Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems - ars technica

It's such a tremendously bad idea that it's almost bound to succeed. Microsoft has filed another patent, this one for an "advertising framework" that uses "context data" from your hard drive to show you advertisements and "apportion and credit advertising revenue" to ad suppliers in real time. Yes, Redmond wants to own the patent on the mother of all adware.

The application, filed in 2006, describes a multi-faceted, robust ad-delivering system that lives on a "user computer, whether it's part of the OS, an application or integrated within applications."

"Applications, tools, or utilities may use an application program interface to report context data tags such as key words or other information that may be used to target advertisements," says the filing. "The advertising framework may host several components for receiving and processing the context data, refining the data, requesting advertisements from an advertising supplier, for receiving and forwarding advertisements to a display client for presentation, and for providing data back to the advertising supplier."

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Google may still challenge incumbents for 700MHz spectrum - ars technica

The 700MHz auction rules have now been announced, and even though the fine print is not yet available, companies have started to weigh in. While it's no secret that incumbent telcos plan to bid on the newly-available spectrum, consumer groups are far more interested about what nonincumbents such as Google might do - and Google has provided a partial answer to that question: they're going to fight.

Google didn't get all that it wanted from the auction. It had earlier pledged to bid at least $4.6 billion if the FCC slapped four open access requirements on the available spectrum; the agency chose to apply only two. Whoever wins the largest 22MHz block of spectrum will need to run a network that is open to any safe device and to any application (the other 40 MHz will be auctioned off in smaller blocks and by region, and does not feature the same rules). But Google never said that it wouldn't bid if its wish list wasn't fulfilled, and the multibillion dollar question on everyone's mind is: will Google, or won't it?

Richard Whitt, Google's telecom and media counsel, called the new rules "real, if incomplete, progress," and then took a swipe at the traditional phone companies. "None of us like how the current system locks you into wireless service plans that limit the kind of phone or PDA you can use, prevent you from downloading and using the software of your choice, and charge you hefty termination fees if you try to get out," he wrote. "And it's hard to ignore how the existing wireless carriers talk a good game about the virtues of the free market, but prefer to keep us stuck in their closed market. Today the FCC took some concrete steps on the road to bringing greater choice and competition to all Americans."

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Senate Approves Tighter Rules on Ethics and Lobbying - NY Times

The Senate gave final approval today to a sweeping package of new ethics and lobbying rules, with an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats agreeing to better police the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists.

If President Bush signs the bill into law — and administration officials have indicated that he will — members of Congress will be subject to a number of new restrictions, which have grown out of a series of scandals. The legislation would ban them from receiving gifts, meals or travel from lobbyists, and would make it more difficult for lawmakers to quickly capitalize on their connections when they leave office.

The measure, which passed the Senate on a vote of 83 to 14, represents a significant cultural shift for Congress. But even as proponents hailed the measure as the broadest reform since Watergate, it remained unclear how the new provisions would be enforced.

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Russia plants flag on sea floor at North Pole - IHT

A Russian expedition traveled Thursday in a pair of submersibles more than four kilometers under the ice cap and deposited a Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole, making a symbolic claim to vast fields of oil and natural gas believed to be beneath the sea north of the Arctic Circle.

The expedition, covered intensely by Russian news organizations and state-controlled television, mixed high-seas adventure with the Russian tradition of polar exploration, but it was also an openly choreographed publicity stunt.

Inside the first of the minisubmarines to reach the sea floor were two members of Russia's lower house of Parliament, one of whom, Artur Chilingarov, had led the expedition to seek evidence reinforcing Russia's claim over the largely uncharted domain.

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Note: As always my emphasis

Shuttle heat shield may need repair - Reuters

NASA got a closer look on Sunday at a small, but deep gouge in the belly of the space shuttle Endeavour and said it had not decided whether it needed a repair to ensure the ship's safe return to Earth.

Shuttle astronauts used a robot arm to scan the damage with a laser that provided a three-dimensional view showing that the three-inch gash penetrated all the way through the thin tiles that protect the shuttle from heat as it flies through the atmosphere before landing.

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Karl Rove, Adviser to President Bush, to Resign - Washington Post

Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush's two national campaigns and his most prominent adviser through 6-1/2 tumultuous years in the White House, will resign at month's end and leave politics, a White House spokeswoman said this morning.

Bush plans to make a statement with Rove on the South Lawn this morning before the president departs for his ranch near Crawford, Tex. Rove, who holds the titles of deputy chief of staff and senior adviser, has been talking about finding the right time to depart for a year, colleagues said, and decided he had to either leave now or remain through the end of the presidency.

... Rove, 56, who escaped indictment in the CIA leak case, has been under scrutiny by the new Democratic Congress for his role in the firings of U.S. attorneys and in a series of political briefings provided to various agencies across government. Citing executive privilege, he defied a subpoena and refused to show up for a congressional hearing just two weeks ago on the allegedly improper use by White House aides of Republican National Committee email accounts. Fellow Bush advisers have said they believe the congressional probes have been aimed in part at driving Rove out.

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Iraq by the Numbers - TomDispatch.com

Sometimes, numbers can strip human beings of just about everything that makes us what we are. Numbers can silence pain, erase love, obliterate emotion, and blur individuality. But sometimes numbers can also tell a necessary story in ways nothing else can.

This January, President Bush announced his "surge" plan for Iraq, which he called his "new way forward." It was, when you think about it, all about numbers. Since then, 28,500 new American troops have surged into that country, mostly in and around Baghdad; and, according to the Washington Post, there has also been a hidden surge of private armed contractors -- hired guns, if you will -- who free up troops by taking over many mundane military positions from guarding convoys to guarding envoys. In the meantime, other telltale numbers in Iraq have surged as well.

Now, Americans are theoretically waiting for the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, to "report" to Congress in September on the "progress" of the President's surge strategy. But there really is no reason to wait for September. An interim report -- "Iraq by the numbers" -- can be prepared now (as it could have been prepared last month, or last year). The trajectory of horror in Iraq has long been clear; the fact that the U.S. military is a motor driving the Iraqi cataclysm has been no less clear for years now. So here is my own early version of the "September Report."

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You have to wonder who the sign is for, the driver or the pedestrian.

Jack Ohman - 30 July, 2007 

Just Don't Call Them Communes - U.S. News and World Report

It's the luxury edition of the American exurb: hilltop scenery, new-money mansions, horses galloping behind split-rail fences. About 25 miles west of Washington, D.C., Loudoun County boasts a median household income of $98,483, twice the national rate. It's the kind of place beloved by D.C. power brokers, whose sprawling estates serve as monuments to the American dream. These days, however, Loudoun County is also at the forefront of a very different if no less American vision: the commune.

The idea that like-minded individuals should forge a community is on something of a comeback tour. An online directory of "intentional communities" has more than doubled in the past two years to 1,295 in North America, and 20 new listings are added each month.

Past imperfect. But forget the term commune. Try "ecovillage," where residents live in Earth-friendly homes on communal land, or "cohousing," where a common house serves as a gathering place. Driven by a green ethos and discontent with impersonal suburbs, residents frequently dine together, share possessions, and baby-sit one another's children. But shared income is a thing of the past, and private homes are essential. Still, the old stereotypes of socialism, drugs, and rebellion dog these communities. "We've fought this for years," says Joani Blank, a cohousing advocate who lives in a divvied-up former market in Oakland, Calif. "Our ideology is about neighborhoods more than anything else."

Poverty and disillusionment drove many older communes to extinction, but the idea was reincarnated, particularly in Europe, in the post-Cold War era. By 1995, Danish activists Hildur and Ross Jackson had created the Global Ecovillage Network to promote sustainable living around the world. Even some of the most archetypal communes, such as the 1960s socialist experiment, the Farm in Tennessee, have reshaped themselves. In New York, the 175-acre EcoVillage at Ithaca boasts two 30-home neighborhoods, office space, and working farms.

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Aye, Spy

Snuggly the Security Bear reminds Americans that the government is watching us because it loves us.

A political animation by Mark Fiore

Watch it ...

DRM, Vista and Your Rights - polishlinux.org

In the US, France and a few other countries it is already forbidden to play legally purchased music or videos using GNU/Linux media players . Sounds like sci-fi? Unfortunately not. And it won’t end up on multimedia only. Welcome to the the new era of DRM!

In this article I would like to explain the problem of Digital Rights (or restrictions) Management, especially in the version promoted by Microsoft with the new Windows Vista release. Not everyone is familiar with the dangers of the new “standard” for the whole computer industry. Yes, the whole industry — because it goes way beyond the software produced by the giant from Redmond and its affiliates.

A similar (but a bit more specialized) term to DRM is Trusted Computing. The term is intentionally misleading. It does not try to improve the security of the user, but rather wants to ensure that the user can be “trusted”. Obviously it’s not about the trust, it’s about the money. The companies that deliver content (specially multimedia, but it’s not restricted to media only) to the client want to be able to control the way it is used. For example, they want the content to be displayed on approved media only, banning all the “illegal” applications (illegal does not mean that it violates the law, but rather the agreement between the client and the company that sells the media). More on Trusted Computing can be found (as always) in Wikipedia.

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It's from January, but still a good read if you are unfamiliar with what DRM really is.

Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits' - BBC

An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that the CIA was involved in editing entries.

Wikipedia Scanner allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's president.

It also purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

The tool, developed by US researchers, trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor.

... The site also indicates that a computer owned by the US Democratic Party was used to make changes to the site of right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

... In October 2005, a person using a Diebold computer removed paragraphs about Walden O'Dell, chief executive of the company, which revealed that he had been "a top fund-raiser" for George Bush.

... Earlier this year, Microsoft was revealed to have offered money to experts to trawl through entries about the company and its products to make corrections.

Staff at the US Congress have also previously been exposed for editing and removing sensitive information about politicians.

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Some people live closely guarded lives, fearful of encountering someone or something that might shatter their insecure spiritual foundation. This attitude, however, is not the fault of religion but of their own limited understanding. True Dharma leads in exactly the opposite direction. It enables one to integrate all the many diverse experiences of life into a meaningful and coherent whole, thereby banishing fear and insecurity completely.

- Lama Thubten Yeshe

Create your own Einstein images @ www.hetemeel.com

The problem isn't materialism as such. Rather it is the underlying assumption that full satisfaction can arise from gratifying the senses alone. Unlike animals whose quest for happiness is restricted to survival and to the immediate gratification of sensory desires, we human beings have the capacity to experience happiness at a deeper level which, when achieved, can overwhelm unhappy experiences.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A few new Circumventor sites:

https://www.kitebroth.com/

https://www.applefroth.com/

https://www.benchdance.com/

Neither from itself nor from another,
Nor from both,
Nor without a cause,
Does anything whatever, anywhere arise.

Nagarjuna, Mulamadhyamaka-Karika

The most valuable learning is not about memorizing facts and figures. It is not about higher grade point averages and accumulating degrees. It is about life itself, and its impact is on the heart.

Rodney Smith, "Lessons From the Dying"

Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring.

Genjo Koan

Dick Locher - 28 August, 2007

This is by far my favorite Michael Vick cartoon so far. Cagle.com has a whole collection to check out.

via cnet.com

Last week, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper threw out the lawsuit TorrentSpy brought against the Motion Picture Association of America last year for allegedly purchasing copies of private e-mails belonging to TorrentSpy executives. Robert Anderson, a former business associate of one of TorrentSpy's founders, acknowledged "hacking" into the company's e-mail systems and rigging it so he would receive a copy of all outgoing and incoming e-mail correspondence. He later sold the information to the MPAA for $15,000.

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Think about this, the judge says it is legal for someone to hack into your system, have emails sent to themselves and them sell them on the open market.

Not only does this open the door to privacy abuses in civil cases but it also could lead to abuses by the government...It's an incredibly dangerous decision.

- Kevin Bankston, EFF staff attorney

Katrina: A reality check for all towns - AP/Rocky Mountain News

Katrina is old news, right? New Orleans - who cares? It's just another big city with big problems, bad luck and bad weather. Get over it.

Actually, please don't.

Don't ever get over the tragedy of New Orleans. It's your tragedy, too.

What happened to this historic city two years ago is more than the obvious cautionary tale of what might befall your community after a natural disaster or a terrorist strike. It's also a sad reflection of what's happening now - today, in your hometown and across an anxious and ailing nation.

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Why the American West is out front on curbing greenhouse gases - Christian Science Monitor

The emissions cap under the Western Climate Initiative is equivalent to taking 75.6 million cars off the road.

Even without Baghdad-like summer temperatures in Phoenix and other desert environs, heat has always been a major issue across the American West. For one thing, it relates directly to three of the classical earthly elements: water, air, and, of course, fire. That is, air quality and pollution, water-loaded snowpacks and glaciers, and wildfires made worse by hot weather patterns.

So it's not surprising that climate change is seen by many citizens and officials out West as a big deal – so big that Western states and cities have been at the forefront of tackling global warming. Last week, six Western governors and two Canadian provincial leaders "pledged & to enforce a tough regional cap on greenhouse gas emissions," the Los Angeles Times reported.

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