Category Archives: Security

Food, Security

Wellington Anniversary Day

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While reading about Anniversary Day for Wellington, I noticed some dissenting opinion. For example here is a report from 2005:

Wellington Anniversary Day commemorates the arrival of the first British immigrant ship in the area, marking the start of settlement and consequent taking of Maori land. The day also commemorates the formal settlement of the New Zealand Company which largely organised such settlement and theft.

[…]

The Foreshore and Seabed Act enables the elimination of Maori customary ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the name of public access while private ownership is upheld. The Act breaches the Treaty of Waitangi, and national and international human rights standards and laws, making a mockery of the government’s claims that it protects people’s rights.

“We’ve chosen Chaffers Marina to mark this anniversary of past and present theft as there are locked gates here and signs saying ‘No Fishing’ which is hardly public access”.

“Hapu and iwi, who have historically allowed others access to beaches and seabed, have had their rights stripped away – but the rights of private property owners who can and do deny access are protected. This is clearly discriminatory and illogical”.

Removal of traditional access fishing rights to award public access control to a private group that will restrict it…interesting control dispute.

History, Poetry, Security

You’d be so nice to come home to

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Performed by Chet Baker, Tokyo, June 14, 1987

Again, YouTube comes through with a fine example of rare jazz footage. This was video only available in the Japanese market until 2006, and only on long out-of-print Laserdisc. Now that 9 videos of the 13 performances have been made available again on DVD from Impro-Jazz, they also can be seen online (albeit low-fi) anytime. Amazing.

Tip of the hat to reader A for the link.

Something about watching Chet perform in his final year just makes me want to really think hard about what it means to take risks in life…and brings back to mind the story of violent assault in San Francisco (Chet was attacked in the city in 1966 and, like one of singers in recent news, suffered permanent facial damage that almost ruined his career).

BeforeAfter

Poetry, Security

If I Have My Ticket Can I Ride?

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How would these Jubilee Song lyrics change in today’s world of RFID passports and ID theft?

If I have my ticket, Lord, can I ride?
If I have my ticket, Lord, can I ride?
If I have my ticket, Lord, can I ride?
Ride away to Heaven in that mornin’.

This is what we Christians ought to do;
Be certain an’ sure that we are livin’ true.
For bye an’ bye, without a doubt,
Jehovah’s gonna order his Angels out.
They will clean out the world an’ leave no sin,
Now tell me, hypocrite, where you been?

I heard the sound of the Gospel train,
Don’t you want to get on? Yes, that’s my aim.
I’ll stand at the station an’ patiently wait
For the train that’s comin’, an’ she’s never late.
You must have you ticket stamped bright an’ clear,
Train is comin’, she’s drawin’ near.

Hope to be ready when the train do come,
My ticket all right an’ my work all done.
She’s so long comin’ till she worries my mind,
Seems to be late, but she’s just on time.

It keeps me always in a move an’ strain,
Tryin’ to be ready for the Gospel train.
Ever now an’ then, either day or night,
I examine my ticket to see if I’m right.
If the Son grant my tickit the Holy Ghost sighn.
Then there is no way to be left behind.

There’s a great deal of talk ‘bout the Judgment Day,
You have no time for to trifle away.
I’ll tell you one thing certain an’ sho’,
Judgment Day’s comin’ when you don’t know.
I hope to be ready when I’m called to go,
If anything’s lackin’, Lord, let me know.

Security

Apple clamps down on iPhone bloggers

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Apple is not so happy about people making other mobile devices look just like their upcoming phone:

Savvy coders have developed iPhone “skins” that work with most smartphones based on the Windows Mobile and Palm operating systems.

The issue has angered Apple to such an extent that it has sent its lawyers after a number of those involved – both directly and indirectly.

In other words Apple not only tried to get the skins taken down, but also attempted to shutdown any discussion about the existence of non-Apple device skins:

Apple’s lawyers also sent letters to journalists who simply reported on the fact that the skins were available.

“It has come to our attention that you have posted a screenshot of Apple’s new iPhone and links that facilitate the installation of that screenshot on a PocketPC device,” law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP wrote to Paul O’Brien, who runs the MoDaCo website.

“While we appreciate your interest in the iPhone, the icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple.

Naturally, this has only increased the fame and attention given to the skins. The article also mentions the time when Apple argued that bloggers are not true journalists and therefore do not deserve speech protections. That did not turn out so well for them, for obvious reasons that unfortunately seem to have escaped them again, this time around.

In somewhat related news, many sites are starting to complain that Apple is actively working to squash discussion of hardware issues related to NVidia due to some kind of IP arrangements between the companies. Slashdot points to an incident where the Cupertino giant quietly deleted a question from their support site that had raised a system failure concern:

I eventually found out (from an official Blizzard poster) that NVidia has a bug in their drivers that kernel panics a Mac Pro if any memory past the 2GB boundary is addressed in the driver. After waiting months for a resolution to this, I decided to post on Apple’s support site. Here is an image of my post.. Within a few hours, they removed it from the site, placing it under ‘Posts Removed by Administration.’

Uh, hello Apple? Do you remember that 1984 ad you did with the brightly dressed woman who runs in and throws her hammer at the screen watched by all the submissive people in drab grey? Yeah, that one. Um, well…see, she’s kind of like one of those bloggers, and you’re kind of like sending those guys with the masks and bats after her…