bold = Stefanie's

from the please-explain-why? dept

Every time you think that the tide is turning and people are beginning to realize the ridiculousness of overly burdensome IP laws, some politicians start doing the dirty work of Hollywood's worst lobbyists. The latest may be the most ridiculous yet -- though, it certainly wasn't unexpected.

Remember how NBC Universal execs started whining about how law enforcement's priorities were all screwed up, since they were focused on pointless things like burglary and bankrobbing rather than copyright violations? That was merely the starting point in a lobbying campaign for the new PRO IP (Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act) bill that has been introduced with backing of both top Republicans and Democrats.

As the bill's not particularly subtle name makes clear, this law is all about giving Hollywood much of what it has been asking for. Rather than decreasing the ridiculous fines that can be handed out for copyright infringement, this law would increase them. But, more importantly, it sets up a brand new gov't agency within the executive branch to help crack down on "piracy." This despite increasing evidence that "piracy" isn't a problem for the economy at all -- but rather a problem for a few big companies with obsolete business models (who just happen to have tremendous lobbying clout) who are too lazy to even bother trying to adapt to a changing market place.

This bill isn't just corporate welfare. It would be creating an entire government agency whose sole job it would be to protect the unnecessary and obsolete business model of a few dying companies while stifling innovative tools and services at every turn. It would help to kill off our creative industries by falsely assuming that creativity needs to be funneled through a few big companies. It's a disgusting travesty of the political process.

Bipartisan PRO IP Bill Turns White House Into Hollywood's Private Enforcement Agency

Microsoft announced Thursday it has released the first beta of its Hyper-V server virtualization hypervisor, previously codenamed "Viridian." It wasn't expected until early next year. The first beta release runs on the x64 version of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition. Microsoft released pre-beta code in the form of a community technology preview, or CTP, for what's now known as Hyper-V in September.

Each VM can also support up to four virtual SCSI drives and 64GB of memory per VM, according to company statements. Additionally, beta integration components are available for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 x86 and x64 Edition.

Microsoft’s Hyper-V Beta Arrives Early

Another cool toy...

Welcome to Celestia... The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

It's similar to Stellarium, which Jello mentioned back in September.

EDIT: ...and apparently, possibly noteworthy linked this site back in May (before my time). Still, it's worth mentioning again. :)

Celestia

British defense researchers have invented an invisible tank — or at least a way to make a tank invisible. London's Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Sun all report on tests conducted by the Ministry of Defence last week in which a tank rolled across a field, completely invisible to observers standing at a certain point.

"This technology is incredible," an unnamed soldier was quoted by the Daily Mail and Sun. "If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees — but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."

Before bloggers start making comparisons to Harry Potter and Romulan spacecraft, it must be noted that the "technology" relies on heavy use of camera and projectors. Basically, a camera films the background, which is then projected upon a special surface applied to something in the foreground — in this case, a tank.

A Japanese guy in a translucent raincoat has become very popular on YouTube demonstrating something similar, as you can see here.

One person was willing to go on the record in all three British newspaper stories — theoretical physicist Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London, one of the world's leading experts on surface reflectivity and lead author of a widely reported paper last year that said a "cloak of invisibility" would theoretically be possible.

"The drawback at the moment is the dependence upon cameras and projectors," the Sun quoted Pendry, who did not confirm an implied connection with the defense project. "The next stage is to make the tank invisible without them — which is intricate and complicated, but possible."

My initial reaction was "Cool!" ...until I realized that traffic cops eventually will be using this technology for speed traps. :(

British Defense Researchers Create Invisible Tank

The rest of the article isn't very funny, but this line (regarding the iPhone) gets my vote for quote of the year.

If I'm going to pay $300 for a telephone, it better be a really nice phone... strapped to $275.

Slow Down, Technology!

If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content.

The principle of equal treatment of traffic, called "net neutrality" by proponents, is not enshrined in law but supported by some regulations. Most of the debate around the issue has centered on tentative plans, now postponed, by large Internet carriers to offer preferential treatment of traffic from certain content providers for a fee.

Comcast Hinders Customers' Internet Traffic

PCMAG.com
October 15, 2007
by John C. Dvorak

I mention this only because over the weekend, Uncle Dave posted a rant on my blog by longtime network admin Marc Perkel. He went off on MySQL, Linux, and much of the open-source philosophy. You can read it here. I wasn't surprised that the number of comments immediately rose to over 100. But I was a little surprised at the sheer number of comments that featured that same peculiar whining you'd hear a decade or more ago, when you said something critical about the Amiga.

Among the comments in response to Marc Perkel's rant...

Comment 18.

This is just like arguing over Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge…

the people who are interested in what is going-on under the hood - and like to tinker with the internals - probably love linux & gnu.

the people who just want the damn thing to run - and could give a shit about what is under the hood - are left with the choice of windows or mac.

One side or the other claiming superiority is pointless.

Comment by Mike Voice — 10/14/2007 @ 9:49 am

Comment 20.

Dodge?

Comment by John C Dvorak — 10/14/2007 @ 9:54 am

LOL!

What's Wrong with Open-Source Software?

"My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience.

At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, "but once you have a story like 'I had sex with a robot, and it was great!' appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I'd expect many people to jump on the bandwagon," Levy said.

"Geeky"? So, if you show up for PhreakNIC 54 with your robotic other, do you have to pay two registration fees?

EDIT: Oops, Shannon had already posted the story, here. -Stef

Forecast: Sex and Marriage With Robots by 2050

Nothing special here... it's just nice to see an article about Open Office posted on a mainstream news website.

Review: OpenOffice.org Is Powerful, Free, and Kind of Dull

"Elk Cloner" — self-replicating like all other viruses — bears little resemblance to the malicious programs of today. Yet in retrospect, it was a harbinger of all the security headaches that would only grow as more people got computers — and connected them with one another over the Internet.

Hacker Marks 25th Anniversary of First Computer Virus