My friends and I were recently chatting about cellular service providers. AT&T seems like it's going to be in control of the next generation of iPhone and we were comparing their plans. The scary thing we find is the nasty tendency to nickel and dime you for all kinds of services that, when you boil them down, are nothing but bits over a wire.

We all know the price of bits people. In the days of the internet, they're extremely cheap. In fact, as Slashdot recently posted, SMS messages cost 4x more than data transferred from the Hubble Space telescope! The only thing I can think of that would be analogous as far as worthless expense goes, is bottled water consumption in America.

Cellular providers are engaged in some pretty nasty anti-competitive business. Yes, we have a couple wins under our belt, (you can at least take your phone number with you when you change providers) but generally, you're still locked into using a provider for a couple years. As a result, when a competitive advantage between providers shifts around it does so at glacial speed.

Here's what I want... Cellular neutrality. I want you to provide me with 2 pipes. One for voice communications, one for data communications. Other than that, you leave me the hell alone. I'll send whatever I want over those two pipes, and you will charge me a fair rate for it.

If a company were to do that, and still give me a device to use on that network like the iPhone, I'd pay a premium.

The EFF is digging into what hidden data is contained in the new DRM free tracks in Itunes

At the very least, it appears that your name is attached to each file.

This seems like a fine idea. People can do whatever the hell they want with their music, but if they share it widely, Apple and others know who to sue. (I'm not sure how the tech will actually shake out.. like all other methods, stripping this info out of the file for someone who's suitably determined would be a trivial act.)

This is the kind of tech DRM makers should have been trying their hand at all along.

This kind of water mark has been found since the beginning in apple's DRM'd AAC. It's also worth noting that the hymn folks who first started publishing anti-drm software geared at ITMS were leaving the user identifiable water mark info intact... Until iTunes updated and quit playing tracks that had been cracked and still had the watermark. : /

So in the end, their response to anti-drm made the anti-drm folks remove a tool in ITMS's arsenal.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) just got useful.

With the release of QTFairUse6 2.5, you can finally, quickly and effortlessly, strip Fairplay DRM infection from your iTMS files without screwing up your iTunes library or playlists. This handy little app scours your library for offending files, captures them to non-DRMed AAC files, and replaces them in the database, so everything continues to work as before. It also backs up the infected ("protected" in industry parlance) files to a folder of your choosing, should you find that something didn't work right.

There is no command line to fuss with, no obscure settings, nothing. Just fire up the application, tell it to process all, tell it whether and where to save the original files, and hit "Start Conversion."

Since this was released last week, I have spent about $50 at the iTMS. I still don't like the sound of the files that much, but for things like re-buying CDs that I stupidly sold when I was strapped for cash in college but that I don't care that much about (Nirvana's In Utero, for example), it's quick and easy. And now that I know that I can keep the things I buy, I have no qualms about using the iTMS.

Hey Apple and RIAA thugs, if you're reading this: Do you understand what I'm saying? I will give you money if you let me keep what I buy. If you don't, I won't. It seems pretty straightforward to me, but then again, I don't have shit for brains.

Anyway, get this app and clean up your tracks before Apple makes you upgrade iTunes again and you have to wait for that to be cracked!

UPDATE:
For those of you (I'm looking at you, aaron!) who are unwilling to read the post linked above, here is a direct download link, which includes the files necessary for cracking iTunes 7.1.1:

A 27 year old teaching student was denied her teaching certificate
because they saw her 'drunken pirate' picture on her myspace page and deemed it 'unprofessional'.

News flash people. We're all humans, everybody poops. None of us will be 'professional' 100% of the time, if we were, we'd be the kind of wound up stressed out folks you wouldn't want anywhere NEAR children. Everyone has a personal life. Some people *cough* choose to share that personal life on the internet with the world. I'd say that's a sign of maturity and self esteem... They know who they are and are willing to let you see it. The people that have a problem with them are the ones who don't like who they are, and think everyone should hide their true selves from others.

I hope she gets her 75k and a certificate. These guys need to be smacked upside the head.

(In the interest of full disclosure, it is important to point out before you read this that I HATE the TSA.)

In "Inside Job: My Life as an Airport Screener," journalist Barbara Peterson reports on her brief time working undercover as a TSA agent. She describes the hassles of working for such a difficult and maligned organization whose rules and procedures are just as confusing to the poor saps who have to enforce them as they are to you and me. She describes long hours, pissy or even violent passengers, and the kind of governmental waste we're unfortunately all accustomed to.

Ultimately, she concludes that the problems are due to poor management and inadequate funding, not due to the evil bastards working the lines at the US airport near you.

And I call bullshit.

Not that anyone ever accused Korea of having any common sense at all (the Asian economic crash was caused in large part by their overexpansion--e.g. building oil refineries for oil that didn't exist), but this really takes the cake.

Basically, the S. Korean government is seeking to set out ethical guidelines for dealing with robots.

...Ethical guidelines for dealing with robots.

Robots.

You know, those machines we build to help us with mundane tasks? Made of parts from Radio Shack? Yeah, those things.

Net neutrality.. well.. basically.. without it, the net as you know it is borked. Pipe providers need to provide JUST a pipe and not give a crap about the traffic on it. Just like the colorado department of transportation should have no say in whether or not I can use the interstate in my car, or if I should have my own special speed limit because I'm not a corporation. ; )

Here's a pretty good sound byte sized summary video illustrating the problem.

A couple catches a cop speeding, is charged with stalking.

Anyone who knows me probably knows this about me: I hate cops. I mean, really. It doesn't matter if they seem like the nicest guys/girls in the world; I know that deep down, those fuckers are broken. They are sick. Psychopaths. Dangerous animals who should be caged or put to sleep. I really do hate them.

A large part of this, I'll admit, is really just sour grapes. See, I, too, would like to be able to do things like blow away unarmed civilians and be acquitted of any wrongdoing, or stalk and ejaculate on strippers with impunity, but I can't. I'm a lowly taxpaying citizen. Not a member of the jackbooted ruling class like them. I'm not given a fast car loaded with techtoys, a shotgun, a sidearm, and a license to piss all over the law because I "put my ass on the line for the people every day." Or something like that.

Also, when I get a speeding ticket--say, 11 miles over the limit on an empty interstate at 2AM--I can't charge the cop with stalking, even though that is exactly what he is doing. If I get a camera ticket, I am expected to pay it even if it comes via regular post in violation of due process, and will be charged more if I require the state to actually obey the law and hand-deliver it. Not to mention that I am, in these cases, presumed guilty until proven innocent.

So when I see stories like this, I just can't be surprised. Only a cop would even think of replying to criticism with a criminal charge, and only a cop would get away with it.

I hate cops.

Okay, so since I've called and emailed Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, my evil representative, to complain about her and her cronies' gang rape of the Constitution and their subjugation of the American people in the guise of security, I get friendly emails from her when she wants something.

Up until today, these usually had themes such as:

• The Democrats are godless heathens, bent on establishing the Antichrist as the world's supreme ruler
• The Democrats are surrender monkeys who want Muhammad to enslave you and defile your daughter
• The Democrats spread a slurry of aborted fetuses on their breakfast toast to infinitely prolong their lives and become an unstoppable army of the undead
• The Democrats are traitors and should be hung

But now that the most recent elections have shown that people basically despise the Republican Party so much that no matter how well they rig the election, the votes kicking their corrupt, treasonous asses out of Washington are just too many to hide, she's changed her tune. Take a look:

I'm actually too angry to even see straight, let alone type out a rant.

If you can't see why this judgment is sick, wrong, twisted, and downright fucking evil, really, you can just go to hell.

Link

If I had a list, everybody involved in convicting these kids would be on it.