Taiwan’s parliament has voted to end its dependence on Microsoft software, demanding that the government reduce purchases from the software giant by 25 percent this year.
The resolution, passed on Friday, is an attempt by the island’s law-making body to end the near monopoly Microsoft has with local government offices, a legislative aide said.
The government, for the first time, is urging doctors not to prescribe two antiviral drugs commonly used to fight influenza because of concerns about drug resistance, officials announced Saturday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the recommendation covers the drugs rimantadine and amantadine for the 2006 flu season.
Results of recent lab tests on influenza samples showed that the predominant strain this season – the H3N2 influenza strain – was resistant to the drugs, the agency said.
“Clinicians should not use rimantadine and amantadine … because the drugs will not be effective,” said CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding. The two drugs have been used for years to combat type-A influenza.
Gerberding said the lab data, which CDC scientists had been analyzing since Friday, surprised health officials and the health agency rushed to get the word out Saturday.
“I don’t think we were expecting it to be so dramatic so quickly this year,” Gerberding said. “We just didn’t feel it was responsible to wait three more days during a holiday weekend to let clinicians know.”
The CDC tested 120 influenza A virus samples from the H3N2 strain and found that 91 percent, or 109, were resistant to the two drugs. Two years ago, less than 2 percent of the samples were resistant. Last year, 11 percent were, the CDC said.
Gerberding said the agency was not sure how the resistance occurred, saying it may have been the result of a mutation in the H3N2 flu strain or could have come from overuse of the drugs abroad, such as in countries that permit them drugs to be purchased without a prescription.
One flu expert, Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, said the development was “disconcerting” as flu now has joined the ranks of other diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, that recently have acquired the ability to resist front-line medications.
(from The Mercury News, CDC: Flu virus resistant to two drugs)
The news isn’t all bad. The two drugs mentioned have largely been replaced by Tamiflu and Relenza. Even so, the flu already kills around 36,000 Americans per year. That may seem like a lot, particularly when one considers that merely 3,000 (approximately) people were killed in the terrorist attacks which took place on 2001-09-11. I have to wonder just how quickly the Constitution would have been shredded had 36,000 people been killed on that day — and yet, where is the outrage, where are the impassioned speeches, for the 36,000 Americans killed every year by the flu? And people say I’m cynical when I tell them that the expansions of government power since that day have nothing to do with protecting Americans, and everything to do with controlling them.
Just to give you a few more numbers to put things into perspective (and because I find statistics fascinating), there are 700,000 physicians in the U.S.A., and there are roughly 120,000 accidental deaths caused by physicians per year. Accidental death percentage per physician = 0.171. Meanwhile, there are 80 million firearm owners in the U.S.A., and there are 1,500 accidental gun deaths per year. The percentage of accidental deaths per gun owner = 0.0000188. Statistically, doctors are 9,000 times more dangerous to the public health than gun owners. 🙂
These are just numbers. Don’t get too worked up about it. Statistically, it’s unlikely that any of those numbers was someone you knew.
Mozilla released on Thursday its updated e-mail application, Thunderbird 1.5, which is designed to deliver improved security and functionality.
Thunderbird 1.5, which can be downloaded for free, has been retooled to offer improvements in four main areas: updates, security, RSS and podcasting.
“Thunderbird enhances the overall e-mail experience, adding antiphishing capabilities to help keep people safer, while also integrating and simplifying access to new technologies, such as RSS,” Christopher Beard, Mozilla’s vice president of products, said in a statement.
The e-mail client also features automated updates, designed to download security and product upgrades to people’s systems and then to prompt them when ready for installation.
In another effort to bolster security, Thunderbird 1.5 is designed to push e-mail through a finer spam filter. Last fall, Mozilla released an update for its Thunderbird 1.0.7 that plugged several security holes.
Thunderbird 1.5 also aims to bolster its RSS support by letting people receive feed updates as e-mail messages. People can now access podcasts through a dialog box, which is tied to an application such as a Web browser or audio player.
Mozilla’s new release also includes productivity enhancements, such as spellcheck as e-mail is being written and an ability to delete attachments from e-mail.
Thunderbird has been downloaded 18 million times since it debuted in December 2004, Mozilla said.
Unfortunately, Thunderbird is missing three essential features that prevent me from switching away from MS Outlook (and I would love to be able to switch away from Outlook, and remove the last vestiges of MS Office from my computers):
You know, I could deal with the fact that the Cylons on the new Battlestar Galactica look just like human beings. Hell, I guess it’s cheaper. And I could deal with them making Starbuck a woman. After all, the original series was dreadfully short of strong female characters. So I watched it for a while. But I just couldn’t stand the constant blather from the imaginary Cylon slut about “god” and “sin” and so forth. For crying out loud, shut the hell up. So I quit watching.
I have been thinking about checking it out again, in the hope that the “religious Cylon” nonsense had run its course. Unfortunately, I just saw a commercial featuring — you guessed it — the Cylon slut blathering about “god” and “sin” and so forth.
Oh, well.
According to The F Scale, I am “disciplined but tolerant; a true American.”
This survey is complete bunk, of course. It freely mixes political questions with those predicated on belief in the supernatural, and then averages them. This means that I, someone who “disagrees strongly” with the various “do you belief a vast, invisible creature is controlling your destiny”, but who “agrees somewhat” with most of the rest of the questions, would get the same result as someone whose votes were almost the exact opposite of mine.
It just goes to show, you can prove anything with a poll, depending on how it’s phrased.
On Tuesday, Novell announced the creation of the AppArmor project, a new GPL open-source project dedicated to advancing Linux application security.
Novell Inc.’s AppArmor is an intrusion-prevention system that protects Linux and its applications from the effects of attacks, viruses and malicious applications.
AppArmor is based on technology that Novell acquired from Immunix, a leading provider of Linux host-based application security solutions for Linux, when it purchased the company in May 2005.
AppArmor works by “application containment.” In this approach, the interactions between applications and users are monitored for possible security violations. This “has emerged as a favored way to protect applications from compromise and to protect applications from one another,” observed Al Gillen, research director of system software at IDC when Novell acquired Immunix.
How these interactions are monitored is set by policies. The commercial version comes with predefined security policies for Web server applications such as the Apache Web server, the Postfix and Sendmail email servers, the MySQL DBMS (database management system), and the Samba file and print server.
Novell has donated the core components of its AppArmor framework to provide a foundation for the project. The GPLed code will be available on OpenSUSE.org,
(from LinuxWatch, Novell open sources major Linux security program)
A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here’s the relevant language.
“Whoever…utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet… without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person…who receives the communications…shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
On the one hand, I do not trust people who hide behind aliases. On the other hand, this provision of this law is inane, and shows just how technologically inept US lawmakers are.
When I get a message from a mailing list, and I reply to that message, the message I send should automatically be addressed to that list. That is how it ought to work. Some people, for reasons which do not make sense and which have never made sense, think that you should need to manually address replies to mailing lists (or hit a special “reply to list” button available in some email clients). That’s idiotic.
Rather than go through all of the arguments (not that arguments should be needed for such a self-evident issue), I present the following brief article:
Reply-To Munging Considered Useful
Let me be clear about this: I have been using email since the 1980s. I know what the relevant RFCs and issues are. A reply to an email from a mailing list should go to that list. Period.
This is from Keith Lofstrom. Read it, and do what he asks.
I hope to be meeting next week with a staffer in Senator Gordon Smith’s (R – Oregon) D.C. office about HR4569, the Digital Transition Content Security Act, which may work its way towards a vote this year, if the MPAA gets their way.
HR4569 is intended to close the “analog hole” in the digital rights management chain. Many of us disagree with DRM on principle, and fight the Motion Picture Association of Amerika to protect the rights of fair use and free speech. This goes beyond that, because one side effect of HR4569 may be the destruction of post-1960 electronic technology in the United States.
The “analog hole” is the place where video leaves your VCR or DVD player as analog signals (typically as one or three cables) to go to your TV set or DVD recorder or TIVO or whatever. These analog signals can be captured by a digitizer, and the bits can be stored on a DVD or sent out on the internet. The analog signals can be marked in multiple ways to signify that they are not supposed to be copied, with either a signal in the strip of black above/below the field of the signal ( CGSM-A vertical interval signalling, or the “broadcast flag” ) or with a steganographic technique that signals by twiddling the luminance levels of successive lines of video (VEIL or Video Encoding Invisible Luminance).
HR4569 demands that digitizing systems preserve this information, and in particular that they respond to it and not digitize if they detect VEIL or CGSM-A signals indicating “do not copy”. These signals are not difficult to extract if the system is specialized to handle video. If this bill passes, and your “Tivo-Reloaded” detects these signals on a broadcast show, it will refuse to record the show. Since both CGSM-A and VEIL signals are fairly easy to detect if you know you are looking for them, it is also pretty easy to build a stripper circuit that takes them out or mangles them, and passes the rest of the information through. Such a circuit is specifically forbidden by HR4569.
So what’s my beef? Where does the doom and gloom come from? Why is this so major, and not merely a small step in the gradual elimination of our fair use and free speech rights?
While there are systems that specialize in digitizing video, that are built by the millions with inexpensive high yield technology, these aren’t the only digitizers out there, nor are they the only digitizers capable of turning analog video into bits. General purpose analog-to-digital converters are used in thousands of applications, and the same component or system that might be used in an electronics test system or a cell phone can be used to produce a stream of bits that could be recorded by a computer. This could be no more complicated than plugging a PCI digitizer card into a computer (and this is probably how they prototyped the Tivo before they built specialized hardware). This could be as sophisticated as using a multi-gigahertz bleeding-edge-technology Tektronix digital oscilloscope to capture similar bits, then running the record into a computer for analysis. This is done all the time when video equipment is designed – that’s how the design engineer can test whether the inexpensive consumer gear they are designing will work under a broad range of conditions.
So in fact there is no clear distinction between electronics that can digitize video and electronics for other purposes; placing all-encompassing constraints on video applications must be applied to all applications, or else the constraints are useless. There are billions of converter chips and instruments and legacy consumer gear already made and in the world that can do this conversion. HR4569 will not apply in Canada or Mexico or Europe or Asia. So this bill does not do much hole closing at all. It just robs consumers of simple options to exercise their fair use rights.
The problem comes if the MPAA uses this monopoly grant of power to extend their reach to close more of the hole. They would be enabled by this bill to demand that a new Tektronix digitizing oscilloscope have CGSM-A and VEIL technology built into the scope. Irksome and expensive, with the side effect that these instruments would be much less useful for developing video technology in the US. But the hole is still not plugged, just restricted on the margin.
The billions of analog-to-digital converters produced each year are the next plausible target. HR4569 does not recognize the difference between a component and a system; again, there is no clear technological distinction. So the MPAA is entitled to use their monopoly power to exercise prior restraint against chip manufacturers, and distributors, to ensure that these chips are fitted with detectors for CGSM-A and VEIL. And this is where the system collapses.
A general purpose chip analog-to-digital converter can be used in a number of different ways. It can operate at a wide range of sampling rates, so it is impossible to find line 21 in the vertical interval to find CGSM-A, or to detect the characteristic 7200Hz luminance signal of VEIL, because this requires recognizing many details about the video signal and knowing accurately “what time it is”. Chips don’t know these things – this knowledge is applied at the system level. In fact, specialized video chips could be run at different rates by the same sort or tricks that computer overclockers use; even if all these detectors were hard coded into a chip, they are likely to be easily fooled by software or hacking. Yet the manufacturers and distributors of the chips are held accountable, and subject to half-million dollar fines per component, if their components can be used or abused this way.
Can you imagine the chilling effect this will have on the availability of electronic components in the US? Who would take the risk? All electronic development will move overseas by the threat of lawsuit. New technologies will get developed there. At some point, even system repair moves there, or doesn’t get done. Who wants to take the risk of selling test equipment in the US?
As I mentioned, VEIL technology works on a 7200Hz luminance signal added to the video field. If a video system detects that, it is not supposed to record it. So imagine I am an LA cop, and I don’t want to be recorded the next time I beat up a Rodney King. With an LED flashlight modified to produce a 7200Hz luminance signal broadcasting “don’t record me”, I can wield my truncheon without worries. Or perhaps I am a terrorist in Iraq, wishing to escape observation from a US military camera surveilance system. I buy the same flashlight. turn off the cameras with it, and hide my bomb or assassinate my target.
Or I could build a very big 7200Hz flashlight and sit outside the perimeter of a Hollywood movie set, shutting down the digital movie cameras. Let the MPAA enjoy a taste of what they created. They wouldn’t have many options – all their cameras are from overseas, and bought on the grey market, because their own stupid law shut down the legitimate channels.
My, I think this has turned into a flame. Time for my meds … Ah, that’s better!
So what does this all mean, and what can you do about it? First, learn more about the bill. You can read more about HR4569 at
http://static.publicknowledge.org/pdf/HR-4569-DTCSA-Analog-Hole.pdf
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/47939.htmlLook up “analog hole”, “DRM”, “CGMS” and “VEIL” on Wikipedia. You can also go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation at www.eff.org and follow the growing protest.
The bill is being sponsored by the ranking members of the House Judiciary Committee, Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R) of the 5th Congressional District of Wisconsin, and John Conyers (D) of the 14th Congressional District of Michigan. They come up for re-election this year. A campaign contribution to the appropriate opposing campaign ( D, R, G, L, or other), with an explanatory note to all the campaigns, would be a sincere way to say “you are SO FIRED!”
A letter to your own Congressional representative would help. This HR4569 crock of fertilizer may make it to the Senate, which is why I am planning a meeting with Senator Gordon Smith’s staff. Sen. Smith heads the Commerce committee, which will have a lot of influence on whether this thing passes.
A rule of thumb in politics is that a single written letter approximates the opinions of 1000 constituents. It costs about $4 per voter for Smith to run a campaign. So in some sense, a postal letter to Smith on this issue is worth about $4000 . So get writing! A polite well written letter on paper in a stamped envelope counts for more than an email or fax or phone call. An office visit counts for even more.
So, learn, discuss, write, and take action.
Keith
While looking for an English to Russian online translator that would return Russian words using the English alphabet, I ran across this page of Russian phrases. Being a curious fellow, I perused the site to see what it was about, and came across this list of nine myths about Russian women.
Like most people, I have always had negative feelings about the idea of a Western man marrying a Russian bride. I have always assumed that the men are pathetic losers and the women are mercenaries looking for money and/or a passport. But after reading this page, I find myself having more sympathy for the people involved.
I was very lucky to find my one true love and soul-mate at the tender age of thirteen. Most are not so fortunate. If their search for love and companionship takes them to the other side of the globe, well, why not? Russia is not so terribly far away. If one finds love there, it’s certainly worth the trip. So I wish them the best of luck.
I also found several pieces of wisdom on the site which made me smile. I’ll repeat them here.
Above all, I am grateful that I do not have to go to Russia to find love.
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Blackmoor Vituperative