DRM is dead. Long live DRM
link

Reports of the death of DRM, at least in the hands of Sony, appear to be greatly exaggerated. While a number of us hoped that the "Great Sony Rootkit" fiasco would finally wake people up to the insulting and downright dangerous nature of DRM, it doesn't look like it did the trick after all. From the Register:

But the CD buying public doesn't seem to care. One large retail store, Amoeba Records in tech savvy Berkeley hasn't seen a single infected CD returned to the store. Chart rankings and Gracenote lookups don't reflect a fall off in sales for the affected CDs.

Far from being a historic turning point in the public's perception of nefarious DRM tactics, that many hoped, it's proof that the CD buying public is impervious to technology warnings, or at least extremely slow to cotton on.

The bottom line is, apparently, the bottom line. And since the frantic rants of folks like me don't appear to have affected Sony's bottom line, it goes without saying that we can expect more of the same. Why? The vast majority of the CD buying public just don't care. According to the Register article 2/3 of all CD's don't get played on a PC anyway. And a good number of those that do get played on PC's are played by people who don't seem to mind the DRM as long as the CD works. For those of us who do play music a bit more seriously on our computers, we appear to fall into two groups. First there are folks like me who know just enough about computers and music to be insulted by DRM in any form, to recognize the danger inherent in hidden software and be angry enough about it to change our buying habits. Apparently there aren't that many of us. Second, there are the folks that are really technologically proficient, who rip and burn and/or remix and/or trade files and know what they are doing. For most of them, DRM appears to be mostly an annoyance, in that most of them appear to already be able to defeat every DRM scheme that has been tried so far.

I guess the few of us who have decided to forgo purchasing Sony products can congratulate ourselves on the fury our righteous indignation and the nobility of our principles. And its a good thing we can congratulate ourselves on something, because we won't be celebrating the death of DRM any time soon.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, November 22 2005 10:04:21 PM

'Splain that
link

It now appears that the Sony XCP Rootkit software used to protect their intellectual property rights (and allegedly those of their artists) uses (without permission of the authors) elements of the LAME open source MP3 encoder.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, November 21 2005 11:47:55 PM

Safety First
link

If you are planning to host Thanksgiving Dinner this year and have not thought about your potential liability in future lawsuits brought by your guests over any unhealthy or egregiously fattening foods you may be serving, you probably should. Or, you could just have all of your guests sign the CCF's Thanksgiving Guest Liability and Indemnification Agreement (pdf file).

I am particularly partial to the last clause:

GUEST HAS READ THIS DOCUMENT AND UNDERSTANDS IT. HE/SHE IS SIGNING IT FREELY AND VOLUNTARILY AND WITHOUT DURESS, AND AGREES NOT TO APPEAR AS A WITNESS IN SUPPORT OF ANY PERSONS WITH LAW DEGREES WHO CANNOT OTHERWISE FIND MEANINGFUL EMPLOYMENT, AT ANY TIME IN THE FUTURE.

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, November 21 2005 07:03:07 PM

Sugar-free chocolate?
link

The Head Rat had surgery on her sinuses on Thursday. I've been hanging out with her since then. You could say that I'm trying to nurse her back to health, but that would be overly charitable at best, and an outright lie at worst. I'm not really the "nursing" type. Maybe its the short attention span.

One of the side effects of the surgery is that her throat is very sore (from the breathing tube, I think). Anyway, ice cream makes it feel better. So we've been sitting around watching TV and talking and every so often she eats a little bowl of ice cream. The problem is that between the pain medication and her being generally a decent, caring sort, she keeps babbling on about feeling guilty about eating ice cream in front of me. (I haven't quite gotten the blood glucose management diet for my diabetes quite nailed down yet, so I'm trying to be extra careful.) I keep telling her that any ice cream other than vanilla with the occasional fresh strawberry on top is a waste of a cow's formative years, and, no thank you, I do not want a taste of your butter pecan ice cream.

But still, she feels bad, and keeps trying to come up with alternatives (which I don't need) to make me feel better (which is unnecessary, since I don't feel bad about it in the first place). Today it was a series of suggestions about alternatives I could eat. Things like sugar-free ice cream and sugar-free chocolate. And that was pretty much the end of the conversation for me. The idea of eating sugar-free chocolate appeals to me about as much as the idea of having sex with an inflatable doll: I guess I could do it, but I just don't see the point. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the fact that she is looking out for me. It will just be nice when she is a little less medicated and perhaps a little less "helpful".

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, November 20 2005 10:32:04 PM

Mouse Gestures
link

I am a confirmed Firefox user. Aside from being just generally contrarian, you can do stuff with Firefox you just can't do with Internet Explorer. One of the cool little extensions I found the other day is a thing called All-in-one Gestures. This little gizmo allows you to open new tabs in Firefox by simply holding down the right mouse button and running the cursor up through the link you want to open. Down and to the right anywhere on the page closes the tab. There is even a way to draw a line through several links and open all of them in separate tabs. It takes a while to get used to, but after you do, it is a really slick little addition.

(hey, I was in the mood to share, OK?)

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, November 15 2005 11:30:02 PM

A day without orange juice
link

...is like a day without Anita Bryant, or some such nonsense. In my case, it might be more appropriate to say "a day without Sony-bashing..."

From the Register: In Britain, Sony has been accused of increasing their prices to online retailers by 10-15% to "level the field" for their non-online retailers (not the least of which would be the 100 or so Sony Centre retail outlets). They are being investigated by the British Office of Fair Trading and the European Commission.

And, (via the Register) Geoffrey McCaleb has a list of 45 or so titles that are "rootkit protected". Sony claimed there were only 20 (which they chose not to identify, strangely enough) and technically they might not be exactly lying because some of the 45 are from Sony's subsidiary/partner labels.

Other than that it was a slow day for Sony (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more...)

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, November 15 2005 10:39:58 PM

End of the line
link

I got a response from SonyBMG today. I would love to share it with you folks, but there is a rather threatening confidentiality clause attached to it. Suffice it to say that I'm quite sure their lawyers are better than mine (given that I don't have one), so I won't be discussing its content publicly.

I will say that attaching a confidentiality clause to complaint response is pretty damn paranoid. Especially since there isn't anything in the response that I haven't seen on half a dozen web sites already. But, getting sued is not my idea of a good time. I don't have the DRM rootkit on my computer. I won't be getting it since I don't have any of the DRM rootkit-infested CD's. And I won't be buying any anytime soon.

Just another glorious day in DRM Land.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, November 14 2005 06:51:17 PM

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date
link

I took the Head Rat to the emergency room this afternoon. Now, we've never been to a hospital ER that was less than a four hour process, but there is a minor emergency center associated with our new doctor's office. It is a real help to us, as it is close to home and being a part of the doctor's office we only have a $10 co-pay as opposed to a $50 co-pay at the hospital ER. We got there just after it opened. It was already standing room only, and I do mean standing. After a few minutes, the Head Rat got a chair. I stood in the corner watching, as half a dozen people either walked in and asked if it was going to be more than an hour and then left or turned around and left without ever setting foot in the building after they saw the number of people waiting. I don't get it. We were in and out in less than two and a half hours (including x-rays).

Let me ask you this: How sick would you have to be to go to the emergency room on a Sunday afternoon? Pretty sick, right? Sick enough that you just couldn't wait to go to the regular doctor on Monday? Now, if you were really that sick, would you decide not to be seen by the doctor if you thought you were going to have to wait more than an hour? And if you felt well enough to leave the emergency room in a huff because you couldn't be seen right away, what made you think you were sick enough to go in the first place? The logic escapes me.

 

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, November 13 2005 11:52:13 PM

DEATH TO CRAZY FROG!
link

Sometime on Saturday, the miserable little bugger died for the 10 millionth time. I'm sorry I wasn't here to see it. I did, however, whack him an extra fifty times, or so, in celebration. The Kill Counter is up to 10.04 million registered kills.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, November 13 2005 01:51:11 AM

Stood up
link

I've been sitting here at my computer all day, waiting breathlessly for Sony BMG (see last post) to send me a personal response to my e-mail. I'm beginning to think they may not get back to me. I think my feelings are a bit hurt.

Actually, that's a lie. I spent the day at my father's house cutting up firewood, reasonably confident in the belief that the folks at Sony BMG are probably too busy with product recalls and pending lawsuits to take time out to send me a personal response. I could be wrong. They could really, really care about my opinion.

I wouldn't bet on it.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, November 13 2005 01:43:14 AM

I'm touched
link

From SonyBMG in response to my earlier e-mail:

"Thank you for contacting SONY BMG. This message confirms that your e-mail has been received by our support team. You should receive a reply shortly. Thank you, SONY BMG Customer Service"

It was sent around 2:00 this afternoon. Should I be hurt that they haven't responded personally by now?

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, November 11 2005 10:46:41 PM

What's up with that?
link

I pretty much live for odd twists of reality, but sometimes even I have a hard time believing what I'm seeing. A quick perusal of the RSS feeds, and I can't find anything about the Sony Rootkit DRM story. Nothing at the big news outlets I read regularly. However, I just got finished watching the story (OK, it was a bit muddled and kind of short) on the 10 o'clock news out of Wichita. According to the KWCH story (I can't believe I'm actually writing that on my blog...) Sony has decided to pull the Rootkit afflicted CD's off the market.

UPDATE: Yes, I know that the story is all over the internet. It was a comment on the media. I don't pretend to be "first in fact" like one of the local TV stations used to say.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If you were planning to be the person to put the Crazy Frog Kill Counter over 10 million registered kills, you had better get busy with that bat. It is up to almost 9.994 million registered kills. And while I'm not a mathematician, I'm pretty sure that only leaves about 6000 kills to go.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, November 11 2005 10:14:03 PM

More Adventures in DRM land
link

This being Veterans Day and me being a Government employee, I'm off today. This is a good thing, as I have a splitting headache. If I had any sense I would be in bed with the blinds closed. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) I have no tolerance for daytime TV. So I'm sitting at my computer, trying to follow through with my own suggestions.

I decided I would notify Sony of my decision to never buy any of their products until they stopped insulting me with DRM on their CD's.

Except, you can't. Just try to e-mail Sony. Go to Sony.com or Sony.net. See if you can find a link to an e-mail address to send the company a comment. Even the Contact Sony link at Sony.net doesn't take you to a contact page. It takes you to a page where you choose what you want to contact them about (electronics, music, etc.) If you choose music you go to another page where you choose what country. When you get that page, there is no contact link. If you happen to see the small print at the top and click on the SonyBMG link you get to a SonyBMG page with a contact link in the side bar. If you click on that, you get a list of phone numbers to call the various record labels Sony owns.

I eventually gave up and googled for "how to contact Sony". One of the results I got was to this page on the cp.sonybmg.com/xcp web site. (Yes, it seems Sony has an entire web site for their Copy Protection material.) The link opens this page, where you can e-mail SonyBMG. Except you can't just e-mail them, you have to provide the artist name, album name, store where you purchased the album and an e-mail address in order to "Describe the problem in detail." After all that, was really annoyed, so I filled in the information using an album off the list of known rootkit-infected CD's and entered the name of a local store. This is what I said:

I really like Trey Anastasio. The problem is that I didn't purchase this CD and I never will, nor will I purchase any more Sony hardware. Ever. I will re-evaluate this position if YOU ever stop trying to tell me what I can and can't do with music I purchase via DRM. I don't download music illegally. I don't share music illegally. I find the assumption that I will do so unless you protect your CDs insulting and I find the rootkit ploy particularly odious.

A bit self-righteous, perhaps. And I'm sure it will only be read by a minimum wage peon with no real interest, incentive, or ability to impact Sony's business decisions. But I did notice that all of the pages at SonyBMG are loading really slowly. I can only hope that this means there are a hell of a lot of people out there trying to get the rootkit uninstall program, or are trying to find a way to express their displeasure.

UPDATE: I found out after the fact that if you already know about the cp.sonybmg.com/xcp site and you guess correctly you can wend your way through the site to the FAQ. At the bottom of the FAQ is the link to the e-mail form.

UPDATE: In case you were wondering, I didn't just pick Trey Anastasio at random. I really do like him. Bummer about his CD being infected.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, November 11 2005 02:04:00 PM

ooops
link

I goofed. I did not quite get the details correct in last night's post about the Sony Rootkit DRM. I stated that by giving them money and taking possession of the CD, one was accepting the EULA. This was wrong. As long as you never play the CD you are OK. Apparently when you try to play the CD there is a pop-up screen that you have to click through in order to be able to play the music. (Obviously I was using second-hand information here and didn't digest it as carefully as I could have.) Like I'm going to read through the fine print of a 3000 word EULA before playing my new Trey Anastasio CD.

Which, of course is the point. Sony is counting on us to just click through and not read the fine print. As a piece of social engineering, you have step back and admire the cojones of whoever designed the ploy.

I've been reading the comments sections of a number of websites that deal with these issues. This one is particularly entertaining. (if you've got time, read the entire comments thread) I'm seeing all kinds of comments about lawsuits, and legal action and the need for congressional action. Its all crap. This is really simple. It is a market function kind of thing:

If this kind of corporate behavior insults and infuriates you, do the one thing that corporations respond to -- impact their bottom line. If you find Sony's Rootkit DRM offensive, don't buy another product of any kind from Sony until they stop doing it. On a broader scale, if the idea of DRM itself offends you, never buy another DRM protected CD. But more importantly, make sure you let the manufacturer know. If you walk into your local music store, ready to buy the new release from your favorite artist and notice that it has some sort of DRM protection, don't buy it. Then go home and e-mail the company to let them know that they just lost a sale. The people who employ DRM are counting on consumers to be completely unable to forgo immediate gratification. They assume that consumers will take whatever they are offered.

They may be right. Consumers may be nearly 100% sheeple. But I hope there are enough of us out there who won't play along that CD and equipment sales will be affected. It is important, however, that we make sure the powers that be understand that drops in sales are the result of consumer decisions so that the RIAA cannot blame it on pirating.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Friday, November 11 2005 12:12:31 PM

Are you out of your bloody mind?
link

Well, that's probably not the best I could have done for a post title, as it applies to a number of things I'm cranky about. I'll leave the Kansas School Board alone for now; plenty of other people think they are out of their bloody minds and are saying so, although we appear to have hit a new high in lows when we are even getting bashed by the Globe and Mail and the Guardian.

Actually, I'm of a mind to bash Sony at the moment. The story so far: Apparently Sony has included "rootkit" software in some of its Digital Rights Management enabled CD's which, when played in a PC, installs hidden software which "forces playback through a bundled media player, and restricts how many digital copies can be made from Windows. What makes Sony's CD digital media software particularly nasty is that using expert tools for removing the parasite risks leaving you with a Windows PC that's useless, and that requires a full reformat and reinstall."

So you bought one of these CD's? Well, actually, although you thought you bought it, by paying the money and taking possession of the CD you agreed to Sony's End User Licensing Agreement. And exactly what does that EULA specify? Well, first, you don't own the music, you've licensed it. Sony has multiple restrictions in its 3000 word EULA, which, by the way, if you don't keep up to date, causes you to forfeit your license to play the music. This according to an analysis of the EULA by Fred von Lohmann posted on the EFF website. (As frequent readers will know I am loathe to quote the bulk of other people's work, but I just couldn't pick two or three "lowlights" to use as teasers.) According to Mr. Lohmann:

# If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.

# You can't keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a "personal home computer system owned by you."

# If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids "export" outside the country where you reside.

# You must install any and all updates, or else lose the music on your computer. The EULA immediately terminates if you fail to install any update. No more holding out on those hobble-ware downgrades masquerading as updates.

# Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to "enforce their rights" against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this "self help" crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.

# The EULA says Sony-BMG will never be liable to you for more than $5.00. That's right, no matter what happens, you can't even get back what you paid for the CD.

# If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.

# You have no right to transfer the music on your computer, even along with the original CD.

# Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling. The EULA forbids changing, altering, or make derivative works from the music on your computer.

OK, that's pretty infuriating, right? It gets better.

The backdoor created by the "rootkit" can, and now has been used to install a trojan on computers. The social engineering on this first trojan is pretty lame, but someone is bound to do it better soon. And don't rush out to update your anti-virus software to protect against this problem: "rootkit" software (or "rootkit viruses", as I prefer) are invisible to standard AV software.

Now I'm not one to rush out and try to organize boycotts or protests or anything like that. I figure intelligent, thinking people, if they are aware of the situation, will make rational choices about things like this. Just for myself, I know where my music dollars won't be going.

Oh, by the way, if you want a list of CD's Sony did this to, go here.

It's late, you're tired. You probably can't do anything about Sony tonight anyway. Work off your frustration by killing Crazy Frog. The Kill Counter is up to 9.946 million registered kills. You would feel better if you single-handedly put it over 10 million, wouldn't you?

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, November 10 2005 10:33:42 PM

Pushing the ID agenda
link

Mark at Thou Shall Not Suck has a good piece on the folks pushing the Intelligent Design agenda.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, November 09 2005 11:54:12 PM

How could I forget?
link

I got so wrapped up in attempting to pass for a Canadian yesterday that I forgot to mention that the Crazy Frog Kill Counter is up to 9.9 million registered kills.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, November 09 2005 11:35:03 PM

Limited Return
link

I was surprised and pleased to find that Steven Den Beste is making small political posts at Red State. For those of us who were fans of USSClueless, it is nice to see the occasional post. On his anime website (Chizumatic) he indicates that he isn't sure whether he thinks this is a good thing or not. Personally, I'm glad to see an occasional post, even if infrequent. I, for one, have missed his style and unique perspective.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, November 09 2005 08:39:40 PM

In Defense of Oil Profits
link

(via the Agitator) Shikha Dalmia has an article in Reason entitled "Inherit the Windfall, The defense of oil profits we'll probably never see." I was especially interested in a couple of points he made in reference to the idea of windfall profits taxes:

Our aggregate profits are so large because we have huge sales. But our profit margins—the more relevant measure—are below the overall Standards and Poor industry average. Exxon Mobil, the most profitable company among us, posted $100 billion in sales last quarter —the first American company to hit that mark ever. But its profits were $10 billion—hardly a margin that suggests the "price gouging" that some of you have accused us of.

In fact, the oil industry's margins are well below those of Gannett, the largest newspaper corporation—and no doubt far, far below those of Fox News, whose pandering populist anchor, Bill O'Reilly, maximizes his company's profits by questioning our right to maximize ours. If you really want a reliable revenue stream, why not tax windbags instead of windfalls?

Besides, we already tried windfall profit taxes—along with leisure suits and polyester ties—with disastrous results.

If, like me, you are old enough to have lived through windfall profits taxes, leisure suits and polyester ties (pardon me while I go shudder in horror at the thought that there are still a few photos of me in a leisure suit that have not yet been destroyed) this argument will probably have significant emotional impact.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, November 09 2005 08:10:11 PM

Worthwhile Music
link

I was reading Howard's comments (the Smedley Log) on Digital Rights Management tonight. He is, as usual, a bit more restrained in his comments than I am, certainly on this subject. For the record, if I buy a CD, I expect to be able to copy it to some format that I like for my computer, for my truck, and for the player on my PDA. I consider this "fair use" and any attempt (like Sony's "rootkit" ploy) to force me to use a format I don't like or to run a specific player automatically really makes me angry. Angry enough to never buy a Sony or DRM-enabled CD again. Ever. I prefer to buy CD's directly from the artists. I appreciate artists who make sample streams available and tracks available for download. If I like the samples I download the available tracks and then routinely buy the albums. I know there are trolls out there that download stuff and never buy, but I prefer to think of buying these albums as rewarding the artists for having the faith in their own material to provide the samples.

Which is really the point of this post. One of the links on the Smedley Log sidebar is for a group called Over The Rhine. I checked them out tonight. All I can say is I can't wait til payday, because I have some albums to buy.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, November 08 2005 11:46:26 PM

No, really. It's a turkey! Honest.
link

Sometimes I really hate having to admit I'm from Kansas. Today is another one of those days. Our illustrious State School board has decided that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck you can still call it a turkey and everyone is supposed to play along.

I've written before about Intelligent Design. Unfortunately I'm doing it again, only this time more peripherally, as my main point is about intellectual honesty and integrity. You see, I don't have a problem believing God created the world. I also don't have a problem thinking that evolution, as science, is a reasonable theory of how we got here. What I understand, and what seems to be lost on most people is that science is science and faith is faith. Faith is not part of science. God is the death of science. If you can't explain something in your theory, then God did it. If God did it, further investigation is unnecessary (or even heretical). In science, further investigation is always necessary.

Conversely, Faith shouldn't need the trappings of science. In the movie "Constantine", John Constantine has a discussion with the Angel Gabriel in which he is asking if his belief in God doesn't count for something. Gabriel tells him that because he died (briefly) and went to hell, he doesn't believe, he knows. Knowledge is different than faith. Whether you approve of the movie or not, the point is valid. Faith and belief, by their nature, do not, and more importantly, should not require proof in a tangible sense. The essence of faith is that it isn't based on knowledge. That's why we have phrases like "leap of faith." Attempting to tack on the trappings of science cheapens faith.

In Kansas, we've been operating under a defenition of science as a search for explanations of the world around us through natural causes. The Intelligent Design folks have rightly assumed that definition exluded Intelligent Design. You can't see God. You can't smell God. You can't taste, touch, or hear God. You can't point to a corporeal object and say "that is God". God is supernatural. You can infer a higher power in the workings of the world around you, but that inference is a matter of belief. Rather than continue to fight under the assumption that science is about natural phenomena, and, in what has to be a classic example of those in power defining the terms of the argument, the Kansas School Board has simply redefined science so that it is not restricted to natural phenomena. Of course, by opening science to the supernatural, all sorts of new age, junk science tripe is now, by definition, science, but I'm pretty sure the school board didn't think of that.

So what happens when you introduce the supernatural into science? You get a hybrid; something not quite science and not quite faith. If we must teach "scientific faith" so be it, but we should have the intellectual honesty to admit that it isn't science. The Kansas School Board is, I'm afraid, guilty of wishful thinking. I often complain about the barking moonbats on the left, who ignore the real world because they desperately want things to be the way they think they should be. The Kansas School Board is guilty of the same. They desperately believe that God is essential to any explanation of how we got here and because the existence of an alternate explanation that does not include God frightens them, they cling to a hybrid in hopes that they can pass it off as science, and thereby make inroads into the territory that currently doesn't include God. But, saying that Intelligent Design is science doesn't make it so.

Let's try this by way of example of what the Kansas School Board did today. Let's say I want to take advantage of the lower rates available from those insurance companies that specialize in providing insurance to people who don't smoke or drink. I apply for the insurance. They ask if I smoke. I say yes. They ask if I drink. I say yes. They say I'm not eligible for their insurance. But, I don't think that's right. I tell them I really want their insurance. I tell them I should be able to get the attractive insurance rates. They say I don't fit the criteria of non-smoking and non-drinking. I still don't like it, so I change the definition of non-smoker to "anyone who smokes less than 2 packs a day" and I change the definition of non-drinker to "anyone who drinks less than the equivalent of a case of beer a week." Out here in the real world, the insurance company employees would laugh their collective asses off. Unfortunately, the Kansas School Board has the power to change the definition and make it stick. At least here in Kansas.

Maybe I'll just tell people I'm Canadian.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, November 08 2005 08:17:56 PM

I Blog, therefore I Smoke
link

There's a new link on the sidebar tonight. The Smoker's Liberation Front is a British group. Their manifesto:

SLF MANIFESTO

We, the men and women, victims and family members of those who have been pilloried, forced to quit, displaced or arbitrarily asked to put out a cigarette… gathered at the “National meeting of the victims of crimes against decency and violations of smokers’ rights”, held in an undisclosed location on June 28 and 29, 2005:

HEREBY STATE:

1. That smokers have the right to indulge their habit.

2. That Smokers should not be ostracised from society because of their habit.

3. By ostracised, the Smokers Liberation Front (forthwith to be referred to as the SLF) is referring to institutions of a public nature such as pubs, bars, cafes, places of work etc. We have a right to live our lives without being constantly shown the door.

4. The SLF is militantly opposed to:

Any form of repression via anti-smoking legislation which does not take into consideration the rights of smokers as individuals.

Any institution of a public nature in which such repressive leglislation is enforced.

Any public or private individual who is responsible for the implementation, enforcement or support of such a legislation.

5. The SLF is committed to opposing anti-smoking repression via radical means including, but not limited to, consciousness raising among the smoking community and direct action in defence of our rights.

Look, these are my kind of folks: smokers, British, and a wee bit cranky.

And, I'd bet they are just tickled pink that the Crazy Frog Kill Counter is up to 9.81 million registered kills.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Monday, November 07 2005 08:51:26 PM

Distractions
link

Things have been a bit more odd than usual here in the Ratlands for the past few days. Lots of nonsense at work and things at home have been a bit... oh maybe "edgy" would be the right word. The Head Rat is having surgery in a couple of weeks, Rat Jr. apparently has a gall bladder problem, and I found out I am diabetic. I went to the doctor last week expecting to hear the usual lecture about eating better and exercising more. And, I got it. I was not expecting the nurse to pull out a glucose testing kit and start explaining how to use it. That set me back a bit.

I'm not feeling sorry for myself, or anything like that. I guess I sort of knew it was coming. But, there is nothing like hauling a little kit around and poking yourself several times a day to remind you that you never made good on all those good intentions you had to eat better and get more exercise. Onward...

-------------

I want to wish everyone a belated Guy Fawkes Night. If you aren't familiar with Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot, you might want to visit this site to brush up on your history, especially if you are a member of what has come to be known as the "Angloshpere." Thanks to the folks at Samizdata for pointing this out as, I confess, I was not familiar with the story, although I do recall hearing the poem somewhere, or at least part of it.

--------------

The Head Rat has four parakeets. They live in our bedroom. Tonight we were watching a blues documentary on cable. When Clarence Gatemouth Brown started playing, the birds started singing. They didn't sing again until B.B. King started playing. I don't know what it is in particular about their guitar sound that the birds like, but they do have good taste.

The Crazy Frog Kill Counter report is brought to you by Guy Fawkes (who's fate was worse than the damn Frog). There have been 9.78 million registered kills.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Sunday, November 06 2005 08:25:10 PM

Conversations
link

Guy at work: I was at the store last night. Did you know Folger's coffee is up to $7.50 a can?

Me: Really? I heard the hurricane messed up the factory down in Louisiana.

Guy at work: Yeah. I hope they get up and running soon.

------------------------

Guy at work 3 weeks ago: I was at the gas station a while ago. Gas was over $3.00 a gallon.

Me: Really? I heard the hurricane really messed up oil production in the Gulf.

Guy at work 3 weeks ago: Yeah. I'm sick and tired of those greedy oil companies gouging the hell out of us.

------------------------

Guy at work: I was at the gas station yesterday. Did you know gas is back down to $2.15 a gallon?

Me: Really? I heard they are getting oil production in the Gulf back on line.

Guy at work: Hmmmm.

------------------------

Do you think it really might have something to do with supply and demand after all?

 

Because the supply of frog bashing opportunities is sufficient (unlimited) to meet the (finite) demand of sick puppies like me, the price (free) remains constant. The Crazy Frog Kill Counter is up to 9.62 million registered kills.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Wednesday, November 02 2005 10:21:25 PM

Slow Night
link

Actually, it hasn't been a slow night. I just don't have anything to say. I've spent the whole evening working on some stuff for work.

Because there is something funny about Peace, Love and Understanding: the Crazy Frog Kill Counter is up to 9.58 million registered kills. And if you know who did the song I'm referencing here, I'll lay 3 to 1 odds you are older than I am.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, November 01 2005 11:20:54 PM