Technolotics - An antique show about technology

By Gareth StackTechnology Tech News

Technolotics - An antique show about technology episodes

August 28, 2006 Technolotics #45 – Girly Men
audio https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/45_technolotics.mp3
Listen: Episode 45
Watch: Youtube
Notes
A cure for depression?
If you’re a mutant mouse that is
Scientists breed mice without gene related to serotonin transmission.
Serotonin important on mood, sleep and sexuality.
Mice found to act if they had been treated with antidepressants.
First time genetic ‘cure’ for depression found.
Links
Science Blog story
Amazing New VOIP Offerings
Jajah
Free phone 2 phone calls, initiated via website
Complicated pricing plan
Your phone rings – there phone rings – free for most landlines
Hullo.
Practially free VOIP calls on your home phone or computer
Also offers conference calls, call transfers to other phones and call forwarding.
US only
VOIPDiscount
Offers free calls to landlines and computers in certain countries including Ireland.
Involves a download and buying credit which expires after 120 days.
Limited number of free test calls
Links
Techcrunch comparison
Voip Discount
Jajah
Fox shows for free online
‘Full Throttle’ streams Fox shows over the internet using downloadable player.
Shows available include Prison Break, Bones, American Dad, The Loop and Stacked
Ads included at bottom of viewer and will be included and unskippable within the streaming shows.
Links
Techcrunch article
Is war a disease?
Study of the effects of the affects of being in a warzone on soldiers.
Soldiers examined before and after tour of duty in Iraq.
Compromized ability in tasks of sustained attention, verbal learning and visual-spatial memory. Also soldiers were more confused and tense it seems.
Only upside was an improvement in simple reaction time.
Links
AMA Journal
How to rig an election
Gerrymandering exists in the USA, with representatives deciding electoral districts rather than independent commissions.
District boundaries are altered to favour one party over another with both parties guilty of the practice.
Both parties created safe districts where current party has unchallenged dominance leaving a few districts which are tightly contested.#
Leads to apathy in safe districts and states and the concerns of a small group in a hotly contested state deciding the balance of the legislature.
Links
Economist Article
Gerrymandering definition in wikipedia
Iraq’s invaders may install dictator
US government could be considering giving up on democracy in Iraq and instead installing a dictator.
Comes as the situation continues to deteriorate in Iraq.
Conservative like Donald Rumsfeld wanted a to simply go in, remove Saddam and destroy the country in a show of might and then leave the damage behind. He may get his way.
Problems in Iraq has turned support against Bush and costs him every day troops remain in Iraq.
Links
Times Article
The shit on wastes
All peers – the new bittorrent based firefox extention has launched
All peers allows you to effectively, reliably and quickly share documents with trusted friends
Works via Bittorrent
Links
Techcrunch anouncement
Media Pimp
Gareth
Play Multiplayer Monopoly, Scrabble etc for Free
Techpolitics.us does blog radio
Sweet gestural interface
Francis
Track me Not
BlackBox Search
Gratis Gaming
0 min
August 28, 2006 Technolotics #45 – Girly Men
audio https://garethstack.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/45_technolotics.mp3 Listen: Episode 45 Watch: Youtube Notes A cure for depression? If you’re a mutant mouse that is Scientists breed mice without gene related to serotonin transmission. Serotonin important on mood, sleep and sexuality. Mice found to act if they had been treated with antidepressants. First time genetic ‘cure’ for depression found. Links Science Blog … Continue reading Technolotics #45 – Girly Men
19 min
August 18, 2006 Technolotics #44 – Flying Naked
https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/44_technolotics.mp3
Listen: Episode 44
Watch: Youtube
Notes
News from the world of Yaaar
Owner-Free File System takes aim at copyright
What was the name of the previous effort at this? – we covered this in an early technolotics show
System creates situation (using encryption) whereby copyrighted data can be claimed by two copyright owners.
Since two copyright owners is not allowed, neither owns the data.
Legal validity of approach untested and unlikely to hold water.
Pirate Party launches darknet
A heavily encrypted commerical Virtual Private Network at a cost of €5 per month.
Purports to offer, secure and most importantly anonymous communications.
BPI show how wonderful they are by banning a 12 year old from the charts merely for signing to a label that doesn’t support sueing file-sharers.
Links
Arstechnica
Pirate Party Commercial Darknet
Wired article
12 year old singer songwriter screwed by British Phonographic Industry
NSA Wiretapping Unconstitutional
Judge rules government’s warrantless wiretapping program violates the rights to free speech and privacy.
Appeal to Supreme court almost certain.
Experts believe Supreme Court likely to rule that state secrets privilege overrules the Constitution as they have done in the past.
Links
CNN Story
Expert interpretations on Wired
Iranian Presidents Blog is real
broken and entertaining engrish first post is a lengthy and heavily propagandist autobiography
‘The last year of my high school, I prepared myself for university admission test-conquer. And later on that year, I took the test. Although I had nose bleeding during the test, but I became 132nd student among over 400 thousand participants.’
Seems part of a campaign (including recent BBC interview ) to reach a wider international audience.
Iran uses one of the most sophisticated internet censorship systems in the world making the blog one of the few websites an Iranian can legally read.
Amusingly Ahmadinejad also refers to the ‘unecessary’ referendum which ensured a democratic rise to the theotratic Mullahcracy
The Iranian presidents power is limited in the extreme – with all bills passed by the Majles parliament are open to veto by a a variety of bodies composed primarily or exclusively of religious leaders – as are electoral candidates
Links
BBC News Story
English translaton
US Planned Lebanon attack with Israel
Journalist Seymour Hersh (the first to write about abuses in Abu Ghraib) alledges in the New Yorker that the two nations planned the attack as long ago as spring
These were not merely strategic talks – but Israels obtaining official permission to attack
The aim of the attack may have been to reduce the threat posed by Hezbolla in the wake of an American attack on Iran
The NSA and Pentagon deny the allegations
Links
Guardian Story
How copyright screws up education
Anyone whose attended 3rd level education in recent years will likely have had run ins with problems related to onorous copyright restrictions
in my case it was clas notes for advanced neuroscience courses – which lacked all illustrations – making them meaningless!
A year long study by Berkman Center for Internet and Society – has found problems
unclear rules, DRM locking up content, difficulties obtaining rights, undue caution by publishers
Links
Boing Boing Story
Pretty soon we’ll have to fly naked
How airport security has become an irrational nightmare
End of a week of false alarms and overblown threats and growing skepticism as to the legitimacy of these threats.
Evidence non-existent or tenuous for UK bomb threat, 1 year of surveillance had turned up nothing, torture of prisoner produces “a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction.”
Only solution is to send luggage in an unmanned plane and strip and drug passengers during flights so that can’t get up to mischief.
Links
Toronto Star Story
False security threats extracted during torture
British aviation bans all hand-luggage
Craig Murray; The UK Terror plot: what’s really going on?
Media Pimp
Gareth
America in Colour
Francis
Bill Biggarts final exposure
0 min
August 18, 2006 Technolotics #44 – Flying Naked
Listen: Episode 44 Watch: Youtube Notes News from the world of Yaaar Owner-Free File System takes aim at copyright What was the name of the previous effort at this? – we covered this in an early technolotics show System creates situation (using encryption) whereby copyrighted data can be claimed by two copyright owners. Since two … Continue reading Technolotics #44 – Flying Naked
16 min
August 05, 2006 Technolotics #43 – Villains of Video
https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/43_technolotics.mp3
Listen: Episode 43
Watch: Youtube
Notes
Scanning Your Email Update
Update to the email scanning story from #41
One of our viewers was so concearned by the encroachment on privacy represented by website blocking at the ISP / email scanning
MP responds stating that there is no reason to change this policy
Nothing wrong with the Internet Watch Foundation Quango (technically a charity) deciding what is and is not unacceptable
– i.e.: Potentially illegal content
This unaccountable ‘voluntary’ censorship by ISPs will continue unless / until ISPs object – at which point it will become mandatory!
Reminder: While the IWF focus on the ‘potentially illegal child abuse’ element of their remind – they also monitor – and now how have the power to block – any ‘potentially illegal content’
Interesting to look at the IWF’s annual report from last year – and compare the number or ‘reported websites’ and the number of cases where illegal content was actually found
2003 – 2004 the amount of ‘illegal content’ found doubled, while reported images only increased by 28% approx (check this)
Over 2,000 – non child related ‘adult obscene content’ sites were reported last year
His MP’s response to email traffic scanning – ‘We have noted’ no further comment
DRI take Data Retention to court
DRI has written to Min. for Justice, Communications and Garda Commissioner asking for them to cease breaching the Constitutional, statutory and European rights of the citizens of Ireland.
Failing that, their solictors McGarr Solicitors will undertake legal action.
April 2002: Mary O’Rourke tells telecoms providers to retain data generated by their customers supposedly under Section 110 (1) of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983.
December 2002: Data Protection Commissioner deems previous direction as inadequate, constitutionally invalid and was in breach of the Data Protection Act and Data Retention Directive.
Telecoms traffic explicitly protected under European law.
only for a limited period and only where necessary, appropriate and proportionate in a democratic society.
Irish Government in 2005 gave the Garda Commissoner the power to request a service provider to retain, for a period of 3 years, traffic data or location data or both.
Again in breach of European law, Ireland pressed for alteration of European laws
Result Directive 2006/24/EC.
DRI believes Directive was not adopted in accordance with European Law, a view shared by current Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
Proceedings undertaken my Min. for Justice to declare directive invalid by European Court of Justice.
DRI believe proceedings may be discontinued, meaning unconstitutional laws and directions will remain unchallenged.
They have requested relevant parties in writing to withdraw the directions to the telecoms providers and not apply the unconstitutional laws.
Failing to get a positive response they will prepare for legal proceedings.
Links
DRI to Challenge Data Retention
Irish Eyes on Data Retention
Tuppenceworth review the legalities of Video Sharing Sites
Simon McGarr looks at the Terms and conditions of Youtube, blip.tv, Google video and more.
Finds that these sites try and grab any rights you have not explicitly stated you want to retain.
Only way to retain total control is to host the video yourself which costs.
The Heros
Video Egg
They only have a licence to the content until you remove it.
Licence only allows them a non-exclusive rights to “reproduce, modify, adapt and publish such Content solely for the purpose of providing the Service.”
Best licence as licence only provides them the rights needed to host and display the video and only as long as you want them to.
The Villans
Includes Youtube, Grouper and Motionbox.
All 3 require you to signing all your rights away to them.
Includes rights to reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works
Grouper and Motionbox have perpetual irrecocable licences, hence once given to them you never can regain control of your content.
The In-betweens
Blip.tv.
Not as bad except
they want the right to distribute via media other than electronically. Why?
They also want to display content on affiliated sites. What is an affiliated site?
Google Video
Explicit clause stating content creator retains ownership of video an Google has non-exclusive rights are good.
Clause granting Google rights to modify and reformat are cause for worry as both are open to interpretation.
Reformat could mean changing to different video formats or transferring to cd/dvd. Unclear from the text.
Links
Tuppenceworth Post
Short Stories
Where the employees choose the boss
Ricardo Semler as CEO of Brazil-based company Semco has turned every aspect of traditional organization and management on it’s head.
Employees set their own working hours
Employees choose their own salaries
All meetings are voluntary and open to everyone
Employees hire their own bosses
HR has been almost abolished, because leaders need to be able to treat their employees right themselves
All employees rate their bosses twice a year and all ratings are published
Employees choose which leader they want to work under
Employees choose which Semco office they want to work out of
Employees can take early retirement, meaning they get one day a week off in return for working one day a week after they retire.
Semler in his new book states that he believes life cannot be divided into work and free time any more.
If you can work on a spreadsheet on Sunday night then you can go to the movies on Wednesday afternoon.
Management works by not interfering and trusting that employees will find a solution.
Links
The Seven Day Weekend
Semco company website
Meebo Me!
Online IM service Meebo continues to expand and extend its offerings.
Recently announced Netvibes interoperability.
Now has announced Meebo me. A widget which you can embed on a webpage allowing you to IM anyone who visits the page.
allows for realtime chat between the creator of a site and his/her audience.
Visitors appear as buddies in the users page on meebo.com, vistors can simply chat by entering text into the widget.
This marks meebos first move from a instant messaging aggregator to a network provider
Links
Meebo Me
Corporate Sponsorship of Schools
Cash-strapped schools sell naming rights to buildings/rooms even principle’s offices to corporations for one time payments.
Payments can be in excess of $500,000
Washington D.C considered selling naming rights to its subway stations. Las Vegas sells naming rights for its monorail.
Clark, Texas, council voted in November to rename the town DISH in exchange for a decade of free satellite TV from the DISH Network.
Corporations see naming as way of recruiting future workers.
What does it say about a country that forces schools to fundraise in this way?
Links
Corporate Sponsorship of Schools
Deathnell for the social network? House moves to block
Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) social networking sites and chat rooms must be blocked by schools and libraries or those institutions will lose their federal internet subsidies
Motivation in the words of Texas Republican Ted Poe “social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids.”
Vague law blocks sites that
allow people to post profiles,
include personal information
and allow communication among users.
If law can be enforced it could have an impact on a large number of companies.
Would create big obstacles to accessing sites that pose no risk to children including media and news sites like, Slashdot, Amazon and News.com.
Implies that social networking sites and chat rooms are inherently dangerous to minors.
Links
TechCrunch article
ZDNet article
Special Report
Audio Report from Drew @ Slick.comRemind them an IP is not a person
According to Tech Dirt – the RIAA are refusing to take to court cases where users point out that an IP address is not the same as a person
2 cases have been dropped on this basis
Keeping an open Wifi port has its advantages
Links
Remind them an IP is not a person
Media Pimp
Gareth
IPTV Boards
Free Ebooks in multiple forms
Amazing Shockwave FPS Game
USA-Trip Our Trip accross the states!
Francis
Street Performing World Championchips on this weekend!
0 min
July 29, 2006 Technolotics #42 – Palm Jam
https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/42_technolotics.mp3
Listen: Episode 42
Watch: Youtube
Notes
Is Blue sky R&D dead?
Scientific capital is not being replenished via Blue Sky research.
Start-ups are being locked out of the market by patent and trade secrets litigation.
Cold War era brought us the transistor and Arpanet, seeds of todays information economy at great private and public expense – Kansian pump priming of the economy via public and corporate research spending
Bell Labs, Xerox PARC and IBM’s Labs allowed Blue sky research into areas with no apparent commercial applications.
Research labs became an unaffordable luxury. Closest is Google’s 20 percent time.
Researchers now are under pressure to legitimize research by demonstrating it’s potential as a marketable product.
Where then is the opportunity to do Blue sky research?
Academia? No – increasingly accademic research is part funded by business
IP and trade secret laws prevent new ideas from coming to market.
Links
Ars Technica article
Update on email rummaging
We previously reported – plans are afoot to automatically scan the email of every uk citizen, and block ‘objectionable’ websites at the ISP level
One of our viewers contact his MP, and recieved an interesting reply
Social Celebrity – The strange story of Brooke “Brookers” Brodack
Youtube star Brooke “Brookers” Brodack has crossed over into mainstream media.
Her profile on youtube has had almost 2 mil views
Over 13000 subscribers to her videos on youtube.
Brookes video consist primarily of her singing along to songs
Spotted by Carson Daly who became a devoted fan.
Brookers has signed a talent/development deal to Daly’s company Carson Daly Productions.
She will work on developing content for Tv, Internet and mobile outlets.
Links
Variety.com article
Youtube director profile of Brooke “Brookers” Brodack.
Short Stories
Otavo
Your questions answered – social bookmarking, question asking and to-do lists.
Users can:
Ask and answer questions, organise and comment on bookmarks and share goals which are called quests
Users rewarded for inviting new users and adding quests.
Question is, is it good enough to abandon your current bookmarking site eg. del.icio.us?
Can you import the bookmarks and to-do lists you might already have?
Links
Otavo.com
TechCrunch article on Otavo
Finally someone stands up to the MPAA punks
MPAA and Universal Pictures are suing Shawn Hogan for downloading Meet the Fockers over BitTorrent.
Hogan denies the accusation and states he already owns the film on Dvd.
Hogan has declined to settle for $2500 and will fight the case in court.
Most people sued by the MPAA or RIAA under similar accusations settle due to the large legal fees that would be incurred fighting the case in court.
As we have stated a previous show, very tenuous evidence is often used by MPAA etc. to prove piracy
Photos of computer screen and an IP address supplied to Tiscali to prove copyright infringement.
Hogan however has the means and the desire to fight.
This provides the first opportunity to resolve issues relevatant to these cases:
How the associations get access to ISP records
whether you can tie someone to an IP address in the age of Wi-Fi, anonymyzing networks, IP spoofing, Zombie networks etc.
Links
Wired News:Shawn Hogan, Hero
Tired of selling your soul? Freecycle!
Simple idea: Rather than throwing out something perfectly usable that you no longer want or need, give it to someone else for free: Freecycle it!
Freecycle Network is made up of individual groups which give away and get stuff for free.
Started in May 2003 to promote waste reduction in Tucson’s downtown and help save desert landscape from being taken over by landfills
Members email a list of any unwanted objects to other members in the group who then can respond if they want the item.
The giver then can decide who shall recieve the unwanted item.
Everything shared is free, legal and appropriate for all age levels.
Links
Freecycle.org
Freecycle groups in Ireland
AMD to buy ATI
TCAL Story
Hard OCP explanation of the purchase
FinFacts article
Fight the news
Games for Change conference this month – showcased many games with political objectives
A variety of controversial games have been released dealing with contemporary political issues
Peacemaker – strategy game – resolve the middle east conflict as either the Israeli prime minister or the Palestinian president
Food Force – released by the UN – explains the difficulty of providing aid to a war zone
A forse more powerful – teaches nonviolent political strategy
Dafur is Dying – released by MTV & tied to a real world campaign – where players must support thier village
Games already carry indoctrinatory messages – look at every action strategy shooter featuring US troops
Republican party used games to ‘illustrate’ political points during 2003 campaign
Some believe games are a highly effective way of explaining complex systems
More research needed to verify pedagoic efficacy
A struggle to keep the games interesting
Will this trend make things worse, or even the playing field?
[1]
Dating 2.0
Techcrunch takes a look at the latest Web2.0 dating sites
As with other web2.0 services they currently make up a tiny proportion of their market
with more traditional sites Match.com & Yahoo personals dominating
Consumating – hipsters, tagging, contests, celebration of wierdness
Engage – matchmaking
users act as daters or matchmakers – viral quality
compatibility votes
Greatboyfriends.com (and girlfriends) – friends and family leave family – which is then verified
Matchtag – social network with activities – users post activities – pick best respondent – then carry out the preprepared date
MingleNow – groups meet up by favourite bar / restaurant cafe
interesting as it moves away from just dating
Poddater (remember podato?) – uses create videos which other users download and review
Prescription4Love – users with unique medical conditions / disabilities can meet
Verbdate – integrates skype chat, flickr photos, and tags
Wikia Personals – free global personals via wiki
Problem with many of these sites – US only! Tiny user populations
Links
[2]
Media pimp
Gareth
New porn only clone of YouTube
Play almost any megadrive game online
First Look – Valve Portal
Downhill Duel – best flash game ever?
Top 100 Science fiction books
Great Live Buck 65 Performance
This weeks theme music
Francis
Make a steadycam for $14
Item/Lending sharing in Dublin
Tourist Remover: Remove unwanted items from snapshots.
RiffTrax: Alternative commentaries on your favourite movies.
0 min
July 29, 2006 Technolotics #42 – Palm Jam
Listen: Episode 42 Watch: Youtube Notes Is Blue sky R&D dead? Scientific capital is not being replenished via Blue Sky research. Start-ups are being locked out of the market by patent and trade secrets litigation. Cold War era brought us the transistor and Arpanet, seeds of todays information economy at great private and public expense – Kansian … Continue reading Technolotics #42 – Palm Jam
41 min
July 21, 2006 Technolotics #41 – Too Quick to Taze
https://garethstack.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/41_technolotics.mp3
Listen: Episode 41
Watch: Youtube
Notes
Guilty by conception
UK goverment unveils scheme to identify future criminals at birth.
Aim is to identify those at risk of failure, violent behaviour or criminality and then take action to prevent that happening.
Midwives, doctors and nurses asked to identify ‘chaotic’ families whose babies are in danger of growing up to be delinqunts, drug addicts and violent criminals.
Action on Rights for Children (ARCH) points to evidence that early intervention can in fact be harmful.
Assessment tools will include value judgements, made by doctors, nurses, midwives: one person’s dysfunction is another’s normal.
Those assessing may feel under pressure to note everything, even part-imagined ‘signs’ to stave off future allegations of negligence.
Cases could then be built on very tenuous or non-existent evidence.
Misses the point that even if the signs exist there is no guarantee the child will become a criminal.
Withholding information may become common as people fear any information given being used against them.
Misses the point that we already know where many of the dysfunctional families reside, in the most poor and disadvantaged areas.
So why not spend the money and resources in helping these people and their children rather than stymatising them by invading their homes and dictacting their home life.
Links
The Register article
Register Article.
Independent Online article.
Observer online article.
Short Stories
Why antivirus doesn’t catch the infestion
Evolution in action again – as virus writers specifically test against the most popular packages
According to top packages have an 80% failure rate
Little known russian antivirus shop Kaspersky produced the most immune to new malware antivirus
Links
Kaspersky Australian computer emergency responce team – 80% of malware gets through Antivirus software is being defeated Why most antivirus apps dont work
YouTube owns your videos
YouTubes updated terms and conditions provide the company myspace like ownership of your posted content
The licence enables derivative works – meaning that musicians could find their tracks stripped from posted videos and resold
While it looks like the company are just being legally cautious, this is another example of how we are relying on such networks not to be evil
Links
Wired News Story
Boing boing Update
EU blocks municipal broadband
The European Commission is blocking individual municipalities who seek to provide free broadband for their residents
Similar laws have been passed at state level in the US – though the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 may change that
Is the worship of free market economics reducing access to broadband?
Arguably, broadband – like road networks, education, or urban waste disposal – is an example of where government investment provides a massive boon to economic growth – as well as an essential service
Let me just take this opportunity to describe the bin tag situation in Ireland!
Links
Ars technica article
Too quick to Taze?
As this horrific video demonstrates – US police show little hesitation in using dangerous and highly agressive non-lethal takedown techniques
Taze video
Artificial Intelligence turns 50
Artificial intelligence the name was coined 50 years ago
Although strictly speaking, people have been trying to build AI since Turings 1950 ‘Computing machinery and intelligence’ paper
A.I has developed not into the generalist analogue of human intelligence imagined by Turing – but rather into a set of specialist knowledge bases and pattern recognition systems
Will general computational intelligence develop out of the exponential increase of computational power?
Or – as seems more likely, are we constained by our current inability to perfectly understand the mechanisms of our own cognition
Expert systems (like medical specialist programs), and fuzzy logic recognition mechanisms (like security cameras), are still incredibly stupid and specific
The simplist insect is more self sufficient, environmentally adaptive, and independent than our most advanced robots
Turing test is a red herring – confusing conversation with intelligence
Despite their stupidity specialist programmes have multiple uses in a variety of fields
Medicial diagnosis, voice recognition, surveillence of the public, aeronautics
Is robotics relevent to AI? How much is embodiment a prerequeset for AI?
Links
Wired News article
Great discussion on the dangers of ‘evil AI’
Media Pimp
Francis
Slimtimer web based time tracking service
Gareth
YYY’s Cheated Hearts
Cheated Hearts Dublin
Secret Diary of Steve Jobs Aged 51 1/2
0 min
July 16, 2006 Technolotics #40 – Boggeraguans
https://garethstack.com/content/audio/technolotics/40_technolotics.mp3
Listen: Episode 40
Watch: Youtube
Notes
Police State UK – The abuse of antisocial behaviour orders
A physics graduate is fined £80 for describing a metal detector as “piece of shit that wouldn’t stop anyone” in public.
Kurt Walker fined £80 for using the word “fuck” in a public park in Kent. He’s refusing to pay.
ASBO Law states that it’s illegal to use threatening words or behaviour likely to cause alarm, harassment or distress.
Main problem with an ASBO is that due process does not occur.
Civil court orders which can be based on hearsay evidence. The burden of proof is much lower than in a criminal case.
Police only have to persuade a judge that your behaviour “may cause harassment or alarm or distress” to someone else to get one imposed.
Makes it very hard to defend oneself.
Less than 1% of applications for ASBOs have been refused.
Up to 35% of young people with asbos in the UK had a diagnosed mental disorder or accepted learning difficulty.
But breaching an ASBO is a criminal offence. With penalty in the UK of 5 years in jail.
Asbos can be used to criminalise behaviour that would otherwise not be illegal. Including:
playing football,
feeding pigeons,
swearing,
being sarcastic and
riding a bicycle
Restricts individuals rights of free speech and association.
Little or no evidence they actually solve anything.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell plans to introduce them in Ireland.
Links
The Register news article
BBC News: Teenager fined £80 for swear word
The Case Against Anti Social Behaviour Orders: Coalition Against ASBOs, March 2005
10 things you should know about Asbos
A Guide to Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Acceptable Behaviour Contracts
China harvesting Falun Gong organs, report alleges.
60,000 organ transplants recorded between 2000 and 2005 (by China Medical Organ Transplant Association)
18,500 of the organs came from identifiable sources.
41,500 transplants from no other explained sources.
There is a booming transplant industry in China.
Number of liver transplant centres has jumped from 22 in 1999 to 500 in 2006.
Number of liver transplant operations has jumped from 135 to 4,000 in the same period.
Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG)
Made recordings of phone calls to hospitals, prisons and transplant centres.
organs from alleged Falun Gong prisoners were promised to prospective buyers within as little as a week
Ex-wife of Chinese surgeon alleges that he removed the corneas from 2,000 euthanized Falun Gong prisoners over a 2 year period.
All died and their bodies were burned.
China admitted in 2005 that it harvests and sells the organs of executed prisoners.
British Transplantation Society alleged China without the consent of prisoners or next of kin.
Report by former MP David Kilgour and Winnipeg lawyer David Matas.
Report based on recordings of phone calls, interviews, and info taken from chinese hospital and transplant centre websites.
Links
CBC News
BPI: We should be able to cut off your Internet
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has requested 2 ISP’s to terminate the DSL connections of customers allegedly engaged in infringing file-sharing.
BPI asked for immediate action without due process based on the evidence of a single screenshot.
Tiscali has refused to comply stating “It is not for Tiscali, as an ISP, nor the BPI, as a trade association, to effectively act as a regulator or law enforcement agency and deny individuals the right to defend themselves against the allegations made against them.”
“Notice-and-takedown” regime allows censorship of web-pages if they allegedly infringe copyrright.
Embedded in law in Europe through the EUCD and in the US via the infamous DMCA.
Used by the Church of Scientology to silence critics.
WTO used it to silence a parody site.
Diebold used it to suppress the publication of a whistle-blower memo that detailed the critical failings of their voting machines.
Significantly it only works on material hosted on the ISP’s server.
Notice-and-termination, is the new proposed regime.
The ability to communicate over the Internet can be removed by anyone claiming you’re infringing copyright.
Alternatively internet connections may be crippled only supporting bandwidths and protocols approved by the entertainment industry.
It is being proposed as a United Nations treaty obligation, hence every ISP would be forced to adopt this regime.
An obvious target is P2P networks which Notice-and-takedown is ineffective against.
Requests for takedowns usually generated by software bots, which often mistakenly identify copyright infringements.
No presumption of innocence for the alleged copyright infringer.
No method for someone to defend themselves.
Entertainment industry becomes judge, jury with the ISP as executioner.
Links
Boing Boing article: BPI: We should be able to cut off your Internet
Ars Technica article: British music industry, concerned about piracy, targets ISPs
Ars Technica article: British ISP tells recording industry to provide real file sharing evidence
Games That Never Age: The Unrecognized Potential of Procedural Synthesis.
Everyone has heard of Procedural Synthesis and what it can achieve.
Astounding graphics but with very small file sizes.
What is procedural synthesis?
Method of using mathematics to produce real-time graphics instead of pre-rendered imagery.
Base components are created such as the texture of bark or tree leaves.
Algorithms then make them look different as they are re-used throughtout the game.
When you consider the number of re-used textures in games you see the benefits: walls, sidewalks, sky etc.
Drawback of procedurally generated graphics is that it’s computationally intensive.
Lack of computing power restricts the complexity of algorithms that modify textures.
However as processors get faster then higher resolution textures can simply created by modifying the algorithms that work with the base textures.
Graphics of games can improve as better algorithms are released and downloaded via automatic updates.
Problems include:
It won’t be widely adopted.
Every visual element a game is not procedurally generated, hence not everything can be upgraded.
You’re still playing the same game, procedural synthesis doesn’t address gameplay only graphics.
Why not AI procedurally generated so you can get updates of smarter opponents?
Will Wright’s latest project: Spore uses procedural synthesis liberally.
This includes the way creatures move and behave being generated on the fly.
Links
About.com article
Will Wright’s Spore
Short Stories
FBI plans new net-wiretapping push
FBI has drafted legislation that requires ISPs to create wiretap hubs for surveillance
It also will force networking gear manufacturers to build “backdoors” in equipment to enable eavesdropping
Measures included are:
Expanding wiretapping requirements to “commercial” Internet services including instant messaging if the FCC deems it to be in the “public interest.”
Forcing ISP’s to monitor and identify for instance VoIP calls.
Remove the requirement that the Justice Department publish a “notice of the actual number of communications interceptions” every year
FBI claims changes in law needed to thwart terrorists and criminals who have turned to such things as VOIP.
Links
Boing Boing article
CNet article
Microsoft hit with 280m euro fine
Microsoft fined for failing to comply with anti-competition ruling.
Landmark ruling in 2004 ordered Microsoft to provide rivals with info on Windows.
Microsoft was ordered to supply “complete and accurate” technical information to rival developers.
Aim was to allow rival firms to write programs that could run more smoothly on Windows.
Daily fines of 3 million a day will come into effect from the 31st of July if Microsoft fails to comply.
Microsoft claims to have complied and will appeal the fine.
It also plans to argue that the commission’s original demand was too vague.
Links
[1]
Friendster wins a patent on social networking
Friendster has received a patent that covers online social networks.
patent,is extremely general would seem to cover the activities of many other sites
Patent refers to a “system, method, and apparatus for connecting users in an online computer system based on their relationships within social networks.”
Patent covers the basic steps involved in joining a social network:
entering a personal description and relationships to other users,
mapping relationships and degrees of separation,
and connecting to others through these friends.
Company could in future pursue licenses and litigation from its competitors.
Expecially LinkedIn (covered last week) that allows people to connect within a certain number of degrees of separation.
Patent could be challenged in the patent system or the courts.
“Once the patent is issued there is a presumption of validity that follows with it,” said attorney Bill Heinze of Thomas, Kayden, Horstemeyer & Risley.
Friendster has fallen on hard times, eclipsed by rivals such as MySpace.
Patent was applied for about 3 years ago
Another 11 patents are in the pipeline for Friendster.
Links
Red Herring Article
TechCrunch Article
Media Pimp
Mark
The Skeptics Guide To The Universe
Adult Swim on Bravo UK
Ciaran
Ask A Ninja
Francis
Balcony TV
Dave Chappelle on the Internet
Lily Allen.
0 min
July 16, 2006 Technolotics #40 – Boggeraguans
https://garethstack.com/content/audio/technolotics/40_technolotics.mp3 Listen: Episode 40 Watch: Youtube Notes Police State UK – The abuse of antisocial behaviour orders A physics graduate is fined £80 for describing a metal detector as “piece of shit that wouldn’t stop anyone” in public. Kurt Walker fined £80 for using the word “fuck” in a public park in Kent. He’s refusing to pay. … Continue reading Technolotics #40 – Boggeraguans
48 min

About Technolotics - An antique show about technology

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Technolotics was an irreverent look at technology, politics and the media; from a ragtag bunch of Irish students. The show was the first regularly updated Irish vidcast, and ran from August 2005 –…

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