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Broadcast Flag Struck Down

On Fri., May 6th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled the FCC overstepped it’s bounds when it created the Broadcast Flag.

The EFF has the story, as well as CNet’s News.com.

This is big, very big. It was unexpected, especially a unanimous decision by the Court. Congress needs to legislate, not the FCC.

My favorite quote from the judges:

“You’re out there in the whole world, regulating. Are washing machines next?” asked Judge Harry Edwards. Quipped Judge David Sentelle: “You can’t regulate washing machines. You can’t rule the world.”

Here’s to all the groups that opposed the travesty that was the Broadcast Flag, from the EFF article:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined Washington DC-based advocacy group Public Knowledge in fighting the rule in the courts, together with Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Medical Library Association, and the Special Libraries Association. The coalition argued that the rule would interfere with the legitimate activities of technology innovators, librarians, archivists, and academics, and that the FCC exceeded its regulatory authority by imposing technological restrictions on what consumers can do with television shows after they receive them.

Zoe & The Flowers



DSC00040b, originally uploaded by silwenae.

Kelly was out at the housing association, and Zoe wanted to look at the flowers. A stranger happened to be out there and asked to take Zoe’s picture as Zoe looked at the flowers.

You can tell by the look on Zoe’s face she doesn’t know what to make of strangers.

New Release Tuesday

I saved up from last week, and splurged this week on all the new stuff that has come out in the last 8 days.

Movies:

  • Blade 3

Music:

  • Aimee Mann
  • Nine Inch Nails
  • Ben Folds
  • Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Soundtrack
  • Ryan Adams
  • G. Love & Special Sauce (slightly older release, but they didn’t have last week’s New Order)
  • Mike Doughty (former lead singer for Soul Coughing)

The new Nine Inch Nails and Ben Folds are dual discs, with DVD content on the back of the disc. The Ben Folds dual disc has the entire album in 5.1 and some video content. We’ll see how good it is.

The new Mike Doughty album is fantastic. It’s been too many years since he’s made music, and 89.3 had him live last week acoustically so I got a preview then. The new album, produced by Dan Wilson of Semisonic, has blown me away. It’s much more emotional and raw than his previous work with Soul Coughing.

Next week: Weezer!

Receiver down, receiver down

My center channel on my receiver has stopped working for no apparent reason. I’ve swapped out speakers, cable, checked the connections and the settings, and all I get is warbly static out of my center.

No idea why it picked now to stop working. It’s 6 years old, and with the basement on the horizon, I really don’t feel like buying a new one for the living room.

Dammit.

Upcoming Time Travel Convention

MIT is hosting the first Time Traveler Convention.

I can’t put it any better than they can:

Why do you need my help?

We need you to help PUBLICIZE the event so that future time travelers will know about the convention and attend. This web page is insufficient; in less than a year it will be taken down when I graduate, and futhermore, the World Wide Web is unlikely to remain in its present form permanently. We need volunteers to publish the details of the convention in enduring forms, so that the time travelers of future millennia will be aware of the convention. This convention can never be forgotten! We need publicity in MAJOR outlets, not just Internet news. Think New York Times, Washington Post, books, that sort of thing. If you have any strings, please pull them.

silwenae.net

Silwenae.net should be back up today, after the domain expired. Looks like the transfer finally went through, so I’ve updated the name servers.

Darth Vader Has a Blog

Darth Vader Has a Blog! And it’s hilarious, here’s a snippet:

20050418

Haste Makes Waste

Bloody interrogation. Imperial audience. More leg woes.

Did you ever have one of those days?

It can be challenging to maintain your dignity as a dark tyrannical overlord when the circuitry in your left leg constantly misfires, threatening to send you off on a mad pirouette without notice. It requires a serious effort of will to maintain my poise, the tendrils of my connection to the Force reaching deep into space to feel out my distant quarry and at the same time wrapped around the mechanisms of my own body to keep them working.

I am stretched too thin.

The traiterous dog Krelcon was captured early this morning and brought around to the Imperial palace after breakfast. I had poached eggs with ham, buttered crumpets and a glass of wetfruit juice.

During my interview with Krelcon he admitted to me that he had been involved in smuggling the stolen data tapes of the Death Star’s technical readout to the Rebel Alliance. In order to produce similarly fruitful results I used the Force to crush all of the small bones in his hands. Krelcon became most chatty then, and we discussed likely locations of the hidden rebel base.

Things went badly after that point, however. I confess that Krelcon took me off guard when he mentioned the prophecy. Eyes burning in a masque of pulp and blood he screamed, “The son of the suns is nigh, knight-bastard! He is on your very threshold!”

I had meant to backhand him but my passions were aroused and my concentration faltered, and so instead I released control of my errant left leg and instantly found myself doing a frenzied, lop-sided jig that turned me in place.

Krelcon found the strength to laugh. Thus, with one powerful thrust of the Force I burst his skull.

Which was probably premature. But que sera, sera.