Last Sunday I stopped for munchies on the west side of Jacksonville, FL. While sitting there eating, what did my eyes behold?
A beautifully restored 1945 military jeep. Tom Cabe, owner and driver told me the jeep is a World War II veteran and did it's duty in Holland.
The attention to detail paid during the restoration is incredible. Check out the ax mounted under the driver's entry.
Even the ID plates and shifting pattern on the dash board are restored and in place. I like the BB gun.
A tip of the hat to Mr. Cabe for a job well done and taking the time to talk with me.
More on the the Sony DRM mess
It seems that after being fried to a crisp in the court of public opinion Sony has thrown in the towel when it comes to their XCP copy protection scheme. The mess got deeper and more slippery for Sony when several new developments came to light.
It seems their programmers lifted a bunch of their code from several open source projects including the MP3 encoder called LAME.
This Reuters article tells about the discovery. "We can confirm that at least 5 functions in the XCP software are identical to functions in LAME," said Thomas Dullien at security software firm Saber Security in Bochum, Germany, which specializes in the analysis of complex software.
I hope the owners of the pirated open source code chase Sony down with a horde of bloody thirsty pit bulls posing as lawyers.
Not to leave any hole unexploited, the wonderful folks that keep Symantec and McAfee in business have already exploited a couple of the gaping holes the Sony bug creates in Windows XP systems. Andrew Kantor wrote this USA Today article called "
Sony: The rootkit of all evil?" that covers many of the most recent problems with the XCP software.
Sony first said they would "Temporarily stop producing" the CDs with their computer virus on them. But now it seems they've completely folded with a total recall. The word is they will exchange your infected CD for a clean one.
That's all well and good, but what are they going to about all those infected computers and the damage that comes from the hackers that are already exploiting the holes Sony made? Class actions suits are in the works in California and New York. Several criminal investigations have begun as well. Even the Department of Homeland Security is looking into the risk to infected government computers.
I think Sony's merely glimpsed the tip of the ice berg when it comes to the troubles they're in for.
matt_arnold posted
this piece. His words and the story he links are very well thought out and worth your consideration.
And the beat goes on...
Good night Mrs. Whack. Be sure and trade in those infected CDs.