Author: Chris Barrus

Banned chapter from Kevin Mitnick book appears on Internet discussion group

From 2600:

As we reported in our current issue, there was a chapter where Mitnick told his own story about his years on the run, his frustration while in prison, and his overall background. In this chapter, he expressed a good deal of anger at the people who helped to capture him and who profited from his story – New York Times reporter John Markoff and computer scientist Tsutomu Shimomura. Before the book hit the stands, a threatening letter was sent to Wiley and Sons (the book’s publisher) by Markoff’s attorneys and the chapter was pulled. (Wiley and Sons claims this action was taken independently of the legal threat.) This, however, occurred after review copies with the chapter were sent out.

Now the chapter has appeared in a public Yahoo! discussion group called kevins_story – accessible at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kevins_story/. We can only guess what will happen next. Ironically, as always, it probably wouldn’t have turned into such a big deal without all the legal shenanigans.

RIAA Wants Background Checks on CD-RW Buyers

Keep telling yourself it’s only a parody…

Washington DC – The RIAA is lobbying for vendors of CD-RW drives to conduct background checks and require a 3 day waiting period before the drive can be sold.

The extensive background check would include cross referencing credit card numbers with local merchants sales logs looking for purchases of dual-cassette decks between the years of 1980 and 1987. It would also include checking for installation of file sharing software, knowledge of the Internet, and the ability to hum. Any of which would bar the purchaser from receiving his drive.

“A CD-RW can be a dangerous weapon when it falls into the wrong hands,” said RIAA President Hilary Rosen, “You wouldn’t sell a gun to a convicted felon and you shouldn’t sell a CD-RW drive to a Gnutella user. The 3 day waiting period gives us time to verify that no copyrighted material is on the purchasers hard drive and to make sure they have a membership in the Columbia House CD club.”

Hypersonic sound goes Madison Avenue

hypersoundOf course you knew it was only a matter of time before the advertising industry got hold of the hypersonic directed sound the military was working on.

It’s the most promising audio advance in years, and it’s coming this fall: Hypersonic speakers, from American Technology, focus sound in a tight beam, much like a laser focuses light. … When it rolls out in Coke machines and other products over the next few months, audio quality will rival that of compact discs.

So does this make me a net.person?

My name (well at least a homonym) is now used in a story in The Onion

Woman Mad Boyfriend Not Jealous She Danced With Other Guy
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – Deborah Raskin, 20, became angry Saturday when boyfriend Kris Barros failed to become jealous over her dancing with another guy. “She was being all quiet and staring at the wall, and she wouldn’t tell me what it was all about,” Barros said shortly after leaving the party. “Finally, I realized, shit, I was supposed to get all mad and make some big scene because she danced with that one dude before.” Barros promised Raskin that he would make more of an effort to be jealous in the future.

Instant “am I tacky or not” high society fun at BizBash

BizBash is actually a serious site for “Ideas and Resources for Special Events, Meetings and Event Marketing” and describes itself as “The Ultimate Online Destination for Event Planners”, but for the irony addicts out there it’s filled with retina-damaging reports of how those “high society” folks live it up at the Big Events for product launches, movie releases, awards shows.

Mozilla users beware – the site drips script code guano all over the top of the page.