Well that's good. Fantastic. That gives us 20 minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut!
Saturday, September 13
Scarcity Abounds
I may be somewhat scarce on mu.nu this weekend - I have books to read, programs to write, presents to buy, parties to attend (yay!) - so there will be bloggage after, but perhaps not so much bloggage during.
In the meantime, why is it taking so darn long to grep this file? It's only, um, five gigabytes. It's not like it's particularly big or anything...
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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1
Nothing like an abundance of scarcity to pique interest....
Posted by: Susie at Saturday, September 13 2003 11:17 AM (SM1Wt)
2
One would think that an abundance of scarcity would pique indifference - but then what does one know?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Saturday, September 13 2003 11:25 AM (jtW2s)
3
Ah! but people love a mystery....
Posted by: Susie at Saturday, September 13 2003 11:40 AM (SM1Wt)
Posted by: Ted at Saturday, September 13 2003 12:27 PM (bov8n)
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Friday, September 12
Europe
I'm having a discussion elsewhere with a gentleman from a European country which I will not name. Here's a snippet - my comments are in plain text, his in italics):
The way I look at it, is this: the concept of democracy has a number of elements which we can use to ascertain the degree of democracy. The GDR was a socalled "peoples democracy" which in our definition was not a democracy.
Yes, this is known as "a lie".
Another interpretation is not necessarily a lie.
This is not "another interpretation". Calling East Germany a democracy is a lie. There's no complication here, it is simply and entirely untrue.
From our point of view it is a lie, not from theirs. Why would our truth be more true than that of others? Because we have proven it to be so because the wall fell?
And here we get to the crux of the problem, the post-modernist fallacy that all points of view are equally valid.
Words have meaning. "Democracy" has a meaning. East Germany was not a democracy. This is a fact. They called it a democracy, therefore they lied. This is also a fact.
In fact, they knew damn well that it wasn't a democracy and the whole thing was a sham from the beginning.
Some people just don't get it.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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This "words have meanings" problem seems to be a recurring theme among certain ( liberal) groups of thinkers. It goes hand in hand with moral relativism, especially when they things like "What the U.S. did in Afghanistan was terrorism." No. Terrorism has a specific meaning.
Posted by: Daniel at Friday, September 12 2003 08:58 AM (Oc6V9)
2
Exactly. Though I take exception to this use of a perfectly good word (liberal) when we have a much more specific term (left-wing nutcases). Also with your use of the word "thinkers".
This particular individual might not have the full disease, and might respond to a treatment of facts and differing opinions. He is at least polite. :)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, September 12 2003 09:10 AM (jtW2s)
3
This explains the invention of the Cluebat™.
Posted by: Susie at Friday, September 12 2003 01:53 PM (SM1Wt)
Posted by: Ted at Saturday, September 13 2003 07:51 AM (bov8n)
5
Where do words get their definitions?
Posted by: Ron at Wednesday, September 17 2003 05:53 PM (sEgIW)
6
At the Meaning Shop. They're having a sale right now - buy two meanings, get a free conjugation.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, September 17 2003 08:07 PM (jtW2s)
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Thursday, September 11
September 11
It is September 11 where I am, and likely will be for you by the time you read this. I really can't do the topic justice, so I suggest you all visit
Voices at
A Small Victory to read people who can.
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Mr. Green, Jennifer and Blackfive also have excellent 9/11 posts.
Posted by: Susie at Friday, September 12 2003 01:54 PM (SM1Wt)
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Shitferrets Are Us
SilverBlue is
not happy with the shitferrets* at the RIAA.
Not happy at all.
* In one post I used the term shitweasels to refer to the senior management at SCO, and received an irate comment from a shitweasel complaining that I had unfairly maligned shitweasels the world over. Hence the neologism.
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1
Hmm...both my pings to him timed out, as did yours..you think they bumped into each other in cyberspace and bounced back?
Posted by: Susie at Thursday, September 11 2003 12:13 PM (SM1Wt)
2
Good thing they didn't cancel out!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, September 11 2003 12:16 PM (jtW2s)
3
You ponged him!!!!! SO did Jennifer! LOL!
I'm usually the one who does that!
Posted by: Susie at Thursday, September 11 2003 12:17 PM (SM1Wt)
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Bloggers Under Glass
N.Z. Bear has a particularly fine collection of bloggers in this week's
New Weblog Showcase.
Jerry McCusker of Machine in the Ghost ponders the question of what things would be like If Americans Ran the Afterlife, and suggests that Purgatory could be run at a profit.
Open Source Software Law has a background article on SCO vs. IBM, but they lose points for failing to use the word "shitferret".
Virtue Pure (sounds like a bottled-water company) muses on the value of role-playing, and suggests that playing Dungeons and Dragons may in fact lead us to better understand other people.
And if that fails, we can zap them with Leomund's Lamentable Belabourment. That'll teach them.
Aaron at Pardon my English suggests that giving drivers licenses to illegal immigrants may not be the smartest move.
Iocean at Inspiranote returns to an essay written shortly after the September 11 attacks. This is warm fuzzy new-age stuff, unfortunately, and not for me at all.
Eye on the Left picks up on some unusually insane ramblings. The post consists almost entirely of the quoted insanity, which confused me a little when I read it reformatted on the Bear's site.
Brainstorming spotted James Dean keeping an eye on holiday traffic and stopped to take pictures.
I couldn't find the selected post from Like a Packet of Woodbines, but this picture is a classic.
And Jim at Snooze Button Dreams wonders why he can't be gay.
So, who are my picks?
Brainstorming, because, well, that's cool and funny.
Snooze Button Dreams because it's funny and insightful, and because I have an addiction to the snooze button myself.
And Pardon my English, because sometimes irony will not do and you just have to cut loose with a rant.
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Posted by: Jennifer at Thursday, September 11 2003 11:50 AM (rZmE1)
2
Thank you!
I'm still not getting links to ambientirony.mu.nu counted :( I think I know why, and I left a little note for Mr Bear, who perhaps can look into it.
So in the mean time I'll just have to link to everyone else!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, September 11 2003 11:52 AM (jtW2s)
3
I can't find the correct post at Snooze Buttons Dreams...stupid bogsplot!
Posted by: Susie at Thursday, September 11 2003 12:20 PM (SM1Wt)
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Stupid Blogspot! Hey! :)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, September 11 2003 12:24 PM (jtW2s)
5
Hi Pixy,
Wait until they hear that you were my first, uh....trackback that is. I had been meaning to find out what that "trackback" button actually did, but I think I get it now! (You might have picked up on the fact that having a blog is a real new experience for me.....lol.)
I like the design of your site, clean and easy on the eyes. It looks like you're in Australia? I plan on adding a list of bloggers around the world.
Nice to meet you and a sincere thanks for being the first to link to a post in brainstorming!
DC
Posted by: DC at Thursday, September 11 2003 06:22 PM (hXV8K)
6
thanks for voting in the New Blog Showcase.... there is an angry blogger, however, that is critical of your multiple votes for certain entries (curi.blogspot.com). This person has also made a mockery of the democratic process by casting 25+ votes for another entry in an attempt to bring up VirtuePure's vote count.
Posted by: Aaron at Sunday, September 14 2003 01:46 PM (P3ldy)
7
There is always an angry blogger. It's one of the Laws of the Net. (Another law is that any forum will contain at least one crazed lefty.)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sunday, September 14 2003 02:41 PM (jtW2s)
8
Well, the link whore won the showcase.... he had 6 separate bloggers vote for his entry TWICE, and they dind't do what you did, and vote for everyone once, and their own personal votes a second time...
Whatever happened to fair play?
Oh well... life goes on.
Posted by: Aaron at Tuesday, September 16 2003 09:58 AM (P3ldy)
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Wednesday, September 10
Feces-Flinging DRM
Feces Flinging Monkey (no,
not Ethel, a different one) has a
rather depressing look at digital rights management (DRM) and how it will destroy civilisation.
What he fails to consider is that all DRM is ultimately doomed for the simple reason that DRM is digital and humans are analogue. Can't rip an MP3 of that song? Play it back and record it again. So you lose a little quality. Can't cut-and-paste that article from the New York Times? Well, you can read it, yes? You can type, yes?
And so on. Which doesn't mean that the DRM-types aren't evil - they are evil, no question - just that DRM isn't going to bring about the heat death of the universe.
That's my job.
I would have left a comment at the Monkey's blog, but his comments don't work right now. Funny how that happens to the not-Munuvians.
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Um, how come you have a "more" link but there's no more?
Can I help "bring about the heat death of the universe" in my capacity as Linkmistress of Chaos?
Dang, now I'm going to be late for work! :(
Posted by: Susie at Wednesday, September 10 2003 03:22 PM (SM1Wt)
2
There's more, you just can't get to it... Now there's a bug if ever I saw one. Or at least a misfeature.
Run, Susie, run!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, September 10 2003 09:20 PM (jtW2s)
3
Hi...it's me. Thank you for inviting me to get off Blogsplat and into the real world. Just tell me what I need to do...and, bear in mind that I am a computer-illiterate blonde. I can't even fix my stupid template. Linking from Blogspot gives me pin-point bleeds in my brain. I downloaded MT once and didn't get anywhere with it. Of course, at the time I was using a computer that was at least 10 years old. I'd like to try it again.
Honestly, I'm starting to feel like a blog on blogspot is like cubic zirconia. Pretty, but not real. Besides, in the not-too-distant-future, I fear there'll only be me and a few crickets left at blogspot.
In case it doesn't show up for you and you need it, my email address is srv200163 at Yahoo dot com.
Thank you again and I sincerely hope my ineptitude doesn't make you regret this...
(I gotta go warn Ted that I'm probably gonna need his help with this.)
Posted by: Stevie at Thursday, September 11 2003 01:14 AM (AJ0RC)
4
The "play it and record it again" trick is called "the analog hole" by the recording industry. DRM is specifically designed to deal with this.
It works like this: you get your music and play it, re-record it, write a nice unprotected MP3... and nobody can listen to your new MP3, because DRM machines won't play media that doesn't have a DRM authorization. Obviously, if they did allow old MP3s to play, the analog hole would remain open and the entire system would quickly implode, just as you described.
A full-bore DRM machine will not run unauthorised programs. Authorised programs will not open unauthorised media. That's how it works.
Sorry...
Posted by: Mike Spenis at Thursday, September 11 2003 10:39 PM (43gaF)
5
Good point. So either (a) we need to fake DRM (which will be illegal, if it isn't already) or (b) we need to keep our old machines that actually work.
Mind you, a full-strength universal DRM requires a level of totalitarian government and big-business control that is utterly terrifying far beyond the mere inability to play music when we want to.
As I said, the backers of DRM are evil. I wasn't engaging in hyperbole - these people want to control your thoughts. Literally. I think you at least realise that.
This needs more though than I can give it right now. I'll come back to it soon.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, September 11 2003 10:47 PM (jtW2s)
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So either (a) we need to fake DRM (which will be illegal, if it isn't already) or (b) we need to keep our old machines that actually work.
Faking DRM is pretty hard - the core of it uses something called public key encryption, which, if properly implemented, is essentially unbreakable. The implementation will certainly have some flaws which could be exploited, but as those flaws are discovered, they would be fixed. Eventually, it would not be practical to fake it out.
Older machines (or, for that matter, Linux machines) will serve you well until they are no longer able to connect to the internet. In my opinion, DRM will eventually be required by the ISPs before they let you on. You could still play your own music files, but you would no longer be able to trade them.
Posted by: Mike Spenis at Friday, September 12 2003 09:53 AM (3bPQJ)
7
We need a common blog for this :)
As you say, DRM builds on public key encryption. But that in itself is not enough. With public key encryption, you can do one of two things: encrypt something with someones public key so that only they can read it, or encrypt something with your own private key so that others can verify that it came from you.
Now, where are these keys going to come from? People can't be allowed to make their own, as they'll just share them when they need to share files. And you'd have to rely on people keeping and never losing their key. It would be a nightmare for the media companies.
No, it's going to be implemented in hardware like DVD region codes, and kept as a trade secret. (Patents won't work - though aspects of it will be patented. Copyright is completely useless.)
So every machine that can play digital media - everything from watches to phones to cars to fridges - has to be replaced with a DRM-locked version. And that trade secret has to remain secure and unhacked or the whole thing is screwed.
As for the analog hole: The only way to block it is to take away - forever - many things that people can do right now and indeed have been able to do for years, things that are taken as very basic functionality in a huge variety of devices. Rather than preventing people releasing their own DRM'd stuff copied through the analog hole, they could instead track this - if they had a global registry of every DRM-capable recording device and who owned each one.
As I said before, the really scary part is not DRM itself, but the level of legislation and policing required to make it leakproof. George Orwell was a piker compared to these guys.
tom beta 2's point on opponents is a good one: China and Taiwan and many developing countries have a rather relaxed view of copyright laws and would love to build a profitable industry selling DRM circumvention devices.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Friday, September 12 2003 10:16 AM (jtW2s)
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We need a common blog for this
Aw, what the heck. It's easy to cut-and-paste.
You made a good point about embedded keys. I don't know exactly how DRM would address this problem. If they do embed keys, they are going to have to deal, somehow, with these keys being uncovered.
As I understand it, users have keys, too. They are tied to your name and credit card, and are used to originally purchace the copyrighted work. If you trade away your key, your name and card go with it...
WRT overseas competition, that goes away as soon as DRM becomes part of the law. Just as nobody tries to sell radios that aren't FCC compliant, nobody will try to sell non-DRM hardware, either. Even if they did, it, like the older hardware, would probably be excluded from the internet anyway.
Posted by: Mike Spenis at Friday, September 12 2003 01:11 PM (W64Mu)
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When You Care Enough
Darl McBride, Chief Shitferret at SCO (member of the Axis of Bloody Nuisances), has posted an
open letter to the Open Source Community. Not surprisingly, the letter is filled with mistruths and untruths and has generated appropriate levels of flamage at sites like
Slashdot.
There's also a feedback feature at LinuxWorld's site, where the letter is posted. This is what came up when I stopped by:
127 feedback items so far - last one posted 9 September 2003 12:08 PM
* Aaron Graves commented ...
Open Letter from Aaron Graves to SCO:
Dear Mr. McBride;
Go fuck yourself.
Sincerely,
Aaron Graves
That sums up the mood of the Open Source Community nicely.
Meanwhile, fellow Axis of Bloody Nuisances member the RIAA has taken to filing lawsuits against twelve-year-old girls. Nice move, public-relations-wise.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL? They really are idiots. That just makes me so angry. Thanks for bringing this article to my attention.
Posted by: Wanderer at Wednesday, September 10 2003 04:05 PM (hnF59)
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I love that term: shitferret. I've long been searching for a catch-all word to sum up my exes.
And the post was very informative too.
Thanks. :)
Posted by: LeeAnn at Wednesday, September 10 2003 05:42 PM (HxCeX)
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Tuesday, September 09
Mister Green
A very warm Munuvian welcome for [
Who is it this time, Susie? Right, thanks.]
Mister Green. Mister Green is the product of early bioengineering experiments conducted on [
What's that? Oh. Right, I see.]
Mister Green is
not the product of early bioengineering experiments, and in fact comes certified 100% natural ingredients.
Snap! Crackle! Mister Green!
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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Pixy, if your surname is Misa, do you have any idea where your family originates from? I am researching a Misa family from Spain. Buenventura Pablo Misa's to be exact.
Posted by: Rosie at Tuesday, September 09 2003 01:02 PM (e4Uwn)
2
Sorry, Rosie. I borrowed the name from a Japanese cartoon character. My real surname is Polish.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, September 09 2003 01:09 PM (jtW2s)
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Monday, September 08
This Comes As No Surprise
To anyone who knows me:
My inner child is six years old!
Look what I can do! I can walk, I can run, I can
read! I like to do stuff, and there's a whole
big world out there to do it in. Just so long
as I can take my blankie and my Mommy and my
three best friends with me, of course.
How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla
Where the heck
is my blankie, anyway?
(Thanks to Cherry)
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Posted by: Cherry at Tuesday, September 09 2003 12:00 AM (i7dMY)
2
I think your blankie is in the fort with Teddy and Gerry the Giraffe....
Posted by: Susie at Tuesday, September 09 2003 01:54 AM (SM1Wt)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, September 09 2003 01:56 AM (LBXBY)
4
I'm in the fort? Dang, I'm supposed to be at work!
Posted by: Ted at Tuesday, September 09 2003 08:10 AM (Qj620)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tuesday, September 09 2003 11:15 AM (jtW2s)
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Daniel Moore
Another new Munuvian! This time it's
Daniel Moore, nanotechnology researcher and all-round good guy. By curious coincidence, not long before joining us here he discovered this:
The Japanese have a word alleged, by Douglas Hofstadter - writer of this great book I read in AP US History forever ago called American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It, to mean "Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions." I recently had a long discussion with a friend in which my answers were based on how I can't answer her questions because of the underlying assumptions to her argument that I didn't buy into and I didn't want to validate them. I could have just used this word. It is pronouced "moo" like the cow noise and is unfortunately transliterated to "mu" (unfortunate because it only supports people mispronouncing the Greek letter with the same transliteration).
My mother gave me Hofstadter's
Gödel, Escher, Bach for Christmas when I was 16, which led (via a tortuous path) to this very web site.
mu.
nu: The only way I could have packed more meaning into a domain name would have been to call it cat.dog... And there's no .dog TLD, so that's out anyway.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at
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I had read that "mu" thing in
the Illuminati Trilogy instead of Hofstadter (probably came from him very indirectly, as Wilson et al got it from the Discordians, and the Discordians probably ripped it off from Hofstadter himself). This
definition takes issue with his claim, and suggests that it's a (possibly deliberate) misunderstanding of a famous Zen koan.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Tuesday, September 09 2003 07:10 PM (tVSJJ)
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