Google, Apple, the MAFIAA, and the racketeering scheme afoot in Youtube.

This is what you get with proprietary formats. Proprietary formats are the twin sister of DRM.

You may not have noticed, but recently Google/Youtube has decided to beta test HTML5:

HTML 5 as you may or may not be aware allows for a lot of cool new interesting features, including an opportunity to have freedom from Adobe Flash, and all the security vulnerabilities, proprietary software issues, compatibility problems and bad performance that Flash brings. (It also means that Windows users could move on to modern 64-bit browsers without being held back by the artificial limitation that is imposed by Flash)

Unfortunately…The World Wide Web Consortium, the people who draft and implement web standards, were coerced by a cartel of corporate bad guys like Apple, the RIAA/MPAA (the MAFIAA), and Google, to drop an unpatented, fully documented, public domain, royalty free set of codecs that *any* browser or user can use (Ogg Theora and Vorbis) in favor of the heavily patented, restricted license, royalty-encumbered h.264 and AAC, which only the aforementioned cartel can afford to implement or use.

Yes, I know that these codecs are widespread, and it’s mainly because Apple sells them on iTunes, but using AAC (or any other patented codec) in and of itself is nearly as bad as using a DRM-encumbered AAC that had everyone up in arms. (Yeah, I would say that MP3 is the least bad of your proprietary options, if you have to use proprietary. That doesn’t make it peachy.) Patent-encumbered codecs are the next best thing to DRM.

In partaking of this wrongdoing, Google has helped the rest of the cartel to betray the public interest, and implement a de facto racketeering scheme in which all the free and open source web browsers and small companies who can’t afford to pay the ridiculous and unaffordable licensing to the MPEG Consortium (this includes Firefox, Opera, and most browsers not made by cartel members and Microsoft) are left out in the cold.

Why…Would the W3C, an organization meant to foster creativity, interoperability, and fully documented standards for the web betray us like this? Money talks.

Google/Youtube has set up a forum for “public feedback” on the HTML 5 Beta. I strongly urge all those who are concerned about this conflict of interest between Google and the public voice their concerns. Tell Google that you say NO to handcuffware!

Rant: Failure is not an option, it’s included in every XBOX 360

I can’t do it in good conscience, so I’ll do it in bad conscience:

Microsoft’s XBOX 360 is a lemon. Just about everyone who has owned one can tell you all about the Red Ring of Death. By some accounts they have a 54% failure rate.

By my count, they have had an 87.5% rate of failure, that is, of the total 8 consoles (yes, EIGHT) I’ve had, only the one they just sent back from refurbishing works.

If you divide 8 consoles by 49 months (November 2005 – December 2009), a 360 has a life expectancy of just over 6 months, if you use it a few hours a day like I tended to.

That doesn’t take into account the 3 week turnaround to get one refurbished each time the three red rings appear. Yeah, Microsoft does that for free, but the hassle of calling them, arguing with them, getting them to send out a box, packing the 360, taking it to the dropoff 10 miles from here, waiting three weeks, maybe having some idiot UPS driver lie and say he tried to deliver it when he never bothered to find my apartment, and driving up to the UPS hub in Fort Wayne, Indiana (30 miles) (Happened twice), is just not worth it.

I’m sick of the failure rate (all of them), I’m sick of getting nickel and dimed (more like fifties and hundreds) for accessories that cost twice as much as a fair market value.

Did you know that the PS3 starts at $299 and has a 120 GB hard disk, free online multi-player, and built in wifi? The XBOX 360 starts out at $299 for the 120 GB model, but then they charge you $100 for the wifi antenna (The same thing as a external USB antenna for PC that runs $20), then there’s Live which costs $60 a year for multiplayer. There’s $60 games that make you buy another $20 worth of DRM-encumbered “content packs” to really get the full thing.

A Nintendo Wii costs $199 and has wifi and free multiplayer, but the XBOX 360 wifi dongle and a 1 year XBOX Live card will run you $160 all by themselves.

What’s sick about the “content packs” is that even though I sold all my games, I can’t transfer to the buyer of the console all my downloads for them, they would have to buy all of them again, whereas I can not use my copy now and should be allowed to give it to them. They should have named this thing the “DRMBOX 666….*ZAP*…..E74 – Contact Microsoft Support”.

Those XBOX support people have gotten much harder to deal with. They used to have Americans on the support line (or maybe it was Canadians, but they speak English too), now they’ve offshored everything to India and make you wait on hold for like 30 minutes while your XBOX 360 is over there bricked, rubbing it all in your face by making you listen to ads for XBOX games (!!!!) and the electric guitar version of the Halo theme song so that some dude with a thick foreign accent can tell you to try unplugging it and plugging it back in, and other gems for the next half hour before writing the damned RMA authorization. (ARAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!)

So I sold the new refurb, all my games, etc. today to a woman and her teenage son off Craigslist, and may whatever god they believe in have mercy on their souls. I may be going to hell specifically for selling them an XBOX 360.

Now off to find my Wii……..

My response to Comcast astroturfers over the HD rant.

(REPLY I sent through email to Comcast’s address given.)

I got a message on my blog about a entry I made complaining that Comcast is massively obsolete and offers no HD channels at all and a whopping 7 channels (locals and ESPN) on the board in December, and got this reply.
—-

Hi there,

We are transitioning analog channels and reorganizing them to offer more HD choices. Are more channels move to the digital line-up, more HD channels and speedier internet will become available. If we can offer more clarification, you can reach us at We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com.

Best,

Detreon Roberts
Comcast National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

—-

I’d like you guys to clarify exactly when you’re going to have some real HD programming on real channels. Specifically, I would like to know when SpikeTV, SyFy, TBS, USA, and Discovery are scheduled to transition to HD in your Huntington, Indiana (46750) line up (And if you could give me a further timetable I would appreciate that too). DirecTV and Dish Network and FIOS all have those and more. Why am I paying Comcast a similar amount each month to continue to broadcast in an analog, 640 x 480 resolution that is older than I am.

You have real HD options in bigger regions, why does Huntington, Indiana get left with all your most horribly obsolete service options and slowest internet connection speeds, drop offs, etc?

Why does Comcast have such shoddy equipment? Did you know that I had to drive you your local office three times yesterday because the DVR I got there the first time had a bad HDMI port, and the second one I got home with wouldn’t power on at all? Why can’t Comcast plug the damned things in and see if they at least power on?

Why did I spent two months getting knocked offline precisely whenever before your tech brought out a modern DOCSIS 3 modem that seems to work?

If you have any response to this, I’d appreciate it as I’m CCing it to my blog. If you have to choose a part to answer, I’d really like the HD questions answered first.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Ryan Farmer

Microsoft leaks tool that lets law enforcement turn off your hard disk encryption, clear your passwords, and scoop up batches of evidence.

Oops.

I’ve maintained for some time that Microsoft has programs that fit on bootable USB sticks and allow law enforcement to override your Microsoft Bitlocker, Encrypted File System (EFS), and password data, and gather all your private information to use against you later in a criminal trial.

That system is called COFEE, for Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor. (Microsoft page about it here)

It has been known for some time that Microsoft has backdoored Windows for the US government, when Microsoft got careless and forgot to obscure a cryptographic signing key given to the NSA back in 1998. (The backdoor is still there, just obscured now), but people don’t tend to believe me about COFEE.

If you use Microsoft Bitlocker or EFS, you’re wasting your time, because Microsoft gives these devices out to law enforcement on down to your local police department. If the police get a warrant and seize your machine, and you’re using Bitlocker or EFS, you’ve essentially just handed them the evidence and the only difference the “Microsoft security” will make is that it might cost the cops an extra 2 minutes to boot off the COFEE key and unlock your hard drive.

COFEE was recently leaked onto the web, and Microsoft has been sending cease and desist orders, but COFEE is still on a lot of bittorrent sites if you would like to try it out for yourself.

While I’m at it:

Many Linux distributions offer /home folder + SWAP encryption or (even better), whole disk encryption. And I doubt the people behind those projects are pissing on you and telling you it’s raining, like Microsoft has when it tell you that Bitlocker and EFS are trustworthy and proceeds to sell an instant workaround and evidence collector to the police.

 

Does having an HDTV actually mean anything if you have Comcast?

I’ve been tossing the idea around to get a new LCD HDTV set, but I don’t think I will, here’s why.

I got a letter in the mail from the evil Cable Overlords known as Comcast. In addition to the obvious raise in rates (10% hike in a year where the government says that the economy DEFLATED), we’re getting a whopping seven HD channels.

Five of these are local channels, I could get them for free on an antenna. Technically they are on the “Limited Basic” plan for $19.99 a month, but you need an HD box (which means a DVR) for another $15 a month to actually tune any of these in. Do you think anyone wants to rent a DVR for basic cable? Neither do I.

The other two are on “Digital Starter” which went up to $57 and are ESPN and ESPN-2, which I don’t care about.

The last bit of “good news” is that Comcast is shifting the channels around so that all the channels people want are only on Digital Starter or higher. They did add one channel I want, but I’m not paying another $15 a month for the package that has it.

When my Digital Starter promo fee crap wears out, I’ll probably go to Digital Economy, which means I lose the Sci-Fi channel (only one in Starter that I care about), but pay $30 instead of $57. Thankfully Stargate Universe is on Hulu anyway.

So not only am I going to downgrade my service, there’s yet another year with no real HD programming from Comcast and no reason to buy a nice TV.

I may just get satellite yet...

Windows 7 Starter sucks so bad that even Windows “evangelists” are running for cover.

Microsoft’s big plan to take on Linux…

The netbook is a funny thing, funny in that the hardware has to be so power efficient and light that Microsoft could never stuff Vista onto them. Another problem for Microsoft was that Linux set the price point at around $299 USD. To compete, Microsoft dug out its 9 year old OS, Windows XP, blew the dust off it, and dumped it for around $3 a copy.

Obviously Microsoft can’t thrive without inflated profit margins, so when the time came to slap Windows 7 on the things (which I’ve used on netbook hardware, and found that it doesn’t work well), they came up with a crippled edition with all of the features turned off.

This edition is called Windows 7 Starter, and has no AERO, no Media Center, is 32-bit only, won’t let you change the wallpaper or the theme, and has a bunch more ridiculous limitations.

Last year, Microsoft conspired with retailers like Best Buy to fake some statistics on Linux netbook return rates. While in truth, most people were perfectly happy with them, Microsoft bribed companies to spread the word that they were not happy, and were returning most of them.

With Vista 7: Crippleware Edition, I’d like to see what the return rates on these suckers will be. Of course, Microsoft is hoping to surprise you with how much it sucks, and wave Windows Anytime Upgrade in your face. For a mere $80 more, you can presto change-o and transform it magically into the same OS you had before with the features turned back on!

I don’t think people will go for this, because I tend to be pissed when I buy something and then later find out that it wasn’t the full version and they want more of my money. Technically with Windows, you never have the full version unless you pay them to give you “Ultimate” which is essentially still just paying them to enable features that were already in the OS.

I believe a mixture of two things will happen to the Vista 7 Crippleware netbooks:

1. Massive return rates.

2. The rest will figure out how to install Linux, which is free, and has no such silly artificial limitations designed to pump you for more money like an elaborate Vista 7 Crippleware scam.

The article that inspired this is from Preston Gralla at Computer World, who is essentially paid by Microsoft to write favorable reviews. It kind of shocked me when he had this to say about Vista 7: Crippleware Edition:

Computerworld just published the results of a survey from the shopping site Retrevo.com, which found that 61% of people don’t know that there’s a difference between Windows 7 and the Windows 7 Starter Edition — and that 56% of those who then found out the differences between the two said they would not be happy with Starter Edition.The Computerworld article notes that, according to Retrevo.com, 23 out of 28 netbooks sold on Amazon.com are equipped with Starter Edition, which means a lot of potentially unhappy Windows customers.At $80, the price to upgrade from Starter Edition to the full version of Windows 7 is steep, particularly for people who have opted to buy a low-cost netbook.That’s bad enough news for Microsoft, but there’s worse as well. A recent study from ABI Research found that 32% of people worldwide will buy Linux netbooks this year, versus 68% for Windows. Other studies have shown Microsoft with a far more dominant lead in netbooks, but those studies are for the U.S. only.

 

Source.

At least one of the rats can tell when the ship is sinking.

Goodbye Nvidia, forever. Hello AMD/ATI! On Linux, ATI is a no brainer.

So my last computer had a massive failure that would cost more to fix than the computer was worth. It happens.
This time, when selecting a new machine, I steered clear of Intel (another story there sometime) and Nvidia. I instead settled on an AMD Phenom II X4 945 3 Ghz and an HIS ATI RadeonHD 4670 (1 GB GDDR3). Needless to say, this system blows the older Core 2 Duo and Geforce 9500GT 512MB GDDR3 system I had away, but there’s some added bonuses in here for persons who use Linux, and a few perks that seem to apply no matter what OS you use.

Nvidia has been grinding my gears for a few years and I’ve had enough:

Aside from the political activities of their Board of Directors, several of which donated $10,000 to help pass the bigoted Proposition 8 in California. (Source: Publicly available donor list), their video cards are overpriced and still manage to under-perform similarly priced RadeonHD models. (The RadeonHD 4670 outperforms the Geforce 9500GT by a factor of two to three, at about $20 cheaper).

What *really* destroyed Nvidia’s chances of selling me another card in the future though is their terrible support for Linux.

The biggest single user experience problem with Nvidia’s driver is that the installer is not user friendly, it requires you to make X shut down which is not always easy. If the installer bombs out for any of 1,000 reasons, the errors are unhelpful, and you have to redo everything each time you rebuild a kernel. Having an Nvidia card on Linux puts you on a very short leash, and sometimes stops you from building your own kernel or even using development kernels. Sometimes even final release kernels are a no-no for weeks until Nvidia catches up.

Almost everyone has heard the cliche that “It only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch”. On Linux, Nvidia is that bad apple, because it’s like, here’s 95% of your hardware that the kernel supports and you never have to think about, and here’s one device with a horribly conceived installer for an out of tree driver that doubles the work needed to run your own kernel. If that wasn’t enough, having the Nvidia driver installed invalidates all your kernel bug reports, is frequently the cause of crashes, lags months or years behind new features in X or the kernel (Like the eternal promise of RandR 1.2 support and always the excuse that it supports their crappy TwinView instead), runs a binary blob with kernel permissions that could be executing anything on your computer or causing security holes (say goodbye to being able to do a real security audit), and generally drinks the blood of puppies. (That part is a slight exaggeration)

And that’s why I’m not going to be recommending Nvidia to anyone I talk to from now on. You can run into the same number of problems that Nvidia causes your Linux distribution just by formatting Linux off and returning to Windows.

You can run a fully functional Linux system with an ATI RadeonHD without finding binary drivers. The binary ATI driver does provide faster performance on some models, but you don’t need it just to have 3d acceleration and all the features of X.

If Nvidia tried this behavior with Windows users, it would be the longest suicide note in PC history… I’m switching over to ATI’s line of cards from now on regardless of which OS I choose.

Microsoft promotes Windows 7 with a bunch of giant Whoppers

For real!

Now some Asian dude is going to drop dead from eating enough cholesterol to kill anything that’s ever lived.

I guess the lesson is, watch what you swallow.

Full story here.

“Call ‘em out” The Indiana state website is using Microsoft crap and screwing over standards-compliant browsers

As many of you know, I begrudgingly use Windows:

That doesn’t mean that I love it, and I certainly hate Microsoft Internet Explorer. Seems that some sites still don’t get that IE is a turd and that it’s not what their visitors wish to use.

Well, I had to print out a license I hold from the Indiana State Department of Health yesterday and guess what came up?

Notice the “.aspx” extension? Means they’re using Microsoft ASS.NET, errrr….. ASP.NET. No wonder it breaks when you’re using Opera.

Not every ASS.NET page breaks in Opera, but nearly every page that does break in Opera is built with ASS.NET. (On a side note, Silverblight won’t work at all, but who cares?)

Maybe now that the FCC is making a landgrab  for the internet under the veil of “network neutrality”, they can enforce real W3C standards on the assclowns that handle Indiana state websites.

There’s nothing worse than a Republican -or- Fear and Loathing on the American No Insurance Trail

In case anyone was wondering why I disappeared last month…

No, I didn’t die, but I may well have thanks to our broken healthcare system and the Republican politicians who are more or less paid employees of the pharmaceutical and insurance cartels.

Rather than re-type the entire thing, I’ll paste the letter I sent to the editor of the local newspaper, the Huntington Herald Press.

Before I quote myself, let me say one more thing. You know what really pisses me off? That the Republicans, and the cartels who sponsor their high treason get to run libellous and patently false TV ads accusing the Democrats of trying to make a smash and grab government takeover of healthcare. They cite the pending failure of Medicare that the Republicans caused in 2006 with the pharmaceutical cartel written Medicare Part D law which forbids Medicare from negotiating for better drug prices. If the bottle of pills that costs Eli Lilly $1 to make retails for $400, Medicare must pay that even if the same bottle of pills in Canada is $80.

Their fraudulent astroturfing TV ad ends with something like “Don’t let bureaucrats stand between you and your healthcare”. Well, not having $400 a month for pills, $50,000 for major surgery, or $70 for an office visit to your doctor won’t get in the way any will it? Geez, give me a break! These idiots are just so far over the damned top, they’re in low earth orbit.

Dear Editor,

With the Republican Party continuing to be an obstruction to quality healthcare, I recently had my own ordeal.

On Sept. 27, I had two Grand Mal seizures. One was in my shower, and when I woke up, my arms were damaged and later bruised, and I had to pull myself screaming out of my shower. I called my mother at work who came to my apartment and took me to the Parkview Emergency Room, where I proceeded to have another one. The ER did the very minimal stabilizing treatment they were legally obligated to do and sent me on my way, barely able to move, since I am not rich and don’t have tons of insurance (in the same boat as 48 million other Americans). For two days I was bed ridden and could barely move, and I still have major bruising on both arms and am in considerable pain, two weeks later.

The bill for the ER arrived and is $2,851.10 after a so-called $900 “No-insurance discount” plus other expenses that haven’t arrived yet for a required EEG. (Most likely another several hundred dollars or more)

I am on Disability income and have no access to Medicare til May, many Americans don’t even have that to look forward to, and these Republicans need to stop being the “Party of No” and do something, because every minute they delay, more people die or go bankrupt due to refusal of treatment or crushing medical expenses they cannot afford.

In closing, I would like to thank the Huntington Free Clinic for helping me so much, and without their help this situation would be far worse than it is.

Sincerely,

Ryan F.

Tune in next time for “Doctor Strangelove, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Bankruptcy Court”.

Maybe Florida Representative Alan Grayson says what the Republicans are up to best: