Are they any good ?

Most of the attorneys who are listed as being involved in SCO v. AutoZone have been told that by the court they are in violation of Special Order 109, which is a requirement to participate in the electronic filing system. They are instructed to go to the US District Court for the District of Nevada website and sign up. It sounds quite alarming, the way it's worded, but trust me, they don't drag them out at dawn and shoot them for this or disbar anyone. It's just the wording of the notice, which is standard. You can find Special Order 109 [PDF], In re: AUTHORIZATION FOR CONVERSION TO CASE MANAGEMENT/ELECTRONIC CASE FILING, here. It's local to Nevada, but it's part of the federal court system switch to digitalization. The Clerk of the Court is responsible to keep the official record, and so there has to be a way to identify when an attorney is who he says, when a document is filed. So this is what it refers to, that they need passwords and such. It also represents their consent to being served electronically.

Live feed from Beijing 2008 TKD prelims hereNot sure if anyone outside Canada will be able to view ...

Kurt Opsahl of EFF has just announced that the restraining order on the MIT students has been lifted:Today, Judge George O'Toole lifted the gag order on three MIT students who were sued by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority for discovering a security vulnerability in the MBTA's fare payment system. The Court found that the MBTA was not likely to prevail on the merits of its claim under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. MBTA had argued that the CFAA, which prohibits the transmission of a program that causes damage to a computer, also covers "verbal transmission," such as talking to people at conferences. Judge O'Toole, however, looked closely at the statute, and held that the CFAA does not apply to security researchers like the students talking to people. More details to follow. [Update: The MBTA had sought to convert the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction to last for five months, to give them time to fix the vulnerabilities -- here's the motion [PDF] -- and that was denied. It's worth reading, this motion, if only to see why this thing swirled out of logical bounds. One issue is that when the MBTA hears the word hacker, they seem to think it means cracker, and they viewed the DefCon conference as a meeting where people go to learn how to break in to other people's stuff, which naturally panicked them. And they seem to imagine that using Wireshark, which used to be called Ethereal, is "illegal activity", as you can read on page 25. Nor did they understand geek humor. Just a real culture clash, with misunderstandings that led to litigation that now seems to be resolvable, now that the MBTA's attorney says he wants to meet with the students, to learn more about their research findings.] So the attempt to stretch the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act has failed. Please read the statute for yourself, and ask yourself: do you want talking about computers and security to become a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment and subject to FBI and Secret Service oversight? That's what almost just happened. You can find the documents in MBTA v. Anderson here. If you read the MBTA's complaint, you'll find the allegations of violations of the CFAA on page 12. I think you'll find the MBTA interpretation of the statute shocking ("... the damage constitutes a threat to public health and safety... affects a computer system used by a government entity for national security purposes..."). The research was about getting a ride on a subway for free. In any case, the judge didn't buy it, with respect to the restraining order.

I've been puzzling over something in the ISO press release announcing that the four appeals against OOXML as an ISO standard, from Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela, would go no further. In the press release, it said this:According to the ISO/IEC rules, DIS 29500 can now proceed to publication as an ISO/IEC International Standard. This is expected to take place within the next few weeks on completion of final processing of the document, and subject to no further appeals against the decision. Wait a second. What's that "subject to no further appeals against the decision" part? What rules would those be? When I read the JTC1 Directives, Edition 5, Version 3.0 [PDF], I see in the section on appeals another step you can take if the TMB/SMB decide not to proceed with your appeal, which is what just happened: 11.4 Appeal Against a Decision of the TMB/SMBs An appeal against a decision of the TMB/SMB shall be submitted to the Secretaries-General with full documentation on all stages of the case. The Secretaries-General shall refer the appeal together with their comments to the members of the Councils within one month after receipt of the appeal. The Councils shall make their decision within three months. So, ask your lawyer, but I read that as saying a denial by the TMB/SMB is *not* necessarily the last word, no matter what the press release said, if an NB wishes to bring the appeal to the next level, which would be to the "Secretaries-General" and "the Council". Who's that? How does that work? I've done some digging, and here's the joke. Three of the appealing NBs are listed as members of the Council. Again, ask your lawyer, but here's what I've found.

If your a friend of the state, you arer a foe of Christ, and his teachings.

More bankruptcy filings. And there are upbeat chirpings in the air in Utah, with SCO proclaiming its own future brighter than they thought it would be, and you can read all about it in Tom Harvey's article in the Salt Lake Tribune, which calls SCO "the comeback kids". No bias there. It might be a tad early for that title, methinks. IBM still looms on SCO's horizon, after all. Novell was a sideline. The main event has yet to occur. SCO doesn't need as much money as they thought they would to give to Novell, so maybe Darl McBride can stay on as CEO after all, we learn. There's a new business plan that sounds like it has to do with calendars online and messaging, and ... well, read about FC Mobile Life, its project with FranklinCovey, for yourselves: That type of transaction is essentially what happens with the FranklinCovey product FC Mobile Life, which provides near-instant communication for scheduling, delegating tasks and sending text, photos and audio, said Jeff Hunsaker, SCO president and COO. "Our focus here is on collaboration, and it's real time. It's real-time collaboration with people you trust, with a group. We've kind of brought it all together. That's the value we bring here." FC Mobile Life can work on BlackBerries and phones running Windows Mobile, with iPhone compatibility under development. The system interacts and updates information on a Web browser and smart phone. SCO also is working to integrate Microsoft's Outlook e-mail and calendar into the system. So that's the plan. The new one. Real time collaboration with people you trust. Hmm. Trust ... People you trust. Hmm. Remember when they used to call Darl McBride "the Linux Killer"? Methinks that's still the real business plan. In his dreams.

SCO keeps changing its story of "infringement", and so over the years, we've tried to track all the twists and turns, comparing their allegations with evidence available on the Internet or in our collections. SCO made it harder when it removed its collection of press releases from its site and from the Internet Archive. I had forgotten all about it, but years ago, before they did that, I had saved their list of older press releases, meaning for us to eventually look at all of them. Then, they disappeared, and I just stumbled across the information again now, and I'd like to share it with you. Even the names of the press releases could be useful. If anyone gets sued at any point, at least they'll know what to ask for in discovery. I also discovered a wonderful site, Sourcewire that still has tons of Caldera press releases from 2001. Here's one I found there, the announcement about OpenUnix 8. That's the one with LKP, the Linux Kernel Personality. Guess what LKP included? The LKP technology in Open UNIX 8 will include the same GNU tools and libraries built into Caldera OpenLinux(tm), which were developed with close adherence to the specifications of the proposed Linux Standards Base (LSB). Open UNIX 8 will track this developing standard, assuring the highest degree of application compatibility. Libraries, eh? How fascinating. Isn't this fun? And what a dovetail, in that we just showed you what was included in OpenLinux. I have some more to show you on that in a later article. But do you see how valuable all scraps of information are? You just never know when it will matter in litigation, somewhere, some time.

A bald man, who wore a wig was riding one day. When a puff of wind blew the wig off, at which the bystanders guffawed. Reining in his horse, he said, ‘It is not surprising that I can not keep hair which is not mine on my head. Since its proper owner, on whose head [...]

My boyfriend's been laid up all week by a shin contusion. The history is that, around July 10 he first injured his shin sparring. It swelled and hurt, after a week he called out and rested it for two days, then it healed up after that. Then last week (saturday) he was sparring and AGAIN injured it :P This time he barely felt anything at the time of injury, but then it started swelling and hurting. So he decided to immediately take off work and rest it. He's been to an urgent care place Monday to have it checked out, no broken bones but they said he had a contusion and to rest it. So he's been off his feet all week, but if anything it seems to hurt a lot worse than the last time, and at this point (one week later) he finds it very painful to walk, or even to just be vertical (not have it elevated). I've had my share of shin clashes, but I've always just ignored them (except to protect the leg while sparring). This one does seem worse (more bruising and swelling) but, to my untrained eye, does not look too terrible.He is making an appointment with a specialist, but that's going to have to wait till Monday. What I'm wondering if anyone here has felt anything like this before, and what they did about it. Thanks!!!

Live broadcast THIS EVENING Saturday, August 16, at 7:30PM.

Here are some more screenshots for you, showing the real Santa Cruz Operation relationship with Linux before the modern day SCO Group began suing the world and its dog. Back in the late 1990s, Santa Cruz had what it called its "Linux strategy". It included both money and support to help Linux succeed. Our first headline, from 1998, is "SCO Sponsors Linux." Yes, Santa Cruz represented itself at the time as hopping on board the Linux train, which even back then was being used in the corporate environment. At the time, SCO wanted to encourage Linux as an alternative to Microsoft, which at the time was considered its "enemy". In a press release, it talked about its "ongoing strategy to support the Linux and Open Source movements". Let me show you, please, what I found.

I know it will not surprise you to hear that ISO/IEC have rejected the four appeals against OOXML. Here's their press release. Now what? Andy Updegrove: Under the ISO rules of process, this now paves the way for the as-adopted version of OOXML, now called IS0/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology - Office Open XML, to proceed to publication. That version is substantially different than the current implementation of OOXML in Office 2007, and its text has still not been publicly released by ISO/IEC. According to a joint press release, "this is expected to take place within the next few weeks on completion of final processing of the document." Intriguingly, the press release goes on to say, "and subject to no further appeals against the decision. That should be hilarious, when they publish it and anyone tries to actually use it. Anyone? Bueller? Keep in mind that Microsoft's Office 2007 does not implement OOXML. Infoworld May 21, 2008: On Wednesday, Microsoft said it will not have support for the current ISO specific for OOXML until it releases the next version of Office, code-named Office 14. The company has not said when that software will be available. No one does. How could they? Why would they? What really happens next: the complaints lodged with the EU Commission. ISO/IEC decided to go down with the ship.

Hello,My name is John Hidalgo and I am in the preliminary stages of planning a new event which will focus on Japanese martial arts and culture. I am writing various people (martial arts schools, martial artists, Japanese culture related businesses and organizations, etc; mostly in the Austin area) who might either be interested in participating or who might be able to provide input that will help shape the event. Below is an overview of the event and questions related to the various aspects of the event. If you would be willing to provide any input it would be greatly appreciated. If you would like to be removed from any further communications about this event, please let me know and I will do so. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.Respectfully,John HidalgoOverviewThe event will effectively be a Bushido festival. Though, the focus will be primarily Japanese martial arts, it will also encompass Japanese visual and performing arts, religion and culture.Charitable CauseOne of the things that is being considered is to have the event benefit a charity. If that direction is taken the first choice would be the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America (www.tsubakishrine.com). The Tsubaki Shrine is the only full time active Shinto shrine in North America. If that is not workable we would be open ot other chartiable causes.TimeframeSpring 2010VenueCurrently under consideration is the Austin Convention Convention Center and the AT&T Conference Center. In the future, other venues may also be considered.FormatThis will be a convention type event and may include demonstrations, classes, movie screenings, and vendor area.Questions1) From an event that bills itself as a Bushido festival, what sort of things would you expect to see and do?2) If there was a vendor area, what sort of vendors would you want to see?3) If there was a movie screening area, what movies do you think would be appropriate? What movies would you like to see?4) What demonstrations or classes (martial arts or otherwise) would you like to see? How long do you think these demonstrations and classes should be? Is there anyone in particular you would want to see giving those presentations?5) For an event that includes demonstrations, classes, a movie area and a vendors area, what would you be be willing to pay.6) If you were to be a vendor, what would you be willing to pay for a 10' x 10' space?7) If you were to place an ad in the event program or have banner advertizing at the event, what would you be willing to spend on these things?8) If you were to provide a class or demonstration at the event, what, if anything, would you expect in return?9) would you be interested in participating in such an event and, if so, in what capacity?10) Do you have any other ideas, questions or concerns about this event?

Another study – this one at Stanford University School of Medicine – looks at the affect of running and aging. Published by Runners World. A more complete article with other links can be found on the Stanford School of Medicine...

If someone interested I've open a daito_ryu blog. I personally just have started practicing it in Israel so if you have some info share you are kindly welcome.

Man – is it hot in Houston! I did a 12 miler with speed work Tuesday morning in Houston – well I guess you could call it “speed”. It was 83 degrees when I started - at 5:45am – and...

There is a status conference scheduled in AutoZone for Monday, September 22nd at 9 AM. Here's the notice on PACER: 71 - Filed & Entered: 08/14/2008 Minute Order Setting Hearing Docket Text: MINUTE ORDER IN CHAMBERS of the Honorable Judge Robert C. Jones, on 8/14/2008. By Deputy Clerk: K. Goetsch. IT IS HEREBY ORDERED the parties shall appear before the Court for a Status Conference on Monday, 9/22/2008, at 09:00 AM in LV Courtroom 7D before Judge Robert C. Jones.(no image attached) (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - KXG) I don't know if one of the parties is initiating this stirring of the dust in Nevada, or if the judge wants to find out if this moribund case is ever going anywhere, but he may have some questions after reading the parties' status report SCO filed recently. Perhaps he is of the opinion that litigation should have an end, not just a beginning. Of course, SCO being SCO, they'll do the "but we were only found liable for $3 million" dance, I suppose, and the "we own OpenServer" do-se-do, and OpenServer is part of what AutoZone was allegedly about. So, if you want to review all that, here's SCO's Complaint and Groklaw's AutoZone Timeline, where you can find all the filings, and the article on SCO's Free-OpenServer we recently published.

What are some of the safer martial arts out there? I just want something practical and efficient, that'll get me into shape. I don't want to have to learn flips or anything gymnastic-esque. I would also prefer not to have to do unprotected sparring. It's just that I've already had so many health problems and injuries, that I just don't want to have to deal with anything further. I've broken a wrist while sparring once, but that sorta thing is an acceptable risk. I'd just rather not get a concussion is all. Any recommendations? I'm interested in ninjutsu, though don't know if I think it's safe enough for me. What sort've dangers might be involved in ninjutsu? Are some significantly more dangerous than others, or especially notable for being dangerous (or not)?

Respect is an issue that comes up quite a bit in martial arts (I sometimes feel it comes up far too little in other areas of life). It's a tricky question at times, and to some extent truly is cultural....