BLOGical Thoughts

The SuSE Linux software repository doesn’t seem to have the width or depth that the Ubuntu repository has. I have unsuccessfully tried to find several programs in SuSE that were readily available in Ubuntu. These are programs I use all the time, but they don’t seem to be available for SuSE. My decision to not switch back to SuSE remains.

I downloaded the latest version of Mepis Linux (7.0), verified the download and burned a CD. The CD will not run correctly - I end up at a command line prompt. I will try this on another machine. If that doesn’t work, I will burn another CD on another machine. I really would like to see what the latest Mepis looks like, but this is discouraging.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• IBM teams with Linux firms for Microsoft-free PCs
• Lightweight GNOME alternative emerges
• Record your desktop with Linux tools
• 5 Known Office Suites for Linux
• Ubuntu gets into unified comms, chides Microsoft
• What chance the Microsoft-free desktop in the real world?

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• Dear MPAA: DRM Is Not A Requirement For Releasing Movies
• Piracy could put film industry out of business, warns group - Didn’t they say the same thing about the VHS recorder?
• 2 IP addresses, 40 matches: Tufts tries to cut RIAA driftnet
• FCC right to tell Comcast: Hands off
• RIAA goes after Michigan State University coach
• Sorry, no-can-do, says Tufts

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• U.S. patent office to revisit Dell’s ‘cloud computing’ trademark
• SiRF asks for patent re-examination
• Intellectual Property and Open Source
• The mouse that bit Microsoft
• Wanted: Political Candidates, Must Hate Software Patents

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• DNS Flaw Underscores Dangers of Assumptions in Internet Security
• Internet flaw a boon to hackers
• TSA to Allow Laptops in Approved Bags
• U.K.: Top Jock cop calls for universal DNA database
• Electronic Privacy Rights Gone in a Millisecond
• Hacking electronic-toll systems
• U.K.: ‘Fakeproof’ e-passport is cloned in minutes

Other News/Public Stupidity

• BitTorrent Fires 20% of Its Employees
• Net shoppers bullied into being Verified by Visa
• Nissan Motor unveils new prototype electric car
• Another Police Raid; More Dead Dogs

The way to get KDE 4.1 in SuSE 11.0 back to the classical menu style is to right-click on the start menu. There is a menu entry there that will allow you to select the old menu style. My thanks to Sean for pointing this out to me.

Here is a list of the things I have done at work in the past year. Each completed software project includes unit testing and bug fixing.

• Wrote customer assets management program in Delphi to maintain a SQL Server database of information about customers.
• Wrote a program in Delphi to allow limited access to the customer assets database. Our Support people require this to supply passwords to customers.
• Wrote a Windows service in C# to audit SQL Server database actions, locally or remotely, for as many databases as there is memory to support.
• Wrote a Windows program in C# to help configure and test the configuration for the Windows service.
• Modified Bugzilla Perl code so that when a new bug is entered, that information is also entered as a Defect in VersionOne.
• Wrote many tools in XML to process log information from various sources.
• Wrote many log readers in Java to read log files or database information and present it to the log tools.
• Wrote a Windows DLL in C to allow information from a program deployment to be displayed in McAfee’s ePO dashboard.
• Modified shell script programs for Linux, HP-UX, AIX and Solaris that start and stop a java agent that monitors those O/Ses.
• Tested the Tool Configuration section of the main application to verify it was ready to be deleivered to our customers.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• IBM’s Ubuntu deal favors the server
• IBM, Linux Dealers Seize Chance to Market ‘Microsoft-Free’ Desktop
• Fixing Linux, Part One: “The Space Between”
• Five Things Linus Torvalds Has Learned About Managing Software Projects
• FOSS app eases the pain for San Diego community clinic
• A Penguin with an Egg: Growing the Open-Source Community

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• University wants cease-and-desist order for MediaSentry
• A Lot More At Stake In TorrentSpy vs. MPAA Email Snooping Lawsuit
• Lawsuit Seen After FCC’s Comcast Ruling
• Cablevision and Customers Prevail over MPAA in Appeals Court
• The tide ebbs on RIAA, MPAA ‘reign of terror’

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Google Sued For Patent Infringement For Keeping Track Of How Many Ads People Click On
• Lawyer Points Out That Simultaneous Invention Can Get Patents Tossed
• Qualcomm Asks Appeals Court To Restore Patent Rights

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• TSA Loses Laptops With ‘Verified’ Flyer Details
• Twitter Trojan targets tossers
• DOJ, Secret Service Move Against International Hacker, ID Theft Ring
• File Keepers
• Feds fight biggest identity theft in history
• Laptop bags get security rethink

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Police And Newspaper Say The Internet Turned 10,000 Australian Kids On To Crime
• Apple sued for indentured servitude
• California state computers can’t handle pay cut, controller says - COBOL strikes again…
• 10 Green Concept Cars That Are Waaaaay Out There
• We use how much gas?

This month I am celebrating the one year anniversary of working at that network security company in Post Falls. I will be making a list of the projects and languages I have used in the past year while performing my job. I was going to include it this morning, but I want to make sure it is as comprehensive as I can make it. I think you will be surprised at the variety of things I have done. I know I am.

The monthly meeting of the North Idaho Linux Users Group will be held this Saturday. I missed last month’s meeting because of a Dutch oven event, so I am looking forward to this month’s meeting. One of the things we will be doing is discussing our participation in Software Freedom Day.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• Teaching tech to tots: The use of Linux and open source in pre-schools
• EEEBuntu: Ubuntu for the EEE PC
• A Penguin with an Egg: Growing the Open-Source Community
• Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase is born!
• Jim Zemlin and the Linux Foundation: Looking after Linus
• Why Microsoft cozied up to open source at OSCON

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• Judge Hints at Mistrial in RIAA v. Jammie Thomas
• Music industry ‘should embrace illegal websites’
• Net access in the wake of FCC vs. Comcast
• Mark Cuban: A Note to the MPAA - Piracy Is Collateral Damage
• RIAA’s $222k Verdict Is Likely To Be Set Aside

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Cablevision Remote DVR Doesn’t Infringe; Decision Shows How New Tech Twists Copyright
• Air Force cracks software, carpet bombs DMCA
• ‘Psychic’ Uri Geller reaches copyright settlement
• Google Sued For Infringing Patent With AdSense
• Protecting Consumers from DRM

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• Feds accuse bank insider of massive data heist
• New Browsers Fight the Malware Scourge
• Don’t be a Victim of DNS Security Holes
• FISA and Border Searches of Laptops
• Deleted photo sparks fears DEA hiring mercenaries

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Microsoft’s annual report: Open-source mental block
• Boffins claim solar energy breakthrough

I have figured out why SuSE 11.0 could not find a couple of my Linux distros. It takes the short-sighted approach of looking only where it is installed. What I mean is this: there are two kinds of partitions on a hard disk - primary and secondary (logical) partitions. There can only be a maximum of four primary partitions, and if you want more partitions, one of the primaries must be configured as a secondary partition.

If SuSE Linux 11.0 was installed in a primary partition, it would look at the other primary partitions for other operating systems. If it was installed in a secondary partition, it would only look there. The latter is what happened to me - the two Linux distros it could not find were installed on a primary partition, while it was only looking on the secondary partition.

To fix this, I reinstalled all the Linuxes. For the distros, I put each one in a logical partition, adding to the secondary partition for each distro I installed. I installed Vector Linux, Linux Mint and Ubuntu in logical partitions. None of the distros had any trouble finding each other.

Doing this brought up another problem: the SuSE Linux 11.0 partition editor would not let me create a logical partition from unallocated space. It insisted that I needed to create a primary partition. So I went looking for a partition editor that would let me get around this. I finally found QTParted on an old Mepis Linx disk that would let me resize the secondary partition to encompass the entire disk. I could then create a secondary partition with the SuSE partition editor.

I enjoyed the Art on the Green over the weekend. I went on Sunday, as it was easier for me. There were a lot more booths than in the past, and there was a lot of interesting quality crafts present. I even bought something this year, which I haven’t done in about 15 years.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• Why sharing matters more than marketshare to GNU/Linux
• 20 Most Nimble and Simple X Window Managers for Linux
• Humor And Disaster - The Chicken Crossing The Road
• Linux User Here
• Ultamatix may be a worthy successor to Automatix for new Ubuntu and Debian users
• Microsoft’s annual report: A study in open-source awareness…and ignorance
• Why Free Software has poor usability, and how to improve it

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• RIAA - FCC Ruling Means ISPs Can Filter Piracy Like Everyone Else
• MPAA: Don’t limit our ability to close analog outputs
• US cuts funding to universities
• Online porn piracy fought in same way as RIAA fights music piracy

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Can You Name An Example Where Suing For Copyright Infringement Made Business Sense?
• JPEG Patent’s Single Claim Rejected (And Smacked Down For Good Measure)
• The Software Patents Situation and How It Affects Free Software
• Capcom struggles with piracy, DRM, and low PC sales of DMCIV
• Is a patent about to be granted that covers basic network discovery?

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• Black hats attack gaping DNS hole
• US Senate polishes new teeth for cyber cops
• Security, Security, More Security
• “Our national security system is broken”
• The TSA Follies
• FBI seizes local Md. library computers

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Columnist’s Solution To Newspaper Woes: Take Down Newspaper Websites
• When your name gets turned against you - Verizon is run by ‘politically correct’ idiots
• MIT Researchers Make Major Solar Power Breakthrough
• A Tech Lover Owns Up, Signs Off
• Senate bill would restrict Bush from secret executive orders
• Microsoft sees end of Windows era

I found the extra programs I installed in SuSE 11.0. Unlike every other desktop manager in the known universe, KDE will not display new items in it’s menu until you log out and log back in. This is very shortsighted and incredibly stupid, because most people will not know to do that.

I found no way to change the start menu back to the old style. I’m not saying there isn’t a way, but they’ve done a Microsoft and moved everything around so you can’t find what you want. I was also unable to recover the two Linux distros that were supposed to be on the machine. So I ended up with SuSE, Vector and Debian with Mandriva and Linux Mint gone into the great bit bucket in the sky.

I have an overall impression of SuSE Linux 11.0 and KDE 4.1 of lots of glitz, some substance and little cohesiveness. It was an interesting exercise, but I will not be using SuSE on my main workstation.

I mentioned the other day that the Dutch oven cooks would not be doing anything else in Rathdrum this year. The day after I mentioned that, I picked up the Rathdrum newspaper and it had an activities guide from the Rathdrum Parks & Recreation. I looked to see what it would say about the Heritage Festival, since we and the mountain men would not be there. Imagine my surprise when I read “Dutch Oven Cookery and Bluegrass Hootenanny”. I’m not sure where E.L. will get the Dutch oven cooks. She sure isn’t one herself.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• Open-Source Tools Fuel Web, Desktop Development
• amaroK: Music App for Linux Reviewed
• Is KDE back? 4.1 launches
• OOo Basic crash course: Creating charts with Base and Calc
• What Do Small Open Source Projects Do With Money? Not Much.
• Linux preinstalls rocket to three per cent

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• Ray Beckerman Picks Apart RIAA Lawsuits For Judges’ Benefit
• College funding bill passed with anti-P2P provisions intact
• Canada seeks industry, not consumer input on secret treaty
• AT&T to FCC: We Ban P2P Traffic
• Defendant to RIAA: 428,571 Times Actual Damages is Unconstitutional

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Congress Moves Forward With Plan To Make Universities Copyright Cops
• AutoAdmit Lawsuit Leads To Suggestion For Dreadful DMCA-Style Takedowns Of Defamation
• Microsoft quietly settles .NET legal dispute with web firm
• Canada seeks industry, not consumer input on secret treaty
• Bill C-61 goes beyond downloading
• Admitted Patent Troll Finds The Phrase ‘Shell Entity’ Offensive

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• DHS stays mum on new ‘Cyber Security’ center
• Fired by MnDOT, now at Homeland Security
• ICANN Plans For Disaster: A Registry Failure
• Apple Finally Patches DNS Bug
• DHS border policy: we can steal anything from you, read all your data, and disclose it to anyone we want

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Penalty Strokes
• Going For The Lunar X Prize? Want To Take Photos? NOAA May Require You To Get A License
• Official: Eee PC range to expand
• Anthrax Scientist Kills Himself as FBI Closes In
• Profile of an NRA spy who infiltrated gun-control groups

Since I had a single remaining partition on my test computer, I installed SuSE Linux 11.0 on it last night. The installation went fine, and was much faster than earlier versions of SuSE Linux.

The problems started after the installation. First, the grub boot menu came up and showed boot entries for only 3 of the 5 distros on the hard disk. It seems that the SuSE installer didn’t recognize Mandriva Linux or Linux Mint. So I will have to manually put those two distros in the grub menu.

Next, the KDE Start Menu. It really, really, really sucks. The KDE crew has gone for bling over substance, and has come up with something that takes much more effort to navigate than the original start menu. If given the choice between cuteness and smoothly functioning operation, I will choose the latter every time.

I installed this distro from the Linux Format DVD. It was missing stuff - specifically a lot of necessary programs like The Gimp. I decided to install a bunch of the programs, so I did that using the Yast package installer. The programs were downloaded and I presume they were installed. But I can’t tell, because none of them showed up in the start menu. None. of. them.

More on this later.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• Is Linux currently at a fundamental disadvantage owing to how computers are set up?
• How to Install KDE 4.1 on Ubuntu 8.04 - But I wouldn’t do it, if I were you.
• OpenRemote grows in popularity
• KDE 4.1 rocks the desktop
• 8 Best E-mail Clients for Linux

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• New IP law gets nod by senate committee
• Lawyer Exposes RIAA’s Legal Bullying
• MPAA Sues Streaming Sites
• It’s Official: The MPAA Has A God Complex
• ‘The paucity of the RIAA evidence’
• MPAA, RIAA, score in Higher-Ed Bill

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Hasbro’s Nightmare: Scrabulous Returns With New Name And (A Few) New Rules
• Italian Media Company Mediaset Joins In On The Fun: Sues YouTube
• We’re The US Government, So We Can Ignore Pesky Things Like The DMCA
• Flat Stanley Learns How Ownership Of Infinite Goods Hurts Everyone
• Court Explains Fair Use To Michael Savage; Dismisses Copyright Infringement Charges Against CAIR
• MS springs patent complaint on Taiwanese mouse vendor

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• Consenting to be Abused
• AVG update nails down stability bugs
• Security Vendors Embrace Application Whitelisting
• Vista SP1 won’t install on dual-boot systems: Microsoft - So now you can’t fix Vista’s security problems if you dual boot Vista and Linux, because M$ thinks Linux is a security problem!
• Administration urges FISA court to keep its secrets

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Comparing The Telecom Industry To OPEC Isn’t So Crazy
• Bush signs new rules for spy agencies
• Tech giants rush to solar power
• TSA Really Wreck The RepRap Child
• TSA Proud of Confiscating Non-Dangerous Item

I have received at least a half dozen emails about this web site’s bandwidth reaching 80%. I will be emailing my web host to try moving to another hosting plan. My current plan is way old. It allows 1GB storage and 10GB bandwidth for $25 per month. I will move to their large plan, which is 2.5GB storage and 60GB bandwidth for $20 per month. If they let me. That should shut down the bandwidth messages and save me $60 a year.

I can actually use the space, as I will be creating the nidog.org domain very soon. That stands for North Idaho Dutch Oven Group, which is the group that is replacing the Inland Empire Dutch Oven Society group, which folded last year.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• BT bets on open development
• Survey: Economy Pushing Users to Open Source
• Upgrade WordPress effortlessly with WPAU plugin
• How-To: Install Linux Risk Free, With No Formatting or Repartitioning Required
• The Thesaurus Shell Script - New And Improved!
• KDE 4.1 rocks the desktop

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• Who wants a music tax?
• Click here for first-run movies, MPAA lawsuits
• MPAA Seeks Internet Removal of Two ‘Infringing’ Sites
• IFPI, Italian police take down “Italian Pirate Bay”
• Judges warned about RIAA antics

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Research Journals Make It As Difficult As Possible To Openly Publish Gov’t Funded Research
• Sovereign immunity blocks DMCA suit against Air Force
• Does DRM and anti-circumvention legislation increase unauthorized P2P?
• Scrabulous highlights the failure of American Copyright Law
• Wikileaks: Docs On Secret Int’l Copyright Meeting

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• TSA Incorrectly Identifies Security Threats at Woods Hole
• DNS Attack Writer a Victim of His Own Creation
• Comcast, NetZero agree to block Internet child porn
• Canada: Government Planning “Insider” ACTA Group

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Forrester report labelled schizo
• Montana safe from spam
• Botched Raid of Innocent Family Earns Cops Merit Badges
• New Alzheimer’s drug shows early promise

I just got an email notifying me that this web site has reached 80% of it’s bandwidth; 8.1GB out of 10GB. It must be more popular than I thought it was. What are you people doing here? Are you looking at the pictures, downloading ebooks, or just reading my prose and the recipes? It’s a mystery to me…

Well, Art on the Green is this weekend. I’m not sure if I’m up to yet another weekend of going and doing, but I will try to get there anyway. I have only missed one Art on the Green in 24 years. That one just got past me somehow.

I bought a leather-covered notebook at Art on the Green about 15 years ago, and I am still using that notebook to this day. Home-crafted goods don’t seem to have a built-in ‘fall-apart’ date like almost everything you buy in a store.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• Are Gnome and Ubuntu ruining the Linux Desktop?
• Ubuntu on Atom: coming soon to a subnotebook near you
• Will a $19.99 Ubuntu Succeed Where the Free Version Hasn’t?
• Does Linux Need a Little Tough Love?
• An Introduction to the Linux Command Line
• Open source sales growing despite economy

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• First It Was Song Downloads. Now It’s Organic Chemistry.
• MPAA Still Clueless; Claims Anti-Piracy Is Why Dark Knight Had A Huge Opening
• New RIAA Lawsuit Defense Tactic: Admit Liability, Challenge the Law
• Once Again (With Feeling): RIAA Told To Pay Tanya Andersen’s Legal Fees
• IFPI Admits It Screwed Up; Claims Mistakes Happen
• FCC to vote against Comcast, which questions its authority

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Patent Office finds voice, calls for software patent sanity
• Microsoft Resolves VCSY Patent Dispute
• EFF applauds Yahoo Music for reimbursing customers
• Anti-DRM protest at Apple stores
• Yahoo Pledges to Reinburse for DRM Music - Warning: Very poorly designed web page

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• Oracle warns over unpatched vuln
• Hackers get hold of critical Internet flaw
• U.K.: Researchers have no ‘right’ to study terrorist materials
• New Video Surveillance Technology ‘Recognizes’ Abnormal Activity
• Apple Fails to Patch Critical Exploited DNS Flaw

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Bush Leaving Next President Record Federal Budget Deficit
• Goodling Passed Over Experienced Counterterrorism Prosecutor Because Wife Was A Democrat
• The Airlines’ Ongoing Struggle With Price Aggregation Sites
• Sony profit plunges 50 pct from year ago - My heart bleeds for these rootkit dirtbags

I enjoyed the Dutch oven workshop I was part of on Saturday. We taught about 15 people how to cook in a Dutch oven, and at the end of 5 hours, we got to eat what we cooked. My beef stroganoff was a big hit. And the pineapple upside down cake disappeared, too.

There will be no mountain men, black powder riflers or Dutch oven cooks at the Rathdrum Heritage days celebration. The person who used to be in charge of making the arrangements was George Holcomb, who knows the people in those groups.

His job was appropriated by someone whose initials are E.L. and who doesn’t know squat about any of those groups. She decided that she would invite the mountain men and black powder people for a single day instead of two days. George told her they would not show up for a single day, but she refused to listen. The end result is those people and the Dutch oven group (which consists mainly of people from the other two groups) will not be participating.

I’ve known E.L. for over twenty years, and I have never known her to pay any attention to anyone else’s opinion. So that’s how it goes. No more Dutch oven sessions in Rathdrum this year.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• Howto Install VirtualBox 1.6 in Ubuntu 8.04(Hardy Heron) including USB Support
• Customer demand adds Linux to industrial computer line
• Create video animations with Inkscape, ImageMagick and FFmpeg
• Editor’s Note: When the Pros Are Out to Lunch, the Rabble Take Over
• Open Source Diva: Stop Whining, Start Doing
• Survey: Economy Pushing Users to Open Source
• How to: Installing and running Ubuntu on the Eee PC

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• Court records: MPAA sought info on PirateBay founders
• FCC set to punish Comcast on P2P blocking
• MPAA planning site to offer legit movie links
• SIIA: 75% of all eBay software is illegal
• TorrentSpy Hacker Spied on The Pirate Bay for MPAA

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Redlasso Sued By NBC Universal And Fox For Making It Easy For People To Promote NBC Universal And Fox
• Yahoo Not Only Shutting Music Store, But Orphaning DRM Buyers
• The Chronicles of Narnia.mobi

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• an Francisco DA discloses city’s network passwords
• Ruling reveals ID of online Oscar ticket seller
• Senator Introduces Unconstitutional Bill To Ban Sale Of Certain Video Games To Minors
• Homeland chief Chertoff has alienated a few Texans
• U.K.: Home Office to order fingerprinting of air passengers
• Security shocker: 75% of US bank websites have flaws

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Google Code blacklists Mozilla Public License
• US man charged for shooting mower - So what’s next, arrested for swatting your kid in public? Oh, wait: that’s already happened.
• McClellan: Fox News Commentators Use The ‘Talking Points’ That The White House Sends Them
• Impeachment a hot topic at ‘not Impeachment’ hearing
• New space race heats up with unveiling of aircraft

I’ve been trying to get a pressure washer for a couple of months now. I went to Harbor Freight again last night, and they had the floor model, but none in stock. Yet again. I think I will just go down to Lowes or Home Depot and get one there. The price at Harbor Freight is not worth the hassle.

I did get some more giveaway items at Harbor Freight. I always donate something to the door prizes at the various teardrop gatherings I go to. This time I got three pairs of welder’s gloves for $8. They make dandy gloves for handling very hot Dutch ovens.

Silly sign of the day:

Free/Open Source Software

• The open source jobs boom
• Why We Must React to ACTA
• Shell Script To Emulate A Thesaurus For Linux or Unix
• Making desktop Linux work for business
• Debian Linux Lenny Due in September
• More Perl One-Liners for Linux Or Unix
• Linux answers the age-old question, “Why is my network slow?”
• Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI

RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/SIIA/FCC

• Viacom Ignores Promise: Sends Bogus Takedowns To YouTube
• ISPs could be forced to do music industry dirty work
• Court records: MPAA sought info on PirateBay founders
• MPAA Hacker Spied on The Pirate Bay

Stupid Patent Tricks, Copyright and Other IP Nonsense

• Hasbro Sues Scrabulous For Making Scrabble Popular Again
• Yahoo pulls an MSN Music (only faster)
• UK ISPs Move Down The Slippery Slope Of Becoming Copyright Cops
• Senate Introduces IP Reform Bill Bolstering Enforcement - “If you reform it, you’ll only make it worse.”
• Google’s Patents Are About to be Killed? Calm Down, Everyone. It’s Just Advocacy, a/k/a FUD

Liberty and Security/Our Rights

• Exploit code for Kaminsky DNS bug goes wild
• New Systems Keep a Close Eye on Online Students at Home
• Memphis police trying to out anonymous badged blogger
• Police director sues for critical bloggers’ names
• Researcher Urges Prompt Patch to Fix DNS Flaw
• Elderly woman prohibiting from photographing empty swimming pool “to prevent paedophilia”

Other News/Public Stupidity

• Ballmer: Yahoo-Microsoft Deal Is Dead
• Microsoft tricks sceptics over Mojave Vista
• New York Yankees ban sunblock “to fight terrorism” — sell replacements at $5/oz
• CBS violates its own Standards and Practice by altering transcript and video of McCain interview
• MS products just too cool to comprehend, say MS geeks - Yeah, if you like slogging through elephant droppings.
• GovTrack opens up information on US legislature