Everyone should visit the EFF site and fill out the form to send an email to your representatives urging them to oppose this legislation!


Senator Orrin Hatch's new Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act (S.2560, Induce Act) would make it a crime to aid, abet, or induce copyright infringement. He want us all to think that the Induce Act is no big deal and that it only targets "the bad guys" while leaving "the good guys" alone. He says that it doesn't change the law; it just clarifies it.

He's wrong.

Right now, under the Supreme Court's ruling in Sony v. Universal (the Betamax VCR case), devices like the iPod and CD burners are 100% legal -- not because they aren't sometimes used for infringement, but because they also have legitimate uses. The Court in Sony called these "substantial non-infringing uses." This has been the rule in the technology sector for the last 20 years. Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs have depended on it. Industries have blossomed under it. But the Induce Act would end that era of innovation. Don't let this happen on your watch - tell your Senators to fight the Induce Act!

posted by MikeM at 11:44 AM    

 
This just in from the Internet Storm Site:

A large number of web sites, some of them quite popular, were compromised earlier this week to distribute malicious code. The attacker uploaded a small file with javascript to infected web sites, and altered the web server configuration to append the script to all files served by the web server. The Storm Center and others are still investigating the method used to compromise the servers. Several server administrators reported that they were fully patched.

If a user visited an infected site, the javascript delivered by the site would instruct the user's browser to download an executable from a Russian web site and install it. Different executables were observed. These trojan horse programs include keystroke loggers, proxy servers and other back doors providing full access to the infected system.

The javascript uses a so far unpatched vulnerability in MSIE to download and execute the code. No warning will be displayed. The user does not have to click on any links. Just visiting an infected site will trigger the exploit.

***************************

Be warned! If your browser pops up a request to install software, DENY IT! Especially if this happens on a website you have visited before. There is a good chance that a lot of servers on the web have been infected, and even sites you trust could be attempting to infect your computer! Until everyone cleans up their servers - do not allow any automatic installations of software while surfing.

A better way to avoid this problem is to use Netscape or Firefox - any browser other than Microsoft Internet Explorer. By the way, AOL uses MSIE by default, so all you AOL users should be extra careful! Minimize the AOL browser and run netscape to surf the web.
posted by MikeM at 7:31 AM    

 
Today I work from 6am to 7pm - a welcome addition to the funding for the car repairs of Friday. Over $800 for battery, alternator, and a few other things that were wrong have all now been fixed.

I played City of Heroes Saturday from 8am until just past noon - quite a good game - I still find things out about it that astound me. There are ten or so huge city-zones, each of which is accessible through various subway/el/tunnel systems. Each city has a huge system of sewer tunnels, and many office/warehouse/residential buildings with complex floorplans - all the better for bughunts and missions. The moon even moves through the sky, as does the sun - and the shadows of objects change with the time of day.

posted by MikeM at 6:31 AM    

 
Last night I watched "Quills" with Geoffrey Rush playing the infamous Marquis de Sade. This was an intensely disturbing movie. Not because of the sexual content - that's why I got it. No, the disturbing part was that the good guys didn't win. It was a tragedy right through. The evil bastards won complete victory and the true-hearted lovers ended up dead or insane. I prefer movies where justice is seen and the good guys end up with something better than they had before.

I also had to have my car towed to the dealer. After work I got in the car, turned the key, and heard... nothing. No clicks, no grinding - nothing. The dash lights came on, there was a gentle bonging sound like a door was open (it wasn't), and no starter.

Either the battery or the alternator or both have appapently died. I'll know more tomorrow - until then I am car-less. On the good side, the fellow at the Saturn dealership mentioned a fairly decent deal on the new Vue SUV. :) We shall see. For roughly 2/3 the price of the Subaru Forester, I can get a 250hp engine (larger), with pretty much the same options as the Forester, but a better warranty and I know Saturns are good. I have some reservations about the fit and finish - mine leaks in the rain. I'll compare the Forester and the Vue fairly closely before choosing. From what I saw today though, the Vue is a very nice vehicle.

Why the rush? Well, the alternator is a minor thing - the transmission is (I think) on its last legs as well. On any sort of uphill start the trannie slips, like the clutch wasn't releasing all the way, letting the engine rev up without very much acceleration. Strange sensation which cannot be good. Perhaps I should cut my losses and get a new car now, then pay it off once the house sells in a month or two.

posted by MikeM at 10:27 PM    

 
I love this! It appeared on Brian's website, and pretty much explains how I feel about the whole Iraqi war situation. We should indeed stop all foreign aid to all countries that did not publicly support us in this. The rest of the article rings true as well! Any president that made a speech like this would have my support forever!

posted by MikeM at 2:07 PM    

 
Last night I bought "Badder Santa" - with Billy Bob Thornton playing a drunken philandering foul-mouthed mall santa. I thought it would be amusing, but I ended up screaming with laughter to the point where the dogs were looking at me funny and I couldn't get enough air.

I mean, horrible, anti-PC, foul, vulgar, despicable but hilarious. There was even a little redeeming virtue in the latter half. I loved the part where he mentioned to his assistant that he just beat the crap out of a bunch of kids and for the first time felt good about himself.

:)

You gotta see it if horrible language and in your face naughtiness don't bother you. It's just too funny.
posted by MikeM at 2:02 PM    

 
Hotel Splendido, a small luxury hotel in Portofino Italy.

Need I say more? Donations welcome!

posted by MikeM at 2:38 PM    

 
Here is a good article on why it is Time to Dump Internet Explorer. I use FireFox at home and at work. I find it to be faster and cleaner than IE, and far more secure!

posted by MikeM at 7:44 AM    

 
I woke up around an hour ago. Wow was I tired! City of Heroes is one addictive game. I should make sure I have nothing else planned for today before going in again...
posted by MikeM at 1:05 PM    

 
WOW! I just played my first session of "City of Heroes"! This is possibly the best game I have ever played. I wish I had ALL of the powers, and not just the two you start with. BUT Iam finding new ways to mix powers and develop a plan of action. Wow - nice game. I'm exhausted. It's 3am, and I woke at 6:00am - pushing 21 hrs. Goodnight!
posted by MikeM at 3:04 AM    

 
I just found Blackwell's Online Bookshop, who has prices that rival and beat Amazon's - mainly due to the free shipping! I'll have to do some comparison shopping...
posted by MikeM at 11:13 AM    

 
StephenKing.com: The Official FAQ has a note about Kingdom Hospital on DVD - in October! WOO!

It also looks like they will begin showing the remaining episodes now - apparently there were several petitions and such online. KH has quite a cult following! Next episode June 24, 9pm.

Kingdom Hospital on ABC
posted by MikeM at 7:51 AM    

 
It's been a slow week on the home front, I have discovered a trivia channel on IRC - made the top 50! Of course, my score is 134 right now, ranked 45th, and the #1 guy has over 4050 pts. *sigh*

Still waiting for Home Depot to call back about the carpet installation - you would think that it wouldn't take 2 weeks to tell me how much it will cost to put carpet in a 10x10 room.

TV has been dull and boring since ABC took Kingdom Hospital off the air. No warning, no announcements, it just vanished to be replaced by a second hour of "Extreme Makeover". Ugh. The last show was before MAY. I have written, but don't expect any satisfaction. I can only hope that they put the 15 episodes on DVD at some point. They only broadcast the first 10 episodes! Bastards.

I finally purchased all five seasons of Babylon 5 on DVD. Had them on VHS, but wanted them on DVD for the sake of the extra tidbits that come on DVDs most times.

I am going to spend a week in Roanoke after the 4th of July, so I'll try to visit all my friends then!

posted by MikeM at 7:44 AM    

 
if you like Harry Potter, you may like some of the Fan Fiction out there, such as that by Cassandra Claire, who I believe is even better than Rowling's novels! There are adult situations and innuendo - not for children.

posted by MikeM at 8:12 AM    

 
I may have jumped the gun on that last note. Patty is going to get a professional opinion on the subject, and we will be working closely together to come to a resolution that will be best for both of us.

I believe that I would be OK if we decided that we shouldn't be together any more. I know this is a shock for some of you - but I have lived alone for pretty much a month now, and I've been OK. Some problems, but basically OK. The freedom is nice, the loneliness isn't - but I can deal with that.

I am actually looking forward to selling the house and moving - it just remains to be seen whether or not I move into a larger house with Patty or a smaller one alone.

Everything is on hold while Patty deals with some issues, consults professionals, and tries to work out her problems. I'll be OK with all this, although I do have a tendency to spend more when I'm under stress (I'll try to keep it rational - no 40" TV yet.)

I am going to make the effort to remain friends with Patty. Without getting creepy-stalky, I want to keep her as a friend. Maybe at some point in the future we can double-date.

Patty is looking at apartments, so that she and her friend (that has been letting her stay in her small apartment) can move somewhere larger, and have more room. There is also the issue of Patty's portion of the furniture and such. We may end up renting a storage unit somewhere for part of her stuff and maybe part of mine! Yes - I believe that Patty will be staying in the area. She may still move to NJ, but for now she will be local. That's a good thing, I believe.

I've been making preliminary plans for either an apartment or a condo - leaning towards the condo, but that might be long-term planning, with a year or so in an apt just to let the sale of the house, the divorce, and all those financial things percolate. Once they are all dealt with, I'll get a condo or maybe a house with a 'hardscaped' & fenced back yard.

'Hardscape' is a cool word. Thanks Brian!

posted by MikeM at 11:38 PM    

 
GOOD NEWS!

There may be a reconciliation in the works for Patty and I! She is coming home today, and we will work all of this out. I think we both have to make changes in the way we go about this business of marriage, but we will be happy - possibly happier than before!

And we may still sell the house and buy a larger one...

posted by MikeM at 7:34 AM    

 
Tom's Hardware just did a mini-review of the Averatec AV3220H1, which is very similiar to the laptop we bought Patty a few months back. Not bad - look into Averatec if you are in the market for a laptop!
posted by MikeM at 9:13 AM    

 
Oh.
Dear.
We Like The Moon

posted by MikeM at 4:19 PM    

 
Another reason to not use Internet Explorer. Computerworld | Internet Explorer carved up by zero-day hole

Try anything else - Netscape, Mozilla, FireFox - anything! MSIE is NOT secure and seriously cannot be made secure without disabling 90% of its utility, such as Javascript and active scripting. There is no reason to use a browser that is so full of holes when others exist that are far superior!

I use FireFox - it works fine! Also, all of the ones names above automatically import your MSIE favorites list into their bookmarks, so you will have all of your favorite links right there in the new browser!
posted by MikeM at 1:35 PM    

 
More email danger - Just Say No to opening spams, strange emails, attachments, or anything else you aren't expecting. This one actually only requires you to click on a link in the email to visit a website - where you will be infected by a trojan.
Demonize-T Trojan Steals Passwords, Keystrokes

posted by MikeM at 9:35 AM    

 
The virus I just posted about is W32.Netsky.AC@mm.
posted by MikeM at 3:24 PM    

 
Another nasty virus-laden email came to me today - be very careful guys! The emails are getting nastier and trickier! This one pretended to be from Symantec/Norton - complete with an attached file to run to clean up my supposed infection.

Remember - never run an attachment unless you EXPECTED it.

Below is the text of the email:

**********************************

Dear user of mikem.net,

We have received several abuses:

- Hundreds of infected e-Mails have been sent
from your mail account by the new MSBlast.B worm
- Spam email has been relayed by the backdoor
that the virus has created

The malicious file uses your mail account to distribute
itself. The backdoor that the worm opens allows remote attackers
to gain the control of your computer. This new worm
is spreading rapidly around the world now
and it is a serios new threat that hits users.

Due to this, we are providing you to remove the
infection on your computer and to
stop the spreading of the malware with a
special desinfection tool attached to this mail.

If you have problems with the virus removal file,
please contact our support team at support@symantec.com.
Note that we do not accept html email messages.


Norton AntiVirus Research Team
Attach: Fix_MSBlast.B_16656.cpl

posted by MikeM at 2:52 PM    

 
Here is a nice list of all current (and many older) Graphics cards - compared! Finally you can see how your current card stacks up to the newer competition!
posted by MikeM at 2:08 PM    

 
This looks kinda interesting...
Second Life: Your World. Your Imagination.
posted by MikeM at 8:26 AM    

 
Read this, and weep at the sheer incompetence and stupidity of those who are supposed to be protecting us from ourselves.
MSNBC - Missing: A Laptop of DEA Informants
posted by MikeM at 2:12 PM    

 
Nice, relaxing weekend. I enjoy tinkering with computers, and this weekend I got to install a new XP Home system from scratch, restore the stuff I had saved (on another drive) to the new system, test it all out and give it back to the happy owner. DSL came up just fine once on-site, and I spent another few hours rewiring the snake nest behind the desk and installing the 9 critical and 18 recommended patches. Several more appeared after those were installed, the third boot came up with no new patches required. I also updated Norton and Ad-Aware, so the box is pretty much up to date and secure against invaders.

Then I hit the road and drove over to Brian's for a Memorial Day barbeque, ate a great dinner that couldn't be beat and enjoyed the conversations and the mellow weather until the sky went dark and the skeeters came nosing 'round. Then we went indoors and continued the conversations.

Good people - I enjoy that sort of thing every now and again - I need to get out more, I think.
posted by MikeM at 8:59 AM    

 
Reprinted from Slashdot... Slashdot | The World's Most Dangerous Password: "'Minutemen ICBMs were deployed in the early 1960s, and grew to over 1000 in number. They were allegedly protected from a 'rogue launch' by an approach known as PAL (Permissive Action Link). The PAL required that the correct 8-digit launch code be entered by the missiliers before the missile would establish ignition. What if all the PAL codes had been set to '00000000,' and 'everyone' in the Strategic Air Command knew it? That is unbelievably what happened, as described in this article from the Center for Defense Information. Not exactly a great example for getting people to choose difficult passwords!"


posted by MikeM at 7:52 AM