Places I have accounts around the web:
Livejournal (2)
MySpace
Blogger (2)
WordPress
GMail
Yahoo
AOL
AIM
Kiko
Planzo
Writely
ProtoPage
Fyuze
Hoverspot
Digg
del.icio.us
This Place I Know

None of them do everything I want them to.

So I found http://planzo.com/, an onlnie calendar that’s easy to use, but has no ability for other people to request time on it, and I can’t import my iCal or Palm calendars into it. Oh well. It was worth a shot.

They do e-mail me on a daily basis to let me know my schedule, but I’ve got it memorized for the most part anyway. Everything’s AJAX so there’s no page reloading once you enter an event. Also, no multiple tags. I’ve yet to find a calendar that supports this. Anyone care to build me one?

Here’s another interesting thing though, look at the login page. Looks like some web search company’s login sites, doesn’t it? Planzo’s either hoping to get bought by Google or just doesn’t have much imagination when it comes to their own design.

Looks like it’s back to the “calendar beta ajax” Google search for me.

edit: I’m also going to be trying Kiko as well. they claim they are working on importing iCal calendars. If I can convince them to include multiple tags, then at least it’s a step in the right direction. I’m also playing around with Monket’s calendar on my server as well. Hoefully, one of them will satisfy what I’m looking for.

So here’s what I want:

1. To be able to view my calendar (and sync it to my Zire 72’s calendar and iCal) online and edit it online as well.
2. At the same time, I want to be able to allow other people (people I freelance for) to put in requests for time that is viewable to me.
3. I want to be able to add tags to each scheduled event I have posted.
4. And when I confirm a request, it should send an e-mail to the person who requested it confirming the request.

I hope Google Calendar can do this, probably without the e-mail confirmations though. I checked through the MoMB site, but no luck.

I heard a new one yesterday.

French Canadians are great at putting up drywall.

The joke goes liek this: What’s the different between a frog and a toad?  A toad can’t sheetrock.

So it’s not even 2006 yet, but I’m setting some goals for myself. Some esay, some no so easy. Here are a few preliminary ones:

1. Before October 3rd, 2006, I will weigh less than 200 lbs. I will still weigh less than 200 lbs. on January 1st, 2007.
2. I will get my company’s website up and running. The soft deadline in February 1st, 2006, and the hard deadline is April 1st, 2006. This will include both the Blattcave Productions site and the Blattcave Podcasting site.
3. I will move into a house I own at the latest of when my current lease expires on June 10th, 2006.
4. I will continue my involvement with Inside Pulse and hit my deadlines for my soon to be every other week column

Just a preview.

I think anyone who gets to this blog already knows about the Sony XCP/DRM debacle. some new developments to this isthat Sony potentially broke the DMCA in order to create it’s anti-iTunes copy protection.

The DMCA states it’s illegal to reverse engineer copy protection. Getting technical, Mark Russinovich of Sys Internals and the guys at F-Secure broke the law to find out that the XCP copy protection was poorly written and harmful to any system it installed itself on.

But here’s a new twist. Rumor has it that parts of the XCP code were lifted from open sources applications. Parts of the multiple program’s code were found in the XCP code.

DRMS code was found in XCP. It is used to strip Apple’s FairPlay iTunes copy protection from songs, originally written by hacker hero DVD Jon. Reportedly it’s not being utilized, but still sits on these CDs. But that doesn’t matter. think back to the Rockstar/Grand Theft Auto/Hot Coffee debacle. The code wasn’t used by the game, but it was still there.

The LAME (more stolen code found in XCP) guys have said they’re not the suing kind of guys. But they have a big gun aimed at Sony if they don’t do what they feel is right here. I’m pretty sure they’d be happy if they pulled XCP discs off the shelves for good, replaced any discs that have this on it and offered a complete uninstall and fix of whatever this disc put on computers.

So who broke the law here? Who has the right to sue who?

Sony:

• potentitally broke the law by installing this in the first place. I’m sure this will be determined in the courts.
• supposedly sviolated copyrights by including code from LAME, id3lib, mpglib, mpg123, FAAC, and DRMS in their XCP CDs.
• Potentially violated the DMCA by including software that reverse engineer’s Apple’s FairPlay in their XCP CDs.

The creators of LAME, id3lib, mpglib, mpg123, FAAC, and DRMS:

• Has a big gun aimed at Sony that says “Lawsuit”, but doesn’t plan on pulling the trigger

Mark Russinovich, SysInternals and F-Secure:

• Violated the DMCA by reverse engineering Sony’s XCP

Apple:

• Can sue Sony for violating their copy protection and the DMCA by including DVD Jon’s FairPlay stripping code

This of course doesn’t count the lawsuits by New York, Texas, California, Italy and (I think) Britain against Sony.

References:
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=940
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=933
http://sam.zoy.org/blog/2005-11-21-suspicious-activity-indeed

Recently, the Library of Congress created a few exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) that are raising a few eyebrows.

Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

This, of course, leaves itself wide open to speculation and interpretation. Is the Nintendo Entertainment System considered an obsolete format? It’s no longer manufactured by Nintendo (although a few third party vendors are now making systems that can read original NES and Famicom games ever since the patent ran out), and is only available used in gaming stores and on ebay.

Does this mean that they are obsolete? The original media can’t be played anymore. Or does Nintendo’s announcement of the ability to play games in emulation on the revolution circumvent this and suddenly the DMCA covers them again? Nintendo re-released the classic line-up in Animal Crossing and for the Game Boy Advanced, does this mean that they’re covered there too?

Do these NES rip offs protect the Nintendo copyright on these games because suddenly the original media works on something available today? Or because I can’t walk into an f.y.e. and say “I’d like a copy of Tecmo Bowl please” and get the game mean I can download a ROM file and block field goals with Lawrence Taylor to my hearts content?

Does the Revolution’s emulation count as being reasonably available? You do have to buy new technology, and the original media can’t be played on it regardless. Much like if you’re told “No!” on porm night, this is up for interpretation and migh not be as it seems.

I think until the first court case (and I think there will never be one) this will be a gray area.

The Broadband Tuner allows you to take full advantage of very high speed FiOS based Internet connections that have a high latency. The installer tweaks some system parameters.

This was not the decription a few days ago, as it had no mention of FiOS connections at all. Just speeds of over 5MBps. This has confused a lot of people recently.

It’s been slightly clarified over at Version tracker’s comment section for the file that if you’ve got a high speed connection and are looknig at ping times of 100+ms, then the Broadband Tuner will help. Otherwise, this might DECREASE your download speeds.

How can you check your ping time?
Open Terminal and enter this string: ping a.root-servers.net

It’ll give you al ist. If you’re over 100ms and are on a high speed connection, this could work for you. I saw no improvement on my G5, but my pings were also under 100 (and downloaded before this FiOS thing was added.)

Installed it accidentally? Well, Apple claims:

There is an optional uninstaller that can be used to restore the settings that were in effect at the time just before the system parameters were changed.

Although people were mentioning grey screens of death unpon uninstalling. I’ll let you know tomorrow.

We’re the same guy. Or something.

Sorry if I just spoiled the end of Fight Club, but apparently Apple had the same idea I had a few weeks ago in that the Mac has a future in the living room.

Check out this Think Secret post to see what I mean. A Mac Mini with a DVR built into it, apparently as a part of Front Row 2.0. Hot stuff!

Here’s my personal speculation, the Mac Mini is going to have a composite or RCA output built into it. So remember that in January when the Intel Mac Mini is released.

Exactly one year ago today, Matty was adopted by me for a mere $75 and another $75 donation. I can’t tell you how unmeasureably better Matty has made my life. If you’ve been thinking about adopting a pet but haven’t gotten around to it, please go out and adopt a dog, cat, rabbit, ferret, horse, etc. that needs a home. Avoid the pet stores, find a kill shelter and look for a friendly dog or go to a no-kill shelter that adopts dogs from kill shelters, or just a no-kill shelter.

I adopted Matty form the North Shore Animal League on Long Island, NY. They were one of the shelters that sent planes and vans down to the gulf coast when the hurricanes hit earlier this year knowing that hundreds of pets would be displaced as a result. Recently they took dogs in from China that were heading towards being slaughtered. Their website doesn’t reflect the amount of dogs, cats puppies and kittens then actually have there.

Another great directory online is petfinder.com.

When walking through the Animal League I looked at a few dogs, they were all barking pretty loudly except for one who looked like he was sleeping. He was very cute and had an odd body shape to him. I pointed him out and said “That’s the one, but I want to walk though and make sure.” Sure enough, I walked by all the other dogs and none of them stuck out liek this one did. I asked to play with him for a few minutes, but first I had to wake him up from his nap. He came to, and what an odd combination he was! Part Basset Hound, part German Shepherd, this little guy had the body size of a German Shepherd on the legs of a Basset Hound. His coat was a Shepherds, and so was his face, but his ears were turned down, and when he wagged his tail, his whole body swung around because he was so excited. They weren’t sure of an exact age, jsut somewhere between 2 and 3. He was neutered, they knew that much. I wish I paid closer attention, but I’m pretty sure he was saved from a kill shelter in West Virginia. I’ll have to call and ask if they still have that info on record.

A few thrown tennis balls, hugs and face licks later, I had filed the adoption papers. Thanks to my references (my sister and my friend April) I drove back to my parents house with Clawson in tow.

My mom didn’t know I went to adopt a dog, so she was pretty surprised when I came home with a dog. She even broke her one rule she said she’d never break (no dogs in the house ever again), and she admitted he was a very cute dog and thatmaybe she’d let him in the house next time I was home. From there I went to my sisters to see if he socialized well with her golden, and they socialized great. When I went to pick up some supplies from the store, my sister said he waited by the door the whole time.

Later that night I decided to change his name to Mattingly, or Matty for short. The rest, as they say, is history.