Naquada

Dance like no one is watching,

Sing like no one is listening,

Love like you’ve never been hurt,

Live like it’s heaven on earth.

Mark Twain

It makes me real mad when music labels leap into area and ‘break’ the real world. Last year I found a BMG CD that I couldn’t play on my Windows PC without installing a whole bunch of software from BMG that I had no idea about, and crashed the Apple mac when I tried to play it there.

My argument, which I think is perfectly valid, is that when I buy a CD I should be to play it on my primary choice of music system, which in my case is iTunes. Its not BMG’s right to tell me I can only play it on a HI-FI, and that if I want a digital copy of the music I should re-buy the CD in a digital form.

The copy protection then was CACTUS 2.0 by Midbar, but alarmingly Sony/BMG have now really flipped, and come to the conclusion that they can rewrite parts of the Windows operating system to suit their needs.

The Sony ‘rootkit’ as its been terms allows the CD’s to be played perfectly on Red Book Audio devices (thats the normal HI-FI’s you buy in the shops to you and me). On non Red Book devices (read, macs, windows, etc) the CD forces the user to play all audio content through a bundled media player and restricts how many digital copies can be made from Windows.

A ‘root kit’ generally refers to malware used by hackers to gain control of a system. A root kit has several characteristics: it finds its way onto systems uninvited; endeavours to remain undetected; and then may either intercept system library routines and reroute them to its own routines, or replace system executables with its own, or both – all with the intention of gaining system level ownership of the computer.

Now Sony’s CD protection, and their digital media software is particularly nasty in that by using expert tools (like adaware, or spysweeper, or indeed Microsoft’s own anti spyware software) for removing the parasite risks leaving you with a Windows PC that’s useless, and that requires a full reformat and reinstall.

The Sony software creates a hidden directory and installs several of its own device drivers, and then ‘reroutes’ windows systems calls to its own subroutines. It also intercepts kernel-level API’s, but to make Sony crime even more damming, the software deliberately attempts to disguise itself, and label themselves ‘Essential System Tools’.

Thomas Hesse, President of Sony BMG’s global digital business division was asked about the havoc the CDs have caused, and replied;

“Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”

You can heard the whole radio interview here.

After a huge uproar int he blogging world and on major sites Sony have been hit with class action law suits from Californian consumers who claim the music giant’s DRM technology damaged their computers, and breaks three separate Californian laws. Other cases have been raises in New York on behalf of anyone who’s bought one of the suspect CDs.

Its worth carefully reading the licence agreement that pops up, since Sony’s End User Licence Agreement allows sony to install any software they lie onto your machine, and also covers what you can do with stored copies of the CD;

Any copies of the CD kept on a laptop or other device must be deleted if the original CD is stolen or lost. They cannot be stored on your work computer only a “personal home computer system owned by you”. If you move countries you must delete all songs covered by the license. If you file for bankrupcy you must delete all relevant files. Any consumer who fails to keep up-to-date with the hidden software is in breach of the agreement.

Thankfully Sony have through ahead, and offers a $5 limited damages section, for anything going wrong, which is actually less than you paid for the CD!

Sony say that only 20 Titles, which it refuses to name contain the code, but at least 47 titles have been discovered to have the protection on them.

Sony have now suspended production of CDs that contain the XCP software, the ‘official’ name for the copy protection that was created by British company First4Internet ltd (01295 255 777), and issued a ‘patch‘ to decloak the DRM software. Unfortunately on examination of the ‘patch’ its 3.5 meg in size and seems to contain new versions of almost all the files included in the original installation of the DRM software, even though their statement says;

November 8, 2005 – This Service Pack removes the cloaking technology component that has been recently discussed in a number of articles published regarding the XCP Technology used on SONY BMG content protected CDs. To alleviate any concerns that users may have about the cloaking component posing potential security vulnerabilities, this update has been released to enable users to remove this component from their computers.

Normally I’d take the moral high ground here, in the fact I use a mac, a platform thats been so far free of virus, spyware and malware, yet it seems Sony/BMG aren’t happy with just trying to screw windows installations, trying their hand and corrupting Mac OS as well.

At least one CD includes a MAC OS X application that installs a pair of extensions to operating system’s microkernel, Thankfully there is no autostart feature on Mac that starts applications when CD’s are placed into the drive. Therefore to screw up your PhoenixNub1.kext and PhoenixNub12.kext on your Mac you need to be stupid enough to run the start.app form the CD.

It does seem, the CD in question on the Mac; Imogen Heap’s Speak for yourself rips perfectly fine with iTunes on the mac..

So the moral of this tale? just watch what you buy, and what pops up when you put it into your CD drive…

So yesterday was my birthday.. 33 years old, and getting older!! I spent a really nice day. Spending the day up in London, and not only enjoying good company, but managing to go on the London Eye, something in all the times I’ve been to London I’ve never done. It was a pretty cold day up in London, so the hot mulled wine from Covent Garden, really warmed it up a bit, that and the triple chocolate cookies!!

A nice relaxed wander around the market at Covent Garden, followed by a walk down to Westminster Bridge and the London Eye. The hot dog’s and fresh waffles with maple syrup filled a spot (or rather a little more than a spot!) in our stomachs before queuing to get onto the eye itself.

We timed it so that we would catch the start or as much of sunset as possible, and although the cloud was quite low, it obscured most of the sun, but didn’t ruin the view from the top of the wheel. I never actually realised how much of London you could see from the top, and it wasn’t half as crowded or as busy as I expected.

I’ve been past the wheel so many times when I’ve been working around Westminster, Waterloo and Southbank, but never had the time, or opportunity to actually get onto it. I was a good gift for my birthday, and something I’ll be able to remember for quite some time.

I managed to take quite a few nice photos from the capsule itself, as well as a nice little photo I took before boarding. I have a whole bunch more to put up once I’ve looked through them all.

Now feeling somewhat fat from my chocolate birthday cake that I ate most of this evening, and feeling a little tired still from the weekend, I believe its time for some wine, and relaxation..

The last few days have been exhausting, travelling round preaching the beay I nefits of an enterprise data integration suite to customers.Yesterday I was in Dublin with one of the major mobile phone networks, but no time for Guinness, even though it was a 20 hour day. On the plus side, the Sales executive workingon the account with me has promised to buy me a Playstation Portable if we close the deal.

Today I’m on my way to Plymouth to see another large customer to address their data quality requirements. My minds in one of those ‘freewheel’ modes, most likely just because of the lack of sleep the last 48 hours. I am so looking forward to switching off this evening, ready for my birthday on Sunday. The Ipod seems to have decided to pick all ay favourite music this morning; ‘Sleep’ by Chris coco at the moment.

Tomorrow is a black tie dinner, and I’m sat looking for suitable magic to take with me. At the moment Micheal Skinners ‘Ultimate Monte’ looks to be one. I’m not sure what is getting me odder looks on the train, using handwriting input on my TabletPC, or practising The “Three Card Monte’…

Everybody knows Magical Trevor,

He’s the bloke with stick and the leathery whip,

But now he’s back in a form that quite slick,

That’s fluffy and cuddly and somewhat quite smaller.

Magical Trevor, he’s available for pre order

Hop over to weebls, he’s sat in the corner.

Magical Trevor, buy him right now, he’s more use than a cow..

So I can now see the wind turbine they are building at Green Park from my bedroom window. Its actually quite impressive, measuring in at over 85 metres high, and a rotor diameter of 70 metres.

Apparently its now in the final stages, originally set to take 2 days to put the hub and blades in place, although the high winds of the last few days have meant that they cannot safely place the rotor arms onto the hub. The turbine itself will be producing about 4.5 million kWh’s enough to power almost 1,500 local homes and businesses.

The turbine itself will be the most visible wind turbine in the UK, a somewhat dull fact, in that it will be viewed by about 60 million people a year as they pass by junction 11 of the M4. Although I’m not keen on the idea of them lighting it up at night as a ’sculpture’..

Green park is also home to these little critters, the Reading water vole society. Obviously they didn’t get much say in the planning application, being water voles and all, but they are being safeguarded by Prudential’s Landscape Management team.

A small family of water voles are being encouraged (with what I have no idea) to move into a much improved ditch a few metres from their current habitat.. Although I’m not sure what they are going to think of the rotor arms whizzing past their ears.. ‘It didn’t say anything about rotor arms in the brochure..’

Its been one of those days again, quite busy and stressful, but working from my home office I had a wonderful view of the sky during the day. Its been bitterly cold all day, and the sky outside my office window looked quite weird, having watched it change during the day, just before sunset I decided to clock off for a bit and take some photos.

I’m not entirely sure why it looked so odd, but there were very interesting and somewhat strange shapes in the clouds. The almost setting sun also picked out the vapour trails of the planes heading over, although I didn’t manage to catch it (flat battery on the Canon!), there was a brief period where the moon was also visible in the setting sun.

I love looking up at the sky, especially late evening, or early morning. There is always a mass of interesting shapes and patterns, and the light cast by the sunset or sunrise always creates an amazing depth to the sky.

I think probably the most amazing looking cloud photos I’ve seen are the ones of Mammatus Clouds taken over Hastings, Nebraska by Jorn Olsen, they are just truly bizarre!! I also found through Jorn’s site some great photos that Kathryn Piotrowski of TwisterChasers.com has taken..