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Alive in Joburg – short science fiction film

Alive in Joburg, a stellar short film directed by Neill Blomkamp, is an unsettling and eerie tale of a close encounter of the third kind in Johannesburg, South Africa. The discrimination of visitors from another world makes for an interesting allusion to Apartheid. This is what War of the Worlds should have been like.

This is just simply amazing. A brilliant concept that has been executed extremely well.

More at Spy Films

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Octopus attacks submarine

I think my hypothesis that the creatures of the sea are turning against mankind is proving correct with yet another notable inexplicable attack in the news.

Video captures octopus attack on submarine

Rare video footage shows a giant octopus attacking a small submarine off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Salmon researchers working on the Brooks Peninsula were shocked last November when an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment.

The giant Pacific octopus weighs about 45 kilograms, powerful enough to damage Mike Wood’s remote-controlled submarine.

Wood’s first reaction was to panic, knowing the marine creature can exert a powerful bite.

Octopuses are known to be intelligent creatures capable of using tools and disguise themselves if they are now attacking submarines I’d be very worried about what future plots they have in store for attacks on mankind.

Forget Al Qaida it is the creatures of the sea that we should be worrying about.

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UK file-sharers lose court case

BBC News: Court rules against song-swappers

The UK music industry has won a landmark court case in its fight against illegal online music sharing.

High Court judges ordered two men to pay the British Phonographic Industry between £1,500 and £5,000 for making thousands of songs available online.

One of the men said he did not know he was acting illegally, the other said there was no evidence against him.

The BPI has launched 139 similar cases since October 2004, most being settled out of court for up to £6,500.

I really don’t believe that file-sharing is killing the music industry it might well be hitting their income from fewer CD sales but even that conclusion is in dispute.

I think there should be a distinction made between online file-sharers and the organised criminal gangs that are in the business of music piracy who are selling illegal CDs. The second group are the ones I believe should be targeted and the first group should be encouraged to choose legal alternatives.

I’m curious about the case against the first defendant in this landmark court case.

The first defendant, from King’s Lynn, said the BPI had no direct evidence of infringement, but the judges dismissed this and ordered him to make an immediate payment of £5,000.

Presumably the BPI did have direct evidence of the infringement which is why the judge dismissed this defence. So was the defence just a gambit that was almost certain to fail or did the defendant really believe there was no evidence, if so why would they believe that.

I am waiting for a legal challenge in such a case where the defendant has wiped all evidence from their own PC so all the evidence left will be the internet traffic logs associated with the IP addresses they used.

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Google.cn censorship not as bad as you think.

Bill Thompson writing for the BBC explains why he refuses to agree with the knee-jerk reaction to the news of Google’s censorship in China.

He points to the fact that Google.cn explains that censorship of the results have occurred and that much censorship is occurring in the UK and the US that the average user is not even aware of.

He believes that Google’s willingness to work with the Chinese government is a good thing in the long run.

But if we in the West, with our liberal political culture and our attempts to build open societies, do not engage with China then we lose the opportunity to influence them and convince them of the benefits that this brings. If the Chinese government fears instability then we should offer help and advice and support, not closed borders and locked doors.

Different circumstances require different responses, and just because sanctions were the right way to put pressure on apartheid South Africa does not mean that a technology blockade is the way to influence China.

Who can say what the repercussions of this will all be but I think he might well have a point.

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Cinema DRM nightmare

Tarmle imagines the future of cinema-going in Burnoff: Part 1 – The Bad Guys Win

Going to the movies is not what it used to be. Security at the studio-owned theatres is heavy, it’s not a trip to be taken lightly. But if you want to see the film everyone is talking about without waiting a year for the home release, you have little choice. When you enter the lobby the first thing you see are long ranks of tiny, thumbprint activated lockers. This is where you must leave all of your electronics, your personal server and peripherals, even your watch, and you had better not be wearing smart spectacles or contacts.

I don’t see the real future being like that but I think the future does look bleak for cinemas.

Mark Cuban asks What Business are theaters in ?

I think Cuban makes great points. Cinema owners need to embrace the changes in the industry and innovate and possibly diversify, create an environment that people want to experience. Going to the cinema should be more than just a chance to see the latest blockbuster. Because if the only competitive advantage cinemas can offer is that of seeing the movie first then they’ve already lost because ‘pirates’ are always going to find a way to videotape the movie.

The hyper-secure cinema that Tarmle imagines will never work because customers will simply not put up with it. They might put up and shut up when it comes to the ridiculous restrictions placed upon them in order to take a plane flight but they will draw a line when it comes to their entertainment.

The cinema and movie industry need to embrace a world where if you missed it in the theater today you could see it on DVD tonight.

The lead time between the theatrical release and the DVD release has shrunk to only a few months now in many cases that I think there is an argument to be made that they should go the whole way and have simultaneous releases.

However before that they need to get on board with simultaneous worldwide releases and get rid of the DVD region system. With some movies getting released on DVD in the US before they even hit cinemas in the UK they have undermined their own business model. They argue that piracy is killing the industry but they are fueling it by having staggered releases as the globalising effect of the internet means that the US release of a movie creates an instant desire to see the movie in the rest of the world. This desire to see the movie is not being satisfied by the official release as that might be months off so the consumer turns to the pirates that can satisfy the desire with a dodgy looking video that was taped in an American cinema.

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For redundant see under redundant.

Yet another link via Schneier.

ID Card Planned for the Borders

U.S. officials announced Tuesday they would start issuing a special identification card this year that would allow Americans who frequently traveled to Mexico or Canada to continue crossing the border without a passport.

Officials said the card would be about the size of a credit card, carry a picture of the holder and cost about $50, about half the price of a passport. It will be equipped with radio frequency identification, allowing it to be read from several yards away at border crossings.

To obtain the card, officials said that citizens would be required to provide the same kind of documentation needed to obtain a passport.

Okay so it requires the same documentation to obtain as a passport does and in effect acts like a passport when crossing the border. I have to ask, why not just use a fucking passport then?

Not only is such an ID redundant but to be equipped with RFIDs that can be read from several yards is a security nightmare and a boon to identity thieves. Jeez.

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Serrated edges won’t work on robo exo-skeletons

A quirky but of security humour found via Bruce Schneier’s blog.

How to Survive a Robot Uprising

Schneier’s readers come up with some additions to the list.

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Personal Licence

On this the most depressing day of the year I attended a course to gain an accredited qualification to enable me to apply for a Personal Licence to sell and authorise the sale of alcohol from a suitably licenced premises.

Depressing? No. Boring? Oh yes very much.

To be fair to the course tutor he did try to liven it up but learning the regulations of alcohol licensing is probably one of the dryest dullest subjects possible.

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ID cards ‘should be compulsory’

Well it comes as no surprise to me the news that Lord Falconer has told the BBC that the only way to get full benefit from the Identity Card scheme was for people without a passport to carry one.

It has been the government line all along that the cards would be compulsory. I am worried though that the government is pretty much pushing through biometric identity cards in the form of passports though. Whether the Identity Card bill is passed or not the UK will end up with a massive biometric identity register of millions of UK citizens.

The UK already has the most surveillance cameras per capita of any country in the world and now we learn that the UK also has the largest DNA database of it’s citizens in the world with about 5% of the poulation’s DNA profile being held.

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He’s a goddam Steef!

My god I had the surprise of my life playing Stranger’s Wrath today.

Here I was going about the place as a bounty hunter just so I can save the 20k needed for the operation and possibly also on the lookout for a Steef for which some dude was gonna pay me the full 20 thousand for.

Turns out that Stranger is a goddamned Steef himself with a whole extra pair of legs in those trousers of his. That’s what the operation was for to rid him of those surplus legs.

What the hell happens now in the game I wonder as the fortune teller booth would indicate there is a whole other realm for me to discover after I escape the clutches of this rival bounty hunter that has captured me and exposed my true nature.