Annoyances 24x7

Feds crack down on copyright infringement

2010-12-06T11:39:00.000+01:00

The story about the German kids who managed to hack into the computers of various celebrities is quite fascinating. Obviously the celebs are no better than the rest of us when it comes to "click this link, omg this is too freakin' amazing" -> spyware.

What struck me the most in this article though was this following paragraph:

The alleged crime came to light only when fans of Kelly Clarkson, another targeted singer, tipped her off about unreleased music available on the internet. She informed the police, triggering an investigation involving the FBI and the German Federal Police Service.

What the hell does FBI have to do with investigating possible copyright infringement? That's like sending fully armed US marines to retrieve a bicycle that the neighbor kid stole. Absolutely fucking ridiculous.

The Data Retention Directive lie

2010-10-27T10:40:00.003+02:00

The Swedish politicians have tried to convince the public that the implementation of the Data Retention Directive (DRD), the massive surveillance scheme that would make the DDR blush, is aimed at fighting organized crime, terrorism and such.

Well, the cat's finally out of the bag: Infamous Minister of Justice Beatrice Ask wants the police to be given access to any surveillance data (the positioning of your cell phone, your e-mails, text messages, calls...) on suspicions even of petty crimes that only warrant a fine. That means that the police could use the DRD surveillance machine to track you down and prosecute you for urinating in a public place, littering, or probably more realistically: For illegally downloading music or movies on the Internet.

Is this really the society we want? Don't you wish you didn't vote for a totalitarian government in this year's elections?

Other thoughts on the subject: Sysadminbloggen, opassande, Henrik Alexandersson, Full Mental Straightjacket.

Picture: mandiberg

Robocopyright ACTA

2010-09-30T10:33:00.000+02:00

This is just too good.

A double standard is better than no standard

2010-09-24T16:04:00.000+02:00

I figured this would be a more cheerful way of presenting news & views, this time the "Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act", a bill proposing that the US Department of Justice can shut down any site that is accused of being involved in copyright infringement.

Common ground

2010-09-23T16:23:00.000+02:00

There we are! Seems Sverigedemokraterna (SD) and the currect Government have even more in common than we thought. SD too, apparently, want to ban art and culture that can be deemed offensive by some.

So up until now we've got:
1. No respect of basic human rights
2. Less artistic freedom (as mentioned above)
3. Harsher punishment for committing victimless crimes
4. Moving away from the assumption that one is innocent until proven guilty
5. Even more surveillance

Plenty of common grounds to build a new government on. I think this might work out very well in the end.

Miljöpartiet selling out

2010-09-22T17:46:00.005+02:00

I guess anyone who believed in Miljöpartiet's election promises on surveillance is feeling pretty ashamed today. Only 3 days after the elections a representative of the party, Isabelle Lövin manage to vote - brace yourself - in favor of the positively insane Gallo report, a report named after its equally insane (or completely corrupt) creator, Marielle Gallo. Read Isabelle Lövins pathetic excuse here. Notice how she uses a clearly fake petition signed among others by deceased filmmakers, to justify her vote for increased surveillance and oppression.

The report, for those of you unfamiliar with it, states on one hand that we don't know enough about the effects of file sharing (clearly all the independent research done over the last couple of years is irrelevant, as it doesn't support the view of the entertainment business), and on the other hand that this doesn't matter at all and that ISP's should be forced to monitor the users for illegal file sharing activities, and also risk liability should they not take action in a manner acceptable to the entertainment industry. In other words, legislation first, facts second. My oh my, if every industry could order oppressive legislation just like that...

Oh yeah, and the report also states that file sharing may lead to health risks. Really. That's just how insane it is, and how dumb Isabelle Lövin and the other pathetic bastards voting in favor of this report are.

So, by voting in favor of this report, let's have a look at how this is honoring Miljöpartiet's election promises, made only 3 days ago:

Att staten inte ska ha möjlighet att registrera och övervaka all internettrafik i Sverige. Right, we'll let the ISP's do the surveillance instead, and threaten them with liability if they don't cooperate.

Skapa en balanserad upphovsrätt och avkriminalisera fildelning för privat bruk.
Umm, yeah, a balanced copyright legislation is exactly what the Gallo report is all about...

Of course, traditional media refuse to pick up on this. Instead they're publishing a story on how 70% of Swedish voters have confidence in the politicians. Yeah, I wonder why.

The aftermath

2010-09-20T10:20:00.003+02:00

This year's election was truly a choice between the bubonic plague and cholera. After four years of suffering we already knew how cholera felt, and the public seemed to think suffering from this disease was better than exchanging it for the bubonic plague. Interestingly enough even the right-wing party Sverigedemokraterna (SD) made it into the Riksdag, probably due to public frustration and great PR by the other parties as well as the media.

The election result gives us a situation where the ~~cholera~~ non-socialist Alliance is forced to cooperate with parties from the ~~bubonic plague~~ socialist coalition or indeed SD, out there on the far right of politics, which the Alliance has already denied.

To be honest I'm not sure I understand why the Alliance is so hesitant to cooperate with SD. Sure there are differences, mostly ideological, but if the last four years have showed us anything it's that the Alliance are experts in leaving their ideology at home before going to work. So, in practical politics the Alliance and SD aren't really that far apart. Sure, whereas SD nurture a fear and loathing of non-European immigrants, the Alliance nurture the same fear and loathing of all Swedish citizens. Equality, although a perverted one. Still, there are plenty of areas where I'm sure these two can cooperate: The views on crime, on human rights...

Looking forward to another four years in the dark ages.

The single most important question that hasn't been answered

2010-09-16T11:31:00.003+02:00

Sweden's first Ipred lawsuit ends up in the European Court of Justice. That's hardly a surprise. What is a surprise to me though is that what I consider to be one of the most important questions in this case hasn't even been touched by the courts:

How did the anti-piracy agency, Antipiratbyrån, manage to legally break into a secure server in order to gather evidence? And furthermore, do the courts find illegal activities to be perfectly ok when performed by representatives of the entertainment lobby?

Enforcing hands-free for car phone use is useless

2010-09-13T13:09:00.002+02:00

Sweden is the only European country where using a hand-held cell phone while driving isn't illegal. All other countries require hands-free equipment. Now the lobby organization Motormännen demans similar legislation in Sweden. The questions is, why?

According to studies the distraction of talking on the phone is what causes undesirable behavior in traffic, not whether or not you're holding the phone in your hand. There are no facts to support banning the use of hand-held phones in favor of hands-free equipment.

Motormännen point out that between 10-20 people die or are severely injured in car accidents every year because of phone use, both talking and texting. First of all, between 10 and 20? The difference between those number is way to high to tell anything, really. Second, there is a huge difference between talking on the phone while keeping your eyes on the road, and writing a text message. Combining these two activities in the statistics is just plain wrong.

Let me point you guys to this report (PDF) prepared for the European Commission in June 2009:

Hands-free versus hand-held?
Studies indicate that the use of hands-free phones causes as much
important driver distraction as the use of hand-held phones. Some studies show that in-car telephone
conversations while driving can impair drivers more than listening to the radio or talking to passengers.
An epidemiological study of crash involvement found that mobile phone use was associated with a greater
likelihood of crash than passenger carriage and increasing numbers of passengers

and

Effects of texting?
Many young drivers admit to the largely illegal activity of texting while driving. Text
messaging has a detrimental effect on safety-critical driving tasks such as lane-keeping, hazard detection
and the detection and appropriate response to traffic signs.

There we are. So stop with the bullshit and focus on the facts. If you want to ban phone conversations in cars then by all means do so, but stop pretending that everything will be fine if we just use hands-free equipment. In all fairness, Sweden appears to be the only country in Europe that hasn't based a law on pure propaganda. That's probably a first, and they deserve credit for that.

From the mouth of a true populist

2010-09-13T09:13:00.001+02:00

The election campaign is drawing to an end, and with the socialist coalition getting increasingly desperate, we're seeing more and more lies, or in this case half-truths, appear. According to Thomas Bodström of Socialdemokraterna a socialist government will tear up the much debated FRA law. That's all good, but he "forgets" to mention that a socialist government will then replace it with another, similar law. He also conveniently "forgot" to mention that he actually came up with this law back in 2005, then it was basically handed over to the current government who implemented it.

You know there's no hope when...

2010-09-10T09:20:00.000+02:00

...even a non-socialist government is happy to keep the second heaviest tax burden in the world. So ladies and gentlemen, this years general elections are basically a choice between either high taxes and restriction of your personal freedom, or high taxes and restriction of your personal freedom.

Hmm...this'll be a tough one.

Of course being an immigrant I can't really complain, can I? I could always move along when things get too rough.

We can't prosecute an entire generation (although we'd love to)

2010-09-09T13:31:00.003+02:00

We'll let the entertainment industry do the dirty job instead.

Man, those word will come back and haunt that vicious bastard for a long, long time.

Another police officer on Hollywood's payroll?

2010-09-07T16:51:00.002+02:00

We all know the story about Jim Keyzer, who was on Hollywood's payroll while investigating The Pirate Bay.

Now entering the stage: The anti-piracy boss of the Swedish police, Paul Pintér, of course with affiliations to the entertainment industry. Anything else would be considered weird in this country, I guess. Congratulations, Paul, seems you're doing a great job on behalf of your employer. Whoever that is.

A lot to look forward to on TV this fall...

2010-08-27T09:51:00.003+02:00

My God, this fall is bound to go down in history as the most pathetic one so far when it somes to TV entertainment. At least here in Sweden. As if seeing Anna Anka make an ass of herself on a regular basis last year wasn't enough, TV3 are not only continuing with a new season of their shockingly bad show Svenska Hollywoodfruar, they're actually adding another show, Svenska New York-fruar! Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like: Same crap, new city. I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth.

And as if that wasn't enough, other TV channels are pouring out similar crap at a stunning pace: Kanal 5 has a show called "Skånefruar" lined up for us, which I assume is about a pitiful collection of housewives who live in Skåne. Does anyone even care? And TV4 Plus plan to torture the viewers with an equally pointless show, "Ladies på Östermalm". Yes, it's just as boring as it sounds.

And if you haven't completely overdosed on this freak fest of botox-injected, brain-dead women with no ambitions in life apart from marrying rich, there's always Kanal 5's main feature, the brilliantly clever reality show "Kungarna av Tylösand", where the viewers can watch a bunch of retards getting drunk and acting like animals. Now that's good entertainment, Kanal 5.

I guess most sane people will have to rely on DVD's, The Pirate Bay or perhaps even books to get through this fall without permanent brain damage.

How to make an ass of yourself

2010-08-23T15:01:00.000+02:00

Congratulations, Karin Rosander. Great appearance.

An epiphany

2010-08-23T14:41:00.001+02:00

Social democratic politician Thomas Bodström suddenly realizes there is such a thing as personal integrity.

A moron without a cause

2010-08-23T08:42:00.000+02:00

Centerpartiet politician Fredrick "It wasn't me" Federley seems to get away with literally anything. The latest news on this buffoon is that he's letting the taxpayers pay his taxi bills. No, not just taxi to and from work, but rather late-night trips to and from pubs and nightclubs, labelled "meetings" on his expense reimbursment. Sure, I guess they're meetings of some kind, although not of a very political nature... My personal "favorite" is this:

Efter två timmar hemma hämtas han av en taxi som kör honom till en adress i en söderförort klockan 04.52. En timme senare, 05.40, är han hemma igen efter ännu en taxiresa.
”Övrigt”, står det på taxiräkningen.

I guess there were no labels for "Casual sex on taxpayer's expense".

The really sad part here is that apparently Federley is recommended to use taxis as his primary means of transportation for security reasons. The problem is, this complete moron uses all kinds of social media to let everybody know where he is and what he's doing at every given moment, which kind of ruins the whole security argument.

Photo: Politikerbloggen/private

Some refreshing political reading

2010-08-23T08:18:00.003+02:00

If you're like me, sick and tired of ridiculous election banners and flyers that make absolutely no sense, and instead you want to read some serious politics, let me recommend "Det sovande folket" by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Apparently not too easy to get hold of in your local book store, but luckily there's always the Great Library in ~~Alexandria~~ The Pirate Bay. You can download the book here.

Staten och kapitalet, revised version

2010-08-17T16:23:00.000+02:00

This really says it all. Nevermind the stupid flyers and posters littering your mailbox, this is spot on.

Socialdemokraterna grasping at straws

2010-08-16T15:05:00.000+02:00

I swear I thought this was just a joke, until it appeared on the front page of every major newspaper in Sweden. The socialist democratic party, Socialdemokraterna are really grasping at straws when they make it an election promise to introduce butlers/concierge services and at the subway stations in Stockholm, apparently to give people the option of doing something useful while they're down there in that miserable pit on their way to and from work. Like picking up their laundry, returning a book to the library, get your pre-ordered food-basket delivered, and so on. They've even created their own website with this nonsense.

I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not spending my time in that urine-stinking, overcrowded dungeon. And if I have to, I try making my visit as brief as humanly possible. Life is too short to be miserable, so how about Socialdemokraterna made it a bit faster and more enjoyable to get to and from work instead? Yes, I'm talking about proper roads, where you can get to work in the privacy of your own, climate controlled, quiet and comfortable car, whenever you want to. Now that's an election promise I could stand behind.

Why you should nurture your employees

2010-08-12T12:41:00.001+02:00

I'm not saying the spectacular JetBlue flight attendant resignation was caused by this, but there are a few paragraphs in this USA Today article that should be an eye-opener to a lot of businesses:

It also casts a spotlight on a broader anger felt by many workers who are fed up with jobs in which pay raises, if they exist at all, are smaller or less frequent than they were a few years ago and with the threat of layoffs looming constantly, some workplace specialists say.

Slater did what many workers fantasize about and may do with increasing frequency — albeit with less showmanship — once the economy rebounds. "I don't think we should be surprised that once the economy starts ... picking up, there's a massive relocation of workers who want out as fast as they possibly can," says economist Joel Naroff, president and chief economist of Naroff Economic Advisors.

"That's the warning that I don't think businesses really recognize: You can pull this off now because there isn't really an option, but once there's an option, it's going to be payback time," Naroff says. "You're going to be losing some of your best people."

Obvious to most of us, but apparently news to the big corporations: You can't continue abusing your employees forever just to increase your share value. The moment the economy picks up you'll lose your best men. And women.

UK police goes DDR

2010-08-11T14:59:00.001+02:00

Speaking of eerie remnants of the DDR, the UK police seem hellbent on creating an informer society based on the same principles: If you believe your neighbours are behaving in a non-comforming way, report it to the police. Combined with the CCTV insanity going in there we've got pretty much a modern day DDR. A country where surveillance and informants make everyone a suspect:

The ad was part of a campaign for a police anti-terrorist hotline. It described a man who "likes to keep himself to himself", doesn't have a bank card and keeps his curtains closed, before advising that "this may mean nothing, but together it could all add up to you having suspicions".

You'd better not be a loner who doesn't like his neighbours peeking through the windows. If, in addition, you usually rely on cash rather than credit card, you're a potential terrorist.

This is the United Kingdom. This is 2010. For fucks sake.

Google are not big fans of anonymity

2010-08-11T08:55:00.001+02:00

I have to admit I choked on my morning coffee when I read this eerie article on Google CEO Eric Schmidt's views on privacy and anonymity.

I mean, what the hell? Is this Schmidt guy some DDR era reject who fled to the US after the fall of the Berlin wall? His thoughts sure are very similar to those of the DDR regime.

"Privacy is incredibly important," Schmidt stated. "Privacy is not the same thing as anonymity. It's very important that Google and everyone else respects people's privacy. People have a right to privacy; it's natural; it's normal. It's the right way to do things. But if you are trying to commit a terrible, evil crime, it's not obvious that you should be able to do so with complete anonymity. There are no systems in our society which allow you to do that. Judges insist on unmasking who the perpetrator was. So absolute anonymity could lead to some very difficult decisions for our governments and our society as a whole."

And my favorite part:

According to ReadWriteWeb, Schmidt said of anti-social behavior, "The only way to manage this is true transparency and no anonymity. In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it."

In other words bye bye freedom of speech, hello self-censorship and thought control. And Google are not about to stand up for people's rights, it seems, which is really scary considering the amount of data this guys have collected on practically every Internet user in the world. Whatever happened to that "don't be evil" catchphrase?

I guess the first thing you could do to protect yourself against Google is installing the GoogleSharing Firefox plugin, which will prevent Google from tracking your searches and what websites you visit. And if you need to open a Google account I would seriously consider using some kind of anonymization software when logged on to that, so it can't be traced to your regular IP address. Of course you'll have to remember to always run the anonymization software whenever logging into the Google account. I'm no Internet security expert, but those seem like two good starting points.

Photo: Mikey G Ottawa

Public service going commercial

2010-08-10T17:05:00.002+02:00

So, apparently the Swedish public service television broadcaster SVT will now be featuring commercials. Fine by me, as I assume this means we won't have to pay that annual public service fee? If we are, what exactly are we paying for?

The Americans are officially crazy

2010-08-09T16:09:00.000+02:00

It's pathetic enough that the American movie industry feels the need to make Hollywood versions of the Millenium trilogy (because clearly they believe the Americans are unable to watch a European movie w/subtitles...). But this really blew me away:

Dessutom skriver tidningen nu att det finns planer på att alla skådespelare i filmen ska bryta på svenska.

Apparently the director wants the actors to talk with a Swedish accent througout the movie? I guess the American version of the movie will be set in Sweden as well, just to make it completely and utterly corny. Well, if they're looking to make a comedy out of it, they seem to be on the right track.

Wall Street panic following CEO resignation

2010-08-09T15:07:00.000+02:00

So HP's CEO Mark Hurd resigned on Friday following a sexual harassment allegation. Fine. But am I the only one finding it a bit odd that the HP stock would plunge almost 10% on this news? Has the future prospects of this company really changed that much just because the CEO resigned?

The stock market is increasingly becoming a freakin' casino. My suggestion is we move Wall Street up to Las Vegas while we're at it.

Yoko Ono on the future of the Beatles

2010-08-09T14:54:00.001+02:00

This is rich. According to Yoko Ono there will be no digital sales of Beatles songs. Apparently she's got a better idea for distributing music in the 21st century: Selling CD's! Clearly the 60's and 70's brought too much pot-smoking. If nothing else this shows why the existing copyright legislation needs to be changed. Had Yoko not owned the commercial rights to the Beatles' music, everyone would be able to make legal digital copies of their music and spread them throughout the world.

Well, Yoko, don't hold your breath, I won't be buying any of those "best of" or "remastered edition" CD's any time soon.

Photo: Caio do Valle/Public domain

Lies, lies, nothing but damn lies.

2010-08-06T10:02:00.002+02:00

IDG.se, the IT business equivalent to Se & Hör, has an article today on how some of the political parties stand on various IT related issues. The problem is they've just sent out a bunch of questions and asked the parties to answer. Well, you get what you ask for, I guess.

Let's go through some of the Q&A's, ok?

2. IPRED. Vill ni upphäva Ipred-lagen (som gör det lättare att hindra olaglig fildelning)?

JA: Vänsterpartiet, Miljöpartiet, Centerpartiet.
NJA: Socialdemokraterna.
NEJ:Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna, Moderaterna.

Centerpartiet voted for the IPRED law only a year and a half ago. Why would anyone believe that they've suddenly changed their mind? And why a "nja" for Socialdemokraterna? They too voted for the IPRED law, even on an EU level. These two political parties have absolutely no integrity in this matter and are obviously just on a desperate hunt for votes.

3. FRA. Vill ni upphäva FRA-lagen (som gör det lättare att övervaka internet och telefon)?

JA: Vänsterpartiet, Socialdemokraterna, Miljöpartiet.
NEJ: Centerpartiet, Folkpartiet, Krisdemokraterna, Moderaterna.

So, Socialdemokraterna who actually came up with the entire FRA-law back in 2005, and handed it over to the subsequent government are suddenly opposing it? Yeah, right. What they fail to mention is that they simply want to create a slightly different FRA law. Same shit, new wrapping. Socialdemokraterna don't have a shred of credibility in this matter.

4. LOGGNINGSLAGEN. Tänker ni rösta ja till att införa datalagringsdirektivet (som tvingar internet- och teleoperatörerna att spara uppgifter om hur deras kunder kommunicerar).

JA: Folkpartiet, Kristdemokraterna, Moderaterna
NJA: Socialdemokraterna, Miljöpartiet.
NEJ: Vänsterpartiet, Centerpartiet.

Wait, what? Centerpartiet have already decided for the data retention directive, back in 2009. Again, why would anyone believe they've suddenly changed their mind? And a "nja" from Socialdemokraterna again? What the hell? They are the only party in the red/green coalition who are still strongly in favor of the data retention directive. Nja my ass.

It would be refreshing if IDG, instead of just printing these answers would follow them up with these parties, asking them why they're answering "yes" when in real life politics they are clearly "no", and vice versa. That would be much more interesting.

More copyright insanity

2010-08-05T13:55:00.002+02:00

Apparently The Beach Boys' record company, Rondor Music (which is - surprise surprise - owned by the "fine" people at Universal Music Group), holds the copyright to the phrase "I wish they could all be California girls", so no other artist can use that phrase in his or her songs without the risk of being sued. This phrase is known from the song "California Girls" which was released in 1965. Yes, 45 years ago. And still the record company insists no one else is permitted to utter these words without the risk of being sued. I guess I'm next in line then.

I'll let Rondor Music get the final punch here, as the following piece of insane logic speaks best for itself:

"Using the words or melody in a new song taken from an original work is not appropriate under any circumstances, particularly one as well-known and iconic as 'California Girls.' Rondor Music…is committed to protecting the rights of its artists and songwriters, and with the support of the writers, that is exactly what we are doing."

(E! Online)

SVT Play expiration date

2010-08-05T09:52:00.000+02:00

Few things annoy me as much as media corporations try to strangle culture in any possible way. I thought this behaviour would be limited to the large, multi-national corporations, so color me surprised when I tried out SVT Play, the on-demand streaming service, the other day. Now mind you, SVT is public service TV, funded by the taxpayers. And believe it or not these incredible weasels have the nerve to put an expiration date on the material available on their site! Are you freakin' kidding me???

Sure I could understand this with movies or shows that have been bought with certain licensing conditions, but the thing is SVT is doing the exact same with the material they produce themselves.

As a public service broadcaster SVT should be forced to release all material they create into the public domain. That's only fair as the public has paid for it.

(Filed under "...and you still wonder why people pirate?").

Burqa in school: Who the hell aced that exam last week?

2010-08-04T14:55:00.001+02:00

There is a debate in Swedish media these days on whether to ban the use of burqa in school, for both teachers and pupils. The latter one seems to be the most infected.

Those opposing the ban point out that it violates the personal integrity of the pupils. Fair enough, I'm all for personal integrity as you may know. However what I want to know is, if anyone can hide their face at school, how are teachers expected to know who was hiding behind the veil on last weeks math exam? Was it Lisa, who belongs in this class or perhaps her older math-genious sister Vera?

Photo: jolipunk.com

Diplomatic immunity

2010-08-03T14:05:00.003+02:00

I was driving along E18 outside Stockholm today at around 9:30 am, on my way to a customer meeting, when a complete maniac in a dark blue Volvo V70 2.5T almost hit me doing a poorly executed maneuver in which he squeezed in between myself, in the right lane, and another car driving in the left lane, only to continue his journey of insanity. The speed limit on this part of the road is 70 km/h and this complete moron was doing at least 110-120. Enough to lose your drivers licence and get sentenced to jail.

Why this insane behaviour, you might ask? Easy. The licence plates were blue and had the license number BT002B. In case you don't know, that spells diplomatic immunity. This raving lunartic could do whatever he want, speeding, causing accidents, killing innocent people, and there will be no legal reprecussions against him.

Now I do understand the reason for diplomatic immunity, don't get me wrong. In some countries a diplomat could risk all kinds of nasty stuff if he or she weren't immune to prosecution. However I do have a problem with this beeing a carte blanche for people like the driver of this Volvo to do whatever they want without there being any consequences.

How about any legal matters would be transfered to the homecountry of the diplomat, and he or she would be subject to his or her country's laws - by default? Sure the system opens up for that possibility, but how often do you actually see it being used?

Internet Wars: Wikileaks vs The Pentagon

2010-08-02T13:28:00.003+02:00

The Internet Wars for dummies (or those who just don't have time to read up on the subject).

5-year-old suffers "injury to his reputation"?

2010-07-29T10:18:00.000+02:00

A five year old boy was wrongly accused of stealing a bag of crisps at a Lidl store in Dublin, and won 7,500 Euros in damages. Fair enough, being wrongly accused of a crime can be pretty traumatic, and at that age you're pretty sensitive. Apparently he's also suffering from stress and inconvenience. All good reason to award damages.

What amazes me though is that these damages weren't awarded due to any of that, they were awarded for "defamation of character". Apparently this little kid had "suffered injury to his reputation". Say what? What reputation can this kid possibly have at the age of 5? Is he frowned upon by the other kids in kindergarten? Unable to get a job? Estranged by his neighbors?

Come on.

Photo: DJO Photo

Blizzard ripping off Starcraft 2-buyers?

2010-07-27T15:23:00.001+02:00

The computer game Starcraft 2 was released today, and color me surprised when I noticed Blizzard is actually selling the downloadable version of the game for 59.99 Euros (mind you there are virtually no costs involved with this kind of distribution!) on their website, whereas you can get pick up the dvd's from any number of game stores considerably cheaper than that:

Play.com sells it for 48.00 Euros.
Amazon.com sells it for 59.99 Dollars, also around 48.00 Euros.
Most computer stores in Sweden sell it for around 42.00 Euros.

Please tell me that the 59.99 Euro pricetag for downloading this game from battle.net was a mistake that has been corrected by Blizzard now. If anything it should be a way below 40 Euros.

Photo: Screenshot from game.

The dual-watch man

2010-07-27T11:35:00.001+02:00

Speaking of celebrities, or rather semi-celebrities, the former boyfriend of Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt showed up smiling to the paparazzi wearing no less than two watches. What's up with that? Is it some strange way to keep track of two different timezones? Perhaps the watch on his left wrist shows Pacific Standard Time and the one on his right wrist shows Eastern Standard Time?

If so, here's a newsflash for you, Spencer, there are watches out there that will show two timezones. That way you can keep track of your time without looking absolutely clueless:

Breitling Aerospace
Tag Heuer Chronotimer
Victorinox Chrono Classic XLS MT

to mention a few.

Photo: Alloverpress

Brittany Murphy died from mold?

2010-07-26T13:55:00.000+02:00

It appears mold might have been a contributing factor to the death of actress Brittany Murphy and her husband Simon Monjack. Unfortunately mold is a common occurrence in a lot of poorly constructed houses, but I'm surprised that a $7.25 million Hollywood Hills mansion would be so infested by it that it killed its occupants!

Let this be a warning to the rich and famous: Do spend some of your fortune on proper building maintenance. It could be the best investment of your life.

Photo: Unknown

Abusing copyright

2010-07-23T09:49:00.000+02:00

Well I guess it's pretty obvious now why Swedish politicians are so reluctant to change today's destructive copyright legislation. The Christian Democratic party, Kristdemokraterna, for instance, are abusing the copyright legislation by registering catchphrases and slogans such as "Verklighetens folk", "the real people".

Remind me again, why the f*ck should anybody at all be able to copyright a phrase, a sentence, a collection of words that are used in everyday speech?

Clearly a revision of the copyright legislation is desperately needed. Unfortunately we can't rely on the traditional political parties to take any action as they're too busy taking advantage of it.

No room for Internet censorship in a democracy

2010-07-20T12:23:00.000+02:00

"There's no room for Internet censorship in a democracy. The EU should impose Internet censorship."

In other words, the EU should not be considered a democracy. This might not be what Folkpartiet politician Cecilia Wikström meant to say, but it's the message she's communicating in this letter, where she promotes Internet censorship as a means of fighting child pornography despite of her own reasoning that censorship will have little or no effect. That's like saying "we know banning action films from TV won't stop the violence, but we still want to do it". Why?

What's with these Folkpartiet Cecilias who are hellbent on Internet censorship without being able to present any credible argument that it is in fact a good idea? Stop hiding behind the ridiculous "think about the children" tactics and just come out and tell us who's paying you to stick to a stance that you don't even believe in.

The alternatives to Internet censorship have been discussed a million times before, so I won't go into details, but keywords are due process, shutting down and prosecute the offenders if they're found guilty. That's the way of a democracy.

Photo: Wikimedia.

Politicians against freedom

2010-06-24T13:06:00.000+02:00

This is (according to Europaportalen) the shameful list of MEP's who voted for the infamous Smile29 declaration in the European Parliament. This is a list of individuals who want to crush your right to privacy completely by making it impossible to surf the web anonymously. That's the entire purpose of this utterly revolting declaration, according to its creator, Tiziano Motti.

Shame on you, haters of freedom and democracy.

Konservativa EPP (198)
Janos Ader, Ungern
Gabriele Albertini, Italien
Magdi Cristiano Allam, Italien
Laima Liucija Andrikiene, Litauen
Roberta Angelilli, Italien
Antonella Antinoro, Italien
Elena Oana Antonescu, Rumänien
Alfredo Antoniozzi, Italien
Pablo Arias Echeverría, Spanien
Sophie Auconie, Frankrike
Jean-Pierre Audy, Frankrike
Pilar Ayuso, Spanien
Georges Bach, Luxemburg
Raffaele Baldassarre, Italien
Burkhard Balz, Tyskland
Paolo Bartolozzi, Italien
Elena Băsescu, Rumänien
Regina Bastos, Portugal
Edit Bauer, Slovakien
Christophe Béchu, Frankrike
Sergio Berlato, Italien
Sebastian Valentin Bodu, Rumänien
Vito Bonsignore, Italien
Piotr Borys, Polen
Jan Březina, Tjeckien
Simon Busuttil, Malta
Alain Cadec, Frankrike
Wim van de Camp, Nederländerna
Antonio Cancian, Italien
Maria Da Graça Carvalho, Portugal
David Casa, Malta
Carlo Casini, Italien
Pilar del Castillo Vera, Spanien
Giovanni Collino, Italien
Lara Comi, Italien
Michel Dantin, Frankrike
Joseph Daul, Frankrike
Mário David, Portugal
Anne Delvaux, Belgien
Luigi Ciriaco De Mita, Italien
Albert Deß, Tyskland
Tamás Deutsch, Ungern
Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra, Spanien
Herbert Dorfmann, Italien
Frank Engel, Luxemburg
Sari Essayah, Finland
Rosa Estaràs Ferragut, Spanien
Diogo Feio, Portugal
José Manuel Fernandes, Portugal
Carlo Fidanza, Italien
Santiago Fisas Ayxela, Spanien
Karl-Heinz Florenz, Tyskland
Carmen Fraga Estévez, Spanien
Gaston Franco, Frankrike
Michael Gahler, Tyskland
Kinga Gál, Ungern
José Manuel García-Margallo y Marfil, Spanien
Elisabetta Gardini, Italien
Salvador Garriga Polledo, Spanien
Jean-Paul Gauzès, Frankrike
Marietta Giannakou, Grekland
Luis de Grandes Pascual, Spanien
Mathieu Grosch, Belgien
Françoise Grossetête, Frankrike
Pascale Gruny, Frankrike
Andrzej Grzyb, Polen
Cristina Gutiérrez-Cortines, Spanien
Enikő Győri, Ungern
András Gyürk, Ungern
Małgorzata Handzlik, Polen
Ágnes Hankiss, Ungern
Esther Herranz García, Spanien
Jolanta Emilia Hibner, Polen
Jim Higgins, Irland
Monika Hohlmeier, Tyskland
Danuta Maria Hübner, Polen
Salvatore Iacolino, Italien
Ville Itälä, Finland
Carlos José Iturgaiz Angulo, Spanien
Iliana Ivanova, Bulgarien
Peter Jahr, Tyskland
Lívia Járóka, Ungern
Sidonia Elżbieta Jędrzejewska, Polen
Elisabeth Jeggle, Tyskland
Filip Kaczmarek, Polen
Jarosław Kalinowski, Polen
Sandra Kalniete, Lettland
Othmar Karas, Österrike
Ioannis Kasoulides, Cypern
Martin Kastler, Tyskland
Tunne Kelam, Estland
Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, Tyskland
Lena Kolarska-Bobińska, Polen
Eija-Riitta Korhola, Finland
Ádám Kósa, Ungern
Georgios Koumoutsakos, Grekland
Andrey Kovatchev, Bulgarien
Jan Kozłowski, Polen
Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Grekland
Werner Kuhn, Tyskland
Eduard Kukan, Slovakien
Alain Lamassoure, Frankrike
Vytautas Landsbergis, Litauen
Giovanni La Via, Italien
Constance Le Grip, Frankrike
Peter Liese, Tyskland
Krzysztof Lisek, Polen
Veronica Lope Fontagné, Spanien
Antonio López-Istúriz White, Spanien
Petru Constantin Luhan, Rumänien
Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska, Polen
Astrid Lulling, Luxemburg
Monica Luisa Macovei, Rumänien
Bogdan Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Polen
Marian-Jean Marinescu, Rumänien
Clemente Mastella, Italien
Barbara Matera, Italien
Gabriel Mato Adrover, Spanien
Iosif Matula, Rumänien
Mario Mauro, Italien
Hans-Peter Mayer, Tyskland
Jaime Mayor Oreja, Spanien
Erminia Mazzoni, Italien
Nuno Melo, Portugal
Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Spanien
Alajos Mészáros, Slovakien
Miroslav Mikolášik, Slovakien
Francisco José Millán Mon, Spanien
Gay Mitchell, Irland
Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, Frankrike
Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, Litauen
Tiziano Motti, Italien
Cristiana Muscardini, Italien
Mariya Nedelcheva, Bulgarien
Rareş-Lucian Niculescu, Rumänien
Angelika Niebler, Tyskland
Lambert van Nistelrooij, Nederländerna
Jan Olbrycht, Polen
Csaba Őry, Ungern
Alfredo Pallone, Italien
Georgios Papastamkos, Grekland
Maria do Céu Patrão Neves, Portugal
Aldo Patriciello, Italien
Alojz Peterle, Slovenien
Markus Pieper, Tyskland
Bernd Posselt, Tyskland
Hans-Gert Pöttering, Tyskland
Konstantinos Poupakis, Grekland
Jacek Protasiewicz, Polen
Hella Ranner, Österrike
Herbert Reul, Tyskland
Dominique Riquet, Frankrike
Crescenzio Rivellini, Italien
Zuzana Roithová, Tjeckien
Licia Ronzulli, Italien
Paul Rübig, Österrike
José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra, Spanien
Potito Salatto, Italien
Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmid, Frankrike
Amalia Sartori, Italien
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Polen
Algirdas Saudargas, Litauen
Marco Scurria, Italien
Czesław Adam Siekierski, Polen
Sergio Paolo Francesco Silvestris, Italien
Csaba Sógor, Rumänien
Renate Sommer, Tyskland
Bogusław Sonik, Polen
Catherine Soullie, Frankrike
Peter Šťastný, Slovakien
Theodor Dumitru Stolojan, Rumänien
Emil Stoyanov, Bulgarien
Michèle Striffler, Frankrike
László Surján, Ungern
Alf Svensson, Sverige
József Szájer, Ungern
Salvatore Tatarella, Italien
Nuno Teixeira, Portugal
Eleni Theocharous, Cypern
Róża Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, Polen
Marianne Thyssen, Belgien
László Tőkés, Rumänien
Rafał Trzaskowski, Polen
Traian Ungureanu, Rumänien
Vladimir Urutchev, Bulgarien
Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Spanien
Jarosław Leszek Wałęsa, Polen
Manfred Weber, Tyskland
Anja Weisgerber, Tyskland
Iuliu Winkler, Rumänien
Corien Wortmann-Kool, Nederländerna
Anna Záborská, Slovakien
Pablo Zalba Bidegain, Spanien
Paweł Zalewski, Polen
Iva Zanicchi, Italien
Artur Zasada, Polen
Milan Zver, Slovenien
Tadeusz Zwiefka, Polen

Socialdemokratiska S&D (60)
Magdalena Alvarez, Spanien
Luis Paulo Alves, Portugal
Francesca Balzani, Italien
Luigi Berlinguer, Italien
Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Litauen
Rita Borsellino, Italien
Victor Boştinaru, Rumänien
Salvatore Caronna, Italien
Alejandro Cercas, Spanien
Sergio Gaetano Cofferati, Italien
Silvia Costa, Italien
Rosario Crocetta, Italien
Francesco De Angelis, Italien
Paolo De Castro, Italien
Robert Dušek, Tjeckien
Edite Estrela, Portugal
Richard Falbr, Tjeckien
Elisa Ferreira, Portugal
Monika Flašíková Beňová, Slovakien
Iratxe García Pérez, Spanien
Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, Spanien
Louis Grech, Malta
Zita Gurmai, Ungern
Jiří Havel, Tjeckien
Edit Herczog, Ungern
Ramón Jáuregui Atondo, Spanien
Maria Eleni Koppa, Grekland
Stéphane Le Foll, Frankrike
Jo Leinen, Tyskland
Bogusław Liberadzki, Polen
Antonio Masip Hidalgo, Spanien
Guido Milana, Italien
Katarína Neveďalová, Slovakien
Justas Vincas Paleckis, Litauen
Pier Antonio Panzeri, Italien
Antigoni Papadopoulou, Cypern
Mario Pirillo, Italien
Gianni Pittella, Italien
Vittorio Prodi, Italien
Teresa Riera Madurell, Spanien
Edward Scicluna, Malta
Olga Sehnalová, Tjeckien
Joanna Senyszyn, Polen
Debora Serracchiani, Italien
Adrian Severin, Rumänien
Peter Simon, Tyskland
Brian Simpson, Storbritannien
Monika Smolková, Slovakien
Georgios Stavrakakis, Grekland
Gianluca Susta, Italien
Hannes Swoboda, Österrike
Csaba Sándor Tabajdi, Ungern
Zoran Thaler, Slovenien
Patrice Tirolien, Frankrike
Patrizia Toia, Italien
Kathleen Van Brempt, Belgien
Derek Vaughan, Storbritannien
Kristian Vigenin, Bulgarien
Henri Weber, Frankrike
Janusz Władysław Zemke, Polen

Liberala Alde (32)
Liam Aylward, Irland
Catherine Bearder, Storbritannien
Cristian Silviu Buşoi, Rumänien
Chris Davies, Storbritannien
Luigi de Magistris, Italien
Marielle De Sarnez, Frankrike
Pat the Cope Gallagher, Irland
Nathalie Griesbeck, Frankrike
Marian Harkin, Irland
Filiz Hakaeva Hyusmenova, Bulgarien
Stanimir Ilchev, Bulgarien
Vincenzo Iovine, Italien
Metin Kazak, Bulgarien
Wolf Klinz, Tyskland
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Tyskland
Ramona Nicole Mănescu, Rumänien
Gesine Meissner, Tyskland
Louis Michel, Belgien
Norica Nicolai, Rumänien
Kristiina Ojuland, Estland
Siiri Oviir, Estland
Vladko Todorov Panayotov, Bulgarien
Antonyia Parvanova, Bulgarien
Frédérique Ries, Belgien
Niccolò Rinaldi, Italien
Hannu Takkula, Finland
Michael Theurer, Tyskland
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, Spanien
Giommaria Uggias, Italien
Viktor Uspaskich, Litauen
Adina-Ioana Vălean, Rumänien
Gianni Vattimo, Italien

De Gröna (5)
Francois Alfonsi, Frankrike
Malika Benarab-Attou, Frankrike
Michèle Rivasi, Frankrike
Werner Schulz, Tyskland
Michail Tremopoulos, Grekland

ECR (30)
Robert Atkins, Storbritannien
Adam Bielan, Polen
Lajos Bokros, Ungern
Tadeusz Cymański, Polen
Ryszard Czarnecki, Polen
Peter van Dalen, Nederländerna
Nirj Deva, Storbritannien
Derk Jan Eppink, Belgien
Hynek Fajmon, Tjeckien
Jacqueline Foster, Storbritannien
Marek Józef Gróbarczyk, Polen
Malcolm Harbour, Storbritannien
Michał Tomasz Kamiński, Polen
Sajjad Karim, Storbritannien
Jacek Olgierd Kurski, Polen
Emma McClarkin, Storbritannien
Marek Henryk Migalski, Polen
Miroslav Ouzký, Tjeckien
Mirosław Piotrowski, Polen
Tomasz Piotr Poręba, Polen
Struan Stevenson, Storbritannien
Ivo Strejček, Tjeckien
Konrad Szymański, Polen
Charles Tannock, Storbritannien
Valdemar Tomaševski, Litauen
Oldřich Vlasák, Tjeckien
Jacek Włosowicz, Polen
Janusz Wojciechowski, Polen
Roberts Zīle, Lettland
Zbigniew Ziobro, Polen

Vänstern GUE/NGL (14)
Lothar Bisky, Tyskland
Cornelia Ernst, Tyskland
Takis Hadjigeorgiou, Cypern
Jacky Hénin, Frankrike
Elie Hoarau, Frankrike
Jürgen Klute, Tyskland
Jaromír Kohlíček, Tjeckien
Jiří Maštálka, Tjeckien
Marisa Matias, Portugal
Willy Meyer, Spanien
Miloslav Ransdorf, Tjeckien
Vladimír Remek, Tjeckien
Helmut Scholz, Tyskland
Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, Cypern

EFD (14)
Bastiaan Belder, Nederländerna
Mara Bizzotto, Italien
Mario Borghezio, Italien
John Bufton, Storbritannien
Lorenzo Fontana, Italien
Claudio Morganti, Italien
Jaroslav Paška, Slovakien
Fiorello Provera, Italien
Oreste Rossi Italien
Nikolaos Salavrakos, Grekland
Giancarlo Scottà, Italien
Timo Soini, Finland
Francesco Enrico Speroni, Italien
Niki Tzavela, Grekland

Grupplösa (18)
George Becali, Rumänien
Slavi Binev, Bulgarien
Andrew Henry William Brons, Storbritannien
Philip Claeys, Belgien
Diane Dodds, Storbritannien
Bruno Gollnisch, Frankrike
Nick Griffin, Storbritannien
Jean-Marie Le Pen, Frankrike
Marine Le Pen, Frankrike
Krisztina Morvai, Ungern
Mike Nattrass, Storbritannien
Franz Obermayr, Österrike
Nicole Sinclaire, Storbritannien
Francisco Sosa Wagner, Spanien
Csanád Szegedi, Ungern
Claudiu Ciprian Tănăsescu, Rumänien
Corneliu Vadim Tudor, Rumänien
Frank Vanhecke, Belgien

Hjälpfonden - beware

2010-06-24T08:40:00.003+02:00

Got a call last night from someone who introduced himself as Daniel and told me he worked for an organization called Hjälpfonden. Apparently this is a non-profit organization working to raise funds for cancer and diabetes research.

The problem is, Hjälpfonden are nothing but a big scam, and far from non-profit, with only 4% of the funds going to actual research and the rest getting lost somewhere along the way. Another newspaper reports that in 2007 only 1 out of 25 donated million kronor went to research, making it probably the most inefficient organization in the world. Unfortunately that's just the tip of the iceberg, as they also pretend to cooperate with various organizations, like Karolinska institutet and Diabetes Center Karolinska, while in fact these organizations want nothing to do with Hjälpfonden.

When I voiced my concerns about this organization this little prick Daniel just hung up immediately. Obviously he didn't learn manners at home.

To add insult to injury I'm in the NIX register, meaning I have explicitly said no thank you to any sales call to my private phone number. Most companies and organizations honor the NIX register, as they're obliged to do so, but of course scam artists like Daniel and Hjälpfonden don't care about such minor details.

Here's some more info on Hjälpfonden, and why you should be equally rude and just hang up if they call you:

90-konto stoppas - miljoner borta
Varning för Hjälpfonden
Akta er för Hjälpfonden!

Hell, googling Hjälpfonden should give you enough to read.

Stop leaving messages!

2010-06-22T12:04:00.002+02:00

You would think in 2010 we wouldn't have to dial a number and listen to a recording of a message someone left while we were unable to answer the phone. There are so many options out there. Seriously, there's nothing more annoying about modern communication than seeing that you have one missed call and one text message containing the words "someone left you a message. Dial 888 to listen to it". AAARGH.

If I don't answer the phone, please send me a text message or an e-mail instead, or why not pinging me on my instant messenger, if I'm online. That way I can get in plain writing whatever information you want me to have (you know, which number to call you on, what address we're supposed to meet at, those things that would otherwise require me to find a pen and paper and start to write things down, and of course I wouldn't manage to get it all on the first listen, so I would have to press "2" to get the message repeated...).

Thank you so much for understanding.

Photo: TheGiantVermin

Svanberg puts foot in mouth - get the t-shirt

2010-06-17T09:25:00.003+02:00

BP Chairman of the Board, Carl-Henric Svanberg, really put his foot in his mouth yesterday when he proclaimed that, not to worry, "BP cares about the small people" (and apparently, so does Obama...). Way to sit there on your high horse and look down, Svanberg.

I won't really spend any more time on that moronic statement from "the invisible man", but I'll definitely be getting myself one of these:

Photo: zazzle.com

M$ Office goes free - why should you care?

2010-05-12T14:48:00.000+02:00

Microsoft have finally launched a free version of their Office suite. Actually there are two versions, a web-based one, and a regular one. Why should anyone care?

We're already got Google Docs for our web needs, and we've already got Open Office or Lotus Symphony for our off-line needs. All of them are easy to work with, ad-free and work on a number of operating systems and browsers.

Microsoft Office, on the other hand, isn't. They've managed to infest the applications with ads (really???), and I can only presume that the regular version is only available for the Windows operating system, excluding all Mac and Linux users.

So why bother when there are better options out there?

Telia charging for an encrypted experience

2010-05-11T11:17:00.002+02:00

There are few things that annoy me as much as outrageous fees and taxes. Road tolls on old narrow roads, additional "recreation fees" on top of the $250 a night you pay at that resort, and here's another one for you:

My cable provider Telia has the nerve to charge me 500 SEK per year in encryption fees! Yes, they are in fact charging me, the customer, for crippling their own service with encryption making it impossible for me to watch the cable channels on more than one TV at a time. Unless I buy a second decryption card, which will incur other fees, of course.

This is just as ridiculous as having Skatteverket (the Swedish equivalent to the IRS) sending me an invoice together with my tax return to cover the costs of processing it.

P.S. Yes, I know this is a common practice among TV providers, but that doesn't mean it's not outrageous.

Ban studded winter tires and brakes

2010-05-10T17:28:00.000+02:00

Miljöpartiet, that bunch of no-good tree-huggers who are only out to make life more miserable for the average Swede, or so it seems, have announced that they would like a ban on studded winter tires in the entire city of Stockholm. Apparently creating chaos on just one street isn't enough.

What these morons fail to realize though is that car brakes, when used, emit an equal amount of polluting particles. So why not simply ban the use of car brakes as well, while you're at it? If any motorist is observed using the brakes he or she should be presented with a shockingly high fine, as well as a damn good beating. That'll teach those bastards to pollute the fresh Stockholm air.

Or you could do the smart thing and introduce a tax for using studded tires, making it possible for those who need such tires to actually travel to Stockholm without stopping along the way to change tires - provided they pay the mandatory studded tire tax. That way the use of studded tires will decline, the city will make some money out of it, and we won't be plagued by yet another stupid ban.

Poor British bastards

2010-05-07T11:29:00.002+02:00

Apparently the Brits will be getting "their own Reinfeldt" according to Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt himself.

What have those poor bastards done to deserve even more surveillance and oppression?

Pleading incompetence

2010-05-05T11:05:00.000+02:00

I've heard about pleading ignorance, but pleading incompetence, and actually getting away with it? Seriously? The Swedish Security Service has unclear rules on how to treat surveillance material (isn't that the main part of their job?), and to add insult to injury the employees are so incompetent that they can't be held responsible for their actions:

Lind pekar ut oklara beslutsordningar samt brister i interna regler och kompetens på Säpo, men han bedömer att inga tjänstefel begåtts.

Juristens Funderingar has a few more thoughts on the subject.

This site is "optimized" for users within the USA

2010-05-04T21:38:00.002+02:00

That's what they call it these days...

Because clearly no European user would be interested in any American music. And obviously we wouldn't want to promote that music to fans around the world anyway. They could end up buying a CD or some merchandise, or even - God forbid - go see an artist in concert.

The entertainment mafia just never ceases to amaze me.

Since when is religion an ethnic group?

2010-05-04T15:43:00.001+02:00

A poster by an obscure political party, Skånepartiet, has caused some controversy with the overly sensitive muslim community, as it depicts a nude prophet Mohammed with one of his 9 year old brides by his side.

Now what I don't get is how this is could be considered agitation against an ethnic group, and thus a criminal offence? Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Mohammed in fact have a 9 year old wife, making this poster more or less historically correct? And since when is a world religion equal to an ethnic group? If it is, I guess posters depicting Jesus Christ in various less flattering settings should suffer the same fate? Come on, take a chill pill and focus on what's important instead.

I'm taking my chances here, hoping I'm not persecuted for showing Jesus Christ in an epic light sabre duel with Santa Claus.

Photo: mootrealm

May 4: The day against DRM

2010-05-04T14:14:00.000+02:00

So, apparently today is the day against DRM. Every day is a day against DRM in my world, and I'm proud to say I haven't bought a DRM-infested product in years.

Nevertheless I wholeheartedly support any kind of awareness campaign against this evil. So, in addition to a total boycott of the media industry, I signed the iPad DRM petition. How about you?

Gumball - what's the fuss about?

2010-05-03T16:53:00.001+02:00

The infamous Gumball 3000 race has finally (?) reached Swedish soil. And I have to admit I was a bit disappointed when I read about it in Swedish newspapers SvD and DN: The maximum speed recorded through Skåne was 148 km/h, merely 38 km/h over the speed limit, on what I presume were pristine motorways with minimal risk of incidents. Not really what you'd expect from 300 supercars piloted by a bunch of crazy millionaires, and certainly nothing to get worked up about, like Jan Sanberg from NTF does:

– Det är ju helt befängt, bra att polisen har koll på dem. Men man kan ju undra vad det är för personer som utsätter andra bilförare för den här sortens risker, säger han till SvD.se.

Come on. As if your average Volvo V70 doesn't do the same speed down E6... Give the millionaires a break.

Photo: tonylanciabeta

Joined Twitter

2010-05-03T15:51:00.002+02:00

I can't really be bothered to blog about all the little annoyances out there, some of them simply don't require a long blogpost. So I finally caved in and joined Twitter, as a way of venting my frustrations within the limits of 140 characters. Hell, sometimes a sarcastic remark is enough. Of course some matters are so frustrating that they might even require a blogpost AND a twitterpost. You can see my twitter feed on the right, should that be of any interest.

Hitler orders a DMCA takedown

2010-04-30T15:47:00.000+02:00

The ~~entertainment mafia~~ Hitler orders a DMCA takedown.

Hitler, as "Downfall producer" orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.

Cleanternet

2010-04-30T08:49:00.003+02:00

Offering some "support" to EU commissioner Cecilia Malmström, a firm believer in censorship and the useful idiot of the entertainment mafia:

Found on idg.se

UN abandons human rights - embraces copyrights

2010-04-29T15:34:00.006+02:00

There's really no other way to interpret this statement. The United Nations has sold out to the entertainment mafia, abandoning ideals of human rights enforcement and instead embracing the tyrannic fight for stronger copyright enforcement. I'm using the word instead because these two rights don't go very well together. A tighter enforcement of copyright does mean sacrificing human rights.

Way to go ruining your credibility, UN.

Found the link through futuriteter.

You want some plague to go with that cholera?

2010-04-29T12:03:00.004+02:00

The upcoming general election in Sweden is already turning into quite a bizarre spectacle, with 5 months left of campaigning.

The socialist coalition are working incredibly hard on ruining people's economy, making what kan only be defined as threats to increase taxed across the board should they be elected:

Increased income tax (as if 56,7 percent isn't enough...)
Increase fuel taxes (because clearly, in an effort to make it less profitable to work only raising the income tax isn't enough, the actual travel to work should also be punished!)
Increase the payroll tax (you didn't think only the employee should be punished for working, did you?)
Increase alcohol and tobacco taxes (God forbid you should be allowed to enjoy a drink after a hard day's labour)
Restore the hopelessly outdated wealth tax (making sure companies as well as people move their wealth abroad - we don't want those rich bastards living in socialist Sweden!)
Restore the arbitary and unfair housing tax (also known as the "Stockholm tax", because obviously it should be considered a crime to live in or near such an expensive city and spend all your money on that several million kronor mortgage)
Introduce a new "energy" tax on the horribly polluting hydropower (well, actually the reasoning seems to be that the energy companies have a healthy profit, and the socialist coalition feels its only natural to introduce special taxes to get a bigger share of that profit - I guess a phone company tax, a lawyer tax or a property broker tax is next, and we all know who will get the bill in the end - the consumers)

Meanwhile the non-socialist coalition, "Alliansen", are hell-bent on finding new ways to strip the public of the last shreds of personal integrity and freedom:

Random drug tests in school (clearly giving the police mandate to perform drug tests on kids without parent's permission wasn't enough)
Publishing pictures of suspected criminals (because apparently the stigmata of sending purple letters to the families of suspected sex buyers wasn't enough...)

Not to mention all the disgusting laws that have been passed already during the last 4 years.

Of course, the socialists aren't friends of freedom and integrity either, supporting the new and oppressive laws that have been passed during the non-socialist government, the FRA-law, the data retention directive and the Ipred-law. They've even suggested every kid in school should get a "personal police officer" watching over them, making sure they don't do any mistakes (you know, being out partying on a Saturday night), and accepting any incriminating information they might have on other kids, in effect creating a society based on fear and squealing.

So the question is really, would you like some plague to go with that cholera, or is cholera enough? I'd like neither, thank you so much.

I noticed blogger Ravenna shares my views on some of this insanity. A post well worth reading.

Oops...I made a mistake

2010-04-22T13:39:00.001+02:00

Well, color me embarrased. Here I was ranting about the delayed delivery date of my new phone, and it turns out it's at the post office at this very moment, ready for me to pick it up only 2 days after I placed the order. I don't know why PC City wanted to scare me like that, putting expected delivery dates next week in my confirmation mail, but I guess an apology is in place nevertheless.

Sorry, PC City! I'll try to ignore the expected delivery date next time and be a bit more patient.

To fly or not to fly

2010-04-22T09:57:00.000+02:00

I guess the last week's turbulence (no pun intended) over the volcano on Iceland is good for one thing: It clearly shows which airline carriers are serious and thrustworthy, taking care of their travellers, and which ones are merely a joke that should be avoided whenever possible. According to this article on SvD the list is as follows:

The good:
SAS - covering costs for travellers within the EU for an indefinite period of time, and 48 hours for travellers outside of the EU.
Lufthansa - covering costs for travellers for an indefinite period of time, worldwide.
British Airways - covering costs for travellers for an indefinite period of time, worldwide.

The bad:
Ryanair - as expected, violating EU regulations and cover no costs at all.
Finnair - takes the Ryanair approach, violating EU regulations and covering no costs.
Air France - only cover costs for travellers who were en-route and got stuck in Paris???

So, there you are. Food for thought when booking your next holiday.

Steve Jobs: "Want freedom? Buy Android"

2010-04-21T16:32:00.002+02:00

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs people who want porn or political satire should choose an Android phone instead of an iPhone. Because Apple has a "moral responsibility". You know, just like those Iranian priests have a "moral responsibility" to ban anything they find morally offensive (which is basically everything). In addition Jobs bans applications that are too similar to functionality already found in the iPhone, or applications that could perhaps in some way maybe be used to perform copyright infringement. Or applications he just doesn't like.

So I couldn't agree more with Jobs, if you want freedom on your phone instead of a "moral police" filtering out applications that they deem "inappropriate" for whatever reason, go buy an Android phone. I did.

Photo: barockschloss

What's worse - ignorance or incompetence?

2010-04-21T14:40:00.006+02:00

I don't know what to say. Apparently Sweden is represented by a deaf, dumb and blind guy in the much criticized Acta talks. According to this moron, Stefan Johansson from the Department of Justice (!!!), there's nothing peculiar about the Acta agreement. They're not out to fight non-commercial file-sharing or any other small scale copyright infringements. We can all rest peacefully knowing that our personal integrity and civil liberties will be well taken care of.

– Ja, så är det, dokumentet tar sikte på mer omfattande intrång. Acta tar inte specifikt sikte på fildelning utan på fysiska produkter.

Yeah, right. Either Mr. Johansson has been spending most of his time sleeping during these talks, or he's just hopelessly incompetent. I don't know what is worse. Actabloggen has made a preliminary summary of the recently released documents, and they're not exactly painting a nice picture:

Customs officials will have the right to search through your luggage for any kind of pirated goods, including searching through your electronic devices looking for pirated content.
The "mere conduit" principle will cease to exist, and the ISP's will be held liable for what their users do on the web. In order to avoid liability they will be forced to filter web-pages pointed out by the entertainment mafia to contain infringing material, and they will be forced to terminate user accounts based on allegations from the very same mafia, effectively introducing not only a 3 strikes, but a 1 strike regime!
The most grotesque part is that all these measures are effectively bypassing the code of law. There's no right to have one's case tried by the court of law, there's no presumption of being innocent until proven guilty, it's basically the entertainment mafia playing judge and jury.

I'm guessing we'll see a lot more evil appearing as the Acta agreement is dissected by the community.

Links:
- ArsTechnica has a comprehensive analysis of the entire process behind Acta.
- IDG.se has a few words (in Swedish), although not very comprehensive at all.
- Europaportalen.se (also in Swedish) lets a couple of critical voices be heard.
- Christian Engström, Pirate Party politician and member of the EU parliament, gives his view on the 3 strikes threat.

Photo: chaouki

Who's trying to control the web?

2010-04-21T08:43:00.002+02:00

Google have just released this nice little tool showing us which country's governments have made requests for Google to release user data, and who has made requests to have information removed from the web.

"Of course many of these requests are entirely legitimate, such as requests for the removal of child pornography. We also regularly receive requests from law enforcement agencies to hand over private user data. Again, the vast majority of these requests are valid and the information needed is for legitimate criminal investigations. However, data about these activities historically has not been broadly available. We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship."

googleblog

Goddamn delivery dates!!!

2010-04-20T16:09:00.000+02:00

As I'm in desperate need of a new phone I just placed an order for an HTC Desire. As usual I consulted the price comparison website http://www.prisjakt.nu/ before deciding where to buy, and it all looked good. Several well-known shops had it in store, and I chose PC City.

Nothing on PC City's website led me to believe anything else than the phone being in stock, so I clicked "Köp" and went ahead.

The order confirmation shows up in my e-mail, and...what the hell... "Expected date in stock 2010-04-26" - in almost a week??? Well why the hell didn't you say so before I ordered the phone? Why wasn't your stupid website updated with the words "temporarily out of stock"? And why didn't http://www.prisjakt.nu/ show a red symbol next to your listing of the phone?

Gaaaah...this annoys me way beyond what words can express. If there's anything I hate it's waiting.

Another rigged referendum coming up...

2010-04-20T15:37:00.005+02:00

The huge and desperately needed infrastructure project Förbifart Stockholm is being questioned by the socialist opposition in Stockholm, contrary to previous promises, and they promise to let the people decide through a referendum provided they win the upcoming elections.

We all know how well that went the last time Stockholmers were asked for their honest opinion: The question on the voting slip was tendentious to say the least ("Miljöavgifter/trängselskatt innebär att avgifter tas ut i biltrafiken i syfte att minska köer och förbättra miljön. Intäkterna återförs till Stockholmsregionen för investeringar i kollektivtrafik och vägar.") and interestingly enough only the votes of those living in or in the immediate vicinity of the city center were counted. You know, those who are within walking distance or a short ride on the subway from everything. Those who see the car only as an annoyance.

So given this great track record in referendums I'm guessing we'll see yet another rigged referendum coming up after the elections. How about the following alternatives on the voting slip:

"I believe in preserving the nature and not to destroy the future for my children _ " or
"I am a selfish bastard who wants to build nasty, polluting roads and contribute to the destruction of the planet _"

Furthermore, I'm assuming only the votes of those living in the center of Stockholm, and particularly of those who do not own a car themselves, will be counted. Anyone wanna guess the outcome?

Still wonder why?

2010-04-19T14:57:00.000+02:00

If you're still wondering why you should boycott the entertainment mafia, this is it (article in English here). Considering how this industry has influenced politicians throughout the world to adopt the most bizarre laws, and how some of this ridiculous suggestions are actually being seriously discussed in the Acta talks you can be damn sure that they will show up in one form or another pretty soon.

Every penny you spend on a CD or DVD, or going to the movies, is one penny that this destructive industry will spend on deteriorating the freedom and personal integrity of people all around the world. Stop feeding the monster.

Don't you dare play any music!

2010-04-13T15:23:00.001+02:00

Playing music on the radio has been banned in Somalia. Yet another destructive scheme by the seemingly unstoppable entertainment mafia, Sony BMG, Warner & associates? You'd think, but this time it's actually radical islamists coming to the industry's "rescue". If it isn't one it's the other, all working together with great efforts to ruin the modern society.

Crime pays

2010-04-13T12:43:00.002+02:00

In case you're wondering, crime does pay, provided you're high enough up in the food chain. The property director of the City of Stockholm, Torbjörn Johansson, has personally been certifying more or less phony invoices on purchaces and trips he's allegedly made himself contrary to the applicable regulations.

This jerk has wasted over 200.000 SEK of taxpayer's money in only 1,5 years of working as a property director, and for that he receives a dishonorary discharge AND a whoopping 2 years salary in severance pay - amounting to 2 million kronor, also taxpayer's money. You would think that severance agreement would include a clause on fraud, but apparently the bright minds at the City of Stockholm didn't think so.

Photo borrowed from Fastighetssverige.se

No 3rd party app support = fail

2010-04-13T10:47:00.000+02:00

Oh dear. Microsoft have once again followed in Google's footsteps and released their own line of cell phones. Unfortunately the similarities end there. The Google-phone, Nexus One, is a full-blown smart phone packed with bells and whistles, gadgets and widgets here and there, and with the option to download as many 3rd party apps as your heart desires through the Android app-store.

The Microsoft Kin One and Two, on the other hand, are basically toys, apparently running some strange version of the upcoming Windows Phone OS (?) that seems unable to accomodate 3rd party apps. Yes, believe it or not, that's what they say. Meaning you're stuck with your built-in twitter and facebook app, more or less the only thing these phones contain.

I don't know about you, but unless these useless little gadgets are given away for free I'm not interested.

No spam, please!

2010-04-13T10:27:00.000+02:00

What part of my "Ej reklam, tack" sign doesn't my stupid mailman understand? I don't want any unsolicited junk in my mailbox, and that includes spam from various political parties who have already started the election campaign for this year's elections. Only yesterday two unsolicited and utterly pointless brochures, from Kristdemokraterna and Socialdemokraterna, ended up in my mail. If you insist on ruining the rain forest printing this shit that's your business, but keep me out of it, please!

Taliban loves iPhone

2010-04-06T08:58:00.008+02:00

The Taliban apparently loves Apple's iPhone. Perhaps they feel Apple's ideology goes well with their own? You know, a totalitarian view of the world where one strong and unquestionable leader tells you exactly what to think, what to do (and most importantly in Apple's case, what NOT to do) and exactly how to do it in the most limiting and narrow-minded way?

Something tells me the Taliban are not huge fans of the more democratic approaches of open standards, interoperability and compatibility.

The problem of acknowledging Internet as a global distribution channel

2010-03-31T10:54:00.008+02:00

Aaargh!!! It never ceases to amaze me how certain companies refuse to acknowledge the wonder of the global distribution channel called Internet. Instead companies are clinging on to the idea of old geographically fragmented and costly distribution models where you would have to establish agreements in each country or region with wholesalers or retailers, you would have to have a lot of logistics in place to ship your products around the world... Sure, I could understand that certain products were only available in certain parts of the world back in those days, or that they had different launch dates in different parts of the world.

But downloadable software..."not available in your country"...really? I can't believe a company like Microsoft, who likes to think of themselves as innovators (of course in reality they're quite the opposite, but that's another discussion...), just recently opened up for European users to download and install their free security software Security Essentials, six months after making the same piece of software available for the Americans! That's just so 1990's.

Organized crime recruiting young prospects

2010-03-30T16:09:00.005+02:00

The mafiosos over at Warner Bros have started recruiting prospects, who will do their dirty work of infiltrating file-sharing sites and hunt down unsuspecting kids who have not yet learned to deal with this relatively new kind of terror. The price for selling your soul to the devil? A pathetic £17.500 for a year's "internship".

The approach is similar to the criminal MC gangs like Hell's Angels and Bandidos, where young, easily impressionable kids, often from dysfunctional families and without a social network, are recruited to do the dirty work for a few lousy bucks, with hopes of one day making it big in the criminal underworld.

Go work at MacDonald's instead, the pay is the same and at least you'll have a clean conscience.

Tree-huggers without visions

2010-03-30T13:24:00.006+02:00

Few things annoy me more than "environmentalists" who are unable to look further than the tip of their nose. One of these dumb tree-huggers, Mårten Wallenberg at Naturskyddsföreningen, lashes out at road investments, and insists that instead of building a smarter and sustainable road infrastructure we should be taxing the motorists to death, only allowing the wealthiest of Stockholmers to utilize a car in order to fulfill their daily transportation needs, whatever these may be:

– Förbifarten löser inte Stockholms trafikproblem. För att komma ned på en rimlig nivå när det gäller köer och framkomlighet räknar vi med att trängselavgifterna måste fördubblas till 2030, säger Mårten Wallberg.

Looking at a 20 year perspective I have to ask, what exactly is Wallberg so afraid of? Is it the mere sight of cars in and around the city that offends him? Is it the thought that people will be able to manage their time in a more efficient way? It can't be the pollution, because surely no-one in their right mind thinks that gasoline and diesel will be the prime means of propulsion in 2030, considering the massive technological advances that have been made in environmentally friendly fuels over just the last few years?

So why exactly is it you want to deny the less wealthy citizens of Stockholm the right to drive their zero-emissions car to and from work, kindergarten or the grocery store, Wallberg? Stop talking nonsense and focus your energy on how we can get the infrastructure in place to support the current environmentally friendly fuels, like biogas.

Freshly baked bread

2010-03-30T12:48:00.004+02:00

Who doesn't love freshly baked bread? I do, and since I'm a retard when it comes to baking I usually have to rely on the local grocery store. Up until now, that is.

You know those stands most grocery stores have with fresh bread and pastries and stuff, and you grab a paper bag and put the bread of your choice in it? Yeah, well, that's not really the greatest idea, seeing as we live in a world of nasty, filthy, disgusting people who have to poke their dirty little fingers at everything that isn't individually wrapped and tightly sealed. Well, they probably poke those things as well, but that doesn't matter, as their filth doesn't end up in my food.

Last time I was in the store I noticed this moron standing over by the fresh bread stand, talking on his cell phone, and just like that - for no apparent reason and while talking on the phone - he started pinching a bread between his fingers. And then he went away. What the hell kind of disgusting behavior is that? God only knows where those nasty, bony fingers have been... Up his nose? Up his arse? Yuck.

Needless to say I didn't buy a bread that day, and I probably won't be buying them any time soon. If the stores cared the least bit about cleanliness and their customer's well being they would replace these bread-stands with proper counters where you would point at the bread you want, instead of poking at it, and an employee would get it and put it in a paper bag for you.

Who uses self-bleaching cream???

2010-03-29T21:50:00.003+02:00

Apparently the police found dozens of bottles of a skin bleaching cream in the house of the late Michael Jackson...? Now, I've heard of self-tanning lotion - a quick and not so good way of getting a tan when there's no sun. But self-bleaching? I've never even heard something like that existed. Who the hell, except Michael Jackson, would want to make their skin paler?

I'm totally flabbergasted.

"Good job, China!"

2010-03-29T14:35:00.008+02:00

Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt met with Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping, and discussed among other things the Chinese censorship of the Internet. Might we assume that the conversation went something like this:

Fredrik: Hey Xi, great job you're doing on that Internet censorship.
Xi: Why, thank you.
Fredrik: We're actually working on a similar project ourselves, but being a democracy we're don't really have a long history in restricting the public's opportunity to share thoughts and information. Perhaps you could share some experiences with us? We would like to have it in place by 2012.
Xi: Sure, no worries, with your technology and eagerness to restrict the public's access to information you consider "inappropriate" this could be up and running in no time.
Fredrik: Cool.

A taste of what is to come

2010-03-26T09:57:00.004+01:00

The Americans got a little taste of what is to come in the near future when due to a DNS error they ended up behind China's "Great Firewall". This meant websites with inappropriate content were blocked.

Personally I don't understand what the fuzz is all about. I mean, they better get used to it as both the US and the EU are planning to incorporate similar Internet filtering, where the governments will be able to decide what information their citizens should be allowed to part-take in, and what should be considered "inappropriate" and blocked.

If all goes according to plan, the EU will join the likes of Iran, North Korea, Australia and China by 2012, with the US probably not far behind. Congratulations, you miserable enemies of freedom.

New Moore is No More

2010-03-25T14:10:00.005+01:00

Believe it or not India and Bangladesh have been fighting over a lousy piece of rock (3 by 3,5 km in size) situated in the Bay of Bengal for nearly 30 years. There were no people living on this tiny island, no structures of any kind, no valuable natural resources, just a remote piece of rock in the ocean, called New Moore Island.

Finally God got fed up with the utterly pointless bickering and sunk this pitiful little island into the ocean.

I think oceanographer Sugata Hazra summed it all up pretty nice:

"What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming".

Oh the stupidity of the world.

View Larger Map

The Minister of Injustice, part 2

2010-03-24T16:48:00.007+01:00

What has to be Sweden's least popular politician at the moment, the notoriously incompetent, spiteful and integrity-hating minister of (in)justice Beatrice Ask (M), has gone ahead and done it again. The video below speaks for itself, as this sorry excuse of a politician goes on record suggesting that the families and neighbors of suspected sex buyers should be informed what they might have been up to:

Mind you this is a suggestion to penalize (no pun intended) potentially innocent persons in the most barbaric, medieval way for a petty crime that has no victim. We're not talking about trafficking, rape or child abuse, those crimes are taken care of by other and much harsher laws. We're simply talking about consenting adults exchanging favors for money that Swedish politicians only recently decided were morally unacceptable, and thus should be criminalized.

Today, after days of increasing criticism, Ask herself comments on her ridiculous suggestion:

- Ja naturligtvis och javisst gör jag en pudel. Det var klumpigt uttryckt eftersom det kan och har missuppfattats.

Say what? She's sorry her suggestion was misinterpreted??? Does she think the Swedish public are that stupid? The message was loud and clear Ask, without room for any kind of misinterpretations: We should put the presumption of innocent until proven guilty to the side and permanently stigmatize anyone suspected of buying sex from a consenting adult.

That's the Swedish (not the Iranian or Chinese, in case you were wondering) Minister of Justice, ladies and gentlemen.

Give me a "Kravmärkt" Spotify, please.

2010-03-22T13:57:00.003+01:00

Svd.se has an article today on how Spotify makes money and how this money is distributed (or should I say heavily filtered?) to the artists. And we all know how the artist's cut looks these days.

My proposal is a "Kravmärkt" version of Spotify. An ethical, ecological if you will, version that distributes the money directly to the artists without any costly and highly unethical intermediaries. Not only would I not hesitate to use such a service (as opposed to my reluctance to use Spotify today), but I would gladly pay 99 SEK per month for the premium version knowing that my money went to the artists I'm listening to. Something like this:

The Minister of Injustice

2010-03-15T15:40:00.006+01:00

The Swedish Minister of Injustice, the notorious Beatrice Ask (M), continues her crusade to make Sweden a less safe place to be. Now she wants the police to be able to do random drug tests on kids without the consent of their legal guardian.

She doesn't see any risk of the police taking this opportunity to harass innocent youngsters, because clearly the police have better things to do:

Lagrådet har också varnat för att urinprov under tvång kan användas av polisen som en slags bestraffning. Den kritiken avvisar Ask och menar att polisen har viktigare saker för sig än att ägna sig åt att trakassera unga.

Riiiiiight... Perhaps you should get your head out of your ass and start reading a newspaper every now and then, Ask. And yes, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, which I probably shouldn't, you disgusting piece of totalitarian garbage.

Hell yeah

2010-03-10T18:01:00.001+01:00

Let copyright legislation rest in peace

2010-03-09T19:09:00.004+01:00

Couldn't have said it better myself. There is no way to uphold copyright laws on a non-commercial scale without introducing fascism. Which is exactly what is being introduced in Europe and the US at an increasing speed these days.

The mafia declares war on open source software

2010-02-25T15:25:00.004+01:00

This sounds too ridiculous to be true, but nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the "intellectual property" dinosaurs of the world:

According to the International Intellectual Property ~~Mafia~~ Alliance, an umbrella group for the infamous criminals over at MPAA and RIAA, the use of, hell even encouragement to start using, open source software is equal to software piracy, or even anti-capitalism or possibly terrorism.

A joke you say? Unfortunately not. It's the copyright mafia doing what they do best.

I can't stress this enough: Don't feed the monsters. Stop the cashflow.

Corrupt cop comeback

2010-02-24T19:59:00.007+01:00

The infamous corrupt cop Jim Keyzer, bought and later employed by the entertainment mafia is back in business, this time looking for employees to battle computer crimes. You know, dangerous stuff like 14 year old kids sharing their music with other 14 year old kids. How this buffoon can still be employed by the police is beyond me, and it just contributes to the extremely bad image this institution is very rightfully struggling with at the moment.

Anyway, Keyzer is looking for people who can identify with the "police values", presumably taking bribes from large corporations. So if you feel like taking bribes and hunting down kids, go for it.

Thanks to futuriteter and Full Mental Straightjacket for the link.

More Google evil

2010-02-20T15:09:00.001+01:00

As if deleting blogs due to a claim of copyright infringement and censorship in China isn't enough, Google are now even censoring critics of the US government.

Seriously, Google, that "don't be evil" motto just seems out of date. Why don't you just change it to something more believable, like "don't be free" or "be censored"?

Moderaterna party election campaign: More surveillance and higher taxes

2010-02-20T13:21:00.006+01:00

Apparently Moderaterna, the Moderate party in Sweden, are prepared to throw their single selling point down the drain, with minister of finance Anders Borg being prepared to raise taxes:

"Det finns starka skäl att överväga skattehöjningar", säger finansministern.

And my personal favorite:

Höjda skatter är avgörande för att behålla en stabil ekonomi i framtiden, framhöll Borg. Och att ett normalt skattetryck för Sverige bör ligga på 35-45 procent av BNP.

In other words, being the most heavily taxed country in the world is the recipe for a stable financial growth. That's certainly new coming from Moderaterna.

Areas that will be affected if Moderaterna get their way is, among others, a "green" tax on CO2 emission (like we don't have enough of these already), even higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol, and certainly no further tax relief on the unfair housing tax (better known as the "Stockholm tax"). The common denominator for all these taxes are that they are not in any way related to your actual income or wealth, meaning they strike people with lesser money much harder than those with more money. Very nice, Borg, that's gonna win you the Östermalm and Djursholm votes, at least.

So my question is quite simply, how exactly do Moderaterna expect to win the elections when they're throwing away the only political issue that separates them from the red and green coalition: A healthy and manageable tax level for people as well as businesses? The way things are looking today they might as well join this red and green coalition, making it a rainbow coalition and front it with the following slogan:

The rainbow coalition: More surveillance and higher taxer - for a safer and healthier society.

Go get some new clothes. And a life.

2010-02-19T09:50:00.005+01:00

"Stockholm's finest", the two moronic police officers who abused Jesper Nilsson in the subway last week, have finally become properly identified - names and pictures. Good, now we know who to avoid. We also know that they're all too happy to blatantly lie in order to punish troublesome citizens. Unfortunately this time they were caught on tape, and their nonsense lies are easily revealed.

A quick google search also revealed that one of these police officers, Carl Larsson, was featured on Swedish television a little while back. While I have no reason to believe anything coming from his mouth at this point, I did find it funny that he's wearing the exact same clothes as he did when abusing Nilsson in the subway. Way to go getting into that hobo character, Larsson.

Get a life and a set of new clothes, please.

Can I be an Internet expert too, please?

2010-02-16T08:18:00.004+01:00

DN published a letter on what was supposedly freedom and Internet today by a guy called Peter Strömbäck. This wouldn't be a problem if they didn't go ahead and wrongfully call him an "Internet expert", something he's clearly not. His CV suggests he's rather an intellectual property expert and/or a lobbyist, anything really but an Internet expert. And that shows clearly in his letter, where he promotes more regulations and intellectual property protection on the Internet. Because clearly more rules and regulations means freedom. Also the argument on Telia's dividend is a pathetic, classic lobby argument. "Bohoo, the ISP's make billions aiding their customers in commiting copyright infringements and stealing our money". Yeah, right.

Why is it so hard for lobbyists like Strömbäck to acknowledge that the same rules and laws that apply in the "analog" world should also apply on the Internet? It's really as simple as that. The mailman doesn't open your mail every day just in case you happen to engage in any criminal activity per mail. Why should your ISP do that? You are able to walk around freely and anonymously in the "analog" world. No one is registering your every step, asking you for "papieren, bitte!!!" at every crossroad. Why should you have to be traced every step of the way on the Internet? Why do lobbyists and politicians want to uphold a DDR set of rules on the Internet and a Western set of rules in the "analog" world?

- Annoyed Citizen, an Internet expert.

Technological meltdown

2010-02-15T15:32:00.004+01:00

This post could also be called "Why you should avoid any triple play solution out there".
Unfortunately I'm one of those poor bastards stuck with a triple play solution, through my bostadsrättsförening, homeowners association. Sure, it usually works pretty well, the problem is this is a classic single point of failure solution, where if there's anything wrong with the fiber lan you lose not only your internet connection, you lose your home phone and tv as well, which can be extremely annoying. Especially when the service provider is unable to locate the problem.

Basically I'm in my second day of a complete technological meltdown at the moment. Makes it a bit harder to work from home, watch the Olympics, and communicating with friends and family abroad. To say the least.

So, mark my words, you do not want this kind of solution if you can avoid it. Phone through copper wire, tv through satellite and Internet through fiber lan is your best bet.

Original graphics

More Swedish police embarrassments

2010-02-14T00:51:00.004+01:00

Two morons who also happen to be police officers (yes, the standard of these guys seems to be declining by the day, what are the requirements to become one of these trained monkeys anyway?) bully and threaten a defenseless civilian taking a photo of them.

The victim publishes the photo and the story of the abuse on his blog.

These two apes, Martin Bergström and Carl Larsson, then have the nerve to press charges against him.

- Man får fotografera, men det finns gränser för hur man fotograferar och vad man använder bilderna till. Det kan bli brottsligt i slutändan, att det blir ett ofredande av det, säger BT Olsson.

I see, so documenting a case of police abuse of power is a crime, but actually performing the abuse of power is perfectly fine? I'm amazed. Living in Sweden for only 4 years has completely erased my confidence in the police. Seriously. I have yet to read anything positive about this pitiful bunch of rejects. Instead the newspapers are full of stories on abusive, arrogant, ignorant and just plain stupid policemen wasting their time and taxpayer's money doing one ridiculous thing after the other, all in a massive effort to lose the public's trust.

The Swedish police: A complete embarassment

2010-02-12T12:42:00.010+01:00

Well, it's official, not only are single policemen bought by the entertainment mafia, the entire Swedish police system seems to become a division of EMI/Universal/Sony/Warner, doing their dirty work extorting and bullying simple file-sharers in an organized way instead of prioritizing crimes that actually involve victims. Crimes that actually matter.

As a first step, nine police officers will be taken out of meaningful duty (and by meaningful I certainly don't mean the kind of appalling abuse of power displayed by these two pitiful clowns) and enrolled in the entertainment mafia division of the police, where they will knock down doors, seize computer equipment and threaten youngsters who are simply sharing their music or movies with friends or others.

In other words, it's some sort of reverse Ipred. In addition to outsourcing police work to private companies with financial interest in the work, the private companies are now also getting police staff working for them. And the police's excuse for this is probably the most pathetic thing I've heard:

Brott mot immaterialrätten är enligt Polismyndigheten ofta gränsöverskridande och beräknas omsätta stora belopp. Det nationella samarbetet är ett sätt att komma åt problemet.

Right. Non-commercial file-sharing generates a lot of profit.

This is a complete and utter disgrace for the Swedish police.

Original photo: Kike@

"Don't be evil" my ass

2010-02-12T11:22:00.008+01:00

Do you own a blog hosted by blogger or blogspot? I do. And if I weren't too lazy I would move it away from these Googled-owned services asap, since these days they seem to be arbitrary deleting (yes, actually deleting all content, not just suspending the accounts!) blogs that they claim infringe on copyright. You know, if you happen to publish the lyrics to the chorus of your favorite song, or a picture you took at a concert. Those kinds of nasty crimes.

If you're like me, too lazy to actually move your blog, at least do a proper backup in case Google decides to go ahead and just delete it.

First the censorship scandal in China, and now this? "Don't be evil" my ass.

The basic functionality of a modern cell phone

2010-02-11T09:53:00.005+01:00

ZoomMediaPlus have released a card reader, ZoomIt, for the iPhone and iPod Touch, making it possible to view files from a memory card, and interact with them, directly on the iPhone/iPod. I can't that it should take a 3rd party vendor to see this ridiculous design flaw or limitation in the product and come up with this functionality on their own. After all, it's pretty much standard in most other phones these days.

Except in most phones you don't have to have an extra gadget plugged in on the side of it for this to work. It's called a memory card slot, and you just insert your memory card into it, and voila, all the files you've transferred from your computer and onto the card are there. Usually these phones also let you copy or save files onto the memory card so you can easily transfer all music, photos and other stuff onto your computer.

But no, that would be giving the customers way to much freedom and ease of use, if you ask Apple.

Photo: ZoomIt website

German government does business with criminals

2010-02-03T09:45:00.004+01:00

Who would believe a government would actually be buying stolen merchandise on a regular basis? Well, those crazy krauts are at it again. Only a couple of years after the previous scandal when they bought stolen data from a Liechtenstein bank, German officials are looking to buy even more stolen data, this time from a Swiss bank - all to be used as evidence against its own citizens.

Most people would call this a crime. Most courts of law wouldn't even call it evidence. Not in Germany, though.

The empire strikes back

2010-02-02T19:13:00.005+01:00

Yes, the evil empire, in conspiracy with the Swedish police, has once again struck against a bunch of regular Joes, knocking down their doors, invading their privacy and seizing their computer equipment, which they will probably never see again. Why? Apparently because they were aiding in committing copyright infringement. The exact same and highly questionable "crime" the Pirate Bay guys were charged with: Providing the infrastructure that enables people to commit copyright infringement. They're not even suspected of committing the actual copyright infringement, a petty crime in itself.

One can't help but wonder when the 13% of all Swedes with an unsecured wireless router will be targeted by this utterly despicable mafia organization. If providing bandwidth through an insecure wireless connection isn't providing the infrastructure that enables people to commit copyright infringement, I don't know what is...

This is nothing but an embarrassment to the Swedish police conspiring with the criminals at Ifpi, and another dark day for the Internet freedom in Sweden. Shame on you.

Steve Jobs is a gnome

2010-01-28T15:17:00.005+01:00

So Apple launches the iPad, a new e-book reader and more. Big deal. Please let me be wrong, but I suspect it will be hopelessly locked to the shockingly bad iTunes software which will be needed to do more or less anything with the device. I also suspect you will have to buy e-books in a proprietary format - from iTunes. In other words just as uninteresting as the Amazon Kindle and other proprietary systems.

What I find a bit amusing though is the picture of Steve Jobs holding the iPad. Doesn't he look like a cute, little gnome holding a huge iPhone in his hand?

Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

The Berlin Wall - coming to a city near you

2010-01-27T20:37:00.005+01:00

Apparently Gothenburg motorists are next in line to be subdued by the Berlin Wall of traffic, the road tolls. This abomination is striking arbitrary and with no regard to people's personal economy, and is providing yet another means of surveillance for the government. All in the name of making money. Tons of money.

I've said it again, and I'll gladly repeat it: Have a look at what's in store for you Swedes now that the pandora's box has been opened with the "congestion charges" in Stockholm.

Yes, this is a map of road tolls in Norway, with tons more tolls being built as we speak. And if you're interested in why road tolls are the work of the devil, read my post about it here.

Guilty until proven innocent

2010-01-11T16:46:00.009+01:00

The mafiosos over at the record companies (yes, the usual "axis of evil", Universal Music, EMI Music, Sony Music and Warner Music) continue their crusade to make the world an insecure place to live. According to Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Industri and Svenska Dagbladet they insist that two of the Pirate Bay founders are still involved in the management of the site, and should be fined accordingly. Not only that, but they seriously expect that mere allegations should be enough, and that the accusers should have to prove their innocence! The witchburners of the 18th century would be proud.

Enligt skivbolagen har de två har brutit mot vitesförbudet "genom att delta i driften av fildelningstjänsten", och skivbolagen anser att bara det faktum att Pirate Bay fortfarande fungerar är tillräckligt för att de två ska anses ha överträtt förbudet - såvida de inte kan visa att de inte längre är delaktiga.

"So, you're not a witch, huh? Prove it, or you're obviously guilty and will be burned at the stake."

I actually had to read that last sentence a couple of times before I realized it was serious. The good old "guilty until proven innocent" tactics that most developed countries abandoned decades ago. You're kidding me. However I'm quite sure the court will continue to obey the entertainment industry no matter how seriously it violates basic human rights.

Rednex FTW

2010-01-07T19:47:00.004+01:00

Never thought I'd say this, but after reading this article on Newsmill I've found a new respect for the Rednex-guys. Hell, I might even consider donating some money, just because they make such a great statement against the "axis of evil".