Sony is busy settling lawsuits which erupted in several states over installing rogue software onto PC when you try to play one of the company's CDs on your computer.

Are they giving up the battle?

Hardly. They no longer need to install rogue software on your system. They've managed to convince Microsoft to build it into the operating system. Vista has very little to do with creating a version of Windows that is secure from hackers and satisfies the needs of customers. Vista is all about making the world safe for the Zune and pay-per-view. Digital Rights Management has infected every part of the file system, every part of the kernel, every device driver. Every source of media content which enters your computer will be checked against every possible output device. If a device is able to copy your MP3's, it will be disabled in the kernel when an MP3 plays. If it is physically possible to tap into your monitor wires and send the signal to a DVD recorder, your monitor will be forced into 'fuzzy' mode. Sony will no longer have to worry about you downloading illegal copies of movies. Microsoft will refuse to play them. Finally the world will be safe for $75 videos. Think I'm joking? Come back to this page two years from now...

The only thing preventing it is a consumer revolt. So far that hasn't happened. Nobody wants to be a pirate. Right? Everybody enjoys paying 24.95 for a $0.25 piece of plastic, of which the creating artist gets $0.00004 cents. Right? They'll also enjoy paying twice as much for a new monitor that they'll need to watch videos on their computer because their old one isn't trusted by the computer and goes fuzzy watching youtube. The only thing which will work on their computer is a new monitor when being used with the new $75 DVDs. 

Shiver me timbers... Vista is here now. You're going to cuss your next PC upgrade, because that's when it will all start to hit home. It's entirely possible that your current PC will be found to be an untrustable media player in the not-too-distant future. There's nothing preventing the next crop of media from refusing to play on your 'rogue device' and insisting on running under Vista. 

Happy Holidays to you and your family.

 

Miss USA is thanking the Donald (Trump, that is) for not forcing her to relinquish her crown. The Donald owns Miss Universe. Hmmm.... That's an interesting investment choice...  

Turns out that Miss Tara had a few drinks while she was in New York. Oh, and she wasn't quite yet 21 years of age. This is a non-no for the Miss USA title, where the contestants are required to be squeaky clean. 

But Donald came to the rescue and allowed her to keep the crown. We will never know and should never question what arrangements might have been made in private to ensure this public outcome.

Miss Tara will be required to undergo rehab for her 'problem'.

Some of you may recall Vanessa Williams, who lost her Miss America crown in 1984 in a very public scandal. Seems that she didn't always have clothes on when she was photographed.  Other contestants in the Miss (Whatever) pageants have been defrocked for dating too many guys. It's quite an interesting dilemna for the gals. They have to be the sexiest and most well-rounded (in terms of interests) personality on the catwalk, but they can't have ever been sexy or lived a well-rounded life.

 

Once again the SBC (oops AT&T) DSL stopped working.

So once again I called tech support. Since it was late at night, I got the India call center. (The sun never sets on the British empire). My line is dead. Can you fix it?

How far away are you from Irvine?

Oh, about 400 miles.

Scratches his head... OK, I see an outage in Menlo Park also, is that near you? 

It's about fifteen miles. 

Then that's the problem. It will be resolved by 11PM. Have a nice day.

 

Grumble, grumble. My POP is in Santa Clara. It doesn't go anywhere near the Menlo Park circuit. I've traced it numerous times. Whatever. Good night.

7:30 AM - still not working. I call again. This time I get Ireland. (The sun never sets on the British empire). My line is dead. Can you fix it?

Can you authenticate via PPPoE?

Uhm, I wasn't using PPPoE. That's why I got a static IP address.

No, you're definitely using PPPoE. Try authenticating again.

I can't authenticate. I don't have any PPPoE authentication software. I couldn't run it if I did, because I'm behind a Linux gateway. Everything worked fine yesterday. Then it just stopped. Nothing in my network has changed except that suddenly there's no IP routing through the ATM circuit. The ATM link still appears to be there.

Hang on... (goes away for thirty minutes).

It seems that your circuit was moved. You're now using PPPoE, and by the way, you've got a new IP address.

Uhhm, that's why I ordered a static IP (and am paying through the nose for it). So that my address wouldn't change, and also so I wouldn't have to use Windows to authenticate. I don't use Windows. I use Linux.

Well, that's too bad. You've got a new IP, and you're going to have to authenticate. Here's your new address. We don't support Linux, so you're going to have to use Windows, unless you get a new modem that does PPPoE authentication.

Have a nice day. 

 

Is there some reason why you guys couldn't tell me this was going to happen? I mean, why do I have to find out by the fact that my line is dead?

This is like calling the post office to find out why the postman hasn't been around lately and being told that it's because your street address changed to another street in another city. Oh, and you'll have to sign for all your mail in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Sigh... 

 

 

Dr. James Anderson from the University of Reading has come up with what could possibly be an elegant solution for the problem of division by zero, which has plagued mathematicians for centuries. Basically he invented a name for the result, called 'nullity' which is something like a union of negative and positive infinity.

Here's the traditional explanation... 

The refusal to divide by zero boils down to the fact that you can then have strange things happening. One can equal two. Zero can equal one. Therefore it just can't be.  

Folks, this entire problem is a perfect example of mathematics professors not smoking enough pot. 

12 / 2 = 6.     Simple. Take a dozen donuts and split them between two people. Each person gets six.  

12 / 1 = 12.    Fair enough. You take twelve things and split them up amongst one person - let's say it's you. You will have twelve things. 

12 / 0 = 12.    I'm serious. You take twelve things and don't split them up with anybody and you'll have twelve things. This is absurdly simple.   

The logic goes that as you approach zero, the result tends towards infinity. It also tends towards negative infinity. When in fact, dividing by nothing is a no-op (to use computer terms). If I'm not dividing something, I can't have both infinitely more and less of the thing than I started with.  Therefore, if the expression does nothing, it can be removed from the equation, leaving 12 = 12. In my example, it also proves that zero equals one, since dividing by zero or one both give you the same result. The argument goes that this cannot be allowed to exist, since it makes no logical sense. Folks, a union of positive and negative infinities makes no logical sense either. So to resolve the paradox, divide by zero is forbidden. Instead of inventing new number systems, we should just take it for what it is - a paradox. Paradoxes exist. They are real. Just as this sentence is a lie. So dividing by zero being a no-op is equally valid with forbidding the operation.

Either way, it results in a paradox. Dr. Anderson is on the right track. His claim is that 12 / 0 = nullity. I say it equals 12. The mathematics community says it's logically illegal.

 

The funny thing is, we're all right. 

 

Further reading... 

I was trying to figure out why web traffic doubled today. Seems one of my news feeds had this picture on it (see attachment). Ohmigosh. Turns out Britney is not only a female, but has labias. Who would've thought? The same picture brought down several other sites across the globe because of the traffic it generated. You'll have to view the picture separately. It isn't exactly kid safe, so I'm not gonna inline it... 

I get offers in the mail all the time. New credit cards, life insurance, you name it. But this one was different. Seems that now that I'm a pentagenarian (fifty-something) I'm officially eligible to join the AARP. Oh no! That's like for old people. How depressing. I guess it means that I'm not young anymore. If you're reading this at a much younger age, don't laugh. It's going to happen to you too.

Did you know that nowhere in the mailing or even on the AARP website does it say what AARP stands for? That's interesting. They just assume everybody knows. I was just checking for accuracy. Best as I can tell it's the 'American Association of Retired Persons'.

But it's interesting timing. This month marks the first time in about 6-7 years that I had more money at the end of the month than I had at the start of the month. So it's the first time in a long time that I haven't been 'living off retirement'.

Partially this is due to the fact that the advertising contract between Sonica Music Company and AT&T finally expired. That's $600 a month I don't have to waste anymore. (Sonica has been closed for almost a year now, so the Yellow Pages advertising isn't doing me much good). Next month the (postal) mail forwarding finally comes to an end; and also my last remaining account - Valley Yellow Pages; is due to expire. Thankfully it is nowhere near the AT&T monthly amount.

Then all that will remain of Sonica is a website or two. (OK 5, but who's counting?). I'll probably keep them running since they are reflections of and profiles of this site. I thought they would be useful community sites for Mountain View musicians, but there hasn't been much interest. Not like any of the other community sites are faring better - but we're finally up to 50 members. That's about two per website.

Oh, and I still have the signs. They're cool signs. Oh, and a bunch of cool guitars. And ... oh nevermind.