Time for the RIAA and MediaSentry to disclose their tactics, with nowhere to run and hide like they usually do. Tanya Anderson is suing the RIAA for malicious prosecution, she is accusing them of fraud, racketeering, invasion of privacy, libel, slander, deceptive business practices, and violations of the Oregon state RICO Act. The RIAA is not going to be able to dodge the discovery process this time, although they have tried to dismiss this case, the judge has denied them and has barred further motion of dismissal.

This will be a very interesting case, one that will enable everyone else being sued by the RIAA to see the legality of their lawsuits.

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http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/14/158246

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/15/1915249

<><>http://arsRead on... Submit the first comment!

Another upgrade! We are now 0.6, and getting much closer to the initial vision of the blog site...with a few more cool updates (dynamic themes and settings, as well as some Ajax) coming in the next few months.

The three largest things coming to this release are: pagination in the admin interface for all types of content, static pages (for things like About Me), and static CSS color themes.

For details on the changes, see the CHANGELOG.

• ctBlog Version 0.6 (tgz)
• README
• CHANGELOG

The default password is: simple

Comments (3)

I have been approved to host my ctBlog project on SourceForge.net: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ctblog/

SourceForge offers many tools to developers, as well as a place to go to search for open source software; I'm very happy to be a part of it.

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I have created a publicly available demo of my ctBlog software, located at: http://ctblogdemo.zgoda.us/

Feel free to go there, and do whatever you want to play around with the app. Each night, I will reset the app back to it's original condition.

Please post any comments about the app here, and not at the demo site...since the demo will be cleared out nightly.

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I have submitted this project to SourceForge, to be a part of their large Open Source development community.

They said it could take between 1 and 3 business days to get approval...I guess if it gets approved. I think there is a good chance of being approved, since there is only one other Ruby on Rails application listed who's objective is purely blogging. (Getting back to how I think many blog applications are way over-bloated!)

I'll keep this updated, and if SourceForge accepts the project, I'll post the link under my Links.

Things are coming along quite nicely! Version 0.5 is complete!

There were quite a few bug fixes, including some testing done in IE (yuck).
The other main changes are the ability to preview an article before actually posting it, and to remove an article without actually deleting it.
The site owner is also now able to change various site-wide settings through the web interface, as opposed to a YAML file like before.

The default password is: simple

• ctBlog Version 0.5
• README
• CHANGELOG

Any and all feedback is appreciated!

<> Thomas Friedman believes that the world is becoming “flat”, a metaphor he uses to describe that the global playing-field is becoming leveled, which takes him 635 pages to say. I agree that certain factors are making it easier to compete on a global-level, however, we are very far from “flat”. I would go so far as saying that our “bumpy” terrain (where the majority of people live in the middle-class) is becoming increasingly smoothed out in the valleys (the middle-class is becoming poorer), but the peaks are becoming much higher, and steeper (the rich are getting richer). In a debate between Friedman and, Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Stiglitz mentioned, “Even though we’ve had growth in the last five years, it’s not just poverty [that] has increased, the pRead on... Submit the first comment!

It seems as though Microsoft has "decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can."

If so, this is a really great thing...mostly for the web development community, but also for Internet Explorer users. Too many times have I had to sacrifice clean CSS files just to get layouts to display properly in IE.

Also, Microsoft getting behind web standards means that we should start to see improvements from other web browser developers to push their compliance even further. IE is, without a doubt, worse at displaying pages properly than Safari and Firefox, but hopefully they can give Apple and Mozilla a little friendly competition.

<> Now if they could only lock it down further... separate it from the OS... do away with ActiveX...Read on...

I have finished the next update to my Blog system. This is a pretty large update, with an image uploading system being the biggest change.

There is now a requirement to have the RMagick gem installed, which allows the system to create both a thumbnail and viewable image from the uploaded original image (which is also saved).

To see a list of all the changes, view the CHANGELOG.

Download ctBlog 0.4 ctBlog 0.4 ReadMe

The system is becoming quite usable, and friendly; but still needs a bit of work. I will continue the short iteration cycles, shorter than this last one (RMagick was a new experience for me).

This week, Representatives Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) unveiled a bill, entitled "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008", to the House of Representatives which will encourage Congress to seek out public opinion on how Internet service providers operate.

Luckily (for me), this bill is quite short and easy to read; sometimes just looking at a bill can cause my eyes to glaze over and my head to become dizzy. They first state the current U.S. policy, the highlights being:

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"to maintain the freedom to use for lawful purposes broadband telecommunications networks, including the Internet, without unreasonable interference from or discrimination by network operators"

<><>"to preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of broadband networks that enablRead on... Submit the first comment!

The next release of my blog app, ctBlog...on time too.

The major improvement is the administration end, but see the CHANGELOG for the full list of updates.

I will continue to work to improve the software, it is becoming more polished; and quite usable.

Still, you will need to know how to deploy a Ruby on Rails application in your environment, and check out the ReadMe for further information.

• Download ctBlog 0.3
• ctBlog 0.3 ReadMe

For questions, comments, etc...please refer to the ReadMe.

This posting is for my IS 511 class, but what better place to put it than on my blog. It is to take the format of a debate...only I am both the Proposition and the Opposition. I did do a rant on this subject recently, so you can see what side I'm actually on, and why I'm saying this is (essentially) Part 2. I may reuse some of my arguments from before, but I will give you some new ones too.

Topic: Has the digitization of media (such as audio and video) made the current distribution method of such media obsolete?

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Opening Statement by the Proposition

<> The times they are a changin'...especially when it comes to how we use and, even more importantly, distribute media. For decades (or century in the case of audio) now, media distribution has been controlRead on... Comments (2)

I think throughout the years I never gave Bill Gates enough credit for things he did at Microsoft (as a person I give him much respect for what he does in philanthropy). Bashing M$ is like second nature to me, I don't even have to do it and something nasty will just spew out, so why all of a sudden talk well about the man who started it all? The reason: as he's been stepping down since 1998, the products have been declining, with the height of success with Windows Version 5 (aka 2000, XP, and Server 2003). Subsequent products have been, well, crappy.

<>XP was actually the start of the downfall...adding a facelift to the already successful Windows 2000; a way to make more money on top of an exsiting code base...but as support for 2000 decreased, and XP increased, it clearly becaRead on... Submit the first comment!

So that's a pretty bold statement, that my school, DePaul University, is being discriminatory towards users who don't run a Microsoft based operating system...more specifically, Internet Explorer.

Unfortunately, it's true, and where is it happening mostly...the school of Computer Science, Telecommunications, and Information Systems.

Now they do say: A legacy version of COL can be viewed on Mac OSX.. Now this legacy version is written in Java, so you'd think...Java, okay, it'll work on any browser capable of running Java. Wrong!

The Java applet only runs on Safari, and only on a Mac. Why the hell doesn't it work on Firefox? And why not on Linux?

<>Maybe it's a blessing in disguise...last time I ran the Java applet, the video stopped downloading about 1/3 of the way through the cRead on... Comments (2)

Okay, this is going to be the start of a long rant...something that I feel passionate about; and believe that the times they are a changin'.

The general overview of my opinion is that the current music and movie industry is dying, and they don't want to go...they will fight with every last billion they have. The main reason I see them dying is, well, the Internet. Prior to the Internet, or more specifically, the vast majority of people being connected to the Internet with high-speed lines; the only way to distribute media was physically. Records, audio cassettes, reel-to-reel film, VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs all fit into the same method of distribution as your office furniture. So someone has to be creating these media formats, and then shipping them to the general public.

<>The Read on... Submit the first comment!

The second release of my blog app, ctBlog, only one week after the first!

The major improvement is comments, but see the CHANGELOG for the full list of updates.

The administration side is still messy! It's like a nice looking house, with tons of clutter on the inside. The next release will have a completely revamped admin side. Hopefully within a week, but maybe closer to two.

Still, you will need to know how to deploy a Ruby on Rails application in your environment, and check out the ReadMe for further information.

• Download ctBlog 0.2
• ctBlog 0.2 ReadMe

For questions, comments, etc...please refer to the readme.

For IS511 I had to read Neil Postman's speech entitled, Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change.
And then we were asked the question: The author states that "We need to proceed with our eyes wide open so that we may use technology rather than be used by it." What does he mean?

Well, it's a generalization (like his entire article) that technology will control us, and that it only benefits the few, while hindering the many. I want to be clear that I don't necessary think his five points are completely irrelevant; just that the way his presents them is completely full of it, and NOTHING IS BACKED UP WITH FACTS! Let's go over his 5 points...

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Technology comes with a price: look at nuclear physics...lots of energy, but big bombs.

<>Winners and losers: therRead on... Submit the first comment!

Nothing like a class to get a kick in the butt to do something you've been meaning to work on for a while...I'm talking about creating a blog.

My problem was, in the past, I've tried all sorts of "blog" and CMS software...and there was one common element; they're all way to over-bloated! I wanted something simple, clean, and to the point. And I'd rather not go through someone else's code to figure out how it's all put together, when I'm perfectly capable of writing my own.

And on that subject, it has become almost a requirement for any Ruby on Rails programmer to (at some point) write their own blog software...and what better time than right after the release of Rails 2.0.

<>Also, on timing, here comes my Computers and Society class (IS511 from DePaul University), and one of the Read on... Submit the first comment!