Just another nerd.
I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff anyway, but NESCover is some of the best Nintendo-based music I’ve heard in a long time. I used to work with someone who constantly hummed Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, and the NES-based cover here is simply amazing. I could (well, I did, actually) listen to this stuff all day.
Your mileage may vary.
The last thing that any anti-RIAA activists needed to do was distort what RIAA chief Cary Sherman had to say about the Sony rootkit debacle. And yet both Boing! Boing! and Slashdot have chosen to push completely ridiculous interpretations of a comment Sherman made in response to Sony’s actions.
Boing! Boing! claimed that Sherman said that lots of companies install rootkits. According to Boing! Boing!,
RIAA President Cary Sherman gave a recent college press-conference where he addressed Sony’s rootkit fiasco (among other things — the whole transcript is worth reading for a quick visit to the planet greed). His take? Other companies do the same thing all the time!
Slashdot one-ups that claiming,
President of RIAA Says Sony-BMG Did Nothing Wrong
But Sherman’s comments do not support either interpretation. You have to willingly distort his actual comments to arrive at either claim. Here’s what Sherman actually said,
“They have apologized for their mistake, ceased manufacture of CDs with that technology, and pulled CDs with that technology from store shelves. Seems very responsible to me. How many times that software applications created the same problem? Lots. I wonder whether they’ve taken as aggressive steps as SonyBMG has when those vulnerabilities were discovered, or did they just post a patch on the Internet?”
Sherman’s point is clear — Sony screwed up, but it was far more responsible and pro-active than even many software companies are when vulnerabilities come out. He’s absolutely right on the recall point. When was the last time a software company pulled product off the shelf to avoid exposing consumers to software vulnerabilities? I seem to remember a publisher pulling a game that contained a virus, but not much other than that. Most prefer, as Sherman notes, to simply post a patch on the Internet.
Now Sherman’s point about the responsiveness of Sony is certainly debatable. An alternate interpretation is Sony had to be browbeaten into recalling the CDs — after all one of its executives said the rootkit wasn’t a big deal because most users wouldn’t even know what a rootkit was.
But Sherman is clearly not saying he approves of Sony’s actions, and he’s also clearly not saying that many companies use rootkits.
Distorting his words and meaning to say so is really a dumb thing to do.
The Herald-Mail in Hagerstown, Maryland, reported that it had received an e-mail claiming to be from Earth Liberation Front extremists claiming responsibility for a fire Sunday that destroyed recently built, unoccupied townhouses. The fire caused an estimated $225,000 in damages.
According to the Associated press, the e-mail sent to the newspaper read,
Last night we, the Earth Liberation Front, put the torch to a development of Ryan Homes in Hagerstown, Maryland (off of Route 40, behind the Wal-Mart). We did so to strike at the bottom line of this country’s most notorious serial land rapist. We warn all developers that the people of the Earth are prepared to defend what remains of the wild and the green. We encourage all who watch with sadness while developers sell out the future of us and our children to join us in resisting them in any and every possible way. The Ents are going to war.
The ELF claim has brought the FBI into the investigation of the arson.
This is apparently the first arson in Maryland claimed by the Earth Liberation Front.
Sources:
FBI Probes Claim That ELF Set Western Md. Fires. Associated Press, November 21, 2005.
Arson eyed in town house fires. Karen Hanna, The Herald-Mail (Hagerstown), November 21, 2005.
In the early morning hours of November 20, animal rights extremists broke into the kennels at the Essex and Suffolk hunt, releasing dozens of animals and setting a couple of fires.
When police arrived shortly after 1 a.m., they found 82 dogs and 5 horses and been released, and the gates to the kennel, which opens into the road, left wide open. Additionally, the extremists set a couple of fires and spray painted “hunt scum” on the road.
Gary Thorpe, huntsman for the Essex and Suffolk hunt, told the East Anglian Times,
We are appalled. They let all the hounds and horses out of their stables and left the gates wide open so they could get on the road. Thankfully this did not happen, but that was more by luck than anything else or they could have caused a serious accident. These people call themselves animal lovers, but what kind of animal lover does this. We are hunting completely within the law and they still persist in coming out and disrupting what we are doing. It is very worrying when they are prepared to set fire to something and release your animals in the middle of the night.
A spokesman from the UK’s Hunt Saboteurs Association said that no one from that organization was involved in the action,
I can say categorically no member of the HSA would take any action that would endanger the life of hunting hounds and horses. We care for their welfare.
There’s no evidence that anyone from the HSA was involved, but unless the HSA actually knows the identity of the attacker, this categorical denial is a bit silly (hint, next time just say your organization does not condone such irresponsible actions and leave it at that).
Source:
Saboteurs blamed for hunt attack. The BBC, November 20, 2005.
Fury as hunt kennels attacked. Helen Skene, East Anglian Daily Times, November 21, 2005.
Arson attack on hunt kennels. Anna Tyzack, Horse and Hound, November 21, 2005.
The Humane Society of the United States and East Bay Animal Advocates filed a lawsuit today seeking to force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to regulate and oversee the slaughter of poultry. The USDA currently excludes poultry from its oversight of animals covered by the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
The lawsuit will turn largely on the definition of the word livestock.
The HMSA requires the USDA to ensure that “cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine and other livestock” are humanely slaughtered. The USDA does not define livestock to include poultry. Animal rights activists maintain that poultry indeed qualify as livestock.
According to an HSUS press release announcing the lawsuit
Jonathan R. Lovvorn, vice president of Animal Protection Litigation for The HSUS states, “When Congress enacted the HMSA, the dictionary definition of ‘livestock’ was ‘domestic animals used or raised on a farm.’ Yet today, nearly 50 years later, 95 percent of domestic animals raised on farms are still entirely unprotected during the slaughter process.”
Currently the USDA does inspect poultry slaughter facilities, but for safety reasons rather than for compliance with humane slaughter regulations.
According to a Washington Post story on the lawsuit, however,
Although there is no specific humane handling and slaughter law for poultry, he [USDA spokesman Steven Cohen] said, inspectors and veterinarians stationed in every poultry processing plant “monitor production so i a plant has evidence of excessive bruising or other conditions that would indicate handling in a manner inconsistent with humane handling, we would necessarily look into that operation.
Sources:
The HSUS Files Lawsuit Challenging USDA’s Exclusion of Birds from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Press Release, Humane Society of the United States, November 21, 2005.
Humane Society to Sue Over Poultry Slaughtering. Elizabeth Williamson, Washington Post, November 21, 2005.
I have about 4-5 external hard drives and they work great, for the most part, but the major drawback is the huge amount of noise that some models make, especially the LaCie drive I have. That fan on my 200gb D2 drive is actually louder sometimes than my dehumidifier.
So I’m really geeked about this fanless external LaCie drive. And at only $329 for the 500gb version, you can have a terabyte of external storage for under $700.