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YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scholes scores his first goal in 3 years and it is 1-1.

FUCK!!!!!!!!!!

6 mins played

Croatia score off a free-kick.

An update to this post.
Anil Dash has made the text of Cory Doctorow’s speech to Microsoft more readable and with hyperlinks to explanations of some concepts and words for the uninitiated.

Tags: DRM

Dig Now, Die Later!
Clark and Bruce go psycho.

Tags: comics

I’ve just watched the best match of Euro 2004 so far. I was blown away by the excitement of this game, with dozens of shots on goal it was an open game of the type you never see anymore in national games. Teams usually play a far more controlled game nowadays in order to avoid defeat rather than a full expressive game where they push the play at their opponents and drive towards goal.

It wasn’t without controversy though as there was a dubious sending off, incidents when penalties should have been given but weren’t a goal that was allowed through a technicality. The second Dutch goal is a clear example of why the modern offside rule is utterly insane. It has been changed from an objective decision dependent on the relative positions of players to a subjective one where the player is considered offside only if they are gaining an advantage from their position.

Tags: sport

I have just returned home from having seen the amazing documentary by Errol Morris titled The Fog of War (IMDB entry) which tracks the career of Robert McNamara concentrating on his role as the Secretary of Defence for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. I was deeply troubled by having seen it and it has left me feeling quite pessimistic for the future of humanity.

I’ve never thought of McNamara of being an evil man but there are those that do who blame him for the Vietnam War. I was confused how the man that had had a major part in the prevention of the Cuban Missile Crisis turning into a Nuclear War could have been an instigator in the start of the conflict in Vietnam.

In the light of this and the parts in the film where McNamara is talking about General Curtis LeMay I am reconsidering my views on many world leaders particularly of Bush and Rumsfeld. Not that I am in favour of their policies now just that I no longer considering them evil just wrong. This however does scare me that there are rational people in the world – leading the world even that are capable of making very bad decisions.

Understanding your enemy is a crucial point that has been recommended all the way back starting with Sun Tzu but is continually ignored or not fully explored by military leaders today. US involvement in Vietnam was born out of a paranoia about the spread of Communism and they were fighting for the freedom of the South Vietnamese. The North Vietnamese however didn’t understand this and were convinced that the US were a colonizing power that they would fight till the last man in order to remain free from becoming slaves to the Americans. In turn the US didn’t understand that even if Vietnam was to go Communist they would never ally themselves with China because they considered China to be their biggest and oldest enemy.

There are lessons to be learned here that apply to the current situation in Iraq particularly the motives of the insurgents. What do the insurgents believe of the intentions of the US government? I think it possible that far from being haters of democracy or some such tripe that has been used to describe them that they may in fact believe that the US is really there to steal their oil and colonize their land. They may well believe themselves to be freedom fighters endeavoring to throw of the shackles of a foreign power.

Tags: movies, politics, Iraq, US

DRM or Digital Rights Management is a general term for any of several systems designed to restrict the usage of a copyrighted digital work by the owner of the rights to the work. For example a copy protection system on a CD you purchased to prevent you from making illegal copies. It is a controversial subject as there are many legitimate reasons why someone may wish to make a copy of a copyrighted digital work and they are prevented from doing so due to DRM.

For more see the Wikipedia article Digital Rights Management

Cory Doctorow, science fiction author and technology writer is an advocate of a more coherent stratgey to protecting author’s rights in this new world. He recently gave a talk to Microsoft about his concerns with DRM and their role in the implementation of it in their software products. He has put it into the public domain so read it here, download it, print it and distribute far and wide if you wish.

Tags: DRM

It seems that it isn’t just football fans that become violent after a night of heavy drinking. In the early hours of the morning on the live feed from the Big Brother house a major fight broke out.

Thankfully there was little actual violence because the two would be combatants Victor and Emma were restrained. It seems that Channel 4 got more than they bargained for but what do they expect when they put volatile antagonistic characters in close proximity and then give them lots of alcohol when tensions are already high due to a lack of cigarettes.

I don’t why there has developed a culture of violence in this country. The scenes of violence due to the football are just an extension of a typical Saturday night. The hooligans in Portugal are probably just typical English blokes doing what they would nornally do when they are fucking pissed and that’s get in a fight for no fucking reason.

Tags: sport

I think that I am a fairly prolific reader but I am completely outclassed by this guy who lists the books he’s read so far this year.

Tags: books

From the BBC Becks on the spot.

Beckham’s spot-kick miss against France cost England dear and Gary Tuhill (coach of under-15 side Beecholme Colts) reckons his players could show the national skipper how it’s done – after putting away 46 in one game.

I pity the poor kids in that match it sounds like the penalty shootout was a huge ordeal that would have seemed like it would never end.

Barthez out-thought Beckham and it cost England the match so perhaps he does need a bit of practice at not aiming for the same spot whenever he takes one. Unfortunately now he’ll have the dilemma if another penalty opportunity arises. He has confirmed that he will carry on taking them so will he change his spot like people may expect or will he bluff and hit it exactly the same again.

Tags: sport