Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Democrats lost the battle, not the war

via Salon.com : "A longer perspective is more pertinent and more relevant to the future than listening to televised imbeciles maundering about the 'death of liberalism.' (Had the Democrat won by three points and a couple dozen electoral votes, nobody would be touting the 'death of conservatism.') Progressives and reactionaries in America have both survived much sharper electoral rejections than this one. Both sides tend to overreact to such rejection in an election's emotional aftermath.

Exaggeration is the rule, not the exception, in the post-election autopsy. Sweeping pronouncements about this year's close, hotly contested campaign should be considered skeptically, especially when Republican propagandists start to talk about their 'mandate' and their 'permanent majority.' Such claims are convincing only to citizens (and journalists) suffering from amnesia."

Bush's night of the long knives

cia Salon.com : "Powell had wanted to stay on for six months of Bush's second term to help shepherd a new Middle East peace process, but the president insisted on his swift resignation. Immediately, Condoleezza Rice was named in his place. She had failed at every important task as national security advisor, pointedly neglecting terrorism before Sept. 11, enthusiastically parroting the false claim that Saddam had a nuclear weapons program (while suppressing contrary intelligence), mismanaging her part of postwar policy so completely that she had to cede it to a deputy, and eviscerating the Middle East 'road map.'

But Bush's performance princess was his favorite briefer; ever devoted, the unmarried Rice in an unguarded moment once called Bush 'my husband.' As incompetent as she was at her actual job, she was as agile at bureaucratic positioning. Early on she figured out how to align with the neoconservatives and to damage Powell. Her usurpation is a lesson to him in blind ambition and loyalty.

Powell's sack and Rice's promotion are more than examples of behavior punished and rewarded. His fall and her rise signal the purge of the CIA and the State Department -- a neoconservative night of the long knives. Bush's attitude is that of the intimidating loyalty enforcer he was in his father's political campaigns."

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

What is encryption?

via Techworld.com: "Data encryption has become a sad necessity for responsible data managers. However cryptography is jargon-heavy even by the discouraging standards of the IT world – symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems, public versus private keys, digital signatures, hash algorithms, RSA, DES, Rijndael, PGP, MD5, SHA-1, https, secure sockets, Camellia, IDEA; what does it all mean? What are the differences? Relative advantages and disadvantages? Hopefully this article will clear some of the fog."

Federal Judge Tosses Porn Purveyor's Copyright Suit Against Credit Card Companies

via law.com: "Ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge James Ware tossed out a copyright and trademark infringement suit brought against Visa International Service Association and MasterCard International Inc. by Perfect 10 Inc., which publishes an adult magazine and operates an adult Web site.

Perfect 10 claims hundreds of Web site operators around the world are selling its trademarked images of women -- and that the credit card companies that process these transactions are liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement.

Andrew Bridges, a partner in Winston & Strawn's San Francisco office representing MasterCard, said Perfect 10 was trying 'to impose a commercial blockade on anyone accused of infringement.' Ware found the credit card companies 'are not obliged to manage their merchants away from infringement,' Bridges added. "

Perfect 10 v. Visa International, 04-0371 (N.D. Cal.)

Monday, November 15, 2004

Something Borrowed By Malcolm Gladwell

via The New Yorker: At issue in the case wasn’t the distinctiveness of Newton’s performance. The Beastie Boys, everyone agreed, had properly licensed Newton’s performance when they paid the copyright recording fee. And there was no question about whether they had copied the underlying music to the sample. At issue was simply whether the Beastie Boys were required to ask for that secondary permission: was the composition underneath those six seconds so distinctive and original that Newton could be said to own it? The court said that it wasn’t.

The chief expert witness for the Beastie Boys in the “Choir” case was Lawrence Ferrara, who is a professor of music at New York University, and when I asked him to explain the court’s ruling he walked over to the piano in the corner of his office and played those three notes: C, D-flat, C. “That’s it!” he shouted. “There ain’t nothing else! That’s what was used. You know what this is? It’s no more than a mordent, a turn. It’s been done thousands upon thousands of times. No one can say they own that.”

Factory of the Future?

via MSNBC : "Sources familiar with Myhrvold's strategy say that he has raised $350 million from some of the largest companies in high tech: Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Nokia and Apple. Google and eBay also recently invested. With this large bankroll, the company is out buying existing patents in droves. (Myhrvold won't comment on these activities, but sources say he has already purchased about 1,000 patents.) The strategy is to set up a sort of patent marketplace. Patent owners get money upfront for the dusty ideas sitting on their shelves, the investors get the rights to use the ideas without being sued and Myhrvold gets to rent those same ideas to other companies that need them to continue creating products. Intellectual-property experts say his plan is audacious and unprecedented, customized for a new, rapidly dawning business environment."

Mr. Misery

via rabbit blog" "Of course it absolutely goes without saying that I don't fucking know Smith and I have no fucking clue what I'm talking about. I don't know what it feels like to be him, and I can't judge anything he does or pretend to know what was in his head, and I have no right to even ponder. He owes me nothing. In truth, I loved loved loved his first album, really liked his second, and then I sort of lost interest. I saw him play at a record store in '96 and he was very quiet and shy, in a way that made you want to hug him. Everyone says that about him, really. But when I read about him now, it just gives me this sick feeling in my stomach. It just makes me want to kick his ass. Stop making yourself so fucking small, stop flinching, stop undermining everything you do, stop hiding, stop shrugging it all off, stop it with the whatever and the so fucking what. All that shit just flies in the face of this obvious romanticism that he couldn't own, or wouldn't. If you're an artist, if you're romantic about yourself and your life, own that shit. Instead, it's "Aw, who cares? I'm not what you think I am. Forget about it." And then you put a knife to your heart? What could possibly be more dramatic than that? You creep along and shrug and diminish yourself, and then choose the most dramatic exit possible? My feeling is that if you could live in a more outward, dramatic, bigger way, in the way that some force inside you clearly needs to live, it wouldn't be necessary to exit prematurely.

Today is Wednesday, a good day to stand up for all of the pretty little things you make, no matter how weak and vulnerable they make you feel. Take your pretty little things to town and show them off, goddamn it! Own your vulnerability and sadness and fear and don't hide them and scoff at people who ask after them. Or, if you're not really that sad or fearful, try to be a little bit more accepting of someone who is. Why does everyone think it's so fucking queer and insane to feel sad, or to be preoccupied, at times, by dark or melancholy moods? It's on our TV screens, it's in our movies, but most of us walk around like our lives are chirpy perfection. Or we're just so fucking over it. You know, whatever, no big deal. Or we're insanely happy, but no one actually wants to hear about it. Maybe we're all just afraid of emotion, in any form. Bleh!"

Boo hoo hoo

via The Daily Howler: "Why did this reader vote for Bush? He says the Democratic Party has “belittled his beliefs, dismissing them out of hand,” and has “addressed him publicly as intellectually challenged for holding to the faith of my fathers.” Oops, sorry—one clarification. The readers says the Democratic Party and/or those people who purport to speak for it has engaged in this behavior.

"Let’s ignore that expansive escape clause and think of the Dem Party proper. We think it’s time for readers like this to name the names of actual Dems who have actually belittled them in this manner. Who exactly “addressed him publicly as intellectually challenged for holding to the faith of his fathers?” Was it Southern Baptist Bill Clinton, from Hot Springs, Arkansas? Was it Southern Baptist Al Gore, from Carthage, Tennessee? Was it Jimmy Carter? Was it Joe Lieberman? Was it John Edwards, from the reader’s own state? Or was it French-speaking John Kerry himself, the haughty man who dares to wind-surf? If so, when did this insult occur? When exactly has any Dem leader ever behaved in the manner described? When exactly did the Dem Party belittle the reader’s religious beliefs and “address him publicly as intellectually challenged?” When exactly did this occur? Or did it really occur in a dream? Or perhaps in a rant on talk radio?"

To Avoid Divorce, Move to Massachusetts

via The New York Times: "Kentucky, Mississippi and Arkansas, for example, voted overwhelmingly for constitutional amendments to ban gay marriage. But they had three of the highest divorce rates in 2003, based on figures from the Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics.

The lowest divorce rates are largely in the blue states: the Northeast and the upper Midwest. And the state with the lowest divorce rate was Massachusetts, home to John Kerry, the Kennedys and same-sex marriage.

In 2003, the rate in Massachusetts was 5.7 divorces per 1,000 married people, compared with 10.8 in Kentucky, 11.1 in Mississippi and 12.7 in Arkansas.

'Some people are saying, 'The Bible Belt is so pro-marriage, but gee, they have the highest divorce rates in the country,' ' said Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University. 'And there's a lot of worry in the red states about the high rate of divorce.'"

Friday, November 12, 2004

Monopolies of the Mind

via Economist.com: "There is an urgent need for patent offices to return to first principles. A patent is a government-granted temporary monopoly (patents in most countries are given about 20 years' protection) intended to reward innovators in exchange for a disclosure by the patent holder of how his invention works, thereby encouraging others to further innovation. The qualifying tests for patents are straightforward—that an idea be useful, novel and not obvious. Unfortunately most patent offices, swamped by applications that can run to thousands of pages and confronted by companies wielding teams of lawyers, are no longer applying these tests strictly or reliably."

Apologies Accepted

the world's answer to sorryeverybody.com: "We, wanderers of the world outside the US, have been touched by the initiative of www.sorryeverybody.com, and the huge amount of photos they received. The initiators of this website would like to show back to the American people that they appreciated that message."

Sorry Everybody

Sorry Everybody "Some of us — hopefully most of us — are trying to understand and appreciate the effect our recent election will have on you, the citizens of the rest of the world. As our so-called leaders redouble their efforts to screw you over, please remember that some of us — hopefully most of us — are truly, truly sorry. And we'll say we're sorry, even on the behalf of the ones who aren't."

Sultana of the Texas Taliban, Scourge of Scholars, Despoiler of Textbooks

via Pharyngula.org: "The name is Terri Leo. She’s a real piece of work. She’s been working like a maniac to gut textbooks; she’s even tried to get publishers to add little “facts”, like “Opinions vary on why homosexuals, lesbians and bisexuals as a group are more prone to self-destructive behaviors like depression, illegal drug use, and suicide.” She’s a perfect example of anti-science, anti-intellectual, intolerant bigotry, and yet there she is, on the state board of education. That’s like hearing that Richard Dawkins has been elected by the College of Cardinals to the papacy, or that the new head of the NIH is Bluto Blutarski. She just doesn’t belong there." More.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Fuck the South

fuckthesouth.com: The next dickwad who says, "It’s your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. That’s right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? It’s too easy, asshole, they’re blue states. It’s not your money, assholes, it’s fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes.

Cruel and Unusual: The End Of The Eighth Amendment

via bostonreview.net: "It might seem at first that the rules for the treatment of Iraqi prisoners were founded on standards of political legitimacy suited to war or emergencies; based on what Carl Schmitt called the urgency of the “exception,” they were meant to remain secret as necessary “war measures” and to be exempt from traditional legal ideals and the courts associated with them. But the ominous discretionary powers used to justify this conduct are entirely familiar to those who follow the everyday treatment of prisoners in the United States—not only their treatment by prison guards but their treatment by the courts in sentencing, corrections, and prisoners’ rights. The torture memoranda, as unprecedented as they appear in presenting “legal doctrines . . . that could render specific conduct, otherwise criminal, not unlawful,” refer to U.S. prison cases in the last 30 years that have turned on the legal meaning of the Eighth Amendment’s language prohibiting “cruel and unusual punishment.”

What is the history of this phrase? How has it been interpreted? And how has its content been so eviscerated?"

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

By Philip E. Agre, Prof. of Information Sciences at UCLA: "These ideas are not new. Indeed they were common sense until recently. Nowadays, though, most of the people who call themselves 'conservatives' have little notion of what conservatism even is. They have been deceived by one of the great public relations campaigns of human history. Only by analyzing this deception will it become possible to revive democracy in the United States."

Textbook Wars

via pandagon.net: "It's time to realize that reality is a value in and of itself. Respect for 'traditional values' does not supercede respect for facts, evidence and reason. Plenty of Christians believe in evolution, and this bleating, obnoxious minority cannot be allowed to dictate to the rest of America what our children will learn, how they will perceive the world around them."

Monday, November 08, 2004

Resentment, Politics and the Civil War

via digbyblog: "Granting the existence of cultural differences between the North and South, can we assume that they would necessarily lead to a Civil War? Obviously not. Such differences lead to animosity and war only if one side develops a national inferiority complex, begins to blame all its shortcomings on the other side, enforces a rigid conformity on its own people, and tries to make up for its own sins of omission and commission by name-calling, by nursing an exaggerated pride and sensitiveness, and by cultivating a reckless aggressiveness as a substitute for reason." Quoting Stephen Z. Starr.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Stylish furniture firm ready to wage war on knockoffs

via sfgate.com: "Knoll, which makes 18 Mies reproductions, has held a trademark on the Barcelona name since 1968. (Knoll reproductions have Mies' signature stamped into the frame.) The new registration extends trademark protection to the actual design of the five products. Bright said the company filed for protection to stem inexpensive knockoffs. Trademark protection, Bright added, will help maintain the authenticity of the original 1929 design. He declined to provide sales figures for the Barcelona series but said it is a "perennial favorite." The decision could curb sales of copycat versions by retailers like Design Within Reach, whose customers appreciate the period's design masters but do not want to pay for authentic reproductions."

The Decline of Brands

via Wired 12.11: "Marketers may consider the explosion of new brands to be evidence of branding's importance, but in fact the opposite is true. It would be a waste of money to launch a clever logo into a world of durable brands and loyal customers. But because consumers are more promiscuous and fickle than ever, established brands are vulnerable, and new ones have a real chance of succeeding - for at least a little while. The obsession with brands, paradoxically, demonstrates their weakness."

SCO seals deal for legal expense cap

via CNET News.com: "The SCO Group has signed a previously announced agreement with two law firms that will cap legal expenses for its Linux and Unix litigation at $31 million, the company said in a legal filing Thursday.

The expense cap agreement--announced Aug. 31 but signed Oct. 31--puts to rest some uncertainty about the company's abilities to pay the hefty legal fees incurred through its legal attacks against IBM, Novell, AutoZone and DaimlerChrysler and its legal defense against Red Hat."

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Soldiers Describe Looting of Explosives

via latimes.com: "The U.S. troops said there was little they could do to prevent looting of the ammunition site, 30 miles south of Baghdad.

'We were running from one side of the compound to the other side, trying to kick people out,' said one senior noncommissioned officer who was at the site in late April 2003.

'On our last day there, there were at least 100 vehicles waiting at the site for us to leave' so looters could come in and take munitions.

'It was complete chaos. It was looting like L.A. during the Rodney King riots,' another officer said."

About That Base Strategy

Etc. at tnr.com: "The problem with casting your lot with your base is that, once you do, even the slightest deviation from it is potentially disastrous. Why? Because in order to win with a base strategy, you need your base to be incredibly motivated, so that they turn up at the polls in large enough numbers to offset all those moderates you alienate. If you don't get that kind of intensity, you lose. As Bush and Rove may be finding out, it's pretty hard to sustain that level of intensity for months and months on end. "

Why Democrats Should Be Thankful - At least they don't have to clean up the Bush fiscal catastrophe

via slate.com: The only solace for sullen Democrats is that now Republicans might have to clean up their own fiscal mess. The fiscal record of the past four years has been one of unmitigated—and seemingly intentional—irresponsibility. A Republican Congress working with a Republican president created the massive new Medicare prescription-drug entitlement, passed a new, subsidy-crammed farm bill, committed hundreds of billions of dollars to war efforts, and loaded up on pork-barrel spending. Meanwhile, taxes were reduced—on wage earners, investors, and companies. The end result: We collected about the same amount of taxes in fiscal 2004 as we did in fiscal 1999. But we spent 34 percent more.

Broad Nationwide Victory?!

via pandagon.net:
"[T]he result is now clear -- a record voter turnout and a broad, nationwide victory."

-Bush, today

Here's that broad, nationwide victory in visual form:

Cendant sues Amazon over book recommendations

via CNET News.com: "Cendant Publishing has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, alleging patent infringement.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del., claims that the online giant infringed on Cendant's '370 patent' for providing people with recommendations of goods or services to purchase based on a database of previous purchasing histories of other customers. The suit was filed Oct. 29."

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Open source's next chapter?

via CNET News.com: "Kim Polese, founder of Marimba and formerly the public face of Java for Sun Microsystems, is now back in the limelight--this time as CEO of SpikeSource, an open-source services company catering to corporate customers. And just like during the early days of the Web, Polese believes she's at the front of something big.

Talking about the future of the industry with CNET News.com, she said the combination of readily available software components, on the one hand, and the Web for collaboration on the other will usher in a golden period for the software industry."

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Richard Epstein on Why Open Source Is Unsustainable

via FT.com: "The bottom line is that idealistic communes cannot last for the long haul. The open source movement may avoid these difficulties for outside contributors who work for credit and glory. But how do the insiders, such as Linus Torvalds, cash out of the business that they built? And in the interim, how do they attract capital and personnel needed to expand the business? Traditional companies have evolved their capital structures for good reason."