Proposed legislation to make file sharing a felony

In response to this crazy news story.

This is goofy gubment at work again (see H.R 2517).  This kind of action will have a dramatic chilling effect on technology innovation.

In my humble opinion, file sharing is a fascinating innovation and might otherwise become an important collaboration tool of our hi-tech world. 
I want to be able to share my discoveries and developments with my peers so all can benefit. 
Copyright laws need to fairly serve the public first, and the producers second. 
Studios, networks, artists and their support organizations need to be in step with progress through technology and innovation -- and not suppress it!

But this is
obviously NOT about the artists. It's much more about the money-hungry associations, licensing companies, networks and studios. 
The actual artists, whom 'they' claim to serve, get almost nothing for their
trouble, winding up with a very small chunk of what the consumers pay for the materials. I'd like to see
artists getting more of the pie, even if it means pushing out the big guys, like the RIAA.

And it's too bad that Napster didn't build in a nominal fee to get
those artists paid, as they should.  I want to help artists and encourage them through my payments. 
But alas, Napster didn't want to do that, so we all have to pay for it.  Legislators ought to take note that people like me want to pay, and in fact would spend more on P2P file sharing than would normally spend on CDs. 
But not $1 a song. More like $3/mo or $100/yr.  At a buck a song, I'd have gone broke! 
And what I want is older music, the stuff that doesn't make money any more. 
60s, 70s and 80s music.  And I'd gladly pay for it -- if there was a way to
do so!

Making criminals of good people here is taking the easy way out.  I suggest to RIAA and others, get creative, do your homework and embrace technology, not thwart it.

-- Danny

Call for all area Wireless Internet Service Providers

The Wise Guys want to know! Who in central Iowa provides wireless access to the Internet? If you are a provider, please email us and let us know. We'll publish your contact information here. Please give us consumer pricing including setup fees. We will also take WiFi Hotspot providers and locations for use on another list.

Users: How do you get your Internet? We also want to know how our listeners are getting connected to the Internet, whether you use a cable modem, DSL, ISDN, T1, dialup, wireless, or whether you only get online at work.

Our "Legal Eagle" weighs in...

Richard writes:

"My Dad had a stroke about two months ago and he has no short time memory. He is able to do what has to be done to live. But he owns cattle and they need to be sold. Is there anyway his wife can get anything on paper that will let here to do this or is she able to do that now. I worry about it because I have two greedy sisters, one of them takes care of cattle. I think they [might] take advantage of dad's problem and sell them for their own profit. Whatever you can tell me would be great."

WHO Radio's own George Davison is an attorney and he has this general advice for our
listeners in a similar situation:

• A conservatorship can be established to take care of the assets of the individual.
  
  


• The individual could grant a power of attorney to someone he trusts to act for him.
  
  


• A trust could be created by the individual to own and to manage his assets. The trustee would be a person named by the individual.
  
  


• This is a situation in which both husband and wife need to
  consult with an attorney to prepare the appropriate plan to deal with the situation in which the husband becomes incapacitated.
  
  


• It is very important that all of the facts of the situation be
  discussed with the attorney and that options and alternatives be weighed.
  
  


• This is a situation which can be ripe with complications,
  unintended consequences, and conflicts. This situation emphasizes the need for planning and addressing problems and situations that can arise.
  
  


• At this point, Richard needs to be very careful about his role
  and involvement. There is a potential allegation, if he arranges for the mother and father to see the lawyer, and especially if he accompanies the mother and father to the lawyer and participates in the conference, that he unduly influenced his father's actions.
  
  


• Again, facts are very important to the decisions which need to
  be made and the potential solutions. This is why an in-person conference with a lawyer of mother and father's selection is critical. The selection of the lawyer must be made by mother and father to meet their needs and their situation.
  
  


• The observations that I have made are based upon the
  information that I have and are an attempt to provide basic information.
  The solution to this family's issue must be addressed only after all of the facts have been ascertained and options, based upon those facts, analyzed.

George F. Davison, Jr.,
Board Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy

Live on the bridge

The WHO Radio Wise Guys returned to Taste of Des Moines with a live broadcast
from the Court Avenue Bridge from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM Saturday.  Recipe
Lady Diane Roupe and Chris Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo joined us fr some fun
chat about food and technology.

Recipe Lady Returns

Food expert and author of "The Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook, The New Standard of Ameican Cooking" will return to The Wise Guys live from the Court Avenue Bridge this Saturday at 11:00 AM. It's your chance to meet her in person -- or if you can't make it to Taste of Des Moines, to listen to her on the radio.

Diane Roupe (ROOP) is a tradition in the Ag Building during the Iowa State Fair, and continues to be an official judge there. We'll talk about her upcoming cookbook, which will feature meals in an hour (the working title is secret for now); USDA standards for safe canning; and midwest cooking in general.

Diane reported record book sales at the fair last year, following her appearances on our show. For information about the Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook, contact Diane by mail: The Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook, 904 12th St., West Des Moines, IA 50265. Call (515) 267-1188.

Google search

Scary new web site...

I can't wait for October!:

Ames Haunted Forest

New ways to spam you

Microsoft's operating systems allow people to send you pop-up network messages, exploiting a little known network administrator's tool called Windows Messenger Service (which is not related to MSN's instant messaging) -- if you are exposed to the Internet directly. If you're behind a firewall or on a local subnet, such as in the case of the gateway/router, you're probably safe from these annoying little popups.

CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) writes:

Sites that have a firewall that blocks the Windows networking ports (135, 137-139, and 445) are already protected from this spam. This particular spam engine starts with a connection to port 135 rather than the NetBIOS ports (137-139 and 445) and then connects to a port above 1024 but future spam engines could use the NetBIOS ports as well. The Messenger service generally should not be disabled or shut down because different programs use it to pass messages to a user. System managers also use it to warn of impending network actions such as server shutdowns.

It is possible to use the IP Filtering feature of Windows to block the incoming connections at the machine but the filter’s options are “Permit All” or “Permit Only ”. To make the filter work, you must use the “Permit Only ” option and supply the list of all allowed open ports. TCP Filtering is part of the Advanced Properties of the TCP/IP Protocol in the Networking control panel. Note also that blocking incoming connections to ports (TCP and UDP) 135, 137-139, and 445 at a machine may prevent that machine from participating in Windows Networking. We have seen one company (www.coffeecup.com) that is offering a filter for these ports that keeps the ports open for network communications but blocks the spam messages. More....

CIAC write about spamming using Windows Messenger Service.

Coffee Cup's Popup Blocker can eliminate these ads.

Listener Question

Judy writes:

"Having problems ghost with a Dell GX270s desktop PC. I have downloaded the most current drivers for the nic card and I created a new ghost boot disk with those drives. I boot up the PC with the boot disk and it finds the NIC card and then it says loading ..... and the screen never comes up were it will say Ghost ... Click 'OK'. Do you have any recommendations that would solve this problem?"

Our own Jeff Hansen, Clear Channel IT Dept., weighs in:

Sounds like the machine cannot find ghost.exe and pretty much stops at that point.

Reasons would be numerous.

Check to make sure your network layer is really ready to go. Using tcp/ip? Does the machine have an IP address? If not, why? DHCP issues? Static address entered improperly?

How about the network share you are trying to get logged into. Is it mapped and ready to go? Are permissions set properly on the share? Maybe you don't have rights.

Etc

Etc

Etc

Blasted Popups!

JJJCSHELLEY writes:

IS THERE ANYWAY TO STOP THE POPUP ADS ON MY COMPUTER. THESE ARE THE ONES THAT
JUST POP UP AT ANY TIME AND THEY MOSTLEY ARE ADVERTISING SERVICES TO STOP JUST
WHAT THEY DID.

Hello
JJJCSHELLEY,

Ouch!  Please stop yelling at me!

Popup Cop and Popup Stopper work pretty good to nearly eliminate popups. 
I use Popup Cop and have been happy with it.

Danny

Epson Scanner Issue

Marian Boury writes:

I bought a Gateway computer 1 1/2 years ago when the XP was first out. At
that time I also bought an Epson Perfection 1250 scanner. Every time I want to
copy something, I get an error message that the scanner is not connected. At
first I thought it was my kitten that had been laying on the cords, but I have
fixed it so he can't do that and I still get the error message. After I pull out
the cord and reconnect it, it works fine (unless I have many, many pages to
copy).

Also, I have to copy using the color button or the pages are reduced to less
than 1/4 the size of the page and I can't find anywhere in the book to change it
so it is full sized.

Help, Please!

Hi
Marian,

My sense (from the reviews I've read) is that you've got yourself an inexpensive
and buggy scanner. I recommend:

• Download the latest drivers for the scanner. Uninstall the old ones before
  installing new.


• Make sure you're current with Windows Update.


• Contact Epson and/or Gateway for help.

I did a

Google search and found over 10,000 web sites. This won't fix your problem,
but it's interesting nonetheless to hear what bad things people are saying about
this scanner.

Good luck!

Danny

.08 Drunk Driving Standard Effective July 1

Iowa State Patrol Chief Col. Robert Garrison joined us for the June 28 show. 
He says research shows there will be 25% fewer traffic deaths after the new law
takes effect.  For a 170-pound male, a blood alcohol concentration of .08
can be attained with four to five drinks in the first hour.  You can burn
off about a drink an hour.  There is a book and a web site that can help you reduce your risk of being arrested for drunk driving. This site also features a chart that can help you estimate your Blood Alcohol Concentration. 
(Chart)