The Beastie Boys and the lack of copy protection

I’m a bit confused here people.
Last Tuesday I bought a copy of the new Beastie Boys album, To the Five Boroughs. I had heard there was talk of it being protected with DRM software. Posts on Boing Boing and Slashdot fed the meme into the blogosphere.
When I got back to the office, I tried ripping it to my desktop. The album riped fine using Windows Media Player on a stock Compaq desktop machine. No problems at all.
When I got home I ripped it to our media server. Again, no problems. I used Musicmatch Jukebox to do the ripping. I’m hardly using r33t haxx0r tools to get around any copy protection.
So I don’t see anything that even remotely looks like copy protection on the CD.
I took a look at the disc and it does have the Macromedia director based ‘Enhanced CD’ software on it that autoplays when load the disc. All that does is allow you to watch a Quicktime video. I don’t see any DRM software being installed.
I scoured the net to find any details of the ‘silent install’ and what the ‘secret DRM’ does. Besides many a slashdot-style screed against DRM and the Beasties, I didn’t find one technical explanation of exactly what the ‘secret DRM’ is or where it is located on a hard drive.
I did find many, many people saying that they were able to successfully rip it. I didn’t see anyone saying they had trouble ripping the CD.
Now, I’m probably wrong, but it seems to me that there is no ‘secret DRM’ on the new Beasties’ album and the that techno-blogosphere has whipped itself into a lather over the non-issue.
Someone please prove me wrong and point the details on the secret ‘silent install’, but until then, I consider the ‘Beasties DRM = evil’ meme a false and unproven one.
Did anyone out there that bought the album have any problems ripping the CD?

Lazy Father’s Day weekend

It was a good weekend.
On Saturday we went to a kid’s birthday party and had a great time. As usual in Los Angeles, there was a pinata and the girls made out like bandits. Here’s their loot:


This morning I woke up and was greeted by the girls and their gifts. Very sweet. I even got a chance to talk to my father today. He’s been in Sri Lanka doing charity work for several weeks and I assumed I wouldn’t be able to get in contact with him. He’s doing well and I’m anxious to see him.
We played around outside and I took the training wheels off Mira’s bike. She had no problem riding a two wheeler. We rode around the neighborhood, played with some friends and generally goofed around.
Later in the afternoon, we went up to Bailey Canyon for a picnic and a hike. We ate at the base of the park and girls started to get excited about the hike.

We headed on into the wilderness looking and talking about everything. We saw plenty of lizards and other wild creatures. The girls were digging the tromp through the underbrush and could have gone farther before we turned back. We will definitely be doing more hiking soon.
On the way out, we saw a few deer munching grass nearby.

A good day to be a father.

Hero

Tonight I watched Hero, a Chinese martial arts movie that is getting released by Miramax in US theaters this August. The trailer runs if you go to see Kill Bill 2.
I picked up a DVD at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. It’s the Chinese version that happens to have English subtitles. I can’t read the menus on the DVD, but I was able to get the movie to play.
And what a movie it is. Hero is simply fantastic.


The director, Zhang Yimou, previously made the noted films Raise the Red Lantern and Shanghai Triad. His skill is evident in the masterful art direction and filming of the movie. He makes amazing use of color and scenery to evoke a feeling of China’s past that is rare to see. In one scene, he uses leaves and wind in an amazing way that has never been seen before on film.
Technically, the film is impressive with top notch Chinese martial arts battles and superb Yuen Wo Ping style wire work and fight choreography. If you like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s fight scenes, these are even better.

The cast is the absolute top people in Chinese action cinema. Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Ziyi Zhang, Daoming Chen, and Donnie Yen. You won’t be disappointed by their acting or physical performances.
For the plot, I’ll simply quote the promo info:

At the height of China’s Warring States period, the country was divided into seven kingdoms: Qin, Zhao, Han Wei, Yan, Chu and Qi. For years, the separate kingdoms fought ruthlessly for supremacy. As a result, the populace endured decades of death and suffering.
The Kingdom of Qin was the most determined of all. The Qin King was obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming her first Emperor. He had long been the target of assassins throughout the other six states. Of all the would-be killers, none inspired as much fear as the three legendary assassins, Broken Sword, Flying Snow and Sky.
To anyone who defeated the three assassins, the King of Qin promised great power, mountains of gold and a private audience with the King himself. But defeating the killers is a near impossible task. For ten years no one came close to claiming the prize. So when the enigmatic county sheriff, Nameless, came to the palace bearing the legendary weapons of the slain assassins, the King was impatient to hear his story. Sitting in the palace, only ten paces from the King, Nameless told his extraordinary tale.


And so the movie begins. Even though I have the DVD, I must see this movie in the theater. I suggest you do as well.

The Lakers

I flipped open the newspaper this morning as was suprised to see so much drama in Lakerville. Overnight, two major things happened. First, Phil Jackson will not be the coach of the Lakers next year. Second, Shaq wants to leave the Lakers in a trade to another team. I expected the first, not the second.
Coach Jackson is taking the fall for the Kobe/Shaq personality trouble that refuses to go away. So be it. Phil’s made $30 million in the last five years, he was paid well to be the scapegoat in the end.
Shaq on the other hand is a different story. I like Shaq the player and lockerroom sound bite creator, but Shaq the business man is a problem. For all the good he’s done the Lakers, at this point, he’s become a problem. Instead of riding the gravy train a bit longer, he’s got to rock the boat, simply because he can.
Take a look at the salary structure of the Lakers:

Player

2003/04 Salary

Shaquille O’Neal $26,223,215
Kobe Bryant $13,497,500
Gary Payton $4,897,000
Rick Fox $4,549,500
Devean George $4,545,000
Derek Fisher $3,000,000
Stanislav Medvedenko $1,500,000
Karl Malone $1,475,833
Kareem Rush $1,096,000
Horace Grant $1,070,000
Bryon Russell $1,070,000
Brian Cook $752,800
Jamal Sampson $563,679
Luke Walton $366,931
Jannero Pargo $194,156
Maurice Carter $40,770
Ime Udoka $24,462
TOTALS: $64,499,915

To put this more visually and understandable, here’s a simple graph:


Notice that of the cost of Shaq is more than 15 of the 17 players on the Lakers. Kobe makes HALF of what Shaq makes. It’s out of whack.
Shaq is probably the most dominant player in the game now, but he’s 32 and fading. For all his skills, he’s not in top shape and isn’t playing in every game. He’s got a few more great years ahead of him, but you need to compare him to Kobe. And to top it off, next year his salary goes up by FIVE million dollars.
Kobe is 25. If he stays out of jail, the next five years will be Kobe’s best ever. He is the best player in the NBA, PERIOD. Offense, defense, speed, health, Kobe’s got it all. Best of all, he handles pressure as well as anyone in the league. And he’s getting better.
So if you are the management of the Lakers you can see that giving Shaq an INCREASE, which he’s been asking for, is nearly impossible. The money just doesn’t work. Shaq, for all his skill, costs too much to field a great team going forward. With his guaranteed increase and the desire for even more money, where will the Laker Management find the cash under the salary cap? Who will they cut?
For all the drama facing the Lakers, Shaq has made it easy for them. By leaving, the Lakers will probably get three top players in trade for Shaq. The salary cap problem is broken, and the team can coalesce around rising Kobe. The Lakers will become a team of speed and multiple shooters, like the Pistons who just spanked the Lakers.
Yes, the Lakers will have to face Shaq on another team, but the way to play Shaq has been made clear. Speed is the thing that Shaq cannot handle now. He simple is going to get outrun and outshot on a team without a partner the caliber of Kobe.
I’ll miss the Big Aristole, but it’s his pride that is doing the damage to the Lakers, not Kobe’s lack of sharing.

Trends by AT&T

Last night I went to dinner and met Hossein Eslambochi, the CTO and CIO of AT&T. It was a speech/dinner with other media tech people from companies like Sony & Tribune. I spoke with Hossein briefly and he’s a bright, truly technical person. Unlike many ‘buzzword and hand waving’ types, he understands the underlying technical issues and can talk intelligently about them. A rare ability in the modern world of CTOs where MBAs often take precedence over engineering types.
Hossein gave a brief talk about AT&T and what they are doing these days. Much of is was standard mom & apple pie customer focus talk, but he did give his Top Ten Trends. I thought you all might be interested.
10. Information mining will transform the way we do business
          Personalization and customization will become the norm.
9. Home LANs will proliferate
          Use of home LANs for telephone service, dual cellular/wifi phones
8. Wireless & wired lines will converge – accelerating virtualization
          Seamless connectivity
7. Security is critical
6. Death of Locality
          IP based environment eliminates the role of geography
5. Convergence of communications & computers will be a reality
          Convergence of phone & computers will outshine convergence of television & computers
4. Sensor networks will be everywhere
          All items and people will have IP addresses and be tracked
3. Wireless internet will be big
          Not what we are used to, more like 40-50Mb/s everywhere you go
2. Broadband will be common
          As common as telephones are today
1. IP will eat everything
          90-95% of the worlds communications will be via IP traffic
I don’t agree with everything, but the everywhereness of net connectivity is reassuring to hear from AT&T, the people would actually have to carry it out. With them sticking to standards based technology, hopefully the future will arrive with an abundance of choices instead of difficult choices between incompatible systems.

Neato MT tag trick

I was checking my referrer logs and saw a link from Disarranging Mine. I took a look and found an interesting tidbit of information.
Marie had stumbled onto my weblog and noticed even the small detail of my copyright notice at the bottom of the page. She made an excellent observation that my dates were wrong and showed how to keep them up to date.
I implemented the change and am quite happy. Thanks Marie, you rock.

Tracking the Coyotes

Last night while goofing off on the computer I heard the coyotes outsdie begin to howl. Soon the neighborhood dogs were barking up a storm in jealous rivalry. Obviously, the coyotes had found yet another meal in the wilderness that is South Pasadena.
After work and dinner today, I took the girls for a walk behind the house to the righ-of-way area where I last saw the coyotes. I told them we were looking for coyotes and coyotes signs. The said, “What are coyote signs?” “Dead animals.”, I replied.
Off we went. Not 100 yards into the walk, did we find the first cat remains. I poked at them and we discussed what part of the cat they were. The girls weren’t squeamish, just eager to find more. After a bit more, we found the first skull.


Obviously a cat skull, the coyotes must have had a nice meal from this little feline. As we wandered were found the remains of at least four cats, possibly six. Four different furs and large distances between the remains mean well fed coyotes. We found a second skull that was even larger and still had stink coming from it.
We found several places with feathers strewn about. Even Bluejay feathers, so the cats were quite busy as well. The best was finding a cat collar that was still closed. There were teeth marks on the leather, so you know the coyotes played with it a while as they devoured the poor kitty.

Here’s what the remains of a leg looked like. It didn’t smell bad and the fur still felt smooth.
When we got home, we told Michele about our adventure and she wants to go see for herself. Perhaps we’ll head up to another unexplored part of the right-of-way tomorrow.
So get your ass up from the computer, get yourself outside, and see what carnage is going on in your neighborhood.

Offer to former weblogs.com people

If you were one of the people that lost their weblog at weblogs.com I’d like to help get you back on your feet.
I pay for server space that is home to 30+ friends and family sites. Adding another 4-5 people won’t kill me. It’s full featured hosting with shell access.
So if you need some webspace, and you are one of the weblogs.com homeless, drop me an email. I’ll formally offer a year of hosting for free at a minimum, no editorial interference. I’m busy enough providing tech support to my wife and mother’s sites, so I hope you are semi-tech proficient.
I can’t help everyone, but I’ll do my part to help a little.

Wierdness in the Blogosphere

Let’s see here.
SixApart announces they will charge for their software and the Blogosphere comes unglued.
Dave Winer kills several thousand weblogs and barely a peep.
Here’s a Netcraft article on the debacle (via Halley)
So in summary:
SixApart gives away something for free, addresses money concerns, announces pricing scheme that includes free version, community views them as a ‘sellout’.
Winer gives away something for free, address money concerns, kills several thousand weblogs with no warning, community says ‘people should be grateful’.
WTF?