Monthly Archive for August, 2006

Don’t link to Pt.2: governments, universities and arms dealers

wstryder August 31, 2006 0 Comments

I have so many updates to my previous post that I decided to just add a new topic here. Corporate websites commandeering copyrights is not in anyway unusual or sensational, but you’d think that government organisations might be more careful.

The Australian government however requests that all non-government organisations seek permission in order to link to austalia.gov.au. If granted permission, you must not “contravene government policy” or “provide a link to australia.gov.au from a site that is not in the public interest”. My blog is definately not in the public interest, but I sent them a request anyway. If they ever reply I’ll post it here. Meanwhile I’ll think of a way to effectively contaravene Australian government policy.

The website of the UK government states that “In entering our site you as a user (’You’) are accepting our terms and conditions” – but as a citizen of Finland I’m thinking whether I have to accept anything from the UK government. They encourage linking to their site but add some restrictions, such as “[you must not] allow a pop-up to appear simultaneously with Directgov content”. They also mention that “If we contact you to remove your links to Directgov, you must do so immediately”. So will the bobbies soon be knocking on my door?

Unlike governments, universities are usually aware of netiquette. So too is the National University of Singapore:

The University supports and encourages good Netiquette. The University should be informed of links from external websites. However, the University reserves the right to require the removal of any links from external websites to the NUS website. Deep linking to NUS web pages is prohibited – any links created by the user to the University’s website should be text links containing our domain name and which transfer other visitors directly to our homepage.

By defining their own netiquette, these guys are right on the cutting edge of Internet technology! Seriously, what good is a university website if you can’t deep link to its resources?

Third topic today is guns and I’ll tell you straight away what I think – I fucking hate guns! Whether used for combat, self defence, hunting or target practice, guns just suck. Now check out the Armalon Ltd firearms dealer (UK). You might at this point not be surprised to hear that they don’t want any unauthorized links to their website:

Armalon welcomes the creation of authorised links to the home page of this site. However, in recognition of the potential damage that could occur to Armalon’s reputation if this site were to be associated with another site of unsuitable content, you may not create un-authorised links to any part of this site. If you would like to create a link to this site, please contact Armalon by email to obtain prior agreement to the link. By establishing a link of any kind to this site, you agree to be bound by all Terms and Conditions for the use of this site. [...] You may not create deep links into this site without prior agreement from Armalon.

I can imagine what potential damage unauthorized links could do – no more profit from selling arms to murderers, rebels and terrorists… No more innocent animals dying by the hand of bloodthirsty hunters… It would be just horrible if an arms dealer’s reputation was damaged. What about deep links from sites that contain unsuitable content? That could potentially cripple an entire industry. Imagine for example, a website that rants “don’t buy guns”, yet contains deep links to an arms dealer’s products? So hear me out kids – don’t buy guns from these motherfuckers! Yeah, I sent them a request to authorize my links. Can’t wait to hear what they have to say.

Update: My request to link to Armalon was bluntly refused. Still waiting from australia.gov.au.

12:41 pm Tags: .

Website Terms of Use that prohibit linking

wstryder August 30, 2006 6 Comments

a_hrefYou could define the world wide web as a system of hypertext documents connected by hyperlinks. Hyperlinks (usually just called links) are the very foundation of the web, the web would simply fall apart if you were not allowed to link to other sites. Tim Berners-Lee comments on this issue:

It is difficult to emphasize how important these issues are for society. The first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, for example, addresses the right to speak. The right to make reference to something is inherent in that right. On the web, to make reference without making a link is possible but ineffective – like speaking but with a paper bag over your head. [Link Myths]

Now some companies think different about this. Take Sony for example. On the Sony VAIO website’s terms of use (TOU) they claim that:

You must seek and obtain the written consent the operator of this site before creating any link to this site. Deep linking is strictly prohibited. All authorised links to this site must be to the home page of the site, must make it clear that this site and the Site content are distinct from the website containing the link and must make it clear that this site is owned and/or operated by Sony.

You need a written consent in order to link to their site? So according to the TOU I’m not allowed to make a deep link to this product for example? Now that’s bs like.no.other. In the real world, you may link to any site you want and to any page within a site (although there is some dispute about direct linking). With regards to deep linking, the W3C Technical Architecture Group asserts that:

…any attempt to forbid the practice of deep linking is based on a misunderstanding of the technology, and threatens to undermine the functioning of the Web as a whole. ["Deep linking" in the World Wide Web]

So why does Sony think that they can restrict users in this way? Well you didn’t read the fine print before viewing their site. See in their TOU it say that:

If you do not agree to any of these Terms (or any such other rules, guidelines etc.), you may not use this site.

If you look around, all big evil corporate websites have such a disclaimer, followed by absurd restrictions and limitations. Well I’ve got bad news for Sony. These kinds of TOUs are not legally binding. So I may in fact use their site in any way I please without fear of infringment, so long as I don’t break any national laws. But the Sony TOU gets stranger still:

You agree not to access this site by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Sony for use in accessing the site.

Do they mean the front page? Or the web browser? In any case, I have the right to access the website via whatever interface I desire. I can download the website with wget and grep through the contents if I want to, or I can just view the site with Firefox. CNN is guilty of a similar restriction, they want you to “access the Services manually by request and not programmatically by macro or other automated means.” CNN is not going to like this CLI command:

$ wget -R http://cnn.com

Back to Sony, somebody please tell me what the next bit of their TOU means:

Access to, and use of this site, including … [viewing, downloading, displaying etc.] is prohibited unless specifically permitted in these Terms.

So according to the TOU you are not even allowed to use the site at all, unless specifically permitted. Wow, now that’s pretty strict! It gets better though. They’ve found an ingenious way to fight spam:

[...] you agree to pay Sony 5 Euros for each item of ’spam’ sent through your User account in breach of these Terms.

If anyone from Sony is reading this, know that you are required to send me a bag of peanuts for each paragraph you have read. If you don’t agree with my TOU, that’s too bad, ‘cos my TOU says that you may not leave this site without the written consent of me or my agents! This is a legally binding document, so start sending those peanuts! Really, by viewing this blog you agree to whatever rules and regulations I might come up with. Next week it could be bananas, so be sure to check this TOU regularly. C’mon Sony.

Prohibiting linking was hilarious, but Sony still has a few cards up its sleeve. Check this out:

Sony gives no Warranty that Site content is appropriate, available or permitted for use in all locations, that it is virus-free or as to its interoperability with any hardware, software or content or as to User’s ability throug h this site to access or interact with any other service providers, networks, users, or informational or computing resources through the internet.

So the Sony website is pretty much like their CDs – you’ll never know if they contain viruses or whether they’ll work with your hardware. The next bit is a common bit of nonsense that you’ll find in many other evil big company TOUs:

Without prejudice to the disclaimers and liability limitations in these Terms, no claim or action against Sony or Sony Affiliates may be brought by any person in relation to or arising out of this site unless such claim or action is commenced and notified to Sony in writing within 1 year after the date the cause of action first arose.

I’m sorry Sony, but I am allowed to bring claim or action against Sony or Sony Affiliates without any need of informing Sony in writing. I may even do so however many years after the date the cause of action first arose. Disclaimers and terms of use such as these are not binding legal agreements, so why do they exist on so many websites?

Some companies on the other hand allow linking and even encourage it, but add ludicrous demands in their TOU. Konica Minolta for example allows you to link to their site, but only on the condition that your website doesn’t slander them or contain inappropriate content. So lets not say anything bad about the fine Konica Minolta company, shall we? Fujifilm prohibits “caching unauthorized hypertext links” and even “reserves the right to disable any unauthorized links”. So if you link to Fujifilm they come knocking on your door or what?

I’ve saved the best for last – easyJet has a special Terms and Conditions page for linking. easyJet is bold enough to claim that they are in a position to mandate the conditions under which people should or should not link to their site:

“Linking to the easyJet Website by any means is subject to these Terms and Conditions.”

easyJet’s ridiculous terms tell you what colours you should use on your website:

You agree that you shall not use the colour orange (pantone reference 021C, HTML reference #FF6600) on your Website except as part of an easyJet Trade Mark used as permitted in clause 3.1 above.

You mean like this color:
:P

More bullshit:

You are permitted to provide and maintain a Link to the easyJet Website Homepage only at URL http://www.easyjet.com. You may not direct the Link to any other webpage contained within the easyJet Website.

So they don’t want you to link to their routemap for example. The link also “must not disparage easyJet“.

In local news, the Finnish News Agency (STT) prohibits linking to their news topics. Imagine a news agency that doesn’t want people to link to their online content – how ridiculous is that? In a response, the Finnish Anti-Commandeering Investigation, Training and Resources organisation TKVK (website in Finnish only) ACITR has launched a “Link to a prohibitor!”-campaign, which aims to put and end to such absurdities. The ACITR has coined the term “copyright commandeering” (Fin: tekijänoikeuskaappaus) and define it as an instance of copyright misuse, whereby one adds more restrictions and limitations on the use of a product or service than actually permitted by applicable copyright law. The TKVK strives to bring to public attention any acts of copyright commandeering found in Finland. Now I see the need for an international movement – any volunteers?

12:20 pm Tags: .

Some websites just hate Tux

wstryder August 28, 2006 0 Comments

Banned TuxThere’s now an outcry of Linux users claiming that “NY Times discriminates against Linux users“. And it’s true, just go to nytimes.com and try to access their video section. You’ll get an annoying messages claiming that “To view New York Times Video, you must have browser Cookies enabled, Macromedia Flash Player, and a supported Browser/Operating System/Media Player configuration.” Clicking the “click here” link on that page reveals that they want you to use Microsoft Windows XP or Apple Mac OS X. The workaround? Just install the User Agent Switcher plugin for your Firefox and you can pretend to be using Windows XP. Now you can view any video from nytimes.com.

This problem is just due to bad web programming from nytimes.com. It should be enough to just check if the visitor is using Macromedia Flash, because that’s apparently all you need to view the videos. It seems that a lot of sites are still making ridiculous demands from their users. “This site is best viewed with IE 4.0″ is a message that you’ll still today see on a lot of websites. Perhaps some companies add a fancy piece of script to detect the browser just for he hell of it, because it’s a common web cliche they’ve seen on so many other sites. But to tell the visitors that they have to install Windows XP in order to view a simple web page is just plain silly. Please everybody – just make standards compliant web pages. Now if the visitor’s browser isn’t standards compliant it’s the visitor’s fault they can’t view the site.

This may not be the worst case of discrimination in the world, but it is extremely annoying. So just give angry feedback whenever you come across sites that don’t like Linux users. It might not change a damn thing, but at least it’ll make you feel better.

12:54 pm Tags: .

Pretty useless Gnome apps

wstryder August 24, 2006 3 Comments

gnome_smallI used KDE for a long time and was perfectly happy with it. The reason I switched to Gnome was simple – I installed Fedora Core 5 and forgot to switch the default Gnome for KDE. I was pleasantly surprised however, Fedora’s Clearlook theme was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen (on desktops at least…). I found out that Gnome was actually easier to use than KDE, everything was much simpler, more logical and just less cluttered. But that’s just my humble opinion.

There is one thing about Gnome that really bugs me though – oversimplified apps. They’re pretty and shiny, they do the job but have no configuration options. Sometimes the lack of configuration options even renders the app utterly useless. A good example is gnome-screensaver. Notice anything strange about this screenshot? If you look closely, there’s no button for settings. You can’t change an individual screensaver’s settings by right-clicking either. That’s not so bad for screensavers that just display some swirly things on the screen, but for a screensaver such as “Picture folder” it really sucks. You can’t change the picture folder, it allways looks in your ~/Pictures folder. Just drag and drop you’r favourite pics in there. But why can’t the user just choose the darn folder himself? Would it really make the app so complicated?

According to the gnome-screensaver FAQ the missing settings button is actually “a feature”. They claim that they’ve tried a different approach and that “There are advantages for the user. It demands that themes simply work and that the defaults make sense.” Well guess what? The themes don’t work and the defaults simply don’t make sense. A screensaver such as SlideScreen is supposed to grab an image of your desktop and then slide it around the screen. This would be a fun screensaver if it used the desktop, but now it just uses a default image of some kind and there is no way of changing it. The same thing happens with AntSpotlight – instead of crawling on your desktop with a spotlight, the ant just roams on top of a boring default image.

Another oversimplified app is gnome-screenshot (screenshot). It just sucks. You can’t use delay, or choose to select an area of the screen, or select a window, all features which are found in KSnapshot (screenshot). I need not mention printing in gnome. Lets just say that printing works fine for me (maybe that’s because I’m an ‘idiot’? Hmm….).

Overall I feel that Gnome is great, I find the oversimplification in Gnome less of a problem than the overKomplication in KDE. But that’s just me.

12:19 pm Tags: .

Ubuntu xserver-xorg update bug

wstryder August 23, 2006 0 Comments

x.org

I updated my xserver yesterday. That’s what you normally should do when there are new updates available for Ubuntu. If you didn’t however download that update yesterday, you were actually better off! I had the update installed but didn’t restart my xserver afterwards. It was only later at night when I rebooted my computer that I found out that my xserver would fail. No biggie, I did the obvious thing and checked if there was yet another update available for the xserver and just typed “apt-get updgrade” from the command line. Problem solved!

This isn’t a big deal for experienced Linux users. But it is a major pain in the butt for noobs. And there are a lot of noobs using Ubuntu (which is of course a good thing). How many newbies know how to update their system from the command line? It’s easy, but if you don’t know that you should type “apt-get upgrade” you’re stuck at the command line. How many non-geeks know how to use lynx in case a gui isn’t available? Or even know what it is? So the fact of the matter is, the xserver shouldn’t break after an update. Ever. Shame on you, Ubuntu!

The good news is that the buggy update was fixed quickly. Just make sure you update to xserver-xorg-core_1.0.2-0ubuntu10.4 and not 10.3 which is the buggy one, it should be out there already, so if you haven’t updated yet you should be able to safely do so now. More info on this at Ubuntu Demon’s blog.

Update: The Register now has this story, like a week after it happened. Ubuntu issued an apology and provides idiot-proof instructions on how to fix the issue. I hope there’s nobody out there still staring at the green terminal not knowing what to do. But there probably are.

10:28 am Tags: .

MPA attacks guitar players

wstryder August 22, 2006 0 Comments

guitar_cuffedThey used to hunt music listeners. Now they attack musicians. Sites such as Olga.net and Guitartabs.com have removed all tablature from their sites under threats from the NMPA and MPA. This is a real shame, because er… sheet music is so expensive. Although I consider myself a pirate (Arrr!), I have actually bought some Black Sabbath, Metallica and Slayer tablature, for the reason that they are simply superior to the crap you can download from the usual tablature sites. So although they are expensive, you always get good value for your money. However, you can’t get scores for all songs and all bands. So for the rare stuff, you have to download the tabs from the net (at least if you’re half deaf like me and can’t figure out a single note by ear!). Would I download quality tablature if it was available for say, 1$ per song? You bet I would. But it isn’t available. So instead of fighting plummeting sales with legal action, why don’t these people do the obvious – start selling downloadable tablature? They’d probably want to infest that too with DRM though. Sigh.

Update: From the guitartabs.com site: “My site generates interest in playing music, which can only lead to more purchases of licensed sheet music. [...] The notion that a musician serious enough to spend $30 on a sheet music book would instead settle for a by-ear tablature interpretation seems unlikely to me. Whlie highly paid laywers may easily be able to use corrupt, recently-manipulated and poorly-tested copyright law to suggest that I am violating the law, the argument that I have actually damaged their industry in the process seems ludicrous.”

I could not agree more. Thank God I don’t live in USA. Oh wait, our copyright law isn’t any saner[citation needed]. Another *sigh*. (Very late) Update: see The story of Finnish copyright law from CopyFraud blog.

Update: The Register now has this story, like a week late.

10:40 am Tags: , .

Great way to spread ubuntu

wstryder August 18, 2006 2 Comments

Whatever you think of ubuntu, you can’t argue with one thing. Ubuntu is popular. Damn popular. That means there are a lot of people using it, the chance that the nerd next door is using Ubuntu is pretty big, so you have a lot of support for it. The Ubuntu forums are an excellent resource, not to mention the documentation. Ubuntu is pretty and shiny, it’s easy to use and it comes on only one CD. The CD also works as a live-CD, so you can try Ubuntu from the CD before installing it. The software repository is huge, which means that you can install the software you want by just a few clicks. So if you want to give Linux a try, in my humble opinion Ubuntu is the distro you should go for. What’s even more amazing, you don’t have to download Ubuntu. Just order a free copy via shipit.ubuntu.com and it will be delivered to you for free. And that’s not all, they’ll actually send you a box full of them so you can go on a Linux evangelism spree and start throwing Ubuntu CDs at innocent bystanders! Woohaa! Or you can just sit on top of them, or you could microwave them all, or make a fancy beaded CD curtain out of them. But I would rather encourage you to spread them out.

Ubuntu box

A great way to spread Ubuntu is to make a small box out of cardboard (a cerial box will do) and attach one CD cover to it (see illustration on the right). Write “grab a free copy here!” on the box and staple the box to a message board at your dorm, library, mall or local supermarket or where ever. If you’re brave, leave your phone number and offer free support ;) When people see the text “grab free copy here” they’ll take it and hopefully even pop it in their computer. My old Breezy CDs all dissappeared almost instantly. Just hoping it wasn’t a Linux hater who just wanted to destroy them. Oh well.

5:03 pm Tags: .

Ubuntu is more interesting than boobs!

wstryder August 17, 2006 2 Comments

With all the hype surrounding Ubuntu Linux, I decided to see how well it measures against the universal search constant – boobs. The result from Google Trends was shocking:
boobs_vs_ubuntu

As you can see, people are actually more interested in Ubuntu than in boobs! Way to go Ubuntu! What’s even more interesting, if you click on the regions link, you find that the most boob-obsessed people live in Pakistan! The Swedes and Finns however, actually find boobs less intriguing than Ubuntu… Sad Swedes and Finns…

Thanks to Kari Haakana for this idea, he compared “tits” with “computer” and “mobile phone” with interesting results (Finnish).

4:53 pm Tags: .

Low-tech life, pt. 2: no microwave

wstryder August 17, 2006 1 Comment

After realizing we have no TV in our apartment, some guests figure out that we have no microwave either. Oh Horror! How does one make popcorn without a microwave? How do you warm your leftovers? How can you not have a microwave?!? First of all, you don’t have to leave any leftovers ;) But if you do, it’s pretty fast to warm anything on the stove. You don’t need a microwave for that. Really. You don’t need a microwave for anything (unless you want to build a microwave gun). Making popcorn is pretty easy on the stove too, just follow these instructions carefully:

How to make popcorn without a microwave

Buy the right kind of popcorn, ie. non-microwave popcorn. They usually come in semitransparent plastic bags that contain the yellow corn kernels (like this one). Microwave popcorn is always packaged in a folded paperbag that has all the oil and seasoning inside, don’t buy that kind.

  1. Grab a large cooking-pot, pour in enough oil to just cover the base.
  2. Heat the oil until it starts to vapour.
  3. Pour in enough popcorn to just cover the base.
  4. Cover the pot with a lid and wait for the popcorn to pop.
  5. When the popcorn is no longer popping, you may assume that all the kernels have popped. Remove the pot from the stove and you’re ready!
  6. If all of your popcorn turned black or your kitchen was caught on fire, repeat the above but with less heat/smaller flame. You might need to experiment a little with the right temperature and the amount of oil.

For illustration, check out this cool gif-animation (so 1995!).
Next week: how to make pizza without a microwave!

4:06 pm Tags: .

Low-tech life, pt. 1: no TV

wstryder August 17, 2006 0 Comments

Braun HF 1One of the first questions people ask us when they see our apartment is “Where’s your TV?”. We usually explain that we don’t have one, that we feel just fine without one. We still watch DVD’s on our computer and download TV-series, but I hate TV, I don’t want to sit in front of a grey box and just hope there might be something good on. With my computer I can watch whatever I want, whenever I want and that’s not going to change. Who enjoys watching commercials? Maybe you do, but I don’t. I also don’t need to watch the news from TV, I read all the news from RSS-feeds and that way I can skip whatever I think is boooring.

Fact: there is absolutely nothing interesting on television in Finland. All the good TV-series are one or two years behind US, so you’re basically watcing ancient shows. Any good movies that are on you’ve probably already seen (three years ago). Finnish productions suck (just my humble opinion). Now some smart ass Finns think their “digiboxi” (DVB-receiver) will save them, because they can record the shows and watch them later. But they still get commercials and the digital broadcasts are not without errors. And the programs are still not any better.

3:30 pm Tags: .