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Now, here is a Case Mod I want.

According to an article on NASA’s website the Mars Lander has detecting falling snow that is vaporizing before hitting the ground. Canadian researchers are behind the experiment and equipment used to determine this.

From the article:

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth.

A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the spacecraft’s landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.

“Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars,” said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. “We’ll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground.”

The RIAA has constantly said that they are suing file sharers to raise awareness of the piracy issue, and not to seek financial benefits.

The group has said on numerous occasions that its legal campaign against P2P users isn’t about making money—indeed, an industry executive testified during the Jammie Thomas trial that the lawsuits are a money-losing proposition. Instead, the suits are meant, among other things, as a deterrent to copyright infringement and to teach P2P users a lesson.

There is a good article covering the story and the actions of the RIAA.

An internal memo at Bell Mobility has been leaked. In this memo, Bell Mobility is considering interfering with the phone’s GPS receiver to prevent it from being that accurate, unless you subscribe to the service provided by Bell Mobility for GPS use on its phones.

From the Article:

Users of free GPS mapping applications (such as Google Maps or even the included Blackberry Maps application by RIM) will see the time required to establish a GPS lock increase to 2-10 minutes, up from the typical 15-20 seconds usually experienced. Additionally, there is some speculation that the resolution of GPS data will also be reduced to a 1-2.5km range as opposed to the existing 10-25m accuracy currently provided — not exactly useful when trying to find the location for your next meeting downtown in an unfamiliar city.

Bell Canada is at it again. The CBC is reporting that Bell Canada is preparing to limit the downloads of the ISPs that purchase wholesale internet service from them. This would restrict the bandwidth they can use, and almost ensure there is no way to differentiate the services.

Bell Canada Inc. is moving to impose download limits on customers of independent internet providers, an act the smaller firms say is designed to eliminate broadband competition and prevent the introduction of new television services.

One of the ISP’s that we all know: TekSavvy

Rocky Gaudreault, president of TekSavvy, said Bell’s proposal was unacceptable because it would eliminate the last way in which the smaller wholesale ISPs can differentiate their services.

It is time that the the Internet backbone connections in Canada were leveled away from business and made available for a common fee to everyone. Bell would lose their lines, and Rogers would lose the cable infrastructure. For a reasonable fee and profit, companies could then lease these lines and provide services to Canadians. You could get your choice of cable provider, not be forced into one by where you live.

If you want DSL internet, then pick a supplier that is leasing the space and go with their services. Let the free market economy determine who wins. Do not allow the providers of the service to own the underlining infrastructure. Bell’s telephone lines were mostly pushed out when they were controlled as a Crown Corporation, but Rogers has built their own. Pay them a reasonable fee, or split the service from the main company into a new carrier, one for cable, one for copper telephone lines, and set the profits at a reasonable level and have an upper price cap. They can complete for market dominance by lowering prices to see who provides services on which technology. Expanding the offerings would also be included and can have reasonable rates of return built in.

It is time to return the Internet and the access to it to Canadians.

It has finally happened, the Mars Phoenix rover has confirmed the existence of water on Mars.

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”

Yahoo has decided to close their music store, and they are disconnecting the license servers as well in September. This article gives a good description of the problem.

Here you have people that have purchased music legally from the online store, and now, when they switch computers in the future, or shortly based on a crash or an upgrade, they will not be able to listen to their music anymore.

Why is DRM allowed? Here a customer who purchased the music is the one losing out. Not the record labels, the recording company, or even Yahoo. Why would you not download music to ensure you are DRM free? The customer just got screwed again by big business.

This is why I refuse to use software or anything else with DRM. If I have to link to something outside my computer to use the software or other digital item I purchased, I refuse to purchase it. This should not be tolerated in our society. They could sell new music up to the actual closing date, then take the license server offline, and someone may not even be able to listen to the song they just bought.

The new Canadian Copyright Bill (B-61) will even make it illegal to work around this DRM, which is actually not doing anything wrong, except trying to listen to the music that was purchased legally.

I hate DRM.

Hot off the presses, Jack Thompson, sleaze extrodiare, is no longer a lawyer. According to the story from Game Politics about the case, the judge declined to follow the Florida Bar’s recommendation. A summary of findings from the article:

The Florida Bar has recommended disbarment for a period of ten (10) years. This Court respectfully declines to follow the Bar’s recommendation… This case involves factual findings of cumulative misconduct, a repeated pattern of behavior relentlessly forced upon numerous unconnected individuals, a total lack of remorse or even slight acknowledgement of inappropriate conduct…

Additionally, the Court is taking into consideration a review of the Respondent’s conduct not only as proven by the evidence, but by what this Court has witnessed of the Respondent’s behavior throughout the eighteen (18) months of litigation. The undersigned finds no evidence whatsoever to indicate that the Respondent is amenable to rehabilitation, or even remotely appreciates the basis upon which a need or purpose for such rehabilitation is warranted…

Over a very extended period of time involving a number of totally unrelated cases and individuals, the Respondent has demonstrated a pattern of conduct to strike out harshly, extensively, repeatedly and willfully to simply try to bring as much difficulty, distraction and anguish to those he considers in opposition to his causes. He does not proceed within the guidelines of appropriate professional behavior, but rather uses other means available to intimidate, harass, or bring public disrepute to those whom he perceives oppose him.

Thus, after careful consideration of the underlying facts in the instant cases, together with the Florida Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions, the applicable aggravating and mitigating factors and the precedent case law, this Court makes the following recommendations for John Bruce Thompson:

A. Permanent disbarment, with no leave to reapply for admission.
B. Disciplinary costs currently totaling $43,675.35.