Miserable Failure

As Joe already noted, I was unable to do my live coverage of the debate tonight. Let me tell you why.



First of all, I no longer have the laptops I used to have, the ones I attempted to use for the VMA show. So I lugged around two tower systems, two laptop bags of audio equipment, and a flatscreen monitor all over the U.M. Campus going through security checkpoints, and facing ridicule of various media people and protesters.



(Why was I carrying all of this by myself? Well, Ricky, once again, was dragging up the rear getting us there this evening, and I got in too late, and discovered upon arrival that neither Leo nor Ricky's press credentials went through).



Secondly, once I arrived, I took about 15 minutes to set up, leaving me about 13 minutes before showtime to go figure out why the network wasn't up.



Upon questioning of the welcome desk, I was informed that I'd have to pay $350 per computer I was hooking up, $200 per phone that I wanted, and an additional $100 for a live audio feed.



Did I mention that I wasn't on the real debate floor? No, I was stuck in a large press room full of Spainards and API wire reporters. The highlight of the evening was when Carl Rove quickly ran through the room.



On the other hand, I did get a recording of the debate from an ambient room mike, and as soon as I fix up the sound levels on it, I'll either post it, or get Smokey to broadcast it.



I'm tired as fsck, and I've still got to unload my equipment. Talk to you in a bit with actual debate commentary.



/rizzn

Absolutely hilarious. Get it from teeshirthell.com 

Presidential Debates

The main two parties are putting up their presdiential candidates to debate this evening.... and I've just been told by the CPD people that I've qualified for press credentials, so now begins the mad rush to get my equipment together and ready it for the debate tonight.

If you were part of my street team and I told you that we cancelled the debate coverage, I'm now rescinding that statement. :)

This means you, tehjeffman.

MADSHOW TEAM, ASSEMBLE!

/rizzn

Soundtrack to My Car or Where Have You Been Rizzn?

I have finally decided to launch my record label.  I always get a bit involved in my music when things get a bit dead at work.  Well right now is no exception.  I have, over the last few weeks, banged out about five or six new songs, remastered a bunch of old ones, and finally finished a couple projects that needed finishing.

Right now, I'm peddling my wares through cafepress, and I'm selling it the cheapie route at first to get it out there.

Pay attention to this site over the next few weeks.  I'll be adding the record label information, and giving away free downloads of the song, for a limited time, and talking about my music and inspirations and such.

Once the record label site goes up, the price of the cd will jump to $9.99 (up a whopping 3 bux from the current 6.99).

If you love me, you'll by my album.  Get it now, while it's hot!

/rizzn

PS: Click here to go get it

URGENT - Call Senators today to stop INDUCE.

This is an emergency alert for everyone who took part in the Save Betamax call-in day: Today, Orrin Hatch will be trying to line up enough votes to get the INDUCE Act (S. 2560) through to the Senate floor. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee need to hear from you right now.

At the bottom of this message is a list of Senators to call. Please take the time to call two of them, before 5 PM EST today. The bill is scheduled for mark-up on Thursday, so it's very important that you make these calls today.

We need to stop this bill, and we can. Because the INDUCE Act is such a radical departure from two decades of tech policy (set in place by the Betamax decision), a truly unprecedented coalition has formed to stop it. Heavyweights of the technology and electronics sectors are joining public interest groups in fighting hard against the extremely well-connected entertainment industry lobbies (the RIAA and MPAA). Right now there's something of a stalemate-- insiders all say that INDUCE has a 50/50 shot at becoming law.

That's why it's extremely important that Senators hear what you have to say. This email is going out to the over 5,000 people who participated in the Save Betamax call-in day. Tomorrow (Wednesday) the EFF will be running a call-in day for their members, using the software we made for Save Betamax. In just two days Senators could be hearing from tens of thousands of constituents. But we need you to make these phone calls, and spread the word (i.e. on your blog, or in an email to friends) that right now is the time to act.

SENATORS TO CALL

Please call two of these Senators, and if you have time feel free to make more calls. Make sure to look down the list to see if any Senators represent your state. Every phone call counts, but calls from constituents will carry more weight, so make sure to let them know if you're a constituent. Also, the RIAA likes to pretend that all musicians support their breed of copyright extremism. We know that's not true, so if you're a musician make sure to mention that as well.

Orrin Hatch
UTAH
202-224-5251

Patrick Leahy
VERMONT
202-224-4242

Charles E. Grassley
IOWA
202.224.3744

Edward M. Kennedy
MASSACHUSETTS
202-224-4543

Arlen Specter
PENNSYLVANIA
202-224-4254

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
DELAWARE
202-224-5042

Jon Kyl
202) 224-4521
ARIZONA

Herbert Kohl
WISCONSIN
(202) 224-5653

Mike DeWine
OHIO
(202) 224-2315

Dianne Feinstein
CALIFORNIA
202-224-3841

Jeff Sessions
ALABAMA
202) 224-4124

Russell D. Feingold
WISCONSIN
202/224-5323

Lindsey Graham
SOUTH CAROLINA
(202) 224-5972

Charles E. Schumer
NEW YORK
202-224-6542

Larry Craig
IDAHO
202/224-2752

Richard J. Durbin
ILLINOIS
202) 224-2152

Saxby Chambliss
GEORGIA
(202) 224-3521

John Edwards
NORTH CAROLINA
(202) 224-3154

John Cornyn
TEXAS
202-224-2934

Music on the Turntables Currently: - last.mp3?Session=0f653b3ffe277e4bc5800db3b359e58b

CBS's Document Battle is Over

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/campaign/20CND-GUAR.html

CBS News said today that a former Texas National Guard officer had "deliberately misled" it in its inquiry into President Bush's National Guard service by providing it with "a false account" of the origins of documents used to reinforce questions raised about Mr. Bush's activities three decades ago.

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report," the president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward, said in a statement issued by the network. "We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."

The network said the former Army National Guard officer, Bill Burkett, had "acknowledged that he provided the now-disputed documents" and that he "admits he deliberately misled the CBS News producer working on the report, giving her a false account of the documents' origins to protect a promise of confidentiality to the actual source."

In his statement, Mr. Rather said that "if I knew then what I know now, I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question."

The seemingly unflappable confidence of Mr. Rather and top news division officials in the documents allayed fears within the network and created doubt among some in the news media at large that those specialists were correct. CBS News officials had said they had reason to be certain that the documents indeed had come from the personal file of Colonel Killian.

Sandy Genelius, a network spokeswoman, said last week, "We are confident about the chain of custody; we're confident in how we secured the documents."

In an e-mail message on Sunday, Mr. Burkett declined to answer any questions about the documents posed by The New York Times.

Mr. Howard also said in the interview that the White House did not dispute the veracity of the documents when it was presented to them on the morning of the report. That reaction, he said, was "the icing on the cake" of the other reporting the network was conducting on the documents. White House officials have said they saw no reason to challenge documents being presented by a credible news organization.

Several people familiar with the situation said they were girding for a particularly tough week for Mr. Rather and the news division should the network announce its new doubts.

One person close to the situation said the critical question would be, "Where was everybody's judgment on that last day?"

Music on the Turntables Currently: The Postal Service - Brand New Colony

Everyone Loves Over-simplification

http://www.loveinwar.com/game.cfm

Apparently, I'm a Middle of the Road Independent.

"You have little conviction and even less loyalty.  You expect politicians to cater to your outsized ego. If they catch Osama, you'll vote for George W. Bush.  However, if you got laid off, you'll vote for John Kerry."

So what happened to the 3-4 well known middle of the road candidates? 

/rizzn

Rather Breaks Another Story

1972 Email Casts Doubt on Bush Guard Service

(2004-09-09) -- CBS reporter Dan Rather today released the text of a recently discovered email from then-Lt. George W. Bush's Air National Guard commanding officer which casts more doubt upon the military service of the man who would become the 43rd President of the United States.

The revelation of the email comes just hours after questions were raised about the authenticity of typewritten memos from the same officer, shown yesterday by Mr. Rather on 60 Minutes.

According to the previously unseen email message sent in May 1972 by squadron commander Jerry Killian, Lt. Bush phoned Col. Killian because "his internet connection was on the fritz and he couldn't IM me."

Lt. Bush apparently wanted to talk about "how he can get out of coming to drill from now through November."

According to Col. Killian's email, the young Bush wanted to go to Alabama to work as webmaster for a Republican candidate's website.

Mr. Rather said the authenticity of the 32-year-old email has been confirmed by several Nigerian officials who specialize in electronic funds transfer by email.

I am concerned.

/rizzn

"This is God's Way of Teaching People About Typography"

The Politburo Diktat posted this gem on their site the other day:

(click to enlarge)

To be completely honest, this scandal is interesting to me, less for reasons of presidential credibility, and more for reasons of Old Media credibility. Everyone around here (and by here I mean the blogging world) seems enthralled with the political implications of what this means, and truth be told, it has varied to mild political implications. I will not so much go into the political implications, but I will talk about what it means (or at least what it should mean) about media in general, and us in speficity.

According to a now defunct site called the spectator, an unnamed producer of a rival CBS show to 60 Minutes, there is growing concern inside the building on 57th Street that they may have been suckered by the KERRY campaign. "There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps, figuring we'd do the heavy lifting on the story. That maybe they had doubts about these documents but hoped we'd get more information," says the producer. "If that's the case, then we're bigger fools than we already appear to be judging by all the chatter about how these documents could be forgeries."

The liberal agenda of CBS has been their downfall. "This was too hot not to push. If there were doubts, those people didn't show it," according to that same producer.

This is the time for us as New Media Journalists to step up to the plate. If Indymedia wants a reputation other than a safe haven for Anarchists and Close-Minded Liberals, then they'll turn their investigative eye on these memos, and do the work that they say they do -- cover the stories that the Mainstream Media ignore.

I'm actually taking a very balanced and fair look at this, and I've got double the reason most of you do to be biased about this... I lean conservatively, and I would like nothing better than to take down a giant like CBS (and MSNBC by extension, for supporting their position).

But instead of just finding the facts I want to support my position, I'm actually performing serious investigative journalism.

My first call was to someone I've been a longtime fan of, Chank Diesel. Chank was one of the first people on the net (some time back in 1996) to sell fonts, and he's been doing it independant of the 'net much longer than that. He's been profiled in The Wall Street Journal and he was featured in the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum as "a notable example of contemporary typography" in 1996.

You've probably noticed a lot of his fonts in some of my designs and artwork if you've followed my stuff at all for any length of time.

At any rate, I recieved an email back from Heidi Andermack, an associate of his at Team Chank saying that he was flattered that I'd ask him, but a fella by the name of Mark Simonson would very likely be able to help me more ably than Chank, as Mark ".. has a great wealth of knowledge about type history."

My initial conversations with Mark led me to a number of very informative and fairly non-partisan discussion threads (if only our political debates were half as civil).

Amongst the links that I found most helpful were the following:

a) http://shapeofdays.typepad.com/the_shape_of_days/2004/09/the_ibm_selectr.html b) http://www.ibmcomposer.org/ c) http://typographi.com/000911.php#comments

Many of my comments will be direct extrapolations from what I found there, but it's very important to note that these are the internet centerpoints for the typography sub-culture, as it were. This is the strongpoint of the alleged "New Media" -- that people of like mind (in this case, experts of typography) can congregate and wax geeky on the topics of their expertise. The bonus for us in the rest of the world is that what they say is a matter of public record, and that it's fully interactive.

The Documents Themselves Somewhere during the midst of my conversations with Heidi and Mark, and just before my delve into chat boards, I found copies of the memos themselves. It's important to familiarize yourself with them, so I urge you to download them here from this site before you go on.

http://rizzn.net/creativity/091004_bush_service.pdf

It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to find suspect information to nitpick in these documents. The first issue is the PO Box in the letterhead: 34567. To paraphrase Mel Brooks in Spaceballs: The Movie "(1,2)3,4,5,6,7...that's the kind of number an idiot would use on his luggage."

PO Box 34567 is, oddly enough, the right PO Box. Other documents provided by the Pentagon use the same PO Box, I am told (although I've yet to recieve my copy of Bush's military record via FOIA request). I called the Post Office for Zip Code 77034 and inquired about their PO Box Numbers. It turns out that they really do have a Box 34567.

But what do the experts say? As I was taping my Friday show ("I'm Right", from 6-8 EST on http://www.rantradio.com/), Mark Simonson tipped me off to a fellow named Thomas Phinney, a Seattle employee of Adobe (the PDF people). Thomas is inarguably an expert on typography, and a thorough researcher of this case (I hope to have him on the show Sunday). He was quoted in the Monday Washington Post article on the subject.

His immediate reaction was that the documents look like "blatant forgeries," although he adds that "this has not yet been proven absolutely."

He further summarises his analysis: "The incredibly bad reproduction of the memos makes it hard to state many things definitively." This is something I heard again and again from a great many different experts. He continues: "The memos precisely match current digital versions of Times (and previous phototype and hot metal typesetting versions), but they do not match the IBM Composer fonts, or do they match any version of the IBM Executive.

He details his findings on each. Speaking to the Composer's abilities, he says: "IBM Composer proportional fonts all had the same relative character widths, regardless of font design. Thus there is in essence only one "fingerprint" for the Composer fonts. Times matches the memo fingerprint, but not the Composer fingerprint. Contrariwise, I made a digital version of a Composer font (since I have the widths info). This allowed me to do "virtual Composer" simulations and prove in the reverse direction, that the relative line lengths set with the virtual Composer are quite different. (Note: My Composer simulation font was accurate to the nearest 1/1000 of the point size for each letter.)"

Likewise, his findings on the IBM Executive: "[it] did not offer switchable fonts, so you literally had to buy a different typewriter to get a different proportional font. None of them is particularly close to Times."

It was good to see someone articulately describe the line length argument. Clearly, the letterforms themselves are destroyed, but transparent is the cumulative effect of the metrics. Even the slightest differences in character widths when multiplied by hundreds of characters will affect copy flow. I can personally attest to this. I used to like to use a font named Boston Bold back in my school days... my papers went from 5 to 11 pages --and for the most part, your teachers will still think any serif font is Times New Roman (along with most of the members of the press).

I was particularly glad to see that Thomas Phinney's opinion supported another article's conclusion that has grown to shape my opinion greatly during this great discourse. The place the media hasn't paid much attention to for some reason, the place where I think the most interesting discourse and opinion is going on, and the place where I'm now going to include on my list of RSS feeds, Shape of Days, run by Jeff Harrell, self-proclaimed "Freelance Opinion Writer."

Two Suspicious Elements There are a large number of suspicious elements that indicate that the document is fake. I've mentioned a couple, but technically speaking, there are two that stick out like none other. Jeff Harrell picked up on these elements immediately, and in working with Gerry Kaplan of the IBM Composer Pavillion, produced some very well researched conclusions. These two elements I speak of are a) the superscript issue on the "04 May 1972" memo, and b) the relative position of text on all the memos.

Gerry Kaplan is a software engineer specializing in IBM's line of Web-based software technologies. He is a graduate of the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida with a degree in Computer Science. He had his first experience with the IBM Composer in High School, when he had an opportunity to use one to type his Science Research projects. The complexity of the machine, as well as the beautiful copy it produced left an impression, and years later, he decided to save the IBM Composer from the junk yards and start a small IBM Composer online museum. In addition to the mint condition machines, his collection also includes virtually all English fonts produced for the Composer, as well as just about every document IBM published relating to it.

Let's address the latter suspicious element first. Why is it important that the relative position of the text be addressed, and not the edge of the paper. Again, according to Thomas Phinney, "The incredibly bad reproduction of the memos makes it hard to state many things definitively. But one thing that is not degraded by the reproduction is the simple question of relative line lengths." It's pretty cut and dried.

As to the former issue, that of the superscript, that issue comes out in the wash of the article written by Jeff's arcticle "The IBM Selectric Composer." He asked Gerry Kaplan to type up some samples on his own personal IBM Selectric Composers.
(click to enlarge)

It is shown here as copied from his site. Gerry's sample is in red, and the original is in black. As Jeff says, "pretty darned close to the original. But not close enough...Not surprising, since they're both based on the original Times New Roman font commissioned by the Times of London in 1931. But as we've seen already, different versions of the same font always exhibit subtle differences, usually in letterspacing. This case is no different."

That speaks both to the superscript and the spacing issues, but what is amazing is that the Selectric actually produced the superscript. Intrigued by this, Jeff asked Gerry how it was produced.

Gerry said: "To make the superscripted th, I first typed "111", then switched the font to the 8pt font, switched the escapement lever to the smaller escapement (horizontal movement), reverse indexed the paper 1/2 line up, typed the "th", indexed 1/2 line down, switched the escapement lever to the wider escapement, then changed the type ball back to the 11pt font. On other tries, I was able to produce the superscripted th much cleaner (where it looked proper), but on the one I sent you, the carrier slipped forward a little bit when I switched the escapement lever to and from the smaller spacing."

This means that Gerry actually had to replace the ball on the typewriter (the ball being the object that actually imprints the type on the page).

At this point you may be asking yourself, why are we narrowed down to this one typewriter? Forensic typography expert Dr. Philip Brouffard has basically ruled out all typewriters that were available in 1972/73. The only reasonable piece of equipment on which the CBS memos could have been produced is the IBM Selectric Composer, a cold-type desktop typesetter which was available at that time.

Then there comes the issue of price of this fine machine. To talk about this, we must suppose that Gerry Kaplan's experiments were somehow flawed, and can be thrown out. The IBM Selectric was the bargain system that could do this sort of thing.

It should be noted that the reference inflation calculator has 2003 as the most recent end year for calculating. You can't really produce a 2004 calculation because the numbers for this year aren't final yet. Based on Gerry's suggested price for the unit, an an in-between price of $4000 and a purchase date of 1971 to give a reasonable period for a base clerk to master the beast is used to estimate the "today cost" of the machine.

Calculated out, this comes out to $18,112.09 in 2003 dollars. When compared to Compugraphic and Varitype systems this was a relative bargain but still a major investment.

All of this doesn't even begin to address other problems in and about the documents: 1. The date format is wrong (e.g., 18 AUG 1973, not 18 August 1973). In this file, there is one date written out fully (January). 2. The subject is missing an SSCI code--Standard Subject Classification Indicator code 2. General Staudt resigned a full eighteen months before he is mentioned pressuring Hodges, according to the Dallas Morning News. 3. The copy lacks the line that should appear, as old government paper was 10.5" wide. 4. There are absolutely no typos or correction smears on any of the documents. 5. Kerning--physically impossible on equipment of that era. 6. The fact that Lt. Colonel Killian was legally obgligated by military law to destroy any personal notes about a soldier once that soldier left his command... 7. Why was Bush being ordered to perform the physical two months before (in May) when he was supposed to (July)? 8. Where these documents came from. A CYA memo would go into Killian's personal (not official) file, and not in any sort of official file--it was for Killian's benefit, not the benefit of the ANG.

I think this has been quite an exercise in showing the obvious strengths of New Media, as they call us. I mentioned this to Thomas Phinney, to which he replied: "This is an interesting example of blogosphere puzzle solving. It reminds me a bit of the AI online game, where the creators rapidly found that what they thought would be a week or two worth of puzzles in each batch would be solved in a day or two, or even in a matter of hours as more minds joined the "collective detective."

It couldn't have been better stated.

Darrell and I are going to go over some of the real world reasons why these documents are fake this weekend on the Mark and Darrell show, and of course inject our good ol' conspiracy theories into the mix. We also plan on having a great variety of guests, a lot of which have very unique perspectives on all of this. Please tune in from 8-Midnight this Sunday ... you will not be dissappointed.

/rizzn

Music on the Turntables Currently: Rizzn Do'Urden - Riz Mix 4 - Tears in the Rain

Vow of Silence

I'm terribly sorry for the "vow of silence" lately but I've been working on this Memogate thing.  We've got some amazing interviews lined up for this weekend, so stay tuned... this'll be good.

/rizzn

Music on the Turntables Currently: - Cowboy Beebop Ballad Of A Fallen Angel

Save Betamax

After the interview with Nick from downhillbattle.org last night, the save betamax campaign has over 1000 new members as of the time of this writing.  I can only hope that this is a result of my interview this weekend, or that I played a part in it.

To get involved in this groundbreaking opposition to this legislation, go to: http://www.savebetamax.org/.

Music on the Turntables Currently: Rizzn Do'Urden - Riz Mix 6.5 - Unfinished Business

Mark And Darrell Show Links

Links from the show:

http://www.savebetamax.org
http://www.downhillbattle.org

 

Fahrenheit 9/11 Commentary and the Oscars

I haven't really done much commentary on this film, at least not on the website.  I downloaded the DVD a while back, but I never actually burned it or watched it.  I just haven't had the time.  I have read selected transcripts, however, and I have read a lot of commentary, both positive and negative.

Recently (last month), Fahrenheit 9/11 was shown on Cuban television.  This was a very lightly covered news story, but it has real significance.  Cuba is an enemy state, first of all, and allowing F911 to be released there is just as bad as allowing the terrorist group HAMAS to be an investor in your film.

One of the more interesting quotes from MSNBC's article on the Cuban release was an American college student Abigail Nelson (learning Spanish this summer in Havana) noting, "Michael Moore and Fidel Castro see the world eye-to-eye."

This Monday, Michael Moore made a lengthy entry in his blog. The subject of the post was why he would not be seeking the Oscar this year.  Of course it was mostly filled with self-praise and other such stuff, but the meat of it was the following:

"The only problem with my desire to get this movie in front of as many Americans as possible is that, should it air on TV, I will NOT be eligible to submit Fahrenheit 9/11 for Academy Award consideration for Best Documentary. Academy rules forbid the airing of a documentary on television within nine months of its theatrical release (fiction films do not have the same restriction)."

"Therefore, I have decided not to submit Fahrenheit 9/11 for consideration for the Best Documentary Oscar. If there is even the remotest of chances that I can get this film seen by a few million more Americans before election day, then that is more important to me than winning another documentary Oscar. I have already won a Best Documentary statue. Having a second one would be nice, but not as nice as getting this country back in the hands of the majority."

"The deadline to submit the film for the documentary Oscar was last Wednesday. I told my crew who worked on the film, let's let someone else have that Oscar. We have already helped to ignite the biggest year ever for nonfiction films. Last week, 1 out of every 5 films playing in movie theaters across America was a documentary! That is simply unheard of. There have been so many great nonfiction films this year, why not step aside and share what we have with someone else? Remove the 800-pound gorilla from that Oscar category and let the five films who get nominated have all the attention they deserve (instead of the focus being on a film that has already had more than its share of attention)."

Academy Award Documentary rule V.3 clearly states: "No television or internet transmission shall occur at any time prior to, or within the six months following, the first day of the qualifying run or the festival win. Any documentary which is transmitted anywhere in the world in any version as a television or internet program within that period will automatically be disqualified from award eligibility."

The truth of the matter is that Michael Moore had lost his eligibility on two counts way before his decision earlier this week to remove himself from the running.

The Cuban television release of his film prevents him from qualifying, but even before the film came out in theatres, he was disqualified.  I wish I had sources on this but I clearly remember either iFilms or some similar outlet presenting a screening of the movie when I suppose MM thought that he wasn't going to get wide theatrical release (shortly after Disney blocked release of the film in theatres).

This is clearly a move by Michael Moore to simply pander to his left-wing audience.  Does this lend him credibility?  Not really.  He's just good at being an idealogue, a figure head.  Very savvy as a move, but also very transparent.

/rizzn

Presidential Debate Press Credentials

I just found out that teh first Presidential Debates will be held at the Univeristy of Miami.  I applied for my press credentials today.  We'll see if I get approved.  If not, then I'll probably just hang out outside and try not to get arrested.

/rizzn

Music on the Turntables Currently: - (miami indymedia radio)

Hackers in the News

There have been a number of hackers in the news over the hurricane/holiday weekend.  I haven't really been staying on top of this with all the hurricane coverage (as well as the ongoing debate between DJ Colonoscopy and myself), but here's what I've found recently:

Teen Hacker Controls Ebay
By Nick Farrell: Tuesday 07 September 2004, 12:30
GERMAN POLICE HAVE arrested a 19 year-old hacker who claims he managed to control the local domain of E-bay.

Apparently, the hack happened at the end of August when the teen managed to direct punters on the eBay.de site to a different domain name server (DNS).

What is scary is that the hacker is not exactly an expert, and had found the instructions on how to fudge the transfer when he stumbled across a web-page. The teen decided to request a transfer for several sites including Google.de, Web.de, Amazon.de and eBay.de for a laugh and was amazed when it worked.

According to the police spokesman, the teen didn't want to cause damage and was a little shocked when he was told that he had managed to become the new owner of eBay.de.

The domain has now been returned to its rightful owner and the would be hacker is finding himself charged by Inspector Knacker of the Yard.

Hacker’s Reward – Target: the Motorola v710Posted Sep 6, 2004, 11:07 AM ET by Simon Spagnoletti
None too happy about the fact that Verizon has deliberately crippled Bluetooth on the Motorola V710, Jonathan A. Zdziarski is offering a bounty to anyone who can successfully hack the phone and restore the OBEX and OPP Bluetooth features which have been disabled. What do these do, you ask? Well, OBEX lets you transfer files between the phone and a computer, while OPP lets you send phonebook entries and other info to another phone or Bluetooth-enabled car (using a Bluetooth headset with the V710 works just fine). Useful features don’t you think? The prize is up to $882.72, a sum of money we’re hoping will be enough to tempt at least one kindly hacker into getting this done.

 

A hacker's tales from years in the Big House
By Deborah Lohse, Dawn C. Chmielewski and Dan Lee

Mercury News
Reformed hacker Kevin Mitnick spent five years in the Big House for breaking into corporate computer systems. Given his insider experience, he might want to start a career as a prison consultant now that Frank Quattrone, Martha Stewart and a whole new passel of white collar criminals are headed to the pokie.

In a recent interview, Mitnick, who got out of prison in 2000, said he did time with plenty of well-heeled inmates, including a judge and a senator, financier Ivan Boesky and Barry Minkow, founder of ZZZZ Best Carpet Cleaning -- the Enron of 1987.

Don't try to tell these guys that crime doesn't pay, though.

Mitnick said he had coffee one day with Boesky, whom he described as ``aloof.'' Boesky asked him what he was in for. After Mitnick explained, he said, Boesky asked him how much money he made off his crimes. When Mitnick replied he hadn't been in it for the money, Boesky was aghast. ``You're in PRISON, and you didn't try to make any money?'' Mitnick recalled Boesky asking him. ``Isn't that stupid?''

Being known as a computer hacker didn't ease Mitnick's time in prison, he said. Some guards suspected he had ``mystical powers'' and could take over the prison's computer network -- even though the terms of his sentence barred him from using computers for years. Once, in the prison law library, Mitnick said he sat down to work at a programmable electric typewriter and a nervous guard whisked him off to a disciplinary office.

``He immediately came over to me as if I was hacking into Norad,'' recalled Mitnick. ``It was comical.''

Joe Montana, Mac acolyte: Apple Computer's lead pitchman, Steve Jobs, was unable to make the launch of the company's new iMac G5 desktop computer in Paris last week.

So, Apple picked up a veteran pitchman who has hawked Schick razors, Coors beer, Fruit of the Loom underwear and Disneyland: legendary San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.

Montana happened to walk into Apple's San Francisco store last week as executives unveiled the new, all-in-one iMac. Honest. Apple executives insisted that Montana's impromptu appearance was purely coincidental and not a publicity stunt.

Montana listened in on a press briefing, and then began extemporaneously extolling the virtues of the Mac. He said he uses Apple's video conferencing feature, iChat, to talk to his daughter. Sometimes, they even set a place for her at the dinner table, he said.

Needless to say, Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of hardware products was ecstatic about the encounter and Montana's enthusiasm for the iMac. ``That was my highlight.''

Dealmaking on the run: Technology veteran Eric Benhamou got more than a good workout with running partner Dan Kolkowitz. He found a new company to invest in and yet another job as chairman.

The two chatted while on long runs about Kolkowitz's latest venture idea. After more research, Benhamou was ready to invest some of his time and money in San Jose start-up Swan Labs, where Kolkowitz is the vice president of engineering.

Swan Labs specializes in products to boost the performance of software applications over wide-area networks.

``I became very convinced quickly that the market was going to be large and growing fast,'' said Benhamou, now Swan Labs' chairman. Benhamou Global Ventures also was part of the company's $15 million first round of funding.

Now a slot is opening up in Benhamou's busy schedule: This fall he plans to step down as the chairman of PalmSource. He already serves as chairman of 3Com, Cypress Semiconductor and palmOne.

[and finally, a post to prweb probably from Mortland himself]

Infamous Video Game "Hacker", Mortland Calls it Quits
(PRWEB) September 6, 2004 
It was on September 9th 2002 that SEGA Public Relations Officer Jeff Millian said that video games had been taken to far. He was very right. 2 years ago an unidentified hacker (now known as Mortland) caused over $16,000 thousand dollars in damage and financle loss to Sonic Team, developers to the hit video game Phantasy Star Online. The attack was web based and downed the developer’s server for 3 days. It was later discovered that it was in retaliation to a disagreement between the company and Mortland pertaining to the recognition of September 11th victims. “It was when the company said, “Were not in the business of grieving and making holidays” that I decided to down there servers” said 17 year old Mortland in a statement to a local newspaper on September 11th 2002.

That was 2 years ago. To date Mortland has taken down 32 web forums, vandalized over 20 websites, and has been kicked off the servers to 11 games. “I’m just using the game to its full potential, it’s a shame no one else does.” Said Mortland who has finally decided to call it quits. Now at 19 and finishing up his schooling in Boise Idaho from studying Nursing, he has decided to enjoy the finer things in life. “I was always hating everyone, I was sick of everyone. But now I have simply decided to ignore them all and divorce my self from the human race. It worked out really well.”

When asked about the level of intensity agenst the sites that he attacked he responded, “When your pumped full of drugs all the time you do things for the stupidest reasons, I guess I just like messing with video gamers.” “I mean that isn’t how it always was, There were good reasons to some of my messages agenst some of the people I hit.” “I think I will try going into entertainment soon write now.” “I am just writing random thoughts on my web blog that you’re all welcome to visit at http://www.crazylife.org/~mortland”.

Hurricane Frances Update #6: It's the last update, most likely

There was a lot of water damage at the office, mostly in the electronics... had to repair the phone system and the server room.  Good thing we disconnected all the computers and servers.

Jeff Man from rantradio.com sent me this video during the show... check it out.

http://rizzn.net/video/HurricaneFrances.wmv

Here's my "remix":

http://rizzn.net/video/hurricane frances_extended.wmv

/rizzn

Now playing: Brian Kenney Fresno - Bobby Salazar!

Hurricane Frances Update #5: The dust settles

I am over at Jason's house right now... I did an audblog post that never went up for some reason when I was still at Martha's: http://www.audblog.com/media//16113/92413.mp3.



I'm going to be heading to the office in a bit to get ready for the show. The damage as I drove over here was minimal... a couple lights out, a wire down, and a tree with damage here and there. Nothing too severe.



I still haven't gotten much closer to the shore, so I'll let you know what I foiund once I get there.

MADshow HE (hurricane edition)

I think I will be able to get back to the office to do the Mark and Darrell show today... stay tuned to the site for constant updates on this... I'm a bit trapped in the neighborhood by a tree that fell down due to the ground being so wet and I'm also a bit trapped by the mandatory evacuation order still in place for my neighborhood.



The rain has stopped for now... and I should get word on the evacuation order in 15 minutes.



/rizzn

Conservative Values Won't Protect Your Genitals SweetHeart (p4): These values just might protect the genitals after all

Read Part Three



Once again, we continue the discussion on Conservative Values, especially in relation to sexual education programs, and how everything anyone says that is conservative is at the very least misguided, or failing that intentionally evil. Let us clear the air a little bit and examine the source of the facts as I take up DJ Colonoscopy's challenge to tear holes in these sources.



The sources listed in his article were The United Kingdom's Guardian, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), UNICEF, and the United Nation's children's fund as well as the Bush Bashing quote from the L.A. Weekly.



I was unable to identify a quote or even a source article from the UK's "the Guardian" or the Associated Press.



I did happen to find a second article from a slightly less left leaning news source than the LA Weekly, ABCnews. The headline pretty much told me that the information that DJ Colonoscopy had given us was misleading: "Virginity Pledges Work."



Not satisfied with simply reading a secondary source, I searched for the primary, the original report from columbia University. I was unable to find online (for free) a copy of the report which was originally published in the "American Journal of Sociology" (Volume 106, Number 4 (January 2001), pp. 859-912), but I was able to find several direct quotes that correlated one another.



"Since 1993, in response to a movement sponsored by the Southern Baptist Church, over 2.5 million adolescents have taken public virginity pledges, in which they promise to abstain from sex until marriage. This paper explores the effect of those pledges on the transition to first intercourse. Adolescents who pledge are much less likely to have intercourse than adolescents who do not pledge. The delay effect is substantial. On the other hand, the pledge does not work for adolescents at all ages. Second, pledging delays intercourse only in contexts where there are some, but not too many, pledgers. The pledge works because it is embedded in an identity movement. Consequently, the pledge identity is meaningful only in contexts where it is at least partially nonnormative. Consequences of pledging are explored for those who break their promise. Promise breakers are less likely than others to use contraception at first intercourse."

So the evidence shows that the program actually does work.



Let us return to DJ Colonoscopy's article; he mentions various studies (including the CDC) ranking Texas as having the fourth highest incidence of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. This, in fact, is not true. The CDC article DIRECTLY LINKED from DJ Colonoscopy's article lists Texas as the state with the 11th highest incidences of Gonorrhea and Syphilis, the only list where Texas gets failing marks. It should be noted that compared to the states in the top 10, Texas is a distant 11, where Illinois is 193.1 instances per 100,000, Texas is 166.6 per 100,000. An interesting side note would be to track where Texas was before the abstinence programs took effect.



Other states ranked ABOVE Texas include Maryland and Illinois -- two states I'm quite certain do not run abstinence based programs in their school systems.



The words of the LA Weekly article certainly sound vitriolic and overly dramatic now, don't they? Lethal new regulations? Rupublican's goal of gutting HIV prevention? The CDC agrees: "The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sexual intercourse, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and you know is uninfected." (http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/latex.htm)



Does anyone dispute that sexually transmitted diseases are, well, sexually transmitted? Ergo, if sex is abstained from, will not the diseases cease to spread? Furthermore, if monogomous relationships are encouraged on top of this, will not the chance of partner-sharing (and by virtue of this, disease sharing) also decrease?



Assuming that there is an equal chance that if one uses a male latex condom it could work as intended, somehow magically passes the virus with no reason given, has an invisible leak, or has a visible leak, there is still roughly a 2 out of a 1000 probability that you'll have a greater chance to pass the virus than if unprotected sex is practiced (according to page 10 of this NIH report: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/stds/condomreport.pdf)



The report futher states: "It should be noted that, for many STDs, risk of infection might not be proportional to exposure to a volume of semen. Estimation of risk requires further extrapolation because it depends on additional variables, especially the infectious agent of interest. The concentration, infectivity, and mode of transmission of the specific STDs clearly need to be considered."



Essentially, the takeaway is that condoms, if they work as designed (of which there is no guarantee), and if they are applied with care (which they rarely are), then they will PROBABLY protect you from disease.



As to the 'censorship' mentioned by DJ Colonoscopy, once it is put to print, it is certainly a lot less horrible than it sounds. When one says "Bush is censoring and suppressing the CDC's data about AIDs," it sounds facist.



Even in a left-leaning restatement of what the policy decision is, it sounds a whole lot less oppressive.



What Bush is actually legislating is not censorship, but that local authorities exercise their constitutionally protected rights, which is to determine what is obscene in their constituency. If a survey, pamphlet or education program is obscene, a federal government would be remiss if they were to shove it down a community's throat.



The term of legal significance is "obscenity", which, after struggling for many years and through many cases, the U.S. Supreme Court defined in Miller v. California in 1973. It is a three-part test, as follows:



"The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be:

(a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, Kois v. Wisconsin, supra, at 230, quoting Roth v. United States, supra, at 489;

(b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and

(c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."



The information that a condom helps prevent disease can be communicated to a young person, no one is contesting that at all... what could be considered obscene in certain communities is the application of said condom to a phallic symbol, or offending their sensibilities with questions of sexuality. People in Los Angelos or San Francisco are not going to have the same sensibilities as people of Dade City, Florida or Albequerque, New Mexico. For the Federal Government at any agency level to define what is or is not obscene across the board is unconstitutional.



The quote that DJ Colonoscopy attributes to the CDC is in fact NOT from the CDC, but a message from a political activist left on a CDC message board (http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/od/content_guidelines/comments/comment_105.htm).



Once again, I challenge your facts memes, DJ Colonoscopy. You are proposing a very liberal meme of your own, so by virtue, it is a hard sell. I'm not going to let you off easy on this one, so you'll have to dig hard for your support. Even worse for you, conservative meme-holders have an advantange on this one, since it is not such a hot-button issue like gay marriage or adoption, there is no knee-jerk reaction from the public, and facts and theories can be examined for what they are without emotions coming to play.



/rizzn

Hurricane Frances Update #4: The Hurricane Hits

The hurricane is hitting, and I'm a bit disappointed. It's calm enough to walk around outside, and although the surf swells of around 15 feet are unusual for the east coast, they barely qualify as something to be deathly afraid of.



At any rate, I'm gonna go around the neighborhood during the calm between the bands and take a few pictures, presuming I can find the camera phone.... I'll post them up as soon as I get the chance...



Oh, and if anyone has the AudBlog number, I seem to have lost it ... and it won't let me log in due to a SQL error, so I cannot retrieve it from their site... send it to my gmail account please.



Until later.



/rizzn

Conservative Values Won't Protect Your Genitals SweetHeart (p2)

Read Part One

Conservative values are not fraud. Does anyone honestly believe that our parents and grandparents were trying to kill us all off by telling us to wait for marriage to have sex? Do you think it was the goal of the Bible most other religious texts to actually promote promiscuity by telling us it was wrong to commit adultery and respect our (now or future) significant others?

Explosive as the aforementioned statement was, the most explosive statements in the narrative were the following: "When [G.W. Bush's] cherished abstinence programs failed to reduce the rate of teenage births, he instructed the US Centers for Disease Control to stop gathering data. He also forced them to drop their project identifying the sex education programs that work, after they found that none of the successful ones were "abstinence only"."

There is no support for this claim, no documentation. I understand the outrage if this is in fact a true statement, and this type of behavior is certainly not out of character for the type of people Bush runs around with, but it is unsupported in the research I have done, and is the type of statement that if left unsupported can blow an entire article's credibility.

On the one hand, I am glad to see that DJ Colonoscopy is trying to use facts to support some his statements, however. Facts are important tools to better understanding the world around us, and help us to step outside of ourselves.

On the other hand, memes are not useful always in ascertaining the truth. Every person involved in debate is generally guilty of using memes. Memes like Bush had for-knowledge of 9/11 and had the bin Ladin family extracted from America without questioning before the flight ban was lifted. Memes like Richard Nixon's attempted "I'm not a crook." Or even non-partisan memes like "China has ICBMS that can be pointed at America."

Memes are repeated over and over, quoted, requoted, and their original sources obscured to the point where everyone just accepts it as truth. The bin Ladin family wasn't extracted from America till after the flight ban was up, Richard Nixon was a liar and a crook ("I have a secret plan..."), and China's ICBMs, under the most liberal estimates, might reach the West Coast, with a favorable tail-wind.

What is a meme? It is a term coined on analogy by Richard Dawkins with the word 'gene.' An idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much as viruses do. Dawkins further defines it as "a unit of cultural inheritance, hypothesized as analogous to the particulate gene and as naturally selected by virtue of its 'phenotypic' consequences on its own survival and replication in the cultural environment."

A good way to examine a piece of data for its integrity is to track down it's source, examine the primary source's for bias, process, and method.

Let's take this nugget of information from DJ Colonoscopy's report, "Conservative Values Won't Protect Your Genitals, SweetHeart":

"Texas has the fourth highest AIDS rates and ranks second, behind Mississippi, in births among teens ages 15 to 17, according to a new study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation that draws on federal statistics. "

First of all, it turns out that Annie E. Casey Foundation did not do the research on this topic, and did not do the study, and did not get their source material from federal statistics. They pulled their information from a liberal watchdog group called "Advocates for Youth" (http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/). To be fair, Advocates for Youth did not do the research, study, or statistics themselves either. They got them from another liberal watchdog group called the "Alan Guttmacher Institute" (www.agi-usa.org).

The most recent statistics gathered by the AGI were in 1996, and these statistics are being quoted as much more recent in daughter reports. Secondly, data came from two primary sources: a) Abortion Providers and b) the Census Bureau. Census Bureau data is compiled every 10 years, so in 1996, the relevant Census Bureau data would have come from 1990, much before Bush's policies were implemented and far before they could take effect. Data from other government agencies are at least in part derived from Census Bureau statistics, and in 1992-1996, the likelihood that they were dealing in the most recent Census Bureau statistics decreases even further, so the age of our data in the present time begins to age anywhere from fourteen years (optimistically) to twenty-two years (pessimistically).

I don't even have to begin to acknowlege the inherent bias of trying to create a statistically accurate study based off findings of an industry who's interests are being represented by the outcome of the study.

So, in summation, one of the cornerstone "facts" of the narrative is in fact ... Well ... Not.

I know that I have probably been guilty of perpetuating harmful memes in the past as well, everyone does it. Back before Dawkins, it was called gossip. What's harmful about the new-gossip, memes, is that they very closely resemble facts, enough to fool even the most skeptical of people, not just the sheep of the world.

I don't blame DJ Colonoscopy for misleading us, I believe he is just as misled as the rest of us. Perhaps there are indeed facts out there to support his theory, but these aren't the facts he is looking for, they are simply memes.

Read Part Three

/rizzn

Hurricane Frances Update #3: picking up and moving. again.

Well good news and bad news..



Bad news first: I'm being kicked out of my "shelter" thing this morning.



Good news: my new shelter probably affords me a greater chance of survival.



This is a little bit dissappointing, since I was rather looking forward to the adventure of sitting out a cat4 (which is now a cat3) hurricane. I'm going to a co-worker's house, the next closest place, that's about 10 miles inland. This means that this slow-poke hurricane will be about an hour later at the point where I'm hanging out tonight than it will be for the coast.



I also won't be getting that great of pictures.



I will, however, be able to AudBlog still, and I'll try to get some updates and such up to the site.



As for how it looks outside, it's still pretty overcast and around 85, pretty stuffy. I've been hanging out inside most of the morning, I'm still a little groggy, honestly.



Hrm. I guess I should get my things together and begin moseying along. Talk to you losers later.



/rizzn

Which candidate is unfit to lead now?

Okay, once again, I preface this by saying I'm definately not voting for Bush or Kerry.



I hafta comment on how childish I think Kerry is being right now. The RNC has been very careful about what they said, and never once questioned the patriotism of Kerry from the pulpit. They never once questioned his military record. They took great lengths to avoid these things. Then Kerry comes out with these two quotes:



"I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq."



"For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander in chief," Kerry said. "We'll, here's my answer. I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq."



I think this is the beginning of the end for Kerry. Not that it matters which one of these candidates we get, but for the record, I'm putting my money on Bush now.



I'll throw down with some stats, but basically, this is the same exact trap Bush laid down for Ann Richards back in Texas, and Kerry has taken the bait. When it comes to mudslinging, Bush always comes out on top.



/rizzn



Update 11:30pm

(after the president's acceptance speech)



I must say that I am very impressed by his words, and that I intend to more fully investigate his proposals further. One of the biggest problems with investigating the "tax proposals" of Presidential candidates, as well as their tax policies, is that the tax code is so complex, its almost impossible to tell what a candidate stands for -- whether he says he is for real tax cuts or actually is for real tax cuts (and for whom).



I suppose it might depend on what your definition of "is" is.



But Bush proposed a simplified tax code tonight... Personally I'm for a national sales tax, that'd eliminate the tax code altogether... but perhaps there is something to this. This is a truly progressive issue that I can stand behind -- and if Bush is truly proposing tax reform, I might be pursuaded to change my vote.



If the hurricane doesn't blow me away this weekend or otherwise prevent me from doing so, I will try to talk a bit about this on my show this weekend.



Update 11:59pm

(after Senator Kerry's rebuttal)

Kerry is breaking presidential poltics' form of giving a four day blackout period of rhetoric after the opposition's convention. Republicans did give the Democrats that blackout period. They even pulled their ads. Democrats did not.



I watched the first two minutes of the his speech then changed the chanel; all I needed to hear was this: "... in response I have five words: this is your wake up call."



In case you are not paying attention, that's six words.



Stay tuned to the site for more hurricane updates and any more random political thoughts I might have.

Hurricane Frances Update #2

The boarding up of the house is now complete and we are stocked up for the weekend. I will continue to make blog updates up until Friday evening, which is when the power should shut off. After that point, I'll attempt to make MoBlog updates after the computers are shut down.



As for location, I am exactly 500 ft. outside the evacuation area, so I've got as much of a front row seat to this event as is allowed by law. Hopefully I'll have some good pictures, and the audio updates will be interesting too.



Out for now.



/rizzn

Hurricane Frances Update #1: Evacuating the Area

As of 2:00pm EST, I must be evacuated from the area East of US 1 (aka Federal Highway). Apparently, living next to the beach has is downside.

Also, my office is in the evacuation area, too... so I will not be updating or doing the radio until this thing blows over.

I'll talk to you people on the flipsisde... I'll give you a firsthand account of the "destruction" when I get back.

/rizzn

Emmanuel Goldstein Arrested

We've received word that Emmanuel Goldstein, the founder and editor of 2600, was among the hundreds of people arrested at the demonstrations against the Republican National Convention in New York City.

The march which Emmanuel was apparently trying to videotape ended at 16th Street near Union Square when the police surrounded the marchers and began arresting everyone in the area -- at least 150 people. Officers at the scene reported that the arrested will be charged with "parading without a permit," but reliable information will probably not be available until arraignments take place over the next day or two.

At least 900 people were arrested on Tuesday, August 31st, most if not all for nonviolent and minor offenses, offenses which in non-protest situations would generally not result in spending any time at all locked up. People arrested at previous protests have usually had their charges eventually dropped or significantly reduced as the judicial system notices that their is little or no evidence that the protesters have committed any crimes at all.

United for Peace and Justice, one of the main groups organizing protests in the wake of the Republican invasion of New York, has called for a protest at 10am on Wednesday morning at Pier 57 (West Side Highway @ 15th Street) to highlight the mistreatment of arrested protesters.

For further information on the protests, the issues behind them, and the police response, New York City Indymedia has continually updated coverage.

"Something Every American Should See"

by: Lindsay R Goss
This statue currently stands outside the Iraqi palace, now home to the 4th Infantry division. It will eventually be shipped home and put in the memorial museum in Fort Hood, Texas.

The statue was created by an Iraqi artist named Kalat, who for years was forced by Saddam Hussein to make the many hundreds of bronze busts of Saddam that dotted Baghdad.

Kalat was so grateful for the Americans liberation of his country; he melted 3 of the heads of the fallen Saddam and made the statue as a memorial to the American soldiers and their fallen warriors. Kalat worked on this memorial night and day for several months.

To the left of the kneeling soldier is a small Iraqi girl giving the soldier comfort as he mourns the loss of his comrade in arms.

Do you know why we don't hear about this in the news? Because it is heart warming and praise worthy. The media avoids it because it does not have the shock effect that a flashed breast or controversy of politics does.

But we can do something about it. We can pass this along to as many people as we can in honor of all our brave military who is making a difference.