Well, I cam to Toronto for some meetings and have changed my mind about this town - slightly.

It may not be the most boring town in North America - top ten but not the most boring.

Met up with some friends from Mac and their new spouses.

One of the things that have thrown me is that everyone looks a lot older. Wayne Gretzky is really showing his age.

And you think your users use passwords that are insecure?

At least they can't fire nuclear warheads.

I discussed Sony's attempt at surreptitious DRM shipping with CDs.

This is not the only case of unwanted software being installed by music corporations on individual's PCs.

So, unfortunately now Van Zant, who I assume had no knowledge that their CD would be carrying this software are now having their CD slammed on Amazon.

The only reason I can see that the large music corporations are doing this, is to kill the CD format. As they continue to limit the uses of CDs through the use of more restrictive DRM, the attraction of online sources with their well published DRM becomes apparent. In addition, P2P sources allow people to gain access to uncracked versions of music that they have already purchased.

This fight has only just begun and already the music corporations are losing.

How does the Death Star work?

I am wondering when this will be featured in Make Magazine. "A galactic space station made from PVC and duct tape: We show you how."

Free access to Nature's Insight edition on Sleep

This is important on a lot of the fronts that I am concerned about - the opening up of scientific literature to those who would benefit from it, and the ability to read articles on sleep, since I live with someone who has sleep difficulties.

Buy a cd - get free software.

That is surreptitiously placed on your computer and acts a lot like a rootkit.

All from Sony - the music company you can trust.

Update: Another completely unrelated story has Sony in a pissing contest with Apple using DRM as the main weapon.

New Systm episode has been released.