I’ve already mentioned a few times in the past how much I detest the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and its abuses, but this takes the cake: Copy-protection developer SunnComm is suing a university student for explaining how to turn off CD auto-play. No joke; read the full article and marvel at the utter ridiculousness of the suit.

If that’s not enough indication that SunnComm’s management is clueless, this article sheds some more light on it:

Though simple, the act of holding down the Shift key in order to enable copying does let computer users know they’re doing something unauthorized, [SunnComm CEO Peter Jacobs] said.

Unauthorized? By that logic, skipping the auto-installers on CD-ROMs so that I can install software where I want and with only the components I want is unauthorized. So, for that matter, is disabling autoplay so that I can listen to a music CD (especially the “enhanced” but unprotected type) or watch a DVD in my player of choice…

Personally, I think that if your so-called “copy protection” is that flimsy, and if you understand that to a certain extent, you ought to be spending more time developing a more robust system and less time suing people who explain how to use simple, relatively well-known operating system features.

Really, will the quasi-legal madness brought about by the DMCA ever end?

OK, this is absolutely classic: a stupid answer from the German version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?. The translation of the question, if you haven’t already figured it out by now: “What is George W. Bush’s first name?”

EDIT 2003-10-29: Turns out that those images were Photoshopped (a possibility which I had thought about before posting the link, at that). But it gets better: a Google search turns up the original screenshots— in which the hopelessly confused contestant believes there was a chess-playing computer named Deep Throat…

“My vision is to make the most diverse state on earth, and we have people from every planet on the earth in this state. We have the sons and daughters of every, of people from every planet, of every country on earth.”

Who said it? Believe it or not, it’s not Bush; as this San Francisco Chronicle article points out, this quote was uttered by a somewhat overwhelmed Gray Davis.

In other news: Yes, I realize that it’s already Tuesday night and I still haven’t posted my AWA trip report… I’ll write up the details later when I don’t have as much schoolwork to do, but right now I’ll go ahead and mention that among other things, I picked up a pre-played copy of the PC version of Dance Dance Revolution and the Zelda: Wind Waker soundtrack while I was there.

Well. I’m back from Anime Weekend Atlanta; in fact, I’ve been back since 6:30 or so. But given my current mental state, largely brought on by a lack of sleep, I’m in no mood to write up a trip report at the moment. I can, however, muster enough coherence to write that it was a very enjoyable weekend, even if I didn’t get enough sleep to explain in detail…

Yes, as you can probably tell, not much of note has really been going on in my life lately; all but one post have scrolled off the past week’s highlights on my blog’s index page. There’s been quite a bit of homework, the occasional exam, and hanging out with friends every once in a while when I’m free… yeah, it’s basically the same as usual.

But that won’t be the case this weekend. The aforementioned friends have gotten me addicted to the art of Japanese animation, and I’ll be going up with them to Atlanta for Anime Weekend Atlanta. I’ll admit, for someone who’s never been to any fan conventions– anime or otherwise– that some of the events sound like they’ll be extremely fun (and that assessment is borne out by the opinions of friends who have been to such conventions, heh). The problem, of course, will be getting all my stuff together before I leave, keeping myself organized during the weekend, and making sure that everything I take along comes back with me. I’m so disorganized, I know… ::sigh::

Oh, and I’m also hoping that I don’t get assigned all too much homework over the weekend, since I’ll be returning to campus late Friday afternoon; I know that there’s something coming in Music Theory, at least…

An actual FAQ found on HP/Compaq’s website: Where do I find the “Any” key on my keyboard?

And an actual FAQ from NOAA‘s hurricane research division: Why don’t we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking them?

I honestly can’t think of much more to say…

Earlier today, I thought of a good mnemonic device to remember the six main medieval musical modes in order, starting with the major scale:

“I Don’t Particularly Like Modal Analysis.”
(Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian)

I didn’t throw Locrian (the 7th mode) in there, because it’s very rarely used… though you’re welcome to post your own ideas in the comments.

Oh my. Via DubyaSpeak, one of the latest George W. Bush quotes: “My call, however, to nations is, is that let us not get caught up in past bickering.”

Let me repeat that, because as comedian Lewis Black says, it bears repeating: “My call, however, to nations is, is that let us not get caught up in past bickering.”

To quote the aforementioned comedian’s response to a grammatical gaffe by former vice president Dan Quayle: “How do you diagram a sentence like that? I’ll tell you how. You take a pencil, put it in a sharpener, make sure it’s pointy, and then jab it in your eye!”

Via CNET News.com: It seems that there’s yet another vulnerability in Windows 2000 and XP’s Remote Procedure Call functionality which, if left unpatched, could leave the door open for a new variation of the Blaster worm. Read more about the vulnerability on Microsoft’s site, or download the patch by searching for “824146” on Microsoft’s download site.

Oh, and running a firewall would help too. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t get infected by the first incarnation of the Blaster worm…

CNN.com: Colleges respond to wave of Internet infections

This article interests me simply because it describes the ways that different universities are responding to the virus attacks. For instance:

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology shuts off Internet service to computers it determines are infected, said Kirky DeLong, a manager at one of MIT’s research labs. In extreme cases, officials will block all traffic to and from a suspect computer based on its digital fingerprint.

Yet even non-technologically-oriented universities, in large part, are taking similar actions:

Vanderbilt University found infections in computers of roughly one-fourth of its returning 5,000 students. Stunned technicians shut off connections to nearly 1,200 computers they determined were infected and gradually restored service over the next several days after ensuring each machine was clean.

But how does one eliminate the threat while the computers are disconnected? Some schools, including the one I attend, are giving free site-licensed copies of Norton Antivirus to students; others, like Ohio’s Oberlin College, are punishing unprotected users in a more obvious manner, “threatening to fine students $25 for inadvertently spreading a virus”– a sensible punishment considering that “Oberlin […] found infections in nine out of every 10 running Windows software”.

Incidentally, it seems that some antivirus software companies are using the aftermath of these viruses to be a bit unscrupulous; I just saw a banner ad on one page exclaiming “W32 Virus Detected: Click Here to Scan & Clean”. Since I’m knowledgeable about computers (and as a result have installed the latest Norton virus definitions!), I know that it’s a complete sham… but that may not be the case for less knowledgeable users, and I must lash out at the advertiser for such a pathetic act of exploitation. The ad leads to a page where you can buy a product called Computer Shield from a company named BuySmarter; I’m not sure how good this firewall software actually is, but I can only urge you to boycott this particular company due to their incredibly deceptive ad. I do have to wonder whether the banner is also served to Linux and Mac users, though; that would be amusing…