Phyrfight Intel

I recently found a cool blog called GamePolitics.com. They have several good posts on the recent ICE raids of console modders. I will also add this site to our resources section.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was recently involved in a bunch of raids on the makers of mod-chips instead of cracking down on illegal immigrants and preventing possible terrorists from staying inside the country. Mod-chips are used to enhance the functionality of consoles such as the XBOX and Playstation. The government has the citizens’ best interests in hand, honestly.

Update:

A victim of the raids has come forward to give his personal account.

Here is an interesting take on Google’s reported interest in the old 700mhz cell phone spectrum. I knew there was a reason to hang on to my old Motorola brick phone.

From: Don Reisinger

If the FCC agrees to the terms outlined … Google will definitely win the auction. Once its wins, its executives will soon realize (as if they haven’t already) that this spectrum can go through walls and reach just about anywhere. Even better, it’ll create a speedy broadband connection.

Within no time, Google will announce that wireless will be made available to the public through its system. After all, it did it in San Francisco, why won’t it do it all over the country? In effect, Google would run a “third broadband pipe.”

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Here is a video of Senator Ted Stevens attempting to be “hip” while discussing new wireless technologies. I plead with all Alaskans to get this man out of office. He knows nothing about the subject his committee is responsible for. Senator Stevens may be a smart man, but when it comes to technology he is completely inept.

Over at The Consumerist blog, they have the exact same feelings as I do about the most recent Visa commercials. *waving hand slowly* You don’t want to use cash, debit cards are better.

I just found this site called www.swivel.com . It allows you to compare any kind of data that they have on file and instantly create a graph representing the data. I made this graph in about 10 minutes. Check it out!

From the Financial Times:

The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment. They are Malthusian pessimists.

This is one of the most eloquent statements I have heard regarding the “threat” of global warming.

This is excellent testimony given at a congressional hearing, regarding the federal governments attempts to limit the rights of individuals.

Video

The Russian government has been suspected of helping a Russian nationalist group attack the government websites of Estonia. The attack was a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack otherwise known as DDoS. More information can be found at Ars Technica.

Putin recently said that he would point nuclear missiles at Europe in response to the United States’ missile shield there. What is this guy thinking? This is a continuation of his increasing rhetoric.

Microsoft has just unveiled a new and cool user interface called Surface. Users of the interface use a touch-sensitive table to interact with the software. Wired has a good intro article and video. You can also check out the official Microsoft site. This new interface has the potential to be really cool, something Microsoft is not known for.

From:engadget

Just as the Times Online predicted last month, Amazon.com is set to strike a potentially major blow against DRM by launching a download store later this year that will offer millions of songs in unprotected, MP3-only format.

From:engadget

Microsoft’s General Counsel claims that free and open-source software (FOSS) violates exactly 235 Microsoft patents: Linux kernel (42), Linux GUI (65), Open Office suite (45), email (15), and then another 68 patents violated across a variety of FOSS wares.

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From: Patriot Post

Clearly demonstrating that they cannot be trusted with the nation’s security, House Democrats are considering an Intelligence Authorization bill that calls for an assessment of the effects of climate change on national security. Yes, you read that right, climate change. With existential threats such as al-Qa’ida, North Korea, Red China and Iran lurking around the world, one would think that the nation’s limited intelligence resources could be put to better use than studying SUV exhaust. This same misuse of defense-related programs occurred during the Clinton years, too. We wonder what clues to 9/11 were missed while satellites were photographing polar bears in the Arctic.

Describing the climate study as “cutting edge,” Intelligence panel Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) said the idea is one of several changes his party has made to intelligence policy. “This is an area that we may be vulnerable in terms of potential terrorists,” Reyes declared. The office of Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) wondered, “It’s hard to imagine how anyone could believe that climate change represents a more clear and present danger to the United States than radical Islamic terrorists armed with bombs, but that’s essentially what Democrats have concluded in this bill.” Indeed, should the U.S. ever again have to answer the question, “Was this attack preventable?” the answer will be that instead of funding the intelligence services to evaluate and warn of direct national threats, funds were diverted to study climate change. Don’t you feel safer already?

What is the deal with this hexadecimal number and why is it so important?

Updates via Wired and Freedom To Tinker

From: TJ McIntyre

On the wall outside his former residence – flat number 27B – where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.

From: Wired

FAIRFAX, Virginia — Early one Sunday morning in 2002, a phone rings in Yu Ling’s Beijing duplex. She’s cleaning upstairs; her son is asleep, while downstairs, her husband, Wang Xiaoning, is on the computer. Wang writes about politics, anonymously e-mailing his online e-journals to a group of Yahoo users. He’s been having problems with his Yahoo service recently. He thinks it’s a technical issue. This is the day he learns he’s wrong.

Wang picks up the phone: “Yes?”

“Are you home?” asks the unfamiliar voice on the other end.

“Yes.”

The line goes dead.

Moments later, government agents swarm through the front door — 10 of them, some in uniform, some not. They take Wang away. They take his computers and disks. They shove an official notice into Yu’s hands, tell her to keep quiet, and leave. This is how it’s done in China. This is how the internet police grab you.

Soldiers that can stay alive with over half of their blood gone? The future of small unit soldiers is being developed by Darpa today.

Wired 15.03: Be More Than You Can Be

From UPI

“Environmentalism should belong in the social sciences,” much like the idea of communism or other “-isms” such as feminism, Klaus said, adding that “environmentalism is a religion” that seeks to reorganize the world order as well as social behavior and value systems worldwide.

According to TorrentFreak, many Britons will be without TV service that they have already paid for because of ongoing disputes between the two major networks. This means they will not be able to watch shows that are currently in the middle of their runs in the UK. Enter the P2P protocol BitTorrent. With BitTorrent and websites that host trackers for American TV shows, savvy Britons have access to episodes that will not air for some time on UK TV. Why pay for two services when you can get all the shows you want plus more via the Internet?