« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 »

February 28, 2006

Copyright on Conspiracy?

I find the news that Baigent and Leigh - the authors of the "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" in 1982 - are suing Dan Brown for stealing ideas from their book to write the far more sucessful "Da Vinci Code" risible in the extreme.

I remember the Baigent and Leigh book when it first came out - it successfully synthesised a whole bunch of legends and theories about Jesus and his marriage to Mary Magdalene, odd chunks of history, the Knights Templars ("the templars, the templars - always the templars") and the Rennes la Chateau "mystery" into an amusing potboiler that sold moderately well to an audience that had no idea about anything the book was talking about.

Then Dan Brown came along and successfully synthesised a whole bunch of legends, theories about Jesus and Magdalene yada yada yada ... you guessed it - the templars turn up, and the freemasons, opus dei and uncle Tom Cobley and all .. into an amusing potboiler that sold very well to an audience that had no idea of anything that the book was talking about.

But all the legends, myths, secret societies and cod-theology - all the guff about the Templars and the Holy Grail - it's all been done to death again and again and again in the Fortean and Occult literature for the last 20-50 years.

Every overpriced new-age part-work on the hidden mysteries of time, the universe and god have covered this story to death for years .... and years ... and years.

I'd be very surprised if Baigent and Leigh win - there are too many mimeographed pamplets and 18th centruy Victorian tracts speculating everything - and more - in the same field that Baigent, Leigh and Brown have written about.

They all synthesised the same bunch of silly old ideas and made books about those silly ideas - then they all sold books to people all over the world who like reading about silly ideas.

Good business in my mind.

Anyway - if Baigent and Leigh win - what's to stop the Priory of Sion suing them for stealing their ideas, and then the Illuminati suing the Priory of Sion, and then the Templars suing the Illuminati who are in turn sued by the remnants of Hassan-I-Sabbah's "Hashishin" - who are then sued in turn by the descendants of Jesus because he really was a magic mushroom just as Wassoon theorised ...

I'm just waiting for the second coming of the Templars

Have I mentioned the Templars yet ??

Let me tell you all about my latest conspiracy theory ... no I can't .. if I told you about it I'd have to kill you .. and it's copyright anyway ..

Anyway it has to be true because I read it in a book while I was in a secret Tibetan monastery and it was dictated by the Secret Masters - it was all about the reincarnation of Adam Weishaupt and the 3rd coming of the 4th Reich because they have these secret bases in Antarctica where the grey aliens experiment on people from all over time who are snatched using the secret time tunnel located at Montauk which uses the energy generated by the HAARP system ...

File this under Fortean methinks - but not until I've mentioned the Templars - they have linked up with Google adwords and every time you read the word "Templars" I get 50cents.

It's all a conspiracy you know.



Tags:



Content Lock-In and Corporate Authorship

It would seem that Kathryn Cramer has reached the same conclusion that I have about DRM quite independently - its not about preventing copying - it's all about content lock in or "corporate authorship" as Kathryn calls it.

If digital watermarking schemes for DRM are put into practice, they may have little effect on the problem of bootleg versions of mega-corporate products. However, as discussed in the comment section, they may be quite effective about keeping digital artistic productions by individuals out of the distribution system: in the end, what DRM may accomplish is forcing individuals to give big corporations a cut for distribution just to get the authorized watermarking.

I believe, and have done for a while now, that the DRM madness has a hidden agenda - and that hidden agenda is to make it impossible for anyone to produce music or films that have not got the corporate seal of approval on them.

By extending DRM to many devices the day will come when you can make as much music as you like, distribute it for free in MP3 or OGG format - and no-one will be able to listen to it because the devices will refuse to play it without the hidden watermark.

So watermark-style DRM may do very little to prevent the "piracy" about which the big media corporations are up in arms, it may be the killer app of corporate authorship.

I don't care whether its called "corporate authorship" or "content lock-in" - the effect is the same - to kill the new forms of distribution and freedom engendered by the web and to ensure that whenever something is popular - the big media companies will always get their cut.

The web has great potential for short-circuiting tradional means of distribution and killing the stranglehold that Big Media have over what we read, watch and listen to.

This is not about losing 100,000 sales of Madonna's new single because it is copied illegaly - this is to do with consolidating the total and complete control of Big Media over everything we call "entertainment" - magazines, books, music, films, television and games - and beyond - to control the way we think about eveything.


Tags:


February 25, 2006

SuitSat 1 - great picture

The NASA image site has released this great picture of Suitsat 1 after it was set adrift from the ISS.



click for larger image


A space suit floats freely away from the International Space Station in a scene reminiscent of a sci-fi movie.

Cool epitaph for a cool project.


Tags:



February 24, 2006

MI6 payouts over secret LSD tests

From the BBC today.

Three UK ex-servicemen have been given compensation after they were given LSD without their consent in the 1950s
.
The men volunteered to be "guinea pigs" at the government research base Porton Down after being told scientists wanted to find a cure for the common cold.

But they were given the hallucinogen in mind control tests, and some volunteers had terrifying hallucinations.

This was in 1953-54 - but Sandoz was the sole producer of LSD and only began marketing it under the name "Delysid" in the USA in 1947-48.

It was pretty quick off the mark for the MOD to do LSD trials on volunteers such a short time after it was introduced.

Who suggested that the LSD trials take place at Porton Down?

Was it an "outreach" project from MK-ULTRA - the CIA cold war mind control experiments that killed at least one person?

Where did the LSD come from?

Did the MOD and Porton Down purchase LSD from Sandoz - like everyone else at that time?

Or did they attempt to synthesise their own? Was it really LSD that that was given to the volunteers or something else?

If they experimented with Sandoz LSD - well and good - it was the gold standard for LSD at that time - but if they cooked up something else in their own labs and used that instead - enquiring minds need to know.


Tags: , , , , ,



February 23, 2006

SuitSat 1 - "So It Goes"

I think this might be the final word on SuitSat 1.


The novel SuitSat-1 (AO-54) satellite--a Russian spacesuit carrying an Amateur Radio transmit-only payload put into orbit February 3--has gone silent, apparently for good. Among the latest reports was one from Bob King, VE6BLD, who reported "nothing heard" during a 67-degree pass over his Alberta location February 18. Subsequent reports to the SuitSat Web site appear to back up his unofficial pronouncement that the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) satellite experiment had stopped transmitting. ISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, says a significant voltage drop Richard Crow, N2SPI, noted in his final telemetry report apparently was the death knell for SuitSat-1.

Now everyone's looking forward to SuitSat 2.

SuitSat 1 - "so it goes"


Tags:


February 22, 2006

Evidence for Water on Mars

From JPL comes this interesting picture of a structure on Mars which ..


.. lines a fracture in the local pavement and scientists hypothesize that it is a fracture fill, formed by water that percolated through the fracture. This would mean the feature is younger than surrounding rocks and, therefore, might provide evidence of water that was present some time after the formation of Meridiani Planum sedimentary rocks.

To my untrained eye it looks like a water effect - that sort of pooling, rounding and weathering looks like so many water worn rocks - but I'm not even a geologist and especially not an exo-geologist - so my opinion is necessarily suspect.

It doesn't mean there is water on Mars - but it does give some clue as when there was water on Mars.


Tags: , , ,



New Approaches to Piracy

According to the Transnational Crimes blog, countries are finally getting together to fight against real pirates.

As Kenyan puts 10 suspected Somali pirates to trial, piracy concerns are causing countries to strengthen their transnational relations and to develop new strategies for dealing with maritime issues.

Countries such as Somalia, South Africa, the Phillipines, Thailand and Malaysia are recognising the real threat of real pirates on the high seas.

The economic cost of hijacked ships, the threat of rape and torture and the threat to human lives is much more important than the bogus war on "piracy" waged by the RIAA and their minions.

Maybe the RIAA should go after the real copyright thieves instead of children - but that would involve investigating the replication factories of the copyright violators - often in "friendly" third world countries .

It's much easier to attack students, mothers and children than upset the applecart by going for the real criminals who make millions of dollars a year from counterfeiting copyright goods - and you don't have to worry about the geopolitical fallout.

If the RIAA really wanted to get tough they go for the real offenders - black factories in low-wage countries where no questions are asked and getting 100,000 illegal copies of Madonna's new album is simply a matter of paying.

Once on the streets of any major city - London, New York, Bombay, Delhi or Madrid - these counterfeit copies are far more dangerous than any student, child or housewife "assumed guilty" of p2p filesharing.

Anyway consumers aren't even getting value for money from the RIAA - guess who is subsidising this "war on piracy" - the consumer.

Filesharing currently costs the media industry $48 million per month or $579 million per year in lost revenues. The total cost of unauthorized replication is $1129 million per year (the cost of filesharing plus the MPAA/RIAA's estimated piracy cost of $550 million per year).

But the RIAA and MPAA's tactics currently cost the media industry more — $189 million per month or $2265 million per year in lost revenues. Since the MPAA and RIAA cost them $1136 million more than the sum total of foregone piracy revenues they might prevent, the media industry is getting a bad deal.

'nuff said.



Tags:



February 21, 2006

1000 Year Old Blubber Found

I found this - from the Anchorage Daily News - very interesting


Douglas Henry knew it was old when he found a slab of mangtak -- or whale blubber with skin -- in a food cache last summer. Yet, when the 27-year-old Gambell resident recently learned that, after carbon dating analysis, the blubber is estimated to be 1,000 years old, he was a bit surprised.

If you think of archaeology - you think ruins, pots, skeletons, mummies - all the romantic "Indiana Jones" stuff - you never think of the real lives of real people who lived in these times.

The finding of a 1000 piece of blubber in an old food cache isn't romantic - but it will help to build up a picture of history - this finding is significant in a number of ways.

It indicates that the way of life in these areas has a long history and tradition going back more than 1000 years.


... the carbon dating is scientific proof for what the people have told newcomers all the time. "We've told people from outside that we've been doing this for a long time. Now we have good proof for that claim.

"We're trying to save our subsistence way, our way of whaling. It's our way of life. This dating proves that we have done this for a very long time,"


How much "frozen archaeology" is to be found in the world?

In Alaska, Antarctica, and other places where there is permanant ice or perma-frost cover, archaeology must be difficult or impossible

Maybe modern technologies for remote-sensing using satellites can help to unlock the secrets of the frozen wastes as effectively as they are unlocking the secrets of the Mayan civilisation in the jungle.


Tags: , , , ,



February 20, 2006

Seduction of the Innocent

The Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham fueled a backlash against perceived violence and sex in comics - forcing the closure of many titles and the eventual adoption of the voluntary "Comic Code Authority".

Seduction_of_the_Innocent.jpg

It was the 50's equivalent of the 1980's UK hysteria that led to the banning of "video nasties" - outlawing such cinematic gems as "Driller KIller' along with schock horrors such as "Last House on the Left" and "I Spit on Your Grave" - but not apparently "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which never made the official list.

I recall most "video nasties" as cheaply made "bucket of blood" movies that were more likely to make us howl with laughter than howl with terror - but then I had already been corrupted by a childhood spent reading comics.

The only reason I mention this now I because I found a site that had come old covers of War Comics - but it seems that they aren't there for nostalgic reasons

Comics books do not only pervert the minds of children. They have helped shape and have formed the attitudes of generations of Americas toward violence, treatment of the "enemy" from World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the Gulf War - right up to the present.

This site also features sections on "Germans shown with contorted, mean and unshaven faces", "Germans depicted as being cruel and evil, usually to defenceless people" and "Hitler depicted as a crazy lunatic".

These are comic books right? I grew up on a diet of the things and I don't hate Germans - even as a child I knew the difference between a fictional representation of WWII and the real thing - no matter how many fictional stereotypes of "nazi" behaviour I was exposed to.

Every so often we get one of these moral panics come along - all of a sudden the media cry out almost as one -
its either comic books or video nasties or rave music or video games or the internet which is wrecking our youth.

Everytime we get one of these moral panics hyping up the evil "youth wreckers" it is just an excuse to whip up enough public hysteria to implement more controls on whatever it is that the government want to control next.

Whether it be comic books, video, games, internet, music with offensive lyrics - whenever you get public outrage whipped up like this - the real deal is who controls what we read, watch, play or use.


Tags: , , ,


February 16, 2006

Bush plans huge propaganda campaign in Iran

From The Guardian Today

The Bush administration made an emergency request to Congress yesterday for a seven-fold increase in funding to mount the biggest ever propaganda campaign against the Tehran government, in a further sign of the worsening crisis between Iran and the west.


... the extra funds, on top of $10m already allocated for later this year, would be used to broadcast US radio and television programmes into Iran, help pay for Iranians to study in America and support pro-democracy groups inside the country.


With phrases like "nuclear crisis" and "pro-democracy spending" being bandied about - how long before the US hawks decide that the only way to "save" Iran for "democracy" is to destroy it?

With a recent record of leaving "liberated" countries with smashed infrastructures and huge problems that amount to poliitcal anarchy - you'd think that the US would spend the money fixing up the countries already broken - not starting on a new one.

Are we in the "New Cold War" yet?



Tags:



February 15, 2006

America's Long War = New Cold War

I've already complained that I don't want a "New Cold War" - but now it seems that I will get one - whether I want it or not - from the The Guardian today

Last week US defence chiefs unveiled their plan for battling global Islamist extremism. They envisage a conflict fought in dozens of countries and for decades to come.

Are we ready for a conflict fought "in dozens of countries" for "decades to come" ?

Nobody wants this ... but it seems to be happening anyway

Coming Soon: The "Islamic Domino Theory"

Which goes something like "if Saudi Arabia falls - they all fall" - except some people see the Saudis as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Are we in the New Cold War yet?



Tags:



February 14, 2006

Piracy at Sea or Terrorism?

From Transnational Crimes Today.


In international waters, the line between piracy and terrorism is becoming blurred, with stark implications in the way the United States decides to take action. According to Vice Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert, who was in Pittsburgh yesterday at the Soldiers & Sailors National Military Museum & Memorial, “[a]n international effort that includes the U.S. Navy has prevented potential terrorist attacks in Asian seas and waterways aimed at disrupting global commerce.”


When will people wake up and realise that the "piracy" metaphor is over hyped by the Big Media propaganda machine and that the abuse of the term "pirate" has now become rampant.

Now that "pirate" has become synonymous with "terrorist" - P2P users had better watch out - if somebody up there doesn't like you - then there is an all-expenses paid holiday hotel waiting for you in Cuba.


Tags:


February 13, 2006

US under simulated hacking attack

According to PC-Pro Magazine the US has been under a simulated cyber attack for the last week.

I was wondering how you "simulate" a "cyber-attack"? Build an imaginary network in the middle of the desert? Take over the national backbone for a day? Ask every hacker and script kiddie you know to an all night party? Upset the Moslems with some cartoons?

and how do they know that every simulated attack on whitehouse.gov is not a real attack?

Unless it's a simulated whitehouse.gov site

In which case all the real glitches, misconfugrations and shared passwords that exist in the real whitehouse.gov site won't be there.

So even if the simulation works fine and proves that everything is secure it won't be - because It didn\t put human fallibility into the equation.


Tags:


RetroCrush - Polish Movie Posters

This page of Polish movie posters is awesome - I have several faves but for today I think "Apoocalypse Now" ...



apocalypsenow.jpg


I love the fact that the Internet has made rare ephemera - magazine covers, posters and the like - available to a wider audience.

Before this you had to buy expensive coffee-table books or catch an exhibition if you were lucky - although I remember that comic book conventions were good places to look at comics you could never afford and see covers of more specialist magazines from America.



Tags:



February 8, 2006

SuitSat 1: More Alive than Dead?

Despite my earlier report that SuitSat had frozen after two orbits, it now seems that Radio Hams from all over the world are still getting signals from SuitSat 1.

This is good news for space, radio and technology enthusiasts everywhere.

The AJ3U website has a wealth of reported sightings.

It also has audio recordings of SuitSat 1 as it passes over - I predicted that net-savvy hams would post these - and I was right.

I love technology crossovers like this - "space nerds" + radio hams = an interesting technological mashup.



Tags:




Thanks to Rich Gillin for pointing out the AJ3U site to me.

February 7, 2006

Forbidden Facts 4: Mad Scientists

Scientists Killed an Elephant with an Overdose of LSD

In 1962 Scientists working at the University of Oklahoma killed an elephant with a massive overdose of drugs, including LSD

The research, led by the mind control and brainwashing specialist and CIA collaborator, Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West, was allegedly designed to induce the state of “must” or “rut”. This is a naturally occurring state in which elephants become violent and uncontrollable once a year when they wish to mate.

According to contemporary accounts, “Tusko”, a 3000 Kg bull elephant was injected with 297 Mg of LSD into the buttocks. Five minutes after the injection, “Tusko” trumpeted, voided his bowels, and collapsed before going into an epileptic fit. Massive doses of Thorazine, a tranquiliser and Phenobarbital, a drug commonly used to treat epileptics, were administered in an attempt to ameliorate the symptoms, followed by a massive dose of Phenobarbital, a drug commonly used to treat epileptics.

The elephant died 1 hour and 45 minutes after the injection, but there is a lot of debate as to the true cause of the elephant’s death.

Based on human physiology, a 100Kg adult will experience effects after 0.125-0.200 micrograms; it would appear that the correct dosage of LSD for an elephant of 3000 Kg is approx 9.0 mg, so an LSD dosage of 297 mg is 30 times more than would be necessary.

But even then, this massive overdose might not have killed the elephant. The subsequent injections of Thorazine, and Phenobarbital, were based on the same calculations as the LSD dosage, which was 30 times greater than the same dosage for humans based on body weight.

Did LSD kill the elephant?

It is unknown but external evidence suggests that it did not. What is certain is that there are no reported human fatalities reported due to a physical overdose of LSD, although the literature contains plenty of reports of humans damaged by doses of LSD that were far in excess of that which they were psychologically capable of taking.

Footnote:

LSD is a unique drug in that the dosage needs to be doubled every day to experience the same effect, and that after 7-10 days it has no effect no matter how large the dose. In the sixties the League of Spiritual Discovery set out to discover the long term effects of LSD, they doubled their dose of LSD every day and within 10 days the effect of the drug was nil, with members involved in the experiment reportedly drinking large amounts of liquid LSD with no effects, positive or negative, reported.



Tags:





If a publisher is interested in a book called "101 Forbidden Facts: A Catalogue of Damned Information", then I have original research and a proposal which can be forwarded to you.




I am also looking for stories told by extreme sports enthusiasts to contribute to 'Extreme Tales"

BT sounds child web porn warning

If the new figures from the BBC are to be believed then -

The number of attempts to view illegal child pornography on the web has risen sharply since 2004, according to BT.

My problem with the Internet Watch Foundation BlackList - is that it is a secret.

How can we know whether all of these "35,000 hits per day" are really attempts at accessing "child porn" when the 'BlackList" is secret?

People could have been trying to access other sites in the .ru domain that have nothing to do with "illegal material" - these sites are blocked because, after all, "Russia is a popular location for child pornography"

No P2P file sharers in Russia trying to evade government restrictions on free speech then ...

These self-appointed site blockers could add a high profile site - such as Google - and claim that they have blocked 3.,000,000 attempted hits per day - but no-one can check their figures.

The "BlackList" is secret - and any attempt to reverse engineer the contents of the BlackList might be illegal under the DMCA - and no checking can be made of the BlackListed sites anyhow.

If you really do stumble upon a dubious site - and confirm that the BlackList is working - then you are open to prosecution for viewing the wrong kind of site.

Otherwise we have no idea who is "BlackListed" - as I said the whole .ru domain seems suspect

Is this just censorship via the back door?

How long before BT apply the same blacklisting technology to sites about "Tibet" for example - not that any really savvy nu-media company would restrict free speech in that way ... haha

The whole thing is bad - a secret blacklist and possibly inflated figures leading to yet more hysteria about pornography - and the inevitable call for more regulation for the Internet.

Now we have secret "BlackLists" and laws that prevent you from finding out if ithey are correct or not because you might become a criminal if you do so .

We are talking "Catch 22" here ...

BlackLists don't stop child pornography anyhow.

What are BT thinking? That by stopping kinky middle age pervs looking at dirty pictures from Russia that they STOP the abuse of under age children?

Children are still being abused - but now using the magical "BlackList" wand - it's not their problem any more.

If these companies were really interested in wiping out this type of porn then maybe they should contribute a small part of their profits to one of the many NGO's that specialise in this sort of thing - and not hype up the figures to make more money.

I could go on.

For a long time now the "child porn" scandal has been used to restrict the web more and more - even though Internet "old timers" remember a net free of kiddie porn - until mainstream media started telling everyone that the net "was a haven for paedophiles".

Old Media created this problem in response to Old Government requirements for control - using the old "self fulfilling prophecy" feedback loop.

This problem has been created out of thin air to satisfy the requirements of a bunch of control freaks who don't use the net, don't understand the net and don't want to share anything - especially the profits they could have made if they were a bit more net-savvy.

Yet the figures speak for themselves - 18 months ago there were 10,000 "attempted acesses" per day and this month the figures have gone up to 35,000 per day.

I don't call this success - none of these blocked accesses have prevented children being abused - I call it clever marketing and advertising.

I hate child porn - I just think there would be a lot less of it on the Web if Old Media and software vendors didn't keep hyping it to death to make more money - pervs wouldn't be so attracted to the web of it wasn't for this kind of marketing.

Companies that propagandise their services by demonising the web are destroying the web.

People who are attracted to their vision of the "Outlaw Web" help to reinforce the feedback loop that makes more money - it doesn't matter whether they are labelled as - "crackers", "hackers", "pirates" or "kiddie porn merchants" - there is s money to be made out of scaring the public to buy expensive software and services they do not need.

This constant media barrage attracts people who want to fulfill that niche in the web ecology - and they end up driving even greater profits for the companies who continue to demonise the web - who attract more people who abuse the web because they want to fill that niche in the web ecology ...

One of my smartest friends has given it all up - now he roams World of Warcraft wearing a wedding dress and spends his time beating up virtual people.

Given the state of the "CyberNation" I can't blame him.

If things get worse I might just join him - after all its a lot easier than worrying about how the "BigBrother" effect is going to kill the Internet - and I might have more fun.



Tags:



February 5, 2006

Operation Bahia Nets Illegal Treasure Hunters

I've been following this story in Diario De Cadiz for the last few days.

I find it very interesting - this is happening on my own doorstep after all - any mistakes in translation are mine - this comes from a Spanish newspaper.



In a crackdown against illegal treasure hunters in the "Gibraltar Straits" Spanish police and Guardia Civil have detained the boat "Louisa" on suspicion of illegal treasure hunting along the Atlantic coast of Spain.

According to a spokesman for the Spanish authorities today:

"The plunderers we have detained were very professional and very dangerous"

The investigators found portable computers, fragments of vases, 17th Century cannonballs and bags of musket shot that could have been used in the "Battle of Trafalgar"

The boarding party also found maps of archaeological sites and photocopies of documents from the "Archivo de Indias de Sevilla".

Worse - they also found five M16 rifles and a pistol - plus plenty of ammunition - I counted 15 clips in the picture published in the paper.

There's also a picture of what looks like a missile - I guess it's an underwater submersible of some kind - but it looks evil to anyone who doesn't know what it is.

As yet the Spanish authorities have only arrested 3 people - 2 Hungarians "SW" &: "HS' and a "North American" called "AJA" - I love the way Spanish media reports the names of suspects in initials - and are still looking for the owner of the boat - "MRA".

The reports continued:

These 21st Century pirates have their own tricks ... like double sleeved oxygen cylinders to hide the archaeological treasures they have plundered.

All for a haul that comprises of: 17th Century cannonballs, Roman anchors, the neck of a Phoenician amphora, a bag of bullets that could date from the Battle of Trafalgar - and a piece of old wood.

Right now the "Centre for Underwater Archaeology" is evaluating the finds to determine their valuation - but it's not just the valuation that matters.

Unfortunately for the illegal treasure hunters, this is not the best place in the world to try and look for treasure without being noticed.

The combination of illegal immigration and hashish smuggling from Morocco means that the Gibraltar Straits are one of the most heavily policed stretches of water in the world.

It's no surprise that the Spanish authorities have cracked down on these illegal treasure hunters - their heavily armed presence in the Straits of Gibraltar inevitably gives rise to accusations of drug and people smuggling - or worse.

The discovery of large amounts of arms and ammunition on board the "Louisa" will have done nothing to calm the fears of the Spanish authorities either.

I'm going to track this - I'd like to see how it's reported in the English speaking media as opposed to the Spanish media - there's a lot of differences between them.

Expect an update soon.



Tags:



February 4, 2006

SuitSat is Missing!

After listening to the live broadcast of the launch of SuitSat late last night I had high hopes for this novel project.

Unfortunately it would seem that:

Reports have been received that SuitSat froze after two orbits and is no longer sending data. Radio amateurs around the world continue to monitor 145.990 MHz.

This is a real shame - the batteries were meant to last 2-4 days and then the recycled space suit would have burned up in the atmosphere after about 6 weeks.

Radio hams all around the world - or interested parties equipped with a scanner - would have been able to monitor SuitSat as it orbited the Earth - giving out telemetry readings for temperature, battery power and mission elapsed time.

Now it's gone - RIP SuitSat 1

I think that the low cost of this experiment coupled with the interest generated amongst radio hams and "space nerds" means that it won't be long before SuitSat 2 is launced.

The lessons learned from the telemetry data this time around will mean that SuitSat 2 will be better designed - it will last longer - and the lessons learned can be applied to SuitSat 3 and 4 and so on.

Meanwhile SuitSat 1 will continue to orbit the Earth until it's orbit decays and it burns up.

I guess if it's reflective enough you can see it under the right conditions - you'd need to go to one of the Satellite Spotting sites to get more info on this.



Tags:



Killing the Golden Goose

Another thing that stood out in the article The End of the Internet was the following:

Senior phone executives have publicly discussed plans to begin imposing a new scheme for the delivery of Internet content, especially from major Internet content companies. As Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"

Did the Telegram companies say this when national newspapers used their "pipes" to build medai empires - no they just benefited from the money they made by the extra traffic.

Did the Post Office say this when mail order empires were built on their "pipes" - no they benefited from the monet they made from the extra trafiic.

Did the phone companies say this when telemarketing companies made profits on their "pipes" - no they just benefited from the money they made from the extra traffic

The big carriers should be happy they are making money off the Internet, not trying to get a bigger slice of the pie at everyone else's expense - otherwise they might find that they kill the goose that laid the golden egg.



Tags:



The End of Cyberspace

I've been reading the discussions on the End of CyberSpace for over a week now.

Personally I kind of agree with David Sifry's view that we "don't need a new word".

Once it was called "ArpaNet", then it was called the "Internet", and it then it was called "the Web" and now these days some people talk about "Web2.0" or the "semantic web".

But "CyberSpace" has been adopted from Science Fiction -from WIlliam Gibson who invented the term - and somehow it has stuck around.

Perhaps it's because the word "Cyber Space" is convenient in so many ways.

It delineates and demarcates "Real Space" from "Cyber Space".

Cyber Space is nothing but a collection of bytes after all.

I can't eat cyber-food, I can't get warm by a cyber-fire, I can't get drunk on cyber-beer, I can't smoke a cyber-spliff and I can't have cyber-sex.

However - I can watch "movies from cyberspace", listen to "music from cyberspace" and read "books from cyberspace".

This is where "Cyber-Space" protrudes into "Real Space".

This is where where bits and bytes transcend their ephemeral cyber-reality and become real.

In Cyber Space nothing is real and everything is a representation of reality

It's only the bits that intrude into the real world - when bytes become movies, books or music - that the problems occur.

So we need a phrase to demarcate "Real Space" from "Cyber Space" - it really isn't the same - yet.

Not only that, but the "Cyber" prefix is very useful.

If I talk about "Cyber Law", "Cyber Culture" and "Cyber Art" most "Cyber-Savvy" people will have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about.

Affixing the "Cyber" phrase" is a clear cut message that you are not talking about physical reality - "Cyber-Rape" is not the same as "Rape".

One is in the physical domain and the other in the cyber domain.

As I said - a useful phrase that demarcates two distinct spaces - and I'm not that keen on finding a substitute until a new one naturally arises out of the "CyberSphere" or "BlogoSphere" .. or whatever IT is called then.

Yet, despite my reservations, I had a long think about the question:

"What do we call cyberspace when cyberspace becomes so pervasive it disappears?"

I thought of -

"MeshSpace" - because the interconnections of the Web are more like a Mesh than a Net in mathematical terms.

Of course then everyone would go - "Have seen the news on the Mesh today?"

What's wrong with that?- it could be worse - when television started it was called "television".

Formally speaking it's still called "television" - it's just that people say "have you seen the news on TV today?".

But then "WebSpace" is already far a more pervasive term for the Internet - people already say "have you read the news on the Web today?" - so changing their vocabulary might be a little difficult.

Hmmm - lets call it the "Web" then ...

After that I tried really, really, hard to think of a new name for "Cyber Space"

But then inertia overtook me as I realised that even if I came up with the snappiest name in the universe everyone would ignore me until it came into popular fashion six months later and then all claim it as their own.

But now- in the wake of an article called "The End of the Internet?" from The Nation - I think I might have some ideas at last.

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

I started to wonder whether we would have more than one name for the Net

BizNet - If you ask the price you can't afford it - too fast for most managers and executives - they prefer to use PubNet

PubNet - Joe Public tries to use this - it's as slow and dumb as the TelCo's think their customers are

ScumNet - For all those hackers and warez kiddies out there .. and anyone else who can't afford any of the above

Or maybe just ...

BigBrotherNet - publicly subsidised Internet access with all your surfing information logged - and have I mentioned there will be adverts yet?

Sure as hell the way things are going we aren't going to have much privacy on the Net for too much longer - nor any bandwidth either - unless we pay $$$s

Oh yeah - and if its anything like any other piece of technology I've encountered in my life - sooner or later it's going to be called a stream of unprintable invectives.



Tags:



February 3, 2006

Goodbye Mr Smith - SuitSat is Go!

With the final words - "Goodbye Mr Smith" - SuitSat was succesfully launched from the ISS during a routine maintenance EVA at approx 5:02 CET today.

This novel project has recycled an old Russian "Orlan" spacesuit by retro-fitting it with three batteries, a radio transmitter, and internal sensors to measure temperature and battery power - and then setting it adrit into space

It willl provide a cheap satellite for Radio Hams to tune into and find during it's short lifetime - it's batteries are expected to last a few days and it will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere within 6 weeks or so.

In that time it will relay a message in five langauges, as well as telemetry temperature, battery power and mission elapsed time.

SuitSat can be heard by anyone on the ground. All you need is an antenna (the bigger the better) and a radio receiver that you can tune to 145.990 MHz FM. A police band scanner or a hand-talkie ham radio would work just fine.
Anyone with the necessary kit should check out the SuitSat site to get predictor software to catch the SuitSat transmissions as it passes overhead - in the USA it passes over twice a day - usually between midnight and 4 AM.

Tags:


Platform Control vs Content Control

It is my belief - after the SONY DRM disaster - that the long term business plan of "BigMedia" companies is not just an attempt at "content lockdown" - the prevention of unauthorised copying of copyrighted media.

It is also my belief, in disagreement with other pundits, that this is not an attempt at "platform lockdown" - where you have to buy multiple copies of your media to play on alternative devices.

I now believe that the long term aim of the BigMedia companies is nothing more than "Content Lock-In".

For many years now BigMedia have dictated what we watch, listen to, and read.

After all - they control all the channels of production and distribution - printing presses, television, movies and radio.

The web has changed all of that - it means the end of the "middleman" - and the end of the BigMedia giants who have made huge profits off the "surplus labour" of a handful of creative people for so many years.

If I am a writer with something to say I can say it - on the web - without a BigMedia publisher as a middleman.

If I am a musician with music to play - I can distribute it on the web - without a BigMedia company as a middleman.

If I am a photographer - I can distribute my pictures on the web - without a BigMedia company as a middleman.

If I am a movie-maker - I can distribute my movies on the web - without a BigMedia company as a middleman.

So what are the "BigMedia" companies to do? Their revenue streams are threatened in a way that they would never have considered 10 years ago.

They no longer "own" the means of production (recording studios, printing presses, cameras and cinemas) because cheap technologies for music making, film making, self-publishing and distribution now exist.

They no longer "own" the means of distribution - anyone can make media and distribute it on the web so that anyone can see it - at what is approaching near zero cost.

BigMedia is scared - they know their monopoly status is threatened - it's not just about revenue and how many $$$ they say they have lost through "piracy" - this is about creative control.

The exploitation of creative artists through the domination of the means of production and distribution is no longer possible for BigMedia - if you are an artist sometimes letting other people share what you have created is enough.

Right now nobody can control what you make and share.

BigMedia want to change all that.

Look at the threat to BigMedia - look at their business models and ask yourself.

Which is more damaging to BigMedia? - a few copied CD's? or the loss of control over the entire means of production and distribution?

Which long term threat threatens their business model most?

The answer is simple: If creative artists of any type can reach audiences by bypassing the hassles of signing on with a BigMedia company - they WILL do it.

Not every artist who creates something wants to own a BMW or a theme park because they created something new and wonderful.

Many creative artists just want to be heard, to share, and to explain their particular worldview.

But if every creative artist bypasses the BigMedia owned means of production and distribution - what next?

It only means the "content control wars" will get worse - with "unlicensed music" being equated to "copyright piracy".

Branding all P2P users as “thieves” and “pirates” is just one strategy currently being used by BigMedia.

Yet people like free music - and some musicians want to give it to them – I’ve watched many a Jazz quartet play for free just for the fun of playing.

In the Age of the Web it is much easier to make and distribute music for free – if a musician wants to make music and distribute it for free – as in “free beer” or “free speech” - then they can.

There are now enough musicians in the world making and distributing music for free that I can spend days without listening to the radio, and weeks without buying a CD.

The problem for BigMedia is that if enough people want to give away "free music" - they cannot make a profit - their business model collapses.

If everyone listens to Creative Copyright music - where's the margin for the BigMedia companies?

How will they make a profit when the means of production and distribution are removed from their hands?

They can’t – and they know it.

That’s why I believe that the long term goal of the BigMedia DRM strategy is “Content Lock-In” and not “Platform Lockdown”.

With Microsoft announcing that “only signed device drivers” will be allowed in their new operating system, how long before it’s announced that the ONLY music that can be played on DRM enabled systems must be DRM compatible?

How long before I become an outlaw for making and distributing MP3s (or OGGs, WAVs, CDs) of my own music because I can’t afford the digital watermark that enables it to be played on a DRM enabled system?

At this rate - it won’t be very long.


“When making music is illegal only outlaws will listen to real music”

Tags:


February 1, 2006

Performancing FireFox Extension

I've been migrating from my old, bad, IE habits to FireFox.

Sure I prefer an open-source browser.

Sure I don't want to be beholden to the "evil empire".

But for many years the only computers I used had that little IE logo - everything else was forbidden - except at home.

Habits like that stick - you look for the icon and click when you want to get on the web - that's why Microsoft bundled it so hard.


Last time I was in India I started using FireFox because it loaded quicker and didn't give me as much grief in Indian cybercafes - I got my email quicker even though I use a HotMail address when I am travelling.

When I finally got back online and had a computer of my own I went back to my bad old habits - you guessed it - I automatically clicked on the IE icon.

In the end I downloaded FireFox not because I realised what a good browser it was, not because it was leaner and meaner or more secure - none of the sensible reasons.

It was because I wanted to check that the Hacker's Handbook site looked OK in other browsers.

Now I have ditched IE - I've removed the icons from my desktop to stop myself doing the reflex thing - and there is one major reason.

FireFox is highly extendable - like "emacs" - but for the web. If you can think of something to extend FireFox and write code - you can - and people do.

Which brings me to the main point of this entry.

I am writing this using the "Performancing" FireFox extension which allows me to blog within FireFox without ever leaving the site I am in.

It's really easy to set up for multiple blogs - though watch out for the password pitfall - you need to create a password for your blog by going to Main Menu | System Overview | Authors and edit your profile to create a new password "for use with XML-RPC and Atom-enabled clients".

This API password is the last field in the profile - you need to put a password in there which is the same as the one you use in Performancing. If you try and login with your blog password it will fail - fix this first.

This is the commonest problem with Performancing - and easily solved.

The only other problem people using Movable Type seem to have is problems locating the mt-xmlrpc.cgi file - it should be right under your MT directory - http://myserver.com/mt/mt-xmlrpc.cgi  - or whatever you've used.

Right now the Performancing plugin is under test - but it seems like a good a reason as any for getting out from under the boot heel of the evil empire.




Tags: