Seems the FBI and the U.S. Defense Department have taken an interest in the gaping hole found in Windows XP, and rightly so as Windows runs 90% of the worlds computers and XP is expected to be widely adopted by consumers. How serious is the glitch? Anyone with the desire and know-how can "seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet." Now that's scary!
[Read More]

It's being reported that a group of recording artists are planning five benefit concerts to raise money for a legislative fight against the recording industry. The Recording Artists Coalition will then use the money to fight the major record labels "for allegedly denying musicians a share of royalty earnings." Confirmed musicians include: Sheryl Crow, Dixie Chicks, The Eagles, Billy Joel, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, No Doubt, Offspring, Ozzy Osborne, and Weezer.
[Read More]

The Sex Pistols to re-unite again? According to a Reuters story, they may indeed do so to mark the Queens Golden Jubilee. If so, the gigs would take place on June 3 "when Queen Elizabeth will celebrate 50 years on the throne."
[Read More]

A suspected member of the Al Qaeda terrorist network has reportedly claimed that members posing as computer programmers worked on Microsoft's Windows XP development team and planted "trojans, trapdoors, and bugs in Windows XP." This is probably just a hoax, but then again it could help explain why Microsoft has been releasing buggy and unsecure programs for years. Yet another reason to look to alternatives like Linux, BSD, Mac OS, etc...
[Read More]

It's official. Copy-protected CDs are on their way to the U.S. and Vivendi Universal are leading the pack. Universal Music Group say that all of their CDs will be copy-protected by mid-2002, so prepare yourselves for a stream of faulty and defective CDs as the copy-protection technology will render the discs unplayable on computers, DVD players and game consoles, such as Sony's PlayStation 2. They "might not even play in some CD players."

Solution? Boycott the labels. Better yet, buy and return the CDs as defective. If retailers see a high return rate for them, they'll be forced to stop carrying them because of the added cost of returning them to the labels. Don't worry, "Universal told retailers that it would honor refunds on all returned discs -- even for CDs that have been opened."
[Read More]

    March 1 - Galaxy Theatre, Santa Ana, CA (on sale now)
    March 5 - The Roxy, Hollywood (on sale now)
    March 6 - Slims, San Francisco (on sale 12/16)
    March 15 - First Avenue, Minneapolis
    March 16 - The Metro, Chicago, IL
    March 17 - Magic Bag, Detroit, MI

Looks like Oracle aren't the only ones trying to benefit from the September 11 attacks. Since then, Verizon Communications have been lobbying federal regulators in Washington asking them to make it harder for smaller competitors to lease lines on Verizons local telephone networks. This would essentially guarantee them less competition, all in the name of national security.
[Read More]

Ever since the October 7th bombings of Afghanistan, the U.S. has continued to deny any Afghan civilian casualties while mainstream U.S. media outlets continue to avoid reporting on it. But Professor Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire, in an effort to set the truth free, took it upon himself to calculate the number of Afghans killed by U.S. bombings to date. After scouring news wires and major newspapers from all over the world and combining them with first hand accounts, he revealed his findings in a Democracy Now! in Exile exclusive. What he found was that over 3,700 innocent Afghan civilians have been killed, compared to the 3,148 killed on September 11th. Has U.S. mainstream medias slanted coverage of the war encouraged the public to look the other way?

Read Prof. Marc W. Herold's 21-page dossier (.PDF format) outlining his findings on Afghan civilian deaths which resulted from an "apparent willingness of U.S. military strategists to fire missiles into and drop bombs upon heavily populated areas of Afghanistan." It's an interesting read, to say the least.

As mandated by the Tunney Act, the U.S. Department of Justice is, for a period of 60 days, accepting comments from the public on their proposed antitrust settlement agreement with Microsoft. Afterward, the Justice Department will respond to the comments and Judge Kollar-Kotelly will decide whether to approve, amend, or reject the deal.

LinuxPlanet has some advice for people who want to comment. Not surprisingly, Microsoft has defended the settlement before a Senate committee. Microsoft has also filed a brief with the court, urging them to accept the settlement, which is nothing more than a slap on the wrist. We urge you to send in your comments. Microsoft must be punished for their crimes.

Public comments can be sent to:
    Renata B. Hesse
    Antitrust Division
    Department of Justice
    601 D Street NW
    Suite 1200
    Washington, DC 20530-0001

    email: microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov
    fax: 202-616-9937 or 202-307-1454

Will community and college radio stations be forced to shut down their webcasts of eclectic music? If the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is fully enforced, then the answer is "Yes" because under the terms of the DMCA, radio stations which stream their audio over the web will be forced to pay thousands of dollars in annual broadcast fees, fees which none of them can afford to pay.
[Read More]

When word got out that the FBI were developing their "Magic Lantern" keystroke logging virus/Trojan horse, they declined to acknowledge or deny it. But yesterday, an FBI spokesperson confirmed its development but gave no indication as to when they'd deploy it.
[Read More]

Contrary to previous reports, anti-virus software vendors such as Symantec and Network Associates now claim that they will not be leaving a backdoor open in their security products so as to not detect the FBI's "Magic Lantern" virus/ Trojan horse. Tony Thompson of Network Associates stated that "we're in the business of providing a virus-free environment for our users and we're not going to do anything to compromise that security," and Symantec Chief Executive John Thompson stressed "we have no intention of creating or leaving a hole in our software that might compromise that security." Unless, of course, the U.S. government convinces them to.
[Read More]

Sure, they may have the right to make such a request, but we don't believe anyone is obligated to obey it. It is ridiculous for KPMG to "require that a formal agreement exist" between them and the party in question, as mandated by KPMG's Web Link Agreement. Considering KPMG is an e-business consulting firm, one would expect them to realize that hyperlinking is at the heart of how the Internet works. Sorry KPMG, but we disagree with your policy as we reserve the right to link to anyone we choose, even to you, notwithstanding a formal agreement.
[Read More]

Symantec's slogan for the new ad for Norton's Internet Security is "What you want to let in. And only what you want to let in." But it was only a few days ago that Symantec Chief Researcher Eric Chen stated that they wouldn't detect the FBI's "Magic Lantern" keystroke logging virus/trojan. According to Chen, "If it was under the control of the FBI, with appropriate technical safeguards in place to prevent possible misuse, and nobody else used it - we wouldn't detect it."

So which is it? Will the program detect the virus/trojan or won't it? Will we have control over what can have access our systems and block whatever we don't want to let in or won't we? If not, then they should change their slogan to "What you want to let in. And what we want to let in."

The Casbah
2501 Kettner Blvd.
San Diego
619-232-4355