July 30, 2004
Real Network, is Real Dumb
First, read John Gruber’s post about Real Network’s reverse-engineering the Fairplay Digital Rights Restriction Management (DRM) to play Real’s version of DRM. Then, follow along, or skip to the end.
OK, are you done reading that? And what comes to mind? Think about it, nothing yet? Let’s go and think about what happened between Apple and Real Networks:
- Apple invents the iPod
- Apple wanted to sell music online
- Music industry equates mp3 with Satan
- To sell music online, Apple encodes everything using FairPlay
- FairPlay is a type of Fairplay Digital Rights Restriction Management (DRM)
- This DRM has not been licenced outside of Apple
- Real wants to get in on the online music craze
- Real started an online download site, called Harmony
- Harmony competes with iTunes
- Harmony can’t play on the iPod
- The iPod accounts for over 50% of the handheld market
- Real wanted to licence FairPlay
- Apple denied them
- Real reverse engineered FairPlay
- Apple is mad
- Apple will surely change something in the next iTunes update, breaking Harmony compliance
- Your Harmony filles will, once again, not be usable on the iPod
Well, we don’t really know, but this is how it might work:
- Buy some music off of Real Networks’ Harmony
- Finish downloading music
- Run it through Harmony on your computer
- Harmony reads the Real Network DRM file
- Harmony then recodes the file into FairPlay
- Harmony moves it to the iPod
- You can listen your music on the iPod
OK, so what is wrong with this? The consumer gets to buy music from both Real and iTunes, what could be the problem. Well, Real didn’t legally licence FairPlay, and the iPod can’t play Real Networks DRM-encoded file as mentioned above. And Real Networks is complaining about freedom this, freedom that for customers.
If you made it this far, you also might be wondering what the solution is. Should Apple licence FairPlay to Real? Should we just throw our hands up in despair? Apple probably won’t licence FairPlay because iTunes is a loss-leader for the iPod.
It is simple: Harmony should just convert the files to mp3. That’s right, all of this could be solved by Real Network converting and/or using the de facto industry standard of portable music, the mp3. Simple, huh?
But they won’t. Why?, you ask. Because their music industry masters are scared shitless about the letter (and one number) m.p.3. They want to make sure that the file isn’t released into some p2p network. But more important, they want control. It is trivial to buy the same exact CD at a store and rip it to mp3, and then release it. Often, movies and music are released online before the official release. This is called a 0-day release. What this is really about, is the music industry not trusting their customers, by putting weak DRM on the file. FairPlay has already been cracked. But to the casual use (most of them) FairPlay is A-Okay, because it is flexible enough for daily use, but stops naive users from copying the files.
This is the real crime about DRM: That it restricts even your Fair Use rights but it does nothing to restrict those who make their living making bootleg copies of CD’s.
Political Compass
The last time I took the Political Compass on January 06, 2003 my score was:
Economic Left (-) / Right (+): -6.25
Libertarian (-) / Authoritarian (+): -6.82
Now, 19 months later it is:
Economic Left (-) / Right (+): -6.75
Libertarian (-) / Authoritarian (+): -6.62
So that means that I have become more economically left, and a little bit more authoritarian. As for the upcoming election, only Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich share even my side of the left/libertarian side!
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July 29, 2004
Time to find a new, "hipper" cult*
Just when you had decided that Madonna and a host of other celebrities were right, and you joined the cult religion of Kabbalah (see note), comes the sign that your cult is now passe, and "So over." Just like the Meatpacking District was dealt a fatal blow of coolness last week by a New York Times article, or how pilates is now last year (don't get me started about Yoga for Dogs), Kabbalah is now officially over. You can now get your own Kabbalah Red String at Target. Yup, that Target. Time for all of those celebs to go back to that other Cult.
UPDATE
OK, so calling Kabbalah a cult is pretty straight up harsh, but in my defense, the strain of Kabbalah which Madonna et al adhere to is not the traditional Kabbalah handed down from Jewish mysticism. And it is especially not the Kabbalah that the Hasidic and Conservative Jews follow. What the rich and aimless follow, is nothing more than a cult of personality - following a "new" cool and hip world view, without really stopping and actually understanding what it is all about. I am no Kabbalah scholar, but from the different interviews of celebrities discussing Kabbalah, it is fairly clear that their involvement is nothing but a "me-too" endeavor. I mean, ask them about how Kabbalah and Gnosticism intertwine, and I am sure that a blank face will greet your question.
July 27, 2004
Next stop, Nike 23rd Street station
Today there is an article in the Times about the MTA quietly releasing RFP's for branding subway stations, a la stadiums, to make up for a projected $1 billion shortfall. Would you want to take the "L" brought to you by Nike to Barnes & Noble 14th Street/Union Square? I sure wouldn't - it is enough that there are huge advertisements already on the subway platforms and in the train cars; but to start naming stations after the highest bidder is just commercialism gone amok - even in a city of huge commercialization.
Others have pointed out that different stations are already branded: Times Square (New York Times), Rockefeller Center, Yankee Stadium (but it does stop at the stadium) and Columbia. But these entities are uniquely New York City institutions; the companies who will invariably win the bidding war will be large corporations (who else could afford the price?) with little, or no presence in New York City. The Dells and Apples, Nike's and Adidas', the car manufacturers, eBay, Amazon.com - you name it. No Dr. Z 23rd Street Station, no Nathan's Coney Island Station, no Katz Delancy Station. There is a difference between local entities having station names, and huge, faceless corporations based outside New York (both geographically and spiritually) gobbling up stations as a line-item on an advertising budget.
But, doesn't this discount the fact that New York City has the highest ad per square mile? You are already innudated by countless ads, what about one more? Would you like your fare raised instead? These are good questions, but they sidestep the issue.
I can live with the advertising all over the city, and what is currently in the subways, but we have to draw the line somewhere. There must be a different way that the MTA can raise funds, without raising our daily MetroCard fare. The Times reports that the MTA moves the equivalent of all Americans flying in an entire year, but in only 11 weeks! In three years the MTA moves the "equivalent of every man, woman and child on the planet!" So, if the MTA is bigger than the airlines, and the airlines were bailed out, then it stands to reason that the Federal government must help out New York, right?
Well, you would be wrong. New York constantly gets less money in Federal aid than we send to Washington in taxes. For every tax dollar sent to the Federal government, New York gets only $.85 back in funding. North Dakota, with less people than even the Borough of Brooklyn, gets $2.02 back each year (mostly due to military contracts I suppose)! I am all for income distribution, but let's distribute it fairly. Both highways and airlines are hugely subsidized, all I am asking for is similar attitude broaden to a system which moves more people than a four lane highway.
Tour de France spectator photography
jose luis rubiera · by misscaro
Great Tour photography from a German watching Stage 19 (the individual time trial).
July 22, 2004
Bush raises Taxes
This week, the White House blocked the extension of tax cuts that affect a majority of Middle Class Americans. The House bills would continue the $1,000 child tax credit, (it would be reduced to $700), along with continue the so-called "marriage penalty," which pushes two-income families into higher tax brackets (which is actually good - but more on that later), and an expansion of the 10-percent tax bracket to cut taxes for more middle-income families. So why did the Bush Administration, who has been harping on Kerry's supposed tax increases, kill a popular tax cut?
(The Bush White House was) fearful of a bill that could draw Democratic votes and dilute a Republican campaign theme, Republican negotiators said.
That's right, the Bush Administration is willing to financially hurt a large portion of America in order to stay in power. If we use the same standard which the Bush Administration holds Kerry up to (a specious one, by the way), President Bush just raised taxes 3 times.
This is exactly what is wrong with the Bush Administration. It favours political self-survival and partisan politics over governing America. Similar to when the Bush Administration failed to apprehend or attack Abu Musab al-Zarqawi 3 times because:
Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi's operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.
Do you really want your President to play games with people's lives and finances, only to keep their job?
July 20, 2004
eBay, now more broken
What is going on with eBay? In the last three days I have struggled through time-outs, redirects, and slow page refresh. It looks like eBay have started to append a session ID to each link and category. Well, this session ID has totally messed up the system - I wonder how many times a second their servers are calculating session ID's (it must be in the millions range due to the volume of traffic). Go to the category page (if you can get it to load), more than likley you will be redirected to the same page. The most disconcerting part of this, is that the page names (found in the title declaration in the page head) is non-descriptive of what the page actually does. More than likley it will say:
Buy everything on eBay - collectibles, digital cameras, computers, clothing, and sporting goods
Or some derivative; essentially the title is just useless marketing talk, not a location tool helping the user note the page location. eBay has grown more and more useless in the last month, to a point that I don't even want to use it anymore.
July 19, 2004
"do u love me?" Spam
I just got hit by a dictionary attack on my email account, where random names were added to my domain. Now I have over 1800 pieces of spam with the subject consisted of "do u love me?" and a blank body. I suspect, due to the non-existant payload and body, that this was just a "test" emailing, to see if the address would bounce. I don't have much time, or patience, to go through each header, but it seems that [a random sample] originate from the following sources:
- 202.8.214.142 - Asia Pacific Network Information Centre
- 219.45.48.40 - Softbank BB [Japanese]
- 201.0.45.26 - TELECOMUNICACOES DE SAO PAULO S.A
So I have a coordinated attack from the Asia Rim, Japan, and Brazil. This is frustrating on so many different levels. I think it is time to start restricting my wildcard addresses.
UPDATE: There, no more wildcard forwarding to my primary email. That stopped the flow of spam. No more making up email addresses to send to me people.
July 14, 2004
Viva L'indépendance!
Today is Bastille Day, marking the day the French people began the overthrow of King Louis XVI by storming the Bastille. As Americans we should be proud of this day and celebrate our sister-country's independence day. Our two countries are more intertwined than the current political climate might suggest. It was the French who gave aid, both momentarily and militarily, in our cause of independence. More importantly, it was the French naval blockade of Chesapeake Bay by Admiral de Grasse which allowed General Washington win at the Battle of Yorktown. This American victory, one of only a handful, turned the tide in the war and led to the Treaty of Paris in 1783 recognizing the United States and ending the war. Ultimately the spark of liberty which the French help ignite, in part to hamper the British, ignited the French Revolution.
French-bashing has all but become a full-fledge sport in this country, and I am ashamed of it. Both of our countries are experiencing tremendous changes in demographics, security, and position in world politics. Both of our countries need each other for the mutual defense against those who seek to destroy independence, both foreign and domestic. It is my hope that those who think the French are pushy and stuck-up actually visit France and find a people who are full of life, joy, and wonder.
It is fitting today that a Frenchman, Richard Virenque, won the 10th Stage at the Tour de France. I was listening to the finish on the radio, and the cheers of the people drowned out the reporter's voices. Tonight, herself and I will go to Le Bonne Soupe with friends and celebrate independence. I hope you will join this celebration if independence also.
Viva France! Viva L'indépendance!