I posted "The Conscience of a Hacker" by The Mentor, that was written on January 8, 1986 on my facebook "notes" section, and a good friend of mine commented:

"As an educator in a world in which there's less and less room for individuality allowed us in our classes, I found myself nodding a lot.

One of the new trends in education (including the St. Paul Schools with its new Superintendent)? Handed-down curriculum in which every English teacher of a certain grade level teaches the same thing on any given day. Oh, it's the second Tuesday in October? Then today, all teachers should be teaching "irony." Tomorrow, it's something else.

As if all students *were* alike. As if my classroom, with its humans, were the same as another teacher's classroom. As if I and other teachers were alike.

I haven't taught the same course twice the same, yet, because each year the kids in my room are different. I, as a teacher, must follow *them* or I'm not doing my job. And now? Administrators and "educational experts" are forcing teachers to become robots and ignore the fact that those human beings in the desks aren't *product*, they're individual human beings.

I've said the day an administrator hands me a canned curriculum and expects me to read a script is the day that I leave a job I adore--ADORE. I hope it never happens.

But it's happened to St. Paul. To a suburb of Dallas. To many in California. Go to your School Board meetings--even if you don't have kids, even if you don't send your kids to public school--and pay attention.

(Just my little response from one perspective.)"

Which made me step up onto my soapbox...

Unfortunately the public school system has been infiltrated by buffoons in the upper echelons... passing down complete trash to teach to students.

Deep down I bet these folks are the most well intentioned peeps known to man, but somehow they bowed to political pressure and the BULLSHIT Politically Correct Movement which is making the United States an nation of complete pussies unwilling to stand up for their beliefs because it may offend someone.

Offend me! Stimulate my brain and lets engage in some rage... talk it out rather than duke it out. Ever wonder why there is so much road-rage? Ever wonder why kids kill kids in these day-time jails we call schools?

Ever just wonder WHY?!?

Censorship is another crock-n-bull story also.  There are loads of things we should be teaching our kids... interesting things.  Nicolai Tesla.  Buffalo Soldiers.  Skeletal remains that PRE-DATE our so-called indegenious peeps the Indians... and the cover-up around that involving the Army Corps of Engineers.

Students get in trouble all the time for expressing their views... even in college.  What makes the prof/instructor/teacher so fucking arrogant that s/he cannot engage in dialogue with a student with an opposing view?

My dad sent me this blathering from their new IT company's president that they are using for their office, which has client records being scanned into a document management system and that machine is accessible via the internet... my response follows:

What was Microsoft thinking?

Creating the next Operating System (OS) for the World has to be a daunting undertaking. What are the chances of success? Apparently, not that good. Microsoft, with all of its resources, market data, experience, and time has produced what many believe to be one of the industry’s largest flops. With few productivity enhancements for the typical end user, Vista comes at the heavy price of hardware upgrades, heavy battery consumption, slow start-up and application incompatibility. In fact, 60% of companies surveyed have no plans to migrate to the new operating system and only 13% have plans to fully deploy it.

The most popular alternative is skipping it all together and waiting for the next OS from Microsoft. This has become a viable solution since Microsoft recently leaked the progress of their next OS, currently referred to as Windows 7. Microsoft is targeting late 2009 for the release.

ORBIT has made available to all of its clients the option to move to Vista. Acceptance has been similar to what has been seen everywhere else, with fewer than 5% of our users requesting installation. We anticipate that there may be an increasing trickle of interest over the next year, but that many of you will also decide to forgo Vista and its accompanying costs, waiting for Windows 7.

So, with all the rumblings from Apple (and their Mac OS) and the Linux world (an open source OS) you would think that the demise of Microsoft is imminent. The commercials are cute and with fortunes being generated from the iPod, iPhone and iTunes, they can afford to run them non-stop. But, don’t be fooled. When it comes to the desktop (laptops included) Microsoft still has more than a 96% share of the world’s market (Microsoft Windows XP – 89.8%, Microsoft Vista - 6.3%, Mac OS – 4.2% and Linux - .6%).


My response to my dad:

Because an OS has X% of the market share, doesn't mean that company's
IT adviser's shouldn't be explaining the benefits of integrating Apple
machines for desktop and/or server use... or moving to Linux
altogether for their server applications. When more firms move toward
change then the market will change.

Firms win when software licensing costs are reduced or eliminated and
machines on the desktop and server applications require less action
from their IT departments... read less downtime and more productivity.

Simply skipping an OS, like sticking with XP and not going to Vista
because of its problems, the machines themselves become even more
obsolete. Little to folks realize that the same machines that cannot
run Vista now for whatever reason will surely not be able to run the
next version of the bloatware OS and there will be more rumblings that
IT budgets are skyrocketing.

Skipping an OS upgrade is like a police officer in a high crime and
violent area volunteering to hit the streets without any body armour.
It would be looked upon as risky and a host of other things. There is
nothing different here when companies in a Microsoft environment opt
to skip service upgrades leaving themselves vulnerable to the latest
exploit that any kid with a desire to learn more (and no full
understanding of the massive implications) puts it to use and takes
down an entire multinational company's network (or bank, government,
school, etc) because the network was running an unpatched DNS server
or something.

Its a lose lose situation sticking it out for the next cool thing from
Microsoft. They have already proven that they have nothing up their
sleeve and encourage folks to "hold on" and "we're working on that".
Cumon! People really need to wake up and smell the coffee vs. the
manure that Steve Ballmer and his marketing (and PR) armies are
polluting us with.

Companies with any sort of proprietary information (clients personal
data, credit information, SSNs, etc al) should not be connecting these
machines containing this information to any network connected to the
rest of the world. If somebody wants the information bad enough they
will find it... or some kid playing with the new exploit just learned
about at a convention (or wherever on the interweb) will sacrifice the
information..

Also all of these dufas' (we hear about almost every other month or
more) who are misplacing valuable laptops, getting them stolen, etc
have compromised the information contained simply by removing it from
the workplace and firing it up at the cool coffee shoppe with free
WiFi.

Melissa and I have been very happy with Apple, its software &
hardware. We have also been using Ubuntu Linux on a (borrowed) PC in
the kitchen and have found that we are not worried at all that we
cannot use a Micro$oft product.

Updates are mostly automatic and we do not worry about some
crack(head) team working for ONE company to release what they consider
an acceptable fix for "X" problem... its a community project (that is
governed) always allowing the OS to evolve... Mac OSX at its core is
running BSD. BSD and Linux are close cousins. Mac OSX is running a
pretty GUI (graphical user interface) that Apple developed.

I could go on... but until IT "professionals" get whacked with a clue
bat a few times and learn more about security procedures there will
always be the same old, same old grindings about these same topics and
more that I went on about above.

I receive emails from Flying Dog Brewery letting me know stuff now and again... some very useful, like this week's email:

"Thursday is the 72nd birthday of Gonzo Artist and Flying Dog illustrator Ralph Steadman.  We hope you all will raise a glass to our co-conspiritor and honor him with some borderline insanity.

Ralpy, we hope that your crazy genius lasts another 72 years."

( link to page with good player -> http://todaysbigthing.com/2008/04/29 )

Great insight from someone more eloquent with words than me...

--

Posted by Mercyphotography

Today, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is heading an international conference, in Switzerland, to address the global food crisis. The World Food Programme ( WFP) says an extra 100 million people ( world wide) cannot afford food anymore.

The World Bank President ( Robert Zoellick) is attending, so is Pascal Lamy from the World Trade Organization. UN Secretary Ban says that if not handle right away " The food crisis will escalate and pose real threats to economic groth, social progress and even political security "

Most worldwide analysts point at the corn production for ethanol as one of the key factor in the crisis. Yet, in America the Congress is likely to vote again in favor of  very generous farming subsidies for the corn agro-industry.

Senator McCain was against it in 2003, but now he is pro-ethanol, Senator Clinton is in the same boat. It is easy to understand why; bottom line ( unless you want to commit political suicide) it is very hard to go against the farming lobby in the US.

I think it is time to cut all farm subsidies for corn growers,  they make enough money as it is. Of course it will never happen in an election year.

To read about the UN, WFP and World Bank meeting go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7370484.stm

Note: I am a French filmmaker/photojournalist based in the US since 1983. To view my main photo/editorial web site go to: http://www.digitalrailroad.net/Mercier

Great video over at Video Jug:

How To Change The World

Scheduled to close on the building in the coming weeks, the association will have to pay millions of dollars more than it would have a year ago when it contracted to buy the 160,000-square-foot structure — millions of dollars it is now less able to afford. […]

Critics also see irony — and some justice — in this predicament. “They are certainly getting what they deserve,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal research group. “Mortgage bankers encouraged people to take out mortgages that were very risky, and the result of that was a large number of the mortgages went bad and caused mortgage interest rates to soar. Now they are the victims of high mortgage rates and chaos in the market more generally.”

Barack Obama gave an address in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Iraq and America's national security.

A report by the Financial Times (registration required) cites unnamed executives who say that Apple is in talks with record labels to offer access to the entire iTunes music library for a lump sum price. The fee would be added as a premium option on an iPod or iPhone, or it could come as a monthly charge. It would allow downloading of any song at any time so long as the purchaser still owns the device, and the songs would be yours to keep.

This latest concept is similar to Nokia's "Comes With Music" program set to launch later this year. Nokia is reportedly rolling an $80 fee into the price of compatible phones for one year of access to Nokia's music store, which includes music from labels like Universal.

Apple's plan is different in several respects. Since the average iPod owner buys about 20 tracks from the iTunes, Apple wants to make the premium about $20, arguing that it should cover the average consumer's downloads. Then the owner can make unlimited music downloads from the iTunes Store for the life of the device. Once downloaded, the tracks are yours to keep, even if you get rid of the original iPod or iPhone. And since iPod and phone owners tend to replace devices fairly regularly, the record labels would be getting the fee whether or not the consumer makes any further downloads. Silicon Alley Insider did the math and thinks it's a good deal all around. But according to the Financial Times' sources, the labels are looking for numbers closer to the $80 Nokia is reported to be paying.

There's still the question of DRM, however. Even though the tracks are yours, any non-iTunes Plus tracks will still be beholden to FairPlay restrictions, so this could also be a good way to lock consumers into repeat Apple purchases (unless they're willing to have their music tethered to their computers). The Nokia plan use Plays For Sure, which won't play for sure on iPods or even Zunes, and Comes With Music doesn't allow you to keep listening to tracks once your subscription period has expired

While Apple's program certainly sounds like it could go over well with consumers, the negotiations are not over. Apple will need to get all the labels on board for the plan to work. If we've learned anything from recent music licensing debates, it's that they are contentious. How much do the songwriters deserve? What should be the labels' share? In addition, the labels are sure to want a plan that increases their revenue, rather than a plan that simply compensates them for what the average iPod owner already pays.

[ read more... ] 

The guitar company claims that the Activision Inc. game violates a patent they own for a virtual reality music system.

Gibson Guitar Corp., which once harmoniously licensed its name to the blockbuster "Guitar Hero" video games, is strumming a different tune.

Nashville-based Gibson claims that Activision Inc.'s "Guitar Hero" violates a 10-year-old patent Gibson owns for a virtual reality music system. Activision says that isn't the case and in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles asked a federal judge to settle the matter.

"We believe their claims will not withstand any objective scrutiny," George Rose, Santa Monica-based Activision's general counsel, said in a statement.

In a Jan. 7 letter to Activision, Gibson attorney F. Leslie Bessenger said the video game producer was "taking advantage of Gibson's patented technology without properly compensating Gibson."

Gamers who play "Guitar Hero" use wireless controllers shaped like guitars -- most of them modeled after famous Gibsons -- jamming along with animated on-screen musicians.

Activision pays an undisclosed amount for Gibson's trademark under a license agreement. It is unclear when that agreement expires.

"Gibson clearly believes the patent could be worth a lot more than the royalties the company is already receiving from Activision," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets.

The Gibson patent, granted in November 1999, outlines a system that simulates a concert experience with a head-mounted display with speakers, an eight-channel mixer, a DVD player and a guitar.

Activision's suit says Gibson forfeited its rights by failing to raise the patent issue earlier.

"Gibson has been aware of the 'Guitar Hero' game for many years," the suit says, and "encouraged Activision to manufacture and sell devices it now alleges infringe the . . . patent."

[  ]

The godfather of gonzo says 9/11 caused a "nationwide nervous breakdown" -- and let the Bush crowd loot the country and savage American democracy.

By John Glassie

Feb 3, 2003 | He calls himself "an elderly dope fiend living out in the wilderness," but Hunter S. Thompson will also be found this week on the New York Times bestseller list with a new memoir, "Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century."

Listening to his ragged voice, there is some sense that Thompson, now 65, has reined in his outlaw ways, gotten a little softer, perhaps a little more gracious now that he's reached retirement age. "I've found you can deal with the system a lot easier if you use their rules," he says. "I talk to a lot of lawyers."

But do not be deceived. In "Kingdom of Fear" and in a telephone interview with Salon from his compound in Aspen, Colo., Thompson did what he's always done: speak the truth about American society as he sees it, without worrying much about decorum. "Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads?" he writes, referring to the people currently occupying the White House. "They are the racists and hate mongers among us -- they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis."

That's his enduring attitude in this new age of darkness: a lot more loathing than fear.

The godfather of gonzo believes America has suffered a "nationwide nervous breakdown" since 9/11, and as a result is compromising civil liberties for what he calls "the illusion of security." The compromise, he says, is "a disaster of unthinkable proportions" and "part of the downward spiral of dumbness" he believes is plaguing the country.

[ now ya gotta read more... ] 

[ story here... ]

INCREASINGLY autonomous, gun-toting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence says.

"They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address today before Britain's Royal United Services Institute.

Intelligent machines deployed on battlefields around the world – from mobile grenade launchers to rocket-firing drones – can already identify and lock onto targets without human help.

There are more than 4000 US military robots on the ground in Iraq, as well as unmanned aircraft that have clocked hundreds of thousands of flight hours.

The first three armed combat robots fitted with large-calibre machine guns deployed to Iraq last year, manufactured by US arms maker Foster-Miller, proved so successful that 80 more are on order, said Prof Sharkey.

But up to now, a human hand has always been required to push the button or pull the trigger.