cygweb

321 Studios was smacked down in federal court and they've launched a campaign this week to bring traditional fair-use rights to digital media. Here's a link to their Protect Fair Use website:

Enter ZIP Code

Well, it's happened. SCO is suing AutoZone for using Linux, which they allege includes their allegedly copyrighted UNIX System V code, without a license from them. It takes quite a few springy steps to make the leaps they're making. SCO has also announced their quarterly earnings (actually a loss, again) and Darlth is saying they'll start making money off SCOsource "real soon now." Riiight.

I'm surprised the FTC hasn't yet sued SCO for selling non-refundable licenses to something they haven't proven they have any ownership of. Or that the SEC hasn't fined SCO for making false statements to boost their stock price. Hopefully reality will set in before too long.

It looks like the deal is done. The two most interesting aspects of this trade for me are seeing how Denver's rushing offense is this coming season without Clinton Portis, and how well the addition of both Mark Brunell and Portis will help the Hogs. It'll also be interesting to see how Denver's secondary is; remember that Broncos CB Deltha O'Neal was moved to WR and wants off the team. Bailey is definitely an upgrade, but will probably not be a net addition.

Unreal Tournament 2004 has gone gold. I just ordered my copy yesterday from EBgames.com. Now I just need to bone up with the demo version. It's been a while since I played UT2003.

We had a nice visit with Don and his wife Naomi this weekend. We didn't have the best weather on Saturday, but we got out to ChocolateWorld before enjoying a homemade Italian dinner. A viewing of Denzel's Out Of Time last night was enjoyed, but it wasn't exactly what the trailers I saw described. I'd give it 2.5 out of four stars. The weather this morning was much better, so we hit Wildwood Park (where we took some photos) before a Friday's lunch and goodbye. I think this officially kicks off road trip season 2004...

Good news: Peter Jackson has confirmed he'll make The Hobbit after his remake of King Kong is complete. It will be great to have the "prequel" up to the standard of the three LOTR films.

Jurors Felt Pity for Martha Stewart: obviously not enough to believe her. I'm more interested in the outcome of this case.

The Terrell Owens saga takes a twist: Penn prof to decide on Owens. Based on everything I've heard and read, TO's agent was derelict. Whether TO is with the Ravens or the Eagles, I'm sure I'll be seeing plenty of him, as they are our two closest NFL teams.

N.Y. Rep. King Criticizes Muslim Leaders: Huh? Furor over Bush's 9/11 ad: Yeah. Bush Backs Off Fingerprinting Mexicans: Whew!

My wife and I enjoyed the first season of Last Comic Standing, but we wish Rich had won. According to this article, LCS producer Barry Katz has some conflicts of interest that are irking preliminary round celebrity judges Drew Carey and Brett Butler. If true, this does sound a little rigged to me.

Wow, there are some interesting moves going on in the NFL. It was a given that Duce Staley would be moving, but to Pittsburgh? It wouldn't seem like Bettis or Zereoue would be compatible with a Staley-Kreider backfield, but Bettis's recent one-year contract will keep him with the Steelers next season. Should be interesting to see how that plays out. If Bettis wasn't under contract, I'd probably have chosen to rotate Zereoue and Staley.

Jeff Garcia is the new starting QB for the Browns. I think he can lead the Browns to the playoffs, given a healthy backfield. James Jackson and Jamel White are capable starters, but the Browns may need more to compete. I hope a happy resolution to William Green's problems will create a good situation for the Cleveland running game.

Charlie Garner is reuniting with Jon Gruden in Tampa Bay. Not much to say here other than I don't think that he'll be my keeper in the 2004 BDFL draft. His production looks to improve from a sub-par season last year, but I don't know if the Bucs offense will truly "feature" him or not. He will probably catch a ton of short passes next year, though.

Case Closed on 'The Practice'

Bad news: The Practice will bow after eight seasons in May.

Good news: A new David E. Kelley show will spin-off from it, possibly starring James Spader (Alan Shore) and set in the "high-priced world of civil law".

I'm still in the midst of getting all my thoughts together regarding my tutorial on cheap streaming audio, but I wanted to get an idea out and see what some of you thought of it.

First, note the new category on this post. I don't think there are a lot of people blogging about streaming audio, so I plan to do more of that. Probably more specifics than generalities.

Lately I've been thinking more about community building around streaming audio. There are drawbacks to trying to create a publicly available stream; the two largest are bandwidth and licensing. Keeping the stream private (whether through security or obscurity) limits the audience but holds legal issues in check. However, one person's programming (music and/or talk) probably won't appeal to everyone.

This is where my current idea comes in. Back in college I was exposed to a ton of new music by borrowing and listening to (and many times, taping) my friend's CDs. The melting pot is still bubbling today (at a low simmer); the medium is now digital music files. Applying this paradigm to streaming audio, I came up with this idea for an online "music club": (which enterprising college students with music, computers, software, and on-campus bandwidth have probably done, but perhaps I'm not giving myself enough credit):

• Launch a private streaming server, using an unpublished URL or a server that authenticates. (Since Icecast and free streaming clients don't support authentication yet, obscurity is the method I'm using.) Only club members will be provided the stream URL.
• Allow friends to participate in the club by uploading tracks they'd like to share with everyone else to their private home directory on the streaming server. Cap it to a relatively low number of tracks (say, 100 tracks or 500MB, whichever comes first) to encourage them to cycle their music every once in a while. The music files should be tagged with accurate info, and can also include items like artist web links and purchase links that could possibly credit the club member with a sale.
• A periodic process will populate a playlist using equal amounts of tracks from each member. A "recently played" artist/song history will be enforced to maximize variety.
• The playlist will be used as the stream source, pleasantly crossfaded and available 24/7. Members tune into the stream whenever they want, and can also check out a website that provides info about the most recently played songs (including artist & purchase links if available, and perhaps other metadata). The participant who shared the track would also be noted.
• A forum or mailing list could be used to discuss things related to the club.
• Future features could include things like allowing members to vote for tracks they like, with the feedback influencing playlist frequency for highly-rated tracks.

If this interests any of you, please post. I'm willing to host such a service, since I've got about 90% of the required infrastructure done. I have bandwidth limitations, but on a small scale (10 participants or less) this would probably work fine. Going forward would certainly require more specification (acceptable codecs/bitrates/tags/clients) but it can all be done with free software.

A question about DVD authoring on Linux over at Slashdot prompted this excellent reply. I think there's some great under-the-covers info there about the control logic of the DVD-Video spec.

I'm a little bummed that the Dominator get to didn't play more this season, but there is a silver lining: he made a rare gesture to his team. Yes, he's a veteran and has been well compensated in prior years, but when's the last time you heard something like this?

I suppose the naysayers will say that he should have given the money to charity. No good deed goes unpunished.

I just received a Dell 1901FP (19" LCD monitor) at work today to replace my old Compaq P70 (17" Trinitron CRT). It's like I put on a new pair of glasses that not only made things sharper, but increased the clarity of colors as well. What a huge improvement.

I've been impressed by my higher-res 14" LCD on my work notebook, but the size and the brightness of the 1901FP makes it my favorite of the two. I may have to consider an LCD display vs. flat-screen CRT when it comes time to replace my primary monitor at home. However, my venerable Samsung 17GLsi shows no signs of quitting anytime soon.

I received the sorriest phishing attempt I've seen in a while in my inbox this morning:

Welcome to Windows Update! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are 10 critical updates available at this time

Get the latest updates available for your computer's operating system,
software, and hardware.
Windows Update scans your computer and provides you with a selection
of updates tailored just for you.

Checking for the latest version of the Windows Update software...

Depending on your connection speed, this might take a minute.
During this time, you may receive one or more security warnings.
Review each security warning to ensure that the content is signed by Microsoft,
and then click Yes to install the software.

Follow the link : Windows Update
(ed: hyperlink to www.microsoft-security-updates.com removed; I don't suggest you browse there.)

Open the fail,and new updates are installed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sincerely,
www.microsoft.com.

Between this and the eBay scam Ross posted about, it's clear that phishers aren't dismayed by the ICANN's "trademark protection" policies (see the paragraph entitled "Evidence of Registration and Use in Bad Faith"). It's because just about any registrar will automatically approve a domain name, and it's up to the trademark holder to report the violation to the registrar or ICANN. Is it worth it, just so that sites like microsoftsucks.com and ebaysucks.com can be automatically approved?

I had just heard about Alex Van Pelt's release from the Bills (see the notes at the bottom of the linked article) earlier today, and wondered what he might do if he wasn't picked up by another team. It turns out he's staying in Buffalo as the new analyst on the Bills radio broadcasts. John Murphy (as seen in Bruce Almighty) moved from analyst to play-by-play announcer for the upcoming season after Van Miller's retirement following last season.

Van Pelt was always personable when he appeared on Shredd & Ragan's show on Monday mornings. It'll be interesting to hear him & Murph on the Bills Radio Network. Hopefully I can still catch the games over the Internet. (Had to get that "streaming audio" connection in there. ;) )

My idea was well-received; five of us are about to start seeding the revamped ICYG. I've been working through FTP server issues, but I believe they're now licked. Scott was nice enough to launch an ICYG members-only forum for us on his website, so the communications hub is online. I need to start working on a dedicated ICYG website, but for now the block here will have to do.

Once the new ICYG goes online, you'll see member info displayed along with the current track, corresponding to who contributed the track.

Leave it to the Microsoft marketing department to screw things up. Two reasons (besides customer confusion) renaming Software Update Services (SUS) 2.0 to Windows Update Services (WUS) is a bad move:

1. SUS 1.0 distributes patches to computers running the Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 OS's. SUS/WUS 2.0 is supposed to support distributing to other MS applications like SQL Server, Exchange, and Office. Why make the name more specific to "Windows" (the operating system itself) at this point?
2. SUS (pronounced "suss") was a unique-enough name. WUS will probably make the Unix guys I work with call me names.

(Note for clarity: Among my many hats at work, I'm one of the SUS administrators.)

Being invited to submit guesses for the NCAA tourney by Don & Scott prompted me to watch at least parts of some of the first- and second-round games. It reminded me about how much I used to enjoy watching college basketball. There seems to be a larger difference between college and pro basketball than with the other major sports (football, baseball, hockey). I'm still not a huge b-ball fan, but it will be interesting to see which team wins. I was hoping the Tigers would beat the odds, but they didn't make the Sweet 16.

I'm still mulling over the "public look" of ICYG. Probably going to work with Scott to create a logo since I'm gimpy with the Gimp. ;)

Rush had me all prepared to buy tickets for their Scranton, PA show in August by saying the Internet presale was this morning. It appears that it's actually happening Thursday. I'm determined to get close seats; 10th row at the 2002 Hershey show spoiled me. ;)

I set up a UT2004 dedicated server on Saturday - it appears to be working OK. It's in the global UT list as "[IMF]Central PA Onslaught" and has global stats enabled. I'm trying to set aside time on Saturday nights to do at least an hour or two of playing. I'll grab time during the week as it becomes available. I've been very impressed by the gameplay so far, even compared to UT2003. I really dig the vehicles; they add so much to the game. However, the experience suffers during online play when lag occurs. It would be a lot of fun to participate in a 32-player LAN matchup. Hopefully my IMF buddies will set a LAN party up sometime soon. (?)

Update: The presale for the Scranton Rush show tickets was actually this morning. We got row R in the frontmost stage-right section (101). I hope that's close!

I like data maps that let you draw your own conclusions. PJ over at Groklaw linked to a Linux Weekly News article that maps SCOX's stock price with various events surrounding the litigious company. I think it's interesting and hope it continues to be updated.

My Comcast Internet service has been flaky for three days in a row now after having been stable for a long time. I called Comcast this morning and their CS rep said it looked like the modem was not working properly or receiving a poor signal. The rep said they wouldn't dispatch a technician just to inspect my outside cabling; they want to check things out inside as well, even though I told the rep I haven't changed the cabling config in months. This bugs me for two reasons:

• I wasn't available to accept the support call until Saturday.
• I have the modem in the basement and the cabling is kind of a mess. Plus I don't know how particular Comcast techs are about what can and can't be connected to the modem. I use a Linksys router to protect my home network and don't necessarily have only one computer connected to the service at a time.

I'll probably move the modem upstairs to test it with my laptop prior to the service call. This would eliminate a lot of cabling and network connections from the equation.

However, I'm definitely miffed that Comcast refused to visit my house ASAP to check the outdoor portion of the cabling. If anything goes wrong with this support call, I may consider the currently-lower-priced Verizon DSL (although I dislike their similarly heavy-handed tactics also).

Just had to get that off my chest and see what you guys think about these types of situations.

Two completely innovative ideas were mentioned in Peter King's latest article:

From Robert Merriman of St. Louis: "Has the NFL ever considered setting up each season's schedule so that the last three games of each team are against division foes? It would add additional drama to the last few weeks of the season. Hey, Monday Night Football might get some meaningful games.''

I've been wanting something like this for a long time.

From Doug Shaffer of Las Vegas: "I have a solution to the problem of pro football in Los Angeles that would generate gobs of revenue, keep the NFL at a nifty balance with 32 teams, give L.A. a new stadium within five years for free, shorten the pre-season to three games (to limit injuries to players like Michael Vick), and extend the regular season to 17 games. Plus, no team would have to move. The solution: The NFL 'Game of The Week' on Thursday night ... live from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Want to see the Colts? The Bucs? Giants? They all hit the L.A. tour once in the season. Sixteen games get played in L.A. ... 32 teams ... once each. Part of the revenue is set aside to build the number two market a new stadium in a few years.''

The only question in my mind is whether this would replace the Sunday night game or not. Regardless of the network it was on, it would have to be available in HD.

When Don turned me on to Sharing The Groove, I had no idea I was going to come across so many cool recordings. My latest download is one of my favorites: Echoes On The Stages. It's a soundboard recording of Rush's final full dress rehearsal before kicking off the Test For Echo tour the following night. It was recorded on my 26th birthday (10/18/96); I attended the first and second shows of the tour (Albany and Buffalo, respectively). What a great retro early birthday gift. The music is all there (and as clear as boots get), but Geddy has some fun on the lyrics. One of my favorite T4E songs, "Time And Motion", was played on the beginning of the tour, but was dropped by the time I saw them later in the tour. It's great to have a live recording of it; it wasn't included on Different Stages.

If you're interested in grabbing it, I suggest firing up your Torrent client and heading over to STG. This appears to be a popular download.

We finally had our first full weekend of spring weather, so I was able to get a lot of outdoor stuff done. The backyard is finally getting some attention after months of neglect. I had to patch quite a few spots; Scotts Lawn Soil mixed with seed has worked well for me in the past. I fertilized the rest, a bit earlier than last year (I hope not too early). And the cars got a washing, too.

It's amazing how much getting outside will curb computer/TV time... ;)

Two concerts this coming week: Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force at the Dragonfly on Tuesday (thanks, Jim), and Dream Theater at the Madison Square Garden Theater on Saturday (thanks, Don). Next stop after these shows: Rush @ Scranton. ;)

I was amused by Shatner's "Denny Crane" in last night's The Practice, so I was happy to hear that he'll be a regular in the spinoff I blogged about before. Also, it's now confirmed that James Spader will star as "Alan Shore" in the new series.

ABC is billing this as an "evolution" of The Practice, but after last night's episode, it seems like it'll be a drama/comedy, kind of like when Ally McBeal and The Practice shared some cross-over episodes.

More articles about this can currently be found on this search page.

For you locals: Colonial Commons 9 has gone downhill ever since the Hoyts (now Regal) 14 was opened. Why a nine-theater cinema would only have a five-line street-level marquee (with perhaps only 3 to 4 copies of the alphabet in letters) is beyond me. On the way in to work today, here's what it said:

DIE ALONE
DAWN OF DEAD
SCOOBY DOO

How the theater's management might think the sign would inspire someone to veer off of 22 and decide to see a movie is beyond me.

AOL Connection Leads to $2,500 Phone Bill:

Elissa Walters, 18, had gone home to Springfield, N.J., for Christmas break, turned on a new computer and called an America Online number in the 973 area code -- the Walters' home area.

Figuring it was a free local call carried by their local carrier, Verizon Communications, she left the computer on. And on. And on.

But just because the area code was the same, it didn't mean the call was local.

Confusing, predatory crap. I'm glad I don't live in a mandatory 10-digit-dialing area (yet). This is the underbelly of deregulation. One more reason for universally-accessible broadband.

From Kicking Ass: Air America Radio is going live today at noon and says it will be streaming over the Internet for those who don't live in one of their radio markets or have XM. This should be interesting. I'll probably try to check out the stream tonight.