CMoore.com

The Appearance of Misconduct

Yeah, the Colon trade certainly does have stink of cronyism upon it, doesn't it?

To U.S., Onus Is on Hussein

Yes, prove to us the nonexistence of unicorns! … or something like that. They know they're reaching, right?

Microsoft loses showdown in Houston

“The nation's fourth-largest city rebuffed the [$12 million extortion/licensing] offer and has embraced an obscure competitor called SimDesk. SimDesk delivers software over the Internet at a fraction of the cost of Microsoft's Office, a software suite used on 94% of America's office personal computers. Houston is giving SimDesk to tens of thousands of residents and businesses, free. And it has begun using SimDesk as an Office substitute on at least half the city's 13,000 PCs.”

Awesome! Still… SimDesk? The hell? KOffice/OpenOffice/StarOffice were just too well-known for their tastes? I smell cronyism/nepotism. But still, hahahahah… take that bloatware!

Music Industry Lobbyist Rosen to Leave

Good, now the head of the hydra, the vindictive, small-minded CEO of the industry consotium who challenged a technology (such as Napster or advocating a blanket charge on ISPs because, you know, ISPs benefit… and because Rosen's a fucking retard who can't see the forest for the trees in her “zealous advocacy”) rather than the wrongdoers, the person who lost every debate on the issue, who did nothing but add fear, uncertainty, and doubt to the collective knowledge of new media… is stepping down. So the RIAA can focus on making its image more cuddly (while bringing the iron fist of a monopolistic system in its dying throes down on 13 year olds. Gawd, what a bunch of assmunches the RIAA are).

So fuck you, Hilary Rosen. Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope you come to realize the destructiveness and negativity your vile tactics and misinformation have caused to the public at large and to musicians in particular. May your parachute be golden and may I never hear your name uttered again.

I hope the next one has a bit more sanity, a bit less evil. It's doubtful, though. Just another industry muppet. Probably smarmier, maybe a bit more media savvy, but definitely just as evil. Hmm. Karl Rove's taken, how about resurrecting the dessicated remains of Sonny Bono? Maybe RoyCohn's more up your alley, but he's dead too. Well, we'll see.

Report: Rose willing to admit to betting on baseball

OK, if he admits to betting on baseball, no way does he get any kind of consideration for the Hall. The fact that 3/4 of the retards who read ESPN vote the other way shows just how ignorant they are. Seriously, where did all this Pete Rose love come from? He's an abrasive jerk who hides from responsibility. The only reason he even has the stupid hits record is because, as manager, he wrote himself into the lineup more than would otherwise have happened. He's a blight on baseball and he violated the one rule you can't break. Drugs? Sure. Philandering? Sure. Endanger the integrity of the sport? Never.

Michelin Embeds RFID Tags in Tires

Michelin is to embed RFID tags along with the tires (you know, so you can correlate VINs with your tires… to… aid in vehicle recovery after it's stolen, but totally not to act as another entrant into the Panopticon. Whatever).

For my next car, I'd like to immediately switch tires with someone out there. Any volunteers?

Why don't they go and do something useful to non-Panoptic corporations, like, you know, putting some pressure sensors inside the tire rather than ID tags?

More New High-Quality Free Fonts

Bitstream releases 'em in conjunction with the GNOME Foundation. Maybe, finally, the bane of XFree users' existences will be eased a bit.

Germany Won't Back Attack on Iraq

See, this just goes to show you how badly the warmongering Rove/Bushies screwed the pooch on this one. a) multilaterlism, much like a diversified stock portfolio, decreases your risk (here, that our asses are going to be hanging over the fire for a good bunch of years as this ill-fated adventure leads to “nation building”) and b) not invoking the NATO clauses whereby one country at war = all countries at war. Technically, (b) should've been invoked for our “war on terrorism/your civil liberties” which would make it much, much easier to swing NATO into Iraq. But they didn't so it won't.

Instead, you're stuck with no causus belli after months and months of searching, and planting stories for, and trying to get people riled up towards … and your asses are still hanging over the fire. Meanwhile the economy remains flat/in the dumps (dumps for me, flat for nation), you have no domestic agenda (just like daddy), and are beginning to advocate regressive taxes.

You know, 2004 isn't looking so bad for the Dems after all. Oh, wait. This is the Clintonless Dems we're talking about here. Nevermind.

Recap: the Surreal Life season 1 episode 1

Oh my god, Uncle Bob (a recapper I've never encountered before, but I'll bet his old Oz recaps are great) is fuckin HIGHlarious. This is one of the best recaps I've read in a long, long time. Damn good stuff.

For those that follow TWoP, Uncle Bob is way more vitriolic and assholey than your typical smarmy-but-funny recapper. Mean, biting, insightful. I love it!

Device demos terabit storage

Using ferroelectric (rather than ferromagnetic) they managed to fit 47 DVD's worth of information onto 1 square inch. Schweet.

Raids recover original Beatles tapes

Heh, bet they're kicking themselves for not releasing those bootlegs now.

Disney Wins, You Lose (Eldred v. Ashcroft decided)

In what I consider an appallingly bad decision, the Supreme Court upheld the bono “Save the Mouse!” copyright term extension act. While I feel that this was an obvious taking by the State of the public's right to a vibrant commons, the supremes didn't even call it a close issue, ending 7-2. Effectively authorizing the future indefinite extension of existing copyrights by corporations and their congressional puppets.

Nevermind that the extension was longer than the framers gave for initial copyrights, nevermind that the current maximum lifespan is 95 years for a copyright, the argument here is that the retroactive application of the 20 years to already-granted copyrights that were about to expire (e.g. Mickey Mouse, Gone with the Wind) is an overstepping of Congressional authority and an illegal taking of the public (your) property. You, the public, should be angry about this. There are also serious Constitutional issues (primarily First Amendment and judicial review) that the court entirely glosses over (Stephens brings them up, you'll recognize the Marbury v. Madison case from your high school history classes), and Ginsberg puts far too much faith in Fair Use (which is also under constant attack, and the DMCA gutted much of the exception) for me to take any comfort at all in the decision. It was a bleak, bleak day when this was announced.

• The opinion. Ginsberg wrote it, the footnotes have the fingerprints of Scalia all over them.
• The Stephens dissent (my fav)
• The Breyer dissent

We have seen the future, and lo, it belongs to the megacorps and their lobbyists.

Bush Enters the Fray Over Malpractice

Ah yes, the continuation of gingrich's contract ON America. this time, it's the tort lawyers' faults. no, really, it is. those damn lawyers! That's why we need to cap “pain and suffering” at $250,000 and cap lawyers' fees. As obscene as putting a limit on how much pain and suffering you recognize is, it's even more dunderheaded. Stands little to no chance of passage in the house, thankfully.

Good Free Fonts for Linux

Fonts and display problems are one of the most annoying/toughest nuts to crack in the linux world. it's a royal PITA to add new ones and get them working. as a result, OS X and Windows look a lot more attractive … for no real reason, since you can have the same quality in XFree86.

If you use Debian, here's the .deb package for your apt-get enjoyment.

Don't Hide the Truth About AIDS

Herb Ritts died from complications from AIDS. This article brings up the re-closeting of HIV, as if we as a nation have forgotten all the gains we made since 1986. These things need to be addressed, and not forgotten.