Terminally Incoherent

I just found this article on slashdot. I think the author makes some very good points.

However, I do feel that allot of what he is saying could be easily used to push the TCPA agenda. Especially his points about Default Permit and Enumerating Badness could be twisted to support TCPA. Don’t get me wrong, I think he makes very good points here. I really think Default Deny policies and white listing are conceptually better ideas than what we have now.

But the author fails to account for different levels of security. What works for corporate environment does not necessarily work for Joe Public’s home desktop. What works in an accounting firm does not necessarily will work well in a C++ based dev shop.

While default deny will work wonders for the secretaries and accountants of the world, it may be bothersome for developers who need to constantly test their code. If you implement this policy in a dev shop, you will either have to create special sandboxes where people can run their code, or give the developers power to execute whatever they want. Either way, you must wave the default deny policy for them - which means implementing it was pointless in the first place.

Similarly, the only person who should be allowed to judge what is and is not allowed to run on my computer is me. Not Microsoft, not Intel, not the Flying Spaghetti Monster! I am the supreme authority when it comes to my PC. And if I want to install a worm that will wipe my drive, I should be allowed to do so!

The Default Deny, and Enumerating Goodness policies are great guidelines when designing software in general - but only when you keep in mind the different layers of security.

While an accounting firm has a smart Sysadmin who can establish the “trust” rules in accordance with company policies, a home user should have full authority over their system. No one should be able to dictate these “trust” rules to the average desktop user.

This is where Unix security model gets it right. A dumb user should be allowed to hurt himself badly, but a mistake of a single user can never be allowed to hurt the system itself (not mentioning the whole network). Routing around user stupidity is only acceptable up to a point.

To use analogy, system security is akin to national security. You need to make system as secure as possible within certain bounds. When you start trading personal freedom and liberty for increased security you are in trouble. The Patriot Act is wrong for the same reason TCPA is wrong. Go ahead - think about it. You know this is true.

Lately more and more javascript, DHTML based games are emerging on the web. Prime examples of this new trend are the Javascript Mario and DHTML Lemmings. Both of these were mentioned on boinbboing this week, here and here.

I’m actually amazed how well these things are done. I’m in awe of the amount of work that had to be done to make these work both in IE and Mozilla.

It also shows the sheer power of Javascript. You can make it do almost anything if you put your mind to it. For now, these little games are simply display of someone’s formidable javascript hacking skills. But I can imagine more of these things popping up all over the place.

My question is, will Javascript hackers give the smug and stuck up Flash animators run for their money? Sure, there is allot that you can’t do in dhtml - but if can do Mario and you can do Lemmings, you can probably also do every single tetris, arkanoid and other classic arcade game.

Allot of the simple flash games out there are just that - old ideas wrapped in a flash implementation. These dhtml games prove that for this type of games, a chunky, slow loading Flash can be reliably replaced by some javascript magic. Maybe this will cause some healthy competition in the little stagnant flash world?

I’m not saying DHTML could ever replace Flash. I don’t think that would be possible. There will always be place for beautiful animations, and high paced flash games. But if the simple mario or tetris clones could be done without the proprietary Flash technology then someone will eventually put together a toolkit that will make this easy and affordable.

Or maybe this is just a passing fad, and making dhtml games is to freaking complex and annoying to ever catch on.

This is awesome! Adult Swim will start showing new episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist starting next Saturday! I’m so excited!

Fullmetal is one of my favorite anime shows. If you never watched it, you should definitely check it out. It has this amazing mixture of suspense, mystery, philosophical depth and zany humor that can only be found in Japanese animation.

I absolutely love the setting of the show. The militaristic state ruled by a sympathetic, yet despotic Fuehrer is really original and refreshing. It combines a very retro style (steam trains are the main mode of transportation, weapons are usually WWII style rifles and pistols) with some high-tech elements such as auto-mail (mechanical prosthetic libs and etc…).

It really makes you think. This would probably be how our world would look like if we had alchemy! The technology is primitive for the most part, because you can create almost anything with alchemy. Hence weapons and transportation are kindof frozen in place.

On the other hand, the only area which cannot be fixed by Alchemy - is blooming. Since it is forbidden (and dangerous) to restore lost limbs using Alchemy they have an amazing technology which allows them to build mechanical libs that can act as well or better than original ones.

It’s a really great show! Definitely check it out!

Ok, we have learned two things today. First, we now know Sharon was honest when she said she does not maintain any communication with the Cylons. They seemed to be surprised to see her. So she is clearly acting independently at the moment.

However, it seems that Cylons knew about the baby all along. They seem to be very excited that it survived. Which suggests that they allowed Sharon to break free on purpose. They did not really expect her to infiltrate Galactica this easily, nor did they plan for the baby to survive. But it seems that they are pleased with the outcome.

Now, my question is - why is Sharon special? As far as we know the Cylon clones are incapable of reproduction. I’m not clear why… The obvious answer is that their main mode of reproduction is cloning. Since you can’t achieve perfect copies via mating, you need to use clone farms.

Furthermore, Cylon clones are biologically different than humans. They have to be to allow them to effortlessly share memories. This could be accomplished by some bio-cybernetic technology that can be worked into the Cylon gene templates that are then grown on these farms.

I’m thinking that Sharon is their little eugenics experiment. But I can’t believe they haven’t tried crossing a Cylon with a Human before. Why then is she so special? Was the Boomer template tweaked to ensure maximum compatibility with human DNA? Was she designed to be a prototype mother for a hybrid? Will her baby in some way significant?

This doesn’t make much sense unless… Could Cylons be seeking to produce their own Kwisatz Haderach? Some kind of special engineered messiah figure? A human-cylon hybrid which will act as a catalyst, at some crucial point in the future. They install Baltar on galactica to make sure the baby gets maneuvered into position of political significance at an appropriate time, and then they play their wildcard by releasing Sharon into the wild.

Think about it - a child of the Cylon god, born out of love of a “rebellious” Cylon and a conflicted human. Raised among humans, and tutored by the man haunted by god’s angel (after all #6 described herself as such). Let’s’ face it - if this is not a messianic story in the making, I don’t know what is.

Now the baby will grow up at the crossroads - living among humans, but knowing that he/she is half-Cylon. If you put someone like this into position of political power you can expect fireworks fly. Such a person can achieve something unpredictably spectacular - either save or destroy the surviving humans. It can forever break apart, or forever unite the two races. Or do something completely un-accounted for - a wildcard that can light a spark and cause some explosion that the cylon-god cannot predict.

But then again, this is kinda far fetched speculation.

Here is a prime example of how some people in the entertainment industry “get it”.

John Steward, the host of the popular Daily Show on Comedy Central recently said that he does not mind people sharing his show on the p2p networks. Unlike some other people in the industry, John understands that the Internet is here to stay. You can either adapt, or be swept away and forgotten.

Adult Swim - a incredibly popular, late night segment running on Cartoon Network actually puts their money where their mouth is. They are actually planning to distribute some of their original shows online.

On the other hand of course you have RIAA extorting money from poor college students without showing them a shred of evidence. This is not new - just some more of the same idiotic routine.

So let’s summarize. The two very hip, very popular TV productions are for file sharing. They collectively have a very strong fan base composed of intelligent, educated people in their 20’s and 30’s with lots of disposable income. In other words they have the most sought for demographic. This demographic also covers the large part of the net citizenry of today. You have to admit that most of the online message boards, blogs, file trading sites and such are manned by people 18-30, mostly college students, or college graduates. These are the people who make the “internets” happen!

Hence, if you want this demographic you have to cater to them - by turning a blind eye to sharing, or actively putting content online. This is how you make the crazy internet crowd love you even more, and buy your crappy tie ins and tshirts!

RIAA on the other hand are quickly loosing that demographic. Smart, educated people get pissed when you extort money from them. If they are loosing money (which I doubt) it is not because of “piracy”. It’s because they are going out of their way to piss off their best clients.