As an addition to the comment I posted over on Scott's blog, I thought I'd provide you with some 'Open Source' (as in free beer) artists who rule.

• Medeski, Martin & Wood
• Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
• Robert Walter's 20th Congress
• Sex Mob
• Critters Buggin
• Bill Frisell
• Les Claypool (in his many incarnations)
• Wayne Horvitz

All of these artists are signed onto major labels of one type or another, but they allow their fans to tape them live and trade the shows freely.  In return for this, they get word-of-mouth support, the hope that people will buy their CD's (which they're not making much on anyhow, thanks to the raping of RIAA and friends) and most importantly, bigger crowds at their live shows, where they make a good percentage more than off their CD's.  Support live music from artists that respect your rights as fans.

There's lots more, and most of these are jazz of one type or another (although I hate 'genre' labeling).  Check out Furthur and Etree on the Navigation bar for more info.  As I said below, I'll probably be putting up some reviews of cd's and live shows (both in person and on cd) at some point in the future, and I'm sure I'll hit on all of these bands and more when I get to that point.

Just as a disclaimer, I'm signed up for Amazon Associates, so if you buy anything using links off here, I'll get some $$ off it.  If you don't like that, just strip out the 'stufffromwozz-20' tag in the URL.  But really, it doesn't cost you any more, and it thanks me for being so goddamned cool. ;)

Thats it for tonight I think.  Night!

Got some new CD's today.  Working downtown near some music stores is dangerous.

• Between Nothingness & Eternity [Live] - Mahivishnu Orchestra
• Pharoah's First - Pharoah Sanders
• Rio - Uri Caine
• Ego - The Tony Williams Lifetime
• Lifetime - Tony Williams

At some point I'll get my cd list up here, and maybe even write up some reviews if the mood strikes me.

Eweek has an articule on Palladium which attepts to present the two sides of the argument surrounding the technology.  On the con side, they speak with Crispan Cowan and strangely enough, fails to mention that Wirex, which he founded and is currently the 'Chief Scientist' of, makes a series of products to 'harden' Linux.  I presume this was because the reporter was too dumb to know anything about what he's reporting, but Crispan would seem to have a major conflict of interest here, which a responsible 'scientist' would be sure was clear.  My favorite quote:

"I'm ... afraid of what this means for their monopoly. I think it's heinously evil," said Crispin Cowan, chief scientist at WireX Communications Inc., a security vendor in Portland, Ore.

Interestingly enough, the only counter in the 'debate' comes from a professor at the University of Maryland (see my earlier post on Microsoft and Academics) and the Palladium product manager.

Ahhhh, the media.

Palladium Debate Heats Up

I've been an Art Bell fan for years, initially not so much for his guests as his callers.  In any case, this looks interesting:

Conspiracies! Conspiracies All Around Us! (They're Coming To Get Me....) Part One: Jack the Ripper. This is a four-part series dealing with the fascination of today's society and conspiracies thought to be put forth by governments, people, extra-terrestrial beings, their pets, etc. One of the most prevalent things about the Information Age, is how fast said information travels. With the advent of the Internet, and its wide adoption by people within their homes, it is literally as easy as a finger press to get the newest information. In this series, I will focus on 3 main events that have built up innumerable conspiracy theories (and other theories beyond conspiracy) over the years, some theories sounding so ludicrous you wouldn't expect them to be believed...but they are, by some. Part one will deal with Jack the Ripper, the infamous serial killer of Whitechapel, London, in 1888. Part two will deal with Roswell, New Mexico, and the UFO sighting/downing. Part three will deal with the Kennedy Assassination(s). Part four will deal with the effects these conspiracy theories have on society as a whole, if any, as well as my thoughts on why these theories arise. [kuro5hin.org]

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Also in this months Atlantic Monthly, part two of their series on the World Trade Center by William Langewiesche. Part one was very good.

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Just got the September Atlantic Monthly in the mail.  Haven't had time to really dive into it,  but there's a rather long interview with Bruce Schneier, a very smart security guy and author of 2 of my favorite security books: Applied Cryptography and Secrets and Lies.  He also edits a very interesting security newsletter.  I'll comment more on the article when I'm finished with it, but so far it makes a highly recommended read.

Its way past time: CEOs to Guarantee Earnings.  Uh .. duh, shouldn't they have been doing this before?

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More encouraging news: Microsoft serves up Palladium details. 

"Palladium is not DRM (Digital Rights Management), but it's a great platform for building DRM on," Juarez said. Palladium was initially linked to a series of patents granted to Microsoft on a "Digital Rights Management operating system" and it remains unclear how those patents will play into the system. DRM is a technology that allows content owners to place on their work restrictions that can control how the files are shared and copied."

They also say that it will be an optional feature in the OS, enabled by the user.

Overall, I think Palladium is a good idea, if done right.  Microsoft's previous attempt at creating a 'secure' hardware platform didn't work as well as they would have liked.  If it was an opt-in system, with source code I can examine, I'd use it.

Another potentially good sign for Microsoft's secuity effort: Gates, academics join on security, shared source.  I'll be more impressed when I see the final list of schools.  None of the three mentioned, with the possible exception of UCSB have any significant security research underway (that I'm aware of).  I'd like to see schools with serious security programs like UC Davis, Dartmouth, Purdue and U of Michigan involved before I'll take it as a serious effort.  They do say the final number will be 12-15 schools, so I imagine a few of those I mentioned will make it in.  Here's hoping!

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RIAA Web site disabled by attack. A denial-of-service attack rendered the site unavailable over the weekend after the group endorsed legislation to allow copyright holders to disrupt peer-to-peer networks. [CNET News.com]

Hah!

Now I have nothing against artists getting paid for their work, and I think stealing someone elses intellectual property is bad ... but RIAA's been doing it for YEARS!

Anything that makes RIAA look stupid gives me some hope that another artist might decide to abandon the "industry" which does nothing for them but take their money and go the independent way.  They won't live like rock stars, but at least they won't be getting pimped by RIAA.