Counterfeit Golf Equipment Apparently A Big Racket

Statistics on piracy and copyright infringement published by Gieschen Consultancy in their report on piracy, found here, reveals some humorous and simultaneously disturbing facts. According to the report, the list of top pirated and counterfeited products includes Marlboro cigarettes, fake automobiles (!) and car parts wearing the BMW emblem, and Titleist brand golf equipment. As stated before, I'm not quite sure whether to laugh at this or to be appalled. At first I was somewhat surprised to find that in their statistical breakdown the US is listed as number one in the "top ten countries reporting incidents of intellectual property violations." Do people actually buy counterfeit BMW's or Marlboro's in the US? And if so, do they do so knowing they are buying a knock-off? To me this sounds like the kind of thing that would occur in countries such as Russia and Hong Kong, where piracy is ingrained in their culture. I was even at first surprised that Hong Kong wasn't on any of the top ten lists, but then I realized the list only includes countries who are reporting these incidents of piracy (China is listed, but only with 11 incidents totalling $5.0 million. This more than likely does not include Hong Kong).

"The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security"

Marcus J. Ranum offers some interesting observations about computer security in his article "The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security." As is suggested by the humorous title, the author outlines what he views as the six fundamental failings in the basic principles of the computer security community.

One of the more poignant points is Ranum's discussion of a dumb idea he calls "Enumerating Badness." This concept, which is to deny known bad applications to execute and to assume everything else is safe to run, is utilized by anti-virus and anti-spyware software. The reason "Enumerating Badness" is a dumb idea is that malicious software is released into the wild at such a rapid rate software using this method of security must constantly be updated. Of course the anti-virus companies don't mind charging consumers a subscription fee to do this. Ranum's alternative is to instead allow access only to the few "good" applications on a user's computer and deny access to anything else not on that list. If implemented at the OS level I believe it could act as a great defense against malicious code. Of course one would also need a means by which to validate a piece of software before adding it to his or her "good" list.

All in all this article is a good read as it illuminates the shortcomings of common security practices in the software industry.

Dastardly DMCA

The article "The Tyranny of Copyright?" raises some important points of the current copyright milieu and why legislation such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is stifling creativity. However the article fails to explore how the DMCA and other such legislation has been used by corporations to effectively destroy consumers' right to fair use. This isn't necessarily an oversight on the author's behalf, as it is technically outside the scope of the article; but it would have been good to discuss how the dastardly media companies use copyright law to limit what you can do with the DVD's, CD's, or eBooks that you've purchased. Presently if you were to make a backup copy of one of your DVD's, you would be in violation of the DMCA. Obviously this conflicts with the fair use doctrine of US copyright law.

2400

If you've ever been to Fredericksburg's 2400 Diner, you may have noticed an item on their menu with a curious name, one that at once repels and attracts.

That item is Grandpa's Fish Sub.

With such a name, how it tastes obviously becomes irrelevant; you know when you stumble across something like that on a menu that you have no choice but to order it, no matter how disgusting it may be.

Because ordering a Grandpa's Fish Sub is more so a reclamation of some lost piece of Americana whereby items on a menu followed a less scrutable (but far more enjoyable) nomenclature. You become drawn into this mystery of who is Grandpa and why is the Fish Sub his, and so many questions that you actually don't want answered because you know deep down inside that not knowing is that much more powerful.

And from this I've concluded that we would all lead much more interesting lives if restaurants would revert to this trend and feature more colorful names on their menus.

An Eery Event On Campus

Some of my peers chose to fulfill part two of the blogging assignment by relating their various experiences of being swindled at the bookstore or extorted for a parking permit.

Well, my books didn't cost $700, nor did I need to dish out $150 for a parking permit. No, I have a more horrific account to reveal.

A grisly and bizarre event transpired in Willard Hall on the night of August 30, 2005. Upon entering the restroom at approximately 9:00pm, I was instantly overcome with shock and disgust at the sight of a mutilated roll of toilet paper (see illustration). The roll had been gutted, by someone, or, perhaps, something. Naturally I showed the remains to my roommate who was similarly dismayed by the obvious implications: what kind of sick puppy would do such a thing and, moreover, what had we gotten ourselves into by moving into Willard with some toilet-paper-roll-disemboweling sociopath lurking about.

The most disturbing thing about the event was that soon thereafter the evidence was purloined, perhaps by the culprit in an attempt to cover his or her tracks.

Rumors on the Internets

In regards to "Critical Thinking in the Internet Era"; while I do agree that there may be a "lack of understanding of the Internet as an unmonitored source of information," I don't believe the situation is as dire as is presented in the article. The authors are alarmed at results from surveys conducted in 1999 and 2001 (the article was published in 2003), but it seems reasonable to me to assume that students had become more technologically savvy in those 2-4 intervening years between when the surveys were taken and when the article was published. The authors also find it "disturbing" that students "readily believed" an outdated statistic from an anti-smoking website, but on the other hand seem to have no qualms about using 4-year-old survey information.

But I suppose I truly can't make any claims as to the paper's veracity until I've applied the proposed "triangle method," but I'll leave that exercise to classmate Will Owens, whose spam-riddled blog is located here.