Patrick’s Rants

The famous, or infamous, “Deep Throat” has been revealed.
Throwing off a thirty year blanket of secrecy, the source previously only know as “Deep Throat” has been revealed to be the number 2 man at the FBI during the 70s.
If only there were such a sense of patriotism in the current White House.

I got a letter from Experian recently that indicated that my information may have been improperly disclosed. Essentially an affiliate/client of Experian discovered that they revealed information without “proper authorization”.
There was a phone number to call as well as a web site address. When you call the number or visit the web site there isn’t an option or a link for recipients of this letter. There are a couple of different options on the phone line but nothing that says “If you received a letter indicating unauthorized access to your credit report, press 4 now.” This option should do all of the things recommended in the letter: flag your credit report, mail you a copy of your report, remove your name from the preapproved offers list. Or you could just let me talk to a human on the phone.
It turns out, once I was able to access my credit report online (yeah, I had to click on “Steps to take if you are a victim of fraud or identity theft.” I didn’t think I was a victim of identity theft, I just got a letter stating that my information may have been disclosed without authorization. There was no link for that. This turned out to be the right link, but nothing on the main page indicates that it would be.
I say Experian needs to clean up the language or add a link that refers to the letter I received eg. “If you received our alert letter click here.” It would have saved me a couple of hours and saved Experian a couple of toll free charges by me hangning up and calling back because I didn’t hear “If you received our alert letter, press 4″.

In a move that appears to tell citizens that only criminals use encryption software a Minnesota appeals court allowed the fact that a man convicted of inappropriate acts with a minor had PGP encryption software on his computer to be used against him. In the decision, the appeals court allowed use of encryption software to be used against the defendant. It was not whether he used the software to hide his illegal behavior but whether he had software that could. (more…)

To lose the internet connection. Even worse when it’s his own ‘fault’. In an attempt to upgrade the software on the firewall I ran swaret (which is a tool to install and maintain software on a Slackware OS). In the process something died. By “something” I mean that the hard drive stopped responding. Rebooting the computer brought up the message that the hard drive had been removed. It looked like time to simply replace the box – a 486/66, I could upgrade the hard drives and a complete machine as well… since it was running Squid/SquidGuard, I needed more hard drive space. (more…)

we were all sitting around the table enjoying the meal my wife cooked up. The boy, sometimes picky, was not eating any carbohydrates whatsoever. In the midst of nibbling on his food he said, “I don’t know why, but there isn’t much chicken on these bones.” I looked at him. Thought for a second. Then I replied, “there better not be any chicken on those pork ribs.”

…at the Flagstaff Farmers’ Market.
I like Farmers’ markets mostly. They tend to be large open stores, open air type markets, friendly type places. “Tend to be” is the operative phrase. In the early 90s, the Farmers’ market was a small bustling store, nearly overflowing the space allotted to it with – from what I remember – wonderful produce. I used to buy all of my produce from the Farmers’ market and get what they didn’t stock at the regular grocery store. I don’t remember exactly when they moved to the old Penny’s Ace Hardware building, but I do remember talking to the owner/manager about how that would really open things up and increase business. They were pleased as was I.
Over the years they have expanded from occupying slightly larger than half of the building, sharing it first with Crystal Creek Sandwich Shop, then with Malone’s Bakery to being the only occupant. They now carry a much larger variety having expanded by about a third in floor space since they moved into the building. They now have 3 cash registers instead of 2. Their trucks can be seen making early morning deliveries to local restaurants. All of these things are good for them, good for the owners, and good for other local businesses.
I heard a rumor a while back. It could have been a year, perhaps more. The owner retired – sold his interest in the business. Now, this is only a rumor that I heard; I have not recently tried to run down the facts on this – this is after all an opinion piece. But in light of what I am about to write I tend to think the rumor may be true. (more…)

We’re getting a Super Walmart… or at least it’s legal for Walmart to build one here.
Prop 100 failed by a slim margin 51.06% to 48.94%. This means that the few in City Council do not get to make a rule that the majority – however slight – opposes. The whole election was brought on because the Council enacted the ordinance without a vote by the citizens and enough people opposed it to get it onto a ballot.
The turnout was close to 60% – reported as a record for Flagstaff. Talking to people who supported or opposed it, I heard many well articulated arguments. Too bad campaign ads aren’t as well articulated and tend to be “muddy”. One ad being run by supporters said “…like anyone in their right mind would drive 150 miles to Prescott and back just to go shopping…” Well, people do drive that far. Implying that people who do drive that far are not in their “right mind” or that the stores we already have are adequate and that no one should ever want to change.

But you knew that. Disney has made a business from “exploiting” expired copyrights from the likes of the the Brothers Grimm and then buying laws that extend copyright law on their own work almost indefinately.

Note: original linked article here

The Motion Picture Association of America won’t be happy until it is illegal to watch the original airing of TV shows and movies without a signed contract.
Last week the courts threw out a law that would severly limit – even criminalize – the mere copying of television shows by placing a so-called Broadcast Flag into the signal of presumably “valuable” shows. This Flag would tell your VCR, Tivo, or other recording device whether it was “legal” for you to copy the show off the air and watch it at a different time. I’m sure that many people did such a thing with the last episode of Friends and Seinfeld perhaps popping some corn and watching the final episodes with their friends some even, shhhhh… don’t tell anyone, on a different night than the show actually aired.
The courts said that the FCC didn’t have the authority to require the Broadcast Flag so our esteemed MPAA is attempting to get that authority written into law. Then they will repropose the Broadcast Flag.
In a recent post titled “Hollywood Loserism” I rant about the legitimate copies of movies that begin with an anti download “pirate” commercial. Keep calling your customers criminals and keep wondering why people stop buying your products.
It is the 21st Century. The MPAA and the RIAA have to develop new business models and stop depending upon Congress to strong arm the American public suing grandmothers and 10 year old kids. But I guess that’s what we should continue to expect from a government that thinks “randomly” strip searching grannys at the airport will keep Osama Bin Ladin and his cohorts at bay…

Ok… so I was looking for someone I used to chat with on a couple of different IRC servers. After checking for the channel where I thought I might find this guy, I didn’t log off the IRC server… I was idle, that’s what happens when you don’t actively chat. After a while I heard my computer “dinging”… actually it was GAIM dinging. Looking at the computer I find a private message: (more…)