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Vol. 6, No. 32
8-3-06
1 One for the little guy
2 Wheels
3 Firefox at 15%, Centrino fix, chocolate phones, free AOL
4 WGA removal tool
5 Firefox updates
6 Network backups
Editor’s note: This issue is a couple of days late due to a glitch with the remailer. I apologize for the problem and hope you enjoy this issue, even with the delay.
Kevin
Regular readers know how much I loathe and despise the RIAA and MPAA for their shortsightedness and heavy-handed legal tactics. Without a clue into how the world actually works both organizations continue to sue grandmothers (most recently a Louisville native reported by http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060731/NEWS01/607310374), young children and people who don’t even own computers.
The legality of these lawsuits has never been tested in court because the targets of the extortionist associations have generally been people of modest means who couldn’t afford to fight them. They could settle for a few thousand bucks or spend possibly hundreds of thousands fighting the charges.
Last week the news broke that the MPAA had bitten off more than they could chew.
They filed one of these shotgun suits against Shawn Hogan for allegedly downloading “Meet the Fockers” via BitTorrent. To the MPAA’s dismay, Mr. Hogan claims to be innocent of the charge as well as producing facts that he already owns the DVD. By the way, Mr. Hogan is also the CEO of Digital Point Solutions, is a millionaire in his own right, and he’s pretty torqued over the lawsuit.
So much so that he says he will fight it, and will spend “well into the millions” to defend himself rather than settle the case for the usual $2,500. Oops!
If the MPAA is smart they’ll drop this suit like a hot rock, but we already know they’re clueless. If they follow through the tactics both they and the RIAA have been using for the last couple of years will be examined by a court of law and likely ruled illegal. If they drop the suit I hope Mr. Hogan counter-sues to make certain those same tactics still receive judicial review.
Bringing the Entertainment Industry’s tactics into court is the critical issue. How they gain access to records of the IP addresses of the supposed “pirates”, how they can possibly tie an IP address to someone who doesn’t even own a computer and how they can rule out illegal wireless access to unprotected are the biggest questions.
Until now the lawsuits have flown hot and heavy and everyone on the receiving end has settled. Until the practices used by the MPAA and RIAA are actually presented in court their legality can’t be questioned.
Here’s hoping Mr. Hogan sticks with it and forces this into court, one way or the other. I can only dream of the verdict that shows the entire enterprise to be illegal, ruling all fines paid to this point must be refunded, disbanding the Entertainment cartels and sending the CEOs of said cartels to federal prison for violating the RICO act or antitrust laws.
That will never happen of course. Some Congressional sock puppet of the cartels will pass legislation exempting them from prosecution for those crimes.
But a man can dream :)
Kevin Mefford, Editor
Terry Wise
www.ratland.com
Tech News of the Week
On its
Spreadfirefox web site, Mozilla claims that Firefox has
acquired about 15 per
cent of the global usage share in the nearly 21
months since it was released.
It has now passed the 200 million
download mark:
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33443
Intel
has updated the software behind its Centrino chip bundle to fix
three
security vulnerabilities that, in one case, could allow an
attacker to
execute code remotely on a laptop:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,206867,00.html
Verizon
Wireless has announced the new V Cast music-enabled LG
Chocolate Phone. The
company says with this phone customers can get
access to over 1.3 million
songs, a full line of music accessories
and the ability to play MP3 files
with V Cast Music:
http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=74940&cat_id=615
AOL
will provide anyone with Internet access up to 5 gigabytes of
storage space
for photos, music files or documents. Users can also
access their files from
any Internet-connected device:
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2006/07/31/daily61.html
Copy us on the good stuff ;-)
Matthew
Dattilo
thepcgurus@gmail.com
www.mattstodayinhistory.com
Download of the Week
There is growing concern
that the anti-piracy feature in Windows XP called Windows Genuine Advantage
presents a security and privacy risk because it "phones home" at regular 14-day
intervals. Microsoft insists that
no personal information is gathered, but that’s not to say that at some point in
the future it might. Others call WGA a "nuisance."
RemoveWGA blocks Windows
Genuine Advantage from reporting back to Microsoft. The tool alerts you if the
WGA notification is active on your system, stops WGA from activating when you
turn your PC on, and removes it. For the record, Microsoft says Windows Genuine
Advantage is designed to check whether you are running a licensed copy of
Windows XP. We don’t condone
piracy but we do like our privacy.
Get RemoveWGA here:
http://www.firewallleaktester.com/removewga.htm
Art
Maley
Firefox Tip of the Week
This week saw two different iterations of Firefox come out, 1.5.0.5 and 1.5.0.6. Do go to Help-> About and check to make sure that you have 1.5.0.6, which fixed a bug that was caused by the previous release. If you do not have the newest version that came out on Thursday morning, go to Help -> Check for Updates to have Firefox check and download the update for you. The new version is fixing both security holes as well as flaws in the software that were found over the past couple of weeks.
Coming soon will be a whole new version of Firefox, Firefox 2.0, which will bring about changes to the browser to improve your Internet browsing experience. Look for a review of the release candidate soon.
Daniel Williams
Email Question of the Week
Q: I have eight computers on a XP home
network at my church and I want to connect a 250GB USB HD to one of them and
have everyone use it as a
backup drive, putting their personal files in
unshared folders. These
file folders should be password protected. I have
considered using the
"Map network drive" procedure. Is there an easier
way?
A: Rather than use a USB drive I would
suggest a NAS drive (Network
Attached Storage). That drive would be
added as another network
device, wouldn't drag down performance on one
workstation during use
and most of the installation processes allow for
password protecting
folders during setup.
As far as
system resource use a true network attached drive is the
way to go, plus it
may make your setup and implementation simpler.
Hope that helps
and keep us posted...
Kevin Mefford
Contact info and legal
stuff
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