Keeping up with times

While i wasn't writing too much for a while, don't think for a moment that i was living under the rock. Since my last post (well, excluding Linux one) a lot of interesting stuff happened. Suffice to say that the world today is not the world it was six months ago. Yes, i'm referring to SOPA/PIPA/ACTA/TPP/CISPA/etc.etc.etc.

I am happy and cheering for the people who fought SOPA/PIPA. No, really, as much as i hate people, i can say that they've done mostly good job showing RIAA/MPAA who's the boss here. I'd like to think that they have learned their lesson, but that would be too much to ask, and the fact that they haven't changed their ways for ACTA and TPP shows that. ACTA is in a funny situation because USA has written and signed this document, but now that no one else has signed up for this, USA is pretty much the only country who signed ACTA.

Now we've got this TPP thing going. It's even more secretive than ACTA, and between countries questioning their participation in TPP, and US public figures' outright lies and corruption surrounding this international agreement, i think it's safe to say that this cancer must be eradicated the same way SOPA/PIPA/ACTA was. Recent events and news suggest that there may have been a change of heart in TPP negotiations, but i don't trust neither USTR (MPAA's bitch) nor other countries' discretion (USA's bitches). It will be interesting to see how this pans out though.

Cybermeanwhile, cybersecurity cyberis cybersorta cyberbig cybertoo. Cyberthere cyberwas cyberthis cyberanother cyberbill cybercalled cyberCISPA, cyberwhich cyberfocuses cyberon cyberhow cybermuch cyberwe cyberneed cybersecurity. Cyberin cyberorder cyberto cyberbend cyberpublic cyberopinion, cyberthere cyberhas cyberbeen cybera cyberlot cyberof cyberfear cybermongering cybergoing cyberon cyberabout cyberplanes cyberfalling cyberfrom cyberthe cybersky cyberand cyberall cybersorts cyberof cyber9/11'ish cyberstuff. Cyberi cybermust cybersay cyberthat cyberUS cyberpublic cyberis cyberso cyberdumb cyberthat cyberit cyberactually cyberbought cyberit, cyberand cybernow cyberpublic cyberpolls cybershow cyberthat cyberthey cyberfear cyberattacks cybermore cyberthan cyberterrorism. Cybercan cyberyou cyberfucking cyberbelieve cyberthat?! Meanwhile, cybersecurity is sorta big too. There was this another bill called CISPA, which focuses on how much we need cybersecurity. In order to bend public opinion, there has been a lot of fear mongering going on about planes falling from the sky and all sorts of 9/11'ish stuff. I must say that US public is so dumb that it actually bought it, and now public polls show that they fear cyberattacks more than terrorism. Can you fucking believe that?!

By the way, the previous paragraph is pretty much how US politicians talk about "cybersecurity". Throw in "cyber" here and there, and you're got yourself a new "threat" (not that terrorism ever was a threat!). They even went as far as offered a new role, someone-something-blah-blah on cyber-issues. Cyber-fucking-issues?! Any one with half a brain cell would understand that to not have power grids hacked you have to disconnect the fucking power grids from the Internet, but there's no money in that. Anonymous hacking power grids (lolwut?), scary Iranian Chinese Russian North Korean hackers (i am surprised they didn't invent cyber-Al Qaeda yet), what else? Oh yes, imaginary threats warrant surveilance society. Great. Anyways, i sincerely hope that nothing too bad comes out of it. I don't even expect them to make something good (for a nice change), just please, for God's sakes, at least don't break anything!

USA looks especially ironic in this particular case, because there has been two very high profile malware attacks on the Middle East - the Stuxnet and the Flame malware. If you don't know what that is - Google it, don't be a lazy ass. These malware attacks were actually carried out by USA. And now we fear that maybe - just maybe! - someone would perhaps strike back? How can you even justify these sorts of things? Whether the target is evil or not is irrelevant - malware attacks are illegal. Or is it only illegal and immoral whenever someone beside USA does it?

On a bright side, there's been a few booming Kickstarter projects - Wasteland 2, Double Fine, a few others... It's great to see this thing gaining traction. There were also some high profile lawsuits towards major music labels which further expose sleazy tactics the labels are using to avoid paying out artists they so proudly claim to "support". Fresh from the harvest is Def Leppard making covers on their own songs and basically recreating their entire discography so that they can get royalties out of the label.

And don't forget this whole Carreon/Oatmeal saga. It's so fucking retarded it's not even funny. FunnyJunk and Carreon, bravo, you are the worst morons i've ever seen. I mean, how can you be so fucking stupid to sue a guy who's raising money for charity?!

So, the world has changed. But at the same time, it largely stays the same.