Saturday, December 10, 2005

Sony rethinking it's anti-piracy policy

After weeks and weeks of criticism, Sony BMG head of global digital business Thomas Hesse says they are 're-evaluating' their use of anti-theft software (also known as Digital Rights Management or DRM). Good idea I think, seeing as how their XCP anti-piracy programs installed themselves onto your PC and then acted like a rootkit - a program which helps an intruder maintain access to a system without the user's knowledge. Even better, they released a removal program which actually makes the problem WORSE. More information about the whole debacle can be found here.

Thursday, December 08, 2005

'Podcast' to be added to the New Oxford Dictionary

In lighter news today, the BBC is reporting that the New Oxford Dictionary is officially adding the word 'podcast', which is defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player". It'll be added to the online version of the dictionary early next year. Podcast has been included in the Oxford Dictionary of English since last summer. Podcast beat other words up for consideration, like 'lifehack' and 'rootkit' for inclusion. Like Slashdot notes in their post about this development, "Guess no one needs to know what a rootkit is." Heh.

A very sad anniversary : 25 years since the death of John Lennon

It's true - on December 8th, 1980 John Lennon was shot outside his apartment building by a mentally disturbed fan named Mark David Chapman. Lennon died on route to the hospital. So today marks the 25th anniversary of that event, and this article from CNN.com really helps explain the impact of the event to those born since, or are to young to remember it well.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Watch out - the next Sober worm attack is coming

Here's a rather disturbing piece of news - the next round of widespread attack of the Sober email worm are going to happen on January 5th, 2006, which is the 87th anniversary of the beginnings of what became the Nazi Party in Germany. Fun! Gotta love those virus writers and their love of history, huh?