AltSci Blog

DRM on MP3s

jvoss@altsci.com
Oct 20, 2009

I downloaded Incubus' new album and I noticed that if I had Java turned off (like any sane person should) it would direct me to a zip file download. The zip file only had 15 songs. I asked support about it and they were aloof, obviously they and their devs had never turned off Java after the first non-deluxe album. The Java downloader is unnecessary but there is an interesting property. The files are different from the ones in the zip file. At first I was certain that it was DRM. But it's pretty difficult to put DRM in one bit. That is what is happening here.

The only thing I can think of is that they could have DRM'ed the zip file also and I am just seeing the session id incrementing. However, I think it is unlikely that they have DRM'ed the zip file. Does anyone have a copy of Incubus - Monuments and Melodies to test against?

Oct 11, 2009

I will be covering three topics very poorly tonight. Don't worry, I'll lay it out step by step as well as I can.

First off, this philisophical topic is incredibly rich and complex. I could write a dozen good essays about it and I can't even start to write a good one tonight but I'd like to discuss it. You see in order to discuss what I want to discuss, I have to explain to the casual reader why it's important and what is going on, which makes a pretty decent introduction. On Thursday I went to a talk by ACLU-WA about the Patriot Act and current surveillience tactics by the federal and local governments. The ACLU and EFF both oppose the provisions of the Patriot Act as unconstitutional. I've talked about the problem of the Patriot Act a few times before. The Supreme Court is allowing the constitution to be raided by corrupt and ignorant politicians and law enforcement is abusing the laws they are sworn to uphold. In the name of anti-terrorism, they are arresting anti-war activists for attempted disorderly conduct. That's right here in Washington State. These peaceful activists will be suing the government before long for infringement of their civil rights. But as I have said before the judiciary doesn't seem to care about the constitution anymore. It's practically done for. In the EFF's lawsuit against the NSA, Obama and the Attorney General have claimed National Security yet again. Without reasonable proof there is no reason why a military agency (the NSA is part of DoD even if it's budget is secret) should be allowed to operate against US citizens, let alone be allowed to wiretap all citizens without any suspicion.

Sept 30, 2009

My talk just got accepted for Toorcon San Diego 11. It's an incredible honor that I completely hope to live up to by working my tail off for another 26 days. I'm happy about everything and I'm looking forward to swimming in the ocean no matter how cold it is.

I told my mother about my interest in the singularity today. The singularity explains the slope of exponential technology growth when it is impossible to keep up with it. The explanation I gave my mother is like showing a television to a child. The television does something that the child understands but the child doesn't understand why. Confusion with sufficiently advanced technology is certainly expected (the CEO of Amazon thought DSL was complex in 2003) but that isn't what the singularity is about. The singularity assumes that the change in technology will be more rapid than any single human can understand a reasonable sized chunk. You can understand your specialty and you can understand what your colleagues say, but a person can't understand the gadgets they will need to carry around. But education is incredibly important to people in our society. It doesn't take long to document what you're doing, but even with completely open source it takes far longer to understand how something works than to figure out how to use it. With user interfaces improving by repetition and copying as well as impressively intelligent designers putting time into UI, understanding will always be behind usage. If we assume that technology will continue to grow exponentially, we are in for a treat as it washes over us like HG Well's Eloi in the classic Time Machine. My plan is to reassess the situation every so often and decide what to do on a case by case basis. Planning too far ahead for something like the singularity seems like a bad idea.

Sept 14, 2009

When I was young, I was pretty miserable due to my circumstances and my unwillingness to accept situations that didn't make proper sense. When I was very young, I questioned capitalism because it didn't make sense and I mistrusted authority based on money. I was right to be so, the economics of those I have questioned have been proven faulty. No, capitalism has not been proven faulty just yet and I have since changed my mind quite a bit. In fact I have embraced capitalism, but also in the same time I embrace anarchism and I still hold businesses accountable for their unbelievably bad business practices. I know that anarchists are supposed to loathe capitalism, but a new breed of anarchist has arisen from the wild west of the Internet. Self-reliance of Thoreau, community of Ghandi, sensibility of Tom Paine, and recklessness of Emma Goldman, the community grows in individual mind and foot.

But this essay isn't about Anarchism, it's about capitalism and misery. Good business practices can often bring as much misery as bad ones. When I was young I didn't understand the connection between money and value. If I wanted something of value I needed money, but there was never a question of if I wanted money, I needed value. Money was given to me for each hour I spent in misery and I couldn't wait until I was free of it. In fact, had I not found a really good distraction at age 16, I would've walked away for better or for worse. When faced with misery in exchange for money I do not consider it to be a fair trade. But capitalism is designed to do exactly that.