“You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.”
-George W. Bush, Interview with CBS News, Washington D.C., Sept. 6, 2006
Weird Al has consistently used humor and sardonic wit to remind us not to take ourselves (or anyone else) too seriously. “Don’t Download This Song” is a topical track from his latest album to inspire the righteous in all of us. Not since “All About the Pentiums” has he struck so close to the heart.
The lyrics relate the artist’s perspective in ways we’ve not yet considered, allowing us to feel the impact of piracy on their meager lifestyles: “Don’t take away money from artists just like me./How else can I afford another solid gold Hum-Vee?” And he reminds us that there can be no exceptions to the penalties for these reprehensible transgressions: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandma or a seven year old girl./They’ll treat you like the evil hard-bitten criminal scum you are!”
Perhaps the most poignant lines detail the slippery-slope of wrongdoing, which always begins with seemingly innocent infractions: “‘Cause you start out stealing songs and then you’re robbing liquor stores/And sellin’ crack and runnin’ over school kids with your car!” These powerful words endorse a much-needed return to more earthy values, with songs sung by people, traded openly person-to-person, not stolen.
With inspiring choral arrangements and precision strikes at the industry, Weird Al paints a dichotomous picture of the biz, at the same time reminding us that labels have a right to sue but that the true impact of file sharing is minute and irrelevant. It’s almost as if, by telling us not to download this song, he is saying just the opposite, leaving his audience conflicted about the very act he’s (not) endorsing.
So please, for Weird Al’s and entire industry’s sake, “Don’t download this song. / The record store’s where you belong.”
The new slurry of “I’m and Mac. / And I’m a PC.” commercials is intended to draw new customers to Apple.
Apple paints the current PC as uptight and nerdy while the Mac is oily, underdressed and downright rude to the PC. The PC takes the insults well by responding with wit, only once stopping to consider that maybe it isn’t cool after all.
When told by the Mac that pie charts aren’t nearly as cool as hanging out, the PC responds with almost invisible sarcasm and a pie chart showing two slices, one to represent hanging out with friends and the other ‘just kicking it’.
The commercials convinced me that I don’t want a Mac, even though one commercial reminds us that the Mac can now run XP, which would instantly transform it into the very object the commercial derides. Pie charts are cool; they pay my bills.
I’m not alone in thinking the Mac persona is not selling well.
The RealID Act was passed 20050511 and goes into effect 20080511.
This law defines the minimum standards a state-issued driver’s license must meet to be considered valid for any Federal purpose including entrance to a Federal building and travel on an airline.
The law states that cards must contain: “A common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements.” The selection of the technology is delegated to the Secretary of Homeland Security.
There are three technologies that can be used to store information on an ID card: magnetic strip, smart chip, RFID tag.
Magnetic stips are widely in use now to store ID card information according to standards defined by the AAMVA. Cards must be swiped to access the information.
Smart card chips have very high capacity compared to magnetic strips and also require being fed into a reader. Information can also be encrypted and tied to a PIN to prevent unauthorized access.
RFID technologies allow the easiest access to information stored thereon. The core is similar to smart card technology. But instead of feeding the card into a reader for access, information can be read passively from a short distance using a radio frequency device.
Opponents of RFID technology are concerned that RFID will be the technology selected, and they fear that information about an individual could be read passively without his knowledge, possibly at greater distance than intended. Security methods employed on existing RFID cards has been compromised by hackers, and scanning distances have been proven at as much as sixty feet with modified equipment.
Magnetic strip and smart card technologies meet the needs of this proposed NationalID card without the security risks associated with RFID.
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
-Baltasar Gracian
The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive.
-John Sladek
I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.
-Dan Quayle
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
-Arthur Schopenhauer
I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.
-Richard Feynman
My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.
-Oscar Wilde