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October 28th, 2002

Freedom to Tinker

Edward Felton’s excellent weblog journals developments in US law that infringe on the freedom to create what software and hardware we want. One highlight is the occasional Fritz’s Hit List which points out what kinds of items would be ridiculously regulated by the proposed CBDTPA - Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act - a bill to force makers of technology to implement federally approved copy protection schemes. Even singing fish and digital sewing machines would be regulated!

Other issues like attacks on the GPL and compulsory licensing are also discussed.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Authorised Theft at 11:43 AM EST

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October 26th, 2002

Fun with Spam

Things I could be doing right now according to the spam in my inbox:

It strikes me that this is all utter crap that no-one can possibly want. And yet people must be buying, or the spammers would realise it doesn’t work and give up. So who is buying this stuff? I want to meet this person, and see just how empty his life is!

Incidentally, the idea for this blog entry was unashamedly stolen from Jason Kottke.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Introspection at 6:59 PM EDT

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October 11th, 2002

More on TBN

Today I came across Martin’s TBN Watch. He does a much better job than I could at conveying just what TBN is like, and with a suitably mocking tone. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the actual articles. “TBN is always dumb but most definitely never boring”, he writes. It is indeed very entertaining, and whenever it is on at work we all stand around laughing at it. Of course, it’s not all harmless amusement for sensible people. From the article on Benny Hinn:

The belief in faith healing, of all of the kooky beliefs fundies tend to hold, is the one that has been shown to have the direst consequences. Recently, a spate of deaths, mostly among young children whose parents chose to pray rather than seek medical attention for illnesses which were not particularly life-threatening in most cases, has made the news, and in at least one incident, one dead child’s parents were charged with outright homicide for their neglect. We can applaud the sagacity of law enforcement for cracking down on this kind of nonsense, but we can only groan at the fact that ludicrous numbers of people still go to see Benny Hinn. For Benny, or anyone, to continue to champion faith healing–and, in Hinn’s case, to make a career out of pretending to do it–when helpless children are dropping like ninepins ought to have the public rioting in the streets. But what is the public doing instead? Lining up to see Benny Hinn, that’s what.

Exposing TV Evangelism also contains articles about religious TV in general. Interestingly, it gets the number one spot on a Google search for “tv evangelism”, above all the pro-TV evangelism sites! This is significant because of the way Google works. Apart from that, there seem to be far too few people pointing out how stupid TV evangelism is. To paraphrase Martin Wagner, TV evangelists are funny, that anyone at all takes them seriously is profoundly sad.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Imaginary Friends at 2:05 PM EDT

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October 10th, 2002

Trinity Broadcasting Network

I work with digital TV, and there’s usually a TV on somewhere in the lab. Right now, someone has tuned in to TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network. It’s a California based religious TV station, jam packed with hilarious loonies. I’ve given up trying to describe it. Thankfully, you can see it for yourself, live on the Internet! Watch out for the woman with the enourmous pink hair peddling wares from the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh Gift Shop.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Imaginary Friends at 4:33 PM EDT

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October 6th, 2002

Opus Dei

It’s easy to think that while the Catholic church were responsible for war, torture, witch hunting, plunder and general misery a few hundred years ago, they’re a mostly benign organisation now. Illustrating that this is not the case is today’s canonisation of the founder of the Opus Dei movement, Jose Maria Escriva, who is even supposed to have performed miracles of healing during his lifetime.

Opus Dei is a fascist, frankly Orwellian organisation, with dubious recruitment practices not dissimilar to those of the Scientologists. Members are told what they can and can’t read, who they can and can’t socialise with, and are taught that the path to holiness lies in unquestioning obediance to their leaders. It’s scary stuff.

The Opus Dei Awareness Network details their practices and contains true stories of ex-members. The Unofficial Opus Dei Homepage is another good source of information. Many books have been written on the subject.

That the Catholic church endorses such an organisation is further evidence that it is as dangerous as it is ridiculous.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Imaginary Friends at 4:21 PM EDT

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Nigerians

The Nigerian 419 scammers have really good imaginations. I received two emails today offering to transfer millions of dollars into my account, on wildly different but equally fascinating pretexts. One fund was apparently left when:

…In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$28.5m (twenty eight million and five hundred thousand US dollars),in an account that belonged to one of our former customers who died along with his entire family in a plane crash, in November, 1997.

Of course:

Unfortunately,we have discovered that all his supposed next of kin or relations died alongside with him in the plane crash, and effectively leaving nobody behind for the claim.

A second mail amazingly was from the wife of a former head of state of Nigeria, named Miriam or Mariam (she seemed unable to decide how to spell her name). She apparently is being treated badly and wants me to help out. She even quotes a BBC News article to support her claims!

Posted by Rob Fisher as Links at 3:38 PM EDT

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October 2nd, 2002

American Movie

Last night I had the pleasure of watching American Movie: The Making of Northwestern. It’s a documentary about amateur filmmaker Mark Borchardt who is attempting to finish his short film Coven so that he can raise some cash to make his dream feature film, Northwestern.

What makes it so special is Mark’s determination in the face of adversity. It seems obvious to anyone watching the documentary, and to many of the people in it, that Mark is never going to make a feature film. He never completed high school. He works as a janitor in the local cemetary. He’s battling to pay debts and child support. He enlists the help of his Uncle Bill, who grudgingly loans him $3000 to finance Coven, and equally grudgingly delivers one line in the film, requiring over 30 takes. His mother would rather go shopping than be an extra. The one person who seems to help enthusiastically is his friend Mike, whose brain appears to have been mostly destroyed by years of drug taking.

And yet, surrounded by people who clearly would never do anything with their lives on their own, Mark gets them involved and completes Coven by sheer willpower. At the end of the documentary, his film, shot on 16mm and edited with the local university’s facilities, triumphantly premieres at the local cinema. I have played around with some Super 8 filmmaking, and have a good idea of what’s involved - this is a remarkable achievement.

The documentary was released in 1999. Since it was made, Uncle Bill has died and left Mark $50,000 to make the feature Northwestern. Marks has also appeared on Letterman, and acted in some movies, no doubt boosted by the success of the documentary. According to the Internet Movie Database, he is currently working on his dream feature film. The American Dream is to come from nothing and make something of your life - Mark Borchardt is doing his best to live it. He should be inspiration to us all.

There is an official American Movie website, and you can buy a DVD of the documentary and Coven.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Reviews at 9:48 AM EDT

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