the sky is falling.

The MPAA continues to reach new heights, er, lows, and is Lobbying for Home Theater Regulations:

MPAA head Dan Glickman says this needs to be regulated before things start getting too far out of control, “We didn’t act early enough with the online sharing of our copyrighted content. This time we’re not making the same mistake. We have a right to know what’s showing in a theater.”

…

The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29” with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown.

“Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn’t give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That’s a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends,” said Glickman. “Ideally we expect each viewer to have their own copy of the DVD, but we realize that isn’t always feasible. The registration fee is a fair compromise.

For StationK (who has been suffering on Dreamhost these past three weeks), An Anatomy of an ongoing Disaster

Good reading. Better pictures.

Jim Henley: Agh! Floyd!
Brett Peters: Floyd!
Brett Peters: I share your outrage.
Jim Henley: I am heartsick. I need to lie down.

I cannot believe I am about to say this.

Dear God, please let Texas win tonight and kick the crap out of USC. If ever a team needed to be taken down a notch, it’s USC.

Ack, gag, “Hook ‘em, horns!”

(Ack! Dirty! Need shower with lye soap! End times are upon us! Ack!)

How did I miss this brujahah? LWN: Debian and the hot babe problem.

I particularly like the Debian developer’s objections:

The program involved is hot-babe, a graphical CPU utilization monitor. It works by displaying a typical Bruno Bellamy drawing of a minimally-clad, maximally-endowed woman. As the CPU gets busier (“hotter”), the woman undresses to compensate. Your editor, whose journalistic ethics required that he investigate this utility, found it to be an amusing addition to the desktop - for about five minutes, or until the children walk in, whichever comes first.

The Debian developers raised the obvious, predictable objection to the inclusion of this utility: the associated images were covered by a non-free license.

I’m sad to say this, but the NEA’s recent report that Americans Read Fewer Books is just a wee bit alarmist. It’s filled with overhyped generalizations. Generalizations of any sort give me hives.

Don’t mistake me, I’m sympathetic to the issue. I believe reading is a crucial part of a good life and have devoted an entire room of my house to my books. But the rhetoric is so absurdly overwrought that I can’t take it seriously. This problem is happening for “first time in modern history”? All I can think is that the authors have a much different definition of “modern” than I do. Do these people remember anything before 1980?

Don’t answer that. Just go read the report.

For the first time in modern history, less than half of the adult population now reads literature, and these trends reflect a larger decline in other sorts of reading.

…

Reading at Risk presents a distressing but objective overview of national trends. The accelerating declines in literary reading among all demographic groups of American adults indicate an imminent cultural crisis. The trends among younger adults warrant special concern, suggesting that — unless some effective solution is found — literary culture, and literacy in general, will continue to worsen. Indeed, at the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century.

Wow. Read down to the end of this article to see a hysterical overreaction to a security threat — stay off the Internet, indeed! Um, perhaps you could just not use Internet Explorer and download Mozilla or Opera instead? Oh, because concrete advice on how to avoid a problem won’t generate as many page hits as much as fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Sheesh. I think I need a new category for articles like this one.

Researchers warn of infectious Web sites:

Meanwhile, the average Internet surfer is left with few options. Windows users could download an alternate browser, such as Mozilla or Opera, and Mac users are not in danger.

NetSec’s Houlahan advocated drastic action.

“I told my wife, unless it is absolutely necessary and unless you are going to a site like our banking site, stay off the Internet right now,” he said.