Hooray! Norwegian court finds Jon Johansen innocent of all charges. This doesn't really establish precedent in the U.S. (unfortunately), but they did state:

Head judge Irene Sogn, in reading the verdict, said no one could be convicted of breaking into their own property, and that there was no proof that Johansen or others had used the program to access illegal pirate copies of films.

"The court finds that someone who buys a DVD film that has been legally produced has legal access the film. Something else would apply if the film had been an illegal ... pirate copy," the ruling said.

It found that consumers have rights to legally obtained DVD films "even if the films are played in a different way than the makers had foreseen."

Johansen said that was the key part of the ruling.

"As long as you have purchased a DVD legally then you are allowed to decode it with any equipment, and can't be forced to buy any specific equipment," he said.

The irony here is just too sweet: globalization is going to save the environment and reduce our needs for ooooooiiiiiiiilllll. That's got to really chap the asses off the hairshirt/Birkenstock crowd, doesn't it?

My only complaint here is there's no mention of where the energy to extract the hydrogen from whatever it's bound up in currently comes from. My (incredibly limited) understanding is that extracting the hydrogen will not reduce actual pollution, but merely transfer it from the cars to the distillation stations and/or the generation plants.

F*cking suicide bombers. I've long since passed the point where I think anything other than "kill 'em all and bury 'em in pig fat", but James Lileks sums up his feelings with rather more elegance than I've managed.

And now, the 8th Annual Halloween Document from Microsoft!

Mark Steyn has has piece to say about gun control, and why it isn't working in Britain. You wanted my opinion? There's no way to make criminals give up their guns, so forcibly disarming the citizenry just ensures that the criminals have a steady stream of helpless victims. Furthermore, gun control laws demonstrate that, rather than doing something about the predators in the jungle, the lawmakers and police have decided to give up completely and try to pin blame on the population. It's just nasty, and both South Africa and Great Britain are demonstrating rather conclusively that is doesn't work.

A brief comparison note: gun owners in Texas are more law-abiding than the general population. So we are we disarming the people that have demonstrated they can most be trusted with our civil defense? Can we at least try trusting "we, the people"?

Argh. I hear various people saying that Islamic belief isn't the source of misogyny, but damn me if they don't disprove themselves. I realize it isn't our job to make the rest of the world stop acting like fuckwits, but I certainly have a few suggestions along those lines.

I read this essay by Steven Den Beste about the concept of "a fair fight" between combatants. Then, I read this response by Robin Goodfellow. My reaction turns, as did Mr. Goodfellow's, on SDB's comment "Would I rule out torture, rape, mutilation, mass murder? I won't rule out anything."

SDB claims that if we capture an enemy combatant who's planted a nuke in an American city with the timer ticking, then he's shoving pointy things under the guy's fingernails. Mr.Goodfellow says that some things are beyond the pale, and he's willing to die rather than do those things to live.

Good for Mr.Goodfellow, and I hope that we never have to depend on his punk ass. His claim that it's better to die than to live means that he's decided that my daughters would be better off dead all by his lonesome. Fuck him. With a stick. If a combatant is holding our population hostage and there isn't any other alternative, then the guys on the spot have to commit themselves to hell so that the rest of the nation can live. That's just the deal, and I'll further claim that that's always been the deal: the soldier's existence requires him to endanger his soul in order to save his people. If you're not willing to make that trade, then cover yourself in white paint and quit pretending you're not a pacifist free rider.

And yes, I'm willing to make that trade. The lives of my family, neighbors, state, and nation are worth more than my "soul". Damn, but I'm pissed now.

UPDATE: I hadn't yet read Kim du Toit's response. If I had, I'd have just pointed at that and said "You damned skippy". After my wife read my response we had a short-ish discussion, wherein the phrase "Marquis of Queensbury" came out of my mouth. I'm thrilled to pieces to find that I'm on the same wavelength.

And now, the very special condensed parody version of "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers". Found by Mindles H. Dreck.

Apparently, some H&R Block employees were stealing customers' identities for plain ol' fraud and theft. The ugly part is the company wouldn't assist without subpoenas. Wouldn't you think they'd like to ensure their credibility with their customers enough to assist the Feds in an investigation?

John Scalzi gets a publishing deal from his website. No joke, jackson.

I'm also pleased to say that the book deal comes as a direct result of having the book up here on the Web site; the editor who made the offer (Patrick Nielsen Hayden, who in addition to being the Senior Editor of Tor is the author of the Electrolite blog) did so after reading chapters on the site and then downloading the complete book (and by doing so, Mr. Nielsen Hayden's ranking on my list of People Who Can Ask For a Kidney and Not Be Dismissed Out of Hand has shot up rather dramatically over the last few days. And I can assure you, it's a very short list).

A different legal structure for distributing your non-software works under a commons-friendly system: Creative Commons. Found via Lawrence Lessig, who copyrights his blog writings and licenses them under the "by" variant.

Strangely enough, I find it more difficult to blog when working from home than I do when in the office. It's probably a function of the density of distraction; at the office, there isn't anything except the other humans who are all full-grown and many of them are humor-impaired. At home, I have a 10 month old daughter who is a continual source of amusment, and I find I'd rather pick her up and tickle/hug/kiss her when I have a spare moment much more than I want to read CNN. Go figure.

A short(ish) whitepaper from Intel on securing your home network. Unfortunately, as they point out, these measures are "well-known security measures are both inadequate and burdensome", but you still have to deal with it.

"Hey check out my new wireless keyboard" says Norwegian local. "Yeah, I see" says his neighbor (also his employee). "I also see your keystrokes on my computer" he added. Yet another vulnerability to think about, in this day of wireless everything.

David Kahn, the author of one of the most important books about cryptography, spoke at the NSA about the death of cryptology. It's a short speech, but one that I found interesting anyway.

Yet another reason why Bill Frist is better than Trent Lott: he's willing to get out of the car.

shift.com posts their list of the key and stupid web moments of 2002. Good clean wholesome fun.

BWA-hahahahaha! Why not to direct link to other people's pictures. Ho ho ho.

Tim Blair makes his predictions for the new year. I wonder, though, how much of this will be funny to people who don't read blogs obsessively, because I was laughing out loud and interrupting my cow-orkers on several occasions.

This may be the first time I've read something written by David Mamet. Usually I just listen to actors reciting what he's written. Anyway ... he took a trip to Israel and had this to say about the experience.

A quick runthrough a pair of news stories from Reuters with commentary on framing bias by the incomparable Meryl Yourish. Great fun. Have some.

Max Boot lays out what he thinks defines a "neoconservative". Doesn't sound too far off of "South Park Republican" to me, by the way. I also see I'll need to go find an issue of Commentary to see what a "neocon bible" looks like.

I'll just quote Razib's lede and leave it at that: Wow-times have changed, but it's still whitey's fault!

BWA-hahahahaha! Scrappleface details the changes a-comin' to the church now that they're getting some of that Powerball money.

Corsair the Rational Pirate finds an interesting story about an American on the receiving end of a fatwa judgement, plus the cause of said death sentence (such as it is). In his own words:

Once again it is proved that Islamonazis have no sense of humor. If you can't laugh at youself, everyone else will do your laughing for you. You just look stupid and ignorant when you protest things like this

Tony Woodlief unloads a short stream of cluefulness on his own relatives. Well done, my good man. Well done indeed.

Nobody cares but me, I suppose, but because of Tim Blair I've been thinking about why I'm doing this. Way back when, I just trolled around the web and other people's blogs looking for things that I found interesting. As I found each one, I'd email them to my short list of victims (in fact, that's what I called the mailing list: "victims"). Eventually, Lee decided that I should stop emailing the links around and started this blog. The first two of three things I posted were pretty much just what I would have emailed out: a link with maybe one sentence worth of context. In an email to my wife, this is okay; on a publicly-available blog, not so much so.

My current theory ties in with the rather common "thinkers" v. "linkers" dichotomy, although I dispute the implication that I'm not thinking when I choose to spend my credibility (such as it is) in recommending someone else's writing. I posit instead that everybody is a newspaperman. Some people, Steven Den Beste, Eric S. Raymond, Bill Whittle, Jane Galt, et al, write their articles to suit themselves. They have some position on some topic, and write about it to whatever extent they find necessary. In short, they're journalists. Other people, like me, don't write the newspaper but we do select from the set of articles to accumulate a periodic digest of interesting bits of writing plus the occasional op-ed. In short, we're publishers.

You might imagine that being a gatekeeper is an easy job, and I'll certainly agree that it doesn't involve as much typing as authoring the content in the first place. The downside is that Jane Galt writes two or three posts a day; on an average day, I read every posting on every blog on my blogroll since the last time I read it (which was probably yesterday). I'll try to remember to count today how many things I'll read through to find the two/three/six/ten things that I think are important/relevant/amusing enough and in the right vein to make people like me go "Cool/Huh/#$@@#^", but I suspect it's over 200 articles a day. It's different work than writing the articles, but it isn't falling off a log either.

Anyway, I'll try to be worthy of Tim's praise going forward. Thanks for listening.

UPDATE: 205 articles before starting the commercial news outlets, and it's a slow news day in that lots of bloggers had no updates at all. That's me ... selflessly slaving away reading all this stuff so you don't have to. Unless you want to, in which case you can follow the links I've provided over there <--- on the left side of the screen.

Gary Farber was kind enough to write me a polite letter pointing out that I had inadvertently credited his blog to some guy named "Brian". He was gentlemanly enough not to call me "stupid", so he gets extra bonus points. Sorry 'bout that, sir.

Oh, my aching sides. Tim Blair reviews the execrable Bowling for Columbine for The Australian. What he said.

Why, just this morning a colleague asked me why Jimmy Carter is an Idiotarian. I replied that it was mostly his knee-jerk anti-America bent plus his willingness to fellate foreign dictators. And, in a stunning bit of synchronicity, I stumbled across Jay Nordlinger's anti-paen to Carter himself from earlier this year. (Found via Little Green Footballs)

Them's fightin' words!!! That ain't barbecue, it's smoked brisket and/or ribs. Barbecue is, by definition, chopped pork in yellow mustard sauce, although I'll allow that chopped pork in vinegar/pepper sauce is almost barbecue.

By the bye, anybody who uses "barbecue" as a verb is obviously beyond apostasy, and should be enlightened at gunpoint if need be.

I'm shocked, shocked!!, to find that Hans Blix and crew are bungling the interviews with Iraqi scientists. Who could have imagined such a thing?

BWA-hahahahahaha! Save the Earth! Drive an SUV!

I'm sure I'm behind the curve on this, but I just watched the "Lamp" commercial from IKEA at www.unböring.com and loved it. Consequently, I can only assume the general public will be either (1) offended or (2) completely indifferent. Sigh.

Professor Bunyip describes his journey from leftist to not-a-leftist (presumably a conservative, but he didn't label himself). Found via Tim Blair.

A not terribly impressive 122 mph, at least compared to Emperor Misha's minions.

Only to be viewed by those who have taken their blood pressure medication recently: Technical Difficulties. Yes, I'm about to explode. I especially appreciated the "criminalizing dissent" part. I'm sure the author(s) of this particular animation are currently being tortured in the secret dungeons under the White House even as we speak. What? You mean they're still allowed to roam the streets freely even after saying things like "it's all about the ooooooiiiil" and the like? What kind of jackbooted thugocracy are we running here anyway?

One of the simple pleasures of owning a telescope (even if it's just an amateur one), is viewing Saturn. Sky and Telescope was kind enough to publish an entire article on vieweing Saturn targeted towards the backyard dilettante such as m'self.

BWA-hahahahaha! Fun and games! Play Busy Marquee!

WARNING: Full-blown geek alert:

Two things I recently needed but found too late:

• Enterprise Integration Patterns - Overview
• Patterns for things that change with time

What the f*cking f*ck does this mean? Can somebody please explain how these words can be arranged into this sequence and a meaningful communication takes place as a result? I roughly (very roughly, mind you) understand how the game is played, but this just continues to be a nonsensical arrangement of otherwise useful English words. Lee, come on man ... help me out here.

UPDATE: Tim Blair himself deigned to descend from Olympus merely to call me a "Cricket-hating U.S. scum." I'm truly honored, and couldn't be happier. Surely now I'm on my way to fame, fortune, and world domination.

I was completely unstuck by the news that Senator Lieberman is meeting with King Fahd in Saudi. I mean, I just boggled. I see I'm not the only one at a lack for words.

If I believed in God, I'd be thanking him for this evidence of clear thinking from a generous man.

The Matrix. The Matrix. The Matrix. It just feels good to say it, doesn't it? The Matrix. I can't effing wait.

Spider Robinson is a victim of identity theft and eBay. Guess how the story ends. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Arrrrrrgh! Frustrating Flash games for your blood-pressure elevation.

I've tried to find a self-characterized "left wing" blogger that I could read without foaming at the mouth. I want to find someone who espouses group identity politics and wealth redistribution economics and is willing to back it up with something other than "the Repugnicans are eeeeeeeevil". So far, I'm coming up empty. Hesiod? Don't make me laugh. Atrios? Marginally better, but still lacking that intellectual rigor I was hoping to find. Ted Barlow seems like the go-to guy, but (since it's my wishlist) I was hoping for more volume. Damn him for not spending all his time the way I want him too!

So who's the standard-bearer for the leftists these days?

Okay, Ted Barlow is a bigger man than I am. He's actually studied relationship dynamics and written a report thereon. I'm a feeble sort of troll who just say "yes, dear" and does whatever my wife tells me too unless I'm fully enshrouded in my passive-aggresivity in which case I say "yes, dear" and continue to play Super Mario Sunshine.

Sun continues to hammer Microsoft over their Java lack-of-strategy. A little history: way back when, Sun stupidly announced that Java would let them virtualize the desktop before they had managed to get themselves irretrievably ensconced as the market leader. Microsoft responded by releasing a version of the Java interpreter that (a) ran only on Windows, and (b) had some unapproved-by-Sun hooks in it that allowed developers to write Windows-only Java apps that did things that 100% Java apps couldn't (like script COM objects, f'rinstance). Sun took them to court over the license violation, since the Java license says you can't change the language and still call it Java. Microsoft renamed the product, and started getting rid of Java completely (this eventually turned into C# and dot-NET).

To thumb their noses at Sun, Microsoft began carrying a particular broken interpreter in the O.S. which had the "unforseen" side-effect of making Java apps look bad and break strangely. A previous lawsuit managed to get a court to enjoin Microsoft from doing this anymore. Next, Microsoft began shipping the O.S. without any Java at all, secure in the knowledge that the vast majority of people would never go get a JVM, so Java will (again) be a non-starter on Windows as an application development environment.

Now, Sun has gotten a court to rule that Microsoft's Windows must use Java. As much as I don't like Microsoft, and often spend valuable hours of my life cursing them and their bug-infested security holes, this isn't right either. I haven't read the court's opinion, but how do you justify forcing Microsoft to bundle their competitor's products with their own? And why just Sun's product? Why are they special? This just seems like a bad idea.

Did I say I wasn't a big Microsoft fan? Just wanted to make sure.

Note that this doesn't affect the viability of Java as a server-side environment. As far as I can tell from my individual perch, there is so much Java servlet/JSP development going on that dot-NET has approximately zero chance of really taking the niche.

Just when you thought the case mods had reached as far out as they could go before circling back in, the Japanese come up with this lovely. I wonder if I can stuff an iMac into that?

Scott Ottt has ripped the mask off the Republicans. The jig is up! We've got your number, now, me bucko!

I'll just quote James Lileks here:

Ask yourself: if you and your friends decided to shoot an entire episode of TOS Star Trek, and you wrote a script set on the recommissioned Exeter, and you rented a warehouse, built a replica of a Constitution-class starship, designed all the sets and lighting to look like 1967 TV, and spent SEVEN YEARS on the project, meticulously recreating the look and sound of a TOS episode, what would the result look like? It might go something like this. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Starship Exeter.

Note to self: stop writing network monitoring crap.

WARNINGNot to be viewed if you have a weak stomach.

How Americans treat their dogs.

How the Peruvian Army treats theirs.

Peggy Noonan has quite a bit to say about Trent Lott and why Republicans are glad to be rid of him.

Man, if this had been me, I'd have been a whooooole lot more popular with the girlies, I bet.

Ken Layne has a few things to say about GM corn. Go and read for yourself(ves).

Newsflash! RIAA finally has a winning strategy for dealing with fileswapping among the record-buying public.

No! Say it ain't so! They weren't all sooper-dee-dooper and full of truthful wisdom? Dag! Maybe we should rethink our whole policy!

James Lileks uncorks a loverly screed about Christmas cranks, in general, and these two f*ckwits in particular.

Make sure you subscribe to Showtime now, because if you forget you might miss an episode of this important new series.

"Mike" (otherwise unidentified) writes a little parable called "How Taxes Work" which I found entertaining. (Found via American Realpolitik).

I have long since come to terms with my, um, atypical existence. I do watch teevee, and have been able to predict with uncanny accuracy which shows will get crappy ratings: they're the ones that I really really like. The more I like them, the higher a chance they have of being cancelled. Profit. The Brethren. American Gothic. Apparently Hollywood and the Nielsen folks could just ask me which shows to cancel right off and save themselves a bundle.

Consequently, I was devastated to find that I really really really liked Firefly, as that is the kiss of death. It's on Friday nights at 8pm, which I believe is the time that network execs reserve for shows they hate so they can cancel them in good faith when the ratings suck. This show is incredible. Even in the first season, the characters are filled-in and likeable, the actors seem comfortable in their skins, and the writing is crisp and well-paced. I don't understand why everybody doesn't like and watch the damned thing, or at least TiVo it up.

Fox has announced they won't be buying any more episodes. Game over, man. The part that irks me the most is that I'm not getting to find out why The Shepherd Book is so obviously (to everyone not on Serenity) not a shepherd and where he came from. All I can hope for now is that they'll release the episodes on DVD including the pilot (which we haven't seen yet either, dang it all).

There is a campaign forming, however, to try to convince UPN to pick up the series. Watch an episode before it's too late, and send UPN a postcard, would ya? It's important to me, if no one else.

BWA-hahahaha! Bite me too, Admiral Poindexter!

Rachel Lucas posts an excellent essay on guns and citizenship which sparks a huge comment debate between reasonable people, a gun-toting anarchist loony, and (at least one) Michael Moore-loving fact-sidestepping socialist right here for your entertainment.

The first fallout from the Iraqi declaration may not hit the Iraqis themselves, but rather the Germans.

BWA-hahahahaha! Trent Lott's to-do list.

As Jane Galt observed, "Who says that cold technology can't give you a heartwarming Christmas miracle?" Who indeed.

I'm beginning to sense a pattern here: David Brin is channeling Loki. Why else would he claim "J.R.R. Tolkien -- enemy of progress" if it wasn't to amuse/entertain/enrage the general public? Good on him!

Brian Tiemann talks briefly about how Microsoft co-opts TCP/IP to make their browser look better than it otherwise would merit.

Oh yeah ... Lee's right. It appears that I'm in a minority of one, and everybody else is just gushing over 'Bowling for Columbine' and Michael Morre in general. Ho ho ho. It is to laugh.

There's just so much information here that the mind boggles. (insert your own god-game analogy here).

Jim Dunnigan at Strategy Page writes about the Javelin anti-tank guided missile. It also includes a few before-and-after pictures of a T-72 taking a Javelin to the top armor. Hooray for blowing stuff up real good!

And yet more evidence of the Iraqi-al Qaeda connection. Exactly how much evidence is needed before people quit imagining that exporters and supporters of terrorism are somehow not linked to terrorists?

All the people who said anything that might have been construed as a question about Iraq around me have already heard my pontification about why Saddam has to go. The short summary is "he's openly exporting terrorism and supporting known terrorist groups, and there's no reason to believe that if he gets WMDs he won't supply his favorite terrorist groups with them." It appears that the "if" part above may not be so iffy and further that Saddam isn't above sharing the wealth. The bombs can't drop fast enough to suit me, damn it.

Michael at 2 Blowhards writes a bit about looking at advertising for fun-with-deconstruction. I must admit that this is rather close to one of my favorite ad-related games: spot the assumption.

Ooooh ... a new H&K sidearm. I wonder if my sweetie would like one? She's been complaining that we need to go to the range and fire off a few rounds, plus carrying this beast would certainly get a few of the locals to pay more respectful attention to her.

Of course it isn't for sale to civilians, dang it.

Well ... crap. Now I have to go buy one of these, and then of course I'll have to have a G4 to go with it. There goes the budget.

It's the End of The World(tm)!!!! It's Mass Hysteria(tm)!!! It's ... it's ... Brian Tiemann agreeing with Steven Den Beste!!!! Will miracles never cease.

Tim O'Reilly, of O'Reilly and Associates (publishers of fine IT books (and how deeply can I parenthesize and tangent off before even I lose the thread?)), has a bit to say about file-swapping. Of course he isn't quite the authority on MP3 warez as he is on books, but he's still in the mass-media content business. Consequently, his opining probably carries more weight than does mine (which, if you're curious, is "MP3 sharing hasn't seemed to hurt CD sales yet ... what makes you think it's going to in the future?").

I know Lee has problems with his fingers and wrists: perhaps this review of this product will be useful for him and other people like him. "Plagued by CTS/RSI", mind you, not "smelly, socialist, and British."

Look! Look! See, honey! I'm not that unusual!!! It even includes a useful planner on dealing with a public restroom where the doors open the wrong f*cking way.

Well, of course inspections will do the trick. Just look at how well Iraqi cooperation is going already.

BWA-hahahahahaha! Only In America Pics. Found via The Volokh Conspiracy via OxBlog.

Yet more optical illusions. Found via The Volokh Conspiracy who apparently have a never-ending supply of these things.

Scroll down to helmet ears. I may have to buy another motorcycle just so I have somewhere to wear these.

After reading this post by Jane Galt, I've decided that I too can no longer link to Mindles H. Dreck at MoreThanZero.com.

Just a quick troll through the referrer log, and I find someone looking for "hateful tony blair pictures" from google.co.uk. Sorry, mate ... we're (or at least the verbally productive half of "we") is all in favor of Mr. Blair and his gummint except for the R.I.P. bits. While I'm spouting off, how long before the U.K. recovers its senses and tell the EU to piss off? You don't need their financial policies, their currency, or their cheese. F*ck 'em.

To the person googling for "alton brown hate", you'll need to move along as well. Alton Brown is a GODDAMNED GENIUS!!!!!!! Everyone should watch Good Eats, or at least TiVo up new episodes. Also, he has a book and DVDs out as well. Everybody go buy some stuff.

Well, I'm thinking about buying a new camera, and I'll inflict my bookmarks on all (both) of my readers:

• Canon PowerShot G3
• Sony DSC-F717

Now THAT'S a case mod. Woo-hoo for LEGO's!

Tony Pierce's photo essay "Dear Kids." If I was the sort, I might have teared up, but I'm not so I didn't. There are some good shots here anyway.

BWA-hahahahahahaha! Something Awful weighs in on the Xmas season. It's funny ... I usually only look at Photoshop Phridays there, but Amish Tech Support apparently reads the whole thing. Go figure.

Which Firearm are you? brought to you byStan Ryker

Woo-hoo! Stand back, Jackson!

Well, it appears my socio-political education was sorely lacking, because this essay into the intellectual origins of America-bashing contained a great deal that I didn't know about Marx (and Marxism) beforehand. Excellent reading, if a bit long-ish (around 5,000 words or so).

Pig Newtons?!? Yummy!!!!

Woo-hoo! Semper fi!

The new season of Demotivators are out! I love 'em all!

Available now: Dave Barry's 2002 Gift Guide.

TiVo? That is so old hat ... you can't even archive to DVD with that thing. What an antique.

Ummmmm .... okay. Suppose you're a misanthropic hermit with a gadget fetish who wants some ink. What to do? What to do?