P2P Copyright Infringement Notice Spam

A really interesting bit of news: spammers have apparently resorted to e-mailing P2P users fake copyright infringement notices, falsely identifying themselves as MediaDefender (part of the RIAA lawsuit apparatus). I don't know if I can put it any better than Ars did, "There's something deeply ironic about the fact that data thieves have targeted content thieves for botnet infiltration." Ironic indeed.

[via Ars Technica]

Google Chrome (and Browsers) Supposedly Make Microsoft Windows (and Operating Systems) Irrelevant

The author of the article linked below makes the claim that operating systems (like Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, etc.) are being made irrelevant thanks to internet browsers (like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.)... I am sure many have already thought this but, in order to run Google Chrome, you need Windows (as it doesn't quite run on anything else yet). Therefore, while I'd love to think that computing has reached a point where the internet is the ubiquitous platform that makes everything available to everyone all the time, regardless of everything else, I don't think we've quite reached that singularity yet.

[via NYT]

Key Points from Gov. Palin's Nomination Speech

Key points from Governor Palin's vice-presidential nomination speech in St. Paul, Minnesota last night:

-reporters don't like her and she doesn't care
-Obama talked about religion and guns differently when speaking to versus when speaking of middle America voters
-Obama only worked as a community organizer
-reform is hard but must be done
-she sold governor's jet and chef in Alaska
-she drives to governor's office (instead of taking the jet, presumably)
-she knows how the veto works
-she doesn't like tax on fuel
-she doesn't want federal funding for state projects
-she built a $40B natural gas pipeline to lead America to energy independence
-she knows that foreign powers don't have American interests at heart
-she is in favor of gasoline autarchy
-she wants to drill the North Slope of Alaska to go towards gasoline autarchy, presumable because it will stop our energy dependence on evil foreign powers
-McCain-Palin administration will do everything but drill for oil (lay pipelines, build nuclear plants, clean coal plans, and mover forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources)
-Obama has not written a "major law" or "reform"
-Obama thinks that "America's war" and "victory" are two phrases that just don't mix
-she doesn't like styrofoam Greek columns
-Obama is a hippy-dippy environmentalist
-Obama wants to reduce America's strength in a dangerous world
-Obama is too concerned about terrorists' rights (presumably, that means she just wants all people accused of terror to be put in jails with no due process)
-Obama is raising taxes when America is going into a recession
-how do extra Obama taxes help Americans suffering a recession? (implying that healthcare for uninsured and welfare for poor doesn't apply to those recession-struck Americans)
-Obama uses change to promote career, McCain uses career to promote change
-she doesn't like that Obama has buttons and self-designed presidential seals
-Obama doesn't have the idealism of McCain (presumably because the lack of experience in Washington has left Obama more jaded than McCain, who has been in Congress for around 3 decades)
-McCain isn't a party man (implying that he chose Palin because he has suddenly become hugely religious, strongly anti-choice, and hates the environment) [that last one may actually be true]
-Senator Reid hating John McCain is the best proof that McCain is a good candidate
-Harry Reid isn't as good at stuff as McCain
-Obama wants to make the presidency a journey of personal discovery
-McCain is a war veteran, Obama and Biden are not
-Obama's story of adversity is far less than that of McCain's torture in Hanoi
-McCain has already made his journey
-McCain is compassionate because he was tortured
-McCain is wise because he was tortured
-McCain is confident because he was tortured
-McCain was inexplicably exuberant when returning from interrogations conducted by the North Vietnamese torturers (who presumably didn't read him his rights, a view that Palin shares with McCain's torturers)
-America needs an inexplicably exuberant, tortured Vietnam War veteran as its president for the next 4 years
-Obama only talks, McCain has done things
-since character is "the measure" in this election and change the goal, McCain should be president

[via NYT]

"Mo' Money, Mo' Problems" is right

In introductory economics classes, students are taught that people work the number of hours they do because they choose a point on their work/leisure curve that maximizes their satisfaction with life, in general. This would imply that, since more money comes at the cost of less leisure, money somehow compensates for it by reducing stress and increasing happiness in your life through increased availability of resources (ie, more money). However, according to a recent New York Times article:

Perhaps for the first time since we’ve kept track of such things, higher-income folks work more hours than lower-wage earners do. Since 1980, the number of men in the bottom fifth of the income ladder who work long hours (over 49 hours per week) has dropped by half, according to a study by the economists Peter Kuhn and Fernando Lozano. But among the top fifth of earners, long weeks have increased by 80 percent.
...
One result is that even with the same work hours and household duties, women with higher incomes report feeling more stressed than women with lower incomes, according to a recent study by the economists Daniel Hamermesh and Jungmin Lee. In other words, not only does more money not solve our problems at home, it may even make things worse.

That, from what I can tell, means that richer Americans are so far along on their money-leisure relationship curve that they get reduced satisfaction from each additional hour they spend at work (rather than at leisure)... If they are rational actors, they should immediately readjust their work-leisure choice to improve their overall satisfaction. Maybe they just haven't quite realized that their work is cutting into their overall satisfaction.

[via NYT]

Obama Science Policy

I just read through a questionnaire that Senator Obama finally responded to (Senator McCain still hasn't done so) regarding science/technology/space/environment/education policies in his administration. Being a fairly liberal person, I am pretty happy with what Senator Obama put down; feel free to read it if you want. They also have synopses of other things he has said about the above issues.

[via SEA]