Entertainment: 'Emo' Punk Gets Mainstream Attention. 07:20 ET - AP [NewsBlip.com]

Back in 1995, my Step Father came up to me and wanted to know if I had heard of a band called "Weezer", and their song about Buddy Holly. I nodded and asked "What about them?"

Now, my Step Father played in Jazz and progressive rock bands throughout the 70's, introduced me to Steely Dan and the Tower of Power, as well as James Brown and Jethro Tull. He couldn't place this band.

"Well, they're alternative" I said.

"To what?"

"Mainstream pop."

"But they're popular!"

I smiled. "Their sound. It's not what's selling in middle America."

"But it is! It's popular Music! How can it be called ''Alternative'' if it's popular?"

"Who's on first?" I giggled.

He then threw up his hands and walked out of the room. I hadn't heard of Emo yet, but I can well imagine how that conversation would have went.

"What's Emo?"

"It's emotional rock played in a punk style."

"All music is emotional! How can they call a style Emo?"

"Fusion."

"What?"

"Rock Fusion, Jazz Fusion, Funk fusion, it's all a melange of styles, but it's called under one heading for simplicity's sake."

Step Father Stalks off

12:54:42 PM    

John Robb is kicking some ass and taking some names on the issue of corporate contributions to politicians. This is a huge issue, with regards to the wholesale loss of fair use rights to bad legislation.

*Term coined by Lawrence Lessig, that I read from Doc Searls

11:52:16 AM    

Ethical hacker faces war driving charges. Houston, we have a problem [The Register]

Stefan Puffer is accused of breaking into the Harris county District clerk's WAN and causing $5000 worth of damage.

Puffer, who was employed briefly by the county's technology department in 1999, could get five years in jail and faces a $250,000 fine on each count if convicted, the Houston Chronicle reports.

So now he's facing 5 years in jail and up to a $250,000 fine if convicted. This is akin to driving by a store, seeing that the door is open, poking your head in and shouting to see if anyone is around, then getting busted for breaking and entering. It's insane, and I hope that he is cleared of all charges.

It would be nice to see network owners treat their systems like their physical space, checking the locks from time to time, and keeping an eye out for open widows and doors. Better yet, employing contracted tiger teams that try to break into the systems. I know that this is being done now in some areas, but ti would be good to see this become ubiquitous.

10:14:02 AM    

Apple's new .mac strategy is great, but why would I want to switch all my Windows gear over for it? Especially for the honor of paying an extra $100 a year for the services, in addition to having slower hardware.

Thought: Market the services for free to Mac users, but offer the apps for Windows machines for the aforementioned fee. A couple of corporate adoptions (at a reduced rate, of course) could fund the cost of the program for all Mac users.

AND/OR

Offer the .mac services as a part of the new rackmount servers, so that people can host their own .mac solution either in their homes or offices. Include this as apart of the suite of tools that the server arrives with, all the documentation on .pdf preloaded, and you'll have everything you'll need to get the admins rolling. This provides a back door entry into the market by letting the server admins play with the software and see if it's any good before it gets rolled out throughout a corporation. The last three companies that I worked at could would have benefited massively from this tech, as they all had people that would work from home during the week, and in the case of some, put in crazy hours from home as well. For those users, being able to synch up everything would have been a massive boon.

Either way would allow for greater market penetration by co-opting the existing Windows users without compromising the hardware control that Apple seems to need to have so very badly.

9:43:07 AM