Shake Improv

I don’t know why FOX shut Singlestat.us down, it was actually adding to MySpace hype and popularity. (Beside creating a database of who’s hot for whom.)

Anyway, amazing to see an idea being thought, implemented and almost financed by VC in less than 2 days.

ps.
FOX can use anything you post on your MySpace web page without giving you jack shit.

The East Bay roooocks!

BERKELEY, CA – Last night, in a unanimous decision by the City Council, Berkeley, CA became the first city in the nation to pass an initiative to the ballot that will allow residents to vote up or down on the merits of impeaching both President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

This goes with the teach-ins based on the book “Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush” and movie “How to Impeach a President”. (There’s one in Oakland hosted by Constitution Summer.)

(Thanks News Hounds!)

A US clothing retailer, American Apparel, applied some of the things Grillo is preaching: they design and manifacture their garments entirely under one roof in LA. This way they have cut off transportation times, fees and side effects (pollution):

“Ultimately, it is this system that allows us to stay competitive while paying the highest wages in the garment industry.”

“We claim that our products are sweatshop free because we pay our workers a fair wage according to California wage and hour laws which are rarely respected. Unlike other companies who have gone off shore, or use subcontractors, we insist on knowing the faces of our workers.”

Where are you guys?

(Mirroring:
video01 (wireless hacks)
video02 (hacking with Ramzi)
video03 (interview with Kevin Mitnick!)
promo…)

Isn’t there something weird in these photos?

This sounds pretty bad. Sun’s “free beer” compilers and developer tools (Sun Studio 10) come with a license that includes the following lines:

Software may contain programs that perform automated collection of system data and/or automated software updating services. System data collected through such programs may be used by Sun, its subcontractors, and its service delivery partners for the purpose of providing you with remote system services and/or improving Sun’s software and systems.

A compiler that phones home… we were missing this one. Jerry Heyman (architect with IBM SWG/Tivoli) said that it sounds like industrial espionage: I kind of agree with him.

On a related (equally sick) note, if you contribute code to OpenSolaris you have to sign Sun’s Contributor Agreement (PDF (20 Kb)), that gives Sun joint ownership on your code:

You hereby assign to Sun joint ownership in all worldwide common law and statutory rights associated with the copyrights, copyright applications and copyright registrations in Your Contribution, and to the extent allowable under applicable local laws and copyright conventions, You agree never to assert against Sun or its licensees or transferees any moral rights therein. You understand that (i) this Agreement may be submitted by Sun to register a copyright in Your Contribution, and (ii) Sun may exercise all rights as a copyright owner of Your Contribution, including enforcement against infringers. Both parties to this Agreement shall be able to do all such things in relation to Your Contribution as if each of us respectively were the sole owners of the copyright [...]. Neither party has any duty whatsoever to consult with [...] the other party for any use or distribution of a Contribution or derivative work thereof.

If they want to do that with my code, why don’t they let me do the same with their code? It’d be just fair. Damn corporate fuckers.

Firefox is becoming what once was Netscape: a huge, slow, do-everything-do-nothing monster. Not in a direct way however, but through the subtle seduction of “extensions”. Extensions like… a VoIP extension! Why would I need to pass through Firefox to call my mom is beyond me.

The developer of this extension is Abbeynet, a European VoIP provider. Maybe they are just trying to get more presence and/or saturate the market with useless products. I’d be curious to read the use cases they wrote when they designed the software.

What saddens me is that users actually like this garbage (as del.icio.us reports).

Apparently Dell laptops can explode and go in flames. It just happened at a conference in Japan. (Thanks Tim!)