Rubénerd!

Wikimedia Commons really is an amazing place, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Wikimedia supporter and contributor! I can spend hours trawling through its archive of images and art.

In this case, while looking for some bread iconography with Clara (for a bad pun to insert into a group presentation), we came across an entire photographic series on bread making. Every step is there, from the initial ingredient mixing, to the dough kneading and shaping, to the baking and final presentation.

The bread the bakers are baking (how's that for an inspired sentence) is houska, a style of Czech roll. I remember having one of these in Plzeň when we took a detour from Bavaria on our last Europe trip, and wanting to smuggle a huge bag of them home with me! The atmosphere of tucking into one of these freshly baked, warm rolls in a small café with my dad and sister while we looked outside at the snow... it had a lasting impression on me.

But back to the photos! I'm a home baker, and am always interested in seeing how others perform the craft. I'm fascinated by their mix of machinery and human touches; while you can automate the entire process and produce boring sandwich bread slices, in this process ultimately the humans still have the final say.

Thanks to Chmee2 for this great photographic series, you made my morning ^_^.

TL;DR, but here's BoingBoing's excerpt from a crazy new report from the "Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property".

Additionally, software can be written that will allow only authorized users to open files containing valuable information. If an unauthorized person accesses the information, a range of actions might then occur. For example, the file could be rendered inaccessible and the unauthorized user’s computer could be locked down, with instructions on how to contact law enforcement to get the password needed to unlock the account. Such measures do not violate existing laws on the use of the Internet, yet they serve to blunt attacks and stabilize a cyber incident to provide both time and evidence for law enforcement to become involved.

Locking people out of their computers and requiring a call to access files isn't new. More brazen malicious hackers have been performing ransomware attacks for years, ranging from simple fake password screens to encrypting files with a key that must be bought.

It seems breathtaking that an industry would find this to be acceptable behaviour, right?

There is precedent though. Certain operating systems require activation after a defined period of time, and failure to let your legitimately purchased copy of software phone home can lock you out of a system. The good news is failed product activations can be fixed by talking with an overworked call centre employee. Maybe.

This action by the entertainment industry is far more akin to ransomware, where they're actively installing malicious software that must be removed with a key, and without the user's knowledge. It's a brazen attack against customers, and I'm unconvinced of their claim that it's legal.

The consequences are terrifying, and speak to an industry run by people with either a breathtaking lack of understanding about how computers work, or an even scarier lack of empathy. Imagine if a false positive was made on a system at a hospital, or a nuclear facility, or on a computer someone needs access to urgently. What about people who's livelihoods depend on their computers?

This is the worst kind of nonsense, and I hope it gets an arrow to the knee face before it sees the light of day. If it does ever get implemented, may it receive the same warm reception Sony's rootkits did.

Photo above by pasukaru76 on Flickr, found through the same BoingBoing post.

Here's an article from the Australian ABC. Tell me if you can spot the problem.

A fully-marked New South Wales police highway patrol car has been stolen. Police say highway patrol officers stopped a car on the M7 near the Richmond Road off-ramp in western Sydney at around midday. Officers say there was an altercation and the driver of the car struggled with police before breaking free and stealing their fully-marked highway patrol car. The driver, identified as Arthur Partsch, was last seen travelling north in the light blue Holden Commodore sedan. Officers have warned anyone who sees the car not to approach it, but to contact Triple-0.

Did you catch it?

We're being warned to call the police if we see a patrol car. I wonder how many calls they must have got from people spotting all the hundreds of cars on active duty?

I avoid Australian terrestrial television like the plague, but fortunately I was tweeted that Channel 9 informed us of the licence plate of the specific patrol car in question. Georgina even went one step further and (shock!) told me what it was!

So a lesson for reporters appealing for information from the public: give us the specifics as well. I wouldn't want to sick the SOS-Dan force on you.

It's been a month since my Podcasts Ruben Listens to, December 2012 post, so here we are once again!

New discoveries, old friends

With Build and Analyze and Hypercitical ending their runs, I've filled their niche with Core Intuition, now my favourite tech show. I also found Systematic, after hearing Brett Terpstra on The Crossover. John Siracusa has also been making appearances on other 5by5 shows which has been fun.

I've also rediscovered the Gillmor Gang! I listened to them from their IT Conversations days, but they moved networks so much I lost track of them. I can't even tell where their website is now, though at least their iTunes feed works.

Shows I try not to miss

Shows I catch if I like the topics

I suspected my Fifth Estate post would generate some feedback, and it did!

@wonk_01: It's a dangerous new step for them into the military-entertainment-complex, imho.

Agreed.

@TypeDom: Regardless of everything political or propagandistic about it, Benedict Cumberbatch looks creepy.

He was a devilishly attractive Sherlock, but being done up in a creepy fashion is in itself propaganda.

@babylove0306: you [sic] are ridiculous. Judging a movie before it's even filmed?

That's the great thing about scripts. I'm relieved I'm ridiculous though, my greatest fear in life is mediocrity. Well, that and funnel web spiders.

We've finally got some details about that "Fifth Estate" movie about Julian Assange and Wikileaks, and unsurprisingly it's a piece of propagandistic bullshit. Pardon the French, but this is such a cliché hit piece it's embarrassing.

Assange was understandably angry:

"It is a lie upon lie. The movie is a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff," the Australian Internet activist told the audience at the university's Oxford Union debating club.

Reading from the script, he said the opening scene was set inside a military complex in Iran with documents containing nuclear symbols. [..] "How does this have anything to do with us?"

Regardless of your opinion of Assange, the fact the movie is misrepresenting honest people and advocating war should be unacceptable to all of us. I'm disgusted.

Produced by DreamWorks, the movie is being directed by Bill Condon, the genius behind the first two Twilight movies. I'm not making this crap up.

"We want to explore the complexities and challenges of transparency in the information age and, we hope, enliven and enrich the conversations WikiLeaks has already provoked," he said.

I don't know what's scarier, that he's being paid to say that, or whether he actually believes that's what he's doing. Ditto Benedict Cumberbatch.

Sorry for the serious tone, this stuff just makes me furious. This is important, not that fake Facebook Graph search scandal that merely made public what governments with and without due process have long had access to already. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The dark clouds in front, clear sky and bright light from behind. It felt surreal, like I was walking on a movie set. Little things.

Dan Benjamin of 5by5 is running a survey about The Frequency. In a nutshell, they're contemplating running their daily news show in the afternoon instead of the morning.

It's an interesting idea. Morning tech news is a pretty saturated market, so running a news show in the afternoon would be an interesting differentiator. Most importantly, it'd allow Dan and Haddie to discuss what happened that day in the US, rather that pouring over potentially stale news that happened the day before.

Stale news that happened the day before... wow, we're living in the future!

Personally, it doesn't make much difference. There's a 16-17 hour time difference between Austin and Sydney, and I tend just to listen to it as a podcast whenever I have the time. Way of The Future.

Update

Seems I posted this too late, the survey is now done. You can view the results though. Interestingly enough, it seems most people don't really care what time of day the show is released, as long as it is! That's a good thing to know if I ever decide to start my show again.

Congrats to PSY for his 1 billionth view! I suspect a large number of those are people watching the video more than once, but that in and of itself is also epic. Oppa!

I loved Gangnam Style when I first watched it back in August, and when I saw PSY perform live in Sydney in October, and I still love it now. If you hate it, have fun with that.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to perform some pelvic thrusts in a lift. Or wear a neon yellow suit and large sunglasses. I haven't decided yet.

I've been an fanatical consumer of podcasts since 2004, in the iPodder days. While I do sync the odd song, I overwhelmingly listen to podcasts more than anything else. Television, radio, what are those? About the only thing I listen to/watch now that isn't a podcast is anime.

With the ending of two of my favourite shows, I decided to get in and post this inaugural Podcasts Ruben Listens To post while I still can. I'm going to miss seeing that reassuring Build and Analyse and Hypercritical cover art on my iTelephone as I walk back from the train station.