iSpam

Is it possible to visit any site this morning without seeing at least one more story about the hype machine? This morning, Wired blew my mind with no less than 12 iStories on the their front page, concerning the mythical 2nd coming of the next best thing. Starting to think the unmentioned word needs added among Yougov's annoying internet terms list.

Game pulled for not being PC

Appears, MindQuiz for the Ninento DS has run into European trouble for using a retarded term. Ubisoft and the Japanese development team are working on a solution.

Movie Review: Sicko

Sicko isn't going to convert any of the Michael Moore haters. If you want to spit on the ground and kiss your Ronald Reagan wallet photo anytime you hear Moore's name mentioned in public, this film isn't for you.

After watching his movie, you'll admit Sicko contains a touch of Moore's opinion spread amongst its facts. In some ways, the film fails as a documentary. However Sicko, is the closest thing Moore has made to a true documentary in years. Possibly ever. Only Roger & Me comes to mind as comparable work. In spite of a few flaws, Sicko is brilliant. One of the most levelheaded pictures Hollywood has put on the big screen in years.

Does Sicko run long in the tooth during a middle act occurring in France? Moore could have trimmed ten minutes out and achieved a more concise documentary. Seeking to bring a point home that providing one additional service will not bankrupt the United States, he unintentionally roams from his health care theme. During the middle act, his intent seems to border on, "we're still in Iraqi, we should have listened, France is our friend, and all of France's socialist services beat the USA government easily." In spite of his deviation, Sicko continues to progress and manages to tell an enthralling story.

Moore manages to take a few Ground Zero workers to Cuba in his last act. He stages what borders between an opportunistic photo op and outright exploitation of the Ground Zero workers, while on a boat near Guantanamo Bay. Even so, Moore salvages the last act of Sicko, in such a dramatic way, it could almost bring a tear to a normal person's eye.

Moore's look into the American health care system spares no one. Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline feared what their employees might say to Moore while he worked on Sicko, instructing their employees not to have any contact with Moore. He tells the story of friend and foe, avoiding shots at Bush for the most part, and tries to stray from influencing the film's eventual outcome. He fails at times and succeeds at others. But his narrative way produces a movie that entertains, examines an important issue, and could bring this issue back into the next election.

Moore is often criticized for being anti-American or unpatriotic. After this film, you might leave with a new found respect for Moore. He's transformed himself into one of the biggest political activist for working class Americans. Any guy that uses the Bill of Rights and defends them, can't be all bad, regardless of what Fox News tells you.

Conan live action movie appears on again

New Line moved forward to making the Conan deal yesterday. Rumor today says the deal is done.

Our laws are your laws?

Been a hard week for file services on the Net. TorrentSpy and ISOHunt forced at gunpoint to accept the new filerights system. MPAA filed suits against YouTVpc and Peekvid. Demonoid is down as they move servers in an attempt to stay ahead of the BREIN foundation.

Watch in disbelief as a Court in California tells servers in Europe how they have to do business and what laws it believes should apply in a country where the California court has zero jurisdiction.

iWaiters for Sale

Can you believe there are actually iPhone waiters offering to stand in line for a price? It even gets weirder, there is a price war among the waiters.

Masters Of Science Fiction finally airs (for a moment)

Starting August 4th, for four weeks at 10pm each Saturday night, ABC premieres a Masters of Science Fiction episode.

Professor Steve Harding narrates the "mini-series." August 4th, A Clean Escape, from a John Kessel's story and directed by Mark Rydell. August 11th brings The Awakening from Michael Petroni and Howard Fast. Jerry Was A Man drops onto the screen August 18th. The mini-series ends on August 25th with a Harlan Ellison story, directed by Jonathan Frakes. Starring John Hurt and Brian Dennehy.

Screw ABC for scrapping this project before it aired. The order went from a full season to a mid-season replacement without airing once. Then ABC cut the order to 6 episodes that were made during the initial 13 order. We get to see 4 episodes in dead air summer time on a non-promoted Saturday night at 10pm. After the directors and writers that signed on board for this project, it could have been special. ABC reduced the show to a "mini-series" of dumped programming.

Trust us, it only works in Vista. No, really.

Microsoft credibility took another hit this morning. Halo 2 and Shadowrun are being sold as Vista only programs. Razor 1911 released a patched Vista only program, that now works on Windows XP. Halo 2 and Shadowrun appear not to need the special function libraries of DirectX 10. Microsoft has claimed these programs could not be released for Windows XP because of the DirectX 10 function calls.

From the Day of Silence

Over at Wired, Eliot Van Buskirk continued to devote large portions of Listening Post towards the cause. DL.TV started their podcast discussing the Day of Silence. Slashdot did their part as well.

Felix Miller of Last.FM decided to play the role of dissenter on his blog. And solidly got flogged by almost everyone that commented there. Which suggests, if you sell your soul for a few pieces of silver, people have trouble believing anything you write or say.

SaveNetRadio added servers and still reported its largest spike ever during yesterday's site visits. The Radio and Internet Radio News letter also encountered server issues from the traffic swell. RAIN noted that numerous callers to House and Senate staff office phones, got nothing but busy signals throughout the day.

June 26th: Day of Silence

Supreme Court rules against free speech

The Bong Hits 4 Jesus kid lost 5-4 in the Supreme Court decision. Chief Justice Roberts summary, “A principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.”

While Justice Breyer dissented and warned, "One concern is that, while the holding is theoretically limited to speech promoting the use of illegal drugs, it could in fact authorize further viewpoint-based restrictions."

John Paul Stevens wrote, "This case began with a silly nonsensical banner, (and) ends with the court inventing out of whole cloth a special First Amendment rule permitting the censorship of any student speech that mentions drugs, so long as someone could perceive that speech to contain a latent pro-drug message."

If you haven't got enough iPhone hype yet...

Frameshift13v3 authored a cool little Microsoft vs iPhone Ytmnd. IPhonekiller will give you a smile. Never heard of YTMND? It's an audio visual site that features digital graffiti and art.

Conan: Red Nails Details

On 6/18/07, Steve Gold dropped a nugget in his REDBLOG that few picked up on. He annouced the full cast for Conan: Red Nails as well additional details and the release intent.

"You will see an R rated RED NAILS. There will also be a mass-market PG-13
cut and an UNRATED DIRECTOR'S CUT . What you can expect in every cut is
amazing art, an epic story and great performances."

"We are in the process of putting up onsite some film audio files so you can
hear RON PERLMAN curse in Cimmerian!"

Cast
Ron Perlman (hellboy) - Conan
Cree Summer (the boondocks) - Valeria
Marg Helgenberger (CSI) - Tascela
James Marsden (X-men) - Techotl
Clancy Brown (Justice League) - Olmec
Mark Hamill (Star Wars) - Tolkemec

Worth 2 minutes of your time

Girl On Our Vent Server kept me laughing for about 5 minutes this morning.

Washington Post iPhone editoroial cartoon

Can anyone else sum up all the iPhone hype this concisely?

Another way to skin an IPhone

Lifehacker offers a perfect solution for anyone jonesing to get their paws on an iPhone but unable to get one or unwilling to spend the money on one. Use a Windows Mobile Phone and skin it to look like an iPhone.

You will only have some of the iPhone's eye candy and not all of the iPhone functionality. But keep in mind, there are a lot of people who will spend half a grand to gain an iPhone solely for its look. How many people are actually going to chew up their phone battery using the iPhone's additional features.

Most recent Transformers Trailer

Bay might pull off a monster hit with Transformers. Face it, all of the movies with a 2 or 3 in their title this year have been C products at best. Ok, except 300, which gets a solid A if you love action or art.

But this trailer, clearly screams, I can blow stuff up, without a plot, and make the masses pay to watch. And leave them begging for a sequel.

Another Spider-Man cartoon in 2008

Last week, the CW network announced a new Spider-man cartoon for 2008. From producer Greg Weisman, of Gargoyles and The Batman fame, and director Victor Cook known from the Hellboy: Blood and Iron animated movie, comes yet another cartoon done in the Korean arthouse style.

Herc from AiCN reminded me, AiCN ran this story back in March. Nice one on beating the official announcement by 2.5 months.

US Military developing an industrial Sims version of you

Simulex and the US Department of Defense are attempting to reproduce reactions of 40+ country's populations. The project, Sentient World Simulation, examines political circumstances, military factors, economic conditions, social entropy, data information, existing infrastructure, and projected infrastructure. DoD event feeds into the simulation allow Psychological Operations to predict reactions and test projections.

Currently using a 100 human behavior model per 1 actual person ratio, SWS reduction plans are for a genuine one model-to-one person ratio level. Deriving each digital model from birth records, job titles, municipal licenses, public data, and available internet information. SWS intends creating your duplicate with similar stats, but avoiding recognizable real world names.

Digital Doppleganger or Presidental Populous?

Microsoft is In UR BBC.

The Open Source Consortium wrote to the Office of Fair Trading requesting that it reconsider the decision granting Microsoft a two year proprietary window for enveloping BBC’s internet TV services.

Funny how Microsoft offers cash to open source agreements with one hand and crushes it with the other hand, wait never mind.

Podcasters win this round, Broadcasting Treaty sent back to committee level.

The EFF reported the Broadcasting Treaty now appears stalled for 2007. Creating a new intellectual property right for television, cable signals, satellite, and radio broadcasting could have far reaching affects on the internet. One question which the WIPO struggled to answer, "What if someone broadcasts something from the public domain, then claims ownership of the new broadcast?"

No word on how many signatures the EFF's podcaster petition drive collected.

Dr. Widevine or: How I Learned to Stop the Torrent and Love the Stream

Brain Barker of Widevine apparently convinced an unnamed U.S. television network that web-streamed shows will be recorded. Luckily, he works for a company providing a service that claims to stop piracy of streamed video.

Sure, everyone records "quality" video full of artifacts. Anyone want some Chewlie's gum?

Lunar Lens Takes A Step Forward

NASA's interest in a lunar based space telescope increased with a recent breakthrough. Researchers combined an ionic liquid surface and a layer of silver which produced a favorably reflective mirror.

Here's a link to Nature's weekly Podcast, the telescope interview is located around 2 minutes in.

First daughters are pirates

Mitchell L. Silverman, an attorney, sent a letter to the RIAA's Director of Investigative Services concerning President George Bush's daughters making an illegal mix cd for his father's day present.

Tralalaptop

Recall Microsoft's touch table last month? This month, Microsoft researchers are showing off a laptop which uses multi-touch technology.

Radio Paradise joins the protest

Radio Paradise signed on for Internet Radio's Day of Silence on June 26th, 2007.

Bots Strike Back?

Time is reporting 1,500 Defense Department computers were taken offline to protect them from a coordinated digital attack.

Something Dr. Evil might own

Stick a huge laser inside a 747 and fly it around the USA, call it an "Airborne Laser Aircraft." Meet the mobile megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam. Designed to be a part of the missile defense system.

Shatner SOL for Trek XI?

Last January, William Shatner leaked details about the new Star Trek movie. Now it appears that J.J. Abrams offered a cameo appearance to Leonard Nimoy for Star Trek XI and choose not to offer William Shatner a cameo.

June 26 a protest day for net radio.

Internet radio providers Live365, AccuRadio, and KCRW have signed up to sign off for 1 day. Except for brief Public Service Annoucements, on June 26 only silence will be heard on these stations.

Pricewaterhouse annual report predicts Compact Disc minority by 2010

This year's Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report predicts within 3 years digital music distribution will surpass world-wide physical music distribution. In other words, by 2010, there will be more annual digital downloads purchased than compact discs sold.

Introduced in 1982, the compact disc has held onto market share in the increasing digital world of tubes, because of the Music Industry's reluctance to adopt digital download formats.

You have to wonder if the Music Industry will accept an international accounting and consulting firm of Pricewaterhouses's stature telling them the CD's days are numbered.

Alberto Gonzales ignores the Presidential Records Act

White House officials are required to keep and preserve all official government communications. 88 White House officials have been named by the Committee of Oversight and Government Reform for using parallel email accounts to circumvent the Presidential Records Act. Alberto Gonzales knew officials were using Republican National Committee email accounts for official communications, eluding the Presidential Records Act, and chose to do nothing about it.

Thank Karl Rove's PA for bringing this issue to the public's attention, "I now have a RNC BlackBerry which you can use to email me at any time. No security issues like my WH email."

Tanya Andersen article at P2PNET.net

"Through this lawsuit, I've been humiliated, embarrassed, shamed, and my privacy has been greatly violated by the other side.

They not only deposed my 10-year-old daughter, but, deposed my grown step-kids (who I've long been divorced from the father), friends, etc. "

-Tanya Andersen

RIAA management is going to tell your boss.

The RIAA not content with just taking a dump on it's customers, attempted to work over a Blogger who criticized the RIAA. The RIAA threatened to tell his employer. Tell them what? He downloads, he's a pirate? No, that he doesn't agree with the RIAA.

I'd love to use Carlin's 7 words to share my love for the RIAA at this time, but I'll restrain myself. The RIAA is in for some tough times ahead, after all, with your head shoved that far up your rear end, you can't see the world around you.

The world is safe from WMDs!

Four years after Saddam's government ended in Iraqi, the search for Weapon's of Mass Distraction appears over. The United States and Britain circulated a joint proposal within the United Nations Security Council to end the Iraq Arms Inspection Program.

Washington Post reports on FBI data abuses.

"Inadequate internal control's" are being blamed for the FBI's increasing abuse of National Security Letters.

NASA's problem worsens.

A torn heat-resistant blanket on the orbiting shuttle, now the space station's oxygen and water computers failed. Russian engineers have yet to confirm what caused the computers failure, engineers suspect the computers' failure could be linked to a power source. The space station has a 56 day supply of oxygen left.

Iran’s parliament favors executing porn stars.

Could we send Paris there now and save a few bucks.

AT&T : the new Death star 3.0

First, Frontline detailed AT&T's co-operation with the NSA's domestic data logging program in Spying On The Home Front. Now, AT&T has decided to work on implementing a deep data packet inspection program of their own. After all, the NSA already logs AT&T network data to keep you safe, AT&T plans to deploy technology for keeping you safe from pirated content on AT&T's network. AT&T claims they will not violate user privacy or FCC directives.

James W. Cicconi, an AT&T senior vice president, started working last week with the MPAA and the RIAA to develop anti-piracy technology. The old AT&T death star logo joke appears relevant again.

Arrest a Ninja.

For all the people that ponder who wins in Pirates vs Ninjas, it's the police. Italian Police arrested a former Russian soldier, who had been robbing farmers in Northern Italy. Dressed in an all black suit, a black head bandana, wielding a bow, and carrying a knife tied to his leg; the ninja's luck ran out yesterday. Attempting to elude police using his escape prowess and a bicycle, police found the ninja hiding in an abandoned farmhouse.

Robot Chicken: Star Wars

June 17th, 2007 at 10pm (est) the Cartoon Network premieres Robot Chicken's 30 minute Star Wars episode. Here's a sample of what Adultswim has done to the force.

India plans a human tag & release program

Swadhin Kshatriya, the State Housing Department Principal Secretary, approved a plan to begin tagging residents living in the slums of Mumbai, India with a Bio-ID.

The biometric identification system is based on creating an individual's unique number from the image of their eyeball and thumb impression. The Indian state of Maharashtra has yet to reveal how many of the 4.5 million people living in affected area of Mumbai will be placed into the "identification process".

A useful skill everyone should become proficient at.

Found this thanks to a British site listing 101 useful websites.

When You're 64.

In March 2007, Paul McCartney left a 40 year relationship with Capitol Records. During May 2007, Paul posted the Dance Tonight video on YouTube. On June 5th 2007, Paul released Memory Almost Full. The reviews are a mixed bag. The aggregate rating appears to be around a 3 out of 5. If you're tired of the soulless junk that passes for music today, give Memory Almost Full a chance.

Torrentspy court ordered to spy on users.

Unsealed on June 8th, a May 29th court decision, reveals Torrentspy is now under court order to keep user logs. The logs will record visitors and track user activity.

Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney, has until June 12th to file an appeal. Torrentspy's Privacy Policy has not been updated to reflect the court order because the site is still fighting the court order.

TWiT produces 100th episode.

Remember the Screen Savers on TechTv? After E! turned the channel into G4 and a smoking shell of its former self, the Screen Savers got axed. Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and John C. Dvorak continue working in the tech field. Among their various projects, websites, and podcasts; TWiT remains a strong homage to what made the Screen Savers work.

Colin Powell on Meet The Press (06/10/2007 appearance)

"I would get rid of Guantanamo and I’d get rid of the military commissions system, and use established procedures in federal law or in the manual for courts martial. I would do that because I think it’s more equatable and it’s more understandable in constitutional terms. But I’d also do it because every morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere, is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds.

And so essentially we have shaken the belief that the world had in America’s justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open and creating things like the military commission."
-Colin Powell June 10th,2007

A man of principle and virtue, no wonder there was no place for him in the Whitehouse.

All your rights are belong to us.

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864

A 5 year old article based on a quote that is 143 years old, but still relevant today.

The Seinfeldo's

Did the Soprano's really end on a whimper or take the higher road? Have your say here or here. You can even swing over to HBO and let them know how you feel.

Money makes pigs happy.

RIAA and MPAA continue to fund anti-piracy legislation.

Fanmade Transformers Video

Ok, I promised myself that I would only post during the week, but after being turned onto to this video today, I had to share.

Evilresident93 posted a compilation of all Transformers movie trailers and teasers into a video. He used the Mutemath theme song from the upcoming Transformers' soundtrack.

Very Nice! Wii Tutorial

Hackaddict posted a pimp walkthru for streaming your iTunes onto your Wii.

SoundExchange wants "administrative fees" of $1 billion a year

In March 2007, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board decided to increase Internet broadcasters rates by 30% per song streamed over the internet, the CRB also added a minimum annual fee of $500 per Internet radio "channel."

On June 7th, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Pandora, and Live365 sent letters to US lawmakers emphasizing they owe SoundExchange "administrative fees" of more than $1 billion dollars a year for collecting the increased CRB royalities effective July 15th unless the Internet Radio Equality Act passes Congress.

SoundExchange, the non-profit music industry entity, admits the levied charge of $500 per "channel" is supposed to only cover their administrative costs. Last year, SoundExchange collected a total of $20 million dollars from the Internet radio industry. Examining the new "administrative fee", means that RealNetworks which hosted 400,000 unique subscribed channels in 2006, would owe an annual administrative charge of 200 million dollars in addition to the retroactive 2006 rate hike per song played.

"While we don't imagine SoundExchange would keep this $1 billion all to itself, this lack of clarity is absurd," RealNetworks spokesman Matt Graves told CNET News.com.

I predict a Cease and Desist letter

Last week, MSNBC debuted a new service on their news site. Rex Sorgatz, Executive Producer at MSNBC.com, calls the service, "answers visualized over time". The service, IPredict is aggregated news. Propelled by user's votes with annotated changes in the news story marked on a graph. IPredict resembles a Statistical Process Control graph compressed into a timeline covering topical news headlines.

Currently, the sample graphs ask boring questions about Gas Reaching 4 Dollars a Gallon by Labor Day or Harry Potter Dying in the Next Book?

Presently, MSNBC has yet to ask the risky questions using the service. When should the USA leave Iraqi? Should Paris have been released? When will Apple send a Cease-and-Desist letter over the name?

Amazing 3D photo exhibit

MicroSoft's Photosynth project unveiled an exhibit containing three-dimensional images of Ely Cathedral, Burghley House, Royal Crescent, Bath, Blackpool Ballroom, Scottish Parliament Building, and Trafalgar Square. The visualizations are compiled from numerous photos stitched over digital wireframes. And will be featured in the BBC series, "How We Built Britain."

No word on when the site will allow everyday users access to the technology.

American Gangster Trailer Online.

The Soprano's are ending. The Departed was a big Hollywood hit. And yes, its a remake of the Hong Kong's "Mou Gaan Dou", known to international audiences as Infernal Affairs.

But, what should hollywood do to capitalize on the gangster pic? Toss the screen writer of Schindler's List & Gangs of New York into a project with the director of Alien, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. Add two well known actors, drop some music into the project, and bam..

On November 2nd, 2007, Ridley Scott, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, and Steven Zaillian drop American Gangster onto the big screen.

Might be time to watch Apple stock

Combine an iPod with a BlackBerry, toss in the Apple marque and Apple's marketing power, what do you get? Around 2009, when the lower cost version of iPhone appears, Business Week believes the yearly market for iPhones will be over 10 billion dollars a year. Its an interesting prediction, if those numbers come to pass, iPhone could become 10% of Apple's yearly market cap.

And the puppet master is..

According to the Washington Post, Vice President Cheney has played a large role in the NSA warrantless digital searches and the Gonzales debacle.

The Justice Department has objected to the NSA surveillance program which allows warrantless monitoring of phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas. While the Whitehouse and Cheney have supported it.

Jim Morrison releases a new song, sorta.

Satellite Party released it's 1st CD on May 29th, 2007. The band is a formation of Jane's Addiction's singer and Extreme's lead guitarist, along with three new members. Perry Farrell and Nuno Bettencourt have earned mixed reviews concerning Satellite Party's initial release.

Although, classic rock fans should give the 11th track a listen, Woman in The Window features an unreleased poem from Jim Morrison. The Doors singer's vocal track is edited throughout the song.

Fahmy claims Safemedia can stop illegal P2P

Yesterday, Safwat Fahmy appeared in front of the House Science and Technology Committee. During Fahmy's testimony, he claimed Safemedia's "P2P Disaggregator" technology uses traffic-shaping systems and network-filtering systems that can destroy contaminated P2P networks. And Clouseau will make it impossible to send or receive any illegal P2P transmission on any installed network. However, Clouseau allows tunneling and SSH and never opens packets to determine file legality.