About Me

PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

Book Project

I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

Colophon

This site is built on a fresh trunk checkout of Django, running on Python 2.5.1, served by Apache and mod_python. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive.

Pile o'Tags

Stuff I Use

Akismet, del.icio.us, Django, dpaste.com, Emacs, FreeBSD, Freenode, jQuery, LaunchBar, MacPorts, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, SQLite, Subversion, TextMate, Trac, Ubuntu Linux, wmii

(Finally!)

Sony DRM news roundup

BoingBoing.net has an excellent Sony rootkit roundup, part II that is really worth reviewing if you're interested in this case. Here are the opening lines:

Cory Doctorow: It's been three days since the first roundup post on Sony's rootkit DRM and lots of new stuff has come to light since. Below is a timeline of posts since then, but first, here's the Sony debacle news that came in while I slept:

Immunize Yourself Against Sony's Dangerous Uninstaller: Princeton DRM researchers Ed Felten and Alex Halderman explain how to miitgate the security vulnerabilities left behind by Sony's incompetent "uninstaller" program.

List of infected CDs: Sony finally lists the 52 titles infected with the XCP rootkit. Note that Sony initially claimed that fewer than half that number were infected. (_Thanks, Kurt!_)

US-CERT: Never Install Audio-CD DRM Software. The Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team advises that you never install CD DRM: "Do not install software from sources that you do not expect to contain software, such as an audio CD." (_Thanks, Kurt!_)

Now, all the news that's come in since the initial roundup post on Nov 14: Nov 14: Sony anti-customer technology roundup and time-line Roundup of Sony's misdeeds to Nov 14.

(Continue reading on BoingBoing)

Friday, November 18th, 2005
intellectual property + risks
1 comment