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Ok, so I don’t get 100% of the jokes in this retelling of the “War on Terror” as a series of UNIX commands, but the point is loud and clear. Terrorists are harder to delete than that one bastard file that sits on your desktop and evades all attempts at removal! One gets the feeling that if George W. Bush had managed to evade this type of frustration for most of his life, he’s got a good taste of it in the last few years. Let’s just hope he doesn’t end up doing a low-level reformatting of the globe in his zeal to elimnate the bin/laden directory! =)

This post is about how I love the UK government. Parts anyhow. I’m sure there are all sorts of horrible things going on in the corridors of power like anyplace else, but let’s just focus on their drugs policy for right now. First off, they create really fantastic drug-awareness sites for teens and young adults. Check out Talk to Frank for example. It’s basicaly the same kind of “here’s the effects that different drugs are going to have on you” info that the US hands out to high-school and college kids, but the way it’s presented is just brilliant. Instead of the implied “smoke pot one time and you will die of brain cancer” type of message conveyed by the US materials, the attitude here is more one of “look we know you’re going to try this, so just be informed and be smart about it, OK?” Next up, check out this study commisioned by a government-sponsored think tank in the UK, on the societal implications of non-addictive, long-term drug use. I mean, it’s obviously already happening (Prozac, Ritalin, Viagra, not to mention the illegals), but the idea of a study designed to help understand and guide future policy decisions about this kind of thing seems so far beyond the imagination of the US government that it almost hurts my brain to think about. Or maybe it’s just that I think about this kind of thing too much. But I can’t help it; I just love it when science outpaces morality, don’t you?

More free album goodness from The NME. Today it’s the debut album from The Magic Numbers. I can’t really think of how to describe this album, aside from “totally awesome,” so I’ll just link to (and quote from) a glowing review from musicOMH.com:

Everyone needs a hug sometimes. When your heart is feeling bruised and battered, and you feel there’s no more good in the world, sometimes you just need someone to put their arms round you and tell you everything’s going to be ok. The Magic Numbers are the equivalent of a big aural hug, and they’re here to make your world bearable again.

They’re pretty right on about that, too. I think it’s the male/female vocal interplay (think Biirdie) that really gets me. Anyway, listen free while you can. It’s right here:

The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers

From a recent survey about how fear of spyware/viruses has changed people’s internet habits:

• 81 per cent of net users say they have stopped opening unsolicited email attachments
• Half those quizzed (48 per cent) say they have stopped visiting potentially dodgy web sites out of spyware concerns
• A quarter (25 per cent) of those questioned said they have stopped downloading music or video files from peer-to-peer networks in order to avoid getting unwanted software programs on their computers.
• A minority of surfers (18 per cent) say they have changed the web browser software they use in order to avoid malware attack

Now, while I’m all in favor of people using some common sense on the internet, it just amuses me to no end that while almost 50 per cent of those surveyed claim to have stopped visiting “dodgy” sites, only 18 per cent bothered to change their web browser! I mean, if these people bought a package of pens, and they just kept exploding in their pockets, would they give up on writing altogether or what? And it’s not as if these “dodgy” sites are entirely devoid of useful content either. Sites offering song lyrics, guitar tabs, and porn are all riddled with pop-ups and spyware installers. (I’m sure other sites are as well, but these are the ones that come to mind =) At any rate, I guess it’s pretty easy for me to be critical here, since I have a better understanding the internet than John Q. Public, but I really don’t think the concept of “Get a new browser, watch pop-ups and spyware decrease by 99.9%” is a hard one to grasp! But perhaps there are interests that don’t want people to figure that out just yet.

In another demonstration of being “unclear on the concept,” police in Florida have arrested a man for “stealing” internet access from an unsecured wireless network. Uh-oh! Somebody better remind me not to “steal” any music or delicious smells that I might encounter drifting out a window on my way home from work today! Again, while it’s (somewhat) understandable that someone might fail to comprehend that the same device that allows them to surf the web in their bathroom might allow their next door neighbor to get online as well, it’s unreasonable to prosecute that neighbor for taking advantage of the situation! And as for the argument that the wireless freeloader might be using the connection to perpetrate illegal activities? Well, it used to be the case that the culpability for any such behavior would rest solely on the person actually committing the crime, but thanks to the entertainment industry’s insistence that Napster, Grokster and so on be held responsible for the actions of their users, I guess a precedent has been set for prosecuting the network provider instead. So shame on you , Mr. Unsecured Wireless Network. How dare you encourage the trafficking of child pornography and stolen bank data?!?! You sir, are worse than Hitler! =)

One more thing, while I’m on this rant. I swear to god, if I have to read one more news story where “Wi-Fi” is translated as “Wireless Fidelity” I am going to mow down some fuckers! (Or at the very least, I’ll be slightly more annoyed than I am already =) It is a play on words that was never intended to be rendered in a non-abbreviated form goddammit!!

This is what traffic looks like in Chicago (at 2:30 PM!) on the Friday before the 4th of July.

In the words of The Dude: “My only hope is that the big Lebowski kills me before the Germans can cut my dick off.” =)