Category: Uncategorized (Page 25 of 35)

Via Liberty and Power, a link to an abstract of an essay by Benjamin Barton on the implied libertarian critique of government in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.

The critique is even more devastating because the governmental actors and actions in the book look and feel so authentic and familiar. Cornelius Fudge, the original Minister of Magic, perfectly fits our notion of a bumbling politician just trying to hang onto his job. Delores Umbridge is the classic small-minded bureaucrat who only cares about rules, discipline, and her own power. Rufus Scrimgeour is a George Bush-like war leader, inspiring confidence through his steely resolve. The Ministry itself is made up of various sub-ministries with goofy names (e.g., The Goblin Liaison Office or the Ludicrous Patents Office) enforcing silly sounding regulations (e.g., The Decree for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans or The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery). These descriptions of government jibe with our own sarcastic views of bureaucracy and bureaucrats: bureaucrats tend to be amusing characters that propagate and enforce laws of limited utility with unwieldy names. When you combine the light-hearted satire with the above list of government activities, however, Rowling’s critique of government becomes substantially darker and more powerful.

I ventured reluctantly into the world on Harry Potter only after the third novel saw publication in paperback, but I quickly became a fan. The seven-novel saga (one book remains to be written) sketches a rich world as young Harry grows to adulthood, cursed to be different in many ways. He’s a wizard, an orphan, abused by his adoptive family, feared and misunderstood by fellow wizards, and fated to face the most dangerous wizard ever born. I noticed early on the strong antipathy towards government and its minions in Rowling’s books, especially book five. Yet also the man-hunt for Sirius Black and revelations into the way the Ministry of Magic dealt with wizards after Voldemort’s “death” highlighted the corruption of those in power. Several of Voldemort’s allies received government positions, influencing the direction of the Ministry. For an alleged children’s series, Harry Potter is layered with multiple meanings far beyond the perceptions of a young audience. Rowling writes with this in mind, resulting in the series’ popularity with adults as well.

BBC reports that Sky One is planning a new series inspired by the Prisoner. Although the themes of conspiracy and paranoia will remain, the setting will differ, and the show would take other “liberties” with the original. In 2002 the Libertarian Futurist Society recognized The Prisoner with a Prometheus Award for a classic work of liberty. The entire 17 show series is available in a nicely packaged DVD set.

This story adds a level to Sony’s sly metthod of loading various DRM software on user PC. All this focus on Sony does make me wonder what other companies are up to? Lately all the discussion has been about piracy and methods to protect intellectual rights, but subverting the customer’s computer system seems like a risky path, in my opinion. There are legal implications in Sony’s method, but more importantly, your computer and privacy end up compromised. The key is to simply avoid all infected CDs. Quarantine them. Ignore them. This won’t be the last we hear from Sony, nor the last attempt at intrusive DRM in CDs and DVDs.

From EFF, a list of Sony CDs with draconian copy protection keyed to infect and in some cases disable your computer (and liberty). Good thing none of these bands are on my list, but in addition, some photos of how to detect these CDs, and also how to disable the XCP software.

Vinge’s keynote address from Accelerating Change 2005 is available as an MP3 download. Recorded 9/17/05, the speech runs around 40 minutes. Very interesting stuff, and quite timely in terms of my discovery of this, as I’m currently working on a review of Ray Kurtzweil’s non-fiction book, The Singularity is Near.

Chris Hibbert reviews Prometheus Award nominated novel, RebelFire: Out of the Gray Zone. Perhaps too many spoilers in the second-to-last paragraph, but overall a positive review.

Indeed. This did not take long. Sony rootkit tehcnology opens the door to hackers.

Sci Fi Wire reports on the announcement that Steve Gould’s novel, Jumper, will be adapted for the big screen. “Fight Club writer Jim Uhls will rewrite a script by David S. Goyer (TV’s Threshold). Production will begin in the spring.”

In a previous post I mentioned the DRM that Sony installs on Windows PC. Now it appears Sony CDs also account for Mac OS X and installs some form of copy-protection. Now, I’m against piracy, but this move is not the right way to go, in my opinion.

Via Claire Wolfe’s blog, a link to a story about MPAA thuggery at a movie-plex. The author seems to think “movie studios are losing revenue because of the increasingly poor movie-going experience and general low-quality of the movies they are making.” Perhaps. In my case, I hate rude fellow patrons, and inevitably I have people right behind me talking through the movie. That makes me prefer viewing a DVD at home. The last movie I saw, Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, was a matinee. As the lights dimmed, I seemed to be the only person in the theatre. But then, a moment later, two older women hobble in, both talking. They proceeded to talk through-out the entire movie, despite loud comments and muttered curses from me, thereby ruining the movie. Yes, I probably could have alerted the manager, but would that have stopped them/ probably only for a few minutes, and I would have lost screen-time in the time it would have taken to find a person. No, I prefer to watch the movie on my own time, at home, although the screen is smaller, and I have to keep the volume down to not wake the infant.