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Chrismukkah.org is the blog for those of you in Jewish/Christian households, like mine, where this Chanukah/Christmas, it’s lumpia (egg rolls) and latkes (potato pancakes).
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Author: Joey deVilla
Books get you chicks!
This painting is Jean-Francois de Troy’s Reading from Moliere. Don’t
ever say you never learned nuthin’ from reading this weblog.
Once a year, Canadian Manda Group, Canadian sales and marketing reps for 20 national and international publishers,
put on a sale where you can buy books at 50% off the suggested U.S.
retail price in Canadian Snow Pesos. For example, a book with a suggested US retail price of $10.00 in the US will sell for $5 Canadian.
That sales takes place for three days this week:
When: Wednesday, November 23rd through Friday, November 25th, 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Where: 165 Dufferin Street (south of King)
The poster for the sale boasts a variety of “calendars, art, gardening,
photography, sports, history, kids, fiction, travel, crafts, gift
products and much more!” I’ve been to this sale for the past couple of
years and have always emerged with Christmas presents for my more
book-oriented friends and family.
I decided to take a tiny bit of my lunch break and cobble together my
own statement on Sony’s
nasty anti-piracy “rootkit” (software hidden on Sony music
CDs that takes control of your computer without your permission) by
mashing up Dan
Kaminsky’s visualization of affected systems worldwide and
one of the Sony PlayStation’s most beloved games, Katamari Damacy. The
result:
Those of you with better Photoshopping skills should feel free to
create more “screenshots” from this conceptual game.
An alternate name for this game could be “Katamari XCP” — XCP is the
name of Sony’s rootkit. It works well with the game’s theme song:
“Na na na na na na na na,
Katamari XCP…”
Thanks to Peter Marmorek for the photo!
Okay, so the EFF ninja is actually me carrying a pair of very heavy
hammocks and a load of camping supplies at the Om Festival. But the EFF
does need your support in the fight for bloggers’ rights,
specifically…
EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit group of passionate people—lawyers,
technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — who depend on your support
to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is
particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from
individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight
—and win—more cases.
You Have the Right to Blog Anonymously. EFF has fought for your
right to speak anonymously on the Internet, establishing legal
protections in several states and federal jurisdictions, and developing
technologies to help you protect you identity. With your support,
EFF can continue to defend this right, conducting impact litigation to
establish strict standards to unmask an anonymous critic in more
jurisdictions.
You Have the Right to Keep Sources Confidential. In Apple v. Does, EFF is fighting to establish the reporter’s privilege for online journalists before the California courts. With your support, EFF can defend news bloggers from subpoenas seeking the identity of confidential sources in more jurisdictions.
You Have the Right to Make Fair Use of Intellectual Property. In OPG v. Diebold,
Diebold, Inc., a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, had sent
out copyright cease-and-desist letters to ISPs after internal documents
indicating flaws in their systems were published on the Internet. EFF
established the publication was a fair use. With your support, EFF can help fight to protect bloggers from frivolous or abusive threats and lawsuits.
You have the Right to Allow Reader’s Comments Without Fear. In Barrett v. Rosenthal, EFF is working to establish that Section 230, a strong federal immunity for online publishers, applies to bloggers. With your support, EFF can continue to protect bloggers from liability for comments left by third parties.
(This is one issue with which I am personally acquainted — see the entry about Quick Boys Movers.)
You Have the Right to Protect Your Server from Government Seizure. In In re Subpoena to Rackspace.
EFF successfully fought to unveil a secret government subpoena that had
resulted in more than 20 Independent Media Center (Indymedia) news
websites and other Internet services being taken offline. With your support, EFF can hold the government accountable for investigations that cut off protected speech.
You Have the Right to Freely Blog about Elections. EFF has
advocated for the sensible application of Federal Election Commission
rules to blogs that comment on political campaigns. With your support, EFF can continue to protect political blogs from onerous campaign regulations.
You Have the Right to Blog about Your Workplace. EFF has
educated bloggers on their rights to blog about their workplace and
developed technologies to help anonymous whistle bloggers. With your support, EFF can help shape the law to protect workplace bloggers from unfair retaliation.
You Have the Right to Access as Media. EFF has educated bloggers
on their right to access public information, attend public events with
the same rights as mainstream media, and how to blog from public
events. With your support, EFF can fight for bloggers right to access as media.
Know Your Rights and Prepare to Defend Them. EFF has created the Legal Guide for Bloggers to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger and a guide on How to Blog Safely. With your support, EFF can expand and update these guides.
And that’s why this blog is sporting this button:
[courtesy of tweebiscuit] And now, a
graphic explanation of one of the problems with voice dictation
software…
Yeah, it’s an old joke, but I found it
amusing.