Tech

  • Tech

    Digital irritants

    January 10, 2006 /

    I finally get around to installing the DV cable to the new LCD, and I find out there are several kinds of DV cables, and I ordered the wrong one. How irritating.

    read more
    Comments Off on Digital irritants
  • Law,  Police State,  Privacy,  Tech

    This is weird and scary

    January 8, 2006 /

    Private industry eavesdropping

    The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone — for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among law enforcement and privacy experts.

    Criminals can use such records to expose a government informant who regularly calls a law enforcement official.

    Suspicious spouses can see if their husband or wife is calling a certain someone a bit too often.

    And employers can check whether a worker is regularly calling a psychologist — or a competing company.

    I’ve been wondering about this. I wonder how much the media does this as well. There has been very little coverage about cell phone privacy since Gingrich was recorded illegally several years ago. PGP encryption coverage has been curiously non-existent as well.

    read more
    Comments Off on This is weird and scary
  • Music,  Tech

    Annoyances

    January 5, 2006 /

    So, last night I was in a CD store, and came across Merle Haggard’s new CD Chicago Wind. Hag has been on a great song-writing streak lately so I was about to buy it, but then I see the warning label

    [CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD]
    This product limits your ability to make multiple digital copies of its content, and you will not be able to play this disc or make copies onto devices not listed as compatible. Content/ copy protected CDs should allow limited burning, as well as ripping into secure Windows Media Audio formats for playback with most compatible media players and portable devices. In rare cases, these CDs may not be compatible with computer CD-ROM players, DVD players, game consoles, or car CD stereos, and often are not transferable to other formats like MP3.

    which annoyed me to no end. Who would buy something with that label? I haven’t listened to music directly off a cd in years, everything gets ripped when I first get the CD and then put on a shelf for safekeeping.

    UPDATE : Yes, I have seen theSony rootkit news, quite extensively actually. I did not realize that the warning was actually on the CD, which just goes to show I’ve been buying nothing topical lately. I thought it was just when you tried to play it in a computer.

    read more