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Wired published the compete DeCSS Perl script, with an explanation of how it worked, under the headline "DVD Hacking for Dummies," three years ago. No one noticed.

the first thing i thought of was a piece in wired about microsatellites to track terrestrial phenomenon. the real world, that outside of the military, has plenty of uses for new technology as soon as its readily available and not too expensive. there was another article in wired about using satellite technology to track trucks. both of these applications use space technology, and neither of them can be replaced simply with gps, but they illustrate the types of applications that such technology enables. anything that requires precise geographical measurements over time is now possible, as long as you can get a grant for the equipment.

the first thing i thought of was a piece in wired about microsatellites to track terrestrial phenomenon. the real world, that outside of the military, has plenty of uses for new technology as soon as its readily available and not too expensive. there was another article in wired about using satellite technology to track trucks. both of these applications use space technology, and neither of them can be replaced simply with gps, but they illustrate the types of applications that such technology enables. anything that requires precise geographical measurements over time is now possible, as long as you can get a grant for the equipment.

the first thing i thought of was a piece in wired about microsatellites to track terrestrial phenomenon. the real world, that outside of the military, has plenty of uses for new technology as soon as its readily available and not too expensive. there was another article in wired about using satellite technology to track trucks. both of these applications use space technology, and neither of them can be replaced simply with gps, but they illustrate the types of applications that such technology enables. anything that requires precise geographical measurements over time is now possible, as long as you can get a grant for the equipment.

Hey, looks like this guy has been hacked quite a bit himself:

Wired Article

You can also see the contents of his home dir and some of the "sites" he likes to visit:

Ryan Russell's home dir

Not quite a security expert, I would say....

So it's still public domain, as it pre-dates their filing. Given the lead times in publishing, we're looking at late '94 or earlier.

wired: U.S. Could Deny GPS To Taliban

The international fear and uncertainty has become so large that the Pentagon even feld compelled to say they wouldn't enact a global GPS blackout during war time. This is obviously a completely unbearable situation for anyone besides the US government. Here is a link:

Reuters: Pentagon pledges 'no global GPS blackout'

I don't know what happened to the Russian space positioning system that was once discussed as alternative, but the European Union is completely right in that they think they have to create an alternative to GPS. Even more puzzling is the fierceness with which the USA have tried to stop Galileo (why would they do that if not to leverage their monopoly pressure?). Here is a satnews.com story about it:

EU Postpones Decision on Galileo System Until 2002

The argument of the US government against Galileo was that it "could be abused by future enemies". So you can see how the US government is using GPS to pressure others. It is very important to create an alternative to GPS, even if it's just to stop the US from bullying other nations.

So much about Galileo, but what about other reasons for a non-US space program? I think one of the most dramatic display of bullying ever to be seen by any government is what the US government semi-openly discussed according to a Reuters story this February: to deny other nations access to space:

U.S. Pentagon Sees Space as Military 'High Ground'

If any sovereign nation sees something like this, it is obvious that a big space program besides the US one is absolutely necessary. The USA have proven time and again that they are a very volatile friend who on a whim decides to deny their resources to their friends.

There was one well documented case in the Bosnian war that is quite telling. The US vehemently denied ground troops and any real war involvement of theirs in Bosnia, on the grounds that Clinton thought his political career would be over of pictures of dead soldiers arrived home. So the role of the USA was mostly reconnaissance and intelligence and they did help keeping the air space empty. However, it later turned out that they gave weapons to the rebels, in violation of NATO orders. Here is one link about it:

Washington finances ethnic warfare

This is a very serious issue, please don't take my word for it, look for yourself. There was a good joint European documentary about it a while ago, where they interviewed the NATO official in Bosnia, a Norwegian military official, and he said that the USA basically denied their allies the contractually guaranteed intelligence to cover up their covert operations.

In my eyes this kind of behaviour leaves Europe no other choice but to go for independence in space and military. Most nations have given in to US surveillance and intelligence superiority, some like Australia and Britain even joined the Echelon system. There are stories that even those very close allies do not have full access to the jointly generated intelligence. In effect, the USA is exploiting and abusing everyone else around them, and now Mr Bush has stepped over the line with his excessive bullying and the other nations are banding together.

I have been waiting for this for many years, and I am happy that it finally happened. While I despise Bush on all levels, he did something very valuable for the world. He gave them enough motivati

take your ipod, and its radio transmitter; mix liberally with a radio receiver and a lovegety. you now have a 10-30 foot sphere of sharable personal soundtrack.

Seems to me this is very similar to the nuclear situation with north korea. At the same time the pentagon is pressing for new research in nuclear weopons they're pressing Iran and North Korea to cease they efforts.

One day before this FCC vote to relax media ownership restrictions further, Wired News ran this article saying that satellite radio was finally starting to take off in the U.S.

That cannot be a coincidence. Granted, more people are jumping on the XM & Sirius bandwagons because they cost less than before, but still, FM radio these days is so big a vacuum that it has to be filled by something...

Don't forget NPR along with National Association of Broadcasters has vehemently opposed community microbroadcasting. That coupled with the advertising is enough to keep me from supporting them ever.

As much as I enjoy (some of) their content I think its sometimes better to let something die to give something else the opportunity to fill the vacuum. Or we continue to limp along with the steady Clear Channelization of public radio.

By the way, if there's foam in that bra, you're probably getting less than you bargained on. Real women don't need or want padding. Although occasionally I'd bet they'd like hard shielding from octopi disguised as men.

Perhaps, but wouldn't this work better? Hmm maybe they should make bra and panties of a similar nature ;).

Late Tuesday evening, little things suddenly started to go very wrong in the virtual world of Shadowbane, a popular online multiplayer game.

Some players noticed that their money and weapons had suddenly vanished. A few whispered that tonight the monsters somehow seemed slightly bigger and meaner.

And then all hell broke loose.

Shadowbane had been hacked by several of its players. But unlike standard game hacks, where players gift themselves with super strength, health or wealth, these hackers managed to completely alter the rules of Shadowbane -- turning a suddenly wrathful game loose on its players.

"At first, players started speculating that there was a really bad bug in the game code," player Tim Wheating said. "Then we realized that somehow an insane god had taken control of our world and was out to kill us all."

In a statement posted on the Shadowbane website shortly after the hack, Wolfpack Studios and Ubi Soft Entertainment (the developers of Shadowbane) acknowledged that a "serious attack" had occurred and assured players the companies were "working with law enforcement and we promise all of you that these individuals will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

The population of an entire Shadowbane town was forcibly moved to the bottom of the sea, where they drowned. City guards turned feral and attacked town residents. Mobs of never-before-seen superpowerful creatures, seemingly spontaneously spawned from the ether, began to prowl the streets unchecked, killing characters in the most painful way possible.

For the last six years the averaged revenue growth is 7.2 - 9.8% (except for the year 2000 probably due to the recession). That's pretty good figures. For the years 1980-1995, before high speed Internet, the average revenue growth was 5.2% a year.

2. The data you are showing is relative to ticket sales in theaters, where DeCSS is a non-issue. DeCSS affects the sale of VHS and DVD products by diluting the market for those goods with "pirate" copies that are either free or cheap.

You are right here. The increase in DVD sales is much more impressive than the revenue growth of the ticket sales.

DVDs conquer the movie world

WARNER-HOME-VIDEO-DVD Sales Soar

BusinessWeek

Blockbuster Sees Revenue, Profit Growth in Q1

4. Just using the numbers you linked to, the movie makers are actually losing more money than ever. So I suggest not using these numbers in any rational debate about the subject at hand.

The Domestic Grosses are just part of moviemakers revenue. There are also Overseas Grosses, which excide the domestic grosses. There are also rental revenue, merchandise sells, and VHS and DVD sells.

Warner's 4Q revenue rose to $11.4 billion from $10.6 billion, as strong box office and DVD sales and improvingCNN Money

Fox Post Profit Gains

The Ever-Expanding, Profit-Maximizing, Cultural-Imperialist, Wonderful World of Disney

Putting value on your Elf or your Sim-house is kind of like trying to put value on your place in line. Sure, some people will eagerly buy your spot (and the rest of us will call that a soft-cheat), but say you sit overnight waiting to buy tickets to a show and some guy (or girl - especially if she's got a cool vest ) comes along and kicks your ass, takes your place, and you don't get to buy tickets. You can sue for assault, but you're not going to get very far suing for compensation on the time you "invested" waiting in line or for the tickets the sob "stole" from you.

Our legal system is founded (rightly so, I think) on two concepts - ownership of property, and the contract. In-game exploits don't change either your contract status or your property ownership. If you get screwed repeatedly you might be able to go after the game company for failure to deliver the gaming environment you paid for, but that's it.

DRM ensures that the creators and producers of works get paid. The work can be "enjoyed" by anyone who pays.

Really? Why? Do you have any guarantee that the author will continue to sell it? If not, then the DRM will allow him to remove old works from the market, and pretend they never existed.

The original Star Wars, the original ET, and the first film to mix live and artficial characters will be lost.

Even if the work doesn't specifically embarrass the owner, he (or his heirs, 75 years later) may not feel its profitable enough to bother selling. Or those heirs may just forget they even own it.

Was Shakespear "hamper[ing] culural progress massively" when he charged people to see his plays?

He had no effective way to prevent copying, and in fact did. If modern laws and systems had already be in place when he wrote, then those plays would still be accumulating dollars to the Estate of Wm Shakespeare after every performance.

Furthermore we can split information into two very broad categories - factual and creative (my categories, I just made them up and I'm sure plenty of you can find fault with these)

Interestingly, according to the US constitution, copyright is illegal on the second category. Protection can only apply to "sciences and the useful arts". The majority of things demanding DRM are works like "The Matrix Reloaded", which is definately not science, and also not "useful".

- when we look at the factual content e.g. news, science, humanities, next to none of it is covered by DRM.

Duh? DRM doesn't exist yet. Nothing at all is covered under it. By DRM I mean (and the Wired author means) strong DRM, where your computer and media work together to keep you from violating a copyright.

However, when/if DRM starts to arrive, you can be sure that newspapers at least will be one kind of "factual" content that will jump to using DRM. Online newspapers already try to give free access to stories less than 48 hours old, and require payment for archival access. If they can stop readers from saving, printing, or forwarding during the 48 hours (and ideally make saved copies expire on a timer) they'll be very happy.

Science is also increasingly commercialized (especially biology and computer science), so those classes of publisher would be attracted to DRM too.

And if we look back over history, the important stuff (Shakespear, Mozart, Picasso and 1000's of others) is constantly reproduced in the latest modern formats.

Reproduced by people without copyright authorization. (Well, except maybe Picasso. Some Picasso works are less than 97 years old, the current duration of copyright)

But, do we want only the "best" (most popular, most immediately acclaimed) stuff to survive? Other things have value too, which isn't immediately apparent.

the good stuff will survive or be rediscovered.

If its rediscovered, though, it may be on DRM media, which is designed to oppose efforts to read it (up to and including the possibility of self-destructing!). Hieroglyphs and cuniform were designed to spread information- DRM is the opposite.

Besides, if these trends continue, copyright will last for multiple centuries. It will be a crime for you investigate recovered, rotting media.

Slashdot's product placement and trolling stepped up while European legislators were discussing software patents. Picayune articles, many of which consisted of rehashed softer versions of old FUD and misinformation, covered topics which have already been dealt with, again and again.

Since most novices do not understand the scope and severity of MS's problems and since any critique of MS, no matter the merit, gets written off as "MS-Bashing", it would be best to focus on the more successful areas of the IT sector. Here are a few examples:

• in Norway
• OSS in the mainstream
• Munich goes OpenOffice
• OSS in the UK
• OSS in Spain

Check the forums for tools that work - *BSD, Linux, QNX, Netware, eDirectory, LDAP, Kerberos, KDE, Gnome, Apache, MySQL, Postgresql, and so on ...

Bruce Sterling wrote an interesting Wired column about the budding Cold War between India and China. Sterling reminds us that India is also interested in a space program, largely for the same reasons America was: symbolism and prestige.

As Pakistan weakens, India is starting to view China as its principal rival for South Asian hegemony. "India and China are comers with a lot to prove to the world, and especially to each other," Sterling writes. "Nuclear India versus nuclear China is Kennedy versus Kruschev, and Reagan versus Gorbachev, all over again. Now, as then, a space race is a sexy alternative to nuclear annihilation.

"China has openly declared its desire to colonize the moon. The world's most populous nation is unlikely to build lunar settlements, but that's not the point. China's motive lies not in constructing a lunar Hong Kong, but rather in luring India into a loud public competition. Later this year, if all goes as planned, China will become the third country to send a citizen into space. An orbiting taikonaut will be even more impressive if American shuttles are stuck in their hangars while the misnamed International Space Station limps along with a skeleton crew."

Sterling's conclusion sent a shudder of surprising revulsion through me: "A decade after the end of the Cold War, good old-fashioned space programs still matter. Not for exploration's sake, but to settle new cold wars. If you doubt it, imagine this scenario: It's 2029, and a lunar mission lands at Tranquillity Base. A crew of heroic young Indians - or Chinese - quietly folds and puts away America's 60-year-old flag. If the world saw that on television, wouldn't the gesture be worth tens of billions of rupees or yuan? Of course it would."

But the hydrogen will still need to be transported somehow.

Quite right, but it will have to be transported regardless of how it is generated - same in either the nuclear or chemical case. My point was only to show the large scale difference between the methods of production.

For a well thought out, albeit superficial and non-technical, essay on the subject, check out this article in Wired.

FWIW, I think that a Federal Nuclear Power Infrastructure, to provide the bare minimum of energy needed by the nation, is long overdue. Think Gibson's "Eastern Seabord Fission Authority".

If the Fed were to provide a balanced Nuclear, Hydro, Renewable and yes, Fossil, Infrastructure for basic national need, "free market" and deregulation could thrive providing surplus power direct to the consumer.

By "infrastructure", of course, I mean barest essencials: minimal (USRDA-like) average consumption, municipal lighting and heating, hospitals, basic services, that sort of thing.

The article's relentless insistence on how THE GOVERNMENT MUST MUST MUST IMMEDIATELY LAUNCH A Manhattan-project-like effort to develop a hydrogen economy and SAVE AMERICA reminded me of those Anime Otakudom lines about "The World Will Be Saved By Steam!", or like various other rants that people go on, usually political or anti-drug. Sure, there's good technical discussion in there about fuel cells and storage issues, but that's not really what it's about.

So Remember, Kids, Hydrogen isn't the answer! Professor Steamhead says ""Steam. Water plus heat equals steam. Always remember this. The world can be saved by steam." and he's got a giant steam-powered mecha robot to do the job with!

Boy, does this take me back. One of the better articles in Wired magazine's history, in my opinion, was the one on "Netheads vs. Bellheads" highlighting an internal battle at Sprint as a microcosm of a bigger battle of packet-switching vs. circuit-switching. It's long but entertaining and worth it, talking about philosophical differences and ATM and IP.

Make the case out of the same stuff as that no-contact jacket and if you thought the guy who cooked his thighs by operating his laptop on his laptop was bad... *ouch*!

Are you guys familiar with In-Q-Tel? (It's mentioned in the article)

Here's an article.
and another...
and another...
and another...

Also good to note is that the current GPS system is long overdue for an overhaul. According to Wired, there are 18 satellites in the constellation that are due for replacement and only 13 in the pipeline (and not nearly enough rockets to launch them all).

Also, since Galileo is supposed to support a lot of what's promised in GPS III, I can't see this being a *bad* thing for anyone.

Munich will be the first city with over 1 Million inhabitants that is run by Linux

I would have thought Mexico City has a stronger claim to this title.

Perhaps more creative if anything... You obviously didn't take any of your precious time to do a little research and realize that Mac users have been 'modding' since long before the whole 'PC mod' trend/craze started. Look here, here, here, here, and the list could go on. Try googling 'mac case mods' and you'll get plenty of links. Not to mention that slashdot has had (numerous?) stories on Mac case mods before...

There's a high probability that bacteria has already fallen upon the Martian surface, just as it has on earth.

Wired article

nocontact_video1_qt_hi.mov

The government of Thailand is the real force behind this move. That is an interesting development, has Microsoft ever taken on a government before? (I'm kidding)

I guess 80,000 volts really isn't that much considering that the poor guy in the video is shown grabbing the jacketed girl - who looks like she's definitely enjoying herself - multiple times in a row and hardly even pulling a face.

Granted, he's forced to let go, but it's not like it does anything but give him hot hands (no pun, etc) for more than a fraction of a second.

Is the goal here to incapacitate an attacker, or just make the would-be rapist even more out of control, and probably more violent?

Seems like they need to up the voltage.

Police who leave GPS-enabled cars around for crooks to steal in major cities? They track the car once it is stolen and disable it when they are ready to make an arrest... more info at Wired.com.

The TSA sees that system as faulty. It concedes that passengers who have the same name as someone else on a no-fly list or who are listed incorrectly find it extremely difficult to get their names removed. Individuals flagged by the list can face intense police scrutiny before flying and even be barred from a flight.

The unaltered 'band-gap' crystal structure traps some quantum energy states and lets others pass through. When a shockwave meets the crystal, the traversing wave is momentarily 'held-up' if the shockwave is travelling in the opposite direction or 'hastened' if the shockwave is travelling in the same direction, thereby compressing or stretching the frequency. Since 'band-gap' crystals apply to all waves and not just photonic, this same method can be applied to sound and heat waves as well. Check this excellent Wired article for more. This whole field is really elegant.

I already commented in this column about this. But it was based on this Wired News article, Making Wines Finer With Wireless.

An interesting but old article on wired about Metcalfe here: The Legend of Bob Metcalfe

DARPA to monitor how we feel :

Impeach Bush et al.

That's how I feel.

Cheers,
W00t

Get Your Fake War On

Story here. Where will it end?

from 10 to 100 times faster than a Pentium 4 at Scientific computations

Also, Wired had an article on this, with the main gist "NVidia plans to make the CPU obsolote".

Actually, Mac users have been some of the biggest case mod fanatics, especially if you live in Japan. Just like people customize the Volkswagen bug with colorful patterns and paintings, so do people customize their Macs. There's even a traditional kimono designer in Kyoto who will customize your PowerBook with an original design if you want to spend the cash.

As for other Mac users modding, just Google it, or check out the original /. story.

You know...Kyoto is only about an hour-and-a-half from here by train...and $300 isn't too bad, considering...and I've got a TiBook...

The mind boggles.

There are plenty of cops and legislators and judges who are annoying pains in the butts of the masses. A law banning making virtual child pornography (no actual children involved) was struck down, so I don't see what legal ground they would have, even if they think that Lain is child pornography.

He's very simple, direct and down to earth without all the BS personal agenda cluttering his view. At least that's what I gathered from this article a few months back.

Do these guys have something to do with the *trak scam unearthed by Wired 5 years ago?

Here's a brief wired article on the subject.

MasterPeace

cost $7,800

I'll stick with my Humanscale Freedom chair paired with two cheapo folding tables. I have an Aeron chair too (one chair for home, one for work, until I got downsized at least) but I like the Freedom chair better. I suspect Aerons work better for heavyset people rather than skinny folks like me.

Wired has an interesting superchair article that led me to the Freedom chair.

Gotta wonder what the Humanscale folks think about PCE calling their chair "Freedom" as well. Methinks somebody didn't do the obligatory Google search.

"'Who the hell are you communists! Get off my doorstep. I listen to the ARTISTS not communists like you!'"

Please, old chap, you're letting the side down.

The copyright holders in almost every case are the record companies. Those contracts that every starstruck artist signs tend to include the transfer of rights to the holding label/company, which means that the RIAA actually represents the copyrights of the artists, something that they point out while raping both the consumers and the artists.

Some further reading;
Prince Versus Warners
Same thing, different angle (with popups)

I believe that George Micheal has also had disputes with his record company over what actually gets released, and I'm wholly amused by the scramble to recoup losses over Aaliyah's pre-contract expiration.

I wish someone would make the distinction to the record companies that the majority of people have NO problem with supporting the artists, it's just the robbing bastards at the top of the food chain who employ the lawyers to beat people over the head.

OD

on why DRM is wrong...

Copy Protection is a Crime

According to Wired:

"We jumped the gun basically yesterday in confirming that it was a hoax, and in fact it was not," said Lisa Gurry, MSN group product manager.

The 'scientists' I mentioned have made real world accomplishments for the future, though.

Healthy discussion. Good points all.

This makes Joy a political target when he's in the press, but he believes that strongly about the problem our great-grandchildren could inherit. And this generational bomb is potentially a lot bigger problem than 'global warming'/air pollution thing!

Why the future doesn't need us.
Criticism *and* Support for Joy's opinions abound

And as are as 'futurists' are concerned, don't get me wrong--I love The Matrix and Michio Kaku as much as the next guy (or girl).