:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::

:: 8.29.2003 ::

:: The future of online education? ::

From Wired Mag:
MIT Everyware
Every lecture, every handout, every quiz. All online. For free. Meet the global geeks getting an MIT education, open source-style.
By David Diamond

In September, as students arrive on the Cambridge campus for the start of school, MIT will officially launch OpenCourseWare with 500 courses, offerings like Nuclear Engineering Course 22.312: Engineering of Nuclear Reactors, and Political Science 17.251: Congress and the American Political System. (Like everything else at MIT, classes are typically referred to by number.) The school expects to add the remaining 1,500 courses over the next three years. If the pilot program is any indication, students from Nepal to Nebraska will be diving into the material.

HERE is my interview RE MIT's OpenCourseWare program.

ALSO from Wired Mag:
Freedom's Dark Side
Virtual intelligentsia from across the continent and beyond congregate in Vienna to celebrate the specter haunting cybercapitalism: free information. By Bruce Sterling

posted by me

:: 2:45:00 PM [+] ::
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:: News from The Onion ::

Japan Spotted Hovering Over Algeria
ALGIERS, ALGERIA—Japan continued to vex the world Monday, as numerous eyewitnesses saw the exotic and mysterious Pacific Rim country hovering over the mountainous coastal regions of Algeria. "I noticed it up there around noon," said Ahmed Boumediènne, a farmer whose land lay in the 1,744-mile shadow temporarily cast by the floating archipelago. "The schoolchildren were having a great time waving at it. But, when I came out after lunch, it was gone again. Must have moved on." Boumediènne added that no one was threatened by Japan's serene presence. As of press time, the Japanese islands were back in the Pacific Ocean.

BTW, this dotcom is profitable.

posted by me

:: 10:39:00 AM [+] ::
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:: /.: FYC (for your consideration) ::

Why Virus Writers Are Useful

"Security site Zone-h.org has an interview with Professor Samuel D. Forrester, one of the worlds leading immunologists. In this interview he asserts that immunity is built by infection, and without it you would have a much weaker ecosystem. "

posted by me

:: 11:11:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Few are the millionaires they had expected to become" ::

Former dot-commers adjust to new realities
By Claudia H. Deutsch
NEW YORK TIMES

Chapter 2 of the Great Dot-Com Bust of 2000 has begun, the part in which former employees of Internet start-ups try to re-acclimate to the corporate world. While they were gone, they tasted what it was like to introduce products without multilayered approvals, to set their own hours, to party hard as well as work hard, and often, to own a sizable stake in the company. And they have seen what the Internet can and cannot do.

But few of them are the millionaires they had expected to become: Many are poorer than they were to begin with. Some are still frantically seeking jobs, while others are humbly grateful for finding even ill-suited ones. And many are struggling to gain -- or to regain -- corporate America's respect. Even the lucky few who landed exactly where they wanted ... are having trouble persuading colleagues that their dot-com experience wasn't for naught.

posted by me

:: 10:55:00 AM [+] ::
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:: The nuts on Mars ::

From /.:
Mars at Opposition - Earth at Transition

"An astronaut friend told us about how the nuts out there seem to think that Mars is going to collide with the earth or the moon, or the gravitational forces are going to rip the earth apart or cause massive earthquakes. While in a co-workers office listening to a co-worker take a call about the possibility of such calamities, our astronaut friend yelled "Quick, duck! It's Mars"! No longer welcome in that office, he's back worshiping launch complex 39A. The true gravity of the situation is much less benign. The fact is I have never seen Mars look so bright or red as the other night, it's definitely time to gaze at the red planet. NASA isn't going to be worrying about Mars colliding with Earth, but they will be keeping a close eye on Mars. During this close approach, NASA will be inviting the public to help decide what areas on the red planet to photograph."

... take advantage of this once-in-a-3x-lifetime event.

posted by me

:: 10:52:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Oops! ::

From Wired:
BlackBerry Reveals Bank's Secrets
By Kim Zetter

When a computer consultant buys a used wireless pager -- once the property of a former Morgan Stanley executive -- on eBay, he ends up with an unexpected bonus: a trove of sensitive corporate data.

posted by me

:: 10:31:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Hydrogen news ::

Iceland debuts the world's first retail hydrogen station
by Jenny Everett

President Bush assured Americans in January's State of the Union address that with his $1.7 billion five-year hydrogen initiative, "America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles." In April, however, while U.S. automakers tinkered with prototypes, Iceland opened the world's first retail hydrogen-fuel pumps in a converted Shell station in Reykjavik.

This tiny North Atlantic country may be the perfect test bed for a national hydrogen-based economy. Its small population—about 279,000—means fewer infrastructure hurdles: The conversion of just 45 gas stations spread along the country's main highway could feasibly service 13,500 hydrogen-fueled vehicles. And the island is already 70 percent reliant on geothermal and hydroelectric power, renewable energy sources needed to isolate hydrogen from carbon or oxygen. First to fill up: a Mercedes concept car and three DaimlerChrysler buses, with consumer vehicles following by 2005. Though converting even a fraction of the 173,000 gas stations in the United States to hydrogen fuel could take decades, General Motors and Shell Hydrogen will make headway this October when they open a flagship U.S. retail hydrogen pump at a Shell station in Washington, D.C.

The pump will service a fleet of six GM HydroGen3 minivans, each powered by a 94-kilowatt fuel cell stack. Good thing the hydrogen will be affordable: Each prototype van costs about $1 million.

posted by me

:: 10:29:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Close encounter, by celestial standards" ::

Mars edges closer to Earth than at any time in the past 60,000 years
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor

Sixty thousand years ago, the Neanderthal people and early modern humans must surely have watched a faint but familiar point of light in the southeastern sky grow brighter and brighter until its brilliant topaz-yellow light outshone everything in the nighttime heavens save the moon.

We will never know what those people may have thought or feared, because they left no record among their rare artifacts. But today we do know what they were seeing: It was the distant planet Mars, flying on its elliptical track around the sun and closing its gap on Earth's orbit while it appeared to blaze in brightness as the two planets neared.

That same phenomenon is occurring once again as Mars draws closer to Earth day by day, and on Wednesday at precisely 2:51 a.m. PDT, the fabled Red Planet will pass 34,646,437 miles from Earth -- closer than it has been in the past 60 millennia.

posted by me

:: 10:17:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Online music update ::

File-swap flip-flop
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh says civil liberties groups are altering their stance after once advocating that the recording industry target individuals instead of operators of P2P networks.

ALSO
From CNET NEWS.com:
File swapper fights RIAA subpoena
By John Borland
An anonymous California computer user went to court Thursday to challenge the recording industry's file-trading subpoenas, charging that they are unconstitutional and violate her right to privacy.

The legal motion, filed in Washington, D.C., federal court by a "Jane Doe" Internet service subscriber, is the first from an individual whose personal information has been subpoenaed by the Recording Industry Association of America in recent months.

The RIAA has used court orders to try to identify more than 1,000 computer users it alleges have been offering copyrighted songs on file-trading networks. It plans to use the information gained to file copyright lawsuits against the individuals.

The motion was filed by a pair of Sacramento, Calif., attorneys who said the RIAA had gone too far in its effort to protect its online copyrights.

"This is more invasive than someone having secret access to the library books you check out or the videos you rent," Glenn Peterson, one of the attorneys, said in a statement. "The recent efforts of the music industry to root out piracy have addressed a uniquely contemporary problem with Draconian methods--good old-fashioned intimidation combined with access to personal information that would make George Orwell blush."

posted by me

:: 9:55:00 AM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

[Since Chuck hasn't updated his News of the Weird site in a couple of weeks, here's a substitute:]

Hell hath no fury - bride erupts

IF ADRIENNE Samen ever forgets the details of her wedding reception, the police will be able to provide her with an official account, including a photograph.

The 18-year-old woman was arrested on her wedding night after police in Connecticut said she "flipped out" and hurled her cake at restaurant staff.

The bride cursed workers who asked some of her guests to leave the bar, and then stormed out of the establishment, abandoning her astonished guests.

Read more.

Posted by me

:: 9:49:00 AM [+] ::
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23 skiddoo!

- Me

:: 10:53:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The Linux code in question ::

From /.:
SCO: Code Proof Analyzed, Linux Interviewed

"Bruce Perens has now obtained a copy of the entire slide show from which the recently scrutinized SCO-related Linux code excerpts came, and has analyzed the remainder of the 'evidence' they presented there. Their other code exhibit turns out to have been the venerable Berkeley Packet Filter(!), and their revised line-counts are consistent with simply adding together all the lines of code that have been contributed by Unix licensees." Also, Iphtashu Fitz writes "A new interview with Linus Torvalds has been posted on eWeek.com. In it he slams SCO over the recently leaked source code. Among other things, he points out in the interview that some of the code in question has been removed from the 2.6 kernel ['because developers complained about how "ugly" it was'] before SCO even started complaining."

posted by me

:: 10:57:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Patriot Act II Resurrected?" ::

From Wired
By Ryan Singel
02:00 AM Aug. 21, 2003 PT

Congress may consider a bill that not only expands the government's wiretapping and investigative powers but also would link low-level drug dealing to terrorism and ban a traditional form of Middle Eastern banking.

The draft legislation -- titled the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003, or Victory Act -- includes significant portions of the so-called Patriot Act II, which faced broad opposition from conservatives and liberals alike and embarrassed the Justice Department when it was leaked to the press in February.

The Victory Act also seems to be an attempt to merge the war on terrorism and the war on drugs into a single campaign.

posted by me

:: 7:53:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Online Music update ::

From RollingStone.com:
RIAA Not After Small-Timers
Industry tones down anti-piracy rhetoric

In response to the backlash against its threats to target individual file-traders, the Recording Industry of America says it won't unreasonably prosecute people who have illegally downloaded only a small number of songs.

"[We are] in no way targeting 'de minimis' users," RIAA president Cary Sherman said in a statement yesterday. "[We are] gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits against individual computer users who are illegally distributing a substantial amount of copyrighted music."

Sherman didn't specify what a "substantial" number would be.

posted by me

:: 5:57:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Linux: RE the code in question ::

From eWeek:
Open-Source Leaders: Let Us See SCO Code

Members of the open-source community ask SCO to show them controversial Unix code under a looser NDA.

ALSO
From CNET News.com:
Getting a glimpse at SCO's evidence
By Lisa M. Bowman

At the SCO Forum (in Las Vegas) Monday, the company pulled out its latest weapon: lines and lines of disputed code that were allegedly copied from SCO's Unix into IBM's version of Linux. The company claims that IBM illegally copied Unix code into its version of Linux, and it's warning Linux customers that they may be violating copyright by using the operating system without paying SCO. It's also recently announced a new licensing plan that would require Linux customers to pay between $199 and $699 per computer.

In a quiet conference room tucked into the conference center at the MGM Grand, SCO offered customers, partners and the merely curious the chance to view the code for themselves, as long as they signed a nondisclosure agreement.

posted by me

:: 5:45:00 PM [+] ::
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:: The Death of a Journalist in Iraq ::

From The NY Times:

Death of Journalist Killed by G.I.'s Prompts Calls for Inquiry
By SARAH LYALL

LONDON, Aug. 18 — International journalists' groups and Reuters demanded today that the American military hold a full public inquiry into the death of a Reuters cameraman fatally shot by American soldiers in Iraq on Sunday as he filmed outside a prison.

The cameraman, Mazen Dana, 43, was the second Reuters journalist to be killed in Iraq since the invasion began on March 20. His colleague Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian usually based in Warsaw, died on April 8 when an American tank fired a shell at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, from which Mr. Protsyuk was filming the United States advance into the city center.

"Coming so soon after the death of Taras Protsyuk, also killed by a U.S. tank, this latest death is hard to bear," the chief executive of Reuters, Tom Glocer, said in a statement. "That's why I am personally calling upon the highest levels of the U.S. government for a full and comprehensive investigation into this terrible tragedy."

Some 17 journalists have died in the course of covering the fighting in Iraq, according to Reporters Without Borders ...

posted by me

:: 7:56:00 PM [+] ::
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:: FUL? ::

From Salon:
Fear, uncertainty and Linux
SCO claims IBM and Linux have ripped off its old program code. Linux advocates say that's bunk. Nothing will become clear until SCO shows its hand in court.
By Farhad Manjoo

Aug. 18, 2003 | "There is perhaps not the same level of interest in this case as in that of the O.J. Simpson trial," says Gordon Haff, a technology analyst who's been closely following the multibillion-dollar lawsuit that the SCO Group, a small Utah software firm, filed against IBM in March. Cable news networks are not clamoring to cover every development in the complex contract dispute. "I do not expect to see it on Court TV anytime soon," Haff says.

But in open-source software circles, SCO's suit has achieved trial-of-the-century status. SCO owns the copyrights to decades-old Unix code, and it has accused IBM of secretly stuffing this code into Linux, thereby making Linux "an unauthorized derivative of Unix." To fans of Linux, SCO's claims seem at once preposterous and dangerous, and the lawsuit has set the community buzzing: Rhe press (embodied by the likes of Slashdot and Linux Journal) is all over it, the pundits are in high gear, everyone believes himself an expert on the issue, and, like the best celebrity trials, the whole thing keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Want to read the whole article? You have two options: Subscribe now, or watch a brief ad and get a free day pass. If you're already a subscriber log in here.

posted by me

:: 7:49:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "Ashcroft: Patriot Act on Parade" ::

As the antiterrorism USA Patriot Act continues to lose public support, Attorney General John Ashcroft launches a coast-to-coast tour of political persuasion this week to boost the president's bid for re-election.

posted by me

:: 7:44:00 PM [+] ::
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:: RE the Penguin & war ::

SCO Turns Up the Heat on Linux Users

As SCO prepares to kick off its annual SCO Forum today, the company's CEO Darl McBride issues his most definitive warning yet to corporate Linux users.

"We have been pushed into a corner, and we will fight back," he said. "We find ourselves in the middle of the battle of the century and will continue to be subject to attack. There are rumors of pies in the face for McBride and [senior vice president Chris] Sontag here," he said, quipping that there were also rumors of SCO protesters on the Strip carrying signs saying "SCO to Hell."

[MORE COVERAGE]

posted by me

:: 7:30:00 PM [+] ::
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:: RE Freddy Vs. Jason ::

"Nicely balancing mayhem and mirth, Yu keeps his film kicking. The action is lovingly lurid, and the laughs keep coming."
-- Bruce Westbrook, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Blood Brothers: The titans of horror go mano a mano in Freddy vs. Jason.
By David Edelstein
From Slate

A Letter Home from Camp Hacknslash
(the FREDDY VS. JASON premiere in Austin, TX)
By SHANE TEA FRENCH
From Fangoria:

Sean Cunningham and crew have finally delivered something for us. A kick-ass yet more emotionally dimensional Jason and a chopsocky Krueger whom we haven’t really seen before, as if he had cut his teeth in Sunnydale before settling in Springwood. By the time the last reel gasped its final breath, the field was alive with a thousand splatterpunks hailing their kings!

posted by me

:: 9:46:00 PM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird. There haven't been new pieces posted for a couple of weeks, so here's an oldie:

Earlier this year in Mobile, Ala., Daina Sancho, 42, and Irwin Vincent ("I.V.") O'Rourke III, 14, were married after a several-months' courtship. Said the boy's approving father (of Sancho's infatuation), "If you've met the man of your dreams, why wait?" The couple live in Gonzales, La., but I.V. could not marry there until he turns 16; Alabama permits 14-year-olds to marry if they have their parents' permission. [Birmingham News, 3-30-03]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 9:25:00 PM [+] ::
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Taller people are the first to taste the rain

:: 9:21:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Power Electronics Help to Control Electrical Grids ::

"IEEE Spectrum magazine has a timely article about how power electronics are proving necessary for the widespread connection of wind turbines to the electric power grid. It explains many issues that currently make it difficult to utilize wind power. Older articles discuss other issues affecting the nation's power grid."

[Join the /. discussion]

ALSO from Slashdot:

One Worldwide Power Grid
"A little ironic that this article on a world wide power grid was published in the September issue of Wired. With the recent outage on in the northeast, think of what could've happened if the entire world was on one grid." As someone who spent 23 and a half hours without power, I'm thinking this is a brilliant plan!

Is the Dean Campaign Spamming?

Linux will have 20% desktop market share by 2008?

SCO Nigerian SPAM

posted by me

:: 9:19:00 PM [+] ::
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:: RE Blackouts ::

CNET News.com's coverage
Blackout casts long shadows ::
Massive outage unplugs large swath of Northeast, hitting companies, cellular networks.

Including:
Low-tech tools rule in unplugged city

It was a day for flashlights, transistor radios and hard-to-find pay phones as people trapped in Manhattan by the blackout abruptly discovered the failings of high-tech wireless tools.

"I'm standing completely idle and cut off even though I have all the latest gadgets imaginable,'' Eric Dawson, an Apple Computer salesman from Marlborough, Conn., said standing outside New York's Grand Central Station. "I have a Bluetooth wireless connection in my cell phone. I can sync to my laptop to get Internet access. But I can't even make a phone call. I can't text message."

posted by me

:: 11:20:00 AM [+] ::
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:: FYSC (for your serious consideration) ::

From SecurityFocus:
Sparks over Power Grid Cybersecurity

A new measure aims to protect the networks that control electric power distribution throughout North America. But not everyone is juiced over plans to hold utilities accountable to tight security practices.
By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Apr 10 2003 6:21PM

posted by me

:: 5:37:00 PM [+] ::
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:: RE blackouts ::

From a Reuters report:
Blackout Hits Parts of Eastern U.S., Canada
Thu August 14, 2003 05:41 PM ET
By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK - An overload caused a massive power outage across swaths of the eastern United States and Canada on Thursday, leaving much of New York, Detroit, Toronto and Ottawa without electricity.

"We have no indication that there is any terrorism involved," said Bryan Lee, a spokesman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington.

Power outages were reported in the New York metropolitan area, Detroit and Cleveland as well as in Toronto and Ottawa, starting shortly after 4:00 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT), witnesses said.

The blackout was caused by a failure at a Manhattan power plant that destabilized the power grid as far as Canada, Lee said.

ALSO:
From MSNBC.com:
How the U.S. power system works

posted by me

:: 5:30:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "E-Vote Machines Face Audit" ::

Reality Check
From Wired:

Maryland adds 11,000 Diebold touch-screen voting terminals to its existing stock just as a university report charges the company with bad programming and lax security. An independent audit is ordered as other states stand poised to purchase the systems. By Kim Zetter.

ALSO from Wired:

"Quote Marks"
"I love Toto toilets. It's like an every-four-hour fiesta for your naughty bits ... once you get over giggling about the whole thing."
— A traveler sings the praises of Japanese high-tech toilets that soon will wash up on U.S. shores.

posted by me

:: 10:53:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "ISP group challenges RIAA subpoenas" ::

A CNET News report:
By John Borland

An Internet company trade association sent a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America, asking for information and dialogue over issues related to the subpoenas being issued for file-swappers' identities.

NetCoalition, a Washington, D.C.-based policy group that represents companies ranging from small Internet service providers to Yahoo and DoubleClick, on Monday said it is worried that ISPs are getting drawn too deeply into the RIAA's online enforcement efforts--an issue that has kept relations between copyright holders and Net service providers tense for years.

posted by me

:: 10:04:00 AM [+] ::
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:: RE the Penguin ::

From a CNET NEWS Prespective piece:
Can a subpoena stop a movement?
By Peter Skarzynski and Pierre Loewe

When asked to comment on SCO's recent legal allegations, Torvalds said: "I allege that SCO is full of it." Somehow, we doubt Linus cleared that comment with his lawyers (assuming he has any). Aside from the delicious spectacle of Torvalds taking the stand (CNBC meets CourtTV), there are two elements worth noting: SCO's assumption that it can stop a movement with a subpoena--and the fact that in the Linux spat, IBM is on the side of the upstarts.

posted by me

:: 9:54:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Parents liable for kids' P2P downloads" ::

From vnunet.com:
By Robert Jaques

RIAA subpoenas bring file-swapping issue to a 'brisk boil', warn lawyers

posted by me

:: 12:32:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Another California Circus ::

By Michelle Locke, AP

BERKELEY, Calif. (Aug. 7) - What began as yet another political novelty from the nation's most populous state has morphed into a spectacle remarkable even by California standards.

With everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to porn prince Larry Flynt jumping into the race to recall beleaguered Gov. Gray Davis, the reality TV show that has commandeered California politics has turned permanently, seriously weird.

``Sadly,'' Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday as she ruled out running, California is ``going to be engaged in an election that is becoming more and more like a carnival every day.''

And that was before Schwarzenegger shocked even his own closest political advisers by announcing on ``The Tonight Show'' that he was getting in the race.

It's hard to look at California's election slate without giggling - or panicking. Under the recall law, drafted during a wave of populism in 1911, it takes only $3,500 and signatures from 65 voters to run. Court challenges have been filed to the election, set for Oct. 7, but on Thursday the California Supreme Court declined to intervene.

Potential candidates so far include a lady selling thong underwear and a motorcyclist who hopes to legalize pet ferrets. And the 99 Cents Only stores in Los Angeles are running a promotion promising to pay the filing fee and gather signatures for any 99-year-old who'd love to be gov.

Kind of makes wrestler Jesse ``The Body'' Ventura - who did, after all, serve as a small-city mayor before becoming governor of Minnesota - look like a political veteran.

``It's kind of like a freak show,'' said Timothy Esau, a fruit inspector in Fresno who considers the spectacle of Schwarzenegger, Flynt and hundreds of political wanna-bes taking out filing papers ``a bit embarrassing.''

``It conveys an image that we don't give a damn about our own state,'' he said. Like many Democrats, Esau said he's unhappy with Davis, but ``just letting him finish out his term and electing a better governor is the answer, not a recall.''

There's serious anger underlying the recall's festival atmosphere. This is an electorate that in recent years has endured an energy crisis and a battering of its high-tech economy and now faces the prospect of higher taxes and fees.

``California's law has turned something important into a circus,'' said Brian Rosman, a tourist from Newton, Mass., visiting San Francisco on Thursday. ``The problems are tax revenues, the huge corporate manipulation of the energy crisis a few years ago, the decline in the high-tech world. Those problems don't get solved by getting a new governor.''

The people actually running state government have struggled, too. The state went a month without a budget as lawmakers squabbled before passing a compromise bill in July that includes billions in IOUs.

Still, it's likely one-liners will trump the bottom line, at least for now.

It was a gift to headline writers and late-night comedians around the world when the the star of a movie called ``Total Recall'' turned into ``The Running Man.'' And while most politicians must content themselves with Sunday morning talk shows, all Schwarzenegger had to do was go across town to chat with fellow celebrity and pal Jay Leno.

``It's the most difficult decision I've ever made in my entire life,'' he told the ``Tonight'' host, ``except for the one in 1978 when I decided to get a bikini wax.''

Actors have turned politician before, but some students of the craft wonder whether Ah-nuld will have the off-screen charisma of former California Gov. Ronald Reagan.

``In 'Kindergarten Cop,' he played a cop who takes over a classroom full of 5- and 6-year-olds - all of whom are too silly and immature to understand they should be afraid of him,'' wrote San Francisco Chronicle movie critic Mick LaSalle in Thursday's paper. ``I imagine the press conferences in Sacramento might look something like that.''

Hustler publisher Flynt, paralyzed by a bullet from a white supremacist, also a declared candidate, urged Californians to ``vote for the smut-peddler with a heart.''

``I may be paralyzed from the waist down,'' said Flynt, ``but unlike Gray Davis, I'm not paralyzed from the neck up.''

For a while, the Democratic posse looked pretty tight. But the solidarity buckled in the face of a potential Schwarzenegger juggernaut shortly after Feinstein - who survived her own grueling recall election as mayor of San Francisco - said she wouldn't join the race. Urged on by other Democrats, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante - the state's leading Hispanic politician - announced his run.

``The Terminator'' had the opposite effect on a fellow Republican: U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, the car alarm magnate who spent $1.7 million of his own fortune to make the recall happen, bowed out Thursday, crying at what was supposed to be the official launch of his campaign.

Tourists waiting for San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to open on Thursday called the recall a circus, an aberration, ``a sad thing.''

``Coming from the East Coast, we're looking at California saying `What's going on?''' said Dina Haskal of Somerset, N.J. ``We are scratching our heads.''

posted by me

:: 5:25:00 PM [+] ::
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:: RE the Penguin ::

From CRN:
SCO Battle Rooted In Unix History
By Matthew Fordahl, AP

The SCO Group's attempts to squeeze a revenue stream out of Linux is rooted in the long and tangled history of computer operating systems.

Unix is among the oldest and most reliable operating systems. Developed in the late 1960s and early '70s at AT&T's Bell Laboratories, Unix was never seen as a cash cow for Ma Bell.

In fact, AT&T liberally licensed it to several companies and shared it with universities for educational purposes. Companies created their own flavors of AT&T's Unix, called System V, and rebranded them with names like IBM's AIX, Hewlett-Packard's UX and Sun Microsystems' Solaris.

AT&T granted IBM a Unix license in 1985. Eight years later, Novell acquired AT&T's Unix property. In 1995, Novell sold the rights to the Santa Cruz Operation.

In 1996, IBM obtained more rights in an agreement - now hotly contested - that included phrases like "irrevocable," "fully paid up" and "perpetual."

Caldera, a mostly unsuccessful Linux distributor that would become today's SCO Group, bought the Santa Cruz Operation's Unix business in 2001. Caldera changed its name to the SCO Group last year and set up a business to protect its newly purchased intellectual property.

In 1991, Finnish college student Linus Torvalds created the basics of an operating system that worked and felt like Unix. He came up with the kernel, or core, and made it available to anyone who wanted it, on the condition that it remain open and free.

It was called Linux.

:: 3:20:00 PM [+] ::
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:: "In Florida, police database sparking Orwellian fears" ::

By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
THE WASHINGTON POST

Police in Florida are creating a new counterterrorism database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans.

Organizers said the "Matrix" system enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police records with commercially available collections of personal information about most American adults. It would let authorities, for instance, instantly find the name and address of every brown-haired owner of a red Ford pickup in a 20-mile radius of a suspicious event.

The state-level program, aided by federal funding, is poised to expand across the nation at a time when Congress has been sharply critical of similar data-driven systems on the federal level, such as a Pentagon plan for global surveillance and an aviation passenger-screening system.

The Florida system is another example of the ongoing debate about the proper balance between national security and individual privacy in the post-Sept. 11 era.

posted by me

:: 10:11:00 AM [+] ::
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:: A Truck-Sized Pinhole ::

From Wired:
Camera Van Brakes for Close-Ups
By Michelle Delio

When Shaun Irving goes on vacation he doesn't have to worry about forgetting his camera -- he'll be driving it.

Irving has built what he believes to be the world's largest traveling camera on gas-powered wheels. It's certainly the only camera that gets 15 miles per gallon.

He constructed the machine, dubbed Peanut, out of an old mail-delivery truck he bought on eBay and surplus military parts, including a lens that came straight from a submarine periscope. The camera truck takes photos that are 4 feet tall and 8 feet wide -- more than 3,000 times larger than the typical negative.

It's essentially one step above a pinhole camera, the standard prop used in introductory photography classes. Irving composes his images by driving closer to or further away from his subjects and stands inside the camera to make the images.

"It's amazing to be inside a camera as it takes a picture," said Irving. "You step in there, shut all the doors, and you see this projection of everything outside ... only it's upside-down.

posted by me

:: 10:01:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Mars Attacked? ::

Close encounter
From Sydney Morning Herald:

Consider this: a leading theory of how life began on Earth suggests that it arrived in microbial form via meteorites from a Mars far more hospitable to life than it is now. So, if all life descended from those microbes, that means we're the Martians.

posted by me

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:: "Quote Marks" from Wired ::

"Can we just get back to coding now? I'm sick of this whole mess."
— A Red Hat booster frowns upon the rash of lawsuits surrounding Linux.

:: 9:39:00 AM [+] ::
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:: RE Sealand ::

From CNET News.com:
Has 'haven' for questionable sites sunk?
By Declan McCullagh

LAS VEGAS--A widely publicized project to transform a platform in the English Channel into a "safe haven" for controversial Web businesses has failed due to political, technical and management problems, one of the company's founders said.

Ryan Lackey, former chief technology officer of HavenCo, said on Sunday afternoon that he left the project because his business partners had become nervous about hosting objectionable material and were leading the company toward financial ruin, with only about six customers remaining.

"The key lesson on this is if you're going to put a 'co-lo' facility somewhere, political and contract stability in that jurisdiction is very important," Lackey said, referring to co-location setups, or virtual site-hosting facilities. "Customers want stability. They don't want the network to be down for two months." The 24-year-old Lackey spoke to an audience of about 600 at the DefCon hacker convention here.

A HavenCo representative disputed Lackey's characterization of the company's problems and said he was no longer in a position to know details about its workings. "We have a moderate-sized installation which is growing monthly, very many more than the alleged six customers and their servers in operation, and in the last eight months or so have been able completely to re-engineer our network and its international connectivity arrangements," the representative said in e-mail Monday.

When HavenCo launched in June 2000 to widespread press acclaim--including a cover story in Wired magazine--its founders promised to transform a windswept gun tower anchored six miles off the stormy coast of England into a co-location facility that would be a virtual home for businesses that were too controversial to place their servers elsewhere. The name of the company was derived from the concept of a safe haven from governments around the world that have become increasingly interested in Internet regulation and taxation.

HavenCo is located on a rusting, basketball-court-size fortress erected by the British military during World War II to shoot down Nazi aircraft. Roy Bates, the quirky "crown prince" of "Sealand" landed on the abandoned platform in 1966 and claimed it as an independent nation with its own currency, stamps and flag. Although its legal status is unclear, Sealand lies within the territorial boundary of 10 miles claimed by England.

posted by me

:: 10:34:00 AM [+] ::
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:: Just because I'm obsessed w/ the No. 23 ::

From FT.com:
Theatre: Chicago
By Brendan Lemon
Published: August 4 2003 18:40 | Last Updated: August 4 2003 18:40

At age 23, Melanie Griffith was hit by a car on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles; according to the attending medics, she would have died had she not been drunk. Making her stage debut 23 years later in the Broadway production of Chicago, the actor is assailed not by headlights but by footlights, and this time it is adrenaline not alcohol that helps her survive.

posted by me

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:: "The future of a scare campaign" ::
By Declan McCullagh

The Recording Industry Association of America's efforts to scare peer-to-peer users who violate copyright laws began with a promising start exactly one year ago.

Last August, the RIAA asked a federal court in Washington, D.C., to force Verizon Communications to divulge the identity of a Kazaa user, kicking off a legal tussle that ended with the RIAA winning a stunning victory. At about the same time, key members of Congress wrote a letter that asked the U.S. Department of Justice to begin criminal prosecutions of P2P users who "allow mass copying," while an RIAA ally on Capitol Hill simultaneously introduced a bill to allow copyright holders to attack computers on P2P networks used for piratical purposes.

A year later, however, there are some signs that the RIAA's antipiracy campaign is faltering.

Last week, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., criticized the RIAA's pursuit of music swappers, saying he was "concerned about the potential for abuse in the current system." The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston College are fighting the RIAA, and a new survey found that 67 percent of file swappers in the United States are indifferent to copyright concerns, an unexpected jump from 61 percent just three years ago.

But the most daunting obstacle to the recording industry's dogged efforts to rid the Internet of music piracy is a lawsuit that Pacific Bell Internet Services (also known as SBC Communications) filed against the RIAA last week.

It is carefully crafted to portray the RIAA and its contractors who scour P2P networks for infringers as out-of-control juggernauts who care precious little about due process, the rules of the federal court system, Americans' privacy rights and the U.S. Constitution.

You know what? SBC stands a decent chance of winning. If that happens, the case would deal a sore setback to the RIAA and make the dread subpoena process that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) created far less menacing.

posted by me

:: 4:48:00 PM [+] ::
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:: Report from the Linux front ::

Red Hat Sues SCO Over Linux Threats
MATTHEW FORDAHL, Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Leading Linux distributor Red Hat Inc. sued the SCO Group Inc. Monday, calling accusations of copyright infringement against the open-source operating system "unfair and deceptive actions."

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware federal court, seeks a declaration that Red Hat is not violating SCO's intellectual property and an injunction that would bar SCO from making untrue claims that harm the Linux business.

"We're seeking a resolution ... to all the rhetoric as fast as possible," said Matthew Szulik, Red Hat's chief executive officer.

SCO, which owns key parts of the Unix operating system, claims its code has seeped into Linux. It is seeking $3 billion from International Business Machines Corp. for allegedly transferring Unix code to Linux. SCO has also sent warning letters to hundreds of other companies.

posted by me

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:: "Patriot Act Provision Challenged in Court" ::
By Caron Carlson

The expanded powers that Congress gave the FBI to search and seize private records—as well as other personal information and belongings—have been a source of criticism since the new authorities were enacted as part of the Patriot Act shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. More than 140 towns and other localities around the country have voted in opposition to the Act, and today, the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the new powers in court.

posted by me

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:: "Microsoft Hit By Denial-Of-Service Attack" ::
By John Foley, Information Week

Microsoft's Web site was made inaccessible for an hour and 40 minutes Friday afternoon when a denial-of-service attack overwhelmed the site with traffic, making it impossible for legitimate page requests to get through.

posted by me

:: 10:45:00 AM [+] ::
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:: "Bush Impeached? Wanna Bet?" ::

From Wired
By Leander Kahney

Though there was an outcry over the Pentagon's terrorism futures market, a similar online exchange is in the works to predict what the U.S. government is up to.

The American Action Market will offer various Washington "futures" that can be bet upon and traded. Examples include:

•Which country will the White House threaten next?

•Who will be the next foreign leader to move off the CIA payroll and onto the White House's "most wanted" list?

•Which corporation with close ties to the White House will be the next cloaked in scandal?

The AAM will begin registering traders in September and plans to open for business Oct. 1 -- the same launch date proposed for the Pentagon's terrorism market, until it was shelved.

ALSO from Wired:
Finding Bad Spam Delights Geeks
SpamAssassin, the popular antispam service, has spawned a new geek sport: finding the most egregious examples of junk e-mail. The more blatant the come-on, the higher the score. Enthusiasts say it's fun to see how stupid spammers can be. By Mark McClusky.

posted by me

:: 10:16:00 AM [+] ::
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:: So Weird ::

From Chuck Shepherd's News of the Weird:

On the heels of a journal report on increased use since 1999 of posthumous sperm extraction (so the family line can be continued even after the father passes away) came a June report than an Israeli researcher had grown maturing ovarian tissue in the lab after extracting it from aborted fetuses. If Dr. Tal Biron-Shenton's work eventually makes way for fully developed eggs, it would mean that a baby could be born even though her mother never was. [Fertility and Sterility (via South Florida Sun-Sentinel), 6-23-03] [BBC News, 7-1-03]

Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or WeirdNews@earthlink.net

posted by me

:: 8:51:00 AM [+] ::
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:: FYA (For your amusement) ::

From LarryFlynt.com:
NATIONAL PRAYER DAY - PRAY FOR THE DEATH OF BILL O'REILLY
HUSLTER Magazine invites you to join us in prayer.

On Tuesday, August 5th at 12:45pm, we have organized a special gathering to pray to God for Fox News Channel blowhard Bill O'Reilly's death.

The service will be held in Los Angeles at Cornerstone Plaza, 1990 S. Bundy Drive. Located on the corner of Bundy Drive and LaGrange Av e.

DISCLAIMER: This serious gathering will truly take place, however if O'Reilly dies, it must be God's will.

For more information, please contact: Sean Carney 323-651-5400 ext. 7361

posted by me

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:: California: A new hope? ::

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt files to run in recall election
(08-01) 07:01 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP)

Porn king Larry Flynt wants to rule California.

The Hustler magazine publisher has filed initial paperwork to run in the gubernatorial recall election and says he may spend a large amount of his own money if people take his candidacy seriously.

The registered Democrat, civil libertarian and free speech advocate said he'd solve California's budget woes by expanding slot machine gambling. His holdings include several casinos.

"California is the most progressive state in the union," said Flynt, 61. "I don't think anyone here will have a problem with a smut peddler as governor."

Flynt had not yet paid the $3,500 filing fee by Thursday afternoon, according to the California Secretary of State Web site.

More than 250 people statewide have taken the very first step of filing the paperwork with county registrars, according to the site. Other quirky candidates include several men named Gray Davis and Angelyne, the blonde, buxom artist made famous by her depiction on numerous Hollywood billboards.

To get on the Oct. 7 ballot, declared candidates also need at least 65 signatures from voters registered in their party.

©2003 Associated Press

posted by me

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:: "Inquiry Into RIAA's Piracy Crackdown Tactics" ::

"Sen. Norm Coleman started an inquiry to check the RIAA's tactics on attacking online music swappers. He believes the RIAA's tactics may not be taking into consideration the damage they do to innocent people. It's good to know that someone remembered people in the US have Rights." As a former roadie, Senator Coleman doesn't oppose file sharing penalities, he merely wants to make sure the punishment fits the crime.

[Join the /. discussion.]

ALSO from CNET News.com:
Lawmaker seeks info on RIAA dragnet
By John Borland

The recording industry's wave of subpoenas that target individual computer users has drawn the critical attention of at least one influential lawmaker on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Thursday that criticized its recent spate of subpoenas and asked for detailed information on how the process is working. Coleman said the RIAA may be going too far.

AND...
From CNET News.com:
European firms threaten mass P2P lawsuit
By Matthew Broersma and Munir Kotadia

Legal services giant Landwell says it will prosecute 4,000 peer-to-peer file-traders in Spain because they have been identified as "serious" unauthorized downloaders of copyrighted songs, films and software.

If it goes ahead, the action will be the largest crackdown on P2P users in Europe to date.

Landwell, the legal arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers, earlier this month issued the threat on behalf of clients that have remained unnamed to avoid a backlash by consumers. The company said it had gathered data such as IP addresses on 95,000 file-traders by tapping into P2P systems with older versions of the P2P clients, which don't encrypt such information.

posted by me

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:: Should be a little ditty about Joey Stalin and the Duke ::

Stalin Wanted John Wayne Dead

LONDON (July 31) - Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was so outraged at the anti-communism of film star John Wayne that he plotted to have him murdered, according to a new biography of the American icon.

"John Wayne - The man behind the myth" by British writer and actor Michael Munn says there were several attempts in the late 1940s and early 1950s to kill the man known to audiences around the world as "Duke."

In the first attempt, two Russian assassins posing as FBI agents tried to kill Wayne in his office at Warner Brothers studios in Hollywood. But the plot was uncovered and the would-be killers captured, the book says, citing several sources including director Orson Welles.

The book says the Soviet plots were cancelled after Stalin's death in 1953, by his successor Nikita Krushchev, who was a fan of the larger-than-life star of more than 100 films.

"That was a decision of Stalin during his last five mad years. When Stalin died I rescinded that order," the book quotes Krushchev as telling Wayne during a private meeting in 1958.

But it says American communist groups took up the cudgels against Wayne who was a supporter of the anti-communist witch-hunt led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, citing an attempt in Mexico on the set of the film "Hondo."

Born Marion Morrison on May 26, 1907, Wayne survived these attempts and another by a sniper during a trip to visit American troops in Vietnam in 1966. He died of cancer in 1979.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited.

posted by me

:: 9:13:00 AM [+] ::
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