So you think those “tag” journal entries are a great idea. This is the reason I never do them myself.
Jan 072012
Jan 012012
Here is the meat of the SOPA bill. I am highlighting in BOLD the parts that people should protest. There is ultimately more, but these are the two sections that I think sets up a slippery slope towards a police state.
Check this out, from SOPA…
(i) IN GENERAL- A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order, including measures designed to prevent the domain name of the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) from resolving to that domain name’s Internet Protocol address. Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within 5 days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order.
Both of the phrases in bold break DNS. It is technically impossible for a registrar to block a portion of a site, leaving that soley up to the ISP of the infringing website to remove that portion of the site or otherwise make it unavailable. Since those foreign ISP’s will probably tell US law enforcement to go fly a kite, your friendly neighborhood "internet service provider" will have to start blacklists. Most domestic registrars, if served, will more than likely choose to block an entire domain name. I doubt registrars in other contries will comply so easily.
Once the infrastructure for supporting SOPA is in place, it only takes another act of congress to censor sites that publish dissenting opinions contrary to official US policy. Imagine of the BBC published something about a military action on the part of the US in europe, and the pentagon decided that the BBC should go dark. They would see it as patriotic and therefore totally ethical. And do not think this is impossible. You only need to look back to World War II for examples of government censorship of information.
(B) INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES- A provider of an Internet search engine shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures, as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within 5 days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order, designed to prevent the foreign infringing site that is subject to the order, or a portion of such site specified in the order, from being served as a direct hypertext link.
Are you freaking kidding me? All of these set the United States up for a great firewall similar to China. Furthermore, it will only force these activites into the darknet (Tor). Pro-tip: The internet interprets censorship as damage, and by design, routes around it. If not by the protocol itself, then by the actions of the people using said protocol.
I believe that if SOPA passes, the sky is the fucking limit for our government to do whatever they want to a global system that they like to refer to rather ignorantly as "a series of tubes." The future is bleak with this bill. The feds already proved they are capable of fiber tapping the domestic meet-me rooms quite readily. The meet me rooms are locations within the US were the Tier 1 service providers (Level 3, AT&T, etc) connect their portions of the internet together so you can reach facebook or DeviantART no matter what provider you are on. These rooms are important, and our ignorant US government knows this.
Below is a list of companies who support their efforts.
60 Plus Association
ABC
Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP)
American Bankers Association (ABA)
American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
Americans for Tax Reform
Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States
Association of American Publishers (AAP)
Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies
Association of Talent Agents (ATA)
Beachbody, LLC
BMI
BMG Chrysalis
Building and Construction Trades Department
Capitol Records Nashville
CBS
Cengage Learning
Christian Music Trade Association
Church Music Publishers’ Association
Coalition Against Online Video Piracy (CAOVP)
Comcast/NBCUniversal
Concerned Women for America (CWA)
Congressional Fire Services Institute
Copyhype
Copyright Alliance
Coty, Inc.
Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB)
Council of State Governments
Country Music Association
Country Music Television
Creative America
Deluxe
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Disney Publishing Worldwide, Inc.
Elsevier
EMI Christian Music Group
EMI Music Publishing
Entertainment Software Association (ESA)
ESPN
Estée Lauder Companies
Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)
Gospel Music Association
Graphic Artists Guild
Hachette Book Group
HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, Inc.
Hyperion
Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE)
International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
International Trademark Association (INTA)
International Union of Police Associations
L’Oreal
Lost Highway Records
Macmillan
Major County Sheriffs
Major League Baseball
Majority City Chiefs
Marvel Entertainment, LLC
MasterCard Worldwide
MCA Records
McGraw-Hill Education
Mercury Nashville
Minor League Baseball (MiLB)
Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC)
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
Moving Picture Technicians
MPA – The Association of Magazine Media
National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)
National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA)
National Center for Victims of Crime
National Crime Justice Association
National District Attorneys Association
National Domestic Preparedness Coalition
National Football League
National Governors Association, Economic Development and Commerce Committee
National League of Cities
National Narcotics Offers’ Associations’ Coalition
National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA)
National Songwriters Association
National Troopers Coalition
News Corporation
Pearson Education
Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
Pfizer, Inc.
Provident Music Group
Random House
Raulet Property Partners
Republic Nashville
Revlon
Scholastic, Inc.
Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
Showdog Universal Music
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Nashville
State International Development Organization (SIDO)
The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO)
The Perseus Books Groups
The United States Conference of Mayors
Tiffany & Co.
Time Warner
True Religion Brand Jeans
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
UMG Publishing Group Nashville
United States Chamber of Commerce
United States Olympic Committee
United States Tennis Association
Universal Music
Universal Music Publishing Group
Viacom
Visa Inc.
W.W. Norton & Company
Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, L.P.
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Nashville
Wolters Kluewer Health
Word Entertainment
For this young Iranian actress, about a year in jail and 90 lashes. She stars in a film called My Tehran for Sale, a film about a young female actress in Iran who’s theatre work is banned, forcing her creative and artistic expression underground. Because of this film, she has been sentenced to one year in Jail and 90 lashes by Iran’s repressive regime.
Breitbard: Iran actress sentence to one year in jail: Report.
I for one have added this movie to my Netflix queue. It isn’t available yet but I hope to see it when it is.
California bans use of tanning beds by minors | Reuters.
Does this fall under the principals of a republic? Does it really?
Oct 052011
Windows 8 Developer Preview running on Oracle VM VirtualBox. I am liking the metro interface, but i just hope that Microsoft doesn’t kill off too much functionality with it.
Oct 042011
It is interesting when you delete a file that is part of a rootkit, and this is what you get whenever you have to repair the BCD.
This is a deleted scene from a direction I was trying to go with Pink Ribbon that I eventually abandoned. I was going through my folder marked “junk,” where I put all my odd and end scenes to get re-used later or discarded. I came across this one and upon further reading decided that it really has no place in any present or future stories. Plus it is angst ridden. So I am classifying it as a drabble and raising it on the flagpole to see who salutes. Enjoy.
H A
“Olga’s missing. Miriam is a hooker! Ya got that! My mother is a god damn whore! My father knocked up his secretary and now they’re going to have a child! Bob and Miriam are getting a divorce. Miriam tested HIV positive. On top of all this, on top of all this I brought home a D in math and my dad cut off privileges. They wait until the family is on the verge, until the family is pulling itself apart to realize I exist, and now they’re smothering me.” Helga gritted her teeth as she looked down at him. “So don’t you ever tell me that I don’t know how hard it…”
Arnold shot up in front of Helga, mere inches from her own face, and screamed “I just buried my mom and dad!”
At that instant, Helga’s breath caught in her throat, but Arnold’s face remained red as his entire body shook with anger and tears. Arnold saw the fright in Helga’s eyes and instantly wished he hadn’t. He had hurt her, and it only compounded the horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He closed his eyes, and sat down against the ledge, one leg resting against it so he could face away from Helga.
After that he didn’t hear anything but the traffic below and the wind in his ears. He wasn’t sure he felt Helga’s presence at all. It was Helga’s decision to turn and run, he knew. He had hurt her again, the last person in the world that he’d ever do that to willingly. He yelled in her face. He scared her, ruined her image of him. Perhaps it was best. He had nothing at all to offer her, no security, just spit in the face and ringing ear drums.
More tears fell from his face as he brought his legs up and rested his arms on his knee caps, burying his face. He started sobbing; he had never felt so alone in his life.
It was then that he felt the most comforting thing that he had ever felt. A pair of slender yet strong arms wrapped themselves around his torso. Helga hugged herself to her back softly, and she rested her head against his neck.
“The night mom and dad disappeared, the area they were flying in had some terrible weather. Very powerful thunderstorms. Their plane wasn’t rated for that kind of weather. About a month ago, the embassy found the remains of a Cessna deep inside San Lorenzo. The altimeter had been struck by lightning. Inside the Cessna they found, they found..” Arnold’s voice cracked.
Helga scooted back and cradled Arnold’s head in her hands. “Shhh. It’s okay Arnold.” She cooed desperately into his ear to calm him, tears welled up in her own eyes as the love of her life shook uncontrollably.
“They found, their bones, mingled together. Mom’s..s..” Arnold hiccupped and a trail of mucus ran from his nose onto Helga’s arm. She stroked his hair. “Mom.. Severe head injury. Don’t know about dad.”
“They died together.” Helga whispered into his hair, amid her own sobs. “They’re finally home.”
“They never came home.” Arnold cried into her chest. “They never came home and I’m just an orphan boy like your dad said.”
Helga tilted Arnold’s face to peer into his eyes. Through his cloudy eyes, Arnold could see Helga’s own bloodshot blue orbs looking at him with nothing but concern and tears. She gripped his arms tightly, and said with a fright tinged voice. “I never want you to say that ever again football head. Okay.” She cried. “I don’t want you to ever say you are alone ever again.” She put her lips to his forehead and kissed him, then looked into his eyes again. “You are not an orphan. “
Sep 252011
via The last Ole! Bullfighting comes to an end in Catalonia – Telegraph.
Please! Won’t somebody think of the beef!
Mystery Object Orbits Earth – NASA Science.
This is an old article, but it is pretty cool. 
ISC Diary | More Diginotar news.
Scary stuff. Just removed the certs from FireFox.