October 2007 Archives

Once again, the Bush administration proves its track record of providing immunity and escape routes to those screwing up under their watch. The Associated Press reports on the routine immunity granted to private contractors that is interfering with the investigation into the killings of 17 Iraqi civilians, causing an uproar in the Iraqi government:

The immunity deals, first reported by The Associated Press, have delayed the U.S. criminal inquiry of the Sept. 16 shootings that has enraged Iraqis.

Senior law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, said the legal protections offered by the State Department could derail prosecution if investigators are unable to unearth other evidence from a crime scene now six weeks old.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi government approved draft legislation lifting immunity for foreign private security companies — one of the nation's most serious disputes with the U.S. since last month's shooting. Iraq is demanding the right to launch its own prosecution of the Blackwater bodyguards despite the company's insistence they acted in self-defense.

Initial reports and investigations have found that the attacks on the Iraqi civilians by Blackwater contractors were unprovoked and in violation of applicable Iraqi laws. The immunity deals that have been extended prevent official reports and statements from being used as evidence against the Blackwater agents involved.

The Bush administration can't seriously consider further protecting Blackwater in the face of mounting evidence pointing to the atrocities committed by Blackwater in Iraq. Blackwater's actions speak of exactly the kind of evil America has long claimed they've been fighting, and protecting these mercenaries will only further expose American hypocrisy and lead to even more resentment abroad, further helping terrorist cells in their recruitment efforts.

Ars technica reports on a decision by a federal court, extending a journalist's protections to bloggers that conduct journalism on their sites:

No US court has yet weighed in with authority on the debate about whether bloggers count as journalists, but the recent federal decision from South Carolina does indicate that at least some bloggers are journalists. It's not about the title, it's about the content, said Judge Henry Hurlong, Jr.; a journalist turns out to be anyone who does journalism, and bloggers who do so have the same rights and privileges under federal law as the "real" journalists.

With the state of the mainstream media today and the present and future of blogging as an important news source for many people, this decision is critical in protecting a blogger's rights when conducting the same business a newspaper journalist does.

More good promises from the Obama camp, this time dealing with net neutrality:

Affixing his signature to federal Net neutrality rules would be high on the list during his first year in the Oval Office, the junior senator from Illinois said during an interactive forum Monday afternoon with the popular contender put on by MTV and MySpace at Coe College in Iowa.

Net neutrality, of course, is the idea that broadband operators shouldn't be allowed to block or degrade Internet content and services--or charge content providers an extra fee for speedier delivery or more favorable placement.

Obama's endearing himself to me more and more with these announcements as of late. Net neutrality is an extremely important issue for the survival of the Internet as a whole. The existence of my own site would be threatened without it. Via boingboing.

Professor Orzel of Uncertain Principles writes on the difficulties faced by solar energy production:

As best I can reconstruct it, the argument went like this: In order to meet the energy needs of the US entirely with solar power, we would need to cover 0.2% of the land area of the United States with photovoltaic cells, roughly equal to the area of paved roads in the US. And that's using solar cells with an efficiency of 50%, not too far below the theoretical maximum for a single-layer device.

To give even more context, researchers at the moment are aiming for producing a solar panel with 20% efficiency. Even worse are the production problems faced with providing that many solar panels to feed the energy needs of the US. Solar energy just isn't economically feasible by any stretch of the imagination as an overall solution.

Wired Science reports on new ways to beat drug resistant strains of tuberculosis. The new procedures involve using a drug cocktail that weakens tuberculosis's own defences, so that antibiotics can once again attack tuberculosis directly.

I myself had a case of tuberculosis infection some years back and the threat of having a drug resistant strain was a scary prospect during the six months I had to take antibiotics. I was lucky I didn't have a drug resistant strain. Via /.

Chistopher Lock of The Heartless Machine takes the scissors confiscated by the TSA and makes them into sculptures, like the spider on the right. I really like how they look. Via boingboing.

Ars Technica has posted their review of Leopard, the new version of Mac OS X.

They give it their usual thorough review, with both geeky and non-geeky sections of the review to appeal to everyone. Their conclusions:

I started this review talking about expectations. As I've learned more about Leopard, it's become increasingly clear where, exactly, those two-and-a-half years of development time went. Leopard is absolutely packed with improvements. It seems that not a corner of the OS has gone untouched.

Perhaps that's not as clear to the casual user who just sees the surface changes and the major new features in Leopard. But even in that case, there's more than enough to recommend it. if you're wondering whether you should upgrade to Leopard, the answer, as it's been for every major revision of Mac OS X, is yes.

The result is a 17 page long review that points to some of the great under the hood improvements to Leopard casual users will miss, but developers will love (and eventually users will greatly benefit from.) Ars Technica's comprehensive reviews are pieces of writing I always enjoy reading.

AT&T is giving free access to its Wi-Fi hotspots located in an around the areas affected by the California fires. AT&T says this will allow displaced residents to more easily communicate with family and loved ones.

I'm sure this is a move designed to garner positive public attention after their earliler deplorable actions.

Valleywag reports on some terrifying behaviour perpetrated by Facebook employees, who have access to tons of private data and consider the ability to look at this user data a "job perk:"

"My friend got a call from her friend at Facebook, asking why she kept looking at his profile," says a privacy-conscious source at a major tech company. Turns out Facebook employees can (and do) check out anyone's profile. Not only that, but they also see which profiles a user has viewed -- a major privacy violation. If you've been obsessed with a workmate or classmate, Facebook employees know. If Barack Obama's intern has been using the campaign account to troll for hotties, Facebook employees know. Within the company, it's considered a job perk, and employees check this data for fun.

With its growth as a public networking community, and self professed privacy activism, Facebook needs to address these glaring privacy concerns quickly if it intends to remain in the good graces of the fickle online community.

A provocative article that lays out much of my own viewpoints on the dumbing down of the American education system, and how it's churning out a lot of children completely unequipped with an understanding of basic concepts:

He cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of television on child brain development (i.e.; any TV exposure before 6 years old and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of all the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland High. As one of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf twice a day, but never feeding it."

But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.

I'm amazed every day by how little incoming freshmen at the college I work for know - from basic scientific principles like the behaviour of forces, to how to write an analytical essay. It's ridiculous.

What do you do when you've got a great museum design for Mercedes, but those pesky fire code regulations want you to put in unsightly doors? Why, create the world's most powerful artificial tornado system to suck out all the smoke so you can avoid putting the doors in all together, of course!

Osaka police will be using rabbit shaped lights for their police vehicles, proving once again that the Japanese have completely decimated everyone when it comes to cuteness:

Discover Magazine had a contest for best two minute video explaining String Theory to the masses. The winner is very good:

Several states in New England, in conjunction with California, are set to sue the EPA and the Bush administration over stricter emissions controls in order to combat pollution:

“I believe that states have to step into a void created by a failure of federal action,” Mr. Spitzer said in an interview on Tuesday. “The global warming issue is one where the current administration has first denied the scientific evidence and only recently begun to discuss the matter in a serious way.”

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, in a statement on Tuesday, said, “New York State is moving forward on all cylinders to take aggressive action to curb global warming from both power plants and cars.”

The states filed a request to tighten emissions policies and raise penalties for offending businesses, but the EPA has been blocking their efforts thus far, stalling their response to the states' demands. Recent related cases brought to court by the states have resulted in wins for the states.

I wish the whole nation could be as aggressive in reducing emissions as these states.

Michael D. Brown, infamous for heading up FEMA during the terrible mishandling of the Katrina disaster, is offering his services to the people of San Diego with his consulting company:

"The agency has learned some hard lessons regarding the handling of mass evacuations especially in regard to the bureaucratic red tape that is involved in such a process," said Mr. Brown. "This is a tragic time for many of the people of California, and Cotton Companies is working to ensure that normalcy is restored and that businesses and organizations are back up and running as soon as possible."

Yeah. Right.

Taco Bell is at it again - they're promising a free taco to everyone in the US if a base gets stolen during the World Series. Via kottke.

Following Apple's record setting quarterly financial results, Apple's market cap has exceeded those of IBM and Intel, now making it the fourth largest computer company behind Microsoft, Google, and Cisco.

This has set off another round of "is Apple becoming the new Microsoft?" discussions on the Internet. I myself fear all this success may go to Apple's head and lead to a breakdown of its excellent customer service.

David Pogue of The New York Times has posted his review of Apple's new Leopard operating system.

According to USA Today, the US Government's terrorist watch list has grown to include 755,000 names:

The size of the list, typically used to check people entering the country through land border crossings, airports and sea ports, has been growing by 200,000 names a year since 2004.

There's absolutely no way a list with 755,000 names can in any way be effective in stopping terrorists. In fact, I'd say the fact that it is that large means the terrorists have won in that regard. It shows an utter lack of understanding from Homeland Security about who should be watched and who shouldn't. Via boingboing.

Commendable action from the Obama camp:

"To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."

This is in reference to attempts to include immunity from prosecution for the telecoms over illegal wiretapping charges under direction of the Bush Administration. I say burn 'em at the stake, and hopefully it follows right back to the administration.

Fly enough, and you become familiar with all kinds of tips and tricks to get what you want from an airline. From super cheap tickets, to free meals and flights when you get delays, this article gives you some pointers on how to get these and more:

1. Rule 240: Understanding your rights according to Rule 240 is vital. This article from Aviation.com explains the ins and outs of Rule 240, which states “that if an airline [can’t] get you to your destination on time, it [is] required to put you on a competitor’s flight if it would get you there faster than your original airline’s next flight.” Some airlines, including Delta, “no longer make any mention of transporting passengers on other airlines in the event of a flight disruption,” so it’s in every passenger’s best interest to speak up.

And for you frequent flyer mile fiends, there's FlyerTalk, a community site where people share the best ways to earn frequent flyer miles. The dedicated almost never pay for a flight.

Astronomers at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland have discovered an Earth-like planet with favourable surface temperatures (0-40C) for life.

It orbits Gliese 581 in the Libra constellation, and is a mere 20 light-years away, with a size of 1.5 Earths (does it say how much of a sci-fi geek I am that I automatically wrote "1.5 Earth norm" as the description for its size?) This is the same team that has been making other planetary discoveries (mostly gas giants due to the accuracy of available measurements) on distant solar systems. It seems their system keeps getting more and more refined.

How I missed this back when it was first published, I have no idea.

The Internet is exploding with the news: Google is rolling out free IMAP support for Gmail accounts.

Finally, I can stop deleting e-mails twice on my iPhone.

Note: it's being rolled out in stages, so if it's not under your settings page, you'll have to wait.

The FCC has begun giving out fines to retailers for selling analogue TV sets without a warning label cautioning consumers that analogue transmissions will cease in 2009:

While the fines aren't massive, they do show that the FCC takes retailer compliance with its rules seriously. Those rules, which went into effect on May 25, 2007, force any company selling analog-only TV sets to display a prominent "Consumer Alert" in "a size of type large enough to be clear, conspicuous and readily legible" that is located on the set itself or immediately adjacent to it. The Alert warns potential buyers that the set will not receive over-the-air broadcasts after February 17, 2009 without a converter box.

These warning labels are extremely important in the crossover to completely digital broadcasting, as they will help clear consumer confusion regarding TV technology. Without them, I can see consumers panicking on February 17, 2009 as their less than 2 year old set no longer works. Retailers like Best Buy are avoiding the whole fiasco by only selling digital TV sets.

I'm dreading the switchover date, as I can already predict a few phone calls heading my way asking why the TV doesn't work.

After trying for years to change its airport code to something a little less negative, Sioux City, Iowa is now embracing "SUX" in a new advertising campaign:

The code, used by pilots and airports worldwide and printed on tickets and luggage tags, will be used on T-shirts and caps sporting the airport's new slogan, "FLY SUX." It also forms the address of the airport's redesigned Web site - www.flysux.com.

I completely agree with the airport board member who proposed the idea:

"I've got buddies that I went to college with in different cities that can't even remember their own birthdays, but they all know the Sioux City designator - SUX," he said.

Making something memorable is half the battle, and if you can throw some humour in there, even better. Via boingboing.

Capitalism has wasted no time in grabbing the opportunity presented by J.K. Rowling's revelation. You can now get Dumbledore pride t-shirts, with part of the proceeds donated to GLAAD.

A federal appeals court has ruled that fantasy baseball companies do not have to pay licensing fees to use player names and statistics.

My question immediately following is: will this affect licensing fees on other companies that use player names and statistics as part of a product? For example, the video game industry pays licensing fees for the use of team logos and such, but I'm pretty sure they're charged for the use of player names and statistics as well.

Srslycool has a collection of colour WW1 photos:

Little is known about each individual photo, they are believed to be digitally coloured. During WW1 colour photography was in it's infancy, pioneered by photographer Jean-Baptiste Tournassoud using Autochrome plates invented by the Lumiere brothers. These photos are either digitally remastered or works by Tournassoud.

It's always amazing to see photos from this period in colour.

Kotaku has a feature on the US Library of Congress's efforts to preserve video games as part of their collection:

The fact of the matter is, according to The Library of Congress, video games are just as important to our historical past as literature, movies and music. And at the moment, the LoC is teaming up with major universities across the country to begin a 2-year initiative with the sole intent of figuring out just how institutions can preserve video games for years to come, while making the content accessible for use and study.

So our story today doesn't present some artificial controversy ending in a sad, bleak future of debate and wasted efforts. Our story today is about the very real victory for game developers, enthusiasts and scholars, in which the top library in the nation has said they're part of this video game fad for the count.

There's some good analysis on the difficulties that arise when attempting to archive video games, from hardware preservation to copyright issues, much like the problems faced by The Library of Congress when the film archive first began.

I've added a new feature to theInput.net: the ability to subscribe to comment threads. This will allow any commenter on an entry to receive an e-mail anytime someone else comments on that entry, making it easier to keep up with conversations on the site.

In order to subscribe to the comments on an entry, just make sure the box labeled "Receive email notification of further comments" is checked when you submit a comment, and that you have provided an e-mail so that you can be reached. To unsubscribe, merely uncheck the box next time you make a comment on that entry.

USA Today writes regarding a leaked TSA document that details efforts to improve screener success rates at airports:

At San Francisco, "everybody realizes they are under scrutiny, being watched and tested constantly," said Gerald Berry, president of Covenant Aviation Security, which hires and manages the San Francisco screeners. San Francisco is one of eight airports, most of them small, where screeners work for a private company instead of the TSA. The idea for constant testing came from Ed Gomez, TSA security director at San Francisco, Berry said. The tests often involve an undercover person putting a bag with a fake bomb on an X-ray machine belt, he said.

Constant covert testing in order to improve checkpoint screening is something I can get behind - it's part of the testing methodology that raises a problem:

At San Diego International Airport, tests are run by passengers whom local TSA managers ask to carry a fake bomb, said screener Cris Soulia, an official in a screeners union. "It's nobody we would ever expect," Soulia said.

So let me understand here... You go up to a random passenger, identify yourself as a TSA official and ask them if they could please carry a fake bomb through a security checkpoint to help you out?

If someone did that I'd immediately turn them in to the nearest security officer. If anyone accepted the offer, then that in itself would be a security hole. Whatever happened to "don't accept packages from strangers to take onboard"? Testing security holes by asking people to carry packages accepted from strangers is most certainly not a way to strengthen your own security. How hard is it to get an actual TSA official to dress like a common traveller and conduct the covert test that way?

The world of Harry Potter fan fiction just got a little bit of a treat. J.K Rowling outed character Albus Dumbledore as gay on Friday after a reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Rowling goes on to take another jab at the Christian right, which has been vocally critical of her books.

Thank you to everyone that pointed out this story to me.

David Pogue writes on what he finds completely illogical about the tech industry - the questions no one seems to know the answer to, or will not answer for unnamed reasons:

* Who are the morons who respond to junk-mail offers, thereby keeping spammers in business?

* Why do you have to take tape camcorders out of your carry-on at airport security, but not the tapeless kind? Couldn’t you hide a bomb equally well in either one? (Actually, I have about 500 more logic questions about the rules at airport security, but I have a feeling they’ll remain answerless for a very long time.)

* Why don’t public sinks have foot pedals?

I used to wonder about the junk-mail question myself until my very own friend, whom I had pegged as a more tech-savvy individual, called me in panic after clicking on a phishing e-mail wondering what would happen to his computer. Suffice it to say I was disappointed but tried to offer the help I could over the phone.

Cute Overload is a permanent member of my daily bookmark rounds due to its ability to induce an "aww!" from me no matter how bad a day I'm having.

Today they bring a parrot actually dancing to the Backstreet Boys. I almost can't take this much cute:

Due to the fall in the value of the US Dollar against the Canadian Dollar, Sony has now lowered the price of all PS3 models and PlayStation Network downloads to match US pricing.

There's no mention of game pricing being lowered as well. Now we'll have to wait and see if Nintendo and Microsoft will follow suit.

A wonderful documentary regarding accents across the British isles. This tickles the linguist inside of me - I've amazed people with my own rendition of a trip across Britain using the accents found there. Great for parties.

At around 3:20 you'll hear a wonderful sampling of the different accents found in Britain, but it's definitely worth watching the whole documentary. Via kottke.

The radar reports that due to Stephen Colbert running his own television show and using it to campaign, he could be breaking FEC regulations:

An expert with experience in several prominent Republican campaigns says it looks like Colbert's getting a corporate contribution from his Report in the form of air time and production costs—that's prohibited by the Federal Election Commissions Act. "It's something that I could see people raising," said the former strategist. "If I was running against Colbert, I would raise this as a campaign issue."

I was wondering how soon this would show up. I was thinking the same thing when he announced his intention to run in South Carolina.

Found scribbled on the sidewalk at Yale by Flickr user Ezra.

A delightfully geeky article on the calculus involved in determining the right time to say "I Love You:"

The Engineer, delightful and rational fellow that he is, made it clear that he would not be saying “I love you” until he was sure. Otherwise, he might waste this very important statement by saying it too early in the relationship, when his love was still growing rapidly, thereby taking away the significance in later weeks/months when his love was much, much greater.

Judy, obviously disappointed by this response, pressed and asked WHEN exactly that would be. His response: when dLove/dt = zero.

The article goes on to analyse his statement in humour akin to the brilliant XKCD. Thanks for the link, Clarke.

The man described as the "Willy Wonka" of Britain's chocolatiers has resigned after engaging in an "act of truffle-squishing" in a rival store.

A statement from Hotel Chocolat said: "This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it."

I very much enjoy stories like these - the ones that make me laugh from their utter ridiculousness. Via boingboing.

In more Apple news today, Steve Jobs wrote on the Hot News page at the Apple website that Apple will be releasing a true SDK for the iPhone/iPod Touch to allow 3rd party developers to make native applications starting February of next year.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Seems they'll go with a certification process like most of the rumour sites have been predicting, in which 3rd party developers will submit their apps to Apple for approval before they'll be able to install on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

In case you missed it, Apple has lowered the price of their DRM free iTunes Plus songs to match their normal DRM'd song price - $.99. From their press release:

Apple® today announced that it has expanded its iTunes® Plus offering to over two million tracks and lowered the price of all iTunes Plus tracks to just 99 cents. All iTunes Plus tracks feature DRM-free music with high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings (www.itunes.com). The iTunes Plus catalog is now the largest DRM-free catalog in the world, and includes artists from Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, The Orchard and many others, along with EMI’s digital catalog.

No doubt the move was fueled due to competition from Amazon's recently launched and popular DRM free music store, which also offers songs at less than $1 each.

Due to a claim filed by a third party, the USPTO has rejected a broad swath of Amazon's one-click patent:

In its Office Action released 9 October 2007, the Patent Office found that the prior art I found and submitted completely anticipated the broadest claims of the patent, U.S. Patent No. 5,960,411.

I had only requested the USPTO look at claims 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21 and 22 but the Office Action rejects claims 11-26 and claims 1-5 as well!

Via boingboing.

Doris Lessing, having recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature, had some great choice quotes to say regarding the honour:

Oh Christ! ... I couldn't care less...

I'm 88 years old and they can't give the Nobel to someone who's dead, so I think they were probably thinking they'd probably better give it to me now before I've popped off...

I'm already thinking about all the people who are going to send me begging letters. I can see them lining up now.

She sounds like exactly the kind of cynical old woman I would love to have a cup of tea with. Via kottke.org.

An animated map showing religious conflict over the last 5000 years.

I found the natural and more artificial means of growth of the different religions interesting.

I was reading kotaku in the last couple of days and found an entry by Brian Ashcraft detailing his experiences with Japanese burial customs in the death of his grandmother-in-law.

Shortly after, I stumbled upon this link detailing another more in-depth account of Japanese burial customs.

If you've ever wondered why it's taboo to eat with mismatched chopsticks, or love Japanese culture like I do, then they're quite an interesting read.

Serious eats had the wonderful Mario Batali come and share his thoughts on how to perfectly apply sauce to a bowl of pasta:

A sauce should just cling to the noodle, very much like salad dressing to a perfectly dressed salad. That is to say there's nothing at the bottom...

Americans overdress their pasta 99.8% of the time.

A provoking picture set of the lifestyles of American vagabonds.

Some of these have almost a charm to them, I must admit. A little bit of bohemia.

A neat infographic showing that Wal-Mart has more square footage than the whole of the island of Manhattan. Via kottke.org

Some advice for anyone intending on moving to Texas. Some of my favourites:

3. If you do run your car into a ditch, don't panic. Four men in the cab of a four wheel drive with a 12-pack of beer and a tow chain will be along shortly. Don't try to help them. Just stay out of their way. This is what they live for.

5. Remember: "Y'all" is singular. "All y'all" is plural. "All y'all's" is plural possessive.

26. BBQ is a food group. It does NOT mean grilling burgers and hot dogs outdoors.

Having lived in Texas for many years, I can personally attest to these.

A beautiful panorama of the sun as it traverses the sky.

The winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize have been announced: Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change

As pointed out by Prof. Orzel of Uncertain Principles, it is traditional for American recipients of the Nobel Prize to be invited to the White House for dinner. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that festival of awkward.