe plus a few other choice nations -- that are
exempt from the profiling.

Richard Reid, the alleged shoe bomber, boarded in London, after all, and
most of the flights that have been canceled in recent weeks were
scheduled to depart from London and Paris. Nor could U.S. VISIT prevent
terrorism, critics rightly pointed out, if it logs only visitors who
arrive by air and sea. Just 24 million of the 500 million foreign
visitors annually enter America by plane or boat.

Yet, hardly a peep has been made about privacy. For once. On the day
U.S. VISIT launched, Homeland Security's Privacy Office unveiled a
Privacy Impact Assessment, or PIA, which outlines the program's privacy
policy and a clear map of how data will flow from department to
department and how it will be shared, accessed, and stored. The Privacy
Office is also soliciting comments on the policy and requesting advice
on what should be taken into account as the department weighs new
technology purchases...

http://www.businessweek.com:/print/technology/content/jan2004/tc2004018_3753_tc073.htm?tc

In this case, the "issue" of the privacy of the US VISIT data is a 100% distraction, beacause they should not be taking this data in the first place.
posted by Irdial , 9:50 AM Þ 
posted by Claus Eggers , 3:01 AM Þ 

hmmmmm
hmmmmmm
hmmm
hmmmmmmmm
hmmmmm
hmmmmmmm

Where "hmmmm" means "watch all of these".
posted by Irdial , 12:31 AM Þ 
Monday, January 12, 2004

chuff chuff chuff this match wont lite!

...yes "lite"!
posted by Irdial , 9:40 PM Þ 

Whose laptop has a white spot?
posted by Irdial , 9:10 PM Þ 

What is that? A TV on a bus would last about half a day here.

That's what you'd think, but apparently not. On the #8 and some other routes there are LCD monitors fitted at the front of the bus, both upstairs and down. The 8 being a routemaster with a conductor disuades the British youth from ripping the things out. Anyway, as expected they are infuriating. Very bad flash animations for adverts for bus drivers, crappy idents for the company running the thing. They're running off Windows PCs (one of them had crashed once) they have a bout a 6 minute loop, in which they'll show an advert for a BBC DVD of some sort (either comedy greats or wildlife programs) your horoscope, truncated TV listings for the evening and more bad adverts.

In Singapore there is a similar, albeit superior system, the TVs have sound, their own dedicated station (worryingly named MediaCorp or something equally Orwellian/Bondian) and so show news, very bad sitcoms and other shows.

I don't think it would cost that much to charter a dedicated digital channel, with BBC London News updates, local interest programming and better adverts (plus some arts based programming, what a great output for digital art and animation). I was thinking they could harness 3G/GPRS/WiFi and stream the data, caching it so if there is no connectivity there will be something to show, but at least it will be a little up to date. Also they could stream the audio via bluetooth, WiFi or use a MP3 stream for people's phones/laptops to pick up on.

Somehow I can't see any of that happening in London though.
posted by alex_tea , 9:02 PM Þ 

-- the bus TV thing.

What is that? A TV on a bus would last about half a day here.
posted by meau meau , 7:01 PM Þ 

EK: I am currently lecturing at the Sibelius Academy about the relationship between music and mathematics. I am investigating the theory of musical harmony and it really is, to put it mildly, prompting doubts among the composition students. I have not published much about it in written form yet. I did actually publish several articles in the 80s and 90s, but not about the results of the last few years, which are the 'best'. The theory of scalelessness has been hard to sell. My theory will diverge considerably from what has been taught about scales for over 200 years. Musical theory has stayed totally unchanged since the days of Rameau in the 18th century. We are needlessly the prisoners of traditional instruments and notation, since computers have already liberated us from them. The flypaper of tonal music does admittedly caress the ear, but it is interesting to investigate atonal music through some larger form. Such as sculptures or architecture. I am interested in what happens when we go from the art of music to the science of sound. [...]

I like it.
posted by Irdial , 5:31 PM Þ 

This guy is pure Irdial. Or rather, Irdial are pure Erkki Kurenniemi.
http://www.mego.at/kinotar01.html

posted by Mess Noone , 4:49 PM Þ 

My horoscope on the bus TV thing said "Paranoid people feel empowered when they join forces."

I wrote it down in my phone as "Paranoid people feel empowered when they vogue" which is much better if you ask me.
posted by alex_tea , 4:34 PM Þ 

vinyl records

weird - was looking at micro hi-fis for my GF in the Argos catalogue and noted that you can still buy systems with turntables. Okay, these aren't going to be the hi-est of the hi, but it was refreshing to know they were still available fairly painlessly.

videotapes

Brilliant things, still, even if they are depth-chargingly bulky. Am I the only one who likes the way that video seems to render instant 80's-ness, the way that peel-apart polaroids are very 70's, and sepia contact prints are very 40's? Is the quiltedness of the JPG artefact the format of our vintage rendering for the future? Me not know. One bad thing for the future of videotapes might be the number of bits that are needed to make a video work. Belts, relays, solenoids, cogs, cams, buttons, displays, there are so many *bits* in them and they can be really fiendish to replace (well they were on the occasions when I tried). But then again vintage cars keep going, and actually they may be really simplified these days in modern VCRs.

*shuts up*
posted by captain davros , 2:08 PM Þ 

But what can we do? Public protest doesn't work.

We have been through this; simply refuse to comply on a personal level, and let everyone you know that you are doing it and why. As you can see from story on the cover of today's The Times, the council tax is going to be totally reformed because a few old age pensionsers in Devon said that they simply would not continue to pay council tax. The idea spread like wildfire. Now, to head off a firestorm of non payment, the system is going to be reformed.

Thats the way you do it. Its simple. It works.

I can tell you right now; if people in America stopped flying in protest of CAPPS and the absurd search procedures, these rules would be abandoned within a month.

If business is harmed or threatened in any way, the law will change to accomodate the wishes of the consumer. This means, by extension, that the consumer are the most powerful constituent in the modern political equaiton, and that really means YOU.
posted by Irdial , 1:56 PM Þ 

Reuters on DVD recorders
It may be many years before videotapes go the way of the 8-track tape and vinyl records.

-

Has anyone had a professional shave? (keep it to the head)
posted by meau meau , 1:37 PM Þ 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is moving forward on a computerized system containing background information on air travelers despite resistance from airlines and privacy advocates, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
The government will require airlines and air travel booking companies to let officials see passenger records, the newspaper said. Passengers through U.S. airports would be scored with a number and a color that ranks their perceived [perception is 9/10ths of the law? - mm] threat to the aircraft they are traveling on, the paper said.
A separate program is due to be launched this year that would give frequent fliers quicker passage through security checks if they volunteer personal information to the government, the newspaper said.
Privacy and consumer advocates say the programs could be discriminatory because some passengers would be screened more carefully than others.
The two programs would supplement the fingerprinting and photographing of travelers arriving in the United States that was launched last week.
posted by meau meau , 12:45 PM Þ 

The government doesn't need to know...

The government doesn't care (either way) its subcontractors would just harvest information indiscriminately until some flagged action occurs, some mule would give it the once over and probably add a graded mark to your ID number once your disloyalty card would get enough points it would go up a level and automatically the next level of data and so on and so on.
posted by meau meau , 10:17 AM Þ 


BBC NEWS | Technology | Net blamed for rise in child porn


On some crappy provincial radio station this morning during the news the newsreader read out some of the text messages they had been receiving about this story. The most striking was "ban all chatrooms". It might have just as well have said "ban the internet". I hate the way the media, and hence the general public, uses the term chatroom. What exactly do they mean by this? IRC? Usenet? Message boards. Recently I think they are referring to IM services, which are hardly chatrooms at all. But I also think they lump all the above, and any other types of online public forum into one easy to identify and condemn category. I expect email lists could fall into this category too.

So imagine if they did ban all of the above, basically getting rid of any area of self expression, comment and criticism. Not that I think they would, the police and government aren't stupid enough to do that as they realise that's not the source of the problem.

Anyway, with a sweeping statement like 'chatrooms are breeding grounds for paedophiles' they could theoretically build up enough public backing to ban them (don't believe me, look at what happened in 2000 - all you need is another high profile child abduction/murder and it will be the same).

It sounds stupid, but it's the same kind of duplicity that has led to this horrid Orwellian state of affairs that we see galloping towards us right now.

I started to watch Brazil at the weekend, but our TV is knackered so I gave up. Anyway, it all seemed a bit too close for comfort. But what can we do? Public protest doesn't work.
posted by alex_tea , 10:13 AM Þ 

it's ironic, i think, that those amongst us who deal with these matters on a practical level would welcome such a system, would actually get off on developing it, at the abstract level of mechanics, leaving aside the politics

Totally. When I read Akin's comments about a unique id which would work across all databases/tables I immediately started to think of the SQL join statements one could use.

SELECT * from users, taxes, votes, passport, tvlicense WHERE users.uid = $my_id

I wonder if the information they (will/do) keep will be encrypted? If so, how? A simple MySQL PASSWORD() crypt or something a bit more robust?
posted by alex_tea , 9:45 AM Þ 

It's all very well responding here

You are absolutely right. I linked to the story. If he checks his referers, then he will see what we all have to say.
posted by Irdial , 9:15 AM Þ 

linked databases

it's ironic, i think, that those amongst us who deal with these matters on a practical level would welcome such a system, would actually get off on developing it, at the abstract level of mechanics, leaving aside the politics

posted by a hymn in g to nann , 5:07 AM Þ 

I was thinking, if that fingerprint scanning occurred, I would burn my fingerprints off with acid (or, failing that, cut them off). How could they stop me? Now granted I should never ever have to mutilate my own body due to the actions of the state in the first place.
However, retinal scans... that's a bit different. Heh.
posted by Barrie , 2:38 AM Þ 

"1980 John Lennon was shot dead in New York by Mark David Chapman. He was 40."

I was born exactly 20 days after Lennon was shot. Coincidence?
posted by alex_tea , 12:38 AM Þ 

Did you read the comments for the Boing Boing article? The complicity of these people is unnerving.

Some examples:

"This is just one the things people have to live with nowadays" - Why? Who said? Why do we have to live with it?

"Tell your wife to renew her driver's license." - What if she doesn't want to?

"but the more you raise caine about it, the more frightened your child will be of it." - Uh, no. Why do you think it is better to put up and shut up? Sheep.

"by volunteering I actually often got into the plane earlier than I would have anyway." - Like lambs to the slaughter.

"Deal with it. It's a new world for all of us. That includes you." - Why? Because Georgy porgy said said so?

Did you reply to the article Akin? It's all very well responding here, but from the state of that page it doesn't look like he's received too many responses in a similar vein to yours.
posted by alex_tea , 12:30 AM Þ 

2:45am (UK)

On This Day - December 8



"PA"

65BC: Horace, Roman poet, was born in Venusian Apulia.

1542: Mary, Queen of Scots, was born at Linlithgow Palace.

1733: A Dorset man reported seeing a polished silver disc in the sky – the first known sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object, or UFO.

1854: Pope Pius IX settled an ancient controversy by declaring that Christ’s mother, the Virgin Mary, was preserved from all sin from the moment she was born.

1859: Thomas de Qincey, essayist and opium addict, died in Scotland.

1864: The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon at Bristol, designed by Brunel, was opened.

1894: James Thurber, American writer and cartoonist who created Walter Mitty, was born in Columbus, Ohio.

1941: Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.

1980 John Lennon was shot dead in New York by Mark David Chapman. He was 40.

1991: Leaders of the three republics – Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine – formed a “commonwealth of independent states” and pronounced the Soviet Union dead.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Britain had “total confidence” in the weapons inspectors investigating Iraq’s chemical, biological and nuclear programmes, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, as Iraq’s declaration on weapons of mass destruction was flown to Europe and the US.

http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2271652
posted by Irdial , 12:18 AM Þ 
Sunday, January 11, 2004

You could get half a million MP3s ripped and catalogued with these guys for $29,400. Not counting the cost of the CDs.
posted by Irdial , 11:54 PM Þ 

Some people will say "but if you have nothing to hide, why not?" These people are slaves and are walking straight into the fire with big smiles on their faces.
I have lots to hide. The government doesn't need to know that I went to Chapters to buy "Empire." The state needs to know nothing and the only reason to gather all this information is to abuse it, like you say. Who in their right mind would want to be a NUMBER?
Maybe Orwell was 20 years off. This is a sorry time for Britain and indeed the world. I do not want precedents set and if this comes to fruition in Canada I will take full action. I would be fighting this even if it hurt my income - and that IS what most people seem to care about. "Yeah, I'd do something, but I have to go to work. I like, have no time... man, you don't know." Again: slaves.
posted by Barrie , 9:48 PM Þ 

Focus: Scared new world

The security forces are being given dramatic new powers to fight terrorism,
as predicted by 'The Independent on Sunday'. The Government is testing
biometric ID cards and building a huge database that will reveal our lives
at the touch of a button. Cole Moreton looks into the future and finds it's
already here

Independent on Sunday 11 January 2004

You want to go home, but you can't. The Army has sealed off your street
without warning and evacuated everyone in it. Your home is only a few yards
away beyond the cordon, but there is no chance of entry: the soldier in the
gas mask has orders to shoot anyone who crosses the line. He will not tell
you where your family is, or why an armoured vehicle is shunting your car
across the road, shattering its windows.

"What is your number?" Distressed, you have forgotten. They think you are
being evasive. But they already know your unique personal identity number,
one of the 58 million that give the authorities instant access to the
private details of every citizen. The police officer opposite has learnt
your age, where you were born, what your parents did for a living, where
you live, and the names of the people who live with you. He knows the job
you do and how much you are paid for doing it. He knows what you owe in
council tax, the child-support payments you make, and the number of times
your daughter has been excluded from school. He knows you haven't got a
television licence, although you've got a television. He knows you suffer
from asthma and have had a hernia operation. He even knows your former
partner left you because you had an affair. All this information is
available from public-sector records co-ordinated into one vast database..

This is not a fantasy.. The scenario you have just read is based on plans
and legislation announced by the Government last week and expected to come
into operation very soon. The Civil Contingencies Bill published last
Wednesday will give the police and Army sweeping powers to create exclusion
zones and enforce them. The proposals have been modified after protests
from civil liberties groups but still allow the security forces to make
arrests on looser grounds of suspicion than usual, to ban people from
travelling and stop gatherings, as well as requisitioning property and
taking over stations and airports. Ministers will be able to suspend Acts
of Parliament, take control of major financial institutions and declare
bank holidays in the event of an emergency, defined as "an event or
situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare, the environment
or the security of the UK or a place in the UK". This could include war,
terrorism, contamination of land with "harmful biological, chemical or
radioactive matter or oil", flooding and "disruption or destruction of
plant life or animal life".

Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics has just been given
permission to start work on a national computerised register of the
population, for which every resident of the UK will be given a personal
identity code to replace the National Insurance number [...]

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=480010


This is just the beginning.

The problem with all of this has nothing to do with emergency situations, but has everything to do with everyday snooping by every civil servant, who will have the power to investigate you on a fine grained level.

Your local council will be able to do this. Any police man will be able to do this, without a reason. Your information will be sold on a regular basis, wether it is illegal or not.

Imagine; you get stopped by the police, for a "routine check". You put your thumb into his portable scanner, which is attached to his mobile phone. He immediately has all of your details. ALL of them. You have an Oyster card, but you are smart' you know that Oyster tracks all of your movements on public transport, so you opted to get the £3 "anonymous" version. It doesn't make a difference. Your face is photographed every time you use a bus or tube station. The police officer simply asks for your photo to be checked against the Mayor of London's database of all Oyster users that are not full users. They find you entering Embankment Station on the occasion of your first use of the card. They correlate your face with the number on your Oyster card. They now know everywhere that you travelled on both the busses and the underground since you bought the card, and can retrieve pictures of you entering and leaving each station if they want to.

The police officer asks you where you were on such and such date. You don't remember? That is suspicious; your Oyster data says you were in a place where there were some crimes. Down to the station while we "exclude you from our enquiries".

They find you to be innocent, but this encounter goes on your permanent record, forever attached to your image and number. Whenever someone looks you up, by one of the illegal services used to do background checks, they will see that you were in a police station being investigated for a nasty crime.

Lest we forget, everything you buy to read will also be recorded forever. Lets say you just happen to be leaving the underground when a bunch of dog-on-a-string anarchists are smashing up a McDonalds. You bought a copy of a book decrying fast food culture from Compendium book shop (of course, anyone who shops there is INSTANTLY put on a shit list :] ). The police stop your car for another of the increasingly frequent "routine checks". They sweep you because you were at the scene of a riot, and you need to be excluded from their enquiries. You read books from Compendium about fast food culture. You read books about culture. You are now on the "to watch" list.

This is not bullshit. This is not paranoia. This is going to happen for certain, unless the databases the governments hold are required by law to be separated, and that no unique identifier is ever used to pin down individuals. In this way, whilst it might be possible for extra-legal bodies like the high level security services to break the law and complete a private dossier on you, it will be impossible for a cop in the street do do it much less a busy body in your local council, or a journalist out to smear you, or your most despised employer.

All of these new "measures" will not stop any type of criminality. Their only use is to create a system whereby every action of every person is under the scrutiny and control of the state. This is the true goal of the numbering system. Local councils will use it against you. The police will use it against you. Your employers will use it against you. Everyone that provides a service to you will be compelled to obey the system and hand over details of your activities, or face penalties. You will not be able to speak, spend or spit without it going on your permanent record.

This system, which will collect information about you constantly, every hour of every day until you die, will feel like an electronic STASI clamping your mind and your perception of the world until you and your generation are smashed down into a paste of blood and bone and brain. Just ask any East German what it was like under the STASI eye. No one trusted anyone. All were presumed to be spying for the STASI. In our case however, our very actions will be spying on us; there will be no need for a network of informants because the act of a person living out his life will be the informer, as the active surveillance network trawls your existence and puts it all a keystroke away for anyone to read at will.

There is no reason on earth why anyone should put up with the imposition of this system. During the "cold war" when the threat of infiltration and war was actual, there was no need to implement such far reaching controls. During the IRAs bombing campaigns no one ever said that it would be necessary to number every person in the UK to protect this island from Jerry Adams.

Some planes smashed into the Twin Towers. Thats a bad thing. But its not the end of the world, and the world has not "changed since 911". There is no "new reality", only the same one that we used to live with. These new powers, the numbering system, these "measures" are simply wrong, on every level and in every way. The insane fear that is constantly pumped into the agenda is absolutely artificial. This has to be stopped.

I say No to this fear, and I say No to these new measures and the numbering of the British people. Whatever problems may exist with other countries in the world, they are not going to be solved by destroying the way of life of free people. People in other countries need to solve their own problems, and the free people need to remain free.

Only a fool will go along with this insanity in the hope that someday it will all be overturned, like the old suss laws or the dreaded pass laws of South Africa. You can realistically wait your whole life for such changes to happen, Only a fool would sacrifice his life in this way. Absolute refusal to comply is the only option open to free people who wish to remain free. A line must be drawn beyond which the state cannot go. Of course, they have already crossed that line, but this is the straw that will break the camels back.

It is astonishing to me that no one compares the numbering of people to the numbering of "undesirables" in the second world war. There is absolutely no difference between then and now, save that efficiency has increased by orders of magnitude. The number isn't worn on the flesh, but it is just as indelible, as are all of the records attached to your number. The lack of imagination on the part of journalists and people in the street is staggering. The scenario of total control has been spelled out again and again, in fiction, modern and decades old, in examples of peoples lives ruined by records that haunt them forever...how many times and in how many ways does it have to be said?

A woman who had her identity stolen found that she could not function financially, because her name was on so many shit lists. She was able to create a new, clean identity for herself, and start again. Now, in a country where your number is tied to you forever, any error by you or someone pretending to be you, wether successful or not, will be against your name. Permanently. You will not be able to change identities and start afresh, because you cannot change your fingerprints. Even if you get a new identity number and name, your fingerprints will always give you away forever. This cannot happen if your fingerprints are not used to identify you. It is also easier to repair damage if all the databases containing information on you are not linked.

Human beings are born with rights. These rights exist wether you know about them or not, or wether or not the tools to exploit and take away your rights exist or not. For example, the right to have a private conversation is born with you, but before the telephone, no one knew that this right even existed. The facts about your life, what you do, where you go, what you read, where you spend your money; all of these facts are private data that belong to you. It is your right, a right that was born with you, to keep this data to yourself if you choose, and to prevent people from collecting this data, selling this data and using it against you.

In the light of this revelation, it is obvious that these databases, the ones proposed and those that are in use all over the west are absolutely immoral and should be illegal. They violate your rights as a human being, and while the governments continue to brazenly do this, you have every right to protect yourself from this systematic abuse, and you are morally obligated to refuse to contribute to the running of the systems that abuse your human rights.
posted by Irdial , 5:58 PM Þ 

Saturday, January 10, 2004
Why can't Homeland Security tell the difference between Al Quaeda and my six-year-old daughter? [...]


When we got to the gate, I looked at one of the monitors, and I saw Sarina's name on the list, along with one other person's name. The list was titled "CAPPS."

My guess is that somebody decided to put Carla on the CAPPS list for showing up with an expired driver's license, and then screwed up by entering Sarina's name instead.

I'm not too mad or upset about this, but after reading how this kind of thing has happened more than once, I have lost what little faith I had in the Department of Homeland Security to do its job. I wonder if we are going to have to go through this every time we fly? I also wonder if we can get Sarina's name taken off the list? If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

http://boingboing.net/2004_01_01_archive.html#107379846683537418

"I'm not too mad or upset about this"

This is PART OF THE PROBLEM. People are abused and dont even get mad about it. This gives a blank cheque to these insane governments to set up any system that they want, because they know, in advance, that no one will even break a sweat, or hesitate to even put their children through these systems without so much as a complaint.

posted by Irdial , 4:22 PM Þ 

Someone just told me they are play $10 a month for the 'right' to 'share' their MP3s on Live365. Gutted like a fish.

Live365.com - Broadcaster Agreement for Individuals / Natural Persons
posted by alex_tea , 1:27 PM Þ 
posted by Irdial , 12:50 AM Þ 
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