The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on February 22, 2005

Broadcast Flag:
So, I don't know where this is going to go, but Slashdot is reporting that a US court of appeals chastised the FCC for the FCC's rule mandating the broadcast flag implementation. For those of you who aren't aware, the broadcast flag is an “bit” (not even an encryption) contained within a digital TV broadcast stream. This bit is used to “protect broadcaster copying from being traded all over the internet”, or so says the industry. In reality, it basically allows them to tell hardware “don't record this”. Well, that's easy, I'll just get hardware that lets me do what I want, right? Wrong. Forget the bad stuff with DVD region coding – this is an FCC mandate. It would be ILLEGAL to make a device that doesn't handle this flag. This means that a digital TiVo or digital VCR can be told NOT to record something, because the network doesn't want you too. However, this ruling might very well be the beginning of it being overturned. Might not, but here's hoping.

Bars:
Liz's bar arrived.

PBS: Buster
Apparently, Buster is this cartoon rabbit who goes around doing “postcards of America”. So, he goes to Vermont, and visits a farm. Well, the kids on the farm have two mommies. This is not explicitly stated on the show, but apparently it still has people very upset. (Washington Post Article) See, you're supposed to be able to put your children in front of PBS, and it's supposed to be a “safe haven”, without being exposed to this filth. Because it's being funded by the Department of Education, there is pressure from the administration to not air the episode. However, many PBS affiliates are airing it anyway. “Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode”. Maybe so, but this is reality. Get over it.

PBS: Frontline
In a similar issue as above, a Frontline documentary has discovered something that has PBS stations divided (Reuters Article). Apparently, when being shot at, US servicemen use naughty words. Following the “halftime boobie” incident the FCC is cracking down, and so people are concerned that airing the episode will lead to fines. Once again, get real. This is not gratuitous, or entertaining; it is a documentary. It is real. If you don't want to see this, then change the channel. Or, better yet, don't send our neighbors into harm's way.

Microsoft Tools:
After a killing a misbehaving VB app crashed the IDE and caused me to lose some work, I had a conversation with Liz about the state of MS's tools. First, they should expect that things like this would happen, and make the IDE not die when the child app is killed. Second, they should have an “auto backup” feature, so then when you start the IDE again, it asks if you would like to recover the file (because it's autosaved a temp file just in case bad things happen). After all, emacs has been doing this for quite some time. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask other tools to do it as well.

However, Liz brought up an interesting point. Microsoft makes simple, easy to use tools. This lowers the bar so that morons can write code. Morons work for little money. Morons writing code feed the studies which say “the cost of development/maintenance/etc. is cheaper under Microsoft platforms”, because they are cheap.

Microsoft: Lowering the bar so you can hire morons. After all, mission-critical systems are perfectly safe in the hands of a wanker with an MCSE.

The Episcopal Church
Apparently, several US Episcopal Churches are upset because a Gay bishop was confirmed. This is very bad, because gays are evil and are going to burn in hell, and this shows that the episcopal church of the US has lost it's way. So, they splintered off and joined an Episcopal Diocese in Africa.

Now, I can expect this from Baptists (rabidly conservative, and love to fork their religion into various sects), and to an extent, from Lutherans (Luther didn't want to fork the religion, it was done after his death). Wouldn't happen with Catholics (too conservative and organized), but the Episcopalians? Perhaps we should do some history:

The Episcopal church (known as the Anglican church by everyone outside the USA) was formed by Henry VIII because the pope wouldn't let him divorce yet another wife. It was formed for questionable moral reasons. Therefore, you have no right to splinter the religion based on yet another moral objection. Give me a break.

Anyway, time to read. Night all.

Category: LJ Import
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