21 May 2002

Key2Audio Loses to Marker Pen I wasn't impressed when several artists released CDs that refused to play on my computer. Today, I'm less impressed to see that Sony's elaborate "Key2Audio" CD copy-protection technology fails when you blacken the rim of a copy-protected music CD with a felt tip marker. You can also use cello tape to accomplish the same trick because all that's needed is to block the disc's security track, typically located on the disc's outer edge. The technology prevents users from playing the CDs on a computer by adding a track that contains bogus data. Because computer drives are programmed to read data files first, the PC tries to play the bogus data file over and over again and never gets to the music files elsewhere on the disc. My White Lilies CD would play on standard CD players, but not on my Iomega USB CD-ROM drive. I wasn't alarmed when it didn't play in The Ignis, because Ruth isn't wild for Natalie anyway. Sent onboard The Ignis abeam Slievenamon, County Tipperary, using Radio TransNote, Nokia Cardphone and Vodafone HSD. ref: 125

Beautiful Rear Sighting: another Declan McCullagh masterpiece.Spotted while assessing end-of-year Web projects in Tipperary Institute, Ireland. Radio TransNote connected over E1 HEANet bandwidth. ref: 350.

Worm in Kazaa I use KaZaA but I'm thinking not, after reading that Kaspersky Labs, an international data-security software developer, has detected the network worm "Worm.Kazaa.Benjamin" - the first malicious program to spread through the KaZaA file exchange network. I'm not sure that my anti-virus program protects me. On an infected computer "Benjamin" creates a directory accessible to other users of the KaZaA network and regularly copies itself into this directory under a multitude of different names, the amount of which counts several thousand. When a network user conducts a search for a file under a name corresponding with one the worm's pseudonyms the unsuspecting user is given the chance to download it from the infected computer. Thus, this is how Benjamin spreads itself through the KaZaA network. In addition to eating up free disk space Benjamin takes additional actions: under the name of the infected computer's owner it opens an anonymous web site from which it displays advertising banners. This way Benjamin's creator profits by the resulting increase in advertising displays. more info on "Worm.Kazaa.Benjamin" at Kaspersky Virus Encyclopedia.

Gayometer Challenge Bernie Goldbach took the Gay-O-Meter Challenge and needs to soften up. Sent from Garringreen over Eircom ISDN. ref: 143

Journalism Enters New Era At a time when The Irish Times has started charging for content, Dan Gillmor explains that journalism has entered a new era. Paul Andrews (Online Journalism Review): News by the people, for the people. Barton and Foster both operate in a journalistic gray zone corporate media can't quite figure out. They are self-made publishers who create more than content: They're building interactive communities that "meet" online to share their thoughts on the news, often writing polished commentary and connect-the-dot essays that pull together news on a topic from various sources. Eric Olsen: New Media in the Old, Part 4. Typically, mainstream media outlets don't parody subjects in which the public has no interest or stake - what's the point? It was readily apparent to anyone who cared that the blogosphere had achieved a new level of prestige and recognition when it was parodied yet again in February, this time in the very mainstream Weekly Standard.

Innovative Google Labs Things that make you want to Google: Glossary, Sets, Voice Search, Keyboard Shortcuts.  [Spotted by Scripting News] Sent over Eircom ISDN from Garringreen. ref: 125

DMCA Hoedown Proving that pictures are worth a thousand words, Declan McCullagh snapped photos of proponents of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law recognised as a restriction to the flow of information. I like Declan's straightforward licensing conditions for use of his photos. As I glanced at the photos, I was simultaneously reading an excerpt in Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive from Eldred v Ashcroft: By unconstitutionally extending the term of copyright, the CTEA single-handedly deprives our schools, libraries, and children of enjoying almost any benefit that digital archives have to offer. The CTEA's retroactive and prospective extensions have frozen the public domain in time. Sent over Eircom ISDN from Kilkenny, Ireland. ref: 125