He wants to revise amply documented history about the Holocaust and calls for the destruction of Israel. He also wants nuclear capability. But only for peaceful purposes.

Don't. Make. Me. Laugh.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a would-be Hitler and in light of his ambitions to acquire nuclear capability and destroy Israel, must be treated as the dangerous criminal that he is, not as a statesman whose vitriol is merely debatable opinion.

The world's nations must unite as one behind their greatest powers and ensure that Iran either complies fully and without any further delay with inspections and regulations, or suffers whatever force is required to annihilate any and all capabilities having to do with nuclear power in Iran.

We cannot permit that a hate monger, who has publically professed the intention to destroy another state, acquires the capability to carry out such plans.

We must ensure immediate and unconditional compilance or strike without further reservation. No second chances. No delays. No apologies.

CNN Reports that ``President Bush today defended his administration's decision to allow a company from an Arab country to operate six major U.S. ports, saying, "People don't need to worry about security."''

Uh-hu. *cough*August*couch*2001*cough*memo*cough. Deja vu?

Terrorists blow up a gorgeous mosque. Muslims react with violence. What is this, deja vu all over again?! I'm beginning to suspect that the whole of these people's vocabulary consists of violence, violence, and just to be creative, an extra dash of violence!

Reaction to peace: violence!
Reaction to diversity: violence!
Reaction to disagreement: violence!
Reaction to exasperation: violence!
Reaction to mockery: violence!
Reaction to violence: violence!
Reaction to everything else: violence!

I suppose that smashing things up, setting things on fire, and killing the neighbors is one way to relieve stress. Or maybe we're just dealing with a bunch of PCP-crazed baboons. Either one makes as much sense to me as the other.

Seriously, are they just naturally-born psychopaths?!

Someone draws a cartoon, asserting a connection between Islam and violence, and how do Muslims protest? With violence! (/me slaps forehead) Can they affirm the cartoon any better? Can they look any more stupid? If it weren't such a tragedy I'd be rolling on the floor, laughing. Idjets! Idjets!!

This sums it right up...

It would have been wrong not to allow Hamas to participate in the democratic election process. Democracy isn't about exclusion but about empowerment and letting the voice of the people be heard, even (or perhaps especially) if those voices speak of things we would rather not hear. What the Palestinian people have said with this election is that they are unhappy with the way Fatah has been handling things and that they feel that the terror actions of Hamas are more representative of the change that is needed.

Well, the cat's out of the bag now, isn't it?

Asking Hamas to renounce violence is likely to be as effective as asking Hitler to renounce the Final Solution. If it happens at all, it will have no effect on their outlook or their actions. Hamas' raison d'être is the destruction of Israel. They aren't going to renounce it anymore than the U.S. would renounce capitalism or democracy.

Hitler sought the destruction of the Jews and others; Hamas seeks the destruction of Israel. Now that the Palestinian people have chosen Hamas to lead them, there is no doubt that a significant portion of the Palestinian people share the goals of Hamas. That makes them a terrorist state. It's really as simple as that.

There is one positive aspect to the outcome of this election: It spells an end to the "forked tongue" politics that have bedeviled the peace process for so long. There can be no more pretense now that the terrorists actually are in charge. The peace process is likely dead now. And for better or for worse, it may be that this is the beginning of the end … for the Palestinian state.

This is quite possibly the most significant violation of federal surveillance laws in over three decades (since Watergate).

I'm not sure what worries me more, the fact that the "President" authorized it or that 31% of about 81,000 people chose to vote "Yes" to the question "Should the government have been given the authority to spy on Americans without warrants after the 9/11 attacks?"

It does not much surprise me that a president signs such acts when he has already professed a preference for dictatorial powers because he'd get things done more swiftly and easily; but what I am rather dismayed over is the fact that a significant number of people seem to think it acceptable for the government to spy on them without judicial oversight or constraints. Have they never heard of the Sovjet Union and the KGB, or understand so little of the ways of power that they cannot conceive of the harm that such powers can bring?

Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?

A vote that should have been Yes:2 No:6 was hacked in a demonstration to come out Yes:7 No:1 with only moderate level access to the voting machine (in an election, thousands would have such access), no password, and equipment that can be bought for a couple of hundred dollars off the internet. The hacked vote was not detected on the voting machine and not on upload to the tabulation system, either!

Without a verifiable paper trail (which Diebolt voting machines do not provide) such a hack would go undetected in a real election. It's just like Josef Stalin said: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing; those who count the votes decide everything."

Read all about the Diebolt Voting Machines Hack at BlackBoxVoting.org

In the continuing story of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's abbrasive, offensive, and revisionist claims, his latest excretion has us believe that the Holocaust was a myth. I'm sure it's just as much a myth as the holy war called-for by Pope Urban II. that resulted in the Crusades.

Well, at least the man's good for some entertainment value: We should put him on Saturday Night Live and get a good belly-laugh out of the crap he spews… I'm sure it'll become a classic.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that "President" Bush has either no intention of ever pulling out of Iraq, or he is incapable of formulating even a feeble strategy---which is to say he is incable of formulating any strategy at all---to effect a timely withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

To have no better strategy than "to win the war" is about as effective as saying that we won't withdraw until poverty is no more, or alcoholism is eliminated, or disease, hate, and injustice wiped from the face of the Earth: It isn't going to happen and attempting to sell it anyway amounts to a veiled admission that winning the war isn't what this is about at all. It's about staying in Iraq.

Occupation must have been the intention from the start (or the opportunity availed itself soon enough). Now we have a justifiable military presence in the area, able to serve as a launching pad for other strategic operations if necessary, or at least to keep other powers in check.

All we need now is another big terrorist attack to give us the incentive to bring out the really, really big guns! Hey, it worked in Japan some sixty years ago; it will work again. Who is going to stop us from defending ourselves against terrorists?

We'll be at this game forever. Forever War.

Countless companies, cities, jurisdictions, states, and nations have awoken to the fact that locking up their data in proprietary formats, such as Microsoft's .doc, has chained them to the unending upgrade cycle to keep that data accessible, and is simultaneously channelling public funds into private corporate hands.

While some have shifted, or at least begun to shift, their operations from proprietary operating systems and software, such as Microsoft Windows and Office, to Free (unfettered) systems, such as GNU/Linux and OpenOffice.org, Microsoft has sought to hinder and redirect these efforts by seeming to address at least some of the concerns that prompted the moves towards open and accessible data formats in the first place: Microsoft has vowed to open up their XML format.

On the surface---and especially to non-technical personnel---this would certainly sound great, but Groklaw carries a Format comparison between ODF and MS XML to demonstrate that even if Microsoft's XML format (MSXML) is legally open, it is really designed to remain as inaccessible as possible, especially when compared to the well-designed OASIS Open Document (ODT) format.

If you lock up your data in a proprietary format, that's your problem. But if you lock up other people's data---that of the government's citizens---in proprietary formats and pay money for it, too, then that amounts to negligence, in my opinion, if not also misuse of funds!

Today, on the 4th anniversary of the "9/11" attacks that killed over 3000 people, damaged the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and brought down both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, Osama Bin Laden, the perpetrator of these attacks, remains at large!

Instead of hunting down Osama Bin Laden, "President" Bush chose to attack Iraq, a wholly unrelated issue to "9/11", which has already cost the lives of another 1900+ American soldiers (not to mention many from other nations).

And because of Mr. Bush's misguided and illegal war in Iraq it is now obvious that the domestic response to Hurricane Katrina has turned a distaster into a national catastrophe because much of the military gear is in Iraq, not where it ought to be: protecting Americans. Hence, even more dead to be ascribed to the stubborn incompetence of "President" Bush.

Four years after "9/11" I, for one, would like to know this: Why the f--- is Osama Bin Laden still at large, Mr. "President" and why are we fighting in Iraq and letting Americans die there and here at home, instead of going after the terrorists???

So here we have a White House and an administration that is focused on deceiving American citizens (Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11) to start and shore up support for an unnecessary war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens and thousands of American soldiers. And now that disaster strikes at home (New Orleans) there is are a bunch of assurances and self-congratulatory rhetoric that does not match the situation on the ground. Again!

Am I surprised? It appears that the Bush Administration is not in any way interested in reality but pursuing fantasies and misguided personal agendas that bring death and destruction around the world as well as at home, while feeding lies to the American public in hopes of placating them long enough to get away with it all.

For all practical purposes the Bush Administration has abandoned Americans to their own devices, while sending them to die in a war that did not need fighting. The lies and the contempt from the Bush Administration for all things that America once stood for can only mean one thing: "President" Bush is a menace to this country and to the world. The sooner he is gone, the better we'll all be for it.

The evacutation of New Orleans should have been initiated by Tuesday, the day following Hurricane Katrina's nearly direct hit on the city, and completed in no more than two days. Instead, it was a slow, inept, and botched operation that took three or four days to begin, didn't ramp up to full scale until five days had passed, and wasn't (mostly) completed until six days after the hurricane struck New Orleans.

It is indefensible that the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, claims that "the collapse of a significant portion of the levee leading to the very fast flooding of the city was not envisioned" when experts had predicted exactly that scenario for as much as a decade. This attitude amply demonstrates the fact that the government is asleep at the wheel, just as it was in the weeks and months leading up to 9/11, and likely will be so again when the next disaster strikes.

On Tuesday or latest by Wednesday, when it became clear through media and other reports that the response to the disaster was essentially non-existent, "President" Bush should have signed an executive order to mobilize every available resource from every accessible state to rush to the aid of those who needed to be pulled out, who needed food and especially drinking water to be dropped to help them survive.

But the "President" spent two extra days on vacation; Congress debated financial aid packages; and private help in the form of boaters and supply trucks were turned away from the area, by all appearances these all intended to create a humanitarian crisis rather than prevent one. And that's the fault of the Bush administration, no less, whose total lack of true leadership reflects on the priorities of all branches of government. Bush didn't think the destruction of a major American metropolis was important, so why would Congress, why would FEMA, why would anybody move fast if our leader stays calm and disinterested?

Considering the despicable falsehoods and violence that Pat Robertson keeps spewing, it would be far more beneficial for the United States to assassinate Pat Robertson than Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

How can the man call himself a Christian; how can anyone with a good heart--Christian or otherwise--feel but revulsion at the likes of him?!

Has he conveniently forgotten that it was Pope Urban II. who invented the Holy War (Jihad) and launched the Crusades? Has he forgotten that it was Christian missionaries that brought to the natives of many nations the choice of Christianity or death? Does he really think his vitriol is somehow better than the worst of communism or islamic extremism?

Violence begets violence, Mr. Robertson, and you are the kind of cancer that ought to be cut out and crushed. At least have the decency of effecting your departure by your own hand!

The sooner the world is rid of people like Pat Robertson the sooner we all have an actual chance for peace!

After the Bush administration demonstrated only the most feeble interest in democracy itself, telling the United Nations that their voice doesn't matter and that America will wage war on sovereign nations, such as Iraq, no matter the strength or acceptability of causal evidence, the Bush administration is now facing a European Union that is no more inspired by "President" Bush's attempt to mend fences today, than the millions were who took to the streets two years ago to speak out against America's impending aggression.

The Bush administration's continued assertion that its policies and actions have been and continue to be impeccable betrays an arrogance that amounts to nothing less than a rude gesture to the entire rest of the world. Bush's trip to Europe is a thinly veiled attempt to get Europe to help pay for Bush's stubborn incompetence. America wants its policies validated; America needs someone else to help clean up the messy bits; America seeks a partner in crime.

Make no mistake: If Europe chooses to descend that slippery slope then Europe will end up paying for the clean-up of Iran next, and every war that the Bush administration feels somehow justified to start. And complicity in war brings an allotment of the blame. Europe has nothing to gain from this, and everything to lose. Unity against imperialist aggression is Europe's greatest chance to date to prove whether the Union transcends mere economic motives, or will lead Europe to take up the mantle of greatness that America chose to shed decades ago.

A little tip for those with laptops that are a bit older, and may have some trouble with the slab overheating and then shutting down unexpectedly or with a dire warning before all goes dark: clean out the fan & radiator assembly as soon as you can! Heck, do it every six months the way you'd change the oil on your car, and your laptop will live much longer.

Here's my story, for what it's worth:

I've a Sager slab, Northwood Pentium 4 running at 3.067 GHz and for the past six months this beautiful beast has been having serious overheating problems. Just running the CPU at full capacity for ten or twenty minutes could have the thing go through an emergency shutdown. Nasty!!

The culprit, as I suspected, was dust: Both fans were working just fine, but I did notice that they were going a million miles an hour almost all the time, working very hard trying to keep the slab cool. Just how much dust was in there and just how much of an impact that made, I found out only after I finally opened the thing up:

Careful of the heat. The fan & radiator assembly is hot and can easily give you a serious burn if you're not careful. I disconnected the two-fan affair, took a deep breath, and blew hard into the exhaust end of things. Cloud of dust, floating dust bunnies, and here I sit, still coughing from it. I gave my lungs a good workout, reassembled the thing, and now the slab runs at least 10°C to 15°C cooler than it has been! I've not been able to push it past 63°C even at high CPU usage, where before it would quickly leap to 75°C and work its way up from there. (80°C is the max before it forces itself off).

And that's not just good for me and my work, but great news for the longevity of the CPU.

Just passing on something useful for a change ;-)

Under the influence of the patent system and big industry lobbyists, the European Union is on the verge of making a huge mistake: to pass a law that would legalize software patents. Why is this important?

Four years ago, Gore won the election, but amidst the struggle to get every vote counted and then due to the supreme court's intervention, he was essentially forced to concede the presidency to Bush.

Through stubborn incompetence Bush has since driven this country into a multi-faceted morass of economic and political problems. The world has been hesitant to acknowledge Bush's legitimacy and in parts vehement in denying it. Bush has never managed to convince anyone but simpletons and dimwits that Iraq had any involvement with Al Qaeda, for example, or had anything more than a desire to acquire new weapons of mass destruction. Dimwits bought these lies, but nobody else. Dimwits also bought the lie that the money he borrowed from other nations were actual tax cuts. The list goes on …

But now, with apparently 51% of Americans legitimizing the rule of the most destructive and dangerous leader that this country has ever had, we have told the world that we merely pay lip-service to democratic ideals: democracy does not apply to our interaction with other nations; we do not care about unity: 49% of the nation doesn't matter, and 90% of the world has no influence on our leaders; and instead of reason we are proud of primitive dualistic thought: no nuance, no pause, no exploration, no reflection! That is the image of America projected around the world!

As a divider this "president" has proven, and today again confirmed, his intentions to push a divisive agenda and bully the world in pursuit of untenable policies abroad. But hey, if you can't hold onto the world's admiration and respect, we may as well go all-out and earn their disapproval and disdain!

Hail to the Thief!

The exit polls from the American election campaign have demonstrated that America voted for Bush based largely on moral grounds. These include:

• Fabricating evidence and lying,
• Invading sovereign nations on pretenses,
• Murdering tens of thousands of innocents,
• Borrowing beyond reasonable means,
• Enriching the rich and bribing the poor,
• Doing business with the enemy,
• Mortgaging our future.

I'm damn glad that I'm not part of that "moral" majority. By all truly moral standards their morality is but a sham, a cover for evil.

"There's a truism that the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions. The corollary is that evil is best known not by its motives but by its methods."

"President" Bush declared that someone "who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as commander in chief."

Guess what? I agree! "President" Bush jumped to conclusions without knowing the facts about Weapons of Mass Destructions in Iraq. "President" Bush jumped to conclusions without knowing the facts about Iraq's ties to Al Qaeda. And he was wrong about them all.

By "President" Bush's own statements he is unfit to be commander in chief. Let's make sure he will not be elected this time, either!

ABC News reports that as many as 100,000 Iraqis have died in the past 18 months as a direct cause of the ill advised, falsely reasoned, and unnecessary invasion of Iraq.

Compare that to the number of deaths suffered on 9/11. Consider that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or the terrorists.

It seems that Osama Bin Laden has found his greatest ally in "President" Bush: how else could a terrorist leader be kicking back and through no further effort of his own cause the additional deaths of 1100 more Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis?

Nice work, Mr. "President"!

And further, what the f--- happened to all those high grade explosives at Qadaa? Enough of it is missing to repeat the destruction of Pan Am flight 111 some 200,000 times over. But you were looking for WMD, Mr. "President", weren't you? Well, by the ratio of deaths in Iraq, these munitions are probably about 100 times more likely to cause Iraqi deaths, rather than American deaths, so that's okay in your book, Mr. "President", isn't it?

Can't read. Can't talk. Can't think. Can't lead. Can't win. Can't keep us safe. Can't fix the mess he's made. Can't do anything right. Tell me again why Bush is on the ballot?!

So, you've finally managed to get your budget under control and begun paying off your credit cards. You get married to that nice, straight-talking guy, and he starts charging up your credit cards, takes out a huge loan in your name, gives you a few dollars of it and hands the rest of your money to his friends.

Sounds ridiculous?

You bet, but that's just what "President" Bush has done: After America finally managed to get the budget under control and began paying down the national debt, we got "married" to Bush. In order to finance all these tax cuts he promised, he had to borrow money from other nations, such as China. He gave the vast number of American people half of that money and the small group of super-rich, got all of the other half. And Americans will be stuck with paying the interest on the loan.

And that's just the beginning.

It seems that a whole bunch of Americans are really into being abused like this, but any woman who married such a man would do well to divorce him as fast as possible. And Americans who don't enjoy getting the shaft would do well to consider how "divorce" would apply in the case of the upcoming elections …

War on Terror: Great start, No Follow-through, Then: Lies

9/11 happened on Bush's watch,

Fewer troops are sent to Afghanistan than NYC has police,

Bush lets Bin Laden go (by leaving it to former Bin Laden supporters to capture the world's most dangerous terrorist),

The administration fabricates evidence on Iraq terror links,

The administration fabricates evidence on Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in Iraq,

The administration ignores overwhelming evidence, public opinion, the U.N. weapons inspectors, and the rejection by the United Nations, and goes to war on fabricated evidence … An illegal war,

Well over 1,000 Americans are dead as a result of Bush's mistakes, the Iraqi insurgency is gaining momentum, and the administration has no exit strategy.

Economy: The administration's policies are dooming America to live with permanent debt

The administration turned a huge surplus into historic deficits for two years running,

The administration wants Americans to believe that deficits are good for us,

The administration had to borrow money from other nations, such as China, to pay for the tax cuts (that's not returning our money to us, that's bribing us and then sticking us with the interest AND the need to pay it back),

Bush's tax cuts are dramatically geared towards the very wealthy, leaving only a pitance to the rest: If America is 10 people and the tax cut was $10, then nine people got to split $5, and the other one gets $5 all to himself. Fair? You be the judge!

The World: Loss of respect, loss of competitiveness

The administration's foreign policies have significantly eroded America's image around the world as a free and democratic nation,

The administration's foreign policies have squandered the unprecedented good-will towards America after the 9/11 attacks,

The administration's policies reward companies for sending jobs overseas and laying people off; we are training foreign workers to do our jobs until we are no longer competitive in the world market,

"President" Bush is the first president in over 70 years who has overseen an overall reduction in jobs; even the jobs tha are created, pay much less than those that were lost,

Millions of Americans have slipped under the poverty line on this "President's" watch; millions of Americans live now without health care; millions of Americans now have the choice of being poor or being broke; of being sick or being ill,

The choices: tough words without substance (more of the same lies and deception that got us here in the first place), or a fresh start with a president who can change the dire course that the Bush administration has set us on.

The #1 threat to America and the World is the Bush administration: The United Nations rejected the evidence that the Bush administration fabricated about Iraq (weapons of mass destructions and ties to Al Qaeda) but the Bush administration sent the nation to war anyway. The evidence has proven the UN right and the Bush administration wrong, with disastrous results so far. And things aren't getting any better.

The Bush administration has made a travesty of the rule of law, brought chaos to Iraq, and has no clue how to stabilize Iraq and bring American troops home. Well over 1000 Americans have died in Iraq since "Mission Accomplished". The rate of their deaths has been accellerating significantly. $120 billion have already been spent, and $200 billion are fully committed. There is no grand coalition to help us, and Europe and other nations are poised to turn their back on America if Bush is elected to lead America for another four years.

The stubborn incompetence of this administration is pushing America closer and closer to the brink. "Four More Years" is not just a sentence, it is cruel and unusual punishment to a nation that deserves much, MUCH better leadership than Bush is capable of!

Take heed, America!

"President" Bush's simple tactic for re-election is fear mongering: scare Americans not to change horse in midstream. So far it seems that Americans are easily scared …

Outsourcing national security?! If Bush must counter Kerry's plans with preposterously feeble-minded bullshit like that, then it's clear that he's got nothing new to offer to fix the mess he's made. His only chance now is to fling mud that makes his own supporters look like morons if they buy it. Ouch. Going, going, ' elipsis '

Unwilling to admit his mistakes, unable to correct them, and stubbornly insistent to keep the present course against all evidence that his foreign policies are worse than failures, "President" Bush keeps insisting on more of the same.

Wake up America and show that man the door!

Groklaw published "The Nazgul", a derivative work of the intellectual property of Edgar Allan Poe, by Alanyst; this is so well done that I just had to link to it. Enjoy The Nazgul

The linguistic sharp-shooter who put these two words together deserves the highest medal. Nothing sums up Bush better than these two words. I am in awe!

"President" Bush is pleased with the progress in Iraq.

• More than 1000 Americans have died in Iraq, more than 1/3 of those who died on 9/11,
• The number of American deaths in Iraq is on the increase,
• Control is slipping increasingly into the hands of insurgents,

And "President" Bush is pleased with this progress?!

The terrorists are probably pleased, too!

So what side is the man on? What drugs is he taking? How long does he think we believe his deluded interpretations that things are going well? How long are we going to hold still, or even turn away from the truth that Iraq is the worst mess that America has stumbled into since the Vietnam War?

Are we all going to follow him over the cliff, chanting Dubya, dubya, dubya as we go?

And just what ever happend to hunting down that guy who attacked us on 9/11? What was his name again? Osama bin Laden, that's right! What ever became of him? Weren't we supposed to be going after terrorists or something?!

Mr. "President", do you know what time it is? It's time for America to wake up and smell the coffee: Your supposedly strong leadership in the days after 9/11 was a no-brainer. Where you have led America since then is the WRONG direction, down the WRONG road, around the WRONG corner, and into the WRONG war.

And in case you didn't notice, Dubya: WRONG is spelled with a 'W'!

Without vision or understanding, George W. Bush misled the country, looted its people, and bribed Americans to the tune of 82 cents a day while simultaneously sticking them with the interest payments. What's that about the kingdom of the blind...? And now he claims that we have ``turned a corner, and [won't] look back.'' -- Too bad it's the wrong damned corner, ya W---er!

I really wonder about a society where a woman's exposed breast, regardless the circumstance, intent, or purpose, gathers more outrage and furor than the destruction of human life in war. I'm a stranger in a strange land.

Wouldn't you know it? They caught the rat, hiding in a filthy rat hole. And that after he swore he'd never be taken alive. Let's just hope that's the real Saddam and not one of his many doubles. ;-)

A lot of uncertainty has been put to rest, I'm sure, about the possibility that Saddam Hussein might be working on a return to power. Maybe this will now help steer Iraq away from its recent past and towards a brighter future.

Congratuatulations to all who had a hand in the capture of the former Iraqi dictator!

(Now where is Osama Bin Laden hiding? After all, he's the one we should really be going after…)

It's not April Fool's day, so I must assume that SCO's open letter on copyright is intended to be serious. What it reveals is SCO's (or at least Darl McBride's) utter failure to comprehend the concept that U.S. copyright does not require restrictions on copying. Ever hear of Public Domain? Ever hear of Shareware?

Further, he fails to understand that the Free Software Foundation hasn't "actively and intentionally undermine[d] the U.S. and European systems of copyrights and patents" but is, in fact, using those systems to ensure that the requirements of the GPL are enforceable.

The cluelessness revealed in that letter speaks perhaps more clearly than anything of just how misguided SCO is, and how thoroughly they will be trounced. It's almost sad to see people making fools of themselves in public and not even realize it even after being slapped silly for months on end. But I guess that's what defines a fool.

Violations of civil liberties, curtailed freedoms, increased powers of various law-enforcement agencies, increased secrecy in the name of national security… Where is it leading us? and why?

Timothy McVeigh, blew up a government building in Oklahoma City. We caught him. We punished him. As a nation we learned to live with the loss and the pain and we moved on.

Osama Bin Laden's henchmen took down both World Trace Center towers in New York City and destroyed parts of the Pentagon. And while these actions were more outrageous and more destructive than the Oklahoma City bombing, the attacks have also inspired us with fear the likes of which we saw only in the McCarthy era.

It is not surprising that fear gives birth to a desire for security, but as Benjamin Franklin said in his Historical Review of Pennsylvania in 1759: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Let us not be hasty, therefore, in our search for security!

Our losses on September 11 were expressions of our nation's greatness, not the greatness itself. America isn't defined by buildings and dams and railroads and other infrastructure, however tall and glorious we build them; no, America is defined by the philosophies of freedom, trust, and openness.

We define enemy nations by the way they restrict freedoms, distrust their own citizens, and maintain paranoid controls over as much as they can. It seems that we're on the way to join their ranks: Piece by piece we're throwing our principles away, sacrificing our essence on the altar of security. If this worked then dictatorships would be secure (if unhappy) societies. But it doesn't work, and it is in our fear-inspired devaluation of our own principles (one little bit at a time) that the terrorists are achieving their most devastating victory yet.

If Osama Bin Laden wants to destroy us then perhaps he has found in some of our own leaders his greatest allies: In the two years following the September 11 attacks we've fought two wars to little positive effect, lost sympathy and credibility abroad, and become no more secure for any of it than we were before. And yet we are told not merely to press on, but to increase the pace by which we curtail our own principles and undermine our values. Our freedoms are leaking away by our own hands, and with them, our essence.

If the mayhem of destruction wasn't his goal, and he is indeed seeking the destruction of America, then Osama Bin Laden is probably hunched in some cave somewhere amazed at how swiftly we are working to complete the destruction that he set in motion on September 11.

Is there no better way? Perhaps we can find an answer to this by examining the path we have been treading for decades past, a path that has fostered especially recently a fast-increasing hostility against us in the world around. What have we done right in the past, and in what ways have we gone wrong? If we wish to survive as the greatest nation, as a free society, and a role model to the world, then we must be willing to admit where mistakes were made and correct our course before it is too late.

We cannot "cure" the hatred that is driving our present enemies and it appears that we are equally unable to capture their leaders, be they official heads of government or renegade cave dwellers. But it is with future generations that we can have influence if we take the philosophical wind out of the sails that have given rise to and are driving our present foes.

Millions of people around the world are disenchanted with us even though we had the world's sympathy after September 11. We must face the fact that it is our own actions that have caused such a dramatic shift in attitudes towards us. Has fear transformed us so much that we are willing to live on as a caricature of our former greatness? Or do we have the strength to admit failure where it exists and by demonstrating true greatness (not power, but greatness), reduce the chance that we are viewed with anger, hatred, or contempt?

We have within us the strength to overcome any problem, so long as our solutions aren't driven by fear and unreason. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his inaugural address in 1933. We need to examine the root causes of terrorism against the backdrop of our own values, eliminate as much as reasonably possible the causes of such extremist hatred, and thereby save our nation, our principles, and our right to lead the world by good example.

It's not a simple problem and there are no easy answers, but we have far too much to lose to take the easy route and pretend that our own actions have had no influence on the diminishing favor of millions around the world, and that similar over years hasn't somehow contributed to inspiring our enemies to attack us.

If we stay the present course we'll squander our liberties one chunk or sliver at a time, and fall from grace to mediocrity. And that's when the terrorists will have won.

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"

Every once in a while I come across a thing of beauty, something that reverberates harmoniously, and I wish everyone would grok... How To Become A Hacker

Thanks, Eric!

News.com has an interesting, down-to-earth article about Ernie Ball, the world's leading maker of premium guitar strings, who got screwed by Microsoft, ditched them for GNU/Linux, and is now doing better for it, too. It's a fun read although his statement that there is no such thing as free software needs to be understood from the capitalist perspective only, rather than the philosophical one.

Citing His inattention to the devastating heat wave the caused the deaths of thousands of His subjects all across Europe recently, God offered to resign his post today as Supreme Being.

"Yes, I am all-powerful and all-knowing," He admitted, "but obviously not ever-watchful." After a brief pause, He added: "Clearly I was out to lunch on that one and I am prepared to take full responsibility."

When asked about the massive power failure in the United States, the continuing crisis in the Middle East, health crisis in Africa, and a variety of other ailments that afflict His subjects in ever greater numbers, God merely shook His head and offered that He had no further comment.

"…what SCO's lawyer actually said was arrant, unprofessional nonsense… SCO has no defense whatever against the GPL…"

Read Eben Moglen's complete statement for the Free Software Foundation.

In short, SCO's lawyers are on thin ice, if any ice at all. More like Wile E. Coyote, not yet realizing that he's already gone over the cliff. Now I know what lawyers not to hire!

Ceaseless are the debates over Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Is Microsoft Windows cheaper to operate in the long run, or are free (free, as in freedom) systems based on BSD or GNU/Linux less expensive to operate?

That this debate has not been ended decisively demonstrates a profound blindspot within the debate, a blindspot that should be easy to recognize now, in light of the latest virus of the week that--surprise, surprise--affected only Microsoft Windows. Yet again.

The W32.Blaster worm disabled the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) by noon, leaving hundreds, perhaps thousands of customers unable to accomplish for what they may have taken off a day from work, and spent already hours in line. Countless offices across the nation (or world!) spent hours hunting down solutions, or working around suddenly incapacitated computers, networks, and basic operating system facilities such as a dysfunctional cut-and-paste capability.

Alas, the frequency with which Microsoft Windows operating systems are afflicted with such problems has become endemic, and people have become as used to them as the squeaking of the floor in the hallway, the creak of the bathroom door, or whatever aches and pains their life may experience on a regular basis.

Computing in general has, in the public eye, become an excercise in regular frustration so much, that its price is simply forgotten when it comes to figuring TCO.

Each time that NT 4 or Windows 2000, or Windows XP blows up on me (and they do so with hair-raising frequency, at least once or twice a week, sometimes several times a day, even XP) my work is interrupted and I spend a while restoring data, and trying to get back to where I was before being so unnecessarily interrupted in my work.

Add this up over the course of a year and I probably spend several complete work days, perhaps an entire work week, in recovery mode, full of frustration and wishing I could reformat yet another Windows box and put GNU/Linux on it so I can get my work done once and for all without slow-downs, long waits, lost data, crashes, and the repeated frustration of recovery.

To me, the debate over TCO is more than clear: Microsoft Windows only wins over the likes of … of … hmmm, is there any operating system that blows up in so many way, so often, is prone to so many security problems, and causes so much lost data? Somehow I can't think of any, but if you find out, why don't you tell the Department of Homeland Security about it? I'm sure they would like to switch from Windows to an even less stable and more insecure system!

There has been a time in American history, as perhaps in the history of other nations, when threats without legal basis have forced victims to pay up or pay the price set by the extortionists. That era in America was most notoriously characterized by a man named Al Capone.

The parallels to SCO's recent (and continuing) demands are striking: SCO alleges that Unix source code (to which they own the rights) made its way illegally into the Linux kernel and as a result they are now demanding that everyone must pay them a license fee of $700 per copy of GNU/Linux (soon to go up to $1500 or something outrageous like that).

Never mind the fact that they themselves shipped GNU/Linux under the GNU General Public License (GPL) which expressly forbids imposing any other license terms (such as the requirement for fees) while at the same time ensuring that the source code is free (as in un-proprietary and unhindered).

And all this without having even proven the alleged violation in a court of law!! What does that amount to? Serious, damaging threats based on unsubstantiated claims of violations that may or may not have occurred, and are most certainly null and void now that they licensed everything under the GPL.

And yet they persist.

If only the Department of Justice hadn't shown itself to be so impotent recently, then Chris Sontag and the rest of the Gang from SCO might find themselves wearing fashionable orange jump suits soon and acting out the part of somebody's bitch in prison…

If nothing else, we can hope that IBM drains the fuckers dry and leaves their virtual corpses for the rats to gnaw on. I sure know what I'd do if I ran into Mr. Sontag.

Have you viewed the source today?

For some reason this quote strikes me as interesting, what with all these exaggerations and lies coming to the light after they've served their purpose:

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

-- H.L. Mencken

Legal commentary on the likelihood that IBM should win the case that SCO brought against it.

Personally, I'd like to see Sam Palmisano and Linux Torvalds dressed in giant penguin outfits jump on Chris Sontag and Bill Gates and stomp them into the ground… But maybe that's just me ;-)

Not one to beat around the bush, Linus has some opinions on the whole SCO debacle: Read the eWeek interview

"If The SCO Group hopes to change the course of IBM's AIX operating system and its use by enterprise customers, the Lindon, Utah-based company appears set to fail…" Read the InfoWorld article

If I worked at SCO, I would not be working at SCO anymore. <shudder> I'd be quitting this very second just to save my career, not to mention my karma:

SCO is now screeching to the tune of $3 billion in damages and laying claim to AIX, IRIX, GNU/Linux, and possibly BSD and even Microsoft Windows: "We believe that UNIX System V provided the basic building blocks for all subsequent computer operating systems, and that they all tend to be derived from UNIX System V (and therefore are claimed as SCO's intellectual property)."

Like the BYTE article says: All your base are belong to us.

Looks like SCO may have used Linux Kernel code in Unix System V

How interesting…

Today's news is that SCO owns the copyrights to Unix and that it appears that Unix code has found its way into Linux. Or did Linux code find its way into Unix? After all, Linux has been around since 1991 and SCO bought rights to Unix from Novell some five years later, in 1996. Where did the code come from that Unix and Linux appear to share? Did it come from yet another project? After all, programmers devise algorithms and take that knowledge from job to job (not verbatim, but as a concept).

And considering that SCO continued to sell their own Linux distribution (with the disputed code) for about two months after sueing IBM, they have supported knowingly and effectively the GPL for that code and everything that goes with it. IANAL but it would seem to me that they gave up their copyright by distributing (and thus licensing) the code under the GPL.

So now SCO wants to yank IBM's license for AIX unless IBM pays up and walks away with the tail between its corporate legs. I'd be surprised if IBM caves under that sort of pressure, but you never know: Tomorrow's headlines might read 'David [SCO] topples Goliath [IBM]'

Naaaah…

The pervasiveness of Microsoft Office has, for better or for worse, defined how the vast majority of people work with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Alas, the price of Microsoft Office is not insignificant and the licensing fees become exorbitant over time. Add to that Microsoft's habit of altering the data formats of documents with practically every major release, forcing everyone to upgrade or become incompatible with the rest of the world, and it all amounts to virtual extortion, all in the name of so-called "innovation".

It's not a pretty picture, but one that has been a cross to bear without alternatives in sight. Until now!

Enter OpenOffice.org, an entirely free office suite and practically complete clone of Microsoft Office (and more!). A commercial version of it (StarOffice) is offered at a moderate price by Sun Microsystems, and includes technical support that the free version does not.

OpenOffice.org supports so much of what Microsoft Office has to offer that the few features missing will hardly be noticed by anyone. In fact, OpenOffice.org looks so much like Microsoft Office that casual observers may not notice the differences until they start using the software: the look-and-feel of both is practically identical!

OpenOffice.org 1.1 is currently in beta. As with most free (as well as open source) software products, it will be released when it's ready. But 1.1beta2 has proven stable and highly functional for us. This is yet another superb addition to the world of free software.

Versions are available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X (X11), Solaris, and Microsoft Windows.

Updated June 11, 2003: Did you know that OpenOffice.org can export documents as PDF? Did you know that the Impress presentation tool (basically a PowerPoint-type program) can generate Flash? You didn't know that, did you? And it's free, too!

Well, now that "President" Bush has started the war with Iraq, we better find those rumored Weapons of Mass Destruction really fast! If there aren't any then it'd be pretty clear that this war is more about settling old accounts than pressing issues…

tick… tick… tick…

Anti-war protests millions strong all over Europe (London: 1 million, Italy: 1 million, Spain: 2-3 million) leave U.S. "President" George W. Bush unswayed. In fact, he is said not to consider those protests in his plans.

Maybe those millions of protesters aren't Americans, but for a democratic nation to ignore such numbers among those it tends to count among its allies, is hypocrisy at best and blatant imperialism at worst.

Where's the beef, Mr. "President"?

If the U.S. cannot supply proof sufficient to win over the United Nations that a war against Iraq is necessary then what is the point of such a war? And what nation is next in the cross-fire of the American military, directed by a man whose democratic mandate has been questionable from Day One? What's really going on here?

A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.

-- Daniel Webster

Grey skies. Quiet day. Bored…

U.S. "President" George W. Bush seems to be banking on the possibility that Iraq will simply hold still while U.S. forces clobber its troops in an attempt to topple Saddam Hussein. Already forgotten is Iraq's previous attempt (in 1991) to strike at Israel to widen the conflict and bring the Arab world over to its side. If Saddam Hussein succeeds this time, the consequences may well exceed what Bush bargained for.

The fact that Bush continues to push ahead with a war effort borders on unconscionable. No wonder that almost nobody supports the path to insanity!

The company servicing our house loan, National City Mortgage, performed an unauthorized withdrawal of over $2000 from our bank account and now, a month after robbing us of the funds, insults us when we demand that they speed up their refund.

In a move that can only be described as spiteful and obstructing progress, Microsoft has decided to ship once again a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in Windows. Alas, it is a long-abandoned version of Java based on the Java 1.1 platform, five years out of date.

Delivering an old (nay ancient!) version of Java today is a bit like installing a version of Microsoft Word 95 in an attempt to read the documents you take home from the office today: it's not likely to work. But if you didn't know why, you would soon get frustrated with the inability to get your work done. Likewise, when modern Java applications fail, usually requiring at least the Java 2 platform, users are likely to blame the companies producing that failing Java application rather than "poor, battered" Microsoft who is the real culprit.

The VM that Microsoft is shipping was not even Java compliant in its day, back in 1997 or 1998, when Sun Microsystems sued Microsoft for shipping an incomplete and non-Java compatible product with the trademarked name "Java" attached.

Now Microsoft is trying to pull a fast one on us all: ship the same old thing again, but this time simply avoid calling it "Java", while at the same time putting it to work where Java is required.

Well, I've got to hand it to Microsoft: when it comes to all the evil tricks in the book, that company has even added a few chapters of of its own!

Ptui!

It's been a long, long road for Mozilla, but the lizard isn't dead yet. Far from it, in fact. Mozilla has quietly grown into a formidable piece of work, a modular and highly standards-compliant browser. It represents the long-awaited answer to the savage mess that Netscape and Microsoft produced when they leaped off the path of standards compliance and turned their browsers into conflicting products that served each company as a weapon but caused unbelievable headaches to web developers over the years.

The amount of interest in Mozilla and its reusable rendering engine (known as "Gecko") is enormous: AOL (who bought Netscape some years ago), for example, seems to be looking to use Gecko in its product, effectively adopting the lizard. Such adoption bodes well for web developers and the hundreds of millions of web users, too. Developers can write to one standard, reducing the size and complexity of pages, and forcing proprietary, wayward implementations to implement the standard or die.

The internet is built on open standards: tcp/ip, ftp, http, email, and xml to name a few; these standards allow millions of diverse computers and operating systems to interoperate. But when proprietary software corrupts standards in order to further corporate goals, and in the process brings harm to hundreds of millions of people, then it is time to insist on standards compliance and refuse any and all support for the anti-standard.

And this is where Mozilla comes in: a return to standards, a return to sanity. But more important, perhaps, to those who don't care who controls their life or profits from it: Mozilla is an awesome browser. Mozilla rocks!

It sure is annoying when the site goes down, the server goes away, and restoration of service goes awry. We're now with a professional hosting service where this kind of thing won't happen again. Hopefully. As in ``keeping our fingers crossed''.

I've been hooked on Tolkien since the very early '80s, have read the books numerous times, and followed the news about this film since 1999 with a strange mix of hopeful excitement and wary dread: so much of J.R.R. Tolkien's creation lives beneath the surface of the story that even a faithful reproduction of the storyline itself could not hope to bring the books to life.

But Peter Jackson has accomplished what seemed nigh-impossible: He managed to translate the heart and soul of the books onto the screen!

Sure, Tom Bombadil is nowhere to be found, and Lothlórien is far darker (and even claustrophobic) than I envisioned the golden wood, and Galadriel seems powerful and dignified, but also terrifyingly dark; but these are adjustments and interpretations that do not violate the spirit of Tolkien's work. It is in these adjustments that Jackson's genius is revealed: He "groks" Tolkien!

I'm going to see this film again. And again. And again. I'm going to pre-order the DVD as soon as it's announced. I'm going to go crazy waiting for the next two films. But oh, the wait has (and will have) been worth it!

A sudden burst of energy has resulted in a couple of feature additions to Weblord, resulting in the release of version 2.3. Grab it while it's hot! :-)

Curious about Weblord? Read the preliminary PDF Weblord manual available in our Publications Section for a good introduction to the software's concepts. Weblord also ships with HTML documentation, reference, and tutorial material that, when printed out, amounts to over a 100 pages of former trees.

We are happy to announce that Weblord 2.2 for Linux is now available for download from our Linux Products Section. It has been two years since 2.1 was released. I guess that means we've been happy enough with the software …

Curious about Weblord? Read the preliminary PDF Weblord manual available in our Publications Section for a good introduction to the software's concepts. Weblord also ships with HTML documentation, reference, and tutorial material that, when printed out, amounts to over a 100 pages of former trees.

At around 12:35 PM East Coast time, Military action has begun against military installations in Afghanistan held by the Taliban to criple the Taliban's---and by extension Osama bin Laden's---access to the air, air-defense, and radar installations. The "President" of the United States has indicated that allies have pledged military support, so there may be a lot more coming in the near future.

If you are running Linux and you want to automate your PPP connection, bringing the connection up and down at certain times, and ensuring that the line is redialed if the connection drops unexpectedly, then this is the document to show you how! Read it now!

During the first hours of the attacks most news services on the web were completely overwhelmed and effectively inaccessible, so we provided a detailed chronology here, including pictures of the devastation for those who didn't have a TV or radio available (how likely is that in this day and age?). At this point, however, it no longer makes sense to duplicate other services' work, so we've thrown out the unnecessary details.

I can't even begin to express the horror and the sadness I feel at the senseless devastation and loss of life. I can only hope that all those who are responsible for this incredible tragedy, and those who support them directly or indirectly, are made to pay the very highest and dearest price for the heinous deed, and made to pay it swiftly!

There's a truism that the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions. The corollary is that evil is best known not by its motives but by its methods.

We've created a special section titled News, Rants, and Opinions about the War on Terrorism to help keep this, our general news page, less cluttered.

The Bush administration has reversed the strategy of the Clinton White House against software giant Microsoft, deciding not merely to stop seeking the breakup of the company but also not seeking to pursue the software bundling issues at the heart of the multi-year antitrust suit.

Looks like the Borg Collective has been saved yet again!

(Click for larger image)

The DMCA has been controversial even before it was passed into law. But now it seems to be revealing itself as one of the worst laws ever to have been passed, making criminals out of innocent people and giving police power to corporations. Read our paper on the DMCA

Two gas giants are now known to exist around 47 Ursae Majoris, a star about 45 light years from us. Not only are their orbits nearly circular, which means that they are not prone to extreme temperature ranges, but the star's ``habitable zone'' is free from such gas giants, meaning that there could be smaller, possibly even Earth-like planets (or at least ones able to support some form of life) orbiting there! See Washington Post article for more details

I haven't laughed this hard in a while (or maybe it was just the surprising twist on the word ;-)    See The Joy of Tech

Arrested at the apparent request of Adobe Systems for purported violation of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian citizen and Ph.D. student remains in a United States jail. He is being held without bail.

This from the Free Dmitry Sklyarov site: He helped create the Advanced eBook Processor (AEBPR) software for his Russian employer Elcomsoft. According to the company's website, the software permits eBook owners to translate from Adobe's secure eBook format into the more common Portable Document Format (PDF). The software only works on legitimately purchased eBooks and has been used by blind people to read otherwise-inaccessible PDF user's manuals, and by people who want to move an eBook from one computer to another (just like anyone can move a music CD from the home player to a portable or car).

Even though Adobe Systems has reportedly dropped the charges against Mr. Sklyarov, the United States seems to be refusing to let him go!

Adobe Systems has been reported to be the catalyst of the travesty of injustice that is unfolding in the case of Dmitry Sklyarov. We at Ringlord Technologies hereby call upon Adobe Systems to prove unequivocally to the world community whether they are merely blowing hot air or are willing to make good on their mistake and put their company's legal power at Dmitry's disposal.

What will it be, Adobe? Are you willing to earn the hatred of people all over the world for what you started or will you leave behind the ice-cold corporate savagery of the path you seem to be treading and push as hard as possible for Mr. Sklyarov's release?

Could Mr. Sklyarov's situation become the catalyst to start an ugly struggle between the people and the corporations? Is a Boycott really what Adobe (and other corporations) are looking to invoke?

The site is nearly complete again. One piece of advise: the Amiga pages, including advise on how to get Java running on the Amiga, have moved back to Udo's personal set of pages, where they used to live (a long time ago).

Most of the site has been restored (and slightly reorganized in the process). Some links may lead into nowhere land now, but the new organization should help you find the resources quickly and without much trouble. If that is not the case, please email us at the ``support'' address on the contact page.

Recent studies have shown that the new, larger banner ads are 40% more effective in annoying people and causing them to either not visit the site again or turn off their browser's automatic image loading for the site. Chief among these new, more annoying ads are those that open new windows (``popup ads'') to slow down the computer, reduce the computer's available resources, and raise the user's blood-pressure.

What happened to GPL Rank?! As some/many of you may recall we hosted Uwe Schuerkamp's GPL Rank when Uwe had to move the site. With the downing of our server Uwe has found a new home for GPL Rank again. You can reach it under its original name (which has never ceased to work): gplrank.schuerkamp.de  Like a racecar, GPL Rank seems rarely to be found in one spot for long… ;-)

We're back now with a new look (one that we've been looking to put in place for a while now). Many of the pages are still incomplete because we've been trying to work major updates into the text. If you get bad links be assured that we know about them already…

Although I had forgotten about it for nearly a week, I had changed the authentication method for my domain's maintenance with Network Solutions from mail-auth to crypt-pw a few months ago. This allowed me to actually change the DNS records for the domain to this new server, hosted by the good graces and the unwavering friendship of Uwe Schuerkamp.

``The economy doesn't look so bad until you get hit in the face with bad news yourself.'' That's what happened to me: my employer wiped 15% of the main office (8% of the whole company) from the payroll and as one of the earliest and one of the more expensive developers I was part of that elite bunch, along with many of the original people who helped build the company. No, it doesn't make any sense to me, either.

Unfortunately the Ringlord Technologies site was hosted by my employer, too, and the corporate axemen, in typical corporate axeman fashion, axed any and all access to, as well as the DNS records for Ringlord Technologies, effectively evaporating our domain. Geee, thanks guys!

Now I know what they mean when they refer to employees as ``human capital''… Let's just say the term means exactly what ``respected human being'' does not.

Paul Nolan needs evidence of receipts of Photogenics 1.x or 2.0 sold in the U.S. to prove that Photogenics was a commercial product (marketed/sold) in the U.S. so that he doesn't lose the rights to the name of his product. Read more at Paul Nolan's Site now!

Let me say it right up front: I love Napster, OpenNap, and the whole idea of being able to replace my old vinyl collection with digital copies, without having to pay for the stuff all over again. I've worn out much of that old vinyl but I really feel cheated by the recording industry: After all the duplicates I've bought (which I now have on vinyl and CD) they are now basically telling me that I better cough up a bunch of extra cash and buy a second copy of all that music. Maybe I should sue them for selling me defective media, stuff that wears out, and is, in fact designed from the very beginning to wear out with each playing.. Hmmm!

Granted, there's probably a fair bit of piracy going on, people downloading stuff that they haven't paid for. I've even downloaded stuff I've never owned, stuff I was curious about. Most of the stuff I've just deleted again. What I found to be good I used to go out and purchase.

But what irks me more than anything now is that any legitimate purchase I make is essentially supporting the music industry's litigation machine, providing them with the means of restricting my freedom. How, in a clear mind, can I justify screwing myself that way? Buy more music: screw myself. I don't think so!

But it's a bit of a conundrum, obviously: the RIAA refuses to interpret my refusal to buy music as a protest. It will interpret it as piracy, thereby justifying its twisted reasoning and litigious ways.

I don't know what is right. What I do know is that it's wrong for me to have to purchase things twice or even three times. It's wrong for the industry to keep me from digitizing the music I have and storing it on my harddisk. It's wrong for the RIAA to restrict my freedom. I can only hope that they come to their senses before they go down in flames, and instead figure out a business model that works for everyone. After all, the RIAA is basically poisoning the very river from which it drinks: pissing off your customers is the best way to drive your business into the ground!

One thing for sure: Until the RIAA stops pissing off me and others like me there is no way I will give them my money: that's the way I vote. End of story.

Ever wanted to create high-quality PDF documents from your LaTeX sources? Wish you could have the document provide real links back to your support website or the latest version of the document; maybe allow jumping between sets of related documents; show a good ``bookmark'' outline and control whether it's visible and/or pre-expanded when the reader loads the document? And what about these flat grey thumbnail images? Would you not rather have some high-quality antialiased images of your document's pages to help the reader find particular pages more easily?

Well, you can do all that and more! All you need is Linux and a few other packages that good people have made available for free (such as our own how-to on this subject :-)...

The end of an era. As I write this Mir has already begun its fatal dive, dropped more than 40 kilometers from its orbit earlier in the day. In less than an hour, the Progress cargo ship will push Mir down into the atmosphere for the final dive.

Lonely it must be aboard; The silence slowly being invaded by a distant noise, and the serenity of the lonely craft disturbed by the increasing assault of the atmosphere. And as Mir takes its final plunge, the fires will erupt and smoke will fill the ship as it heats up, melts, and is torn apart in minutes. The storm will skin the craft and burn it up until it is reduced to metalic steam and many tons of fragments that rain down into the South Pacific Ocean.

Welcome home, Mir. And good-bye!

/me puts on PF's WYWH...

Udo Schuermann and Ringlord Technologies wish you a best of the new year, the new decade, the new century, and the new milliennium! That's right: if you thought the year 2000 rang in the new millennium then you just got the chance to correct your mistake: the new milllennium begins with the year 2001... a date oddyssey! [sic]

CNN marks the millenium as "just another new year!" :-) I think we should nominate that one for the "understatement of the millennium" (at least until someone asserts that Bush is a moron)...

Opinions of the Presidential sElection 2000 are beginning to get a bit old and in the light of recent terrorist attacks are less than appropriate. For this reason we've taken them off-line, most likely indefinitely … (16-Sep-2001)

Judge Penfield Jackson issued his final judgement today that Microsoft is to be split into two companies. Microsoft is expected to appeal this but it's starting to look pretty grim for them...

• CNN Online: Final Judgement
• Slashdot Artitle and reactions

Judge Penfield Jackson ruled today that Microsoft is indeed a monopoly and, through unfair business practices, has harmed competition in the market place.
     It took about ten years for Microsoft to bury itself a hole deep enough that all their lawyers and all their public relations wizards couldn't get them out of this one anymore.

• Wired News: Judge Jackson's Ruling
• CNN Financial News
• Slashdot Article and reactions
• Official U.S. Government site on the Conclusions of Law and Order

The ability to display secret messages, such as ``Don't drink and drive'' and ``Respect your parents'' and ``No firearms at school'' appear embedded in the DVD software that is part of every DVD player. Clearly this is a blatant attempt to deliver subliminal messages for purposes of manipulating viewers, and a major legitimizing factor for the DeCSS software, which has helped reveal this travesty! How are you being manipulated today? Read more!

Maintenance on the power-grid will cause our web server to be down for the weekend. www.ringlord.com will go down late Friday, January 28, and return to service by Monday, January 31. Please don't panic. :-)

A freaked-out network card has created major network problems for our site in the last three weeks. Several other changes in the topology have blindsided us to the fact that it was the stupid network card. Things should be better now and we can finally update the site again. <sigh>

After Commodore fucked it up, Escom fumbled it, and Gateway kept grabbing it but instead kicking it just out of reach, Amino Development Corp. has got the Amiga's name, domain addresses, operating system, and access to all significant patents to bring the old girl out of her ill-deserved exile at last. This may be the best piece of news since the end of the beginning with Commodore. Read Bill McEwen's Executive Update now!

Solving the dilemma of continuing support for the aging "Classic" Amiga, the proposal to Open Source AmigaOS has great merit. The direction that Gateway/Amiga has taken recently certainly seems to be paying little or no attention to the "Classic" platform, nor does the original AmigaOS seem to be playing any role in those plans. That having been said, we support the idea!! Read the proposal yourself

``You have the right to free speech, so long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it!'' sang The Clash in a song titled "Know Your Rights (all three of them)". The first amendment to the United States constitution has been so frequently attacked, restricted, undermined, or curtailed that the American political system has effectively made a mockery of it. Sadly the attacks are becoming more frequent, more strange, and perhaps more effective. Where will it end? You decide!

As reported by the Washington Post today, Microsoft Corporation is now trying to get Congress to cut the budget of the Justice Department by 9 million dollars. Does anyone else smell a repeat of the business tactics that landed them in court in the first place? Will Microsoft ever learn?! Read the Washington Post article for more details

Gateway reams Amiga a new a··hole, and Amiga turns around and passes on the joyous feeling. Amiga is now concentrating on "enabling internet services" on other host operating systems. Whoa, big fucken hairy deal!! My Amiga did that waaay before Gateway got out of the cow pastures. My Linux box doesn't need "Amiga internet services" either. Macs can do without that, and yes, even Windoze, for crying out loud.

If you want to read the insult yourself, the cool AmiWeb has a copy of it

Only a month ago the brilliant revival of the Amiga computer was just around the corner. All of a sudden a shadow has moved across the sun, and it seems to be growing like it has done for the Amiga so often in the past: Bill McEwen gone and Jim Collas gone, too, has left us all wondering what we've been waiting for all this time. And suddenly things go silent: all the meaty stuff on amiga.com vanishes in a flash. Then the American staff information goes up in smoke. Next are the message boards. What next? I suppose that Gateway has sacked the ones with the vision, singing ``Don't rock my boat...'' Good thing there still is QNX and Phase5 and quite possibly IWin to carry the torch... Read AmiWeb for the latest news of yet another collapse

Benchmarketing appears, on the surface, to be a revelation of the superiority of one product's features over another, quite similar to the recent benchmark comparison of Linux vs. NT where NT apparently beat Linux by a rather astounding margin. This article reveals the techniques behind such product comparisons and teaches you what to look for when such benchmarketing attempts are made. Educate yourself about Benchmarketing now!

Amiga Inc. have released the Technolgy Brief that describes their aims at the next generation Amiga. Although somewhat longer on concept than on technology they are providing a number of significant details that include Linux and Java. Makes us happy!! Read the introduction and technology brief

In what is perhaps the most shocking news to the Amiga community in a long time, Amiga president Jim Collas announced yesterday that the next generation Amiga would not, as previously announced, be using QNX as its kernel, but will instead be based on the Linux operating system. Mr. Collas further emphasised that the revolutionary new technology would have a heavy emphasis on Java. Needless to say, the combination of all three technologies that form the focus of RingLord Technologies has made for an exciting day here... Quick, read the latest Amiga news at CUCUG

Unconfirmed reports have it that Bill Gates soiled his trousers when he found out that Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) is today releasing Back Orifice 2000. Microsoft's previously smug assurances to its users that the original Back Orifice would pose no threat to users of Windows NT have now come back to haunt the world's most successful software vendor: Back Orifice 2000 runs on Windows NT! Find out more from the Back Orifice 2000 site!

A port of Sun's JDK 1.1.6 to the Linux Operating System on Intel architecture (i386), this includes IBM's JIT (Just-in-Time) compiler technology similar to that found in IBM's JDKs for OS/2 and MS-Windows. (Update: IBM's JDK is now up to v1.1.8) Read more on IBM's alphaWorks site.

``Orange Art Manager'' is an anagram of what? That's right: ``Anagram Generator''! This nifty CGI software is driven through our cool (web) document assembly tool: WebLord to produce fully integrated dynamic pages. On a T1 you'll get much better response now.

RingLord Technologies announces the long-awaited GUI for WebLord, the Document Assembly Tool! Update: Daytona was canceled, the GUI for WebLord is not likely to happen.

Microsoft announced today that the release date for its new operating system, Windows 2000, has been delayed until the 2nd quarter of 1901.

We have just completed a small tutorial / how-to on the Java Native Interface (JNI). The example calls on a native library to construct a Universally Unique IDentifier (UUID) which Java can then use to uniquely identify objects on the net. Check out the JNI How-to

Today, on the official release day of the latest issue of Sun Microsystem's Java Platform, Sun has announced that the new release is now officially called Java 2. See the JavaSoft pages for all the details