Fjodor's thoughts

Idea for a SOPA/PIPA protest by Google

By Fjodor on Jan. 19, 2012.

Let me start by stating that I don’t know if Google enjoy any Common Carrier (or other, similar) protections, but if not, it shouldn’t be all too hard for them to block access by IP addresses from known SOPA/PIPA proponents, plus, if they want to play hardball, any US Administration addresses as well.

Same goes for all other protesters.

As an additional nugget of legislative gold, I would assume that if they blocked the Administration, said Administration would need to institute and document a way of circumventing said blockade in order to get anything meaningful business done, which could be an interesting subject for a DMCA complaint, since SOPA/PIPA seem to assume that DNS filtering constitutes an effective means of restricting access…

I am not a US citizen, and thus, even if I was a lawyer, my expertise would not be in US law, but comments are more than welcome!

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Æret være Kresten Philipsens minde

By Fjodor on Jul. 17, 2011.

Dear international readers: Please excuse another Danish post, but a formidable Danish politician, whom I had the fortune to meet on a few occasions, has sadly passed away. This is an admittedly sorry excuse for an obituary for a man whom I admired greatly.

Jeg følger ikke synderligt meget med i politik længere, og ej heller, når det kommer til stykket, danske nyheder generelt. Dermed er det først i dag gået op for mig, at Kresten Philipsen er død. For min egen part er jeg ked af, at jeg ikke har haft anledning til at møde ham i efterhånden mange år, idet jeg gerne ville have haft fortalt ham, at han har foranlediget en større forståelse hos mig for det saglige arguments magt, samt for vigtigheden af respekt for politiske modstandere, end han sikkert selv har været klar over, særligt da jeg næppe antager, at han ville kunne huske mig, medmindre han blev mindet om det, og så nok næppe som andet end en typisk gymnasiast, der ikke havde bedre begreb om politik end de fleste andre af mine studentikose aldersfæller, men hvad jeg senere er blevet opmærksom på, ud fra hans måde at agere på i de få, korte situationer er, at skulle man gøre sig forhåbninger om at vinde hans respekt på det politiske plan, så skulle man kunne redegøre for sin holdning – både hvad angår baggrund, argumenter for, og særligt imod.

Denne blog læses af ganske få, og således har jeg postet et mindeord på JV’s dertil indrettede side her, som jeg dog også vil gengive nedenfor:

Det er med sorg, at jeg har erfaret dette gode menneskes alt for tidlige død. I min gymnasietid var jeg, som det sig hør og bør for gymnasiaster, politisk engageret, og dertil enig med Hr. Philipsen angående mange politiske spørgsmål, men naturligvis også uenig hvad angår andre. De få gange, hvor jeg mødte ham personligt, og dertil talte politik, slog det mig, at han, høfligt, veltalende og alvorligt, var mere interesseret i at få mig til argumentere sagligt, end han egentlig (og med rette) var i at blive talt efter munden, eller det modsatte, af en ung gymnasiast, der endnu ikke havde haft tid til at forstå større perspektiver, end hvad han (altså jeg) nu engang alligevel følte, var rigtigt, uden yderligere forklaring.

Hvad jeg husker bedst, er dog hans engagement i forbindelse med Danmarks indtræden i Schengen-samarbejdet, der mødte en uanstændigt højlydt modstand fra et lille, omend skræmmende, mindretal i det sønderjyske, der tog en form af, hvad den traditionelle opfattelse af terrorisme sagtens kan beskrive, og det er således med lige dele beklagelse og vikariøs skam, at jeg må konstatere, at noget af det sidste, som han oplevede, var at det, som han dengang, med store personlige omkostninger, kæmpede for, desværre blev slået i stykker af hans tidligere partis uheldige afhængighed af, og resulterende leflen for, et parti der, mere eller mindre, er talerør for det mindretals misforståelse af, at national stolthed er ensbetydende med de mest afstumpede former for den slags nationalisme, der kun kan omtales negativt.

Kresten ville sikkert have søgt en anden løsning end min “langen ud efter” et politisk parti, men således kan jeg kun afslutte med, hvad jeg ønsker at sige med det forudgående, nemlig at Kresten var en stor mand og en stor politiker, som jeg altid vil se op til, uagtet at han desværre ikke er blandt os længere.

Det gør mig ondt på Danmarks, og særligt på Sønderjyllands, vegne, at Kresten ikke længere er her, men mest gør det mig ondt for hans familie, som jeg håber vil se denne nekrolog, såfremt de finder frem til den, som en hyldest til en mand, som de kan være stolte af!

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Taxation of the rich vs. the poor

By Fjodor on Sep. 3, 2009.

I saw this comment on a slashdot.org article tonight.

In essence, it’s an explanation of the US tax system, explained in the setting of “beer for 10 people” by a professor in economics.

While one may (rightfully) question the quality of a great many slashdot comments, I find this one rather profound.

I’d say it could be adapted to many other countries’ tax schemes with an equivalent conclusion – perhaps because politicians worldwide seem to be more eager to please the readers of daily newspapers, than to listen to sensible science…

Update 11:12 – link fixed. Thank you Thode :-$

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…and that’s the end of that monstrosity.

By Fjodor on Jun. 1, 2008.

Enough with the telemagenta now. I still think it was a worthwhile point to make, but wow, it sure did look, erm, magenta

Also, instead of just changing back to the default theme, I’d like to try out the one you are seeing now. It’s called Mystefied, and it’s brought to you by the nice guys at http://www.xhtmlvalid.com. I think it looks nice, but if you disagree, please let me know

Edit: Incidentally, I like to provide Atom feeds as well as RSS, so I tweaked the theme a bit with a new image and link for that, which however left no space for the search form in it’s previous position. Thus, it has been moved to the sidebar, and it has been equipped with a submit-button. Most browsers do fine without them, but I’m unsure as to how it would work for a mobile browser without one…

I hope all this is fine with xhtmlvalid and Mr. Chaudhuri, both of whom I have notified.

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AT&T propose to launch largest foot-shooting apparatus ever?

By Fjodor on Jan. 18, 2008.

Once again, I do little more than link to another blogger, but if by this, I can get just a few more to read that link than if I did nothing, then so much for the better.

In other words, this is why you should either sell your AT&T shares or, alternatively, contact all the fellow shareholders you can reach, and get them to side with you in demanding that the mastermind behind this proposition be tarred and feathered. I’d go for the money…

#EDIT: as a commenter pointed out, the link was botched, but should now work. Thanks for the heads up!

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How to tell if a US judge is past his “best before” date

By Fjodor on Jan. 18, 2008.

This is just so mind-numbingly wrong that I am lost for words.

Luckily, however, CircleID pretty much sums it up…

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Manifesto (sort of)

By Fjodor on Feb. 13, 2007.

So, I installed WordPress. The comments to the front page of the main page seemed to take up too much space, so in the course of the next days, they will be added here, along with further posts.

The main focus will probably be MS criticism…

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