Page 146 – scaredpoet.com

Wow, avoid living in Florida…

6/25/2004scaredpoet

When this originally came out, I had assumed that maybe Florida lawmakers made a mistake in wording a law a little too broadly. But now it appears they seem genuinely interested in enacting really stupid taxes:

In 1985 the state passed a law to tax businesses using their own communications networks, because otherwise the state could not collect tax revenue on the businesses’ local telephone service. In 2001, that law was expanded to make “any system that is used for voice or data that connects multiple users with the use of switching or routing technology” taxable up to 16 percent.

The law is so broad that it would apply to networked computers, wireless services, two-way radios and even fax machines — or “substitute communications systems,” as the state calls them.

Wonderful. What’s next, a “luxury tax” on monitors larger than 13 inches?

New Vulnerability: scary stuff this time

6/25/2004scaredpoet

A new security vulnerability is being tracked that targets PCs, and this time getting infected is as simple as downloading a graphic:

When visitors to a few particular Web sites – including popular auction, shopping and price-comparison sites – request pages that include the malicious graphics, the code automatically downloads itself onto their machines. Once installed, the code unpacks itself and loads a keystroke logger on the PC.

I’m a little annoyed by this article, actually, because in common eWeek fashion, you’re given enough information to freak out, but nothing useful to find out more info. For example, it mentions that Internet Exporer is vulnerable, but doesn’t really answer whether other browsers likle Mozilla are affected. Is there a patch being devloped or does it already exist? Are virus scanning programs already on the lookout for this thing yet? How can you find out if you’ve been infected? And specifically what “popular auction, shopping and price-comparison sites” is this article referring to? GRRR!

Also, no other news site seems to be giving this one much attention, so I’m a little skeptical. I’ll keep an eyes out and if more info pops up, you’ll see it here.

UPDATE: A little bit more info can be found on CNN’s site. It seems to be spreading from websites running IIS. I’m just glad I switched to Apache, heh. 🙂

Moore gets his comeuppance, sorta

6/23/2004scaredpoet

Michael Moore lost his appeal to get the R rating for his new film reduced. Is this a surprise?

Of course, being the jackass he is, he offers to gladly contribute to the corruption of minors:

Moore urged teenagers to see the film anyway. “I encourage all teenagers to come see my movie, by any means necessary. If you need me to sneak you in, let me know,” the director said.

Real good, Michael. Way to get the right wingers on your ass.

This is what happens when you get too corporate

6/23/2004scaredpoet

Lollapalooza has been cancelled. I guess once you lose your roots, hike ticket sales to enormously expensive rates, have competing festivals that do what you do better, and finally must contend with an RIAA who is succeeding in killing the music industry, there’s nowhere else to go but down.

New Antipiracy bill would probably ban just about everything…

6/22/2004scaredpoet

Every once in a while, congress gives in to the RIAA/MPAA lobby and someone dreams up a bill that is so ill-conceived it’s ridiculous. Yet another one of these bills is making its way through congress right now:

The proposal, called the Induce Act, says “whoever intentionally induces any violation” of copyright law would be legally liable for those violations, a prohibition that would effectively ban file-swapping networks like Kazaa and Morpheus. In the draft bill seen by CNET News.com, inducement is defined as “aids, abets, induces, counsels, or procures” and can be punished with civil fines and, in some circumstances, lengthy prison terms.

Unfortunately, the wording of the bill is so vague that it goes beyond peer-to-peer networks, and under the strictest letter of the law, would also make things like VCRs illegal. And you bet your computer would probably be on the banned list, too, since it could “aid and abet” copyright infringement.

Typical luddite politics at work. If someone threatens a social norm, or at least an established way of gouging people out of their money, then let’s issue a blanket ban of products that threaten that overstayed existence.

If passed, I think it would probably exceed the ludicrosity (if that’s a word) of the Ban on Electronic Games in Greece that made headlines last year. Because, we all know how horribly dangerous having fun can be.