Media Watch

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

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.

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 s

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.

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

I can't wait for October!: Ames Haunted Forest

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 wa