Phyrfight Intel

From the Technology Liberation Front:

An Egyptian blogger has been sent to jail for four years for criticizing Islam!

Video of him being taken away.

A group of Dutch techies have developed a system that uses a projector to follow a green laser to project “light graffiti” on the sides of buildings.

Video

From: CNET

In a rare open letter from CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday, Apple urged record companies to abandon digital rights management technologies.

From the EFF

As law professor Michael Geist explains in an editorial this week, “In the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the ‘user experience’ from the user.”

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By George F. Will
Newsweek

… Over the millennia, the planet has warmed and cooled for reasons that are unclear but clearly were unrelated to SUVs. Was life better when ice a mile thick covered Chicago? Was it worse when Greenland was so warm that Vikings farmed there? Are we sure the climate at this particular moment is exactly right, and that it must be preserved, no matter the cost?

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What is one to do when an electronic form of a government document is laden with DRM? Jerry Brito at the TLF has some great commentary on the subject when DRM restricted him from copy a portion of the 9/11 Commission Report of all things. It is almost too much to take, but I will continue to fight it.

A Norway court has found iTunes to be anti-competitive because the songs cannot be played on rival players. This is another example of how bad DRM is.

Today, LG shipped it’s first batch of HD-DVD/Blu-ray Disc players to stores across the country. Although it costs, twelve hundred dollars, it is a step in favor of the consumer. Hopefully, this will start a trend that will benefit consumers on both sides in the long run.

Sen. Sununu is about to introduce a bill that would forbid the FCC, read Federal Government, from imposing technical standards and stifling innovation.

I only recently became aware of Sen. Sununu while watching a video of a hearing on C-SPAN’s website. From what I have heard and read he seems to have the most reasonable take on technology of any congressman. It seems that his decisions on this subject can only be described as rational. Rationality is a rare occurrence these days, especially within the political realm.

Am I the only one that thinks this could be a really bad idea?
From New Scientist:

“Could there be forbidden sequences in the genome – ones so harmful that they are not compatible with life?…

Whether these sequences have any biological significance in living organisms is not yet known – the next step is to test 20 of the peptoprimes in bacteria and human cells to see whether they have any effect such as causing death or provoking an immune reaction.”

The head of C-SPAN has asked Nacy Pelosi, the incoming leader of the House of Representatives to allow more freedom to the cameras inside the House.

“In a Dec. 14 letter, C-SPAN CEO and Chairman Brian Lamb asked Pelosi to roll back the three-decade old practice that put the House Speaker in charge of the cameras.”

From Wired.com: A new add makes comparisons between Tony Blair and Hitler, for proposing a national ID. While this blogger is against governments creating mass databases of its citizens, I don’t like the comparison. The add will get people’s attention, and maybe that is a good thing.

It looks like the Democrats are about to severely cut spending on missile defense. This comes as North Korea has recently tested a mid-range ICBM and Iran is working on missile technology as well. I can’t understand this kind of reasoning, if in fact that’s what you could call it.

Today, teamxbox.com annnounced that Microsoft is about to implement a new feature for the XBOX 360. This feature will allow XBOX Live users to permanantly download TV show episodes and essentially rent HD movies over the XBOX Live service. The media will download straight to the XBOX 360 hard drive. For more info, visit xbox.com.

The United States Air Force has commissioned a new command to operate solely in cyberspace and to use it as an arena for war. I think that the Air Force is the most forward looking of all the military branches and they got this idea right. We need to find and destroy the enemy where ever they operate and if that is in cyberspace so be it.

“The aim is to develop a major command that stands alongside Air Force Space Command and Air Combat Command as the provider of forces that the President, combatant commanders and the American people can rely on for preserving the freedom of access and commerce, in air, space and now cyberspace,” Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told an industry conference.

Cyberspace Command 

Ubuntu is a fairly new version of Linux, that is by far the most user friendly of any Linux version. For those who are novices and have no experience with Linux or are more technically savvy, I would suggest going to ubuntu.com and downloading the ubuntu .iso and burn the image to a CD. Ubuntu runs as a “live” CD, which meas that it will run the operating system from the CD and will not touch your harddrive or change anything on your system. If one decides that they like it one can install the OS right from the live CD. For some excellent tutorials try ubuntuclips.org.

The Technology Liberation front has a very good post on the similarities between what we are witnessing in the fight against DRM and the stages of grief. If you are not aware of what DRM is and why it is bad check here.

The Entertainment Consumers Association is a new political action group designed to give gamers a voice in this new climate of video game legislation. Avid gamers everywhere should be jumping to join this organization where all thier voices can be gathered into one loud voice. Movie ratings are not governed by legislation and neither should video game ratings.

From the EFF’s Newsletter EFFector:

In last week’s announcement of the new Microsoft Zune media player and Zune arketplace, Microsoft (and many press reports) glossed over a remarkable misfeature that should demonstrate once and for all how DRM and the DMCA harm legitimate customers.

Microsoft’s Zune will not play protected Windows Media Audio and Video purchased or “rented” from Napster 2.0, Rhapsody, Yahoo! Unlimited, Movielink, Cinemanow, or any other online media service. That’s right — the media that Microsoft promised would Play For Sure doesn’t even play on Microsoft’s own device! Buried in footnote 4 of its press release, Microsoft clearly states that “Zune software can import audio files in unprotected WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264” — protected WMA and WMV (not to mention iTunes DRMed AAC) are conspicuously absent.

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From the Daily Mail:

Big Brother is shouting at you

“Big Brother is not only watching you – now he’s barking orders too. Britain’s first ‘talking’ CCTV cameras have arrived, publicly berating bad behaviour and shaming offenders into acting more responsibly.”

Now “anit-social behavior” can be instantly berated by the faceless cowards of the Party. Pretty soon, the populous will simply be shamed into absolute compliance with the will of those in power who are “democratically” elected.

The real scare is the fact that the UK is our stongest ally, and many believe that we should follow in their footsteps. On an unrelated note, I’m currently in the market for a cheap island in the South Pacific.