My dear uncle Nobby Clarke died earlier today after a long struggle with cancer.  God rest him.  A blessed release for him and the family in the end, but no less hard to bear for that.  I can't be there tonight with the rest of the family, but our thoughts, prayers and love are with them all.
Nobby was a terrific uncle and a fine man -- always very close to my Mum & Dad and to the four Clarke boys throughout our lives. 

Behind me, as I write this, is the beautiful side table Nobby made for my wife and I as a wedding gift.  He had a rare genius of eye and hand -- turning simple chunks of wood into extraordinary, glowing objects; each with its own unique character, but each characteristically a "Nobby Clarke".  My early memories of Nobby and the big old house in Silverdale Avenue, Southend, are filled with the scent of sawdust and linseed oil. 

A true craftsman and an old-fashioned gentleman - always dapper, unfailingly polite, and one of those rare people with the wonderful, natural talent of always making you feel that he was genuinely interested in what you had to say - no matter how young you were or how silly your ideas.

Throughout his life, Nobby suffered great tragedy, hardship, ill treatment and just plain bloody bad luck.  At times it really seemed like Nobby and his family were as playthings to the gods -- no one family should have to bear what Nobby, Clare and their kids endured. Yet he took all of it in his stride -- a quiet rock and immutable foundation for his own family and others. You always knew where you were with Nobby, and you could always, always count on him.

He was - is - a Clarke.  And one of the best there ever was.

I wish I could be with them in Southend right now; to join in celebrating a noble, well-lived life.

Goodnight Nobby, and God bless.

The Supreme Court of Canada just handed down a definitive 9-0 decision that ISPs can not be held liable for copyright infringement or royalty payments for music downloaded by their customers.

SOCAN (the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) were trying to force ISPs to pay tariffs for downloaded music - even arguing that current copyright laws could be extended to cover content on ANY websites Canadians can access, regardless of where the sites originate. At one point, SOCAN was insisting that ISPs should be liable for up to 10% of their gross profit as a "download tax".

The Supremes not only slapped down the specifics of this approach, they went so far as to comment that Canadian copyright law is archaic - encouraging the government to update it to better address the impact of the Internet.

(An interesting note in the CP coverage: their interpretation of the ruling goes so far as to
comment that, as ISPs have been judged mere "intermediaries" they are,
in effect, not bound by federal copyright legislation.)

This is a major win for CAIP (the Canadian Association of Internet Providers) and a triumphant outbreak of common sense at the highest level of the Canadian judiciary.

Of course, free and P2P downloading services - in Canada and elsewhere - are still rife with issues. An Ipsos-Reid report in Spring of this year commented:

"Downloading freely from peer-to-peer services is losing its luster as downloaders are frustrated by files of poor quality and mislabelled files, and they are concerned about potentially downloading viruses and having spyware monitor their online activity"

So this should be very good news for the fee-based providers too. One more fuzzy area of the law cleaned up - a good confidence boost for the Puretracks guys or anyone else offering streaming or downloadable online music in Canada.

In related news, one of Canada's most vocal anti-filesharing advocates was Liberal Heritage Minister, Hélène Chalifour Scherrer. PM Paul Martin has also been critical of online music sharing in the past, but Ms. Scherrer was known to be the prime mover, whispering in his ear. In her public comments on the issue she frequently conflated the legal, fee-based and less legal P2P markets - muddying the issues and delighting her RIAA friends in the US.

Well in Monday's federal election, Ms. Scherrer lost her seat to the Bloc Québécois.

One by one the barriers to a thriving online music market in Canada are being removed.

[UPDATE: Sorry to dampen the fun for all you celebrating h4x0r5 out there, but there’s an important point towards the end of the Globe's online coverage of this CAIP vs. SOCAN story:

"All things considered, it has not been a good year for the music industry so far," said Toronto lawyer Casey Chisick, an expert in the field. "That said, the decision definitely does not stand for the proposition that on-line music is free.

"On the contrary, copyright holders are entirely free to pursue individual remedies against anyone who actually transmits music on-line -- website operators and even peer-to-peer uploaders," Mr. Chisick said.

In other words - with the associated fear of viruses, spyware, and the rotten quality of a lot of the stuff out there - free downloading is for dummies.

Heinlein's still right: TANSTAAFL

Two hours after the ceremony Bremer left Iraq on a U.S. air force C-130, said Robert Tappan, an official of the former coalition occupation authority. Bremer was accompanied by coalition spokesman Dan Senor and close members of his staff. Bremer's destination was not given, but an aide said he was "going home."

From the NY Times:

The Supreme Court ruled today that people being held by the United States as enemy combatants can challenge their detention in American courts — the court's most important statement in decades on the balance between personal liberties and national security...

...Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that the campaign against terrorism notwithstanding, "a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens..."

And there's more:

"Aliens at the base, like American citizens, are entitled to invoke the federal courts' authority," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. "United States courts have traditionally been open to nonresident aliens."

...but wait - the Bush-slapping gets even better. Justice Stevens and some of his other Supreme Court colleagues seem to have suddenly grown back their cojones, after months of sheepish complacency. Taking issue with the technical decision in a related case, Justice Stevens also writes:

"At stake in this case is nothing less than the essence of a free society...For if this nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny."

Stop reading blogs: get the hell out and vote!

Oh...and for my American readers - here's a similar message for you.

In an IM session a moment ago, I happened to ask Riri if she had the iTunes player installed (so that I could point her to the fantastic new Iron & Wine video, over here - possibly the smartest music video of the last 5 years).

Her response:

riri: I don't know anything about stuff that starts with a lowercase i

riri: iTunes, iPod, iMac

riri: completely illiterate

She's whip smart AND she can kick yo' ass.

Here's a handy site where you can check to see if your desired Gmail account name is still available.

Frankly, people, I'm a little disappointed to learn that so many excellent email addresses are still, as of this writing, unclaimed. I'm temporarily bereft of Gmail invitations, having used them all up torturing the poor saps on gmailswap.com, but for those of you with spares, you might want to snag one of these - or think up your own. You know it makes sense.

Still available:

fancyash@gmail.com
gizzaf@gmail.com
intheb@gmail.com (also: electionintheb@gmail.com)
pardonmyl@gmail.com
smokingaf@gmail.com
tongueswillw@gmail.com
dirtyr@gmail.com
onthebl@gmail.com
flythefl@gmail.com
burnthefl@gmail.com
dontmeanton@gmail.com
rubberg@gmail
friendlyfr@gmail.com

...and millions more, no doubt. I can think of much filthier ones too, but this is a family blog. Ahem.

Go on...do it justforag@gmail.com ;-)

ohwhataw@gmail.com

Must. Buy. CHOCOLATE.

"Spanning over 70 years, BBC content encompasses more than 300,000 hours of footage, including a wealth of material covering natural history, wildlife, news, locations, art, music, celebrities, culture, performing arts and more."

SO much cool stuff - and so cool that they've made this enormous archive open to the public.

Photoshoppers - start yer engines.

It’s a nice idea for a work of fiction, perhaps – hire some infamous “dogs of war” to round up all the evil doers left in a ravaged middle eastern country. But this stuff isn’t supposed to happen for real, is it?

As highlighted by Ethan Zuckerman, the Boston Globe reported earlier this week that the Pentagon has hired Tom Spicer’s private security firm to coordinate policing in Iraq.

Yes, that Tom Spicer – Lieutenant Colonel Spicer, ex-SAS, former head of Sandline (ring a bell now?), a “Private Military Company” best known for their role in supplying 35 tonnes of arms to President Kabbah’s forces in Sierra Leone in direct contravention of UK and UN embargoes (although the deal was, allegedly, much discussed over tea and scones in Lancaster House).

The “Sandline Affair” hit UK headlines in early '98, when engineers from a Royal Navy frigate were photographed helping to service Sandline's Russian-made helicopter while docked in Freetown.

Under Spicer’s leadership, Sandline’s rich catalogue of specialised services also expanded to include customizable rent-a-coup offerings – although his clients (Rio Tinto) were not too pleased with his miserable failure in Papua New Guinea – especially after they coughed up $36 million for the “deluxe” package. In a wonderful Frederick Forsyth moment, Spicer was actually dragged in front of the PNG court and asked to explain how he happened to have a suitcase bulging with $400,000 in used bills.

Spicer quit Sandline to build his current company – Aegis Defence Services – the firm just awarded the $293 million Iraq gig.

PR for Aegis, btw, is handled by the same people who look after Anadin, Gold Spot breath fresheners, Mothercare, and Harmony hair spray. Really. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I wanted to.

Clearly, the US government applies the same standards of vetting to its contractors as it does to members of the cabinet.

Um...no big epiphany there then.

...and then this.

Following on the great success of their Subservient Chicken wackiness, Burger King has launched an equally mental campaign to promote their salads.

Ugoff is hungry!

I'm lovin' it :-)

(Full credit to ad agency CP+B, btw, for doing something so completely different - and to BK for having the cojones to let them).

Further evidence that the American political scene has tripped out for good and we're all living in Wacka-NuNu land.

As reported by John Gorenfeld and elsewhere, convicted felon and renowned dangerous flake the Rev. Sun Myung Moon was recently "crowned" in a ceremony at the Dirksen Senate Office Building (a taxpayer-funded Capitol facility in Washington D.C.).

In attendance were numerous Senators and Congressmen, including Reps. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Sen. Mark Dayton (R-Minn.).

I swear, I'm not making this up. There's even video of the event available, in which Davis, wearing a campy robe and white gloves, places a jeweled crown on Moon's head, and Moon goes on to make a speech, saying, among other things:

"The five great saints and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin, who committed all manner of barbarity and murders on Earth, and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons. Emperors, kings and presidents who enjoyed opulence and power on Earth, and even journalists who had worldwide fame, have now placed themselves at the forefront of the column of the true love revolution. ... They have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent."

No, really. Do not adjust your browser. This actually happened. Look:

Here's the story as reported in The Hill.

To paraphrase the master, it just got weird enough for me.

Here's an interesting snippet.  A search at Netcraft on that infamous site discussed below lists a number of other sites in the same netblock, all hosted by "resellermatrix". 

In addition to the racist hosting site, the netblock also includes the infamous Combat 18/White Nationalist Party site Redwatch.net - a "service" dedicated to listing names, photos and home addresses of people the site's owners describe as "the unwashed scum of the Marxian left and their allies".  (As an example, one of the latest updates to the site includes the home address of Billy Bragg).

A quick question for any techie readers - I'm assuming these sites most likely sit on the same physical server. Their respective IP addresses are: 66.197.157.85 and 66.197.157.86.  So is it reasonable to assume that the other sites listed by Netcraft also inhabit the same server space?  There are two innocent-looking sites listed in the same netblock. 

What are the chances they're owned and run by the same people who own ***freehosting.net?  I don't know how this stuff works, I'm afraid. Is this an unfortunate coincidence for the owners of the innocent sites, or are they not as innocent as they appear...?

Phishing scams are all over the news right now, rekindling the many scare stories about the dangers of using your credit card online.

Truth is that, as long as you're sensible about it, paying online by credit card is probably much more secure than the equivalent offline transaction.

Some people, however, should never be allowed to use credit cards - online or off. They're just too dumb.

Evidence (look carefully at the background of the photo).

I guessed this would probably happen.  No sooner does one site disappear than a whole bunch of others pop up in its place.

The persistent owners of niggerfreehosting.com have reappeared through a different anonymized domain registry service and tweaked domain names (.net and .org versions and a new niggerfree.com).

I've just fired off another round of emails to the various abuse@ and support@ addresses.

BTW - a few people have asked the entirely fair question: "why link to them?"  Good point.  Why should I supply them with the oxygen of publicity at all?  I'll borrow Ben Hammersley's answer here:

"Why link to these people? Because they need a light shining on them. It's in darkness and isolation that these thing fester...These things need to be brought out into the open to be debated and debased, not left in the shadows without a dissenting voice. Just ignoring them won't make them go away, but bringing them out into the open might just cause a bit of self-examination."

It's not just a case of "know your enemy" - it's show your enemy.

The site linked to below seems to be down.  May be a coincidence, or maybe one of the emails of complaint had the desired effect.

Either way, good riddance.  Hope it stays offline for good.

Now back to Dad's day fun...

[UPDATE: The nameserver record for that domain is now listed as "NS1.SUSPENDED-FOR.SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM" at easywhois.com. Excellent. One down; several million to go...]

I don't know if this is someone's deluded, sick idea of a joke, but there has to be some way we can block, tear down, or prosecute the perpetrators of this site. (I hesitate even to point to it here, but don't worry about clicking on the link - it's work safe, alright; just shocking and disgusting).

The domain was registered in early June through Domains By Proxy, a service whose very existence also deeply perturbs me.  Their "value proposition" goes like this:

Did you know that for each domain name you register, anyone - anywhere, anytime - can find out your name, home address, phone
number and email address?

The law requires that the personal information you provide with every domain you register be made public in the "WHOIS" database. Your
identity becomes instantly available - and vulnerable - to spammers, scammers, prying eyes and worse.

But now there's a solution: Domains By Proxy!

So much for the transparent web. On the Internet no one knows you're a Nazi.

So these guys are the first on my target list of people to contact about this offensive site, as their own terms of service state:

Domains By Proxy will not do business with you, nor protect your identity, if you:
• Transmit spam, viruses or harmful computer programs;
• Violate the law or infringe a third party’s trademark or copyright;
• Engage in morally objectionable activities, including but not limited to those which are child pornographic, defamatory, abusive, harassing, 
  obscene, racist, or otherwise objectionable.

Beyond complaining to these people, I'm not sure where else to start.  Where do you go to report a hate crime? I suppose the FBI tips page might be one place. I need to do some digging around to find out if there's a process or proven approach here.

A little further research into the offending site turns up something even more disturbing, btw - in behind the hosting service front, there's a deep archive of Holocaust Denial pages with some genuinely unpleasant material.  This sub-site includes a link to FAEM, the "First Amendment Exercise Machine" which in turn links to the writings of one Eric Thomson (connected with the Anti Zionist Alliance, and probably has some connection to another neo-nazi organization, the Stormfront White Nationalist Community -- both sites feature the rubric "ORION", which translates as: "Our Race Is Our Nation").

I'm off to do some more research at Hatewatch and the Wiesenthal Center sites, but if anyone else has some suggestions for how we can combat this kind of thing, let me know by mail or comments.

(BTW, I'm aware that there is a lot of this kind of thing on the Net, just as there's a lot of pornography. That doesn't mean that it's any more acceptable. And no - I don't think the First Amendment counts here, AFAIK - there's nothing about a site like this one that should be considered protected speech, IMHO)

Fox News - that bastion of fair and balanced reporting - has accidentally made an honest admission about it's real raison d'être.

The June 14th edition of the Wall Street Journal* includes a story about the new coat of paint being applied to the Fox News website. Here's the tale as quoted in the latest PR Watch Weekly Spin newsletter:

In its "first large-scale change since 2001," Fox News is launching a major redesign of its website.

Fox News vice-president of national ad sales Roger Domal said, "In addition to just freshening up the site and making it easier to navigate ... it's a reaction to what advertisers want."

Fox News hopes the site "will enable it to become a significant competitor in the online news space. This month, the site doubled its advertising sales staff in New York and San Francisco ... The company believes the redesign will help the site double its advertising sales for 2004 ... and double its audience."

Ah ha! The secret formula to web success is at last revealed! Double your advertising staff, build a greasier gullet down which you can push more advertising, and you'll naturally double your audience.

Oh, and by the way - have we just slipped down a wormhole back to 1998?  Have those foolish scientists, teleporting their qubits (below) somehow thrown a loop into the space-time continuum?

Since when did some company re-cooking its web site merit a story in the WSJ, fercrissakes? Short of copy down there, guys? 

*No point linking - the story's locked behind a paywall. 

Um...OMG.

According to this BBC article, two groups of scientists, working in the US and Austria, have been able to demonstrate actual teleportation at a quantum level between atoms.  The findings have been published in the respectable journal Nature - it's the cover story of the latest issue, no less.

What the teams at the University of Innsbruck and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (Nist) did was teleport qubits from one atom to another with the help of a third auxiliary atom.

It relies on a strange behaviour that exists at the atomic scale known as "entanglement", whereby two particles can have related properties even when they are far apart. Einstein called it a "spooky action".

Very early days, but impressive nonetheless.

Those nice Googlefolk have given me a small handful of Gmail invitations to give away.

As their blurb says:

Gmail is an experiment in a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to find the message you want. The key features are:

• Search, don't sort.
  Use Google search to find the exact message you want, no matter when it was sent or received.

• Don't throw anything away.
  1000 megabytes of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message.

• Keep it all in context.
  Each message is grouped with all its replies and displayed as a conversation.

• No pop-up ads. No untargeted banners.
  You see only relevant text ads and links to related web pages of interest.

If you'd like an invitation, let me know by posting a comment here, or dropping me an email. It's michaelocc AT gmail DOT com, btw.

Let me eat your graaiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnsssss!!!

Well that's just silly.  Why didn't he just get KITT to drive him home? 

..of political debate.

Here's an absolutely terrific series of short time-lapse movies showing how plants move in response to stimuli, circadian rhythms or simply as a product of their growth.

The section on Nastic Movements is particularly cool, as are the sequences showing the passion flowers, moon flowers and (Charlie's favourite) the Morning Glory opening and closing in circadian response.

Finally got around to editing the latest section of Dad's memoirs (sorry it took so long, Dad).

I've tacked it onto the end of the first few sections, over at Dad's blog.

Next on the list, when I get the time, is to divide it into chapters, add some easier navigation, and maybe a section for comments at the end of every chapter. (Meg over at Mandarin Design was kind enough to teach me how to do this, but I haven't had a chance to make the changes yet).

In the meantime, if you just want to pick up reading where the last chunk left off, search for the section that starts with the words: "I have already mentioned how Ma nursed Nelly's two daughters..."

For various complicated reasons I won't go into here, I had need earlier today of a fresh, unused web-based email account.

I was in a hurry, so I picked My Own Email (MOE) pretty much at random.  Served the immediate purpose, and I'll never have need of it again, so I wasn't too worried about due diligence.

Took two minutes to set up before I could log in for the first time - after clicking "no" to all the free newsletter offers.

The astonishing thing was that the very first time I logged in, before I'd ever sent message one, I already had 129 new messages in my Inbox.  All spam and viruses, of course. 

This steaming pile of ordure had already trigggered a flashing sign at the top of the page saying: "Your account is at a critical level. You have reached 100% of your storage."

Sheesh.

Even more irritating - the Outbox showed one Sent message - a virus, relayed through my brand new account to some unsuspecting slub somewhere with a name in close alphabetical sequence to my own.

Nice.

The MOE homepage has a fairly prominent link to their "anti-spam policy", which states:

"Use of our system or email addresses for spamming or other abusive or illegal purposes is STRICTLY prohibited. We will assist in anyway possible any company or individual harmed by such activity. This includes supplying your IP and time/date stamp, assistance in IP tracing, forwarding addresses and any other information we can provide. Your account will be immediately deleted, and your IP barred from our site. We have ZERO tolerance for such activity." (their emphasis)

Yeah, right.  What this doesn't say, of course, is that they'll happily turn a blind eye to people spamming their own subscribers.

Strikes me that this is one of the defining differences between email accounts run through a real ISP and free web-based email. 

Most ISPs focus considerable resources on the challenge of keeping spam out of their subscribers' inboxes.  Makes sense.  A happy subscriber is an un-spammed subscriber. 

At the same time, one of the dirty little secrets of the Internet is that there are ISPs out there who make a ton of money by turning a blind eye to what they must realize is a torrent of mail streaming out through their systems.  Spam that leaves their server headed for somebody else is what Douglas Adam's memorably characterised as an "SEP" - Somebody Else's Problem.

Meanwhile, web-based email providers such as Yahoo!, Hotmail, and MOE can easily claim "ZERO tolerance" for spammers trying to use their service, because, quite simply, no self-respecting spammer would be likely to use a freebie account - it just wouldn't support the enormous volumes of outbound traffic they need to generate to make the economics of their "business" work. 

It's very easy for MOE to put up a stiffly worded anti-spam policy prohibiting the use of their system for spam or other "abusive or illegal purposes" as this is simply not a problem they're likely to have in any big way. 

And Hotmail, Yahoo! and the rest ain't bothered spending a lot of money on inbound spam filtering for their free accounts - the switching costs for the users are so low, and it's not like they're a major revenue source anyway.  Screw 'em.

Back in the ISP world, the postmasters and network managers continue to fight an uphill battle to keep their users from getting spammed; while ignoring, either by choice or because they lack the resources, the equally big problem of spam egress from their servers. The same spam that is very often headed for the unfiltered inboxes of the free web-based email services.

Fighting spam is not just about protecting your subscribers from others; ISPs must also protect others from themselves. The Canadian government's "Anti-spam task force" is a worthwhile and laudable initiative.  But legislation and litigation won't tackle the problem at root.

Attacking the problem top down is like a game of whack-a-mole. For every spammer you successfully prosecute, there's another five stepping up to take his/her place. The economics are just too attractive.

And filtering at the individual inbox level only treats the symptoms, not the cancer. Doesn't matter how smart the filter or how many individuals are using it - you're just blocking, not stopping.

It's a self-sustaining ecosystem. Dvorak (and others) are right: email is dead.

Unless we do something like getting all the Netheads into a room to figure out better ways to tackle the problem at the server level.

Working together, the combined resources of the Canadian ISP community massively outweigh those available to the spammers.  If they can coordinate their efforts and orchestrate a planned response to threats as they arise, we may not be able to fix the global problem, but maybe we can at least drive the spammers away from Canadian ISPs.

We'll still see spam coming in from outside the country, of course. But as Canadian servers are currently the second biggest source of spam traffic worldwide, it's still well worth us trying to put a lid on things within our borders. Renegade ISPs will find they lose friends pretty quickly if they continue to ignore the issue of spam being relayed through their servers.

[Disclosure: I'm more than a little biased here.  I'm one of the authors of the CAIP/AOL Canada anti-spam roundtable initiative.] 

I'm still only scratching the surface of Gmail, but from what I've seen so far I have to say I agree with this assessment of the service.

OK - it's a biased POV, as it's written by a Google employee - but I think he does a good job all the same.

[Um. Two Eric Case posts in a row.  People will talk...]

Last note on this, I hope.  Thanks once again to the diligent and patient support of Eric Case at Google, I've managed to restore my old Blog*Spot subdomain to where it should be and have updated all the old content to include a new pointer to here.

I'm sure this is completely uninteresting to everyone in the universe except me, but getting my first ever blog subdomain back under control and with my own content back on it just makes me feel good.

Thanks once again, Eric.

Now on to fix up and post some new updates to Charlie's and Dad's blog.  Then it's time for a template makeover here...

Time for a little happy happy joy joy dance this morning, inspired by the discovery that Brian Moffatt has started blogging again.

Yarrooo!

This may not mean much to anyone else, but when I read Brian's stuff I always feel like I'm kicking back on a patio (or round the fireplace) in some nice country pub, relishing a pint of decent ale and swapping stories.

With one of my other favourite bloggers sadly calling it quits in the last week, Brian's return to the fold is even more welcome.